Founder's Fridge

Episode 12: Corned It for 10 Days with Michael Conward, Co-founder of MyLÚA Health

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2535711/open_sms] "I could eat fried food every day, man. Fried chicken, shrimp, fish, french fries." Michael Conward, co-founder of MyLÚA Health, on what he gave up for 75 Commit while building an AI maternal healthcare platform that won the NIH RADx Maternal Health Challenge and landed a partnership with IBM. This conversation gets real about what founders actually eat. Michael went from Miami kid raised on Bahamian Caribbean food and North Carolina Southern cooking (collard greens, sweet potatoes, and hands down the best Thanksgivings ever), to competitive basketball player obsessed with health and wellness, to startup founder who sometimes does not eat until 2 PM. His co-founders? Health-conscious shoppers at the co-op ordering salmon salads with fresh berries. Michael? Still dreaming about fried shrimp platters. But here is what matters: Michael is a food excellence person. Celebration means watching someone crush the thing they are excellent at making, whether that is a family member's signature meatloaf or a two-star Michelin restaurant in Tribeca where eight people serve thirteen guests. For his 40th birthday, his wife took him to a Tara, and he almost liked watching the service and execution more than eating the food. Michael also shares how MyLÚA Health is using agentic AI to connect communities, doulas, payers, and employers to moms, why he started an entire Instagram page devoted to Food Network recipes with funny captions, and what it was like being the first entrepreneur in a family of a firefighter dad and corrections officer mom. CONNECT WITH MICHAEL: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelconward/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelconward/] CONNECT WITH MYLÚA HEALTH: Website: https://mylua.health [https://mylua.health] MORE FOUNDERS FRIDGE: Website: www.foundersfridge.com [http://www.foundersfridge.com] Subscribe for more conversations about what actually fuels founders. Check out our Substack [https://substack.com/@foundersfridge]!

Episode 11: Ramen Since Seven with Isabelle Kent, CEO of StartUp Leaders

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2535711/open_sms] "I've been eating ramen like several times a week since I was seven. It's kind of a miracle that I don't have scurvy." Isabelle Kent, head of Startup Leaders and founder of behavioral intelligence platform Gigsaw, on the convenience food that's followed her from childhood to founder life. In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch talks with Isabelle about building technology that helps people find roles aligned with their values and intrinsic motivations. They discuss how burnout at a corporate job led her to start interviewing others about fulfillment at work, why she took a remote job in Thunder Bay, Ontario sight unseen (and was sure she'd get kidnapped), and what it takes to run Philly's largest startup community while launching a global expansion. Isabelle is a Ukrainian immigrant who grew up without much restaurant dining, which makes her current obsession with eating out feel like a reward she earned. Half her paycheck goes to restaurants and she doesn't regret it. She lived in Chinatown for years, a block from Reading Terminal Market, so her pantry is still stocked with Asian produce and ingredients she could grab within a two-block radius. She finds cooking deeply meditative and won't let partners near the stove for dinner. Her last meal would be noodles, any variety. When fall hits, she pulls out the Eastern European staples from her childhood: borscht, stuffed peppers, stews. She spent fifteen years in the restaurant industry, and she believes that experience taught her more about sales and investor relations than any degree could. She's closed deals sitting at bars, met the founders of the 9/11 fund at a food hall in Copenhagen, and landed a client chatting someone up at the Ritz. Listen for:  • Why she thinks every founder should bartend or work in a restaurant  • The etiquette skills that help her sit in rooms with people "way out of her normal realm of existence"  • How food helps her "code switch" in investor dinners  • Why she'd rather spend $60K at cafes than on an MBA Subscribe to Founders Fridge for more stories about the meals that fuel founders and the rituals that keep them going. Check out our Substack [https://substack.com/@foundersfridge]!

Episode 10: A Taste of Jerk Chicken with Jonathan Bateman, Founder/CEO Real Recognizes Real AI

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2535711/open_sms] "I'm a huge fruit snacks person. I don't really do much candy anymore, but I love fruit snacks." Jonathan Bateman, secure-software developer and founder of deepfake detection platform Real Recognizes Real AI, on the one childhood food obsession he never outgrew. In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch talks with Jonathan about building technology that verifies real humans using something AI can't fake: shared memories. They discuss how a Star Trek storyline about changelings inspired his approach to stopping fraud, why the CEO of Ferrari avoided a deepfake scam by asking about a book recommendation, and what it's like to build a startup while finishing dual degrees at RIT. Jonathan grew up in Colorado as a soccer player with a naturally thin frame, which meant his mom was strict about calories. Three thousand a day. Oatmeal, protein shakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. Packed lunches with peanut butter and honey sandwiches made with local Colorado honey because he never liked jelly. Chips in the lunch pail. His dad had a serious sweet tooth and would sneak to Walmart every Friday for Twizzlers and Mike and Ikes, a secret candy run his no-sugar mom didn't approve of. Now he's on a jerk chicken kick, experimenting with Caribbean seasoning in his stepmom's air fryer, which he describes as "sorcery." His mornings start with Chobani yogurt, chia seeds, and fresh berries. He eats to live, not the other way around, but he still has the foodie essence in him. When things go well at Real Recognizes Real AI, he celebrates with Chick-fil-A. When things aren't going well? Rice and beans. For multiple meals straight. Listen for: * The Friday candy ritual his dad kept secret from his mom * Why peanut butter and honey beats peanut butter and jelly * The air fryer and pressure cooker combo that gets dinner done in minutes * How his mom is now building her own startup and they eat dinner together at the office Subscribe to Founders Fridge for more stories about the meals that fuel founders and the rituals that keep them going. Check out our Substack [https://substack.com/@foundersfridge]!

