Episodes

  • How to Achieve Hospitality at Scale with Noah Glass of Olo

    How to Achieve Hospitality at Scale with Noah Glass of Olo
    Jul 24 2024
    What if restaurants were empowered to deliver a personalized experience each time a guest walks through the door? That’s the idea that underpins Olo, a leading open SaaS platform powering over 700 restaurant brands. Noah Glass founded Olo in 2005, drawing on his experience working from the ground up as a restaurant server, cashier, and delivery driver. Today, Olo is a publicly listed company empowering hospitality at scale. Noah shares how he convinced skeptical restaurant vets and customers that online ordering was the beginning of the future for restaurant tech, why he believes going public was the right idea for his business, and how he made the decision to drop out of HBS to pursue building Olo.
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    35 mins
  • How to Strengthen your Mental Armor with Lindsey Vonn

    How to Strengthen your Mental Armor with Lindsey Vonn
    Jul 17 2024
    Growing up, Lindsey Vonn’s parents instilled two important lessons: her mom taught her the importance of finding positivity in every situation, and her dad taught her that any ambition is achievable with a clear plan and dedication. So, at the age of 9, she confidently stated her goal to become the greatest ski racer of all time. Her dad helped her write a 10-year plan to make it to the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Today, she is one of the most decorated American ski racers in history and was the first American woman to win a gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Beyond ski racing, Lindsey is a NYT bestselling author, the founder of the Lindsey Vonn Foundation—a nonprofit championing girls through scholarships, education, and athletics—and the creative force behind Apres Productions. Lindsey’s career is a powerful lesson in a differentiated kind of entrepreneurship—one defined by grit, determination, and above all else, consistent work ethic. Lindsey shares how mental toughness is the bedrock of her success, why she views partnerships through a long term lens, and how growing up in a family of seven made her a hard worker at a young age.
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    32 mins
  • How to Capitalize on Information Asymmetry with Andrew Lacy of Prenuvo

    How to Capitalize on Information Asymmetry with Andrew Lacy of Prenuvo
    Jul 10 2024
    Andrew Lacy first encountered whole-body imaging as a patient. In just one hour, he learned more about his health than the American healthcare system had taught him in his entire life. He wondered to himself: why isn’t this technology accessible for everyone everywhere? So he started Prenuvo, the company pioneering proactive whole-body imaging for the early detection of cancer and other diseases—with one 60-minute exam. Prenuvo leverages cutting-edge MRI hardware and software, advanced AI research, and the world's largest database of whole-body imaging to empower patients to proactively manage their health. Andrew shares why information asymmetry amongst physicians was the tipping point that convinced him to start his third entrepreneurial endeavor, how he approached customer acquisition in an entirely new healthcare category, and why he believes humility is a critical quality for repeat entrepreneurs.
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    32 mins
  • Flashback: How to Lean Into the Impossible with David Rogier of MasterClass

    Flashback: How to Lean Into the Impossible with David Rogier of MasterClass
    Jul 3 2024
    Growing up, David's grandmother instilled an important lesson: that the only thing someone can't take away from you is your education. So when a mentor of David's offered to back him as an entrepreneur, he decided to bring the joy back to education and build a school that everyone would want to attend. In 2015, he launched MasterClass, which now provides classes from 100+ of the world’s best practitioners (from Serena Williams to Martin Scorsese). MasterClass has grown into one of the largest online learning platforms in the world and was most recently valued at nearly $3 billion dollars. David shares why a childhood stutter impacted his entrepreneurial ambitions, why starting with the best teachers was critical to his business strategy, and the importance of getting two opinions (and no more) when making a hard decision. Orignal Air Date: 09-22-2021
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    28 mins
  • Flashback: How to Adopt a Learner’s Mindset with Rachel Carlson of Guild Education

    Flashback: How to Adopt a Learner’s Mindset with Rachel Carlson of Guild Education
    Jun 26 2024
    What if workers could acquire new skills and training, without taking on debt? That’s the value Guild Education strives to provide. Guild Education unlocks opportunities for America’s workforce through education and upskilling and counts Fortune 500 companies (such as Chipotle, Disney, Walmart, and Taco Bell) among its partners. Since founding Guild in 2015, Rachel has scaled the business to reach working learners in all 50 states and has helped prevent over half a billion dollars in student debt. Rachel shares how COVID-19 has accelerated the future of work, why she decided to make Guild a Certified B Corporation instead of a nonprofit, and what she learned from working on political campaigns. Original Air Date: 07-07-2021
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    29 mins
  • Flashback: How to Craft a Viral Product, with Ivan Zhao of Notion

    Flashback: How to Craft a Viral Product, with Ivan Zhao of Notion
    Jun 19 2024
    As we all strive to increase our productivity, it's no wonder that productivity startup Notion has taken off. Since co-founder and CEO Ivan Zhao launched a prototype a few years ago, Notion has gained a cult following of over one million users. With a team of less than 30 employees, the company has already achieved a sky-high valuation of $800M. Ivan shares his approach to democratizing software, why he believes engineers are the scribes of our time, and why he moved to Kyoto to reboot the company in its earliest days. Make sure to follow Ivan on social at @notionhq and @ivanhzhao. Orignal Air Date 11-20-19
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    37 mins
  • Flashback: How to Put Kindness First with Sarah Friar of Nextdoor

    Flashback: How to Put Kindness First with Sarah Friar of Nextdoor
    Jun 12 2024
    Do you know your neighbors? When Nextdoor was founded in 2008, 50% of Americans knew one or none of their neighbors. Fast-forward and Nextdoor now connects 81 million neighbors across 11 countries, building both digital and real-world connections. Sarah Friar joined Nextdoor as CEO in 2018 and took the company public in 2021 under the ticker symbol KIND. Sarah shares how her childhood in Northern Ireland during The Troubles gave her a lifelong belief in the local power of community, how Nextdoor leverages AI to encourage kindness on the platform, and why one of the company's biggest moments to date was bringing together 18 million people in person around the Queen's Jubilee. Original Air Date: 6-14-23
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    33 mins
  • How to Understand your Users with Shivani Siroya of Tala

    How to Understand your Users with Shivani Siroya of Tala
    Jun 5 2024
    Shivani Siroya started Tala not because she wanted to build a company, but because one problem consumed her thoughts: 4 billion people were excluded from the traditional banking system and lacked access to essential financial tools to help them use, protect, and grow their money. After conducting over 3,500 interviews with micro-entrepreneurs globally during her time at the UN Population Fund, she witnessed firsthand the vast purchasing power overlooked by traditional financial institutions. So in 2011, she founded Tala, the first holistic financial platform designed uniquely for the global majority. Today, Tala is responsible for originating over $5 billion in credit access to a population that was previously blocked from traditional banking resources. Shivani shares how she reimagined traditional credit underwriting to serve a new population, why user experience needs to be at the heart of product development, and how Tala gained the trust of a population that was traditionally turned away.
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    33 mins