School for Startups Radio

May 29, 2024 - Coach Yourself Simon T. Bailey and Shareworthy Posts Robin Landa

Simon T. Bailey – World’s Leading Expert on Brilliance and Author of Resilience@Work: How to Coach Yourself Into a Thriving Future 
AI may become faster and smarter, that’s great, but your soul and yourspirit or your differentiator, always and forever.
Simon T. Bailey is the world’s leading expert in Brilliance. Simon has ascended to extraordinary heights, recognized among Success magazine’s Top 25, alongside Brené Brown, Tony Robbins, and Oprah Winfrey, as well as being on leadersHum Top 200 Power List in 2023 and Gotham Artists Top Keynote Speakers in 2024. With the Disney Institute as his launchpad, he’s left an indelible mark on 2,400-plus organizations in 54 countries, such as American Express, Deloitte, Marriott, Visa, Stanford Health Care, and Taco Bell. Through books, speeches, and coaching, Simon captivates the lives of countless individuals around the globe, inspiring them to lead better, stay curious, and embrace a growth mindset. Prepare to be empowered and reach new heights as he propels you toward a brilliant future. Your journey to brilliance starts now.Robin Landa – Professor at Kean University and Author of Shareworthy: Advertising That Creates Powerful Connections Through Storytelling
The best brand storytelling happens when the brand is telling the storyof their customers, of their audience’s needs, their audience’s life, or theiraudience’s successes. Brands can’t appear unapproachable, they can’tappear arrogant, there has to be a we in the storytelling.
Dr. Robin Landa is a distinguished professor at Kean University and a globally recognized creativity and design expert. She has won numerous awards; the Carnegie Foundation counts her among the “Great Teachers of Our Time.” She is a best-selling author of twenty-five books, including A Career is a Promise, Graphic Design Solutions, 6th ed., Strategic Creativity: A Business Field Guide to Advertising, Branding, and Design, and The New Art of Ideas. Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, among others, have published her articles; she is a regular contributor to Inc. magazine. Robin has judged many design and advertising competitions for The One Club and HOW Design, among others. Through her teaching, writing, mentoring, and presentations, Landa has had a profound impact on thousands of careers, inspiring and educating countless creative professionals helping to shape the future of the creative industries. Columbia University Press will publish Shareworthy: Advertising that Creates Powerful Connections through Storytelling, which Robin co-authored with Greg Braun. Now, Robin is authoring a book about branding for Columbia University Press.

May 27, 2024 - StartupOS Paul Pluschkell and World Record Butterfly Event M Teresa Lawrence

Paul Pluschkell – Founder & CEO of StartupOS
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Paul Pluschkell is a proven transformational leader across a range of technologically and financially driven markets. He has been both an innovator and disruptor by combining his vision and product expertise. He is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits including MXNet, IXNet, Spigit, Global Center, and Kandy. Throughout the course of his career, Paul has built transformational companies by identifying innovative and shifting trends in technology, understanding customer unmet needs, and delivering financial performance. He has served as Chairman, CEO or President of both public and private companies. As Founder and CEO of StartupOS, Paul is responsible for setting the vision of a company and is ultimately responsible for making decisions on how the company operates and best serves its customers.M Teresa Lawrence – Butterfly Event Coordinator, International Speaker, Leadership Coach and Award-Winning Author of The Power of Leadership with M. Teresa Lawrence
It is my belief that if you enjoy what you are doing, you are going to beexcellent at it. When I speak at corporations, I ask, “Are you guys happy?”No one will speak up.
M Teresa Lawrence is an award-winning author, international speaker, and leadership coach. She is the founder and president of the Trueness Project, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering children and adults to cherish their imagination and own their power to write their narratives. As part of her mission, Teresa is donating her award-winning transformational children’s book, GLORIOUSNESS, to disadvantaged children throughout the world. She is also the co-author of The Power of Leadership, where she discusses the power of the “Leadership of Play,” a philosophy that uplifts everyone. Currently, Teresa is working on The Grand Butterfly Gathering scheduled for June 29, 2024, where her nonprofit, the Trueness Project, will host the highest number of people dressed as butterflies in history, both in person and virtually. We will set a world record, and a joyous community of changemakers will make a statement dressed as butterflies, standing for a world filled with community, creativity, and love. Teresa’s work has been featured in various publications, including the San Francisco Post, the California Observer, World Reporter, and Scholar Media Africa. As a Creative Visionary at Covered Wagon Nation, I help people realize and attain their full potential enjoyably. I apply my Leadership of Play philosophy, which is based on thinking and living outside the box, finding joy in simple acts of kindness, and believing in the power of imagination and adventure. I also leverage my skills and experience as an author, publisher, educator, and attorney to create and deliver transformational content and programs. I hold a JD from Columbia Law School and a BA from Amherst College, and I have been working with a diverse client base to start and grow thriving businesses for over 20 years. I am passionate about serving my community through volunteering and non-profit fundraising. As a Cuban immigrant, I founded The Trueness Project, a purpose-driven project that helps children own their stories and know that they are the masters of their destiny. I travel the world giving out books and speaking about the importance of teaching leadership in schools. I believe that inside each one of us is a true and genuine leader, waiting for awakening by playful adventure. On December 14, 2023, I was honored with a Doctorate in Humane Letters in Leadership Development, Justice, and Advocacy by the Open Christian University USA, in collaboration with Angaza Bible College, Kenya.

