School for Startups Radio

September 22, 2023 - AI Editing for Radio Zack Zalon and VC Jerry Neumann

Zack Zalon – CEO & Co-Founder of Super Hi-Fi
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Zack Zalon is the CEO & Co-Founder of Super Hi-Fi. Super Hi-Fi CEO Zack Zalon, whose company helps digital music services and traditional radio integrate AI production into their processes. They now work with companies like iHeartRadio, Peloton, and Sonos and power their radio experiences. But their use of AI was so ahead of its time that often companies didn’t actually believe what they were doing was real. A business idea that’s ahead of its time and the flexibility and grit it takes to make it work. Zalon is responsible for the strategic direction Super Hi-Fi, which launched in 2018, and shares day-to-day operating oversight with fellow co-founder Brendon Cassidy. Recently, the company announced it had been granted a broad and critical patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for technology that allows its A.I.-driven audio platform to intelligently and seamlessly stitch together music and other audio content in digital delivery channels. Current partners include Peloton, iHeart, The Associated Press, and Universal Music Group. Prior to Super Hi-Fi, Zalon served as co-founder and managing partner for We See Dragons, a “S.W.A.T.-style” digital agency that helps some of the world’s largest and most respected brands rapidly bring digital products to life. Brands for which We See Dragons has developed consumer platforms include National Geographic, Johnson & Johnson, Ticketmaster, Comcast, Citibank, Experian, and Madison Square Garden. Zalon has always strongly believed in the power of digital music, and under the banner of We See Dragons he led the design and development of innovative digital music experiences for CBS Radio’s consumer music platform, Cricket Wireless’ Muve Music, Sony Music, AOL Radio and Yahoo Launchcast. Earlier, Zalon was President of Virgin Digital, the global digital platform for the Virgin Group, helping to build and operate some of the earliest consumer digital music entertainment services, including Radio Free Virgin. Zalon’s passion for the music experience has been a constant throughout his career. Early on, he was general manager of Doug Weston’s Troubadour, the legendary Los Angeles live-music venue featuring contemporary music’s greatest names in an intimate and standing-room-only venue. Originally from the East Coast, Zalon now calls Los Angeles home.Jerry Newmann – Professor at Columbia University and Author of Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital from Startup to IPO  
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Jerry Newmann is a Professor at Columbia University and the Author of Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital from Startup to IPO. Jerry Newmann is a twenty-five-year veteran of venture capital. He was one of the first investors in some of the most successful venture-backed companies of the past three decades, including Datadog and The Trade Desk, and has worked alongside dozens of entrepreneurs as an investor, board member, and advisor. He was named one of the most important VCs in New York and one of the 100 best early-stage investors by Business Insider. Jerry teaches entrepreneurship and innovation at Columbia University. He has invested in some of the most successful venture-funded companies of the past three decades, including Datadog and Trade Desk.

September 21, 2023 - Go to Mkt Expert Paul McIntosh and The Creative Positivist David H. Moskowitz

