The Room Podcast

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Caitlin Leksana, co-founder and CEO of Fazeshift, a company building AI agents for accounts receivable. Caitlin traces her path from growing up outside Washington, D.C., and studying mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech to water-desalination research, BCG, Harvard Business School, and entrepreneurship. She shares how a classmate became her co-founder, why their first crypto startup failed to find product-market fit, and how they found the conviction to pivot instead of walking away. Caitlin explains how her own messy invoicing spreadsheet led the team to hundreds of customer-discovery conversations and eventually to Fazeshift. She breaks down what changed when the founders started with a customer problem instead of a product idea, how Y Combinator helped them find momentum, and what she learned about fundraising, hiring, and building with a co-founder. The conversation also explores vertical AI in finance: why reliable automation starts with connecting messy data across ERPs, banks, inboxes, and industry-specific systems; how Fazeshift combines AI agents, browser workflows, and hands-on deployments; and why enterprise buyers want solutions to concrete problems rather than abstract AI capabilities.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Doug Tallmadge, co-founder and CEO of Gradial, a company building AI agents to help enterprise marketing teams execute work across their tools and campaigns. Doug traces his path from growing up in Cincinnati and studying physics at Dartmouth to joining SpaceX and helping build Starlink. He shares what working through seemingly impossible engineering challenges taught him and why finding a market for a startup can be a very different problem from building a product people already want. After ChatGPT launched, Doug and his longtime friends left their jobs to start a company. He explains how their broad ambition to bring AI into enterprise work became a focused business in marketing, where campaign briefs, creative assets, tickets, and manual handoffs create a significant operational burden. In this conversation, Doug breaks down how Gradial’s agents have evolved alongside the models, what it takes to earn enterprise trust, and why marketers should be able to plan their budgets without worrying about tokens. He also reflects on fundraising setbacks, managing the emotional swings of building a company, and the professor who backed an unconventional student project that helped launch his career.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we sit down with Ann Crady Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Hatch, to trace the path from her Silicon Valley upbringing and early career in law and technology to building one of the most recognizable names in sleep. Ann shares how her family’s connection to Intel shaped her entrepreneurial ambition, what she learned at Wilson Sonsini and Yahoo, and how the acquisition of her first startup prepared her to build again. Hatch began with a personal problem and evolved from a baby-focused hardware company into a broader sleep platform for children and adults. Ann explains how customer behavior led the team into the adult market, why emotional design and organic love became central to the brand, and how Hatch balances slower hardware cycles with a software-led organization and a growing library of bedtime content. The conversation also covers Hatch’s appearance on Shark Tank, the long relationship with True Ventures, an early move into Costco, and the discipline of building with real unit economics. Ann shares what she has learned as both a founder and venture partner, why timing and luck matter more than entrepreneurs often admit, and why Hatch emphasizes better sleep habits, phone-free routines, and contactless tracking rather than scores or constant monitoring—even as AI changes how products are built.

In this season 15 opener of The Room Podcast, we speak with Gavriel Cohen, co-founder and CEO of NanoCo and creator of NanoClaw, an open-source framework designed to make powerful AI agents safer and more practical for real-world use. NanoClaw emerged from Gavriel’s own experience using AI agents to run an AI-native marketing agency. After connecting an agent he called “Andy” to his company’s sales pipeline, Gavriel saw the potential for agents to operate less like chatbots and more like persistent digital coworkers—but also recognized the security challenges that come with giving autonomous agents access to sensitive tools, data, email, and business systems. In this conversation, Gavriel shares the core idea behind NanoClaw: rather than weakening an AI agent, give it powerful capabilities while putting clear boundaries around what it can access—what he describes as putting the agent “in a box.” He also explains why he believes the future of work will involve humans becoming managers of increasingly capable teams of agents, rather than simply replacing people with AI.

In this season 15 opener of The Room Podcast, we speak with Russ d'Sa, co-founder and CEO of LiveKit, a platform for building real-time voice, video, and AI agents. LiveKit began as an open-source project for live audio and video. As developers adopted it, the team built cloud infrastructure to help them scale. A second turning point came when OpenAI used LiveKit to build a voice interface for ChatGPT, revealing how technology built to connect people could also connect people with AI. Russ traces his path from growing up around computers in Canada and Silicon Valley to founding a startup, working at 23andMe and Twitter, and building LiveKit. He shares the unexpected relationships and product decisions that shaped the company, including why he calls it the “accidental AI company.” In this conversation, Russ explains why speaking with an AI requires a different kind of infrastructure from typing to one. He also looks ahead to physical AI and reflects on how becoming a father has changed the way he thinks about success and his values.

In this bonus episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Jai Das, President, Partner and Co-Founder of Sapphire Ventures, one of the world's leading enterprise venture capital firms backing category-defining B2B software and AI companies. Sapphire Ventures has invested in companies including monday.com, Box, Square, MuleSoft, Fitbit, ExactTarget, and many others, while building one of the industry's most recognized enterprise-focused venture platforms. Before co-founding Sapphire Ventures, Jai's career spanned software engineering at Oracle, founding startups during the dot-com era, corporate venture investing, and leading the transformation of SAP Ventures into the independent firm it is today. In this conversation, Jai reflects on the lessons learned across multiple technology cycles, from the early internet to today's AI revolution, sharing how his experiences as an engineer, founder, and investor shaped Sapphire's long-term strategy and investment philosophy.

In this bonus episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Packy McCormick, founder of Not Boring and Not Boring Capital, an investment firm focused on backing ambitious technology companies tackling large, complex industries. Through his writing, investing, and storytelling, Packy has built one of the most influential platforms in venture capital, helping founders explain difficult technical businesses to customers, talent, and investors. Not Boring began as a newsletter during the early months of the pandemic and has since grown into a media platform reaching hundreds of thousands of readers, alongside an early-stage venture fund investing in companies across energy, aerospace, infrastructure, AI, and enterprise software. Rather than chasing trends, Packy focuses on founders building category-defining businesses that require deep conviction and long-term thinking. In this conversation, Packy shares how storytelling became his competitive edge as an investor, why the best founders think several moves ahead of everyone else, and how developing a unique perspective can create opportunities that traditional venture firms often overlook.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Sunil Dhaliwal, founder and managing partner of Amplify Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on backing technical founders building infrastructure software, developer tools, cybersecurity, AI, and other foundational technologies. Before founding Amplify, Sunil spent 14 years at Battery Ventures, where he invested through both the dot-com boom and bust before launching Amplify in 2012, which today manages more than $2.7 billion in assets. In this conversation, Sunil reflects on the entrepreneurial influence of his parents, lessons learned investing through multiple technology cycles, and the conviction that led him to build Amplify around technical founders long before the rest of the venture industry caught on. We also discuss why venture firms need a clear reason to exist, how long-term relationships become your greatest fundraising advantage, what separates durable investors from emerging managers, why founder "fit" matters more than pattern matching, how technological shifts create entirely new categories of entrepreneurs, and the importance of staying early to transformational markets even when the timing isn't immediately obvious.

In this bonus episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Ben Ling, Founder and General Partner of Bling Capital, an early-stage venture firm that has backed companies including Airtable, Lyft, Square, Palantir, and many others. Before becoming a full-time investor, Ben held leadership roles at Google, Facebook, and YouTube, where he helped build products at massive scale and gained a front-row seat to some of the most important technology platforms of the last two decades. In this rendition of Founding the fund, Ben shares lessons from moving between operating and investing, what he learned working alongside leaders like Vinod Khosla and Marissa Mayer, and why distribution often matters more than product. We also discuss how Ben built Bling Capital around founder experience, why seed investing has structural advantages over multi-stage funds, how venture investors should think about trillion-dollar outcomes instead of billion-dollar outcomes, and the framework he uses to evaluate both founders and aspiring fund managers.

