School for Startups Radio

June 19, 2024 - Möve Marketing Kaitlyn Merola and Xero SMB Accounting Ben Richmond

Kaitlyn Merola – CEO and Founder of Möve Marketing
Möve serves B2B tech startups first and foremost. Is our ICP, that iswho we go after, that is who we serve and that has always been thebackbone, staying within startups. All of our employees are fully remote.Some of the people on my team I have yet to meet in person.
Kaitlyn Merola is the CEO and Founder of Möve Marketing. She is a renowned marketing leader and expert in demand generation, customer experience optimization, and revenue growth acceleration. With over a decade of driving success through data-driven strategies, she offers a wealth of actionable insights for businesses across B2B, B2C, SaaS, and SMB markets. As a master of marketing operations, Kaitlyn seamlessly orchestrates user experience architectures, marketing automation tools, CRM systems, and multi-channel campaigns. Her extensive expertise spans lead generation, lead nurturing, content marketing, SEO, SEM/PPC, account-based marketing, social media strategies, and multimedia campaigns. Kaitlyn’s passion lies in shaping holistic marketing approaches that seamlessly align sales and marketing efforts for a consistent, exceptional customer experience.Ben Richmond – Country Manager at Xero
The biggest thing I hear is that ‘its easy to use and I actuallyknow how my business is doing, which means I’m am confident to grow.’
Ben Richmond is a Country Manager at Xero. Xero is a powerful all-in-one financial solution for your business. Because it is Cloud based, you can use Xero to work with your accountant, bookkeeper, or employees, even if you’re on opposite sides of the world. Ben Richmond started with the company in New Zealand, its home market, and came to the states to bring big power to small businesses. Ben has been recognized by CPA Practice Advisor as a “20 Under 40 Influencer” and was named Accounting Today’s “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting.”

June 17, 2024 - Student AI Shayan Khanlarbeik and Connecting Potential Pam August

Shayan Khanlarbeik – Co-Founder of Mindgrasp – AI for Students 
The most common use of the Mindgrasp platform is students using it as atutor, helping them understand a lecture. It can create analogies for youand explain things to you. One user asked the platform to explain a lectureas if it was from SpongeBob. It was incredible. Or you can generate reportsbased on Zoom meetings.
Shayan Khanlarbeik, born and raised in Maryland, stayed close to his roots and pursued the pre-dental track at the University of Maryland. During his senior year of undergraduate education and entering into his gap year, he discovered a strong passion for entrepreneurship and leadership that was facilitated by his cultural competency, ability to communicate with others and project management skills. Developing a strong understanding of machine learning through his first year as a co-founder of Mindgrasp, Khanlarbeik leads the team as COO. Mindgrasp AI, the leading artificial intelligence (AI) learning assistant for students and professionals, launched in 2021 out of the Maryland Innovation Center. Mindgrasp AI reads, listens and watches uploads to create notes, summaries, flashcards and quizzes. This model has enabled more than 500,000 registered users to save time, learn faster and improve memorization and comprehension skills. The educational technology software is trusted by students from esteemed education institutions across the U.S. as well as post-grad professionals.Pam August – Founder of Connecting Potential and Author of Potential: How to Connect What’s Already There for Exponential Impact
Breathing is the only automatic body process that is done unconsciously,but we can also do consciously.
Pam August guides organizations, teams, and leaders to unlock the potential that is already there for transformational results. She was the director of culture activation at WestJet, one of Canada’s most admired corporate cultures, where for fourteen years she was a fierce champion and developer of people and culture as a key enabler of strategic success. Today, she is a trusted partner for high-performance organizations around the world through her firm, Connecting Potential. With deep and diverse experience, she knows what it takes to uncover, align, and activate the best of what organizations already offer and what they can develop into. Pam is a sought-after speaker, facilitator, coach, and cocreator with a strong foundation of lifelong learning. She has a Bachelor of Adult Education, a Master of Arts in Leadership, and is certified as an Organization and Relationships Systems (ORSC) and brain-based coach. Pam takes pleasure in solving tricky problems, listening deeply, learning always, and laughing—a lot.