Paul McIntosh – Founder & CEO of Bridgehead Agency
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Paul McIntosh is a Go-to-Market expert, mentor, sales leader, and advisor. He has over twenty-five years of world-class experience in business development, sales, and marketing at the highest level in both blue chip Companies such as Cisco, BBC and Lego plus start-up and scale-up businesses spanning both B2B and B2C tech sectors. Over the past 13+ years, Paul has helped drive countless new brands, products and services to market very successfully with the team here. A mentor and advisor to start-ups & scale-ups and is a Patron of The Caring Cancer Trust charity. Paul McIntosh is a world-class Go-To-Market Expert and Commercial Leader renowned for his invaluable contributions to over 70 companies seeking to penetrate, establish, and expand their presence across the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and Canada. His multifaceted expertise encompasses strategy development, commercial acumen, and adept project team leadership, as well as a proven track record in sales, business transformation, and the dynamic landscape of business growth and scalability at the highest echelons. Paul has consistently demonstrated his prowess in achieving and surpassing key objectives, whether within blue-chip corporations or in the agile environments of startups, scale-ups, and rapidly expanding operations throughout the UK, Europe, and North America. As a visionary CEO and Founder, he is driven by an unwavering passion to assist companies in achieving international expansion and bolstering their presence in domestic markets. Furthermore, Paul has cultivated invaluable European relationships, holding pivotal connections with senior professionals across diverse B2B and B2C sectors, including Retail, E-Commerce, Service Providers, Utilities, Telecom, Property, Construction, Government, Enterprise, and Strategic Partnerships. His extensive industry experience spans across SaaS, FinTech, PropTech, AgriTech, Cybersecurity, CPG, Consumer Electronics, Emerging/New Technologies, IPTV, Smart Home, Energy, and the Games Industry, further underscoring his remarkable breadth of knowledge and expertise.
David H. Moskowitz – Author of the Book The Judge and the President: Stealing the 2020 Election (The Judge and the Creative Positivist Book 3) 
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David H. Moskowitz practiced law as an attorney for 50 years and has now retired from practicing law. He is still involved in real estate development and construction and in biopharmaceutical ventures. When he practiced law, his practice concentrated on real estate and municipal law (serving as counsel to municipalities, municipal authorities, and civic associations), civil litigation, corporate law (as counsel to public companies and private companies), and international law (working on commercial and/or real estate projects and representing clients in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, and several nations in Europe). David graduated from college with a degree in accounting (Penn State, 1957) and finished law school three years later (Villanova Law School, 1960). Before David started practicing law, he decided that he should obtain an education in many subjects, including history, literature, economics, sociology, psychology, politics and philosophy. David was admitted to Wadham College in Oxford University arriving there in September 1960. He attended lectures and started reading books in the subjects above. The law tutor in Wadham College, Mr. P.B. Carter, called David to his office and informed him that he needed to work under the supervision of a tutor. David was attending the lectures of Professor H.L.A. Hart, who was the Professor of Jurisprudence. He approached Hart after a lecture and asked him if he would be David’s tutor. They discussed the subjects that David wanted to study, and Hart agreed to tutor David. They met weekly for the 1960-61 academic year and talked about many subjects. After the first year, Hart informed David that he only worked with graduate students. Hart tested David’s ability to be a graduate student by assigning him to read his book The Concept of Law and providing a critique. Hart said that he thought David’s critique of his book included some important points that they should continue discussing during the school year and he declared that David was now a graduate student and that he should write a thesis for the D.Phil. degree. They met for a second year, continuing some of the discussions left over from the prior year, touching upon many of the issues in The Concept of Law and developing the ideas that became part of David’s doctoral thesis. David finished the thesis after the second year with Hart and received the D.Phil. degree after the oral defense of his thesis in April 1963. Following his completion of his Doctorate in Philosophy, David served as a law clerk for a Court of Common Pleas judge for one year. After that year, he spent a post-doc year at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico studying with Professor Luis Recasens Siches. He then served a second clerkship with the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County for one year. He began practicing law in 1964 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. During the years 1967 to 1972, David taught political science at Rider College. During the years 1972-1975, David taught jurisprudent as an adjunct professor at Villanova Law School. David wrote his first book Exclusionary Zoning Litigation in 1976. In 2017, he authored a second book Finding the Genetic Cause and Therapy for ADHD, Autism, and 22Q which details the discovery of a genetic cause and drug therapy for ADHD, autism, and 22q, which will allow patients to control their symptoms for these three diseases. Huge Jam published the first book in the Creative Positivist series, The Judge and the Umpire in 2022. The 2nd book in the series, The Judge and the Creative Positivist followed in 2023.

September 20, 2023 - Marketing Agency Vetting Behdad Jamshidi and Howdy Tech Hiring Jacqueline Samira

