Hacker Practice: Growth, Systems, And Risk For Startups And Smb

Listen to this episode on iTunes today! “When asking for help, appeal to self interest over mercy or gratitude” I met Chris Schelzi in early 2015. He was working at Black Rock at the time. Then we poached him to work with us on a startup. Chris helped that startup raise more than a quarter of a million dollars in a crowdfunding campaign. Now, he's working at AppSumo, bringing you great deals on cool tools for your company. In our conversation, Chris and I dive deep into: Coffee Hedonism Diet and Exercise Ideas for the next great health tech startup How AppSumo is empowering entrepreneurs Please enjoy this episode of Hacker Practice with my good friend Chris Schelzi Notes [02:00] French Press vs Chemex French Press = Full immersion, full body Chemex filters do a lot of heavy lifting [06:00] Justus's favorite cup of coffee French Press + Heavy Cream @ 4 AM Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony [07:20] BOOKS How books and can be an indulgence Owning books vs going to the library Aristotle's Golden Mean Plutarch's

You know those people that everybody seems to like? They have charisma. They're affable. Like Jeff Daniels on the Newsroom. That's Matt Javitch. Matt has been taking a barbell-approach to investing in Boston real estate and startups. He's my go-to resource for investment advice because, unlike some advisors who try to sell me their advice, he makes a living off his investment thesis. Also, he's never tried to sell me a thing. I invited Matt on the show to give me a deep dive into real estate investing fundamentals, quitting corporate life for startup investing and more. We talk about The networking scene in Boston How to quit your job and start a business The real estate investment market How real estate investing is different and complementary to startup investing How to get started in real estate investing How to be successful in real estate investing Pleas enjoy this episode of Hacker Practice with Matt Javitch: Notes [00:00] How Justus and Matt met [01:00] Networking in Boston Events are becoming more

Sometimes you start a conversation with one intention, and digress into something completely different. This happened to me recently, in a conversation with an old friend and mentor, Johnny Boursiquot. Johnny and I were supposed to do a deep dive into Go Lang and Ruby in this hour long conversation. Instead we spent half an hour talking about Johnny's experience building a technology agency from scratch. Then we got around to talking tech XD. Johnny is well-known as one of the pillars of BostonRB. He also helped to organize the Boston GoLang meetup before moving to Maryland where he founded Baltimore's GoLang Meetup. He was listed on New Relic's list of 18 Go Experts to Follow Online.  In the episode we talk about: Johnny’s lessons learned from founding and building a tech agency, lots of juicy business advice for consulting companies and agencies in the first half of this talk The relative pros and cons of using ruby vs go in different domains How to get started using a new language A quick primer in s

Do you know somebody who loves to argue? I'm one of those people. So is Julia Kelly. We're great together. Julia is the most renowned caricature artist west of the Mississippi. She built her business from scratch and is currently starting business #2. I guess I caught her at a good time. When I asked her to do an interview with me. She made an interesting request: "Let's wing it!" She's been on some pretty awesome podcasts including: Entrepreneur on Fire, Double your Freelancing, and Afford Anything. She says: the less scripted the show, the more fun the interview. My old college buddies would agree: Justus loves "doing it live". So I agreed to do the episode with ZERO PREPARATION. Typically I prepare for interviews with rigorous research and outline a list of topics to talk about. In this case I did no such thing. Shoot, I didn't even take notes until after we recorded the conversation. The result was a fascinating conversations that covers art, business and everything in between. Enjoy :D [00:00] This is a

Building products from scratch is hard. Building a business is at least as difficult. A lot of young founders and entrepreneurs lose their minds trying to grapple with the interwoven complexities of these disciplines. Chris Michaud has figured them both out. Chris is a rising phenom in the world of industrial design and manufacturing. In 2015 he left a full-time gig and started First Summit Design, a product consulting group with a focus on industrial design for cool products. He's since become involved with a number of other design-focused companies that we discuss in some depth. We had a great conversation about hardware design and manufacturing, serial entrepreneurship and work/life balance.  I hope you enjoy this episode of Hacker Practice with Chris Michaud Notes [01:30] Justus and Chris met when they came together to work on an IoT project for a somewhat obscure sport. [04:30] What is industrial design? [06:15] Why Chris focuses on the ideas behind design rather than influential design figures. [07:30]

Peter Dunbar is a master conversationalist. I’ve seen him strike up engaging discussions with everyone from valets to Fortune 500 CEOs. That alone would make him impressive, but our guest today is also a hard-core hacker. I first knew him as the head of hardware at a start-up we both worked at. He graduated high school at 16 to pursue a life of engineering and entrepreneurship. His hacking experience is extremely diverse. Links: known.creative Core dna Reach out to Peter: Email: peter@knowncreative.co Cell: +1 (207) 649-5037 – only if you want to have a conversation! Notes [3.30] Peter describes how he has been able to get work through the art of conversation (without presenting a resume) Peter uses conversation as a problem solving tool to “hack” an outcome or a goal [4.45] What hacking means to Peter Hacking is a “lifestyle” [9.30] Peter describes how an unforgettable conversation with his thesis advisor changed the course of his career [11.15] Peter describes the relationship between software and hard

Naf Visser is the CEO of Humans Working, an executive coaching firm that I worked with last year when I was managing the innovation department at Boston’s fastest growing tech agency and trying to get a nut butter company off the ground at the same time. He helped me manage that non-trivial workload through a mindfulness practice that I call the Art of No Thought. He’s also the founder of the Holocaust Kindness Project which we’ll talk about. I’m so glad to welcome one of my closest friends to the show: Naphtali Visser, but we call him Naf. LINKS: Humans Working www.peacepodcast.com Holocaust Kindness Project Jayson Gaignard’s Mastermind Dinners Loyal Nine Restaurant Humus Bar Mara Gleason FIND: naf@humansworking.co [3.00] Why reading Jayson Gaignard’s Mastermind Dinners spurred Naf started inviting people for dinners. Naf talks about why it’s so important to practise kindness [4.40] How to practise kindness without expecting anything in return [6.30] Naf discusses meeting Justus at Loyal Nine Restaurant [

