School for Startups Radio

December 15, 2023 - Price Negotiating Claire Stepanek and LA Times Columnist & TV Writer Doug McIntyre

Claire Stepanek – founder and CEO of ergo – Pricing Platform 
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Claire Stepanek is the founder and CEO of ergo, a startup developing pricing software that gives consumers an option to negotiate pricing with retailers through an online software plugin. Stepanek came up with the idea for ergo while working on the supply chain team at Apple, which manages the vendors that make the parts that flow into Apple products, where she found the most successful strategy for often negatively labeled “stressful negotiations” was to be authentic and keep it simple. Claire and ergo’s vision is to build out analytics for stores so they can gain value while also boosting revenue and sales and learning about the market. The company is also working to get products and features out for the impending holiday shopping season.Doug McIntyre – Long-time Columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News and Orange County Register and Author of Frank’s Shadow
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Doug McIntyre is the long-time columnist for the Southern California News Group which includes the Los Angeles Daily News and Orange County Register, as well as the creator of Red Eye Radio heard nationally on hundreds of radio stations. He also hosted a successful show on WABC in New York City and the long-running “McIntyre in the Morning” on KABC in Los Angeles. A television and film writer/producer, McIntyre has written for all the major networks, including the hit series, Married… With Children, WKRP in Cincinnati, Full House, Mike Hammer, and the award-winning PBS series, Liberty’s Kids. As an emcee, Doug has hosted evenings with Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, President George W. Bush, Betty White, Misty Copeland, John Cleese, John Glenn, Ken Burns, Malala Yousafzai, Colin Powell, Robert Redford, and many others. Doug and his wife, actress/writer Penny Peyser, wrote/directed and produced the award-winning documentary, Trying to Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon. New York-born and raised, Doug and Penny live in Los Angeles.

December 13, 2023 - Largest E-Recycler John Shegerian and Hire Better Now Kolby Goodman