Behdad Jamshidi – Founder (Marketing Broker) of CJAM Marketing
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Behdad Jamshidi is the Founder (Marketing Broker) of CJAM Marketing. Behdad Jamshidi started CJAM Marketing after realizing that most business owners don’t know how to evaluate the value of a marketing agency or assess their own needs. Since every business is different not only in their needs but where they are at in the growth process, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all. In the past 4 years, Behdad (or Bee) has met with and assessed 667+ marketing agencies and vetted them down to a lean 80 preferred partners across all marketing niches. After pairing hundreds of businesses with the right partners, he’s found his skillset lies in the matchmaking process. Featured in MarketWatch, Bloomberg, National Post, and the Financial Post, Bee’s unique background in marketing, engineering, consulting, leadership, sales, and strategy, has allowed him to serve as the conduit between business owners and the marketing teams they need. Behdad Jamshidi initiated CJAM because he encountered significant challenges when seeking qualified marketing partners for his own business. Frustration mounted as his search yielded glossy pitches from agencies commanding high price tags but delivering disappointing results. Drawing upon his background as an engineer in the realm of large enterprise businesses, Behdad, known for his emphasis on efficiency and meticulousness, recognized that the conventional “Google and hope for a good match” approach was unproductive and costly in terms of both time and resources that could have been invested in business growth. Behdad’s determination to address this issue led him to leverage his comprehensive knowledge of global business and marketing. With this expertise, he devised a rigorous vetting process aimed at effectively evaluating agencies for suitability. This process has become the cornerstone of the CJAM Partner Network, ensuring that the network consists of agencies that can be recommended with unwavering confidence. The outcome of Behdad’s efforts is an extensive network comprising over 80 marketing partners, each specializing in areas such as PPC, Digital Marketing, Design, Development, SEO, Copywriting, and various other facets essential for enhancing a brand’s marketing or development capabilities. Behdad remains personally involved throughout the engagement process, overseeing communication, ensuring objectives are met, and confirming that the partnership is mutually beneficial. This commitment has not only yielded successful collaborations but has also fostered enduring friendships with clients who frequently return to him for additional partner recommendations.Jacqueline Samira – Founder & CEO of Howdy
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Jacqueline Samira is the Founder and CEO of Howdy a successful people-centric entrepreneur who is building her startup into a unicorn, a keynote speaker, a voracious reader, a disruptor of dollar-driven mainstream narratives, with a strong background in bringing equality, balance, and empathy into the tech industry. At Howdy – a talent sourcing and management provider that connects Latin American developers and other professionals with full-time U.S. companies that want to expand their teams – Jacqueline prioritizes efficiency and happiness, while also providing support, resources, and a sense of community through co-working and meetup spaces called Howdy Houses, where these talented developers can engage with, learn from, and forge strong working relationships with other Howdy community teammates. After launching Howdy in 2018, Jacqueline bootstrapped the company to generate $3 million in annual revenues by 2021, which enabled her to attract the investors Y Combinator, Greycroft, and Obvious. Howdy is forecasted to generate $35 million in 2024 in annual revenues. An engaging and knowledgeable speaker, Jacqueline has been featured in TechCrunch, Business Insider, Forbes, Austin Business Journal, and other top-tier media for her insights and opinions on building and retaining effective tech teams, sourcing talent and building talent community networks, entrepreneurship, generating revenue from a bootstrap business, and more. Prior to Howdy, Jacqueline has over 15 years of experience in building companies, scaling revenues, driving sales, mentoring teams, and contributing to bottom-line strategies across a variety of industries. She worked as the head of growth for Chatfuel in the Bay Area in San Francisco, as the VP of Sales for OwnLocal, and as U.S. sales director for a national beauty and wellness company. Prior to this, Jacqueline started her career as an editorial assistant at a women’s lifestyle magazine while completing her Economics degree from the University of California, Irvine. On a personal note, Jacqueline enjoys dancing, yoga, reading, and meditating, and strongly advocates for an eight-hour sleep cycle, as well as mental and physical health. She also finds solace at her ranch with her family and caring for three Texas Longhorns during her spare time.

September 18, 2023 - AI Parenting Lauren Raimondi and Beyond Information Geoff Blaisdell

