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    How do you build a company from scratch? How do you take an idea and turn yourself into a founder? Find out from those who’ve already taken the plunge and are in the weeds of entrepreneurship. Every Tuesday, hosts Becca Szuktak and Dominic-Madori Davis interview founders on their origins, product roadmaps, funding efforts — and how they grow from failures. Found is produced by Maggie Stamets
    enTechCrunch159 Episodes

    Episodes (159)

    Adapting to the climate crisis with Jonas Torland from 7Analytics

    Adapting to the climate crisis with Jonas Torland from 7Analytics

    Welcome back to Found, TechCrunch’s podcast that brings you the stories behind the startups. This week our hosts Becca Szkutak and Dom-Madori Davis talk with Jonas Torland from 7Analytics, a Norwegian company that has built a data platform that powers tools and products for sustainable risk management. Their models predict the water paths of floods which allow them to predict and map the damage.

    They got into:

    • How to balance responsibilities between four founders
    • The difference between mitigation and adaptation startups and why it’s harder to raise in the adaptation space
    • The challenges and opportunities of a Norwegian company expanding to the U.S.
    • The important role startups are playing in fighting and adapting to climate change

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction.

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    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    AI-driven gaming with Hilary Mason from Hidden Door

    AI-driven gaming with Hilary Mason from Hidden Door

    This week we’re bringing you a conversation with Hilary Mason from Hidden Door, an AI-driven narrative game engine. This mini-episode recorded in person at TechCrunch Disrupt and Dom and Hilary get into how generative AI is changing online gaming, building a team of creatives, and fundraising in the gaming space. 

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, and Chain Reaction.

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    Solar-powered everything with Giovanni Fili of Exeger

    Solar-powered everything with Giovanni Fili of Exeger

    This week’s episode features a conversation with Giovanni Fili, the founder and CEO of Exeger, a startup that creates flexible solar cells that can create electric energy off of any light condition. Fili talked about what it has been like devoting the last 15 years of his career to a company based on tech that hadn’t previously been proven to work. He talked about running a deep tech company as a non-technical founder and how he’s built a capital-intensive startup off of relatively little funding.

    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Making wearable medical devices more patient-friendly with Professor Esther Rodriguez-Villegas from Acurable

    Making wearable medical devices more patient-friendly with Professor Esther Rodriguez-Villegas from Acurable

    This week, our old friend Darrell Etherington joins Becca Szkutak to talk with Professor Esther Rodriguez-Villegas from Acurable. Acurable is a medical device company that makes patient-friendly wearable devices that accurately diagnose and manage respiratory conditions at home. As a career-long academic,  Rodriguez-Villegas never intended to be a founder until she learned about how the currently available medical devices made it extremely difficult to detect and treat diseases like sleep apnea and epilepsy. On this episode they talk about balancing academic research and running a company, how to scale a medical device startup, and how Acurable has spread to hospitals throughout the UK by just word of mouth. 

    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Live from TechCrunch Disrupt with cybersecurity trailblazer Window Snyder from Thistle Technologies

    Live from TechCrunch Disrupt with cybersecurity trailblazer Window Snyder from Thistle Technologies

    The Found team recorded this episode live from TechCrunch Disrupt. Dom and Becca sat down with Window Snyder, a trailblazer in the cybersecurity industry who has dedicated her decades-long career to ensuring the internet and our devices are secure.  Snyder talked about why after years of working at companies like Apple, Microsoft, Fastly, and Square now was the right time to launch her startup, Thistle, which looks to build the security infrastructure needed to keep internet-connected smart devices safe.

    They also covered:

    • The way her mother’s career as a programmer inspired her to learn how to code has a teenager
    • Why a core value of Thistle is making cyber security easy for developers
    • Her biggest challenge in fundraising was demonstrating that this is a problem that the rest of the industry recognizes that they're going to want to leverage these capabilities in order to improve the security of their products.

    Check out the UpFlip  Podcast  where you get to unravel how great businesses are built, how they are run behind the scenes and how their success can be replicated. We think you'll love episode 79 where they featured this guest who transformed his passion for gardening into a $7.3 million-a-year venture. You can find the podcast on Youtube or where ever you listen to podcasts.