May 24, 2024 - Can Leadership Be Taught? Dr. Elias Aboujaoude and Can Golf Be Taught Online? Eric Cogorno

Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, MD, MA – Psychiatry Professor, Researcher at Stanford University and Author of A Leader’s Destiny: Why Psychology, Personality, and Character Make All the Difference
There is a leadership industrial complex that is selling us the notion that essentiallyanyone is reasonable raw material for leadership. You just have to sign on the rightexecutive coach or take the right readership course and leadership is for the taking.As a psychiatrist and mental health professional who works with personality andcharacter, I know that temperament is not something that can be easily molded. Youcan’t take someone who is in it for himself and put them through a leadership bootcamp and expect them to turn into a phenomenal leader.
Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, MD, MA is a psychiatry professor, researcher and author at Stanford University, where he directs the Anxiety Disorders Section and the OCD Clinic. Dr. Aboujaoude has conducted pioneering research on the interface between technology and psychology. His book Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the e-Personality (New York Times Editors’ Choice) sounded an early alarm in the heart of Silicon Valley about the psychological and cultural costs of runaway internet technologies. More recently, his work has explored the limits of the coaching and leadership development industry when it comes to making successful leaders, resulting in his latest book, “A Leader’s Destiny: Why Psychology, Personality and Character Make All the Difference.” On the entrepreneurial side, long before the COVID-19 pandemic reinvented mental health treatment delivery, Dr. Aboujaoude co-founded the first US-based company to offer remote video-enabled care. Dr. Aboujaoude has lectured in over 20 countries, and his work has been widely covered, including by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times, Fortune, TIME, Newsweek, NPR and CNN. We’ve been sold the concept that anyone can be taught to be a leader, primarily by a $15 billion leadership training industry. But Dr. Aboujaoude shows that leadership can’t be learned from TED Talks or via the ever-more-popular executive coaching.  Instead, leaders emerge from a combination of personal, psychological, and situational factors that vary from person to person. Personality, he illustrates, is sticky, not malleable, viciously resisting attempts at manipulating it into something it is not. And, to a large degree, great leaders arise from innate factors—temperament, talent—mixed with opportunity, timing, and circumstance. So what do we do if we don’t have what it takes – or if we don’t want to lead? Dr. Aboujaoude advocates for “a total and urgent rethinking of leadership.” “We need to question the conveyor belt system manufacturing leaders today and suggest a different way forward,” he writes. “The whole cultural narrative must change to be in sync with an inescapable reality: the world also needs followers. There is a moral imperative to end the hypocrisy and start respecting people who can be good at something other than a leadership position, and it plays out on several critical front lines, including parenting, education, and professional life…We need to start celebrating human productivity in all its forms and at all its levels, starting with the followers, without whom no successful leader has ever been possible.”Eric Cogorno – Founder of Cogorno Golf and Lessons I’ve Learned with Eric Cogorno 
You want to build something that is scalable online, that you can give to manypeople at once. My problem with golf coaching is that it is one to one, one studentpaying per hour, and then a new student. I could not scale it. My goal was monthlyrecurring revenue!
Eric Cogorno is a golf teaching professional who took his business from $80K/year teaching one-on-one lessons by the hour. He made a transition and now has a multimillion dollar golf instruction brand utilizing these same skills (and strategies)! In the process, he was able to also transform his entire lifestyle – from working on the lesson tee 7 full days a week, to having freedom to work when/where he chooses – splitting his time between Pennsylvania and Florida. While Eric Cogorno is best known for the golf instruction he provides on his YouTube channel and Instagram page, he’s actually spent nearly two decades building a reputation as a highly respected Performance Golf Coach. He is intuitively able to combine the art and science of golf to design (seemingly) simple strategies unique to each individual student that lead to significantly improved performance for golfers at all levels. In 2017 Eric took the experience he gleaned from giving more than 20,000 in-person golf lessons to YouTube. His distinct style of clear language and simplified concepts have attracted more than 200,000 followers across his channels and many millions of views from all across the globe. Looking to bring his golf instruction into the digital age, Eric launched cogornogolf.com in 2018. He’s on a mission to make world-class golf instruction available to everyone and – through the process – create the biggest and best online golf school in the world. Born and raised in the Lehigh Valley, PA, Eric was a scratch golfer by the age of 15. He golfed throughout high school and while attending Lehigh University. Eric has been featured on Forbes.com and was voted as a Golf Digest Best In State Teacher.