Lauren Raimondi – Co-Founder of Poldit
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Lauren Raimondi is the Co-Founder of Poldit, an information-sharing site that fuses AI and community insights. Poldit was founded in 2022 when Lauren, pregnant with her son and seeking information about the pregnancy process, found that it was hard to obtain quality information in one place without having to sift through advertisements and misleading information. Poldit seeks to consolidate information into one place for ease of use. A serial entrepreneur, the New York-based mom started All Aces Promotional Staffing at just 24, managing staff for experiential marketing campaigns from her dorm room at college. All Aces puts together teams of brand ambassadors to interact with consumers to engage with them and create brand loyalty on a personal level. Lauren graduated from Boston University. Experiential marketing has been a part of Lauren Raimondi’s life since her college days, encompassing various aspects such as event staffing, influencer collaboration, and now, virtual events. In the face of challenging times, she recognizes that growth and adaptation are vital for any thriving business. Lauren has always harbored a deep appreciation for the creative ideas and meaningful connections forged with people. At the core of her philosophy lies a profound belief in the significance of relationships in every successful marketing campaign, with a strong emphasis on the concept of “Family.” Diverging from the norm where many event staffing firms treat their personnel transactionally, Lauren’s All Aces takes a unique approach by considering their staff as an integral part of their extended family. They pledge unwavering support to their team, resulting in a reciprocal commitment to delivering exceptional experiences. The assurance provided by All Aces is that their staff will consistently deliver top-notch experiences to your event’s audience, elevate your client’s brand, maintain a high level of professionalism, and optimize your return on investment. The credibility of this guarantee is rooted in a well-kept secret that has propelled All Aces to win nearly every industry award, maintain one of the industry’s highest staff retention rates, achieve remarkable client retention rates, receive outstanding client feedback, and experience an astounding growth rate of over 300% in just a few short years—all under the leadership and dedication of Lauren Raimondi.Geoff Blaisdell – Founder of Beyond Information
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Geoff Blaisdell is the Founder of Beyond Information. An experienced digital leader, executive, advisor, and investor with over thirty years of success at the intersection of finance and technology, Geoff has held key roles at Blackrock, Fischer Francis, and most recently as Head of Technology at Western Asset Management—responsible for over $1 billion in global IT and digital deployment and leading teams of over 300 people in support of USD hundreds of billions of global AUM. The Beyond Formation Blueprint distills his extensive experience and passion for mentorship into a proven system designed to make sure more founders make it big. When Geoff Blaisdell transitioned from the corporate world to become an advisor, VC LP, and angel investor, he sought a faster pace of innovation and change than what directing technology for a well-established global financial powerhouse could offer. While funding startups’ dreams brought excitement, Geoff found greater reward in imparting practical, hard-earned advice and expertise, enabling entrepreneurs to turn their visions into reality. Recognizing that numerous entrepreneurs possess groundbreaking ideas but lack a fundamental understanding of business operations, Geoff realized the value of equipping them with the knowledge needed to navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship. His extensive experience has taught him that in business, shortcuts often lead to significant costs, and mistakes can prove costly. Geoff understands that not every promising startup gains entry into an incubator or accelerator, and he aims to provide them with the tools to establish a strong foundation from the outset. Creating, iterating, and sustaining the structure of a business is Geoff’s forte—a skill honed over three decades. He takes pride in this work and excels in it. Beyond Formation, the platform he founded, shares the system and lessons he has refined throughout his career. For founders or foundational employees of early- or mid-stage startups wondering why they should trust a tech expert for business guidance, Geoff’s journey from humble beginnings in a coastal Maine lobster pound to the C-Suite of major corporations at the intersection of finance and technology offers a compelling answer. His tech expertise seamlessly integrated with every facet of the companies he worked for, affording him invaluable hands-on experience and behind-the-scenes insights into the mechanics of successful business operations. This deep and broad knowledge forms the foundation of Geoff’s success, and it is the driving force behind Beyond Formation. The Beyond Formation Blueprint, a result of his years of experience, provides a proven pathway to maximum valuation. It deconstructs the process of building, managing, and funding a world-class business into a series of practical, actionable steps and results-oriented strategies that anyone can begin implementing immediately. Geoff acknowledges that he didn’t acquire this knowledge in isolation; his Blueprint was influenced and elevated by some of the brightest minds in startup and business development. He is grateful for their generous insights and believes that every entrepreneur needs a team at some point. When that time comes, Beyond Formation stands ready to offer Assessment, Advisory, Turnkey Techstack, and Fractional Leadership services to startups at any stage of their growth journey.

September 15, 2023 - Infinite Banking Brent Kesler and Work Optional Life Style Scott Lask