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    Bootstrapping a space tech isn't easy with Bianca Cefalo from Space DOTS

    Bootstrapping a space tech isn't easy with Bianca Cefalo from Space DOTS

    On today’s episode of Found, Dom and Becca talk with Bianca Cefalo, CEO and co-founder of Space DOTS which is a space tech startup that makes testing materials in space cheaper and easier. This may sound a little far out but it is extremely difficult to validate new materials to be used in space. In this episode, Cefalo talks about how difficult it is to bootstrap a deep tech company, the challenges of testing materials in space, and how she leads their growing team.

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    Taking learnings from working at Amazon to clean beauty with Jaleh Bisharat from NakedPoppy

    Taking learnings from working at Amazon to clean beauty with Jaleh Bisharat from NakedPoppy

    https://nakedpoppy.com/

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    Using AI to talk to trees with Graham Hine from ePlant

    Using AI to talk to trees with Graham Hine from ePlant

    This episode is centered on Graham Hine, the co-founder and CEO of ePlant, a startup that creates sensors that monitor the health of trees. Hine talked about what got him interested in the tree space to begin with and what it was like transitioning to being a founder after working for years at a startup founded by his brother. Hine also talked about why the company decided to launch both B2B and consumer strategies and the wide breadth of potential use cases for the tech.

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    A social platform to map the way we think with Ida Josefiina from Sane

    A social platform to map the way we think with Ida Josefiina from Sane

    Have you ever thought about all of the experiences, shows, books, people, places, and other pieces of media that have all been mixed together to make your unique personality and interests? Do you think you could build a multi-media map to visually show all of these elements? On today’s episode of Found, the co-founder and CEO of Sane, Ida Josefiina is explains how they’re breaking social networking as we know it to find a solution for collective reasoning and even mitigate existential risk.

    In this episode you’ll learn:

    • How Josefiina accidentally became an entrepreneur in the tech industry
    • Why New York is the best place for a company like Sane and the argument for having an in-person work culture.
    • How spatial mapping can visually represent the way we think to better explain difficult concepts.

    Today’s episode dives into the mind of Ida Josefiina, the co-founder and CEO of Sane, a social knowledge-sharing platform. Josefiina talked about how her foray into existentialist ideas and the power of collective intelligence put her on a journey to start this company. She spoke about how she thinks about hiring for the mission-driven company and how it could scale. Plus, she talked about why she doesn’t consider Sane to be a social media platform.

    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Enabling equitable cancer prevention with Feyi Ayodele from CancerIQ

    Enabling equitable cancer prevention with Feyi Ayodele from CancerIQ

    This week’s episode is focused on Feyi Ayodele, the co-founder and CEO of CancerIQ, a precision health company designed for physicians to help their patients with monitoring cancer risk and prevention. Ayodele talked about she came up with the startup idea while hiking Mount Kilimanjaro with her mother. She also talked about how she approached fundraising as a former VC herself and what it was like selling CancerIQ to healthcare organizations and hospitals.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

    Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Fifteen years in and still early to the industry with Marco Zappacosta from Thumbtack

    Fifteen years in and still early to the industry with Marco Zappacosta from Thumbtack

    This episode centers on Marco Zappacosta, the co-founder and CEO of Thumbtack, a startup that runs a marketplace for home services and beyond. Zappacosta talked about his unusual path to entrepreneurship which included almost getting a degree in neuroscience before deciding to start a company without having an existing idea. He also talked about growing Thumbtack through multiple market cycles and his mindset around leadership.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

    Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Bringing VR to IRL classrooms with Anurupa Ganguly Prisms

    Bringing VR to IRL classrooms with Anurupa Ganguly Prisms

    This week’s episode focuses on Anurupa Ganguly, the founder at CEO at Prisms, a startup designing VR math curriculum for middle and high school students. Ganguly talked about how her time as a teacher in the Boston and New York City public school systems were early inspirations for the company. She also talked about what it has been like selling to schools and her take on company culture in relation to remote and hybrid work.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

    Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Educating VCs on your lived experience with Rebecca Rosenberg from ReBokeh

    Educating VCs on your lived experience with Rebecca Rosenberg from ReBokeh

    This episode focuses on ReBokeh, a startup that created an app that applies filters that allow people with low vision to see better. The founder and CEO Rebecca Rosenberg talked about how her own experience with having low vision inspired the product and what it was like building the startup as an undergrad when everything went remote in 2020. She also spoke about how the app will likely have multiple revenue streams and what it was like pitching the product to VCs who didn’t believe the disability Rebecca has even exists.

