The Generation Hustle Podcast

Episode 79 is with Chris Neumann, General Partner at Panache Ventures. Panache Ventures is Canada's most active seed stage venture capital fund. The fund has a founders-first philosophy, a commitment to diversity and strategically co-invests with smart angel investors and seed stage funds. Chris has 18 years of experience in Silicon Valley as an engineer, early startup employee, founder and investor. He helped build the world’s first 100 TB data warehouse, has invested in companies in more than 20 countries, and has mentored startups across 6 continents. In this episode, Aman speaks to Chris about his journey from tech to VC. He details his fundraising experiences as a founder, his advisory methods now as a VC, and how Panache is pushing the Canadian tech ecosystem ahead. Panache Ventures https://www.panache.vc/ Chris Neumann https://chrisneumann.com/ Timestamps  2:24 - Chris’ Background 13:43 - Tech Industry from 2000s to 2020s 17:20 - Chris’ Lumberjack Profile Pic 20:00 - Fundraising for a Data Start-Up 24:30 - Advisor vs Investor 25:50 - Challenges of Being a Founder 27:54 - Chris Critiques His Own Pitch Deck 33:44 - Best Advice for Founders 37:20 - Risk Tolerance is Relative 42:00 - Why Silicone Valley is so Unique 52:10 - How Panache Helps Companies & Founders 57:35 - Best Advice for Getting into VC

Episode 78 is with Muhammad Lila, Founder & CEO of Goodable! Muhammad is an award-winning journalist, media founder, and strategist who leads multi-platform teams and creates content across all platforms. He specializes in taking complex subject matter and distilling it into easy-to-understand content that is designed to create impact. Muhammad holds a vast wealth of experience ranging from CNN, ABC, CBC, and now Goodable. Goodable is one of the fastest growing news networks today. Using proprietary AI technology to search through thousands of news sources, the company identifies the best stories designed to make you happier and informed, all while avoiding negativity and the fear mongering we are accustomed to in news headlines. Their tagline: "Give us Five Minutes, we’ll give you a whole new world!" We sit down to speak with Muhammad about his career in journalism. He details his experiences in war zones, being targeted by ISIS and the Taliban with suicide bombers, how the newsroom and information landscape has changed over generations, and how Goodable is helping solve some of these problems we see today. This was an incredibly profound conversation that touched on so many current and significant events that we hope you enjoy! Goodable https://goodable.co/ Timestamps  3:08 - Deciding the News is Innately Difficult  5:50 - Muhammad’s Background  6:45 - Seeing Diverse Names in Journalism  8:25 - “CBC Took a Risk on Me” 10:10 - How Toronto Culture helped Muhammad 15:19 - Meaning Behind Muhammad’s Name 18:12 - Full Circle Moments 19:45 - “Russians, Egyptians, ISIS & the Taliban all tried to kill me.” 21:17 - Muhammad’s Experience in Afghanistan 28:09 - Fear in Journalism 31:33 - Managing Emotions on the Job 34:24 - How the Ad-Revenue Model Destroyed News Media 39:53 - How Do We Fix Journalism? 43:14 - Who Decides the News? 48:05 - What is Goodable? How are they helping Journalism? 58:00 - The War on Freedom of Speech 01:08:06 - Why Donald Trump won the 2016 Election 01:10:31 - Social Media, Censorship & Human Behaviour 01:17:37 - Managing Mental Health 01:24:15 - Lightning Round

Episode 77 is with Markell Baldwin, Partner at Drive Capital! Markell is a former Staff Electronic Design Engineer at Tesla with demonstrated experience in product development, sensor technology from a microcontroller level to the system level, and systems integration. At Drive Capital, he focuses on finding market defining companies in mobility, supply chain, and space. We chat with Markell about his journey into tech, how minorities can break into tech, and important frameworks for continued growth and success in the industry. He also details his experience at Tesla and the future of Venture Capital. This was a really insightful convo that we hope you enjoy! Drive Capital https://drivecapital.com/ Timestamps  2:42 - Life-Changing Moments  9:03 - Working at Tesla 10:50 - Bradley Beal on competition 14:10 - Framework - Exposure, Possibility, Attainability 22:55 - Breaking into Venture Capital 26:22 - Drive Capital 27:50 - First Principles 32:33 - Highlights & Lowlights of VC 37:40 - Future of Electrification 45:30 - What makes Elon Musk so successful? 52:30 - Impact of Diversity in VC 59:00 - Lightning Round