Brent Kesler – The Money Multiplier Expert and Author of Mapping Out the Millionaire Mystery: Step Into the Secrets of the Wealthy
The vehicle that we are using to build, create, and keep wealth is a whole lifeinsurance policy in a mutual company that pays dividends. It is designed forimmediate high cash value. When you put money into this policy, youimmediately have access to the cash value.
Brent Kesler is the Founder of The Money Multiplier Expert and Author of Mapping Out the Millionaire Mystery: Step Into the Secrets of the Wealthy. Brent Kesler was a Chiropractor and Chiropractic coach for over 14 years. After implementing The Money Multiplier (TMM) Method, Brent paid off $984,711 in 3rd party debt in 39 months. In fact, Brent became so passionate about how powerful this concept was, that he began sharing it with others. It was when his previous mentor told him that he had successfully referred over forty-one new clients into the system, that Brent took his advice and started the journey to becoming a teacher of the TMM Method. Brent’s main goal in making this move was simply to help more people understand how to manage and grow their wealth. For the last 10 plus years, Brent has been lecturing to thousands of people around the country on the dynamics of the TMM Method and helping individuals break the bonds of financial slavery they don’t even realize they are in. He teaches how to take back control of your financial life. Brent has a passionate belief that whether you make $10/hour or $10,000/hour you should know TMM Method and have this powerful information to keep control of your own money.Scott Lask – Founder of The Scott Lask Wealth Management Group LLC and the Author of Let’s Win! Let Wall Street Work for You
When selling to a customer, the only way to earn their trustis to give, rather than asking for something.
Scott Lask is the Founder of The Scott Lask Wealth Management Group LLC and the Author of Let’s Win! Let Wall Street Work for You. Scott Lask educates clients and makes them feel safe; work as a team; no pressure; proactive; risk mitigation to help navigate finances. Just released the book  Scott Lask is a veteran of Wall Street with four decades of investing, money management, retirement and legacy planning experience. Having lived through-and navigated his clients through The Great Crash of 1987, the Dotcom craze, the Dotcom crash, the mortgage market collapse & Great recession to name a few, Scott has learned many of the tell-tale signs of the financial markets. He is passionate about sharing his experiences to help investors win with wealth preservation and accumulation strategies. This book is his first and represents his best efforts to codify what he has learned into a cohesive manual of sensible advice and guidance for investors at every stage of life.When not looking after his clients’ financial well-being Scott is first and foremost a devoted family man.

September 14, 2023 - Insurancy André Disselkamp, Quest for Durability Jerry Creighton and Levees.org Sandy Rosenthal

André Disselkamp –  Co-Founder of Insurancy
We were lucky that we could start our business part time. We stillhad stable income and we did not start with investors.
André Disselkamp is the Co-Founder of Insurancy, an InsureTech from Germany focused on managing Business Insurance & Corporate Pensions for Startups fully digitally.  It is a corporate insurance service for start-ups and digital companies with a key competence in digital processing and sustainability.  He is an advanced training expert for company pension schemes as well as a financial investment broker.Jerry Creighton – President & CEO of Th Creighton Group and Author of The Quest For Durability-The Business Puzzle Method
You need to have part of your business always in a startup mode. Startupis not just something That is one time and then goes away.
Jerry Creighton is the President & CEO of Th Creighton Group and Author of The Quest For Durability-The Business Puzzle Method. Jerry Creighton has extensive corporate experience followed by over 10 years running a 90-company accelerator/commercialization center for the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Jerry Creighton, Sr. MBA (an award winning entrepreneur, business development coach, and author) combining his hands-on skills and the experiences learned from years as an army officer, an executive at major international corporations, a business owner, an adjunct professor, an angel investor and the former Executive Director of the iconic Enterprise Development Center (EDC) – (renamed VentureLink) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)…arguably one of the most successful combined domestic USA and international business development centers of this type.Sandy Rosenthal – Founder & President of Non-profit Levees.org
To get the attention of the media, ask a reasonable question,make a valid point and back it up with data.
Sandy Rosenthal is the Founder of Non-profit Levees.org. After Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures in New Orleans, Sandy Rosenthal founded the non-profit Levees.org with 25,000 supporters nationwide. Her book––Words Whispered in Water––is about how she led an investigative team to expose the culprit in the levee breach disaster––the Army Corps of Engineers––and how the agency spent millions covering up its mistakes. Rosenthal is an advocate for the 62% of the American population living by levees. Sandy hosts a weekly podcast called Beat the Big Guys where she coaches her national audience on how to take on the big guys in their own communities. Rosenthal plays tennis six days a week, practices yoga, teaches her dogs silly tricks, and spends time every month with her two grandchildren in San Francisco. The Tulane University A. B. Freeman School of Business honored Sandy Rosenthal as the Tulane Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2018. In 2016, Rosenthal was awarded the Pioneer of Purpose Award from Dillard University. In 2015, she received the Diana Lewis Citizen Participation Award from the Committee for a Better New Orleans, the Heroes of the Recovery Award by New Orleans Magazine and also the Partner in Justice Award by AVODAH. In 2012, she was recognized as a “Most Influential Woman” by Mount Holyoke College, and was named “Outstanding Citizen Diplomat” by the New Orleans Citizen Diplomacy Council. That same year she was also named as a “Role Model” by the Young Leadership Council and was honored as a “First Responder, Post Katrina” by the Southern Dominican Province. She has received the “Award of Merit” from the Citizens and Victims against Crime, Inc. (2009), the “Service Above Self” by The Rotary Club of New Orleans (2009), and the “Alumnae Loyalty Award” from Mount Holyoke College (2009). In 2008, she was inducted, along with real estate broker Kitty DeGree of West Monroe, into the Hall of Fame of the Louisiana Center for Women and Government at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux. In 2006 she was one of the “Women of the Year” honored by City Business.

