Startup Handmedowns

Anthony Frasier is a digital strategist, tech entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. A Newark, NJ native, Anthony has a long history of mentoring, advising startups & community infrastructures, to solve real problems and build solutions. Before joining Newark Venture Partners as their entrepreneur in residence, Anthony was one of the founders behind The Phat Startup. With well over a decade of experience in tech, media, speaking and coaching aspiring entrepreneurs and students from underserved groups, he has developed a thoroughly different worldview. A published author, Anthony believes that success isn’t something external, it comes from within. You can create your own luck, no matter your background or lack of experience. startuphandmedowns.com

Mckeever Conwell, 2nd, AKA Mac is a Baltimore native serial entrepreneur. He’s currently a Deal Team Coordinator at TEDCO which is an independent organization that strives to be Maryland’s lead source for entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding. Prior to joining TEDCO Mac worked with the Department of Defense where he achieved Top Secret Security Clearance. He also went on to co-found two startups going through a number of accelerators including NewME. Mac sold of those startups back in 2014. We talk about life as a programmer to life a CEO and why it’s hard to be a founder of color in tech. This is a huge topic in the industry right now and I’m so glad that we got to dive into with and get Mac’s perspective.

Alain Sylvain is the founder and CEO of Sylvain Labs, an innovation and brand design consultancy. They have offices in New York, Amsterdam and Richmond, VA. The company serves as a strategic planning resource for product developers and marketers. They have some of the biggest names as Clients including: Google, Airbnb, Spotify, AB-InBev, General Motors, Samsung, Facebook, Nike, Uniqlo, PepsiCo, Bloomberg and others. Alain is co-founder and investor of several ventures including: Master + Dynamic, a design-driven, premium audio brand. Lílo, the first-of-its-kind refrigerator-stable açai bowl, and Waynesaw, a mobile game. On the show we unpack what it takes to get branding right and he gives us a brief insight into the creative process without giving away too much. Ok, let’s jump into the action. Sponsor: DesignCrowd. A website that helps entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses outsource or ‘CROWDSOURCE’ design. Get $100 off your first project with this link designcrowd.com/hmd

Brian Berger is the founder and CEO of menswear basics brand, Mack Weldon. With over a decade of success in the digital world, Brian created Mack Weldon in 2012, a men’s specialty line consisting of underwear, socks and t-shirts with a focus on design, performance and functionality. Mack Weldon has grown to become one of the leaders within the industry. Brian served in several leadership positions within consumer internet and media companies including Comcast, WebMD and Excite@Home. Brian graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Colorado and continued his education at Columbia University where he received a Masters in Business Administration. About Mack Weldon - Mack Weldon is reinventing men's essentials with smart design, performance fabrics, and a simple customer experience. The brand's signature line of underwear, socks, t-shirts, sweats, and polo shirts are engineered to promote comfort, mobility, and performance.

Katia cofounded Birchbox in 2010, driven by a fascination with the business dynamics of the beauty industry and a mission to redefine the way people discovered and shopped for beauty online. Today she is more passionate than ever about building the beauty destination for the average woman who is not passionate about beauty. Birchbox, which is best known for its monthly subscription of personalized samples, now has more than 1 million subscribers, 4 million total customers, 800 beauty and grooming brand partners, operations in six countries and a flagship store in New York City. This episode is brought to you by DesignCrowd. DesignCrowd is a website that helps entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses outsource or ‘CROWDSOURCE’ design. DesignCrowd has over 600,000 designers from Sydney to San Francisco ready to help you with awesome creative ideas. Get the perfect custom design, every time. Get $100 off your first project with this link designcrowd.com/hmd

On this episode, Philip spoke with Charles Hudson. Charles is a serial entrepreneur and is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures. Precursor is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC. In this role, he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure. Before joining the world of venture capital Charles was a budding entrepreneur in the events industry and then the gaming industry. In this episode, they talk startups, diversity in tech and more. precursorvc.com Startuphandmedowns.com