May 23, 2024 - Venture Mindset Ilya Strebulaev and More Sutton LLC Lessons

Dr. Ilya Strebulaev – Founder of the Venture Capital Initiative at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Author of The Venture Mindset: How to Make Smarter Bets and Achieve Extraordinary Growth
The venture capital industry was developed in the United States in the1970s. Prior to the 1970s, The U.S., in terms of its innovation and its abilityto create new, large companies, was no different from other developedcountries. But suddenly, there were hundreds and hundreds of new, largecompanies. All of them were backed by venture capital.
Stanford Professor Ilya Strebulaev, founder of the Venture Capital Initiative at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the foremost academic expert on venture capital. Dr. Ilya Strebulaev is the foremost academic expert on venture capital. He is the founder of the Venture Capital Initiative and David S. Lobel Professor of Private Equity and Professor of Finance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he teaches a popular class on venture capital. Ilya’s research has been widely published in leading academic journals and featured by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Bloomberg and the Harvard Business Review. He frequently leads executive sessions for senior business and government leaders around the world and has consulted for companies and investors on venture industry trends and corporate innovation. In 2023, he was named a Top Voice on LinkedIn. Most have likely never heard their names, but VCs are among the most innovative and influential minds in the world—behind Apple, Amazon, and other game-changing brands. So, what’s their secret, and can you apply their mindset to grow your company and career? Ilya Strebulaev has spent more than a decade researching the most influential VCs and VC-backed companies to pinpoint key factors behind their success. He interviewed and surveyed more than 1,000 VCs to uncover insight about their secret to discovering the next big thing. In THE VENTURE MINDSET, he reveals how all of us can learn from Silicon Valley innovation champions and reach new heights no matter what position or field we’re in.Garrett Sutton and Ted Sutton – Attorneys at Corporate Direct  and Experts on the Corporate Transparency Act
The Corporate Transparency Act requires that every corporation, LLC,limited partnership in the country provide sensitive information to thefederal government. They want to know all of the 25% or greater ownersand who has substantial control of the entity. This is all done in the nameof fighting money laundering and terrorism. As the Wall Street Journalsaid in an editorial, “Are the bad guys really going to report?” 32,000,000American businesses now have to comply.
Garrett Sutton has sold more than a million books to guide entrepreneurs and investors. His best sellers include Start Your Own Corporation, Loopholes of Real Estate, and Veil Not Fail. For more than 30 years, he has run his practice assisting entrepreneurs and real estate investors in protecting their assets. The companies he founded, Corporate Direct and Sutton Law Center, currently help more than 14,000 clients protect their assets and maintain their entities, especially under the new Corporate Transparency Act. Garrett also serves as a member of the elite group of “Rich Dad Advisors” for best selling author Robert Kiyosaki. A number of the books Garrett Sutton has authored are part of the best selling Rich Dad, Poor Dad wealth-building book series. Garrett is also the President of Sunn Stream, a new streaming platform focusing on kid’s financial education and adult professional development. Garrett lives in Reno, Nevada has been recognized as a Lifetime Achievement Member by America’s Top 100 Attorneys.
Ted Sutton is a licensed attorney who is the son of Garrett Sutton. Ted was born and raised in Reno, NV. He graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in Mining Engineering. During one of his summers, he spent three months working at a mine in Chile. This experience made him realize that legal matters interested him more than engineering ones. After graduating in 2018, he decided to attend law school the following year. Ted attended the University of Wyoming College of Law. In his third year, he served as the Student Director of the Business Entrepreneurship Practicum, where he helped clients form and maintain LLCs. He graduated in May 2022. Ted is now licensed to practice law in Wyoming and Nevada. Ted has been focused on making sure Corporate Direct’s clients properlyfile under the Corporate Transparency Act. Ted is also the author of “Five Tricks To Teach Your Kids About Money.”