September 13, 2023 - Organic (Food) Marketing Steven Hoffman and Swag Selling Thru Bar Tips Neil Rogers

Steven Hoffman – President and Founder at Compass Natural Marketing
Most cattle are raised in feed lots. It’s not the cow, it’s the how. When theytalk about animal agriculture emitting a lot of methane gas, grass fed beefhas a bacteria that lives in the gas that eats cow burps! The methane nevergets released. Put them in cement floor feed lots while eating GMO corn,which cows were never meant to eat, and you get greenhouse gas emissions!
Steven Hoffman is President and Founder of Compass Natural, a Boulder, Colo.-based PR and marketing agency dedicated to serving businesses and brands in the natural and organic products industry. With a deep commitment to natural health and the environment, Steven Hoffman has dedicated his career to natural, organic, and eco-friendly products, socially responsible businesses, and building mission-based brands. Steve serves as Founder and Managing Director of Compass Natural, a full-service public relations, marketing, brand communications, and strategic business development agency specializing in the $300-billion LOHAS – or Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability – market. He is Co-founder of LOHAS Journal and the LOHAS Forum sustainable business conference, and former Education Director for Natural Products Expo East and West, the world’s largest natural and organic products trade expositions. Steve also served as Editorial Director of New Hope Network’s highly respected natural products trade publishing division, including the Natural Foods Merchandiser magazine. Hoffman also served as National Marketing Director and Rocky Mountain Regional Sales Manager for Arrowhead Mills, now a leading division of the Hain-Celestial Group. As Managing Director of The Organic Center, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization, Hoffman helped advance scientific research and education behind the benefits of organic food and farming. As an Agricultural Extension Agent in the mid-1980s for Penn State University, he served as a Director of Philadelphia’s Urban Gardening Program, where he helped establish more than 125 food gardens in low-income Hispanic neighborhoods in the city over a 3-year period. He received a M.S. in Agriculture from Pennsylvania State University. Hoffman is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in agriculture and education in Honduras and Costa Rica in Central America. In addition to English, Hoffman speaks Spanish and French. A singer-songwriter and performing musician, too, Hoffman lives in beautiful Boulder County, CO, where he enjoys access to his beloved adopted Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West!Neil Rogers – Owner of Rogers Marketing and Author of Bar Tips 
For over three decades, Neil Rogers has built a successful career in sales and marketing, working with clients in a wide range of verticals, including pharmaceutical, biomedical, manufacturing, logistics, financial services, and government defense contractors. He is the Owner and VP of Marketing & Sales at Rogers Marketing, winner of several Million Dollar Sales awards, the Velocity Award for growth, and Heavy Hitter Awards for large accounts. Neil and his wife Lori are the creators/owners of the Positive Activity 11-Step Process, using scientifically proven activities to increase the quality of life and business through creativity, optimism, and positivity. The two entrepreneurs started the non-profit PASE (Parents Assisting Special Educators) and PASE After 21 for special needs adults. Bar Tips is his first published book, drawing on the lessons learned during his years as a bartender that Neil has applied for success in sales.

September 11, 2023 - Recruit Me App Catarina Matias and Headless Storyblok Dominik Angerer