     

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

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    Where data meets DEI with Mandy Price from Kanarys

    Where data meets DEI with Mandy Price from Kanarys

    This week’s episode features a conversation with Mandy Price, the co-founder and CEO at Kanarys, a SaaS startup that helps companies tackle their diversity and inclusion problems with data. Mandy talked about why she started the company after a decade-long career as a lawyer. She also talked about why she didn’t want Kanarys to just be focused on hiring metrics, as many other DEI platforms are, and when the company decided to start building out its sales team after years of inbound interest.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

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    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    What to do when customers say yes but VCs say no with Catherine Tabor from Sparkly

    What to do when customers say yes but VCs say no with Catherine Tabor from Sparkly

    This week’s episode features a conversation with Catherine Tabor, the founder and CEO of Sparkfly, a company that helps brands with marketing and customer engagement. Tabor talked about building a company fluid enough to adapt to changing technology trends over the last decade and how she was dismissed by venture capitalists despite landing notable customers. Plus, she talked about her leadership style and why she has a 1:1 meeting with every employee once a quarter.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

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    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Growing a startup banking alternative while the banking sky is falling with Immad Akhund from Mercury (Equity Interview)

    Growing a startup banking alternative while the banking sky is falling with Immad Akhund from Mercury (Equity Interview)

    As a founder, you’ve got to be ready for anything, but nothing could have prepared Mercury CEO and founder Immad Akhund for the rapid growth his company experienced after the SVB bank crisis. We’re mixing it up this week and sharing an interview from our sister podcast, Equity. TechCrunch fintech reporter Mary Ann Azevedo talks with Akhund about how they onboarded a record number of startup customers and helped guide their current users through the SVB bank crash, how he thinks about fundraising and investing during this downturn, and how he thinks about standing out against competitors like Brex.

    Becca and Dom will be back next week with an interview with Catherine Tabor from Sparkly. 

    Be sure to check out the Eye on AI. You can find them at https://pod.link/1438378439 or on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@eyeonai3425.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

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    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Farmers use tech too with Charles Baron from Farmers Business Network

    Farmers use tech too with Charles Baron from Farmers Business Network

    This week’s episode features Charles Baron, the co-founder and CMO at Farmers Business Network (FBN), a startup that offers a suite of online services to farmers. Baron talked about what led him — a former venture capitalist — to want to build in the agtech space. He talked about why the company chose to expand into multiple verticals quickly and how big of a need there was for what FBN offers.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

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    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Still, sparkling, or made from the air? with Reuben Vollmer and Tyler Breton from Spout

    Still, sparkling, or made from the air? with Reuben Vollmer and Tyler Breton from Spout

    On today’s episode, we hear from the founders of Spout, a startup that makes a device that can pull fresh drinking water out of the air. Co-founder Reuben Vollmer talked about trying and failing to get the company off the ground for years before meeting his co-founder Tyler Breton. Both talked about how important getting the design of the product right is and how big of a need there is for a product like Spout.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

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    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Building a map of the U.S. healthcare system with Web Sun from Komodo Health

    Building a map of the U.S. healthcare system with Web Sun from Komodo Health

    This week’s episode features Web Sun, the co-founder and president of Komodo Health, a startup that uses data to create a comprehensive map of the U.S. healthcare system. Web talked about what drove him to entrepreneurship and how mutual friends introduced him to his co-founder thinking they’d get along — little did they know. He also talked about navigating fundraising during the bull market and layoffs. Plus, Becca and Dom talk about their remaining questions after the interview. 

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

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    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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    Mitigating AI biases in healthcare with Amy Brown from Authenticx

    Mitigating AI biases in healthcare with Amy Brown from Authenticx

    This week we hear from Amy Brown, the co-founder and CEO of Authenticx, a Midwestern startup that helps insurance companies and medical organizations extract data from their call centers using AI. Amy told Becca and Dom about how her background working in the same call centers inspired her to foray into entrepreneurship. She also talked about the sacrifices and very human side of being an entrepreneur and how they were very intentional when building their AI model.

    Found posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast and Chain Reaction.

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    Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity and Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

     

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