The Scott Barstow Show

#33-Monica Wood and DeDeHouston of Myxx Recipes

My guests for this show are Monica Wood and DeDe Houston, co-founders of Myxx Recipes [http://myxxrecipes.com]. One of the biggest struggles for busy families is finding and making healthy meals at home. Myxx Recipes lets users shop for new, healthy recipes, create a shopping list from those recipes (including prices from the store where you shop), and then submit the shopping list to your grocery store for pickup. Myxx is sitting in the middle of the massive trend of buying groceries from in-person to online. Monica and DeDe have a long history together and a truly great story about why they chose this idea to build a company around. We also talk a good bit about the early days of starting a company as two single moms, how they prioritized their lives both then and now, their role models, how they resolve conflict in their partnership and make key decisions, the importance of family meals, how the market is moving in their favor, what they look for in team members, how they create and manage their company culture, and much much more. Listening to the two of them talk to and about each other made me jealous. They have a kinship that is remarkably rare, and the energy it creates oozes out of them. Please enjoy my conversation with Monica Wood and DeDe Houston of Myxx Recipes. Show Notes: * Myxx on Twitter [https://twitter.com/myxxrecipes] * Monica on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-wood-965a8b/] * DeDe on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dede-houston-8a336b2/] * Monica on Twitter [https://twitter.com/monicacwood]

#32-Kristine Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Equine Exchange

My guest for this show is Kristine Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Equine Exchange [http://equineexchange.com], a marketplace for buying and selling sport horses. If you're like me, you know nothing about buying or selling a horse, but it's actually a massive market with extremely high dollar transactions and fraught with fraud and bad actors. Equine Exchange brings like-minded buyers and sellers together and provides questionnaires, agreements, and processes to facilitate transparency in the transaction. Kristine does a great job of explaining all that they do in the first 20 minutes of the show. I've known Kristine for a couple years now and have always admired her tenacity and candor. You'll hear plenty of both in our conversation. We also talk about her relationship with her co-founder and why that's a huge advantage for her, how she deals with adversity, people she admires (and why), and much more.  I hope you enjoy my conversation with Kristine Kelly of Equine Exchange [http://equineexchange.com]. Thank you for listening.

#31-Ursula Mead, CEO and co-founder of InHerSight

My guest for this episode is Ursula Mead, CEO and co-founder of In Her Sight. In Her Sight is an engagement platform for women to rate the companies they work for on issues specifically important to women. In Her Sight also provides tools for job seekers to match the issues most important to them with companies who excel in those areas in order to create a more productive, healthy working environment for women. Ursula and I have been trying to get together for this interview for at least three months and I’m thrilled that we finally made it happen. In this interview, Ursula talks about her early days at Motley Fool and how she came to realize that the culture she was a part of was not available to all women, and how she decided to do something about it. We also talk about how fundraising is uniquely difficult for women, the mommy trap, having productive relationships with male investors and partners, and some of the new technology in addition to what In Her Sight is building that is helping to put women on equal footing in the workplace. Of all the shows I’ve done, I don’t know that I’ve had a more important, timely guest. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ursula Mead of In Her Sight, and I hope you hear something in here that challenges you to take action. Thank you for listening.

#30-Andrew Bagrin of My Digital Shield

My guest for this episode is Andrew Bagrin, CEO and founder of My Digital Shield. My Digital Shield is revolutionizing how small and medium businesses protect themselves from cyber threats. By deploying minimal infrastructure at the customer's location and utilizing the best of cloud technologies, My Digital Shield is bringing cyber security usually reserved for the Fortune 500 to businesses up and down the street for a low monthly subscription. In this interview Andrew talks about how he got the idea to start the company, how he made the decision to leave a nice, cushy corporate job to start his own thing (alcohol was involved!), how he feels about investor money, mistakes he made getting distracted early in the company's history and much much more. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Andrew Bagrin of My Digital Shield, and as always, thank you for listening.

#29 - Tim Sinclair of RINGR

"I would rather fail at greatness than succeed at mediocrity" - Tim Sinclair My guest for this episode is Tim Sinclair,  CEO and founder of RINGR. RINGR is an audio recording application used by thousands of podcasters and journalists to record high quality audio interviews. RINGR has developed some unique, patented intellectual property that makes recording great interviews possible over a normal voice call.   Tim has been in radio broadcasting for years, and is the in-arena voice of the University of Illinois Fighting Illini, as well as the Chicago Fire soccer club. RINGR was started, as many great companies are, because Tim was trying to solve a problem he had every day in his work.   In this interview, Tim talks about all of the hard lessons he’s learned building his first tech company, where he says radio and podcasting headed in the future, why he decided to make the jump from radio to tech entrepreneur, the difference between being entrepreneurial and being and entrepreneur and much much more.   I recorded this interview using the RINGR app, and as you’ll hear the sound is amazing. They’re on to something big, and I can’t wait to see where it all goes. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and listen in on my conversation with Tim Sinclair of RINGR.