In our season finale episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Jamie Siminoff, inventor of Ring, the smart home security company best known for turning the front door into a connected safety platform. Ring builds video doorbells, cameras, alarms, and neighborhood safety tools that help people monitor and protect what matters most. Before Ring became one of the most recognizable home security brands in the world, Jamie was an inventor building things in his basement, launching companies like PhoneTag and Unsubscribe.com, and learning firsthand that a great product does not always equal a great business. His career has spanned consumer hardware, software, home security, AI-enabled safety tools, and one of the most memorable startup journeys from Shark Tank rejection to Amazon acquisition. In this conversation, Jamie shares the core insight behind Ring: the company was never really about doorbells; it was about making neighborhoods safer. What started as a personal frustration in his garage became a mission-driven company after his wife said the prototype made her feel safer at home.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Scott Stevenson, CEO and Co-Founder of Spellbook. Spellbook is an AI-powered platform helping lawyers draft and review contracts faster using generative AI directly within their existing workflows. Spellbook enables legal teams to accelerate contract creation and negotiation by embedding AI into workflow tools allowing for real-time drafting, editing, and comparison against market data. The company sits at the intersection of legal tech and AI infrastructure, transforming how contracts are created by shifting from slow, manual workflows to intelligent, data-driven systems. This conversation explores how startups are fundamentally a pursuit of truth, how AI is reshaping legal work, and why building enduring companies requires deep conviction in a problem over many years. Scott shares the core insight behind Spellbook: lawyers don’t need entirely new tools. Rather, they need dramatically better versions of what they already use, seamlessly integrated into their workflow.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Ram Palaniappan, founder and CEO of Earnin, a fintech company reimagining how people get paid by giving employees access to their earnings in real time rather than waiting for traditional payroll cycles. Earnin is building a new kind of payroll system—one that shifts power from employers to employees by enabling on-demand and continuous pay. Instead of the outdated two-week batch system, Earnin is pioneering a streaming model for income, where workers can access wages as they earn them, improving financial stability and reducing reliance on overdrafts and late fees. Ram’s journey into founding Earnin didn’t begin with the intention to start a company—it began by manually helping employees avoid overdraft fees by advancing their earned wages. That scrappy, human-first solution evolved into a scaled fintech platform now used by millions, reshaping how payroll is experienced across the U.S. In this conversation, Ram shares the core insight behind Earnin: payroll is fundamentally a broken digital product, and like all digital systems, it should evolve from batch processing to real-time streaming.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we sit down with Ben Witte, Founder and CEO of Recess, a consumer wellness brand pioneering a new category of functional beverages designed to help people relax, unwind, and feel better in an increasingly high-stress world. Recess blends ingredients like magnesium, adaptogens, and other functional compounds into beautifully branded drinks that position themselves as the “Red Bull for relaxation.” Before launching Recess, Ben built his career in early-stage startups and hypergrowth companies like AdRoll, where he developed a deep understanding of digital marketing, brand building, and emerging consumer trends. In this conversation, Ben shares the core insight behind Recess: that relaxation would define the next major consumer category, driven by rising anxiety, changing alcohol consumption habits, and a cultural shift toward mental wellness. We dive into lessons on identifying non-obvious trends early, building a lifestyle brand in a crowded CPG market, and navigating major challenges like regulatory uncertainty and COVID-driven disruption. Ben also unpacks his philosophy on category creation, why great brands market outcomes instead of ingredients, and how founders should think about fundraising, timing, and long-term vision when building enduring companies.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Scott Woody, Co-Founder of Metronome, a platform helping companies implement usage-based billing and modernize how they monetize software. Metronome enables businesses to move beyond rigid subscription pricing and instead charge customers based on actual product usage. The platform sits at the core of a new shift in SaaS: pricing that aligns directly with value delivered, rather than seats or static tiers, giving companies more flexibility and better feedback loops on how their products are used. This episode explores how billing and pricing infrastructure are becoming critical levers for modern software companies and why aligning pricing with value will define the next generation of SaaS businesses. Before founding Metronome, Scott founded Foundry (later acquired by Dropbox) and went on to spend six years at Dropbox leading engineering teams, where he helped scale monetization systems from $200M to over $1B in revenue. His experience operating at scale deeply informed how he approached building billing infrastructure from the ground up. In this conversation, Scott shares the core insight behind Metronome: pricing is one of the most important yet underbuilt parts of software, and usage-based billing unlocks a more accurate reflection of customer value. He also reflects on early founder lessons, recognizing product-market fit, and why solving “unsexy” problems can lead to the biggest opportunities.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Ryan Daniels, Founder and CEO of Crosby, an AI-first law firm rethinking how legal work gets delivered. Crosby combines AI systems with human legal expertise to provide faster, more transparent, and more scalable legal services, moving away from traditional billable hours toward outcome-driven work. Crosby is part of a broader shift in professional services, where AI is not just augmenting workflows but fundamentally reshaping how services are delivered. Instead of selling tools to lawyers, Crosby operates as a full-stack legal provider, meeting customers where trust already exists while embedding AI into the core of legal execution. In this conversation, Ryan shares the core insight behind Crosby: legal work is only partially about legal expertise, and largely about understanding business context, speed, and responsiveness. AI enables a shift where repetitive work is automated, allowing lawyers to focus on high-judgment decisions that actually impact outcomes.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Alex Halliday, founder and CEO of AirOps, a platform helping companies build AI-powered content workflows and automate complex marketing operations. AirOps enables marketing and growth teams to orchestrate large-scale content generation using structured workflows, AI models, data integrations, and human-in-the-loop systems. The platform is part of a new category emerging in the AI ecosystem: the AI marketing stack, where companies move beyond simple prompt-based tools and instead build repeatable systems for producing high-quality content. Before founding AirOps, Alex built viral fan websites as a teenager and later founded SocialGo, eventually becoming the youngest CEO of a publicly traded company in the UK. His career has spanned early internet startups, hypergrowth technology companies, and now the modern AI platform landscape.

In this season opener of The Room Podcast, we speak with Nirav Tolia, the co-founder and CEO of Nextdoor, the neighborhood network designed to connect verified neighbors and strengthen local communities. Nirav shares the story behind building Nextdoor, one of the world’s largest hyperlocal social platforms, and reflects on the lessons he has learned scaling a product designed around real-world communities. Before founding Nextdoor, Nirav was one of the first 100 employees at Yahoo, where he witnessed the rise of the early consumer internet and the power of network effects. He later co-founded Round Zero, an early startup studio that helped shape his thinking about entrepreneurship and product development.

Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, Claudia and Madison sit down with Julie Bornstein, founder and CEO of Daydream, a new AI-powered shopping platform reimagining how people discover fashion online. Julie is a two-time founder with deep roots in digital commerce, having previously helped build Stitch Fix and later founded The Yes, which was acquired by Pinterest. With decades of experience at the intersection of retail, technology, and consumer behavior, Julie has been at the forefront of how people shop as the internet — and now AI — evolves. In this episode, Julie shares why search has always been the hardest and most important problem in e-commerce, and how generative AI finally unlocks a more human way to shop. She walks through the lessons she learned building algorithmic fashion at Stitch Fix, why inventory ownership limits personalization, and how The Yes shaped her thesis around intent-driven discovery. We also dive into founding Daydream after an acquisition unwind, the challenges of hiring the right early team, navigating retailer relationships without becoming an ads business, and what the future of shopping looks like when your stylist lives in your pocket. Tune in for a masterclass on consumer AI, founder resilience, and why being early — twice — doesn’t make it easier the third time around.

In this special live panel episode of The Room Podcast from Inside Summit 2025, host Ash Kumra sits down with an all-star group of AI and product leaders: Noah MacCallum of OpenAI, Grant Lee of Gamma, Malte Ubl of Vercel, and Chris Messina, inventor of the hashtag and longtime product strategist. Together, they represent the cutting edge of applied AI, developer platforms, design tooling, and the social technologies that shaped how we communicate today. Throughout the conversation, the panel digs into what ethical AI actually means in practice, how founders should think about scaling from early demos to real-world robustness, and why “iteration velocity” may matter more than perfection. From Noah’s breakdown of vibes-based iteration versus formal evals, to Chris’s framing of AI as a new expressive medium rather than just a technology, this episode is packed with perspective for builders navigating the next era of software. The discussion ultimately challenges founders to focus less on hype and more on clarity of vision, taste, and long-term impact.

In this special Inside Summit episode of The Room Podcast, Claudia moderates a powerhouse panel featuring Michelle Edwards, Partner at Perkins Coie, Indy Guha, GP of VMG, Dan Kang, CFO of Mercury, and Jared Roesch, a founder who recently exited to NVIDIA. Together, they unpack the increasingly complex M&A landscape that founders are navigating in 2025. With perspectives spanning legal, investor, financial, and operator experience, the panel breaks down how deals get sourced, what drives acquirer motivation, and how macro conditions—from AI acceleration to shifting public markets—are reshaping the paths available to startups. In this conversation, the group shares tactical lessons on preparing your company years before an exit, cultivating strategic relationships, and understanding the human and emotional realities of selling a business. They explore why deals fall apart, how founders can signal readiness to buyers, and why the best outcomes often begin long before a term sheet is drafted. Whether you're raising, scaling, or fielding interest from potential acquirers, this episode offers clear, actionable insights for building toward a successful transaction.

Welcome back to another LIVE rendition of The Room Podcast! This week, we are back at our live conference, Inside Summit. Listen in as we sit down with Michel Tricot, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbyte — the open-source platform that’s transforming how companies move data across their modern stacks. Airbyte gives teams the ability to extract and load data from virtually any source, empowering both AI-native companies and legacy enterprises to sync their information seamlessly and securely across hundreds of tools. In this conversation, Michel shares the lessons behind scaling Airbyte from its first connector to 600+, building open source community momentum, and navigating shocks like COVID and a disrupted engineering team during the war in Ukraine. We dive into why ELT architecture matters, what separates AI-native companies from incumbents trying to adopt AI, and why founders should optimize for survival before anything else. Tune in for tactical guidance on fundraising, building at “internet scale”, breaking data silos, and how to stay grounded when the journey becomes nonlinear — because it always does.

Welcome back to The Room Podcast! This week, Claudia and Madison sit down with Tomer London, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto, the all-in-one people platform that simplifies payroll, benefits, and HR for over 400,000 small businesses across the U.S. From humble beginnings as ZenPayroll, Gusto has become one of the most beloved products in the SMB ecosystem—known for turning one of the most stressful business tasks into a delightful experience. In this episode, Tomer shares the personal roots behind Gusto’s mission—growing up around his family’s small clothing store in Israel—and how those early lessons shaped his empathy for small business owners. He walks us through finding the right customer base, building emotional resonance into product design, and why “customer love” is the most powerful growth channel. Listeners will gain valuable insights into startup decision-making, measuring true product–market fit, and the mindset needed to scale from a scrappy YC-backed idea into a category-defining company.

Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, Claudia and Madison sit down with William Allen, Head of Emerging Tech and AI at Cloudflare, and previously a key leader at Adobe and Behance. Will has spent his career at the intersection of creativity, technology, and infrastructure—from helping launch TED Talks and building Behance into a global hub for creatives, to leading initiatives like the Content Authenticity Initiative that aim to make the internet more trustworthy. In this episode, Will shares insights on the evolution of digital content, the challenges of building authenticity in an AI-driven world, and what it takes to create infrastructure that both empowers creators and protects their work. He discusses lessons learned from scaling startups, navigating acquisitions, and fostering innovation within large companies. Listeners will walk away with actionable takeaways on balancing speed with integrity, building products for real users, and creating a “better internet” rooted in trust and transparency.

We are back with another live rendition of The Room Podcast! This week, Madison sits down with Jack Barrett, Co-Founder and CEO of Almost Friday Media, the creative force behind the viral comedy brand Friday Beers. After starting and leaving his career in investment banking, Jack followed his storytelling instincts into media, co-founding a creator-first company that now spans comedy, live events, digital media, and even its own beer brand. Almost Friday Media has quickly become a cultural touchpoint for millennial and Gen Z audiences craving authenticity, humor, and community online. In this episode, Jack shares how moments of failure shaped his path, how comedy can connect people across generations, and what it takes to build a modern media business in the era of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram Reels. Listeners will hear insights on evolving with algorithms, scaling creator ecosystems, and staying true to a mission that celebrates friendship, optimism, and laughter. Listen in as we take a look at how Almost Friday Media became a blueprint for the future of entertainment—where community meets creativity.

We are back with another live installment of The Room Podcast! This week, we sit down with Barry McCardel and Caitlin Colgrove, Co-Founders of Hex, the collaborative data workspace trusted by teams around the world. Hex empowers data scientists, analysts, and business operators to explore, visualize, and share insights in one connected platform—bringing together code, no-code tools, and now AI-powered features that make data storytelling seamless and accessible to everyone. In this episode, Barry and Caitlin unpack Hex’s origin story, from their early days at Palantir to building one of the most beloved modern data tools. They share how deep empathy for early users shaped their product decisions, why great co-founding relationships require shared values and “stress testing,” and what it means to truly be “AI-first” in 2025. You’ll also hear lessons on problem-driven entrepreneurship, managing investor relationships, and how Hex is redefining what it means for everyone to be a data person.