Episode 76 is with Ashley Francisco, Head of Startup Developer Ecosystems for Google Canada! In her role, Ashley manages Google Canada's Accelerator programs, scaled startup ecosystem events, and Canadian partner engagement. Her goal is to bring the best of Google's people, programs, products and technology to startup teams across the country. Ashley is a professional marketer by trade with a diverse background in local and global brand building at Google, Visa, Mondelez and Kraft Foods. We sit down to talk with Ashley about her path to tech and ultimately Google. She details how Google’s Accelerator Programs are preparing founders of today to be the leaders of tomorrow. She also describes how you can land a job at Google, women empowerment in the tech environment, and the future impact of the tech industry. Google for Startups Accelerator https://startup.google.com/accelerator/ Google: Founder Fridays https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/founder-fridays Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders https://startup.google.com/accelerator/women-founders/ Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders https://startup.google.com/accelerator/black-founders/ Timestamps  2:00 - Ashley’s Role at Google Canada  3:05 - Landing a job at Google  8:05 - Skills Required to Work at Google 15:40 - Overcoming Imposter Syndrome 19:50 - Google’s Startup Accelerator Program 27:14 - Startup Story - Paper Stack 31:52 - Building a powerful community 34:37 - The Future of Google’s Accelerator Program 36:14 - Women Empowerment in Tech 38:50 - Future Impact of the Tech industry 41:45 - Thought Leaders to Follow in the Tech Space 43:55 - Making Connections in the Tech Space 47:34 - Managing Mental Health 51:23 - Defining Success

Episode 75 is with Jesse Abrams, Co-Founder & CEO of Homewise! Recently distinguished by NEXT Canada as “The W. Galen Weston Top Entrepreneur”, by the American Marketing Association Hall of Legends as one of Canada's top 5 "Marketers on the Rise" and by Marketing Magazine as a "Top 30 Under 30" Marketer in Canada, Jesse is an accomplished business leader, Digital Marketer and Advertiser. He has a passion for growing businesses and never settling for the status quo. Homewise provides Canadians with a better mortgage process with a simple online application that uses human language, helpful content and access to tech-powered professionals at every step to get a great mortgage. Their goal is to get the best deal and save their customers the most money possible. We talk to Jesse about his journey into entrepreneurship, how Homewise is disrupting the mortgage industry, the current state of the Canadian real estate market, and much more. This was a great conversation that we hope you enjoy! Homewise https://thinkhomewise.com/ Timestamps   2:40 - Road to Entrepreneurship   8:15 - Can Entrepreneurship be taught/learned?  15:55 - Jesse’s Career Transition  24:30 - Advice for new Entrepreneurs  29:00 - The story of HomeWise and Early Growth  34:45 - How HomeWise Simplifies the Mortgage Process  42:29 - Building a Successful Team  49:10 - Current State of the Canadian Real Estate Market  56:16 - Should we stop blind bidding?  59:09 - Advice for Entering the Housing Market 1:07:17 - Importance of Charity Initiatives 1:14:00 - Lightning Round

Episode 74 is with Nicole DeTommaso, Senior Associate at Harlem Capital! As a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital, Nicole focuses on deal sourcing, due diligence, and platform development. Prior to Harlem Capital, Nicole worked at RBC Capital Markets within the Investment Banking division, focused primarily on Mergers & Acquisitions and Initial Public Offerings within the technology and digital media sectors. Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years. They invest post product, or what they call 'Early Seed', with a commitment to reserving specific capital for investments in minority and women founders. We talk to Nicole about her journey into Venture Capital. She details the day in the life of a senior associate at Harlem Capital, the criteria and due diligence for investing into good companies, the future of the internet, how VC’s are preparing for future economic downturns, and much more. If you're looking to get into the VC space, this conversation is a great start! Harlem Capital https://harlem.capital/ Timestamps  2:07 - Intro to Nicole  4:49 - Lived Experience of Being a Minority in VC  8:45 - Importance of Mentorship along the way 10:53 - Working in Toronto 12:48 - Transitioning into Venture Capital 15:54 - Using Twitter to get into VC 18:03 - Nicole’s Pitch Deck when applying to Harlem Capital 24:15 - Working at Harlem Capital 27:10 - Why Web 3.0 is important 33:08 - A Day in the life of a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital 37:20 - How VC’s are Preparing for a Recession 44:18 - The Lack of Diversity in VC 51:12 - Advice for Maintaining Mental Health 54:23 - Lightning Round

Episode 73 is with Jess Chan, Founder & CEO at Longplay Brands! Longplay Brands is a marketing agency working with B2C e-commerce brands in the health, wellness, and lifestyle spaces. The company M.O. is to work with businesses who are in it for the longplay - brands who are looking to create a legacy, build a lasting brand, and impact real lives. In other words, they build relationships at scale. Prior to Longplay, Jess was the Chief Marketing Officer of BestSelf Co., a 7-figure e-commerce brand. Since founding Longplay, she has scaled it to over $1M in just 18 months working with DTC e-commerce brands from startup to 250M+ in revenue, and has grown to a fully distributed team of 20+ people. We talk to Jess about her journey to entrepreneurship, how she scaled her company, why email marketing is still so important, and her advice on starting your own agency. She details what makes a good email campaign, how she deals with imposter syndrome in her day to day life, and her experiences with psychedelics. We hope you enjoy! Longplay Brands https://www.longplaybrands.com/ Timestamps 2:49 - Introduction to Jess 5:33 - Navigating Imposter Syndrome 7:29 - Shift from Corporate to Entrepreneurship 10:56 - Rejection, Failures, & Building Confidence 15:11 - The idea behind Longplay 16:54 - How Longplay helps businesses 18:38 - Why is Email so important? 21:14 - Do’s & Don’ts of a Good Email Marketing Campaign 24:07 - The Evolution of Email Marketing 30:31 - Key Drivers & Struggles of Scaling 38:35 - How to Make the right Hire 43:14 - Advice for building a Consultancy/Agency 46:13 - Happiness, Personal Development, & Self Reflection 52:55 - Networking & Establishing a Support System 55:50 - Psychedelic experiences 01:01:32 - Lightning Round