May 22, 2024 - Social Media Marketing Sam Sherman and Sell It Kyle Scott

Sam Sherman – Co-founder of Socium Media
We always write content ourselves. We will definitely use AI for inspiration onwhat content to write about, but we do the actual generation of that content.Google has caught on. Facebook will soon start marking content that is AI generated.
Sam Sherman is the Co-Founder at Socium Media. Prior to that, they were the Founder and CEO of FWRD Digital from April 2017 to April 2019. Sam has also worked as an Account Executive and Paid Search Associate at Elite SEM and Rosetta respectively. Sherman has over 7 years of experience in the digital marketing industry. Sam specializes in paid acquisition and has managed over $40MM in media investment during their career. Sam is also well-versed in Social Media and SEM/PPC strategies. Sam Sherman holds a Bachelor of Science from Rochester Institute of Technology in New Media Marketing. Sam is certified by Microsoft as a Bing Ads Accredited Professional, and by Google as a Google Advanced AdWords Certification, Google Analytics Certified, Google Display Advertising Certified, and Google Shopping Certification. Sam is also certified by Kenshoo as a Kenshoo Search Pro, and by Marin Software as a Marin Certified Professional.Kyle Scott – Co-Founder of Sell It
Turnover in salespeople is quite high. Only 53% of sellersactually reach their quota in any given year.
Kyle Scott is President of Sell It – the business platform founded by billion-dollar real estate mogul Ryan Serhant & Scott dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and helping business owners make more money. Kyle’s a seasoned operations executive, business builder and former NBC News producer with over 15 years of experience in media. As the president of SERHANT. Ventures, he co-founded and lead a fast-growing subscription content-to-commerce business. They offer courses, membership, coaching, speaking engagements, and events to tens of thousands of aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs around the world. He’s responsible for the entire P&L and all business functions, including sales, marketing, product development, technology, fulfillment, and finance while managing a team of over 35, 40% in-person and 60% remote. Over the past five years since pitching the idea to Ryan Serhant, He’s become an expert in creating, launching, and scaling digital products and services that generate millions in revenue and impact. Prior to launching the SERHANT. Ventures business, he spent nearly 10 years as a producer and journalist at NBC News. He mastered the power of storytelling from the best in the business through evolving roles at TODAY, NBC Nightly News, NBC News Specials, and NBC News Digital. His capstone at NBC was launching and growing a new digital lifestyle vertical to over 1 million on-platform starts within its first year.

May 20, 2024 - Cash Is King Peter Kingma and Product Dev Adam Judelson

Peter Kingma – Working Capital Leader at EY-Parthenon
Peter Kingma is the Americas Working Capital Leader for EY Parthenon. Working across a variety of sectors such as automotive, aerospace, defense, healthcare, retail and consumer products, he advises business leaders on how to optimize the management of cash. His work has led to well over 25 billion dollars of value creation for his clients. Peter is a regular contributor to leading business publications and podcasts, and often speaks at industry events about his areas of expertise. His clients bring him in to lead planning sessions, consult with management teams, and present to their boards of directors. Kingma who has a degree in economics from Purdue University, lives in Chicago and Columbia, Missouri.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.