Welcome back to The Room Podcast! This week, Claudia and Madison sit down with Eric Simons, Co-Founder and CEO of StackBlitz and creator of Bolt.new, the AI-powered development platform redefining how people build web and mobile apps. From humble beginnings coding in Naperville, Illinois, to literally living inside AOL’s Palo Alto offices at age 19, Eric’s journey is a Silicon Valley legend. StackBlitz emerged from a desire to eliminate setup friction for developers, enabling instant browser-based coding environments that reimagined how software gets built. In this episode, Eric shares the highs and lows of the founder journey — from near-shutdown to a $20M ARR turnaround powered by Bolt’s viral AI tools. He offers candid advice on knowing when to pivot, how to approach investors during uncertain times, and why obsession and experimentation are critical to surviving the startup grind. Tune in for insights on product-market fit, storytelling as a leadership superpower, and what the “vibe coder” movement means for the next generation of builders.

Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, we sit down with Celine Halioua, Founder and CEO of Loyal, a biotech company pioneering FDA-approved longevity drugs for dogs. From a childhood surrounded by rescue animals to an academic journey through neuroscience, health economics, and venture capital, Celine’s path to entrepreneurship is as winding as it is inspiring. Today, Loyal is leading the charge in redefining what’s possible in veterinary medicine—aiming not just to treat disease, but to extend healthy lifespan itself. In this episode, Celine shares how her scientific curiosity about aging and her love for animals converged into a singular mission. She takes us behind the scenes on the founding story of Loyal—from a chance conversation around a campfire, to navigating the capital-intensive world of biotech, to winning over regulators and pet parents alike. Listeners will walk away with hard-earned insights about fundraising in uncertain markets, balancing ambition with operational discipline, and the importance of being both scientifically rigorous and soulfully driven when building something truly generational.

This week on The Room Podcast, Claudia and Madison sit down with Zach Lloyd, Founder and CEO of Warp. Before founding Warp, Zach spent nearly a decade at Google, where he led engineering on Google Sheets and Docs, and later co-founded the startup Self-Made before launching Warp in 2020. Warp is a modern re-imagining of the command line, transforming one of the most widely used developer tools into an AI-powered, productivity-boosting experience. In this episode, Zach shares lessons from his challenge of finding the right founder–market fit, we explore how Warp integrates AI into developer workflows, why timing mattered during the ChatGPT wave, and the importance of retention before growth. Tune in for insights on building developer-first products, rethinking foundational tools, and how to adapt a startup in a fast-moving AI landscape.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, hosts Claudia Laurie and Madison McIlwain sit down with serial entrepreneur Craig Walker, founder and CEO of Dialpad.

Welcome to a special bonus episode of The Room Podcast, recorded live at New York Tech Week! This week, we're thrilled to chat with Shreya Murthy, Co-Founder and CEO of Partiful, the modern social events platform that is revolutionizing how we make plans and build real-world relationships. Since launching in 2021, Partiful has scaled to millions of users and earned major accolades, including Google's Best App of 2024, Apple's Editor Choice, and recognition as one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies for 2025. With its SMS-based approach and frictionless event creation, Partiful has become the go-to platform for gathering people together—so much so that "to partiful" has become a verb! In this episode, Shreya takes us through her unconventional journey from studying political theory at Princeton to building enterprise software, before ultimately founding Partiful to combat social isolation. We dive deep into fascinating topics like launching a party platform during a global pandemic, the strategic decision to start with SMS instead of an app, and how Partiful has maintained remarkable growth with an intentionally lean team. Shreya also shares invaluable insights on co-founder dynamics, navigating venture fundraising as a consumer company, and her vision for building community at every stage of life. Tune in for lessons on product development, authentic relationship building, and what it takes to create a platform that brings people together in an increasingly digital world.

In this season’s finale of The Room Podcast, we're thrilled to chat with Neil Parikh, Co-Founder of Casper and current Co-Founder of Slingshot. Neil first disrupted the mattress industry by building Casper into a household name, pioneering the direct-to-consumer sleep revolution before taking the company public. Now, he's tackling an even bigger challenge with Slingshot, building a foundational AI model specifically designed for psychology and mental health therapy. In this episode, Neil takes us through his unconventional journey from medical school dropout to D2C pioneer, sharing the serendipitous moments that led to Casper's creation and the harsh realities of going public during a pandemic. We delve into the mental health crisis facing society, the limitations of current AI therapy approaches, and how Slingshot is training models on real-world human therapy data to create more effective interventions. Neil also opens up about his therapy journey, the power of taking nudges when they appear, and why he believes we're entering an era of unprecedented change that will reshape how we think about mental health access and self-actualization.

Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, Madison and Claudia sit down with Alex Konrad, former Senior Editor at Forbes and now Founder of Upstarts Media. After a decade covering technology and venture capital at Forbes, where he pioneered coverage from the Midas List to the Cloud 100, Alex has launched his own media company focused on telling the stories of early-stage founders and companies challenging the status quo. Throughout this conversation, Alex shares insights from his front-row seat to some of tech's most defining moments, including interviews with industry leaders like Sam Altman and Mark Benioff. He discusses the evolution of media in the age of AI, his decision to bootstrap rather than raise venture funding, and his vision for building a community-first media company. Alex also reveals how his upbringing in New York City shaped his no-nonsense approach to tech reporting and why he believes the future of media lies in creating direct, authentic connections with audiences. Tune in for a fascinating look at the changing media landscape and what it takes to build a modern media company from the ground up.

Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, we're excited to chat with Anna Kazlauskas, Co-Founder of Vana, a pioneering company creating an alternative to centralized AI monopolies. Vana uses crypto principles like ownership, incentives, and decentralization to build AI models that users collectively own and benefit from, empowering individuals to control their data while earning from its use. In this enlightening conversation, Anna takes us through her journey from growing up in cold places around the world to her time at MIT's AI lab, and how that led to her vision for data ownership. We explore fascinating concepts like Data DAOs (which Anna compares to labor unions for your data), the emergent "DataFi" category, and how Vana enables users to pool their data to create more powerful AI models than any company could build. Anna shares invaluable insights on fundraising across both crypto and AI spaces, emphasizing the importance of aligning with investors on long-term vision. Tune in for a glimpse into how the future of data ownership could revolutionize our relationship with technology.

In this episode, we are joined by Elia Wallen, Founder and CEO of Engine (formerly Hotel Engine), the B2B travel booking platform that's streamlining how businesses manage their travel needs. From its origins as an internal tool for Elia's previous company, Travelers Haven, to becoming a $2.1 billion company, Engine has carved out a significant niche by focusing on serving SMBs with a frictionless approach to corporate travel management. In this conversation, Elia shares his unconventional path from dropping out of college to founding multiple businesses, including the fascinating story of how Engine began as a side project that he almost shut down several times. We explore his philosophy of maintaining "strong conviction loosely held," his approach to fundraising (including a nail-biting near-miss with payroll), and why staying focused on doing one thing extremely well before expanding was crucial to Engine's success. Elia also offers valuable insights on bootstrapping versus raising capital, building in a non-tech hub, and why eliminating friction for customers has been central to Engine's competitive advantage in the crowded travel tech space.

Welcome back to The Room Podcast! In this episode, we sit down with Matan Grinberg and Eno Reyes, co-founders of Factory, a company building the command center for software development. With backgrounds in physics and computer science, this dynamic duo is unifying all engineering contexts from GitHub to Notion, empowering product and engineering teams to collaborate with autonomous AI systems. Their impressive journey has already attracted $20 million in funding from Sequoia, Lux Capital, and Mantis Ventures, positioning them at the forefront of the AI-native movement. During our conversation, Matan and Eno share their unexpected journey from Princeton classmates who barely interacted to co-founders who launched their company just eight days after reconnecting at an AI hackathon. They dive deep into how AI is shifting the center of gravity in software development from coding to understanding and planning, the challenges of enterprise adoption, and why they believe we're currently at "the lowest number of developers that will ever be for the rest of human history." Their insightful perspectives on building an AI-native company and transforming developer workflows offer valuable lessons for founders navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

This week, we're excited to speak with Tiancheng Lou, Co-Founder and CTO of Pony AI, a leading autonomous vehicle technology company that went public in November 2024. As a two-time Google Code Jam champion and former engineer at both Google X and Baidu's Autonomous Driving Division, Tiancheng brings exceptional technical expertise to his pioneering work in developing driverless technology with over 40 million kilometers of autonomous driving testing. In this episode, Tiancheng shares fascinating insights into the evolution of autonomous vehicle technology, explaining the difference between level two and level four autonomy and why highway driving is more challenging than city driving for AI. We explore Pony AI's virtual driver technology, their approach to commercialization, and how they're training AI through imitation learning and reinforcement learning in virtual environments. Tiancheng also offers valuable advice for founders on balancing technical ambition with market realities, the importance of finding the right co-founder with aligned visions, and why success can't be copied but failures can be avoided. Tune in for a deep dive into the future of transportation and the journey of building a billion-dollar autonomous technology company.

In this episode, we're joined by Alexa Grabell, Co-Founder and CEO of Pocus, a company revolutionizing how sales teams work by creating AI agents that supercharge sales representatives. Pocus has developed a suite of tools that combine internal and external data to help sales teams identify opportunities, prepare for calls, and close deals more effectively, generating over half a billion dollars in pipeline for their customers in a single quarter. During our conversation, Alexa shares her journey from consulting at KPMG to Stanford Business School and eventually founding Pocus with her co-founder, Isaac, through the Lean Launchpad program. She offers valuable insights on building a sales team, navigating design partnerships, fundraising strategies for B2B startups, and the evolving landscape of AI-powered sales tools. Alexa also candidly discusses the challenges of being a female founder, the importance of finding community among peer founders, and how her mother's entrepreneurial spirit influenced her own path. Whether you're building a sales team, raising capital, or are interested in how AI is transforming business workflows, this episode delivers practical wisdom from someone who's successfully navigated these waters.

