Three Course Founders

AI + Genomics = Lifespan (Founder of Nucleus)

If we're all going to live forever, this tech startup might be one of the reasons. Nucleus, fka as Nucleus Genomics, offers an all-in-one DNA health test. Unlike its competitors, it sequences far more of your DNA to offer you a more complete view of "the foundation of your health." But that's just the beginning. Today, we get into the possibilities of Nucleus as a broader consumer health platform. This is my conversation with Kian Sadeghi, the founder and CEO of Nucleus. He dropped out of college to go on this mission, and as you'll soon hear, he's got an expansive vision for the future of healthcare. What are all of the possibilities unlocked by the convergence of AI, quantified self and tracking data, and a change in consumer habits + desires? How could an AI doctor, or a personalized AI health system, replace human physicians? Kian doesn't take that lightly, by the way - both of us come from a family of doctors, and I think that makes his forecasting even more interesting and worth paying attention to. We also get into: his belief that some healthtech founders are wasting everyone's time, how health insurance may not exist in the near future, the challenge of hiring and firing, the opportunity for AI employees, the intense first year of founding Nucleus, and so much more. It's a conversation about healthcare, AI, Silicon Valley, foundership, and it's startup nerd content of the highest quality. This is Three Course Founders, Episode 009: The Artificial Womb, with Kian Sadeghi of Nucleus. A special thank you to Mista Oh in Flatiron in NYC – they were gracious hosts, the staff was awesome, and the chefs kept us fed with delicious Korean food. My mission with this show is to have deeper conversations with people trying to change the way the earth spins -- to follow my own curiosity, and help me and you better understand how the world works and how to move with more intention. I'm Sherveen Mashayekhi, founder and CEO of venture-backed Free Agency, and I'm an angel investor & startup super-nerd. Follow Sherveen: https://x.com/sherveen Follow Kian: https://x.com/KianSadeghi5 Subscribe and stay tuned for the next episode! Weekly on Thursdays. Be sure to leave a comment down below once you've listened to the episode! Inspired by Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and all of the bad startup podcasts out there. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Building a Dreamy Startup (Founder of Prophetic)

Starting a startup is, by default, a super hard journey. But it gets even harder - and maybe more interesting - when you're building in deeptech, building a hardware startup, and at the cutting edge of scientific possibility. Today, we get into all of that hard stuff with Eric Wollberg, Co-founder and CEO of Prophetic. It's a team of technologists, engineers, and scientists building a device to help people induce and control lucid dreams. They're building the Halo, a wearable headband to measure brain activity and use targeted ultrasound (in combination with a multimodal AI model called Morpheus-1) for neurostimulation. There are other fun acronyms, like dlPFC, tFUS, fNIRS, and the more common EEG, but the point: he and his team are building out of sci-fi. We talk not only about how Prophetic and lucid dreams work, but we also get into... - Eric's analysis and forecasting for other brain-computer interface companies like Neuralink - How consumers might use and mis-use devices like these, and what they mean for society - Our mutual challenges in raising venture capital, and the storytelling mistakes + corrections we both made along the way - Hiring highly scientific and technical talent - & so much more Oh, and for clarity's sake, a lucid dream: a dream in which you're aware that you're dreaming and, in some cases, even control said dream. "When you're starting a company, it's like you're driving a jet straight down to the earth." "Dreams were the genesis of storytelling." "You have to have a real sober assessment of the state of the tech tree." "Why is Ozempic flying off the shelves and not gym memberships?" This is Three Course Founders, Episode 008: Strapping in, with Eric Wollberg of Prophetic. A special thank you to Sagaponack in Flatiron in NYC – they were gracious hosts, the staff was awesome, and the chefs kept us fed with delicious Asian Mediterranean seafood. My mission with this show is to have deeper conversations with people trying to change the way the earth spins -- to follow my own curiosity, and help me and you better understand how the world works and how to move with more intention. I'm Sherveen Mashayekhi, founder and CEO of venture-backed Free Agency, and I'm an angel investor & startup super-nerd. Follow: https://x.com/sherveen Follow Eric: https://x.com/EricWollberg Subscribe and stay tuned for the next episode! Weekly on Thursdays. Be sure to leave a comment down below once you've listened to the episode! If you're a startup founder, aspiring in deeptech or hardtech, fascinated by next-level storytelling or team-building, curious about the role and mechanics of a technical co-founder, strapping into the emotional rollercoaster of VC funding, intrigued by dreams and BCI devices, then this episode is for you. We don't just discuss the surface level, but get into the deeper stuff that helps us all iterate toward a future worth dreaming about. Inspired by Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and all of the bad startup podcasts out there. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

2x Founder Hesitates on Venture (Founder, General Assembly + Common)