Catarina Matias – Founder of The Bite Company and The Recruit Me App
The stigma we are trying to change is when you hire an individualand focus too much on where they used to work and their experience.Companies forget that just because they did the same type of job somewhereelse the applicant’s culture, mindset and decision making process couldbe drastically different from your own. You could be hiring a cancer into your organization.
Catarina Matias is the Founder of The Bite Company and The Recruit Me App. Having recently departed from the hospitality industry due to COVID-19, where she spent many years and was chosen as Hotel Management’s 30 Under 30 top rising stars in the hotel industry, Catarina started a health-focused snack delivery business. After being met with the challenges of not only retaining employees but also finding employees who would be a good fit, she wished there was a recruiting tool that followed the path of the dating apps where she could search for an employee who would be a fit. This motivated her to develop an app that allows individuals looking for work to make profiles that show their true personalities, and allow employers to come to them. This allows employers to find better-suited employees, and employees to find work cultures they better align with. Catarina Matias’ expertise comes from her tenure in the hospitality industry. Her tenure with the hospitality industry started with Hershey Entertainment, and most recently continued with Hotels Unlimited. She oversaw daily operations for each of the hotels in their portfolio, including a combination of full and select service properties with brands such as Marriott, Hilton, and IHG. Additionally, she was responsible for the devising of new business strategies, including recruitment, hiring, training, mentoring, and development of all property-level management personnel, and was involved in corporate compliance and budgetary reviews. A respected voice in the hospitality industry, Catarina exudes all the qualities of a polished professional. Catarina is also the host of the Recruit Me podcast where she interviews industry leaders around successful practices related to recruitment, hiring, HR, and landing employment. Topics Catarina is prepared to speak on (however she can speak on whatever you would like): Recruit, Retain, Release – The necessary steps to recruit the right people, retain them, and potentially lose them. How to Recruit Yourself Learn the Power of Hospitality – How incorporating hospitality principles into any business culture will improve morale, retention, and profits. Motivating yourself in order to motivate your employees Why old ways of doing things won’t always work Keeping up with the employees and what they want without having to ask them More About Catrrina Matias Featured in Yahoo Finance, The Chicago Journal Chosen as one of Hotel Management’s 30 Under 30 top rising stars in the hotel industry in 2019.SFS Minute 258: Ideas from NeedSFS Minute 260: Surround Yourself with……Dominik Angerer – Co-Founder and CEO of Storyblok
Usually, content management solutions come with display layouts, how thewebsite looks or how the app will look. In headless content, we get rid of thevisualization part and we are left with just data. We are cutting off the headof the content management solution.
Dominik Angerer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Storyblok. He’s also a web performance specialist and has previously worked for big agencies as a full-stack developer before founding Storyblok in 2017. He is also an active contributor to the open-source community and one of the organizers of Stahlstadt.js. After spending 7 years in the digital agency area as either a consultant or software developer I’m now in the lucky position to call myself CEO of one of the fastest-growing software companies of Austria. With Storyblok we were able to build a content management system that developers actually like and also marketers enjoy using. Dominik Angerer has been grappling with the challenges posed by Content Management Systems (CMSs) in agencies since the inception of the Web and digital projects. Virtually every project entails the need to manage some form of content, ranging from a handful of labels used in an application’s menu to buttons requiring translation, or even comprehensive digital commerce ventures featuring storytelling components and long-form article formats. It was with the advent of Storyblok that Dominik and his team triumphed over these struggles within their agency. In 2017, they made the pivotal decision to extend this solution to developers, marketers, and authors worldwide. From 2017 until the close of 2019, Dominik and a colleague focused solely on the product aspect of Storyblok. Subsequently, they opted to secure a Seed round of $2.5M to drive the company’s growth forward. Relocating to London to take part in the @FoundersFactory acceleration program, they have received ongoing support. By 2020, the team had expanded by a factor of ten. As of 2021, they had reached a stage where they were providing support for 90,000 projects on a global scale, catering to businesses of all sizes. This encompasses rapidly expanding digital commerce endeavors like Stronger, HappySocks, or Marc O’Polo, as well as established financial services such as PAYONE and Unzer. To further bolster their growth, an additional $8.5M in funding was secured. In 2022, Storyblok saw another significant funding round of $47M, propelling the company’s expansion to a team of 230 individuals spanning 44 different countries, with 140,000 active projects distributed across 130 nations. Storyblok, under Dominik’s leadership, stands as a headless CMS, empowering developers and marketers to deliver robust content experiences across any digital platform, one block at a time. Developers have the capability to create flexible components, each independently managed by content teams through a visual editor and customizable workflow. The content, once published, is accessible through an API, ensuring that alterations are reflected universally: on websites, mobile platforms, IoT devices, AR/VR environments, and beyond. Esteemed brands such as Marc O’Polo, PAYONE, and UPC turn to Storyblok to effectively manage and disseminate their content worldwide.