ohn Shegerian – Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of ERI, Co-Founder of FinancialAid.com and Author of The Insecurity of Everything: How Hardware Data Security is Becoming the Most Important Topic in the World
We can recover about 98% of the commodities (shredded steel, shreddedplastic, aluminum, copper, gold, silver, lead, and some others) that comefrom recycling your cell phone, laptop or television.
I’m going to give it to you straight. There ain’t no shortcuts.The harder I work, the luckier I get.
John Shegerian is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of ERI. John Shegerian creates profitable impact companies that make the world a better place. Goldman Sachs recently named Shegerian one of the “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2021” at its annual Builders + Innovators Summit. He was also recently named one of the planet’s “Top 100 Recycling Stars” by Recycling International Magazine. A serial entrepreneur responsible for co-founding Homeboy Industries, FinancialAid.com, Engage, and many other impactful organizations – Shegerian currently serves as co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of ERI, the largest cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction and electronic waste recycling company in the United States. Shegerian is also a sought-after speaker, panelist, and electronic recycling, cybersecurity, and ITAD industry authority. Annually he speaks across the world in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. He has also authored or been featured in articles on the industry for Recycling Today, Resource Recycling, Waste360 and various business journals and regularly provides his expert knowledge to news media, including CNBC, BBC News, TIME, Fortune, Forbes, Washington Post, Newsweek (multiple times), The International Business Times (multiple times), Security Ledger, GreenBiz, LifeWire, City & State New York, Los Angeles Business Journal, IEEE Spectrum, Alternative Energy Magazine, Business Insider Africa and VerdeXChange News among many others. He is co-author of The Insecurity of Everything (a #1 best-seller on Amazon) and 101 Tips from the Marketing Masters: Ways to Supercharge Your Marketing & Exponentially Grow Your Business, both best-sellers on Amazon in their respective categories. Shegerian earned a certification in Cybersecurity: Managing Risk in the Information Age from Harvard University and has completed the MIT Sloan Cybersecurity program. Shegerian also hosts Impact with John Shegerian, a weekly podcast featuring conversations with some of the greatest business minds and thought leaders on the planet. The podcast is available for listening on ImpactPodcast.com, Apple’s iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Spotify, libsyn, and as part of iHeartRadio’s digital broadcast, reaching over 120 million users. Recent guests have included leaders from Verizon, Best Buy, Samsung, General Motors, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, JetBlue, Comerica Bank, Goodyear Tire, Virgin, Dell, GE, IBM, Qualcomm, Ben & Jerry’s, Texas Instruments, Timberland, UPS, Hertz, The Hershey Company, FedEx, Intel, NVIDIA, T. Rowe Price, New York City, Beyond Meat, Panasonic, EPAM, Molson Coors, Seventh Generation, the NBA, the US Tennis Association, Waste Management, and a number of fascinating game-changers, including Martin Luther King III; best-selling author Ryan Holiday; Homeboy Industries founder Father Gregory Boyle; real estate powerhouse and television personality Ryan Serhant; writer/comedian/author Jeannie Gaffigan; ultra-endurance athlete Rich Roll; and hundreds more. No stranger to “recycling lives” and serving up second chances, in 1993 Shegerian co-founded Homeboy Tortillas and Homeboy Industries, which continues to serve as a paradigm for urban renewal in America. Shegerian is also the creator of the popular Bulldog Root Beer brand, which he launched in 1997. Shegerian then co-founded FinancialAid.com, filling the financial aid gap for higher education and generating one of the most successful student loan companies in the country. Shegerian founded Addicted.com in 2005, one of the largest web resources for individuals seeking help for addictions online. The website boasts a database of over 20,000 addiction centers across the United States. He is also co-founder of RecycleNation, a dynamic recycling and green living resource that simplifies the recycling process on a national level with a comprehensive, interactive recycling location database. Shegerian is also the co-founder and CMO of The Marketing Masters, a digital marketing and web development company that builds effective, ROI-driven marketing campaigns for businesses large and small. He is also Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Engage, a web-based platform designed to digitize the process of booking talent online for unique personalized appearances. Shegerian was named the Clean Tech Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California by Ernst & Young and was officially named to City & State New York’s prestigious “Responsible 100” list last year. This year, he received New York City’s “Above & Beyond” Innovator Award.Kolby Goodman – Founder of BestFirstNow – Candidate Experience & Hiring Consultant 
If you ever encounter fear or imposter syndrome when sending out aninvoice or asking for a dollar amount, don’t look it as I’m getting paidfor what I do instead remember you get paid for the impact and valueyou bring. When you are clear about that to yourself and your customer,that’s when things really take off.
Kolby Goodman is the founder of the hiring consulting firm, BestFirstNow. He helps highly educated owner-operators, including doctors, dentists, veterinarians, attorneys, CPAs, architects, and so many more, stop hiring “average” candidates and start hiring Impactful Problem Solvers. After a decade of placing over 5,000 high-achieving professionals in their dream roles, Kolby experienced the full spectrum of interview horror stories and the countless ways well-meaning leaders were unintentionally driving away top talent. Kolby partners with struggling leaders to discover what exactly they want out of their next rockstar employee, proactively attract ideal candidates, better predict how interview performance translates to job performance, and onboard new hires quickly and efficiently. On top of being featured on CBS News, LinkedIn, The Huffington Post, and LA Weekly, Kolby has also partnered with Panasonic, Marriot Hotels, Thermo Fisher Scientific, American Diabetes Association, SHRM, several universities and schools, national professional organizations and nonprofits to provide tailored workshops on optimizing the hiring process, effective leadership, and employee engagement. And now, he is ready to share his experience and expertise with your audience.

December 11, 2023 - AI for Better Games Michael Puscar and Right Fit André Martin