This is Part 2 of Philip's interview with serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist Kai Bond. Kai is the lead investor at Catalyst Fund which is a seed fund based in New York City and an extension of Comcast Ventures. The second half of this interview Kai talks about his experience as a founder of color and also what founders of colors can do to increase the 1% of venture capital funding that goes to founders of color. This episode is brought to you by DesignCrowd. DesignCrowd is a website that helps entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses outsource or ‘CROWDSOURCE’ design. DesignCrowd has over 600,000 designers from Sydney to San Francisco ready to help you with awesome creative ideas. Get the perfect custom design, every time. Get $100 off your first project with this link designcrowd.com/hmd

Today Philip spoke with serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist Kai Bond. Kai is the lead investor at Catalyst Fund which is a seed fund based in New York City. Catalyst Fund is an extension of Comcast Ventures and it serves as a unique investment vehicle to elevate minority entrepreneurship by matching capital and resources with underrepresented minority entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Catalyst Fund Kai has had a truly remarkable career as an entrepreneur. He’s had some painful failures and tells Phil about his lowest point where he didn’t even have enough money for a subway ride. Kai talks about building his third startup within 60 days (Pixie Tv) which he would then go on to sell to Samsung within a year. Kai was also the General Manager of Samsung's accelerator and Hatch Labs where the dating app Tinder was incubated during his tenure as GM.

On this episode, Philip spoke with his former boss Derek Flanzraich who is the CEO and Founder of Greatist. Greatist is health and wellness media startup for millennials. Derek is the son of 2 medical doctors and he grew up on the west coast before moving to Miami at age 11. He later went on to study at Harvard University where he found his passion for media and content creation. After graduating from college he went on to work at a high flying startup which would go on to exit just after 6 months of him joining. As someone who openly admits to struggling with his weight, he decided he would start a health and wellness blog with a group of friends which wasn’t intimidating but informative where every post was backed by a scientific study. Today, Greatist has 12 million readers per month and what’s really impressive is... it’s all organic. They’ve raised $8m to date and have some rockstar investors including; Gary Vanerchuck, Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You How To Be Rich, Ann Mi

On this episode, Philip Kasumu speaks to serial entrepreneur Victor Penev. Victor founded Bulgaria's largest internet company info.bg which has been called the the Yahoo and Google of Bulgaria by Forbes which he sold to 2 of Bulgaria's largest media companies in a multi-million dollar deal. He's also co-founded 3 other companies including his current startups Edamam which is about helping people eat better by making daily food choices simple and easy. The company has set itself the ambitious goal of organizing all the food knowledge in the world! Victor has some interesting views when it comes to raising money for your startup and what you need to have figured out before you start knocking on doors.

On this episode, Philip Kasumu spoke with serial entrepreneur Brian Schechter. Brian, a former high school teacher turned successful entrepreneur loves to watch people grow whilst supporting them in their own version of self-expression. He previously co-founded and sold dating site 'HowAboutWe' and he's currently the founder and CEO of SelfMade. SelfMade’s a platform that connects members with expert and affordable professional image editors and brand strategists. Members elevate their brands on Instagram, which results in follower growth, business opportunity and increased revenue. They've raised $11m to date from top investors such as Primary VC, BoxGroup, FirstMark and many more. You can check out SelfMade by following this link http://selfmade.refr.cc/philipk

Co founder of Wework Labs and Investor. Jesse’s investment interests includes mobile, SaaS, big data, consumer and e-commerce. Prior to joining Flybridge in 2016, Jesse was an early executive at WeWork, one of the fastest growing and most valuable startups in history. He co-founded WeWork Labs in 2011, which became WeWork’s global startup incubator, and ran WeWork X, M&A, startup investments, business and digital product development as well as inside sales during his five-year tenure at the company. Prior to WeWork, Jesse was the co-founder and CEO of Backstory, a venture backed startup. Jesse began his career traveling across the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Israel and China as a network security engineer based in Philadelphia. He moved to New York City where he became the head of information technology at LivePerson in 2010.