Episode 9: Cereal Entrepreneur with Leanne Linsky, Founder/CEO Plauzzable

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2535711/open_sms] "I ate Count Chocula every day for breakfast. I'm not kidding. Every day. From when I started chewing food until I was twenty-one." Leanne Linsky, comedian turned entrepreneur and founder of live online comedy platform Plauzzable, on the cereal that defined her childhood and the letter she wrote to General Mills when there weren't enough marshmallows. In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch talks with Leanne about building a platform that lets comedians perform for live audiences online, going back to school for a master's in innovation mid-pandemic, and why she still needs to eat dinner at five o'clock sharp. Leanne grew up in the Midwest, forty-five minutes outside Chicago. Meat and potatoes. Green Giant frozen corn, which was the only vegetable she'd touch. Dinner at the kitchen table every night, no TV allowed. She'd hide the vegetables she hated under her plate as if her mom wouldn't notice. Now she's mostly plant-based, her husband does the cooking, and their fridge is stocked with tofu, salsas, and Impossible chicken nuggets. She doesn't follow recipes. If it's not intuitive, why bother? She's a better baker anyway... she used to wake up early in New York, make brownies before work, and bring them to the office. She never ate them herself. She just liked how they made her apartment smell. When things are going well at Plauzzable, they hit the fish market for scallops and king crab legs. When things aren't? Chips and salsa. Salty, savory, satisfying. Listen for: * The Count Chocula story (and the disappointing General Mills coupon) * Why Leanne gets distracted cooking ("Oh wait, did I have the oven on?") * The rice cooker Mexican dinner that's become a weeknight staple * How a move from New York to LA traffic sparked the idea for online comedy Subscribe to Founders Fridge for more stories about the meals that fuel founders and the rituals that keep them going. Check out our Substack [https://substack.com/@foundersfridge]!

Episode 8: Food as Pharmacy with Kamal Singh, Cofounder & COO of Halitra

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2535711/open_sms] "Food is a pharmacy. If you have premium gas, you're able to get more from your workouts, more gains." Kamal Singh, cofounder and COO of Halitra, on why he treats food like fuel for startups—and why he won't buy anything if he can't pronounce what's on the label. In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch sits down with Kamal to talk about building a bootstrapped data company, pivoting from hardware to software, and why cooking has become both his creative outlet and his expression of love. Kamal's week revolves around the farmer's market. He buys what's fresh, what's seasonal, and then forces himself to figure out what to do with it—because real food doesn't wait three weeks. Radishes and beets? Look up a recipe. Artichokes and leeks? YouTube it. His goal: master two to three dishes from every cuisine he falls in love with. Right now, it's Thai. Massaman curry. Green curry. Fish sauce and galangal and lemongrass—ingredients he never would have touched a year ago. Next up: pho, and the art of building a really good broth. His wife is finishing med school, and that's reshaped everything about how Kamal thinks about food. He reads labels now. He makes his own salad dressing—avocado, olive oil, lime, salt, pepper, a little maple syrup. He skips the processed stuff. And when he cooks, he watches her face as she eats it. "That's a high," he says. "That's an amazing feeling." Growing up, his mom did all the cooking—sixty percent Indian, forty percent Western. No turkey at Thanksgiving. Instead, holidays became a masala of cuisines: Indian, Singaporean, Indonesian, Malaysian. "Really good haul," he says. "Not your typical cranberry turkey." His fridge? Eggs. Vegetables. Protein. Ketchup and Dijon—and that's about it for processed. Water with electrolytes. No seltzer. No mystery ingredients. Listen for: * How Halitra pivoted from hardware to software—and bootstrapped to six-figure ARR * Why Kamal orients his entire week around farmer's market days * The cuisines he's working to master (and why rendang and Massaman rank among the world's best dishes) * What it means to cook with love when your partner is deep in med school Subscribe to Founders Fridge for more stories about the meals that fuel founders and the rituals that keep them going. Check out our Substack [https://substack.com/@foundersfridge]!