Michael Puscar – Founder of NPCx.ai
Our business model is a very common AI model. Whether it’s frauddetection or whatever it is. Take something that is manual and tediousand do it automatically and faster with higher precision.We just do that for video games.
Michael Puscar is the founder and CEO of NPCX.ai and a serial entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist who has successfully built three high-tech startups from scratch and taken them through to exit. Michael is a published data scientist and expert in artificial intelligence technology, with 3 patents awarded for his groundbreaking work in the area. His latest venture, NPCx, aims to use AI to make characters more realistic in video games and animated films. Michael creates hyper-realistic NPCs (Non-Player Characters) and redefines traditional methods of character creation and animation. He is a serial entrepreneur, investor, technologist, and published data scientist who has spent 30 years building cutting-edge applications that challenge existing technological paradigms. He has three patents (one of which is still pending) for his groundbreaking work in AI and machine learning. As a serial entrepreneur, Michael has had three prior startup exits and three patents.André Martin – Chief Talent & Learning Officer and Author of Wrong Fit, Right Fit: Why How We Work Matters More Than Ever
The easiest way to get the right person for your company is to be honestabout who you are and how you get work done. I would love to seecompanies get away from these poetic, beautiful aspirational versionson their career websites. At some point the person coming to join yourcompany is going to need the truth about how it feels to work there.
André Martin, PhD, has held key senior leadership, advisory, and board roles dedicated to employee engagement and culture in some of the biggest consumer brands in the world including Target, Nike, Google, Mars Incorporated, and Disney. Whether his teams were unleashing the potential of Target’s 350,000 employees by helping to build a more purpose-driven culture, activating a consumer-focused digital transformation at Nike by delivering a more value-driven, leader-led culture, or building a principle-led culture at Mars that resulted in five consecutive Gallup Great Place to Work awards, André’s mission has always been to help make growth companies as engaging as the consumer brands they create. When he isn’t helping companies thrive, Andre is a guest lecturer at top universities on design thinking and innovation, a committed husband and father of two wonderful children, an owner of a sustainable mushroom farm in the Ozark Mountains, and can otherwise be found hiking the rain-soaked trails around Portland with his two English labs (Bode and the Fonz). His new 5-star book, “Wrong Fit, Right Fit,” was published by IT Rev Press in Sept. 2023.

December 8, 2023 - Hypothesis Comment on any Content Dan Whaley and Ahara Personalized Nutrition & The RealReal Julie Wainwright

Dan Whaley – CEO and Founder of Hypothesis
Hypothesis is a super old idea that we should all have the ability tocollaborate and have a conversation over anything you come into contact with.
Dan Whaley is CEO and founder of Hypothesis, a mission-driven organization that has developed an open-source platform that enables anyone to annotate or comment on any online piece of content. Users can use it to discuss key points, collaborate over content, find others with common interests, organize research, or take personal notes. Dan is a coder and early pioneer in web innovation when he created, back in 1995, the first online travel reservation company on the web. Dan currently serves as a director of Sauce Labs, the leading open-source functional testing company, and Getaround, a peer-to-peer car-sharing company. Since 2011 he has been at the front of Hypothesis. Launched the online travel industry in 1994, with the first SaaS company, GetThere. GetThere went public in 1999 and was sold to Sabre in 2000 with nearly 600 employees while processing approximately 50% of travel transacted online. Dan currently serves as a director of Sauce Labs, the leading open-source functional testing company, and Getaround, a peer-to-peer car-sharing company. He is a Shuttleworth Fellow.Julie Wainwright – CEO and Co-Founder of Ahara, Founder of The RealReal
Ideas aren’t really anything, it’s execution. Just make it happen.
Serial CEO Julie Wainwright is building a new business after departing The RealReal last year. Her new venture, a nutrition technology company called Ahara. Ahara provides consumers with at-home tests that reveal health information like the levels of key nutrients in the blood and how healthy cells are, according to Melina Jampolis, physician and co-founder. Ahara then creates personalized nutrition plans for consumers based on their health data. In the emerging nutrition technology ecosystem, Ahara could benefit from Wainwright’s experience in the consumer tech industry. Over her 44-year career, Wainwright has worked as the CEO for seven companies, including software company Berkeley Systems for three years beginning in 1994, online video store Reel for two years beginning in 1997, photo-editing software company Bellamax for three years beginning in 2003 and wellness site SmartNow for three years beginning in 2008. Most recently, she founded The RealReal, a luxury consignment marketplace, in 2011 and worked as chief executive until June 2022. In that time, she grew The RealReal into a household name worth $2.39 billion in 2019. Its value has since fallen to $173 million due to competition, a lack of profits and a slowdown in the luxury goods market, according to SeekingAlpha. Wainwright abruptly left the company last year. The executive has had her share of corporate challenges. As the chief executive of Pets.com, a pet supplies retailer, Wainwright took the company public in 2000 before shuttering it just nine months later. A flawed business model and the dot-com bubble, in which investors flooded money into internet companies, contributed to the failure of Pets.com. The company’s public failure limited Wainwright’s job options, which led her to start her own company, she said in an interview with Forbes in 2021 when it named her in its “50 Over 50” list. After taking time off and working a few jobs, Wainwright founded SmartNow in 2008, but it didn’t stick. Then came The RealReal. She wasn’t afraid of failing because she had already experienced that with Pets.com, and it made her a stronger person, she said. Wainwright hasn’t detailed why she left The RealReal, aside from saying it was time for a new generation to lead the company. But her latest move in founding Ahara suggests she hasn’t given up on her ability to grow a business. Founded by Wainwright and Jampolis, Ahara launched in beta on June 6. The company name comes from the Sanskrit word referring to “pure food” and nourishment. Consumers answer questions about their diet, food sensitivities and medical history to inform their nutrition plan. They can also participate in biological testing that includes genetic, epigenetic and biomarker tests that provide more data. An algorithm, which is patent-pending, creates the nutrition recommendations. A consumer ends up with recipes, shopping lists and a menu-scan option for dining out. Individualization is necessary because consumers have different nutrient and dietary requirements based on their lifestyle, medications, biology and environment, Ahara claims. The technology is backed by more than 300 scientific studies, according to the company. Before launching Ahara, Jampolis was Wainwright’s doctor. “As a patient of Dr. Melina (Jampolis), I experienced first-hand the positive impact of her approach to optimal health,” Wainwright said in a company statement. “I approached Dr. Melina with the idea for a health tech business that would reach millions, and she quickly understood that together we could help everyone achieve optimal health.” Greycroft, a venture capital firm that invested in The RealReal, led Ahara’s funding round. Other investors include the co-founders, entrepreneur Sandy Sholl and San Francisco-based firms Headline and Shakti Capital, according to a company statement. Ahara has eight employees and six medical advisors, according to its website.

