FOUNDERS & FRIENDS PODCAST

11/19/2024

Kyle Westaway Managing Partner
at Westaway

Kyle Westaway of Westaway discusses the law firm's startup-friendly products, including fixed-fee pricing for legal services.

11/11/2024

Michael David Executive Vice President, Venture Banking
at Banc of California

Michael David of Banc of California explains how Banc of California works with startups to deliver specialized banking services.

11/06/2024

Immad Akhund Co-founder & CEO
at Mercury

Immad Akhund, Mercury CEO & Co-founder, discusses building a financial technology platform now profitably serving thousands of startups and businesses.

10/16/2024

AJ Audino Founding Lead - Enterprise Growth
at Perplexity

AJ Audino of Perplexity explains how the company is revolutionizing search engines by using AI.

07/21/2024

Sam Heshmati Head of Emerging VC and Innovation Banking
at Citizens Private Bank

Sam Heshmati of Citizens Private Bank discusses their tailored banking solutions and high-touch service.

07/07/2024

Sam Bhaumick Executive Vice President- Venture Lending
at Avidbank

Sam Bhaumick, EVP of Venture Lending at Avidbank, explains how Avidbank offers venture debt and cash management services to startups.

06/16/2024

Sunita Patel Head of Venture Coverage and Business Development, Innovation Banking
at HSBC

Sunita Patel of HSBC explains how the bank has expanded its startup banking services following its acquisition of SVB UK.

06/02/2024

John Li Co-Founder & CEO
at Vimcal

John Li of Vimcal explains how the software allows busy founders and executives to effectively and efficiently manage their schedules.

05/19/2024

David Forsberg Managing Partner
at Ascent Energy Ventures

David Forsberg of Ascent Energy Ventures discusses Ascent's unique investment focus on digital tools for the energy industry, and explains how he reviews potential investments.

05/05/2024

Haje Kamps Founder & Pitch Coach
at Pitch Guide

Haje Kamps explains how Pitch Guide, an AI tool that analyzes pitch decks, helps founders improve their fundraising pitches by suggesting improvements and enhancements.

04/21/2024

Ben Parr AI Founder, Investor, Columnist
at The AI Analyst

Ben Parr, writer and analyst, discusses his involvement with early AI systems and explains how AI will impact the startup ecosystem.

04/07/2024

Casey Woo Founder, Managing Member
at Operators Guild

Operators Guild cultivates a community of finance and operations professionals who help each other navigate the issues involved in scaling companies, and develop professional networks.

03/24/2024

Kelly Caviglia Director - Head of Startup Banking
at Bridge Bank

Kelly Caviglia at Bridge Bank talks about the services Bridge provides for startups, including venture lending, credit card solutions, treasury management, and more.

03/10/2024

Stacy Edgar CEO
at Venteur

Stacy Edgar explains how Venteur's solutions help companies provide flexible individual healthcare plans for employees.

02/25/2024

Jake Cronin Co-Founder & Co-CEO
at Siro

Jake Cronin, co-founder of Siro, explains how Siro makes great sales coaching available to salespeople, helping them realize their potential.

02/04/2024

Don Muir CEO
at Arc

Don Muir of Arc explains Arc Capital Markets, a marketplace for bespoke venture debt and startup-focused credit products.

01/22/2024

Gautam Gupta General Partner
at TCV

What are VCs looking for in today's market? Gautam Gupta of TCV discusses what it takes to fundraise right now, including an emphasis on company fundamentals, significant gross profit margins, what to call out in a pitch meeting, and what to look for in a term sheet.

01/08/2024

Eric Ver Ploeg Founding Partner
at Tunitas Ventures

How do startups get to Series A? Eric Ver Ploeg, founding partner of Tunitas Ventures, discusses Series A investing, including timing, choosing VCs, shutting down a startup, startup valuations, and more..

12/10/2023

Abe Othman Head of Data Science
at AngelList

Abe Othman of AngelList discusses the current status of the startup ecosystem.

10/22/2023

David Bergeron Co-Founder and President
at ReSeed Partners

David Bergeron, explains how ReSeed Partners brings together talented real estate professionals and long-term investors to build real estate businesses.

10/08/2023

Kyle Vamvouris Founder and CEO
at Vouris

Kyle Vamvouris, founder and CEO of Vouris Sales Consultancy, talks about things that founders should know about the sales process, hiring sales people, and developing a sales team.

09/24/2023

Julian Christmas Founder
at Cintra Global

Julian Christmas of Cintra Global discusses how Cintra helps startups with international hiring, taxes, and payroll across a wide range of countries and borders.