May 17, 2024 - RE Production Model Fred Wilson and Dream Machine Dane Espegard

Fred Wilson – Real Estate Sales Coach and Author of Real Estate Attraction: How To Do Business NOW in Real Estate Sales
From tennis professional to luxury travel entrepreneur, Fred ultimately rose to a rare level of success in the real estate business. Through his innovative approach, he has averaged one closed transaction a week for 30 years running. In his new book, Real Estate Attraction™, Fred shares career-shaping strategies and money-making techniques with real estate agents seeking to learn from his extensive experience and unique perspective as a longtime, top-producing sales leader. Creator of The Fred Wilson Production Model® online learning series, he has hosted his own podcast about opportunity and achievement for 20 years. His groundbreaking programs reveal a deep understanding of the natural laws and fundamental principles that govern the experience of success in life. He is a 40-year veteran of the Real Estate Industry and has very strong views on the industry. The real estate industry is set up for agents to fail – a harsh reality that veteran Fred Wilson is on a mission to change. With nearly 90% of new agents leaving the business within 5 years after going upside down financially, Wilson’s revolutionary approach in his book “Real Estate Attraction, How To Do Business NOW In Real Estate Sales” offers a lifeline. While most agents operate from a scarcity mindset, chasing limited opportunities and working towards potential future success, Wilson\’s “now model” technique teaches them how to make money today. His innovative Production Model® combines an abundance mindset with unique discovery techniques, empowering agents to identify and capitalize on opportunities they would otherwise miss. Wilson, a titan in the industry with over three decades of experience and an unmatched average of closing one transaction per week for over 30 years running, is uniquely positioned to guide agents out of the traditional “future model” that leaves them stuck in indecision and scarcity thinking. The trick is going from capacity to ability. And the reality is most real estate agents are actually doing it wrong. Wilson’s practical guidance in “Real Estate Attraction” equips agents with the tools to generate sustained prosperity in any market condition, rather than blaming external factors for their lack of success. I believe your audience would be highly interested in Fred Wilson\’s revolutionary approach to real estate sales, which tackles the industry\’s dismal statistics head-on. As an industry expert, Fred can provide insightful commentary on: The toxic scarcity mindset plaguing most real estate agents Overcoming the “future model” mentality holding agents back Transitioning to an abundance mindset to reveal hidden opportunities Practical techniques to make money immediately, not years down the line Navigating market fluctuations with his “now model” approach Please let me know if you would like to explore having Fred contribute an exclusive byline article or be interviewed as an expert source.
Dane Espegard – Author of The Dream Machine: A Leader’s Guide to Creating Teams of High Performers Who Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes
A business’s greatest opportunity is to add value to its employees’ lives.
Dane Espegard is a passionate husband and father first. Dane grew up in Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he graduated with a degree in Economics. During those college years, he stumbled upon an entry-level sales position for Vector Marketing, selling Cutco Cutlery. He worked with them for four years of college, developing his sales, management, and leadership skills. Upon graduation, Dane decided to stay with Vector Marketing as a District Manager opening his own office in Racine, Wisconsin. He moved up quickly within Vector and was promoted to Division Manager at the age of 24. He is currently responsible for Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa for Vector Marketing. He has trained thousands of sales representatives and managed over $51 Million worth of Cutco sales. He is a Hall of Fame Member of CUTCO/Vector and has been the #1 Producer in Vector Marketing. He has developed a culture centered around ‘Dreams’ that has led to consistent and explosive growth within his business.

May 16, 2024 - IBM Says We Need AI Rules Phaedra Boinodiris and LLC Basics Garrett & Ted Sutton