Welcome back to another season of The Room Podcast! To kick off season 12, we are joined by Ryan Petersen, Founder and CEO of Flexport, the revolutionary digital freight forwarder transforming how goods move around the world. Launched in 2013, Flexport combines technology and logistics expertise to bring transparency and efficiency to the complex world of global trade, having grown to become the third-largest American company in the ocean freight industry. In this episode, Ryan takes us through his entrepreneurial journey, from his early days running an e-commerce business importing Chinese motorcycles to identifying the massive inefficiencies in international shipping that led to Flexport's creation. We dive into fascinating topics like building a company that combines tech talent with logistics veterans, navigating highly regulated international markets, and leveraging AI to transform an industry that still largely runs on email attachments. Ryan also shares valuable insights on fundraising strategies, responding to tariff changes, and maintaining resilience through unprecedented global disruptions like the pandemic and shipping crises. Tune in for a master class in spotting industry-wide inefficiencies and building a venture-scale business that's reshaping global trade.

In this special holiday episode of The Room Podcast, we sit down with Agatha Kluk and Sonia Farber, the co-founders of Kluk Farber Law (now part of Perkins Coie), a specialized law firm dedicated to supporting innovative founders and startups. Their firm provides strategic legal guidance to entrepreneurs navigating the complex landscape of building and scaling companies. This candid conversation explores the evolution of their practice, from its founding in 2017 to its strategic partnership with Perkins Coie. Throughout our discussion, we explore the intersection of law and entrepreneurship, highlighting how the right legal partnership can empower founders to achieve their vision. At its core, Kluk Farber Law provides comprehensive legal services tailored specifically for startups and emerging companies. Key topics in this episode include strategic guidance for company sales and earn-out negotiations, balancing tech automation with historically successful advisory services, and AI regulation and compliance considerations.

Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, we’re thrilled to chat with Wade Foster, CEO and Co-Founder of Zapier, the tool that’s revolutionized workflows by making automation accessible to anyone. Zapier helps businesses and individuals connect the apps they rely on, creating seamless integrations that save time and boost productivity. In this episode, Wade takes us through Zapier’s origins, its flagship no-code-needed automation platform, and how the company has carved out a niche as the go-to solution for streamlining business processes. We also dive into fascinating topics like growing a fully remote team before it was trendy, navigating the unique challenges of bootstrapping in a venture-driven world, and the surprising lessons Wade learned while literally counting telephone poles during a college internship. Tune in for insights on building impactful products, a behind-the-scenes look at Zapier's innovative culture, and a glimpse into what it takes to lead one of today’s most versatile SaaS companies.

In this LIVE version of The Room Podcast, we’re thrilled to chat with Immad Akhund, Co-Founder and CEO of Mercury, a fintech company built specifically for startups and tech companies. Immad walks us through his journey from founder to industry leader, and how Mercury is reimagining banking with streamlined financial tools for growing businesses. Mercury’s core product offers an intuitive digital banking experience, designed to handle startups' unique cash flow and management needs. Join us as we explore Immad’s early entrepreneurial journey, his strategic shift from gaming with Hayzap to founding Mercury, and the insights he gained along the way. This episode highlights Mercury’s goal to simplify banking for tech founders, Immad’s take on the importance of resilience and adaptability, and how Mercury’s modern approach is transforming financial services for the startup ecosystem.

Welcome back to The Room Podcast! Today, we’re thrilled to explore the fast-evolving world of B2B tech innovation with Shensi Ding, co-founder of Merge. Merge has become a leader in unified APIs, creating a category that addresses the challenges many companies face with complex integrations. Shensi’s journey is a unique one—from her coding days in Boston to Columbia, then a career at Silver Lake, all of which prepared her to tackle the 'SAAS sprawl' problem head-on. Together with her co-founder, Gil Feig, Shensi has built a powerhouse team and a product that’s essential for clients like Ramp and BambooHR. Their customer-first approach has secured $75 million in funding and a growing presence across SF and NYC. In this episode, we delve into topics like using customer insights to drive category creation, balancing skills in co-founder dynamics, and navigating fundraising from seed stage through metrics-driven growth.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we sit down with Jason Lee, the founder of Salt Labs and DailyPay, to explore his journey from finance to fintech entrepreneurship. Salt Labs, Jason’s latest venture, focuses on empowering workers to maximize their earnings potential, while DailyPay revolutionized the way employees access their wages. We cover a range of topics such as the need for improvement in front-line workers' payment structures, how Jason’s years in investment banking shaped his approach to entrepreneurship, his pivotal "aha" moment that led him to create DailyPay and Salt Labs, and advice to founders looking to start fundraising.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we sit down with Kevin McCarthy, the CEO of Unreal, a company dedicated to creating healthier alternatives to classic candy. Unreal is known for creating delicious, better-for-you snacks that ditch artificial ingredients, offering cleaner, more natural options in the world of sweets. We discuss the intersection of entrepreneurship and health-conscious innovation, bringing a refreshing approach to an industry ripe for disruption. Kevin shares his journey to becoming CEO at just 24 years old, the pivotal changes Unreal made to become a leader in the health-conscious snack market, and how leadership lessons from his political campaign days shaped his approach to business.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we’re joined by Sami Inkinen, co-founder of Virta Health, a company transforming the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Virta Health’s mission is to not just manage, but reverse diabetes using personalized nutrition plans backed by clinical research. Sami also shares his journey from humble beginnings on a Finnish farm to co-founding the real estate platform Trulia, and ultimately, Virta Health. Key highlights include the current state and effect of GLP1 drugs in America alongside the growing prevalence of diabetes, overcoming skepticism and resistance to adopting non-traditional treatments for chronic diseases, and the intersection of technology and healthcare overall.

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we sit down with Ariel Kaye, the founder of Parachute, a brand known for elevating the home essentials industry with a focus on comfort and wellness. Ariel shares her journey from a creative upbringing to her path through advertising, where she discovered her passion for building brands, eventually leading to the founding of Parachute. Join us as we dive into how Parachute taps into the wellness movement by focusing on the importance of sleep and home comfort. We explore the company's core product—bedding— and why it resonated with consumers looking for better home essentials. Ariel also shares insights on creating a brand from scratch while disrupting a market, the importance of consumer insights and communication in building a business, and the ups and downs of running a business while raising a family.

Welcome back to a new season of The Room Podcast! To kick off Season 11, we're joined by Johnny Ho, co-founder of Perplexity, an AI-powered platform transforming the way everyday consumers interact with search. Johnny shares his path from competitive programming to entrepreneurship and offers insights into the development of Perplexity’s core product, which aims to deliver precise, reliable answers in a simple, intuitive way. In this episode, we covered topics such as how Perplexity uses AI to deliver accurate and reliable search results using multiple LLMs, building a user-first product in a competitive tech space, and the importance of finding investors who want to work with you in the right ways.

In this episode, we dive into the Future of DTC panel from this summer’s Inside Summit. This panel was moderated by our very own Claudia Laurie, who is also the founder of Prive, a leading eCommerce billing platform. In this discussion, the panelists explore the future of DTC, how to build authentic brand communities, building a celebrity brand, challenges and opportunities around customer acquisition and retention, and advice for brand founders and builders. This conversation includes an incredible mix of perspectives from leading brands, agencies, and tech partners. Our panelists included: Nik Sharma is widely known as “The DTC Guy,” a Forbes 30 Under 30 member, AdWeek’s Young & Influential, and a resource that brands and investors turn to for growth. Nik is the founder and CEO of Sharma Brands, where clients include Feastables, Jolie, Milk Bar, Everlane and more. Outside of Sharma Brands, Nik writes a newsletter to 50,000 investors, founders, and marketers and is also the co-host of Limited Supply, an award-winning marketing podcast.  Scout Brisson is the CEO of De Soi, a line of sparkling non-alcoholic apéritifs, co-founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan. Scout's professional journey spans over seven years in management consulting at McKinsey, and venture capital at M13.In 2020, Scout co-founded better-for-you CPG brand, DEUX, innovating a functional alternative with edible cookie dough.  Marissa Steinmetz is an accomplished digital product leader with 13+ years of eCcommerce and omnichannel expertise. She is currently the Head of Digital Product, eCommerce at Coterie and has spent her career helping well-known brands and businesses transform their digital enterprises, including Moda Operandi, Pernod Ricard, Drunk Elephant, and Target. Breana Teubner is COO of TYB, a community rewards platform with customers like Glossier, Urban Outfitters, JuneShine, and Rare Beauty. Prior to TYB, she helped scale Skillz, the first pay-to-earn gaming platform to go public - and was an executive at Walmart and Gap. She is an LP in two early-stage funds, Let’s Open the Door!

In this episode of The Room Podcast, we recap the Inside Summit x Gen AI Collective panel, moderated by Sriram Ramakrishnan. The panel featured Vaikkunth Mugunthan (Dynamo AI), Hassaan Raza (Tavus), Ankur Patel (Multimodal), and Lulu Chang (Canapi Ventures), who shared their insights on the challenges and opportunities in the AI landscape. Key questions discussed: 1. Career Journeys: What led each panelist to venture into AI or invest in it? 2. Fundraising for AI: How does raising funds for AI-focused startups differ from other ventures? What’s the investor perspective? 3. Enterprise Adoption: What hesitations do enterprises have regarding AI, and how can companies overcome them? 4. Building Sustainable AI Businesses: What are the keys to long-term success in AI? 5. Unlocking Mass Adoption: What needs to happen for AI to see widespread adoption in enterprises? 6. This episode is a must-listen for those interested in AI’s growing role in enterprise and the practical steps to navigate this evolving field. About Gen AI Collective: The Gen AI Collective is a community dedicated to fostering innovation and collaboration within the generative AI space. By bringing together industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors, the collective aims to accelerate the development and adoption of AI technologies that transform industries and improve human experiences.

To kick off Inside Summit, Madison and Claudia were joined by Google Ventures’ KJ Sidberry. Whether you’re a founder, funder, or operator in the space, KJ shared valuable insights across the board.

Welcome to a special mini-series of The Room Podcast! Four years after our podcast's launch, co-hosts Madison McIlwain and Claudia Laurie are excited to bring you exclusive content from our recent Inside Summit event. In today’s episode we kick off the special season with a talkback of Summit and some learnings from building The Room Podcast community.