December 6, 2023 - Emmy Winning Survivor Producer Maria Baltazzi and Wiring for Wins Gene Kim

Maria Baltazzi – Emmy-winning TV ‘Survivor’ Producer and Author of Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want 
There is a large body of research that supports how gratitude helps youroverall happiness. Realize what you have and be grateful for that.
Maria Baltazzi is a Happiness Explorer. Her experience as an Emmy-winning TV producer, wellbeing teacher, world traveler, and luxury travel designer specializing in transformative adventures has given her a unique lens into conscious living. Maria has developed and produced shows throughout the world. She was one of the original supervising producers of the mega TV hit, Survivor. She is a member of both the Producers and Directors Guilds of America, a Fellow National Member of The Explorers Club, and an Advisor for the Transformational Travel Council. Maria holds an MFA in film from ArtCenter College of Design and a PhD in Conscious-Centered Living from the University of Sedona. Additional studies include Mindfulness Meditation Teaching Training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, Primordial Sound Meditation Teacher Training from The Chopra Center, Happiness Studies with Tal Ben-Shahar, Positive Neuroplasticity Training with Rick Hanson, Spiritual Psychology with Ron and Mary Hulnick at the University of Santa Monica, Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, the Science of Happiness at the University of Berkley, and an Inner MBA from MindfulNYU.Gene Kim – Founder and CTO of Tripwire, Founder of IT Revolution and Author of Wiring the Winning Organization: Liberating Our Collective Greatness through Slowification, Simplification, and Amplification
Common principles span all great companies. It all comes down tohow leaders wire their organizations. In high performing organizations,leaders create systems that fully liberate everyone’s creativity andproblem-solving capabilities.
Gene Kim is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, researcher, and multiple award-winning CTO. He has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999 and was the founder and CTO of Tripwire for 13 years. He is the author of six books, The Unicorn Project (2019), and co-author of the Shingo Publication Award winning Accelerate (2018), The DevOps Handbook (2016), and The Phoenix Project (2013). His latest book is Wiring the Winning Organization (Nov. 21, 2023). Since 2014, he has been the founder and organizer of DevOps Enterprise Summit, studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations. In 1999, Kim started his work studying IT organizations, capturing and codifying how high performing organizations have IT operations, security, audit, management, and governance working together to solve common business objectives. Kim co-wrote the “The Visible Ops Handbook: Implementing ITIL in 4 Practical and Auditable Steps” in 2004, and “Visible Ops Security: Achieving Common Security and IT Operations Objectives in 4 Practical Steps” in 2008. Kim was named as a Computer Science Outstanding Alumni in 2007 for “exceptional professional achievements and their success in advancing world technology with the application of computer science”, and as one of Computerworld’s “Forty Technology Innovators Under Forty” in 2007. After Spafford and Kim co-authored Tripwire at Purdue University, Kim co-founded Tripwire, Inc in 1997 with Wyatt Starnes in Portland, Oregon. He served as the CTO there for thirteen years, leaving in July 2010 to become a full-time author and researcher. The company grew from 17 to 75 employees in 1999, and reached over 260 employees and $74 million in revenue by 2009.