Episode 72 is with Leigh Marie Braswell, Principal at Founders Fund! Before joining Founders Fund, Leigh Marie was an early engineer & the first product manager at Scale AI, where she originally built & later led product development for the LiDAR/3D annotation products, used by many autonomous vehicles, robots, and AR/VR companies. She also has done software development at Blend, machine learning at Google, and quantitative trading at Jane Street. Leigh Marie is originally from Alabama, graduated from MIT, and loves to play poker, run long distances, and scuba dive. Founders Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that invests across all stages and sectors, with a portfolio that includes Airbnb, Lyft, Spotify, Stripe, and Oscar Health. Founders Fund was the first institutional investor in SpaceX and Palantir Technologies, and one of the earliest investors in Facebook. Founded in 2005 by Peter Thiel, the fund currently manages over $11B in aggregate capital. We sit down to talk to Leigh Marie about her journey through to tech. She details what makes a company and its founder investment-worthy, the future of data and machine learning, and provides advice for early startups looking to grow. She also touches on the future of work, Elon Musk, Universal Basic Income, and much more. This was such an insightful conversation that we hope you enjoy! Founders Fund https://foundersfund.com/ Timestamps  2:43 - Leigh Marie’s Background 12:22 - Core Skills to be a VC 17:29 - What does it mean to “hustle”? 20:15 - The story of Founders Fund 23:11 - Advice for Building a Personal Brand 25:39 - Generalists vs. Specialists 27:15 - The Future of Data, A.I., & ML 32:28 - What Makes a Company Investment-Worthy 39:42 - Working with Peter Thiel 41:34 - Evaluating Start-Ups & Founders 46:39 - Learning from Failed Investments 49:44 - Missed Opportunities - Investment Regret 51:33 - Imposter Syndrome 53:10 - Elon Musk, A.I., & Universal Basic Income 55:29 - Advice for Protecting Future Job Security 58:13 - Lightning Round

Episode 71 is with Peter Zhou, Co-Founder & CEO of Rutter! Rutter is building a universal API for e-commerce platforms. The e-commerce market is split across hundreds of platforms, such as Shopify, Squarespace, Amazon, and others. Each of these platforms has its own app store or its equivalent. Rutter is an integration layer letting any e-commerce tool build one integration to access any storefront or marketplace. Peter attended Yale University before interning at Facebook as a Software Engineer prior to his entrepreneurial endeavours. We sit down to talk to Peter about his journey to founding Rutter, the mindset of a startup CEO, his tools to a successful fundraise and opportunities for wealth creation. This was an incredibly informative episode that we hope you enjoy! Rutter https://www.rutterapi.com/ Timestamps  1:25 - Peter’s Background  4:39 - The Need to Make an Impact  6:20 - Cultural Influences 11:05 - How to Embrace Entrepreneurship 13:50 - Mindset of a CEO 16:10 - Importance of Receiving Feedback 18:30 - Biggest Challenge of Becoming a CEO 21:20 - Peter’s Journey 24:40 - Key Learnings of B2B Entrepreneurship 28:07 - Sell Before You Build 30:40 - TL;DR of Rutter 35:45 - Rutter’s Approach to Fundraising 39:35 - Common Errors Made During Fundraising 41:35 - Prioritizing Mental Health as a Founder 46:50 - Wealth Creation Opportunities of the Future 50:10 - Thoughts on the Wealth Gap Issue 51:24 - Lightning Round

Episode 70 is with Adit Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of Lula! Lula is an institutionally backed delivery tech company, that helps stores by providing an all-encompassing platform that connects the world to them. They provide stores (convenience, liquor, pet, and more) the specialized technology, data, and customer success these merchants need to serve customers. This united network of stores powered by Lula enables independents and small chains to compete with major corporations as the nation's largest retail delivery marketplace. Adit is a Ph.D. student at Drexel University, with research interests in Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Computer Interaction. We sit down to talk to Adit about the idea behind Lula, how he founded the company in a pandemic and successfully raised a $5.5M seed round. Adit also speaks on what students today should be prioritizing for their development. This was such an insightful conversation that we hope you enjoy! Lula https://www.luladelivery.com/ Timestamps  1:36 - Adit’s Background & Experiences with Hack-a-thons  5:17 - Cultural & Family Influences  9:48 - What should students today invest in? 12:24 - The Story of Lula Delivery 16:40 - How does Lula help business owners? 20:58 - How to Raise a $5.5M Seed Round 30:30 - Prioritizing your investment needs 34:50 - Adit’s pursuit of a PhD 38:40 - Importance of Mental Health in Work & Life 43:53 - “Hustle Culture” 46:00 - Lightning Round