June 14, 2024 - Eating Her Baconator Alexandra Watkins and E&Y Winner Larry Gaynor

Alexandra Watkins – Famous Brand Name Creator – Named the Baconator for Wendy’s and Author of Hello, My Name Is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick
I named the Wendy’s Baconator. It is so famous that it has its own Wikipedia page,it was recently an answer on Jeopardy and it was an answer in a New York Timescrossword puzzle.
Alexandra Watkins is the leading and outspoken authority on brand names with buzz. If you have ever eaten a Wendy’s Baconator, you have literally eaten her words. For nearly 20 years, she and her naming firm, Eat My Words, have created love-at-first sight brand names for countless startups and companies including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Disney, Twitter, and Google. Her own “Name Hall of Fame” includes frozen yogurt franchise Spoon Me, the robotic vacuum Neato, and education startup Headrush. The vertical farming company she named Plenty was recently named one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential Companies. Alexandra is a former Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Author in Residence. Her breakthrough creativity book, Hello, My Name is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick, was named a Top 10 Marketing Book by Inc. Magazine and Branding Journal.Larry Gaynor – Founder & CEO @ TNG Worldwide, Amazon Top200 Beauty Reseller, Best-Selling Author of Take a Chance!: 101 Entrepreneurial Lessons for Making It Big – Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner
Unless you have the most phenomenal product, you will go broke selling through atraditional retailer. Everybody is allowed to sell on Amazon, no requirements, noapplication. Just put your product on the platform and see what happens. Do theyhave fees? Yes. Do they have policies? Yes. It is the most democratic retailer to dobusiness with. They are going to overtake Walmart as the biggest retailer next year.
Larry Gaynor is author of Take a Chance!: 101 Entrepreneurial Lessons for Making It Big. He is the founder and CEO of TNG Worldwide, the beauty-product supplier whose best-selling signature brands include ForPro Professional Collection and Ginger Lily Farms. TNG manufactures more than 1,000 products in several countries and launches between 50 and 100 new products annually. Since establishing TNG Worldwide in 1985 as a distributor of beauty products, he has shifted the company to a manufacturing role, and it is now recognized as among the top-selling names in the beauty industry. TNG manufactures in over 75 factories. Gaynor has won numerous awards, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. His business was named a Detroit Free Press Top Workplace five years in a row, from 2013 to 2017.

June 12, 2024 - Genomics Entrepreneur Stan Rose and Data Driven Entrepreneur Nikki Blacksmith

Dr. Stan Rose – Founder of Rose Ventures and Author of Can’t Tame a Mongoose: Memoir of a Genomics Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs, by nature, need to be very driven, optimistic and persistent.They also have to be very adaptable, and they have to develop certain skillswhich will enable them to respond when a challenge comes up that theywould never have expected in a world that is very complex. You shouldassume there’s lots out there you don’t understand.
Dr. Stan Rose is an MIT biologist turned life sciences executive and entrepreneur who has created and led multiple businesses in the emerging fields of DNA analysis and genomics. After several successful ventures, he was suddenly diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic disease. Some of the same technologies he had helped bring to the clinic became critical to his own survival. Following a kidney transplant, he’s continued to contribute to science and medicine. More than three decades experience working with leading scientists and clinicians to create substantial commercial value from inventions related to genome analysis. During that time commercialized life science products impacting the lives of millions, raising more than $100 million in startup and early stage funding, and leading businesses to create more than $1 billion in market value for shareholders. His firm, Rose Ventures, Inc., works with early-stage companies developing innovative, high-impact life science products and services.
Dr. Nikki Blacksmith – Founder of blackhawke.io and Author of Data-Driven Decision Making in Entrepreneurship: Tools for Maximizing Human Capital 
People are a startup’s greatest asset, but also their greatest liability.If you’re going to manage anything it needs to be with data. You needto keep track of people with data.
Dr. Nikki Blacksmith is co-founder and CEO of Blackhawke Behavior Science and an adjunct faculty member at American University in Washington, D.C. She has nearly 15 years of experience as a scientist-practitioner, focusing on psychometrics, selection, decision-making, and entrepreneurial performance. She has published over 80 conference papers, book chapters, and journal articles, and her scientific research has been featured in top-tier academic publications, including American Psychologist, the Journal of Business and Psychology, Personality and Individual Differences, and the Journal of Behavioral Decision-Making, and media outlets including New York Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, and BBC.