December 4, 2023 - AI Smyth OS Alexander De Ridder and Vampr LinkedIn for Creatives Josh Simons

Alexander De Ridder – Co-Founder of CTO of Smyth OS, AI Visionary – Transforming Business Through AI 
With AI, we are not looking at a 10x improvement, we are looking at a100x improvement in terms of Labor savings.
Alexander De Ridder is the Co-Founder and CTO of Smyth which is at the forefront of revolutionizing artificial intelligence systems. Smyth provides the foundational platform, Smyth OS, to bring this future to life for governments and enterprises worldwide. De Ridder, a Houstonian of 20 years, is equal part computer scientist, entrepreneur and marketer. He co-founded and sold multiple multi-million dollar marketing agencies and is a thought leader in both SEO and AI, widely respected for his innovation and vision. He was, for example, the Co-Founder, Visionary, and CTO at Edgy Labs, LLC, a multimillion dollar marketing agency that serves many Fortune 500 companies with an incredible team of experts in SEO. Edgy was acquired by Compass.uol on November 1st, 2021. As a co-founder, Alexander (Or ADR as his team calls him) has worn many hats – project manager, subject matter expert, chief strategist, leader, chief technology officer – but most importantly, he remains the visionary and chief innovator.Josh Simons – Co-Founder, CEO of Vampr
If you go to VamPR.me and scroll to the bottom you can see in real timethe number of people that are making connections. Right now it’s at 8,729,000.
Josh Simons (Co-Founder, CEO) – After discovering how difficult it was to make the appropriate contacts and meet other music industry professionals, Josh created a network that helps independent musicians navigate the modern music landscape to monetize their work. He can share ways on How to Find Opportunities As a Young Musician Today. The world’s largest and most active social-professional network for musicians (often dubbed the “LinkedIn for creatives”). Recognised by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in 2022, Vampr is home to over one million users, and active in every country on the planet. The music startup has helped fledgling musicians broker over 8 million connections worldwide. Vampr offers a free solution for young musicians, built by a sympathetic founding team of established musicians with Josh’s co-founder, Baz Palmer, best known as the lead guitarist for seminal hall-of-fame rock band, Hunters & Collectors. Simons has grown Vampr into a multi-award winning platform, including most prestigious nods from both Apple and Google in their respective Best Apps lists. Over five funding rounds the company has raised $3.9M from VC, the crowd and music industry angels. Prior to running Vampr, Josh Simons spent the better part of a decade as a successful artist, songwriter & producer. His artist project Buchanan enjoyed multi-million streams & chart impressions worldwide. They retired from the live circuit following a sold-out arena tour opening for Keith Urban & Carrie Underwood. As a producer and songwriter, Simons has shared credits with Travis Scott, Troye Sivan and Kanye West to name a few. In April 2020 Simons was named in The Music Network’s 30 Under 30 List in addition to being voted Reader’s Choice. Simons holds a Bachelor of Business from Swinburne University.

December 1, 2023 - Packages with Bryan Davis and Grace Publishing Michelle Vandepas

Bryan Davis – CEO at Package, Inc. 
We are allowing the public to own a stake in the future of luggagetracking and travel security. Investors will get equity in the company.
Byran Davis is CEO of Package, Inc., a whole ecosystem for packages and luggage, really anything that moves.  Over 76,000 bags are mishandled every day by airlines adding up to over 28 million bags per year, about 5% of which are never found, costing airlines and travelers hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Package, Inc. is building a comprehensive solution with LuggageCam, the luggage logistics, tracking and security system that turns any bag into a smart bag and enables airlines and travelers to track, monitor and secure every piece of luggage in real-time at all times throughout their travels. To allow the public to take part in the company’s journey and growth, Package, Inc. today announced the launch of a WeFunder campaign. Full details on the campaign are at: Invest in Package Inc.: The Future of Shipping, Transportation and Travel Security | Wefunder, Home of the Community RoundMichelle Vandepas – Co-Founder of GracePoint Publishing and TheAuthorPath.com
Most people that read nonfiction books by the book in multiple formats.If they like the book, they will buy other ways to consume it. They will buythe hardback and then the audio.
Michelle Vandepas is an author, speaker, and coach and is also co-founder of GracePoint Publishing, innovators in collaborative, partnership publishing. Michelle Vandepas is the nation’s leading expert for entrepreneurs, personal development experts, and quantum healers who want to share what they’ve learned with the world by becoming an author. She is the co-founder of GracePoint Matrix and GracePoint Publishing, the gold standard in concierge publishing. She is also an esteemed TEDx speaker and TEDx Speaker Coach. She is a book coach and publisher to many esteemed thought leaders, and works with Brian Tracy and Jack Canfield clients to write and publish their books. Michelle has worked with thousands of authors over the past 20 years. As a serial entrepreneur and multiple bestselling author herself, she understands the strategy, messaging, and creative juice needed to build a platform. She is a visionary marketer who combines creativity with smart business sense to unleash the power of her clients. Michelle has been featured in numerous media outlets speaking about her passion for ‘purpose and profit’. Ask about her pivotal role in the movie ‘Our Souls at Night’. She lives in Colorado with her family, two dogs and 40 goldfish.