Welcome to the finale of Season 10 of The Room Podcast! In this episode, we're thrilled to sit down with Ben Goodwin, Co-Founder of OLIPOP, a pioneering beverage company at the intersection of taste and gut health. Ben takes us on a journey through his upbringing and how it shaped his worldview, his pivotal realization about lifestyle changes, and the catalysts that drove him to become a founder. Join us as we delve into the core product of OLIPOP and its unique approach to promoting gut health through delicious, low-sugar beverages. Plus, we explore the health components of OLIPOP's offerings, shedding light on the company's commitment to providing nutritious alternatives to traditional sodas rather than other more risky weight loss tactics.

Welcome back to The Room Podcast! This week, we're excited to sit with and interview Matt Martin, Co-founder of Clockwise, a revolutionary productivity platform. Matt shares his career journey, detailing his evolution from tech enthusiast to the founding team of Clockwise, why he founded Clockwise, and his passion for properly utilized software. Matt elaborates on Clockwise's success in providing efficient scheduling solutions, leveraging advanced technology with intuitive design. In our conversation, we explore Clockwise’s approach, using AI to transform time management for professionals and reshaping the way individuals approach their schedules.

We are back with another installment of The Room Podcast! This week, we are joined by Meghan Joyce, the visionary CEO behind Duckbill, a revolutionary, AI-powered life management service. Listen in as Meghan shares her journey from pivotal roles at Uber and Oscar Health to founding Duckbill, where she's pioneering accessible solutions for the modern adult. We delve into Meghan's mission of democratizing access to assistance, exploring how Duckbill combines cutting-edge technology and human expertise to tackle life's endless time-consuming, and energy-draining tasks. Hear how Meghan's passion for addressing societal needs led her to redefine the concept of life management, making it more affordable and accessible for all.

Welcome to the latest episode of The Room Podcast! Today, we have the privilege of hosting Eva Ho, the co-founder of Fika Ventures, a driving force in the tech startup ecosystem. Eva Ho is no stranger to breaking barriers, and in this episode, she offers candid advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to carve their own paths. Join us as Eva takes us through her journey from her early days in the tech industry to her current role as a trailblazing venture capitalist.

This week, we are excited to return with another LIVE rendition of The Room Podcast! Last December Madison and Claudia traveled down to Miami for Art Basel to sit down live with some incredible guests. We are joined by Daniel Betts, founder of Blue Frontier Labs, and Tosh Ernest, Head of SVB Catalyst 2045, a new program started by SVB to further support under-represented founders across every industry.

We’re back with another installment of The Room Podcast! In this episode, we're honored to host Julie Rice, the co-founder of SoulCycle and Peoplehood. Join us as Julie shares her journey from revolutionizing the fitness industry with SoulCycle to her latest venture, focused on strengthening human connections. We discuss the genesis of SoulCycle, exploring how it became a cultural phenomenon by fostering community and motivation beyond traditional fitness. Julie also sheds light on Peoplehood, a practice aimed at enhancing relationships through guided group conversations. Julie re-defined a category with SoulCycle and now she's doing it again with making self-workouts a habit in building stronger relationships with Peoplehood. Key topics include finding your own entrepreneurial path, the importance of transparency and investing in people, and Julie's thoughts for founders thinking about acquisition or strategic partnership. Whether you're into fitness, entrepreneurship, or building connections, this episode offers valuable insights from a true trailblazer.

Welcome back to The Room Podcast! In today's episode, we're thrilled to have Larry Diamond, co-founder of ZIP, joining us for an insightful conversation. Larry and his co-founder, Peter Gray, identified a critical gap in the market, leading to the birth of ZIP. This episode delves into the evolution of digital payments, exploring ZIP's role in providing seamless financial solutions for businesses of all sizes. In this episode, we discuss the transformative impact of ZIP on the fintech ecosystem, the importance of innovation in the digital finance space, and Larry's advice for budding entrepreneurs navigating the enterprise SaaS sector.

Season 10 kicks off with an exploration into the world of health and wellness entrepreneurship featuring Katerina Schneider, the innovative founder and CEO of Ritual. Join us as we uncover the story behind Ritual, a company that revolutionized the supplement industry. Dive into Katerina's journey, her insights on transparency, and how Ritual's approach is reshaping the way we view vitamins. It's an episode filled with inspiration and a closer look at the visionary mind behind this wellness sensation. Key topics in this episode include; challenging traditional norms in an industry, the importance of transparency in wellness products, and products reflecting a commitment to consumers.

Welcome to The Room Podcast! A series interviewing your favorite tech founders and funders. Our guests were in the room where it happened and they're sharing their stories.  The Room is hosted by Claudia Laurie and Madison McIlwain, two digital natives based in SF, who are challenging the status quo just like our guests.

Welcome back to Season 9 of The Room Podcast. In our final episode of the season, we sit with Cristina Junqueira. Cristina co-founded Nubank, a Brazilian fintech that revolutionized the industry with its user-friendly digital banking services. Nubank's transparent fee structures and mobile app have disrupted traditional banking, setting a new industry standard. Their innovative approach has made a significant impact, especially in Latin America, where Nubank has gained wide popularity. When NuBank went public in December of 2021 it was valued at 45 billion at IPO.

Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week’s guest is Christelle Rohaut, the CEO and co-founder of Codi. Christelle and Codi are leading the way to happier urban living through innovative approaches encompassing remote work, sustainability, and intelligent urban design. That’s why Codi’s mission is to offer more flexible and secure office spaces, providing a convenient alternative to traditional office setups. Companies of all sizes use Codi to attract and retain talent, reduce commuting hassles, and adapt to evolving needs, contributing to a broader workplace revolution.

We continue this season of The Room Podcast with another incredible guest, Christina Cacioppo, co-founder and CEO of Vanta. Vanta is an automated security monitoring platform that helps companies get SOC 2, HIPAA, or ISO certified quickly and easily. We and Christina share experiences working for Dropbox as she details what she learned from her time there and how that impacted her decision to start Vanta.

We are back again with another episode of the The Room Podcast! We take a deep dive into blockchain technology with Kathleen Breitman, the co-founder of Tezos. Kathleen sets the stage for a fascinating discussion about Tezos' contributions to the blockchain space. We talk about Tezos’ self-amending nature and community-driven governance, how companies are tokenizing real assets on Tezos, and how these features drove Tezos to become a pioneering force in the blockchain industry

In this exciting episode of the series, we dive headfirst into the open-source world of tech entrepreneurship with Guillermo Rauch, the visionary founder behind Vercel and Next.js. Guillermo takes us on his incredible journey, from growing up in Argentina to moving to Switzerland to becoming a driving force in shaping the future of web development. He shares the pivotal moments that led to the creation of Vercel, the platform that's revolutionizing front-end development on top of the react framework.

We are back again this week with another episode of The Room Podcast! This week we are joined by Julianna and Reed, the co-founders of Stych. The duo met while working for Plaid and realized a gap in the market when it came to trusted online authentication APIs. Thus, they partnered up and started Stych, a modern suite full of many authentication platform that allow businesses to verify their customers more easily and securely.

Season 9 continues with another multi-dimensional guest. DeVon “Devo” Harris went from producing platinum records with G.O.O.D. Music to founding Adventr, an interactive AI-powered marketing tool that makes content more interactive to reach and connect with audiences more easily. “Adventr makes it easy to create smart, interactive video content that allows engaged viewers to connect with your message on demand.”

Welcome back to another season of The Room! We are kicking off Season 9 by diving into healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship with Iman Abuzeid, the visionary Co-founder & CEO of Incredible Health. Incredible Health partners with hospitals to hire nurses more effectively by flipping the recruiting standard on its head and having hospitals search for nurses instead of the other way around. Incredible Health is known for its software that sources experienced candidates, so recruiters have more time to interview and close candidates.

While we are waiting for season 9, we are thrilled to share a podcast that we know you would love from our friends at Bessemer Venture Partners. Check out their podcast Wish I Knew's conversation with Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar. Wish I Knew is about the revelatory, life-changing aha moments that founders, CEOs and leaders discover along their business journeys and why taking risks leads to growth. Presented by Bessemer Venture Partners. From consultant to investor to CFO to CEO, Sarah Friar has a business acumen rivaled by few others. Today, Sarah Friar is at the helm of NextDoor, the social network that services over 300,000 neighborhoods globally. On Wish I Knew, she shared why you should pay attention to what you both love and hate about your job, why strong conviction in a market thesis can buoy you through hard times, and why it’s never a bad time to raise money. She shares how she navigated her career and trusted her intuition to make smart decisions along the way. Listen to all the Wish I Knew episodes at bvp.com/wish-i-knew and subscribe to them wherever you get your podcasts!

In our season 8 finale, we explore the world of TYB, or Try Your Best, a community management platform that directly engages and rewards fans for taking action, founded by CEO Ty Haney, former founder and CEO of Outdoor Voices. Discover how TYB revolutionizes customer engagement, loyalty, and retention through its innovative platform. Explore their groundbreaking approach of using digital membership collectibles to create a sense of ownership and reward customers for their daily actions. Additionally, learn about Ty Haney’s path from being a brand founder with Outdoor Voices to launching TYB to further her mission of connecting brands and fans. Through TYB, Ty and Breana are seamlessly connecting engagement activity to purchase data, empowering businesses with valuable insights for small-scale and enterprise brands alike.

This week, we brought our conversation inside the room to a LIVE audience! Join us in this enlightening episode as we sit down with Yin Wu, the founder of Pulley, a groundbreaking company revolutionizing equity management for startups. Pulley provides innovative equity solutions that empower founders and streamline the complex processes of equity administration, cap table management, and employee equity grants.

Join us for an engaging conversation with Rahul Vohra, CEO and founder of Superhuman, the fast, efficient email client that has become a favorite among professionals. With its focus on productivity, Superhuman has revolutionized the way people manage their email, and has achieved a loyal following of users who enjoy its advanced features, such as keyboard shortcuts and the ability to snooze emails for later.

In this episode, we sit down with Adam Turner, the CEO of Postscript, to discuss how his company is transforming the world of e-commerce. From boosting conversion rates to maximizing ROI, Postscript is the ultimate SMS marketing tool that's helping businesses achieve their goals. But don't just take our word for it - Postscript has raised over 106M to date from the likes of YC, Accomplice, Greylock, and more. Join us as Adam shares his experience starting a company with his brother and his insights on the ups and downs of direct-to-consumer marketing.