Phaedra Boinodiris – IBM Consulting’s Global Leader
Phaedra Boinodiris is IBM Consulting’s global leader for Trustworthy AI. She is a prolific public speaker and author of the book ‘AI for the Rest of Us’. She is on the IBM Academy of Technology’s leadership council, a Fellow of the RSA, and serves on the advisory boards of several academic institutions. She is currently pursuing a PhD in AI and Ethics thanks to the European Union. She won the United Nations Woman of Influence in STEM and Inclusivity Award in 2019, received the Social Innovator Award by IBM in 2018, received the 2014 Kenan Flagler Young Alumni Award, became a Fellow of the American Democracy Institute in 2011, and in 2007 was recognized by Women in Games International as being one of the Top 100 Women in the Games industry. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing the way businesses operate. About 50% of CEOs say they’re already integrating generative AI into their products and services. Business leaders are excited about the potential of AI, yet they are still concerned about potential risks like AI hallucinations, bias, and data security issues. Additionally, they are closely monitoring the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, calling on organizations to ensure their AI is utilized safely, transparently, and ethically. Businesses need to be confident that the AI they’re using for mission-critical decisions and outputs is trustworthy and reliable. Governing Large Language Models (LLMs) is complex, and organizations need to proactively detect and mitigate risk associated with AI to avoid reputational damage, audits, fines, and litigation. Consumers will be directly impacted by the decisions that businesses make in this moment. Phaedra discusses the key challenges she’s hearing from global businesses and governments regarding AI governance and ethics. She can also discuss practical ways organizations can set up guardrails around generative AI to mitigate risks and ensure AI solutions integrate diverse human perspectives and experiences.Garrett Sutton and Ted Sutton – Attorneys at Corporate Direct  and Experts on the Corporate Transparency Act
The Corporate Transparency Act requires that every corporation, LLC,limited partnership in the country provide sensitive information to thefederal government. They want to know all of the 25% or greater ownersand who has substantial control of the entity. This is all done in the nameof fighting money laundering and terrorism. As the Wall Street Journalsaid in an editorial, “Are the bad guys really going to report?” 32,000,000American businesses now have to comply.
Garrett Sutton has sold more than a million books to guide entrepreneurs and investors. His best sellers include Start Your Own Corporation, Loopholes of Real Estate, and Veil Not Fail. For more than 30 years, he has run his practice assisting entrepreneurs and real estate investors in protecting their assets. The companies he founded, Corporate Direct and Sutton Law Center, currently help more than 14,000 clients protect their assets and maintain their entities, especially under the new Corporate Transparency Act. Garrett also serves as a member of the elite group of “Rich Dad Advisors” for best selling author Robert Kiyosaki. A number of the books Garrett Sutton has authored are part of the best selling Rich Dad, Poor Dad wealth-building book series. Garrett is also the President of Sunn Stream, a new streaming platform focusing on kid’s financial education and adult professional development. Garrett lives in Reno, Nevada has been recognized as a Lifetime Achievement Member by America’s Top 100 Attorneys.
Ted Sutton is a licensed attorney who is the son of Garrett Sutton. Ted was born and raised in Reno, NV. He graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in Mining Engineering. During one of his summers, he spent three months working at a mine in Chile. This experience made him realize that legal matters interested him more than engineering ones. After graduating in 2018, he decided to attend law school the following year. Ted attended the University of Wyoming College of Law. In his third year, he served as the Student Director of the Business Entrepreneurship Practicum, where he helped clients form and maintain LLCs. He graduated in May 2022. Ted is now licensed to practice law in Wyoming and Nevada. Ted has been focused on making sure Corporate Direct’s clients properlyfile under the Corporate Transparency Act. Ted is also the author of “Five Tricks To Teach Your Kids About