November 29, 2023 - Trucking King Cedrick Leggett and Managing Risk K. Scott Griffith

Cedrick Leggett – Founder of Cedrick Leggett Trucking Consulting   
Trucking as an industry has had tough times in the last two or threeyears. The bubble burst. During COVID the rates were high And peoplepanicked and we added too many truckers that did not know what they were doing.
Cedrick Leggett is a 7 figure business owner, known as The “Trucking King” – and has been building trucking businesses for over a decade. He owns Cedrick Legget Trucking Consulting which has an “Automated Trucking Business” offer that’s been taking off like a rocket ship. He’s got all kinds of other investments, and has even had to start over from square one about a decade ago. Cedrick’s journey in the trucking industry began with nothing more than a dream and an unwavering work ethic. Recognizing the power of partnership, he united with his brother, and together they purchased their first truck, laying the foundation of what would soon become an industry-leading business. Like many, Cedrick started from the bottom, proving that success in the trucking industry is achievable with determination and perseverance. Over the years, his business flourished, growing from a single truck to a fleet of 20. His acumen for automation and strategic planning led to the establishment of a robust trucking company, consistently delivering top-tier services. Cedrick’s journey is a testament to his dedication and command over the intricacies of the trucking industry. To date, his clients have generated over 50 million dollars in revenue, and he’s just getting started.K. Scott Griffith – Founder and Managing Partner of SG Collaborative Solutions and Author of The Leader’s Guide to Managing Risk: A Proven Method to Build Resilience and Reliability
Understand risk. Be risk intelligent. Don’t always try to minimize risk,try to manage it. There are certain risks in life worth taking.
K. Scott Griffith is the author of The Leader’s Guide to Managing Risk: A Proven Method to Build Resilience and Reliability and the founder and managing partner of SG Collaborative Solutions, LLC, an enterprise risk management firm specializing in reliable performance in high-consequence industries and organizations. Also, Scott Griffith gained his reputation for world-class collaborative skills through success in working with high-consequence industries across the globe. He initially came to prominence in the field of aviation, and is widely recognized as the father of the airline industry’s Aviation Safety Action Programs (ASAP). In 1997, he received the Admiral Luis de Florez Award from the Flight Safety Foundation for his outstanding contribution to aviation safety. The Flight Safety Foundation cited this commendation: “Captain Griffith recognized that a more systematic approach, involving a high degree of employee-regulator-employer cooperation, was needed to fully identify, understand, and resolve potential safety problems and risks in airline operations. As the culmination of his many years of service on behalf of aviation safety, he designed and originated the Airline Safety Action Partnership program at American Airlines, which has now become an aviation industry standard.” In 2000, United States Surgeon General David Satcher invited Scott to advise a Department of Health and Human Services committee on Blood Safety and Availability. From there, Scott applied his unique approach to focus on improving outcomes across multiple values in healthcare organizations, collaborating with hundreds of hospitals across the country. Throughout his career, Scott has worked closely with government regulators in several industry sectors, and has led performance improvement implementations at numerous large healthcare systems, airlines, railroads, energy companies, and joint state and national collaborative projects. His experience brings insight into how the collaborative model supports a wide range of values and objectives, from patient safety and clinical outcomes to privacy, compassion, fiscal responsibility, customer satisfaction, and operational excellence. He has worked extensively with management, labor, and government officials and is widely recognized for his ability to help organizations achieve consensus results in support of common goals. In addition, Scott has 25 years of experience at American Airlines, first as an international captain, then as the managing director of Corporate Safety and Quality Evaluations. In recognition of his contributions to worldwide aviation safety, Scott has received numerous awards and citations from both government agencies and the private sector. Scott holds a MS in Physics from Texas A&M University and a BA in English and Physics from Texas Christian University. His master’s thesis contributed to the research and commercial development of the airborne windshear LIDAR project under grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