June 10, 2024 - Dash of Social Ashley Mason and Who* Not What Tim Spiker

Ashley Mason – Founder of Dash of Social
Ashley Mason is the founder of Dash of Social, a content marketing agency specializing in social media management, blog content, and email marketing. Working closely with their clients, Ashley and her team help small businesses and tech startups craft and execute value-driven marketing strategies designed to establish thought leadership, grow online communities, and drive brand awareness. Additionally, Ashley founded Massachusetts Business Network in 2022, which is the only statewide publication that provides free to low cost resources that support organizations with increasing their visibility and establishing thought leadership through its podcast, blog, and directory. Ashley is a graduate of Stonehill College, where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. She is a TEDx speaker, has been named a 40 Under 40 Honoree by Cape & Plymouth Business Media, and was recognized as Best Social Media Specialist by Boston Business Women. Ashley currently serves as a Board Member for the Brockton Visiting Nurse Association (BVNA), Middleboro Public Library, and South Shore Young Professionals (SSYP). When she isn’t working, you can find her running on her Peloton or curled up on the couch with a book.Tim Spiker – Founder of The Aperio and Author of The Only Leaders Worth* Following: Why Some Leaders Succeed, Others Fail, and How the Quality of Our Lives Hangs in the Balance
Tim Spiker is the insightful author of “The Only Leaders Worth* Following: Why Some Leaders Succeed, Others Fail, and How the Quality of Our Lives Hangs in the Balance.” Tim’s book stands out by challenging conventional wisdom. The Who* Not What Principle, as explained in his book, asserts that 77% of leadership effectiveness stems from who a leader is, rather than what they do. This principle transforms the way we view leadership development, urging leaders to focus on personal growth intentionally and consciously. Tim is the founder of The Aperio and the Who* Not What Principle, a profound research-based truth that has powered 15 years of leadership development success. Tim’s work includes delivering keynote talks, creating unique and customized learning experiences, and guiding long-term development journeys. Tim has worked with leadership teams in North America, Australia, and Asia.

June 7, 2024 - Irish Entrepreneur Patrick Noel Daly and Remote Worker Trust Wayne Stanley

Patrick Noel Daly – 3 Exits, Founded of PND Global Consulting and Author of Just Start Up: A Guide to Building Startups from an Entrepreneur who has learned the hard way
Patrick Noel Daly is a seasoned entrepreneur who has founded three of his own startups in IT, SaaS and medical. Patrick Noel is taking that experience to help as a business advisor, mainly focusing on business development and growing sales in various industries. He founded PND Global Consulting to help companies, businesses, and entrepreneurs to succeed. He was a winner on the Late Late Enterprise Show with a special school bag that he designed to help kids carry heave loads of books. Patrick Noel was Bank of Ireland/Shell Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Ireland in 1999. Patrick now licenses his own established products to licensees and resellers in medical care and healthcare, having invented and developed these medical innovations to provide products that are “good for people”, which he says was his primary reason for inventing the products. Previously, Patrick founded and ran EnMed Technologies Ltd. He grew the business and managed the development of an innovative product range for international medical markets and he successfully exited that business in 2011. Patrick is a volunteer mentor with iCorps which is part of the government backed National Science Foundation in the USA. He also volunteers mentor support to Princeton University and other entrepreneurship agencies around the world. Personal Profile Patrick is orginally from Cork, Ireland and has travelled the world on business and more recently he started writing while travelling globally for leisure and to help mentor entrepreneurs over the last 4 years. He has written “Just Start Up-A Guide to Building Startups” and more recently he wrote and launched his first Children’s book “A Young Hero Triceratops Named NOLY” to help encourage kids to think about entrepreneurship, resourcefulness and helping others from the earliest age. Profits go to children’s charities. As a chatty Corkman, Patrick loves to socialize and talk to as many people as possible on his travels. He loves to cook and sing (sometimes together).Wayne Stanley – Chief Inspiration Officer of Bowe Digital 
Wayne Stanley is Bowe Digital’s Chief Inspiration Officer, leading a thriving marketing agency acclaimed for website design, email marketing, and social media prowess. Under his dynamic leadership, Bowe Digital earned consecutive “Best Places to Work in Indiana” awards. In 2023, Wayne received the prestigious October Research “Exemplary Leadership Award” at the NS3 and was named “2023 Marketing Leader” by HousingWire. His influence spans the title industry, bolstered by his role as part owner of Title Success. Wayne’s background includes impactful stints in the US Senate and ALTA, affirming his status as a luminary in marketing and real estate. Bowe Digital works with businesses of all shapes and sizes on website creation, email marketing, social media, video, design, and much more. In 2023, Bowe Digital was named one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana for the second year in a row by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Wayne is also part owner of Title Success – Powered by Bowe Digital, which helps real estate title companies through the mergers and acquisitions process. He also owns Railroad Marketing, a turn-key marketing company for real estate professionals.

