Our Future Podcast

In #33, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Antimetal and Rainmaker. Antimetal was started by now 25-year-old HS dropout Matthew Prakhurst, who has seemingly sold everything under the sun in his career. Now he’s built a huge tech company saving 1000+ startups millions on their cloud hosting costs via AWS. Next up is deep-tech startup Rainmaker, led by 23-year-old Berkeley dropout Augustus Doricko. Rainmaker uses a fleet of drones that dispense chemicals into the atmosphere which artificially trigger rainfall. Jeff Bezos is a noted fan of the technology. 0:00 Intro01:35 Story of Antimetal21:09 Story of Rainmaker Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikandMessage Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.#business #startups #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In #32, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Owner.com and Pipedream Labs. Led by 24-year-old high school dropout Adam Guild, Owner.com has raised $60M+ from investors like Naval Ravikant and Jack Altman to empower restaurant owners with technology to grow revenue and cut dependence on delivery giants. Next up is Pipedream Labs, led by twenty-something CEO Garret McCurrach, which has raised $11M to revolutionize food delivery with an underground pipe network soling for the expensive “last mile problem”.0:00 Intro01:30 Story of Owner.com19:20 Story of Pipedream LabsFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikandMessage Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.#business #startups #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In #31, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Hypercard and Integral. Backed with $15M in funding led by Sam Altman and a blockbuster partnership with American Express, Hypercard is building the first credit card backed by your employer. The company was started by two Gen Z business prodigies–Niko Ioannou and Marc Baghadjian–who've already had tremendous success. Next up is Integral, a data certification startup in the healthcare industry. Founded by young guns Shubh Sinha and John Kuhn, Integral removes the need for teams of consultants to properly anonymize the sensitive patient data healthcare firms need to run their businesses. They have raised $6M for their software platform that complies with industry's regulations and removes the middleman providing better data to an industry more reliant on it than others.0:00 Intro01:25 Story of Hypercard21:54 Story of IntegralFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikandMessage Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In #30, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) interview Morning Brew Co-Founder and CEO Austin Rief (@austin_rief). At age 25, Austin sold Morning Brew to Insider at a $75M valuation and has continued to lead the company since. Morning Brew no doubt continues to be the dominant player in the email newsletter space and now increasingly across formats like podcasts and social media. Austin touches on how he would make $1M starting from scratch, his content diet, his ownership stakes in various businesses, and the advantages of focus as well as being young. 0:00 Intro01:13 Millions At Age 2503:00 Older People Working For You4:05 How Austin Would Make Money From Scratch10:35 Copying U.S. Businesses In Other Countries16:00 Austin's Content Diet21:00 How To Join Someone Else's Idea23:35 Co-Founder Relationships27:57 Taking Advice As A Young Founder38:08 How Austin Approaches New Opportunities40:48 Austin's Views on Competition42:30 Austin's VC Investing Criteria49:47 Can Media Companies Do Tech?51:00 What Excites Austin NowFollow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepodFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.#business #startups #entrepreneurship #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In #29, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Felux and Tulu. Started by former tech sales exec Dallas Hogensen, Felux is the new way the world buys and sells steel. It's a digital marketplace that facilitates steel transactions from A-Z, from discovery to negotiation to financing to transportation. So far, Felux has raised over $20M and now processes $500M+ in GMV. Next up is Tulu, founded by Yishai Lehavi and Yael Shemer, which has raised over $20M. It's branded as the "usage economy platform" - but in laymen's terms - Tulu offers a tech-enabled vending machine that allows apartment residents to rent a suite of shared products - like vacuum cleaners and video game consoles.Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepodFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.#business #startups #entrepreneurship #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In #28, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss two startups built by young guns: Simplify and Default. Simplify is best described as the "Honey for Job Search" - and was founded by Berkeley and Stanford dropouts Michael Yan, Rushil Srivastava, and Ethan Horoschak. Using Simplify's chrome extension, applicants can breeze through vast numbers of job apps by instantly populating form fields and tailoring their experience to each role of interest. So far the platform has raised $3M from investors like David Sachs, amassed 400K users, and facilitated 25M job applications. Next up is Nico Ferreya and Victor Papyshev, co-founders of Default: the ultimate inbound GTM platform helping modern revenue teams increase pipeline conversions with automated qualification, scheduling, & routing workflows. So far the duo has raised millions from top investors including, coincidentally, David Sachs's Craft Ventures.Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepodFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In #27, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss the co-founders of Covertree: Adarsh Rachmale (25), Divyansh Sharma (25), and Rishie Modi (37). After the guys graduated college, they decided they wanted a startup idea that targeted Middle America and that tech was completely ignoring. They found it in the insurance tech space with their company CoverTree, which specializes in insuring manafactured homes (also known as pre-fab houses). So far they've raised $23M in total, notched partnerships with Blackstone and Rocket Mortgage for distribution, and now help insure hundreds of millions worth of property. Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepodFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In #26, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Grant Roscoe, founder of Crescent. Grant grew up in Nebraska and didn't attend college, yet he's managed to spend the past 5 years turning his company into a key player in how startups manage their capital. He's raised $6M so far to turn Crescent into an integral part of startup management by helping young companies monetize their idle cash. Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepodFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The boys are back from a two week holiday hiatus! In #25, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Hasan Raza and Quinn Favret, the co-founders of Tavus. Tavus is a generative AI startup that clones your face and voice to create virtually infinite personalized videos for use in sales outreach. They've raised over $25M from top VC firms like Sequoia and signed on blue-chip clients like HubSpot and Meta. But the big question still looms: is this a flash in the pan or the future of selling?Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepodFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In #24, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) talk about John Hu, the co-founder of Stan, a link in bio startup that might best be described as "Shopify for content creators". John's journey is made all the more fascinating by his mastery of building in public. No venture backed founder does a better job of documenting their journey and bringing viewers full transparency than John. He's racked up 40K+ subs on his YouTube channel and has proven that building in public is a formula for success. Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepodFollow the show on IG: @ourfuturepodMessage Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices