In episode 16 of the Superconnector podcast, I interviewed Aakash Shah, the Cofounder and CEO of Wyndly. Shah is a former Product Manager and Engineer at SparkGift (YC W15) and Parsley.

We cover his journey from working at a venture-backed startup to launching one of his own with his cousin, a licensed surgeon. Shah's startup helps people treat allergies by retraining their immune systems.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

00:58 The Birth of Wyndly

02:05 Navigating the Pandemic

02:43 Family Ties and Business

05:40 Y Combinator Experience

9:53 Scaling Nationwide

13:13 Fundraising Insights

18:25 Building Wyndly's Business

20:34 Challenges and Growth

28:15 Advice for Aspiring Founders

In episode 15 of the Superconnector podcast, Matt Joseph interviews Spencer Cassidy, the Cofounder and CEO of LifeLegacy. Cassidy is a Google alum who sold his first startup Balto (YC W19) to a publicly traded company.

We cover his journey from working at Google for 5 years, to the successful acquisition of his previous startup, Balto, to founding LifeLegacy, an estate planning platform inspired by personal tragedy and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

00:38 The Genesis of LifeLegacy

04:11 How LifeLegacy gets customers

05:58 Developing strategic partnerships

08:10 Why boostrapping made sense

11:07 Bootstrapping vs Venture Capital

14:48 The personal tragedy behind LifeLegacy

18:20 Raising a family as a founder

20:13 Advice for aspiring founders

22:32 Working at Google vs being a founder

23:20 Lessons from angel investing

27:51 Most rewarding part of being a founder

32:07 Sports, Startups, and the Skills That Translate

In episode 14 of the Superconnector podcast, Matt Joseph covers 10 of the most interesting startups that raised funding from VCs in the last week, focusing on startups in robotics, gaming, cleantech, alternative foods, and education.

Chapters

00:30 The Bot Company: $150m for household robots

02:47 Lucid Bots: $9m for cleaning drones

04:43 mimic: $2.5m for humanoid hands

06:26 Yellow: $5m for 3d modeling for game devs

07:28 Hysata: $111m for green hydrogen electrolyzers

9:31 Li Industries: $36m for EV battery recycling

10:32 Rainmaker: $6.3m for artificial rain clouds

12:38 Electricity Maps: $5.4m for carbon-tracking maps

15:38 Voyage Foods: $52m for allergy-safe alternative foods

17:46 Futura: $15.2m for AI private tutors