DealMakers: Entrepreneur | Startups | Venture Capital

In today’s founder spotlight, we’re joined by a rare breed, Adam Schwartz, who has lived the full startup cycle, not once but multiple times, and has done so on his own terms. He is a founder who went from building scrappy marketplaces to scaling a profitable, venture-free company. Adam’s latest venture, Parable, has secured investment from founder-operators: the minds behind HubSpot, Ramp, Vimeo, Superhuman, Squarespace, and more.

Dan Magy’s journey from a sun-soaked surf town in Southern California to building some of the most impactful defense technology in modern warfare doesn’t follow any conventional path. He’s not a coder, nor does he claim to be a technical wizard. But what Dan lacks in technical prowess, he makes up for in vision, grit, and relentless curiosity. Dan’s latest venture, Firestorm Labs has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Harpoon VC, 645 Ventures, Feld Ventures, and Lockheed Martin Ventures.

If you’ve ever done data analysis in Python, there’s a good chance you’ve used Pandas, the groundbreaking open-source library that transformed how data scientists work. But behind Pandas is Wes McKinney’s story of intellectual curiosity, risk-taking, and a relentless drive to build useful tools for others. Wes's latest initiative, Composed Ventures, is a micro venture capital (VC) fund that invests in early-stage data infrastructure, AI, and ML companies, as well as next-generation Python tooling and other related technologies.

When you hear the term self-made, you might think of grit, long nights, and entrepreneurial tenacity. But in Suneera Madhani’s case, it’s a generational story—one forged in gas station aisles, sharpened in corporate boardrooms, and carried forward in billion-dollar exits. Suneera's latest company, Worth AI, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Silicon Valley Bank, Ingeborg Investments, DeepWork Capital, and Florida Funders.

In a world where adult beverages have long been synonymous with alcohol, Bill Shufelt saw something different—a cultural and economic opportunity hidden in plain sight. He successfully navigated the startup ecosystem--scaling, manufacturing, building, and financing his company. Bill's company, Athletic Brewing, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like General Atlantic, Keurig Dr Pepper, Blake Mycoskie, and Lance Armstrong.