May 15, 2024 - Gray Dot SEO Tory Gray and VC Analysis Benjamin Shestakofsky

Tory Gray – Founder of The Gray Dot Company – SEO Success
We focus on trying to be transparent with our clientsbecause SEO is not for everyone.
Tory Gray is a highly experienced digital marketing consultant and the Founder of The Gray Dot Company. With more than 15 years of experience in SEO and growth strategy, Tory has helped numerous businesses achieve their goals through digital strategy, with a focus on technical and strategic SEO. Tory’s unique perspective on problem-solving and business growth opportunities comes from her background in both digital agencies and in-house B2C startup environments, in both marketing and product roles. Her approach to SEO strategy is cross-functional, coordinating with product, marketing, and engineering teams to achieve marketing success. As a quoted SEO expert on various media outlets and a senior SEO advisor for several digital agencies, Tory is a respected figure in the industry. Additionally, she is a passionate mentor for WTSEO, a support network aimed at empowering women in the Technical SEO field.Dr. Benjamin Shestakofsky – Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and Author of Behind the Startup: How Venture Capital Shapes Work, Innovation, and Inequality
We all know that for VC’s, the system that is in place, is ultimately designedto maximize the returns to themselves and their limited partners. And so, itis in their interests to say whatever they need to say to get you to take themoney. It’s in their interest, once they’ve done that, to move things alongthe way things will maximize their own benefit. The system is set up thisway, and that’s the reason we need to think about other ways to do things.
As an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Benjamin Shestakofsky is a distinguished faculty affiliate of AI at Wharton and the Center on Digital Culture and Society. His research focuses on the intricate dynamics between work, technology, organizations, and political economy in the era of AI. Dr. Shestakofsky’s scholarly pursuits and teaching interests encompass a wide array of subjects, including the sociology of work, technology and society, economic sociology, qualitative research methods, organizations, and sociological theory. His latest book, “Behind the Startup: How Venture Capital Shapes Work, Innovation, and Inequality,” offers a comprehensive examination of the role of financiers in shaping the trajectory of technological progress. Drawing upon 19 months of intensive participant-observation research, Dr. Shestakofsky delves into how investors’ pursuit of rapid growth creates organizational challenges, often mitigated by the integration of sophisticated technology with low-wage labor. The book elucidates how the burdens imposed on startups by venture capital, alongside the benefits and costs of the “move fast and break things” ethos, are distributed unevenly across a company’s workforce and clientele. Through its focus on the financialization of innovation, “Behind the Startup” elucidates how the profits generated by tech startups primarily benefit a select group of elite investors and entrepreneurs. Dr. Shestakofsky advocates for a paradigm shift towards reforming the financial infrastructure to foster innovation that serves the broader population, rather than solely focusing on technological fixes. His research contributions have earned him prestigious accolades, including the 2019 W. Richard Scott Award for Distinguished Scholarship from the ASA’s Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work, and the 2021 Star-Nelkin Paper Award from the ASA’s Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology. Dr. Shestakofsky’s scholarly endeavors have been supported by esteemed institutions such as the Upjohn Institute, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, and the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. His work has garnered widespread recognition and has been featured on prominent platforms, including National Public Radio, the Financial Times, Fast Company, Axios, and publications of the World Economic Forum.

May 13, 2024 - Triple Bottom Line & ESOP Jonathan Orpin and RFP SaaS Chris Heard

Jonathan Orpin – Founder of New Energy Works and Pioneer Millworks
We have a multimillion backlog in housing requirements. People needhouses. We are behind so, the building industry is in a really good place.
Jonathan Orpin is a lifelong entrepreneur and sustainability advocate and founder of two eco-friendly companies in the design + build and manufacturing industries, New Energy Works & Pioneer Millworks. With over 30 years of experience operating on the triple bottom line—a simple belief that people, planet, and profit work together to ensure a better future, his philosophy on sustainability, business management, and giving back are reflected in everything he and the companies he founded do. Jonathan talks about sustainability in the construction industry, from using the right materials to leading a business model that is sustainable for both our planet and our people. Jonathan also shares business-building and growing tips and strategies that have given him success. In 2022, Jonathan sold both companies to his 160 employees and took on the title of CEO as they continue as an ESOP, or Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Utilizing an ESOP as a means of succession planning ensures that the sustainable and forward-thinking principles the companies were founded on are continued for years to come not by a singleowner or investment group, but by the craftspeople who make up the company themselves.“I’ve long said what makes the ESOP a good fit for us is that our folks have always had an ownership mentality,” says Jonathan. “I’m excited to make this transition in a democratized workplace with my coworkers, which has long been a goal of mine, but especially now as employees are increasingly seeking greater equity in the workforce.”Chris Heard – Co-founder and CEO at Olive Technologies
Brand is so important. I always thought that was for retail, but it is soimportant for tech too. If you can build a good brand, people will come to you.
Chris Heard is the Co-founder and CEO at Olive Technologies. He was running a UK portable cocktails business crushed by the 2008 recession and then built Olive from the ground up. Chris’ journey from a young, scrappy entrepreneur to CEO has been one of resilience and hustle. After closing the doors on his cocktails ventures, with his wife by his side — and a mere $5K CAD — he emigrated to Canada. He bartendeded to make ends meet while relentlessly pursuing business development opportunities. He settled into the B2B SaaS market and began climbing the corporate ladder at companies like Mobify, Yottaa, and Fuze. Finally, in 2018, he took the plunge with his co-founder to build their own SaaS product, Olive. They built Olive from a napkin idea in a basement to an international company that is disrupting the IT sourcing space and the premium RFP solution for sourcing technology. As Gartner holds the current key to unbiased solution sourcing, Chris’s vision is to revolutionize the outdated, traditional perspectives associated with software buying.