This week we are taking it back to one of our favorite episodes where we interview Shishir Mehrotra, founder and CEO of Coda. Coda is a venture-backed workflow tool valued at over $600 million dollars. With Coda, docs are now as powerful as applications. Although Coda was started in 2014, Coda is more relevant now than ever as a key player in 2020’s “future of work.” Coda continues redefining what it means to stay organized, engaged, and effective even in our remote-first culture.

Looking to discover the story behind one of the most successful website-building platforms in the industry? Tune in to this episode of The Room Podcast, where we sit down with Vlad Magdalin, the founder of Webflow, for an in-depth conversation about his journey from designing websites for clients to building a powerful platform that has revolutionized the way we create websites. To date, Webflow has raised over $335M in funding from the likes of Accel, CapitalG, Draper Associates, and YC.

Join us for another insightful conversation with Jaclyn Rice Nelson, the visionary CEO and founder of Tribe AI. Tribe AI is a firm that provides and connects AI and machine learning-focused engineers to businesses wanting to optimize their operations and make data-driven decisions.

Join us in this episode as we sit down with Sampriti Bhattacharyya the CEO and Founder of Navier. Sampriti shares her incredible journey of founding Navier, and her passion for sustainable and efficient watercraft technology. Discover how Navier's hydrofoiling boats are revolutionizing the boating industry, with advanced technology that delivers unparalleled speed, efficiency, and comfort.

Welcome back to The Room Podcast! We start off season 8 by jumping straight into the modern era of audio and video editing with Cristóbal Valenzuela, the CEO and co-founder of Runway. Runway is “everything you need to make anything you want.”

We are returning this week with another incredible guest, Sarah LaFleur. Sarah came up with the idea to create comfortable and fashionable, professional attire for women because she herself found that whenever she was searching for work outfits, it seemed that fashion would always be sacrificed for comfort. In this episode, we discuss the current state of the apparel market and how things have changed so rapidly due to the evolution of the internet and e-commerce, the future of DTC from the brand and consumer perspectives, and how previous work experiences influence a persons fashion choices. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 4:05 - What did Sarah take away from her college career, especially at Harvard?8:17 - What was the fashion industry like at that time of Sarah’s early career? 12:24 - What was the aha moment when Sarah knew that she wanted to become a founder?17:52 - What were some of the early supply chain processes of iterating and designing some of the first garments that were built for the “modern American woman?”23:07 - What advice would Sarah give to founders who are looking to raise today in retail and e-commerce spaces?23:34 - What advice would Sarah have to any founder today who might be thinking they’re going to disrupt retail?27:04 - What does Sarah think the future of selling directly to the consumer is?29:00 - Should women seeking to be mothers be freezing their eggs?33:33 - Who is a woman in Sarah’s life that has had a profound impact on her and her career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

Season 6 continues with Sandra Abrevaya, CEO and co-founder alongside her husband, of Synapticure. Synapticure's mission is to make sure no one living with ALS is ever told, “I'm sorry, I can’t help you” because Brian and Sandra know firsthand how difficult it can be to receive ALS treatment. We chat with Sandra about balancing a romantic relationship and a business relationship with your significant other, what the current treatment options are for ALS patients, and how the COVID pandemic affected business in the medical field. Check out Synapticure here!  For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 3:48 - What convinced Sandra to go to Law School?5:21 - What are Sandra's top three takeaways from her career in politics that she uses as an entrepreneur? 9:37 - Did Sandra ever think she was going to become a founder? 10:57 - What has Brian's journey with ALS been like and how did it lead him and Sandra to found Synapticure?16:32 - Are there many options for treating ALS currently?22:17 - Who was the first person to say yes to investing in Synapticure?26:20 - What advice would Sandra give to a founder who is looking to build a mission-driven startup? 25:33 - What are some of those unique challenges in building a product and getting it into the hands of customers?26:07 - How does Sandra interface with patients during this need-finding process?31:14 - How did the COVID pandemic accelerate part of Synapticure’s roadmap? 33:37 - How does Sandra balance her romantic relationship and her business relationship with her husband?36:16 - What’s next for Sandra and Brian?37:49 - What’s next for Sandra personally? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

We are kicking off our second entitlement of “Movers and Shakers” with a bang!  In The Room with Mary D’Onofrio, partner and co-founder of the growth investment practice at Bessemer Venture Partners. Topics this week include the very active investing climate of 2022 and how to be proactive when searching for businesses to partner with, how to find, obtain, and retain skilled, specialized new hires, and the difference between growth-stage and early-stage investing.  For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 3:34 - Where did Mary grow up and how did this shape her view of the world?5:05 - Did Mary always think her career would be in Venture?7:28 - What lessons in “deal-making” did Mary learn during her time at Morgan Stanley?8:15 - What initially brought Mary to Bessemer in 2018?10:10 - What are some of the key characteristics you look for when searching for “the next big thing?”11:52 - How did Mary level up in that way to be able to really effectively evaluate these technical businesses?13:41 - How do you weigh valuing a company and its team versus the growth of the customer and the metric data?15:58 - What will continue to evolve within the cloud ecosystem for enterprise SaaS and software companies?17:34 - What is one company that is changing the way cloud is used or changing the technical ecosystem? 19:02 - How does Mary work with businesses she invests in? 21:10 - Is there a common stumbling block or something that is particularly tricky for new businesses? 24:10 - What advice does Mary have for post-B-level businesses who are struggling to retain talent and hire?25:50 - How is Mary thinking about 2022 and this current very accelerated pace of investing?28:53 - What does the future hold for Mary?29:32 - Who is a woman in Mary’s life that has had a profound impact on her career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

In The Room with Rathna Sharad, Founder, and CEO of FlavorCloud. With the constant growth of social media and the impacts of the pandemic, more businesses and brands are looking to export or import internationally. And since consumer expectations are only increasing, there is immense pressure on independent companies to unlock access faster. Enter, FlavorCloud, who takes care of the whole cross-border shipping process, including all customs requirements, wherever you’re shipping to. In this episode, CEO and co-founder, Rathna covers topics such as unlocking “anywhere to anywhere” shipping, the increasingly higher expectations of online consumers, and theories on how the supply chain issues will shape up this year. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.  3:34 - Where did Rathna grow up and how did that shape her view of the world?5:24 - When Rathna was growing up did she want to be a founder?7:04 -  What did the logistics ecosystem look like in the early 2000s?9:31 - What challenges did Rathna face when switching from B2B to B2C?13:02 - How did Rathna’s first company, Runway to Street, inform what is now FlavorCloud?18:45 - Who was the first person to say yes to investing in FlavorCloud?19:41 - Who is the target customer of FlavorCloud?20:57 - Which international markets are growing the fastest and where would Rathna recommend retailers expand?25:25 - How will the supply chain shape up next year?29:09 - What advice does FlavorCloud have for businesses that manufacture and distribute in multiple countries?32:06 -  How has consumer expectation shifted the need for logistics to become faster and faster? And how have the supply chain constraints stunted e-commerce growth?34:40 - What’s next for Rathna?35:00 - Who is a woman in Rathna’s life that has had a profound impact on her and her career? Be the first to know when new episodes drop - Receive Our Newsletter Season 5 of The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

In the season seven finale, we chat with Edith Harbaugh, CEO and Co-Founder of LaunchDarkly, the feature management platform which allows development teams to innovate faster by gradually releasing new software features to any segment of users on any platform. Edith speaks to the lessons she learned during her earlier career as a software engineer and product leader. She describes the key learnings she had in selling a product she ardently believed in to buyers who didn’t know yet why they needed her platform. Today, Edith has been named on the Forbes Cloud 100 list, Entrepreneur's 100 Women of influence list, and NASDAQ Female Leaders Council. Themes you expect in this week's episode include; the trade-offs to a development team of building vs buying, the need for feature management across startups and enterprises, and how trust drives your go-to-market strategy with early customers. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 6:04 - Where did Edith grow up and how did that shape her view of the world?7:19 - Did Edith always think she would become a founder?8:38 - What did Edith learn when she stayed at her first job through an acquisition?12:17 - What was the “aha” moment that encouraged Edith to launch LaunchDarkly?17:59 - How did engineering and product teams manage feature flags before LaunchDarkly? 19:34 - When did Edith know it was time to leave TripIt and focus entirely on LaunchDarkly?21:02 - How has the LaunchDarkly product evolved since its creation?23:03 - Who was the first person to say yes to investing in LaunchDarkly?25:13 - What was a moment in Edith’s journey where things didn’t go as planned?29:26 - How did Edith earn the trust of the stakeholders she was selling to?31:25 - Did Edith have to rethink her go-to-market strategy once she realized the trust factor in selling a product like Launch Darkly?33:36 - What changed behind the scenes once LaunchDarkly hit its stride?37:22 - How has the competitive landscape evolved since LaunchDarkly’s origin?40:02 - How does Edith empower her team amidst periods of uncertainty?41:17 - How has Edith’s experience been on the NASDAQ Female Leaders Council? 43:24 - What's next for LaunchDarkly?44:24 - Who is a woman that has had a profound impact on Edith’s life and career? WX Productions

Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! We are so excited to share another inspiring conversation with the co-founder and CEO of Vise, Samir Vasavada. Vise is an AI powered asset manager that enables financial advisors to build, manage, and explain personalized portfolios for their clients. Vise is on a mission to create financial freedom for all with a platform that allows all investors, regardless of age, net worth, or geography, to access personalized, automated, and intelligent investments across all asset classes. Samir started vise with his cofounder Runik when they were just 16 years old. After giving advice to finance professionals through expert networks, Samir and Runik decided to bootstrap the company before raising 128M from funds like Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, and Bling Capital. In this episode, we sit down with Samir and discuss topics such as advice for young or first-time founders, tips on fundraising & going-to-market, and the mission of Vise and future of tech-enabled investing. Let’s open the door. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 4:45 - Where did Samir grow up and how did that affect his view of the world? 5:27 - How old was Samir when he started founding?7:06 - How and why did Samir switch from making apps to consulting?9:47 - What encouraged Samir to found Vise 12:25 - When did Samir know it was time to fully commit to Vise?14:11 - What advice does Samir have for founders who are in the stage of turning their idea into an actual product?17:51 - What is the mission behind Vise?20:33 - Who is the team behind Vise?23:31 - How did Samir convince investors to get in early on Vise?26:49 - What advice does Samir have for businesses going through financial struggles?30:26 - What was the go-to-market strategy for Vise?32:39 - What roadblocks has Samir run into while growing Vise?34:33 - What does Samir think of UBS acquiring Wealthfront? 36:57 - How will the market of investing evolve as we head into a market downturn?39:43 - What is coming up for Samir, personally?30:39 - Who is a woman in Samir’s life that had a profound impact on him and his career? WX Productions

