The Startup Scalers Show

Startup Acceleration with Alessandro Marianantoni, Executive Director at M Accelerator

Check out my chat with Alessandro Marianantoni, Founder & Executive Director of M Accelerator, an early-stage startup acceleration program based in Los Angeles. In this episode, we start Alessandro's background and what led him to founding M Accelerator. We also touch on areas of tech innovation that he's excited about, such as augmented reality tokenization, and his experience working with startups, where he shares some success stories and growth hacks he's seen over the years. Enjoy! If you have any questions or comments, or would like to connect to learn more, you can always reach out on LinkedIn.

VC & Startups: Both Sides of the Table with Rohit Gupta, ForgePoint Capital

I'm joined by Rohit Gupta, a former colleague of mine from Plug and Play, as he shares his experience from both sides of the table - working in startups as a Product Manager, and at venture capital firms, in both early-stage and later-stage investing. We discuss his experience entering the startup world as a PM, his move to venture capital and learnings in the space. We touch on breaking into startups and VC, look at growing trends such as impact investing, discuss go-to-market strategies for startups, and more. Hope you enjoy the episode!

An Inside Look at Early-Stage VC with George Damouny of Plug and Play Ventures

This episode is a bit different from previous ones where we've heard from startups founders - this time around, I'm chatting with George Damouny, a Venture Capital Partner at Plug and Play Ventures. We discuss a myriad of topics, starting with George's personal career journey at Plug and Play, then having an inside-look at what it's like to be a venture capitalist, and his experiences in the industry.  George shares insights on how he makes investment decisions about startups, and highlights conversations he's had with rockstar founders from companies like Honey, Kustomer, and Onfido. He shares advice for startups in the growth hacking methods he's seen that help startups scale faster. For aspiring VCs, he shares his experience assessing startups for investment, supporting portfolio companies, and building relationships. We discuss current events and their impact on the venture capital landscape and more. Tune in for the inside perspective on being a VC in Silicon Valley!

Disrupting Digital Identity with Aidan McCarty, Founder & CEO of Unum ID

In this second episode of the Startup Scalers Show, we hear from Aidan McCarty, Founder & CEO of the digital identity startup Unum ID. We discuss many aspects of launching a startup, from building conviction around an idea, building a team, raising funding, and coming up with a strategy to break into a difficult market - namely the financial industry. Enjoy & feel free to leave feedback!

From Ideation to Exit with Mark Thomas, Founder & CEO of ZenSports

In this episode, we discuss various aspects of the entrepreneurial journey with Mark Thomas, a serial entrepreneur who's walked the startup path several times. You'll hear his learnings on coming up with an idea, building a team, fundraising, growth and selling, and even exiting a startup through acquisition. Finally, we touch on the effect of the current environment on the startup ecosystem and how it affects opportunities for entrepreneurs in 2020. Enjoy!