June 6, 2024 - Product Development Adam Judelson and Human Potential Jeff Wetzler

Adam Judelson – Founder & CEO of First Principles Catalyst
Adam is a versatile product athlete and startup executive with experiencing across an impressive breadth of industries. He was Head of Product for Palantir’s Gotham platform, and has held the VP of Product and President role on multiple occasions for venture and corporate-backed businesses. He has personally led product efforts across enterprise businesses, SaaS, consumer, and two-sided marketplaces. Adam is fascinated with products of all styles, what makes them work or fail, and approaches problems with an engineering mindset to root out constraints one by one and de-risk investments as quickly as possible. Above all else, Adam loves to generate impact and find immense value to deliver to customers experiencing complex challenges.Jeff Wetzler – Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Transcend, Human Potential & Learning Expert, Author of Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs In Leadership and Life and Former Chief Learning Officer at Teach for America
In 2015, Jeff co-founded Transcend, together with Aylon Samouha. Transcend supports communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Prior to Transcend, Jeff spent a decade in senior leadership roles at Teach For America, a national nonprofit dedicated to educational opportunities for all children. For the majority of that time, Jeff served as Chief Learning Officer and EVP of Teacher Preparation, Support, and Development, where his teams focused on optimizing the training and ongoing support of TFA’s thousands of corps members nationally. Before that, Jeff worked at Monitor Group, an international consulting firm, where he advised executives, focusing on strategy, adult learning, and organizational development. Jeff recently authored the book Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs in Leadership and Life. Jeff was a founding board member of Leadership Prep Charter Schools and has served on the boards of Uncommon Schools NYC and the National Academy of Advanced Teacher Education. Most recently, he served as board chair of New Classrooms Innovation Partners. Jeff is a Fellow in the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network as well as an Edmund Hillary Fellow. He earned a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, where his dissertation research examined how to apply design thinking to advance innovation in education systems. Jeff earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Brown University, where he co-founded and taught extensively through Providence Science Outreach, equipping university students to do hands-on STEM learning with teachers and children in local schools. During his time at Brown, Jeff also studied under Ted Sizer, whose beliefs about learning and school design profoundly shaped his worldview.Jeff lives in New York with his wife and two kids, who constantly fuel his inspiration and urgency in this work.

June 5, 2024 - Exodus Place Robb Munger and Cultural Meltdown Bill Donohue

Robb Munger – Founder of Exodus Place
Robb Munger is founder of Exodus Place and champions transitional housing for homeless men. With a background in finance, where he established a leading financial company in manufactured housing, Munger’s journey took a pivotal turn when he joined the board of Guiding Light Mission. There, he propelled a struggling rescue mission into prominence and transformed a former state corrections facility into Michigan’s largest non-governmental transitional housing, offering new beginnings to those in need. A former Army Officer, Munger’s commitment to service shines through his philanthropic work and innovative solutions in community development. His collaboration with the Salvation Army and Goodwill in a small town within American City has showcased an innovative approach to addressing homelessness, demonstrating the impactful change that results from combining compassion with action. This initiative, with Munger at the helm, has become a testament to the power of collaborative community efforts in making a tangible difference in people’s lives.Bill Donohue – CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and Author of Cultural Meltdown: The Secular Roots of Our Moral Crisis
Bill Donohue is the president and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization. The publisher of the Catholic League journal, Catalyst, he served for two decades on the board of directors of the National Association of Scholars. He writes regular columns for Newsmax.com. Bill Donohue was Honorably Discharged from the U.S. Air Force in 1970, and began his teaching career in 1973 working at St. Lucy’s School in Spanish Harlem. In 1977, he took a position as a college professor teaching at La Roche College in Pittsburgh. In 1980, Bill was awarded his Ph.D. in sociology from New York University. In 2022, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Ave Maria School of Law. Bill is the author of ten books and thousands of articles. His first book, The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union, was published in 1985. His next book, The New Freedom: Individualism and Collectivism in the Social Lives of Americans, was written while Bill was a Bradley Resident Scholar at The Heritage Foundation; it appeared in 1990. Bill’s third book, Twilight of Liberty: The Legacy of the ACLU, was published in 1994; a new afterword to this book was published in 2001. His next book, Secular Sabotage: How Liberals are Destroying Religion and Culture in America, was published in 2009. Why Catholicism Matters: How Catholic Virtues Can Reshape Society in the 21st Century was published in 2012. This was followed by The Catholic Advantage: Why Health, Happiness, and Heaven Await the Faithful; it was published in 2015. In 2016, Unmasking Mother Teresa’s Critics was published. Common Sense Catholicism: How to Resolve Our Cultural Crisis, was published in 2019. The Truth About Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and Causes was published in 2021. His latest book, War on Virtue: How the Ruling Class is Killing the American Dream was published in 2023. In 2023, Bill starred in, and was co-executive producer of, a documentary on Disney, titled, Walt’s Disenchanted Kingdom.