He built two mainstream startups, General Assembly and Common, but now he's building a media company and taking a break from venture capital. Tune in to my conversation with Brad Hargreaves as we talk about proptech, building brick and mortar businesses, the challenge of remote work in 2024 and beyond, being a founder, managing forever-scaling startup teams, and so much more. We'll also talk about the form and function behind his latest venture, Thesis Driven, a media company that offers a deep dive into real estate trends and urban innovation. We also cover: Brad's journey from General Assembly to Common, why physical spaces are still essential in a digital world, how venture capital can be both a blessing and a burden for founders, the housing affordability crisis and Brad's future run for NYC mayor, and the psychology of resilience for startup founders. This is Three Course Founders, Episode 007: Thesis Driven, with Brad Hargreaves of General Assembly and Common. Timestamps 00:00 Introductions! 02:52 The Journey of General Assembly 04:56 The Concept of Co-Living with Common 09:37 The Importance of In-Person Interaction 16:51 Transition to Thesis Driven 23:27 Nailing the Timing: A Success Story 27:00 Managing People: Challenges and Insights 30:13 The Hybrid Work Environment 34:40 Future Ventures and Lessons Learned 38:44 Housing Affordability: A Public Policy Challenge 41:11 Using Your Calendar to Play Offense 42:26 The Journalist in a Founder 44:23 Politics and Personal Life A special thank you to Grandma's Home in Flatiron in NYC – they were gracious hosts, the staff was awesome, and the chefs kept us fed with delicious Chinese food. My mission with this show is to have deeper conversations with people trying to change the way the earth spins -- to follow my own curiosity, and help me and you better understand how the world works and how to move with more intention. I'm Sherveen Mashayekhi, founder and CEO of venture-backed Free Agency, and I'm an angel investor & startup super-nerd. Follow: https://x.com/sherveen Follow Dan: https://x.com/bhargreaves Subscribe and stay tuned for the next episode! Weekly on Thursdays. Be sure to leave a comment down below once you've listened to the episode! Do you have new perspective on the appeal of venture funding, or brick and mortar businesses? Do you have a new idea in edtech or proptech? Inspired by Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and all of the bad startup podcasts out there. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Startup Founders Get Honest About Layoffs (Founder of Marpipe)

Today, the sort of honest founder-to-founder conversation you won't find anywhere else – it's me and my friend Dan Pantelo, the founder and CEO of Marpipe. He's raised $10M to build an adtech company, and we'll get to that, but this conversation is more important and more interesting than either of our startups. Because we get to some of the hard stuff of being a startup founder. Dan opens up about company layoffs that still haunt him to this day, and how they're holding him back from being his best self. As he put it, he needed the therapy session. And I share about my own struggles as a leader and CEO, and the ways in which disgruntled employees can make a founder feel trapped. We talk about venture capital, and why Dan plans to never take it again in his next company-building journey. We talk about how to hire honestly, and the work environments required to build the next big thing. But we do begin by covering Marpipe – his startup building an operating system for Dynamic Product Ads (also known as catalog ads). They power catalog ads for the biggest brands in the world, including Nike, Paramount, Crocs, Ann Taylor, Champion, Hanes, DSW, Bloomingdales, Revolve, Kate Spade, and many more. It's an ad unit that feels basic on the surface, but powers more of the web and commerce than any of us might imagine from the outside. We talk about the use of AI in advertising, Marpipe's role in evolving catalog ads, and so much more. This is Three Course Founders, Episode 006: Delivering Stakeholder Value, with Dan Pantelo of Marpipe. A special thank you to Kyma in Flatiron in NYC – they were gracious hosts, the staff was awesome, and the chefs kept us fed with delicious Greek food. My mission with this show is to have deeper conversations with people trying to change the way the earth spins -- to follow my own curiosity, and help me and you better understand how the world works and how to move with more intention. I'm Sherveen Mashayekhi, founder and CEO of venture-backed Free Agency, and I'm an angel investor & startup super-nerd. Follow: https://x.com/sherveen Follow Dan: https://x.com/danpantelo Subscribe and stay tuned for the next episode! Weekly on Thursdays. Inspired by Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and all of the bad startup podcasts out there. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

AI Will Disrupt Ketchup, with Marty Ringlein (Founder of Agree)

Today, I'm sharing three courses of conversation and food with my friend Marty Ringlein. He's an entrepreneur and investor – as a many-time founder, he's built and served as CEO of three startups acquired by Twitter, WPP, and Eventbrite, respectively. On the venture capital side, he's a GP at Adventure Fund, which has invested in early to growth stage companies like Figma, Chime, Plaid, SpaceX, Beehiiv, and SwagUp, to name a few. Now, he's on his latest upstart journey as Co-founder & CEO of Agree, an all-in-one agreements platform at the intersection of fintech, legaltech, and SaaS. It begins with notions of a more modern Docusign or Hellosign, enabling anyone to send and sign an agreement with AI-powered workflows, but gets even more interesting when it blends with notions of Quickbooks or Stripe, integrating payments into the agreement process and post-agreement relationship. In other words, there's typically some financial obligation that comes after the legal transaction – why not send contracts that can also move money? It's three courses of conversation: Marty's unique founder insights, mutual founder therapy, and his strengths and weaknesses (fueled by conversations I had with his founder friends). There are few resumes in tech as dense as this one. Follow him on X at @martymadrid. This is Three Course Founders, Episode 005: AI Will Disrupt Ketchup, with Marty Ringlein of Agree. My mission with this show is to have deeper conversations with people trying to change the way the earth spins -- to follow my own curiosity, and help me and you better understand how the world works and how to move with more intention. I'm Sherveen Mashayekhi, founder and CEO of venture-backed Free Agency, and I'm an angel investor & startup super-nerd. Follow: https://x.com/sherveen Subscribe and stay tuned for the next episode! Weekly on Thursdays. Inspired by Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and all of the bad startup podcasts out there. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.