Step by step guide to raising VC money from a VC with Sumeet Shah from Brand Foundry. Sumeet Shah is a principal at Brand Foundry VC. Brand Foundry VC have invested companies such as Warby Parker, Birchbox, Harry’s, Peloton and more. Sumeet graduated from Columbia university in 2008 with a bachelors in biomedical engineering focusing on biomechanics. He has over 6 years of experience across the startup and private equity industries, formerly running new business strategies at Gist Digital and handling business development and project work at Gotham Consulting Partners. He also assisted in the creation of XRC Labs, a consumer and retail accelerator, as the Program Manager for their inaugural class and was Head of Strategic Partnerships for their second class. In this episode Sumeet lays out the blueprint for anyone who wants to raise Venture capital or anyone who is considering a career as a venture capitalist. This was a really informative show so make sure you’ve got your note-tak

Hear the incredible journey of Andrew Weinreich with SixDegrees, the first ever social network that sold it's patent to LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Andrew Weinreich is a serial entrepreneur, social networking pioneer, and active presence in NYC’s Silicon Alley for 2 decades. To date, he’s founded 7 startups and has been awarded 2 software patents. Since 2013, he has sold 2 businesses, including Xtify to IBM, while advising 5 tech startups such as Classpass. He is currently the co-founder and Chairman of Indicative, a data analytics startup. He leads Predicting Our Future, a podcast about the next revolutions in technology.

Katia cofounded Birchbox in 2010, driven by a fascination with the business dynamics of the beauty industry and a mission to redefine the way people discovered and shopped for beauty online. Today she is more passionate than ever about building the beauty destination for the average woman who is not passionate about beauty. Birchbox, which is best known for its monthly subscription of personalized samples, now has more than 1 million subscribers, 4 million total customers, 800 beauty and grooming brand partners, operations in six countries and a flagship store in New York City. Katia holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in International Studies & Economics from Vassar College. Prior to graduating business school, she worked in structured finance and commercial real estate. She has been honored with accolades including Advertising Age Women to Watch, CEW Achiever’s Award, Fortune 40 Under 40, Inc. 30 Under 30, and WWD Digital Innovator of the Year in the Prestige Beau

On this episode, Philip interviewed Sam Parr the Founder of The Hustle and Hustle Con. Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur who’s started a range of businesses from selling whisky online, to selling hotdogs, to then starting one of the most relevant business newsletters for millennials - The Hustle. They talk about being aqui-hired for his Roommate app. Sam then talks about taking a 6 month month trip across America on his motorcycle where he was in solitude for the majority of that 6 months and what that did for him. They also talk about starting Hustle con which then led to The Hustle newsletter being created which now has 1,000,000 subscribers. Sam also explains why he doesn’t care about the website and why they’re going all in on the newsletter. They also talk about closing a crowdfunding campaign of $300k for The Hustle in less than 50 hours! Must listen!

Ian White was the CTO and Co-Founder of email service provider Sailthru. They’ve raised over $48m and now staff over 200 people in New York city. He also helped build Silicon Valley Insider which later grew to become Business insider. He’s known for building the famous slideshows feature in Business Insider articles. Ian is now the Founder of Stardog which is his consultancy business for startups. In this episode of Startup Handmedowns Philip and Ian talk about the early days of Business Insider and building Sailthru whilst still at Business Insider. They talk about product managers, CTO’s and how speaking to users was crucial in the early days and more.

Tom Bilyeu is the co-founder of 2014 Inc. 500 company Quest Nutrition — a unicorn startup valued at over $1 billion — and the co-founder and host of Impact Theory. Tom’s mission is the creation of empowering media-based IP and the acceleration of mission-based businesses. Personally driven to help people develop the skills they will need to improve themselves and the world, Tom is intent to use commerce to address the dual pandemics of physical and mental malnourishment. Tom regularly inspires audiences of entrepreneurs, change makers, and thought leaders at some of the most prestigious conferences and seminars around the world, including Abundance 360, A-fest, and Freedom Fast Lane. Tom has also been a guest on the Tony Robbins podcast and The School of Greatness podcast and has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Success, and The Huffington Post. Tom is currently on the Innovation Board of the XPRIZE Foundation.

In this episode, Rent the Runway CTO Josh Builder walks us through how the founding team launched Rent the Runway, their journey to changing the way consumers think about fashion, and all the challenges along the way.

Should you approach investors or attempt to raise money from the crowd? In this episode, we talk to JustPark's Ex-Ceo Alex Stefani about what it took to raise the largest Crowdfunding campaign of it's time, and to lead JustPark to becoming a household name. We discuss: 1. Tips and tricks to a successful crowdfunding campaign 2. How to make it easier to launch projects when starting out 3. Why focus groups are dangerous, and reliable alternatives for collecting data