June 3, 2024 - App Building Jamie Thomas and Perfectionism Dr. Greg Chasson

Jamie Thomas – CEO and Co-Founder of Cognito Forms App Builder
Jamie Thomas is the CEO and co-founder of Cognito Forms, a workflow productivity platform that enables non-developers to build applications for their organizations. He is the driving force behind the company’s ascent as a leader in the online form-building industry. As a tech entrepreneur, Jamie Thomas steered the development of groundbreaking workflow and automation features that set Cognito Forms apart in the marketplace. Cognito Forms works to ensure all businesses have the resources they need to take advantage of the perks of workflow automation. As the world’s most powerful and comprehensive online form builder, Cognito Forms empowers small business owners to take control of their data and use it to craft custom solutions. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a degree in Aerospace Engineering.Dr. Greg Chasson – Speaker, Perfection and Productivity Expert, Professor and Award-Winning Author of Flawed: Why Perfectionism is a Challenge for Management
Dr. Greg Chasson Guest, PhD, ABPP, is an esteemed psychologist, board-certified cognitive- behavioral therapist, researcher, educator, and speaker. He’s an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, where he’s also the Director of Behavioral Interventions of the Obsessive-Compulsive & Related Disorders Clinic. Dr. Chasson specializes in the nature and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and related conditions (including perfectionism), high-functioning autism spectrum conditions, and anxiety disorders. He has provided cognitive-behavioral therapy for clinically severe perfectionism for nearly 20 years. As an active scholar, Dr. Chasson has authored or co-authored more than 70 scientific publications and one academic book (Hoarding Disorder: Advances in Psychotherapy – Evidence- Based Practice). He serves as the Editor of the scientific journal, the Behavior Therapist. His résumé includes the delivery of myriad national and international workshops, training courses, and presentations. He has served on the Board of Directors for a variety of professional non-profit organizations (e.g., Maryland Psychological Association), and owned and operated two mental health practices.

May 31, 2024 - The 7-Figure Life Noah St. John and Coach for CTOs & VPE Francis Lacoste Sutton 8

Noah St. John, PhD – Founder of St. John Executive Coaching and the Author of the Book Afformations®: The Miracle of Positive Self-Talk and The 7-Figure Life: How to Leverage The 4 Focus Factors for More Wealth and Happiness
So many entrepreneurs are living for their business and that is backwards.You want your business to be serving you! I want a life!
Noah St John is a communication expert, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of ten books. He is famous for inventing Afformations®, a positive self-talk tool that helps busy people remove mental barriers, build confidence, and make more money. Noah St. John, PhD is recognized as “The Mental Health Coach to the Stars.” Working with Hollywood celebrities, seven- and eight-figure company CEOs, professional athletes, top executives, and elite entrepreneurs, Noah is famous for helping his coaching clients make more in twelve weeks than they did in the previous twelve months, while winning back 1–3 hours per day and 4–8 weeks a year. Noah’s clients are the 0.1% rock stars who love to take action and get amazing results! Noah is also the only author in history to have works published by HarperCollins, Hay House, Simon & Schuster, Mindvalley, Nightingale-Conant, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher. Noah’s mission is to eliminate not-enoughness from the world and he is internationally recognized for his signature coaching services; facilitating workshops at companies and institutions across the globe; and appearing on over 1,000 media outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, The Hallmark Channel, NPR, Entrepreneur, The Jenny McCarthy Show, Selling Power and SUCCESS Magazine.Francis Lacoste – Leadership Coach for CTOs and VPEs
Soft skills are the hard skills!
Francis Lacoste is an Engineering Leadership Coach who helps CTOs and VPs of Engineering at scaling tech startups nurture amazing work cultures and high-performance teams that build products and services that delight their customers. Until early 2023, Francis was the Senior Director of Software Engineering, Culture, and Engagement at Salesforce, where he coached top engineering managers to be better leaders as they helped grow the company and build a culture of collaboration and innovation across the Salesforce Platform engineering division with 1200 people. He has spent 25+ years working from home in the open-source and cloud developer tools industry and also previously worked at Heroku and Canonical, where he built successful high-performance remote engineering teams. On the podcast, Francis would love to talk about: ● The importance of the “inner game” for CTOs and VPEs at scaling startups. ● The critical impact of culture when you’re scaling your team fast. ● Psychological safety and mutual accountability as the pillars of a high-performance team. ● Francis shares his best tips to stay effective and make an impact at every stage of being a startup CTO or VPE. To get a sense of Francis, here’s an interview he did with the CTO Craft, where he explains why even the most experienced tech leaders can benefit from a coach.