We are so happy to be joined by this week's guest, Sarah Flint. The Founder, CEO, and Designer of Sarah Flint, Inc. Sarah Flint proves that beauty doesn’t have to mean pain by creating comfortable and stylish luxury shoes for women who live any kind of lifestyle. When Sarah noticed a gap in the women’s shoe market, she began designing her own and she used her network to produce them at mass! She realized that it is time to consider the needs of the modern woman and she does this by creating luxury fashion designed by women on the go for women on the go. We chat with Sarah about her decision to go entirely online, to now opening up her own storefronts for the first time. In this episode, we discuss themes such as breaking into an industry with a non-traditional background, what it takes to disrupt the luxury brand market, and the future of retail 3.0. Let’s open the door. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 4:56 - Why did Sarah study fashion and what was her early career like?7:43 - What led Sarah to approach Italian factories to produce her products?8:56 - What type of person wears Sarah Flint shoes?10:04 - Did Sarah always want to become a founder?11:44 - What were the early stages of starting Sarah Flint, Inc. like?13:59 - What brought on the decision to take the store completely online?16:34 - How did Sarah make her decision on fundraising?18:09 - What is Sarah Flint’s favorite Sarah Flint shoe?18:54 - How has Sarah Flint, Inc. grown over the past few years?20:13 - How does Sarah feel about the future of e-commerce vs. storefronts in regard to luxury fashion?22:15 - What is Sarah’s strategy when picking locations to market in?23:12 - What does ‘E-Commerce 3’ look like?25:32 - Who was the first or most notable celebrity to wear Sarah Flint shoes?26:25 - What advice does Sarah have for designers hoping to break into retail?28:01 - What does it mean to be a ‘modern heritage brand?’30:08 - What is next for Sarah Flint, Inc?31:05 - What is next for Sarah?31:37 - Who is a woman in Sarah’s life that had a profound impact on her and her career? WX Productions

Joining us this week is Kashish Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Hightouch. Hightouch is a software for your data stack that syncs any data warehouse to the SaaS tools that your business runs on, making internal usage and sharing easier for everyone. Kashish talks to us about the current state of the modern data stack community and how the industry is constantly pushing forward. He describes how this plays into their sales tactic of “evangelizing” larger corporations by teaching them about “Reverse ETL” and how Hightouch works without pushing the sale. We cover themes such as starting a company with two of his good friends and the procedures they take when it comes to decision-making, the perfect modern data stack, and how to sell your business when the product is something that no one has heard of yet. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 6:00 - Where did Kashish grow up and how did that shape his view of the world?8:08 - Did Kashish always want to be a founder?9:27 - How did Kashish's education impact his professional goals?13:08 - What is the story behind Mama’s Cooking?15:01 - What was the “aha” moment that got Kashish thinking about Hightouch?18:10 - How do businesses take advantage of Hightouch?19:56 - How is Kashish's relationship with his partners, Tejas Manohar and Josh Curl?21:28 - How do Kashish's and his partners split up responsibilities and tasks?22:24 - How do Kashish and his partners handle things when there is a disagreement?25:03 - What part of the go-to-market is Hightouch going to continue investing in?27:58 - Who was the first person to say yes to investing in Hightouch? 29:51 - When is the right time for a company to embrace its data warehouse?32:29 - What is Kashish's stance on the semantic layer?34:38 - What are some tools in the modern data stack?35:39 - What tools does Kashish recommend for a company building their modern data stack?38:15 - What advice would Kashish give to an entrepreneur building in this space?40:44 - What’s next for Kashish and Hightouch?44:00 - Who is a woman that has had a profound impact on Kashish and his career? WX Productions

We have another incredible episode in store with Cynthia Plotch and Jamie Norwood, the founders of Stix, the company transforming women's health experiences. Stix was founded to “create a convenient, discreet, and judgment-free way to get the products you need.” Cynthia and Jamie walk us through their negative personal experiences that drove them to create Stix. Plus, they share their ideas to evolve Stix past being just a DTC brand and becoming an entire community of women who can help each other with anything health related. Cynthia and Jamie also explain what led them to go down the VC route for funding this journey. Themes in this episode include knowing when is the right time to fully commit yourself to your passion project, today’s women’s health climate, and what's next in DTC. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 4:30 - What were the first few years of Jamie’s career like?5:17 - What brought Jamie to Hungry Harvest and broke her into the world of D2C?6:18 - How did Cynthia’s early career influence her decision to start Stix?9:35 - Did Cynthia and Jamie always plan on being founders?11:26 - When did Cynthia and Jamie know that they were ready to go full-time on Stix?16:41 - How would Cynthia and Jamie describe Stix?17:52 - What was the initial mission for Stix when Cynthia and Jamie founded it?19:29 - How has Stix been connecting to its community and helping solve their problems?23:30 - What prompted Cynthia and Jamie to raise VC funding?25:39 - What advice would Cynthia and Jamie give to founders thinking about starting in D2C?27:25 - What is the process like of getting an affordable product delivered discreetly to those who need it?29:32 - Why is it so crucial for Stix products to be delivered discreetly?33:16 - What does the future of D2C look like?35:27 - What does Amazon acquiring One Medical mean for the future of health care?37:54 - Who is a woman in Cynthia and Jamie’s lives that has had a profound impact on them and their careers? WX Productions

This week we chat with another phenomenal guest, William Santana Li, the founder and CEO of Knightscope. Knightscope is the developer and manufacturer of autonomous security robots. William explains how and why Knightscope was created and why he believes that the future of national security is autonomous. William details his professional experience in the auto and motor industry and how even that couldn’t prepare him for the unorthodox lifestyle of a founder. In today’s conversation with William, we chat about his unique founding story after being an entrepreneur and executive for 30 years. Plus, we dive into topics such as different ways to get funded, how robots are fighting crime in the U.S., and the future of robotics and technology in public safety. Let’s open the door. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.4:48 - Did William have an interest in the vehicle and motor space from a young age? 7:51 - How was William’s early experience as a founder starting Knightscope?9:45 - What did William learn during the fundraising process of Knightscope?17:04 - Why is William so passionate about preventing crime and protecting the safety of Americans?22:19 - How was the experience of starting from the ground and creating a legitimate robot?26:10 - How is William staying focused on the blend of hardware and software with Knightscope?28:19 - What advice does William have for a founder with a product that is starting locally but wants to go nationwide?30:27 - When building Knightscope, was there a time when things didn't go as planned? 32:58 - How does William think that robots will change public safety and security?36:55 - What does a Knightscope robot do to report crime and build safety?39:31 - Why is it that William is the only male on the board for Knightscope?45:57 - Who is a woman in William’s life that has had a profound impact on him and his career? WX Productions

Season 7 continues with another incredible episode as we chat with Kelsey Mellard, co-founder and CEO of Sitka. Sitka is an online network of experts in medicine, technology, policy, and product with the goal of making access to specialists more available for all people.  Kelsey talks to us about her initial career in healthcare, both public and private, and what that taught her before she began her journey of founding Sitka. Kelsey also details her experience of raising a baby and a company at the same time and how her investors felt when she broke the news.  The themes of this episode include; problems in the healthcare system and how Sitka is making a difference, the complexities of being a new mom while founding a company, and lessons learned in developing a core product and go-to-market strategies. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 5:04 - How did beginning in the public sector help form Kelsey’s view of the world?6:35 - What has Kelsey learned about the complexities of the healthcare system?8:27 - How did Kelsey’s career drive her to start Sitka?11:00 - Did Kelsey ever think she was going to become a founder? 12:16 - What problem did Kesley identify that encouraged her to create Sitka?13:27 - What were some of the early days like in founding Sitka?15:00 - What product did Sitka take to market?16:42 - What lessons did Kelsey learn during the creation and evolution of Sitka’s core product?18:36 - What was Kelsey’s fundraising journey like?23:45 - What did Kelsey learn when developing her go-to-market strategy?27:24 - What does Kelsey think will become the status quo five years from today that perhaps right now maybe would sound very unlikely?30:47 - What did Kelsey’s investors say when she told them that she was having a baby while running the company?36:49 - What is something that Kelsey is excited about moving forward?38:10 - What should users and potential Sitka users be looking forward to?39:17 - Who is a woman in Kelsey’s life that has had a profound impact on her and her career? WX Productions

Welcome back to The Room Podcast. We kick off Season 7 with Spencer Rascoff, co-founder and previous CEO of Zillow. Spencer walks us through how he and the team came up with the idea for Zillow and the unforgettable “Zestimate” feature. Prior to Zillow, Spencer had been the founder of Hotwire, which sold to Expedia for $685 million. Currently, Spencer is an active angel investor in more than 100 companies and is incubating several more through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny. He serves as executive chair of dot.LA, a news site covering the Los Angeles tech scene and he is co-founder and board chair of Pacaso, the company pioneering a new way to own a second home. In our conversation today, we explore insights and themes such as the art of a killer feature, like the Zestimate, managing team morale and execution amidst a macroeconomic downturn, and why the future of real estate is fractional.  For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 5:05 - Where did Spencer grow up and how did that change his view of the world?6:33 - Did Spencer always want to be a founder?7:38 - What was the public opinion of the internet when Spencer was at Harvard? 11:23 - What did Spencer learn about being an entrepreneur from his experience at Harvard?13:23 - What was the aha moment that sparked the launch of Zillow?15:51 - How did Spencer and the team hone in on the specific product feature for Zillow?19:04 - Did Big Data play any role in the start of Zillow? What was the data stack at the time?21:15 - Who was the first external investor to say yes to investing in Zillow?21:53 - What is the best case board dynamic?26:04 - How did Spencer balance internal and external stakeholder management through his founding journey?29:52 - What advice would Spencer give to entrepreneurs navigating “the early stages of our recession?”31:49 - What is Spencer hoping to accomplish with Pacaso and “fractional ownership” of property?34:08 - What is the user journey of purchasing a Pacaso home? 35:09 - What is one sector that Spencer believes is undervalued at the moment?35:33 - Who is a woman that has had a profound impact on Spencer and his career? WX Productions