David Wang is a genius-level engineer and computer scientist. He got a PhD at MIT focusing on planning for autonomous systems. He also holds degrees in techniques for improving software reliability, Aeronautics & Astronautics, Electrical Engineering, & Computer Science from MIT. His work experience includes time at JPL, Draper Labs, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, and DARPA. At MIT, he helped teach a variety of courses including one in Principles of Autonomy and Decision Making. . Since graduating, he’s helped found a school in Boston that has no courses, no subjects, no classes, and no grades. In other words, he’s in the process of redefining education as we know it. David is an intellectual powerhouse and also, a genuinely good guy. Reach out to David at www.nuvustudio.com Enjoy episode 7 of Hacker Practice with David Wang: [2.45] David explains how we have come out of “Artificial Intelligence Winter” and why AI is about to take off [5.10] AI ethics and morality and the end game [5.45

Diana Yuan is helping to lead the AI revolution. She is the COO of Boston’s scrappiest Machine Learning startup. Her, and her team of Olin Engineering dropouts, are democratizing machine learning tools for hackers all round the world. Startup founders have an earned reputation for nonsensical over-confidence. Often, they're impossible to spend time with socially due to a complete lack of self-awareness and social graces. Diana is not one of those people. As far as early-stage executives go, Diana has more self-awareness than most entrepreneurs twice her age. She's bright and cheerful and a joy to be around. Having her on the show was a no-brainer for me. This conversation was a lot of fun for me to produce. Thanks Diana :D. This is the most important episode of Hacker Practice for aspiring non-technical startup founders. Diana Yuan's role in the Indico origin story is instructive for any MBA-type/non-technical person looking for a technical partner. I have a feeling they'll be telling her story in Babson busi

Andrew Dodson is one of the smartest hackers I know. Our conversations typically happen over coffee and Go (the ancient board game). We talk about physics and simulation theory. In fact, he once loaned me Simulation by Jean Baudrillard and I never returned it (sorry!). In episode 5 of Hacker Practice, I get the real scoop from Andrew. I am deeply interested in sustainable technology. At the moment of writing I live on a small organic farm. My hands are literally dirty from playing in the greenhouse. No lie. That's why I spent most of this episode talking with Andrew about small-scale nuclear power. How can we do this on a farm or even neighborhood scale? Government regulation be damned! Learn the basics of nuclear power and more in today's episode of Hacker Practice. [2:45] Extreme Laser Tag - The greatest idea ever. Graphene Photodiodes TENS Units Extreme laser tag at low-orbit [6:45] A welcome interruption from Dodson’s colleague, Matthias the super genius. Postdoc gerbils A brief peek inside a stealth n

I met Nari Savanorke-Joyce while living with 20 other people in a double-wide row home in Boston's most elite neighborhood. She had just graduated from Wellesley College (Hilary Clinton's Alma Mater) and was getting started in entry-level corporate America.  Within a year she had become one of her company's most valuable data scientists.  Nari and I used to go sailing on the Charles River. We'd talk about economics, education, and the future of technology. Those conversations were fascinating to be a part of, so I thought: "Why not bring the genius of Nari on the show?" As a professional, Nari takes cutting edge predictive models from the dusty shelves of academia and puts them to work on important business cases. She's a technical expert in data science but more than that, she's a chameleon who deftly maneuvers the social and political conditions of whatever situation she's in. Our conversation in episode 4 of Hacker Practice takes place on Skype, with Nari calling in from a poppin' lounge in Stockholm. If y

Stan Dutton overseeing a small group class at his old gym in Chinatown, Boston, MA. Stan Dutton is the co-owner of UpLifted Inc. in Boston. He was one of the top 20 165-pound powerlifters in the United States in 2014. He completed 300 hours of hands-on training at the American Academy of Personal Training and earned his Training for Warriors Level 2 certification. He is a second degree black belt in Taekwondo. I met Stan Dutton while recording my boss doing squats at his gym. We immediately hit it off. Two young college dropouts trying to make it as entrepreneurs in the city of higher education (Boston). What's not to like? Stan and his partner Nathan were running a Training for Warriors franchise location when I met them. Stan impressed me with world records in power lifting and constant enthusiasm for life and business. Plus, he's a genuinely nice guy. (Nathan is also impressive, I mean, the dude's biceps are enormous.) Now, Stan is undergoing a totally new transformation. It's an exciting time to be a

If you’ve ever heard the words “Big Data” and wondered what exactly that means, this is the episode for you. Jesse Anderson is the person Fortune 100’s go to when they realize they are ill-equipped to handle the challenges of big data. He is a totally self-taught genius who is currently defining a new field of computer science call Data Engineering. His insights into the future of information technology and data were fascinating to explore. We also discuss his approach to learning and parenting and teaching creativity. Here are the notes from my talk with Jesse Anderson: [2.00] Why we are motivated better by negative feedback than positive feedback Fear of loss is a great motivator [5.00] Jesse’s general thesis of creativity - it is a muscle that needs to be exercised [8.30] At its core, entrepreneurship is ideas but it doesn’t have to be creating something “new” Ideate around an existing solution to a problem and create a better product within an existing category [10.40] Jesse discusses self education and p