November 27, 2023 - Very Strategy Rich Horwath and Legal Psychedelics Benjamin Lightburn

Rich Horwath – Founder of Strategy Skills and Author of Strategic: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage, and Achieve Executive Excellence
As a good entrepreneur when it comes to setting strategy, don’t lockyourself in an office, don’t put yourself on an island, bring in andcollaborate with your counterparts on what they are seeing and whateveryone thinks is going to be the best decision. As the entrepreneur,you make the final decision but you really want to get the input andbuy in from the people that work with you.
Rich Horwath is the founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute where he serves leadership teams as a strategy workshop facilitator, strategic executive coach, and keynote speaker. His mission is to help executive teams think, plan, and act strategically to set direction, create advantage, and achieve their goals. Rich is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today national bestselling author of eight books, and his work has been featured in publications including Fast Company, Forbes, and the Harvard Business Review. He has been described by Chief Executive Magazine as “the world’s foremost expert on strategic thinking.” As a former chief strategy officer and professor of strategy at the graduate level, he is able to bring a practical, real-world approach based in strong foundational principles to help executives develop their strategic capabilities. Rich has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX TV to share his perspectives on current business strategy issues. In addition to his work facilitating strategy workshops for leadership teams and providing executive coaching services and strategic counsel, he is a highly sought-after keynote speaker for groups ranging from 10 to 10,000. Rich has helped more than a quarter million leaders around the world develop their strategic capabilities in pursuit of his vision to teach the world to be strategic. Rich served as a professor of management at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, where he was consistently ranked a top strategy professor by students. He earned an MBA with Distinction from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University and has completed postgraduate courses in strategy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. He resides in Barrington, Illinois.Benjamin Lightburn – CEO and Co-Founder of Filament Health
We are trying to have experiences that are sanctioned by medicalbodies, that are approved by the FDA.
Benjamin Lightburn is a successful entrepreneur who is currently leading the development of the first-ever safe, botanical pharmaceutical psychedelic drugs to help better treat millions of people suffering from mental health issues globally, particularly, patients battling substance use disorders. His business, Filament Health, recently became the first psychedelic drug discovery and development company to receive FDA approval to conduct a natural psychedelic clinical trial, which they’re presently performing in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco. Their trial is the first to directly administer psilocin and psilocybin extracted from mushrooms as opposed to lab-created synthetic substances. One of the only psychedelic drug developers currently generating revenue, Filament’s development platform enables it to license its intellectual property, as well as out-license its lead drug candidate, PEX010, to commercial partners. The company’s drug candidates are also currently being studied in 15 clinical trials in North America and Europe via the company’s network of academic and research institutions. Ben recently led Filament Health through a business combination agreement – the forthcoming merger is scheduled for Q4 of this year and will yield a new company valuation of USD $210M as well as a Nasdaq uplisting. The company anticipates that this will accelerate its drug development program, which includes planned Phase II trials of its botanical psilocybin for Methamphetamine Use Disorder and Opioid Use Disorder. Before founding Filament, Benjamin was the CEO of Mazza Innovation, which focused on the commercialization of a phytochemical extraction technology called the PhytoClean Method™. Under his leadership, Mazza raised $10M+ in angel and venture capital and $2M+ in non-dilutive financing from local and international investors, recorded three successive years of triple-digit revenue growth (with two years of +$1M growth), grew from 8 to 28 employees, and formed partnerships with leading multinationals such as BASF and Givaudan before being sold to Sensient Technologies for $26M in 2018. In 2021, Benjamin was named one of Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40.

NOVEMBER 23, 2023 – ENTREPRENEURIAL THANKSGIVING SHOW!

50 Reasons You Should Be ThankfulYou Are an Entrepreneur!  
Today, instead of a normal show, we are rerunning our popular show listing the top 50 Reasons to Be Thankful to Be an Entrepreneur! Happy Thanksgiving! 
Give thanks!