September 8, 2023 - JobPaths Jack Fanous and Exit Path Touraj Parang

Jack Fanous – Co-founder and CEO of JobPaths
Americans donate $484 billion annually. Of that, $11 billion goes to trans-action fees. Our model covers the transaction fees for our nonprofit clients.
Jack Fanous is the co-founder and CEO of JobPaths, a SaaS Enabled Marketplace (SEM) that fulfills the original goals of the internet community by bringing people together with those who can help them along their journey. JobPaths is designed as an immersive network to bring people together to support one another through sharing employment opportunities, resources, training, and guidance. At the core of the company is the network of platforms JobPaths has established that include nonprofit, governmental, and corporate partners who license the software in order to support their clients. Within each of these licensed platforms lives JobPaths intelligent systems and easy-to-use software that connect Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) users to job openings, resources, career and life trainings, and mentorship opportunities. Jack developed his company based on his years of nonprofit experience as CEO and co-founder of GI Go Fund. Started in 2006 after the death of a childhood friend Lt. Seth Dvorin, GI Go Fund provides military veterans across the country with job training and employment opportunities, as well as access to healthcare, benefits assistance, and connections to housing. The organization has recently expanded its efforts to support all populations within the DE&I community. Through his work at GI Go Fund, Jack discovered the shortcomings in veteran hiring and decided to act. He testified before the United States Senate Veterans Affairs Committee regarding veteran issues in 2008, and serves as the co-chair of the VA’s Community Veterans Engagement Board (CVEB) Newark, NJ chapter, as well as a board member of Habitat for Humanity NJ. Moreover, under his leadership, JobPaths was recognized in 2017 with the Employment and Training Award by the American Legion.Touraj Parang – President, COO, and Board Member of Serve Robotics and the Author of the Book Exit Path: How to Win the Startup End  
When a company acquires another, usually there is a pre-existing relationship.
Touraj Parang is the President, COO, and Board Member of Serve Robotics and the Author of the Book Exit Path: How to Win the Startup End. Touraj is a veteran Silicon Valley dealmaker. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and M&A expert who has sat in almost every seat around the table structuring and negotiating strategic transactions since late 1990’s, including as a corporate attorney at legal powerhouses WSGR and O’Melveny & Myers. He has been a founder, executive, and trusted advisor to several fast-growing technology startups with exits to LinkedIn, Instacart, Vistaprint, Postmates, and Amplitude among others. He has also spent nearly a decade on the acquirer side of M&A deals as a corporate development executive at Webs and GoDaddy. Exit Path draws on Touraj’s decades-long unique experience involving hundreds of M&A transactions, strategic partnerships, and venture capital investments totaling billions of dollars in aggregate value. He is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer at Serve Robotics, which he helped spin out of Uber, and an Operating Advisor at Pear VC, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he enjoys collaborating with and providing strategic guidance to mission-driven entrepreneurs. He earned his JD from the Yale Law School and his AB in Philosophy and Economics from Stanford University.

September 6, 2023 - Latin FinTech Edrizio De La Cruz and Melody Cloud Wayne Altman

Edrizio De La Cruz – Co-founder of Arcus and Author of Book The Underdog Founder
Autopay or bill notification didn’t work in Latin America so we were thefirst the company to build the software that lets fintech and banks providethese services in Latin America. In 10 years, we became the biggest platformfor payments in Latin America.
Edrizio De La Cruz is the Co-founder of Arcus and Author of Book The Underdog Founder. Edrizio De La Cruz is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, investor and occasional stand up comic. He’s a Dominican immigrant who grew up in Harlem. He dropped out of college to work as an aircraft technician to help make ends meet. He ultimately went back to college, worked on Wall Street and earned an MBA from The Wharton School. In 2013, he co-founded Arcus, a fintech company. He worked with an incredible team to build the company from scratch to 100+ employees, 100+ clients and raised $19M in funding from Y-Combinator, Ignia, Softbank and Citi Ventures. In 2021, the company was sold to Mastercard.Wayne Altman – Founder of Melody Clouds App 
I can reprice an entire website from my phone at my daughter’s volleyball game.
Wayne Altman is the Founder of Melody Clouds App. Wayne Altman has a strong desire to make a difference to the people around him, so Wayne has worn many hats during his 54 years of life on planet Earth. Born in California but raised in Texas, Wayne grew up knowing he wanted to serve others. U.S. Army Veteran, Death Row Correctional Officer, Corporate Sales Trainer, and Author of 6 books on Mortgage and Credit. Wayne has traveled to 19 countries and visited 49 States teaching Credit to consumers and Loan Officers in the Mortgage Industry. He currently owns multiple (14) online businesses all designed to enrich the lives of his customers and his community. His latest business is Melody Clouds a subscription relaxation website and app. With 8000 hours of Solfeggio, Binaural Beats, Guided Meditation, and 17,000 + Audiobooks all designed to relax and educate its subscribers at a price point other services just will not touch. Wayne has determined that the healing and beneficial effects of this technology should be available to everyone who wants it. So, Melody Clouds is translated into over 100 different languages, and its membership spans across the globe.