In our final episode of season 6 of The Room Podcast, we close out with another incredible guest, Anvisha Pai, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Dover. Dover is a modernized recruiting platform that adapts to your business's needs to connect you with people that you would want to meet and that would want to meet you. In this episode, we and Anvisha discuss her journey as a multi-time founder growing up in Mumbai as the daughter of two doctors. Plus, Anvisha shares recruiting and hiring advice for start-ups and her thoughts on the future of work and hiring automation. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 3:40 - Where did Anvisha grow up and how did that shape her view of the world? 4:50 - Did Anvisha always think she was going to become a founder? 6:35 - How was Anvisha’s training as an engineer helpful from a product perspective?9:33 - How did Anvisha go from Product Manager at Dropbox to a multi-time founder?12:28 - What were Anvisha’s takeaways from her experience at the Y Combinator?14:23 - How does Dover automate the initial candidate sourcing? 18:19 - How was Dover's fundraising journey, how did that experience impact the team and what were some lessons learned along the way?22:05 - How has a content marketing approach contributed to the growth of the customer base for Dover?23:53 - How does Dover think about training data sets without creating a potential bias that can be embedded in the data?25:59 - What positive and negatives come from scaling up from a leadership perspective? 28:40 - What is Anvisha’s perspective on the future of recruiting, given the context of the last two years? 30:21 - What is Anvisha excited about in Dover's near future? 31:55 - What's next for Anvisha?32:55 - Who is a woman in Anvisha’s life that had a profound impact on her and her career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

In this special episode of The Room Podcast, we get to listen LIVE as Madison interviews David Yuan, long-time investor and more recently, Founder and General Partner of Tidemark Capital. Tidemark is a venture capital firm built to serve category-leading technology companies as they succeed and scale. In this episode, Dave details how he went from investor to founder and is now a fund founder with Tidemark. Plus, we discuss focused investment themes, the people and processes needed to build a successful firm, and the future of fund transformation. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 9:42 - Live Interview Begins9:54 - Dave Introduction12:25 - How was Dave’s early journey as a founder?14:17 - How important is a founder's resume when selling themselves to investors?16:02 - How does Dave think about pitching investment theses to LPs?18:17 - When starting Tidemark, who did Dave go to for help?19:40 - What is one thing Dave wished he knew starting the 2021 year?23:04 - How does Dave think the LP market will change over the next 5 years?26:21 - Who is a woman in Dave’s life that has had a profound impact on him and his career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

We are joined this week by Andrew Savage, Founder & CEO of Suma Brands, a commerce platform focused on developing marketplace brands, specifically on Amazon. Andrew is using his experience from helping establish early E-Commerce for Target and Amazon to guide other growing retailers to high-level success. Andrew and Suma Brands will “find, acquire, and help brands realize their potential.” In this episode, we chat about what is an “aggregator” in the sense of online retail and Andrew’s quintessential blend of focuses that most companies must adhere to; retail, tech, and content. Plus, Andrew shares his thoughts on the evolution of E-Commerce from its origin to now, and even some of his future predictions. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 3:48 - Where did Andrew grow up and how did that shape his view of the world?6:24 - Did Andrew always think he was going to be a founder?7:28 - What was Andrew’s early career path like while focusing on E-Commerce?10:52 - What were some “aha” moments while establishing early E-Commerce for Amazon and Target?13:06 - How has Andrew's experience been, being a part of the Amazon ecosystem?14:48 - What is Suma Brands and when did Andrew realize he wanted to found the company?18:31 - What inspired the name of Suma Brands?18:38 - What does it mean to be an aggregator, and does the term apply to Andrew’s business model for Suma?20:43 - What separates Suma from its competition?23:59 - Who was the first investor of Suma Brands and what was that experience like?26:03 - What things are Suma Brands looking for when considering acquiring a retailer?28:41 - Is Suma Brands focused on retail, tech, or something else?30:46 - What trends is Andrew seeing in the E-Commerce ecosystem that will continue to gain traction over the next few years?32:01 - What’s next for Andrew personally?32:51 - Who is a woman in Andrew’s life that impacted him and his career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

S6E5: Lisa Bubbers, Co-Founder of Studs, is Bringing the Ear-Piercing Industry into the Modern Era with Integrated Piercing and Shopping Experiences Our season continues with Lisa Bubbers, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Studs, the modern platform for ear-piercing and earrings. Studs is all about safe and accessible ear-piercing for all people. Plus they have an easy-to-use, refreshingly branded e-commerce website with every earring fashion choice available. In this episode, Lisa talks to us about what “Earscaping” means to them, as well as what it’s like building a business with a complementary co-founder and the future of the modern shopping mall. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 4:47 - Where did Lisa grow up and how did that shape her view of the world? 5:43 - Did Lisa always think she was going to become a founder? 6:51 - How did Lisa’s degree in Visual Studies from UPenn translate into her early work experience? 8:52 - What lessons did Lisa learn around the intersection of the digital and physical while working at Jonathan Adler and home Polish?11:11 - What does the term “Earscape” mean to Lisa and Studs?14:00 - How did Lisa meet her partner, Anna, and what got them started on the founding journey together?15:27 - What advice would Lisa have for new founders looking for co-founders?16:53 - Who was the first person to say yes to investing in Lisa and Studs?17:48 - What was Lisa’s first piercing experience like?19:07 - How is Studs thinking about the future of omnichannel retail?20:18 - How did the pandemic affect Studs business?21:46 - What is the feeling that a customer gets when walking into a Studs store?23:10 - What does Lisa think the modern mall will look like in five years?25:05 - What are some of the tools in Studs’ D to C tech stack?26:29 - Has Studs considered a subscription model? Why or why not?27:27 - What’s next for Studs?29:09 - What’s next for Lisa?30:18 - Who is a woman in Lisa’s life that has had a profound impact on her and her career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

Season 6 of The Room returns with Julie Bornstein, Founder and CEO of THE YES, a personalized web-based fashion retailer that works with hundreds of brands, large and small. Julie describes what she learned from her time at Nordstrom, Sephora, and Stitch Fix and how she was able to use those experiences to create THE YES. Julie gives advice to new founders and the best first steps to take to raise capital from investors. Julie also walks us through THE YES’s algorithm and how they continue to provide an accurate and personalized selection for each user, as well as future goals for the company. Plus, she shares her insight on the future of online retail and Web3/ e-commerce 3 in general. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 3:58 - What was investment banking like when Julie was in college?6:31 - What were some of the innovations that Julie brought to Sephora to make them the cutting edge brand they are today? 13:10 - How did Julie end up working with Stitch Fix?16:35 - What was it like taking a company public after building it for over five years?18:29 - What led to Julie founding THE YES?22:30 - What does THE YES do?24:00 - Who were the early partners that said yes to working with THE YES?29:52 - What advice does Julie have for new founders?29:47 - What goals did Julie set for THE YES early on, and how did she carry out her vision?32:21 - How far are consumers from a fully personalized shopping experience?26:48 - How does THE YES’s algorithm learn from picky users and continue to provide an accurate personalized selection?36:25 - Who was the first brand to say yes to joining THE YES’s collection?38:18 - What was a time when things didn’t go to plan while starting THE YES?41:59 - What does Julie believe is the future of e-commerce? 43:44 - What’s next for Julie?44:47 - Who is a woman in Julie’s life that had a profound impact on her and her career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

Thank you for joining us for Season 6 of The Room Podcast! We are starting strong with our first guest, Shuo Wang. Her company Deel was evaluated at over $5 billion last year from their revolutionary work in remote work and international payrolling.  Shuo joins us to talk about her experience at the Y Combinator and the impact it had on her work with Deel. Subjects continue with how the pandemic was a catalyst for the growth of Deel and what metrics Deel uses to track that success. Plus, we ask Shuo about her strategies for competitively innovating and expanding Deel. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.  4:12 - Where did Shuo grow up and how has that shaped her worldview?7:01 - How did a Mechanical Engineering degree translate into founding?8:21 - What encouraged Shuo and her co-founder to start thinking about global hiring? 10:40 - How was Shuo’s experience at the Y Combinator and what was the MMVP of the Deel product?12:07 - What country first started using Deel’s services?12:45 - What is the core product of Deel?15:35 - Who was the first to say yes and invest in Deel?16:20 - How would Shuo define her role as co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer?17:15 - What was Shou’s strategy for competitively innovating Deel?18:52 - What tips does Shuo have for founders who think they over perfectionists?20:24 - What metric does Deel mainly use to track revenue?21:25 - How did the pandemic affect the growth of Deel?22:32 - When was a moment things didn’t go as planned in the Deel story?24:45 - How does Deel plan for expansion?24:53 - What does Shuo think the future of hiring looks like?26:57 - What can look forward to for Deel?27:59 - What is coming up for Shuo personally?30:06 - Who is a woman in Shuo’s life that impacted her and her career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions

Season 2 of Movers & Shakers ends with another incredible guest, Founder and CEO of Meet Cute, Naomi Shah. Meet Cute is a “rom-com incubator.” Audio, written video, short-form video, long-form video, etc. Meet Cute produces them all. Naomi tells us what inspired the idea for Meet Cute and what it was like for her to raise funding at the start of her founding journey. Naomi also speaks on balancing inspiring other underrepresented founders while not being stuck in the box of a “female founder.” Other themes discussed in this episode include turning an investment thesis into a company, the “girl boss” trope and what it means for founders, and the future of the romance genre. Let’s open the door.  Watch Extracurricular Here! For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.  0:05 - Where did Naomi grow up and how did that impact her view of the world? 2:34 - Did Naomi always think she was going to be a founder?4:10 - How did a mechanical engineering degree specifically translate into Naomi’s work?7:50 - What was the initial aha moment for Meet Cute?11:37 - In a few words, what is Meet Cute?12:47 - What is Naomi’s favorite Meet Cute series that they’ve made?14:43 - How was the process of getting the first funding for Meet Cute, and what did Naomi learn?17:49 - What advice does Naomi have for new founders?22:00 - How does Naomi balance paving a wave for underrepresented entrepreneurs, while also removing the stigma of being a “female founder?”27:09 - How do we appropriately help make things more equal for underrepresented founders?29:49 - What is Naomi’s favorite rom-com moment? 32:46 - How has a data-driven approach to storytelling helped unlock unexpected insights on consumers?37:09 - What does the Netflix stock drop say about the volatility of the entertainment market?40:19 - What's next for Naomi and her team at Meet Cute? 42:31 - Who is a woman in Naomi’s life that has had a profound impact on her and her career? The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. WX Productions