09/10/2023

Shomik Ghosh Partner
at Boldstart Ventures

Shomik Ghosh, partner at VC firm Boldstart, discusses the types of companies Boldstart invests in, and looks at the current venture capital marketplace.

08/27/2023

Sarvin Patel COO/CFO
at Curie Co.

Sarvin Patel of Curie Co discusses Curie Co's technology, which works to replace chemicals with biodegradable enzymes, reducing the amount of chemicals entering the environment by replacing them in personal care products.

08/13/2023

Bryan Harper Managing Director
at InfraFi

Bryan Harper of IntraFi discusses banking deposit networks, and how IntraFi's network of over 3,000 banks provides expanded FDIC insurance to businesses with large deposits.

08/02/2023

Bebe Kim Founder and CEO
at Basis.so

Bebe Kim of Basis explains how their financial platform connects financial and operational data to help startups get a complete picture of their businesses.

06/27/2023

Michael Bjorn Huseby Investment Funds Attorney
at DLA Piper

Michael Bjorn Huseby of DLA Piper explains some of the legal issues of venture capital, including 506(b) regulations, capital calls, VC partnership structures, management fees, carried interest, and more.

06/13/2023

Kathryn Petralia Co-Founder and Chief Keeper
at Keep Financial

Kathryn Petralia explains how Keep Financial helps companies offer effective employee incentive programs, and leverages bonuses and financial compensation to motivate workers and improve hiring.

05/21/2023

Don Muir CEO
at Arc

Don Muir of Arc discusses how Arc has used technology to provide banking to startups, adding savings, checking, cash management, and brokerage services.

05/09/2023

Jose Ancer Partner & CTO
at Optimal Counsel

Jose Ancer of Optimal Counsel discusses legal services for startups.

04/23/2023

David Pezeshki Co-Founder
at Initio

David Pezeshki talks about 409A valuations and how Initio makes the process easier by offering customized valuations with optimized, defensible outcomes.

04/09/2023

Michael Frankel Founder and Managing Partner
at Trajectory Capital

Michael Frankel of Trajectory Capital discusses private equity, which can be an alternate route to success for many startups that may be viable businesses but lack the growth that venture capital funds need.

03/26/2023

Sara Skowronski President
at Eos HR

Sara Skowronski, president of Eos HR Consulting, discusses the services that Eos offers to help startups with their HR needs.

03/26/2023

Evan Meagher Chief Financial Officer
at CoreWeave

Evan Meagher, Chief Financial Officer of CoreWeave, as a wide-ranging discussion with Scott Orn about new technology, the current state of the economy, and how these changes are affecting the venture capital market.

03/12/2023

Benjamin Verschuere Co-Founder and CIO
at Treasure FI

Ben Verschuere, Co-Founder and CIO of Treasure FI, talks about how startups can use Treasure FI's cash management platform to reduce risk and increase yields.

02/12/2023

Omri Mor Co-founder and CEO
at Routable

Routable focuses on helping businesses scale their payment solutions, and Omri Mor, Co-founder and CEO, explains how the company developed its platform for sending B2B payments worldwide.

01/29/2023

Luke Hutchison Co-founder and CEO
at Perfect Venue

Luke Hutchison, CEO and Co-Founder of Perfect Venue, explains how Perfect Venue works with hospitality businesses to streamline event management.

01/16/2023

Simon Gleeson Partner
at Blick Rothenberg

Simon Gleeson of Blick Rothenberg talks about different ways that startups can pay workers in other countries, including professional employer organizations (PEOs), employers of record, and non-domiciled employers.

12/31/2022

Leon Mueller Co-founder and CEO
at Bloom

Leon Mueller, co-founder and CEO of Bloom, talks about Bloom's self-directed therapy app that provides mental health assistance to people in need.

12/11/2022

Benjamin Döpfner Founder and CEO
at Vesto

Benjamin Döpfner of Vesto talks about cash management strategies and explains how Vesto can help startups get a better yield on their cash while maintaining liquidity and preserving their capital.

12/04/2022

Navneet Loiwal Co-Founder and CEO
at Coefficient

Co-founder of Coefficient, Navneet Loiwal, discusses how Coefficient connects Google sheets with source systems to automatically sync data with a single click and easily monitor changes with Slack and email alerts.

11/29/2022

Emily Wang CEO
at Bento

Emily Wang, CEO of Bento, shares the company's vision of everboarding, an ongoing software adoption process that helps B2B SaaS companies build more effective onboarding workflows.

11/16/2022

Joyce Zhang Gray Co-founder and CEO
at Alariss

Joyce Zhang Gray, CEO and Co-Founder of Alariss, talks about how Alariss matches global companies with US talent.

11/08/2022

Manik Suri Founder and CEO
at Therma

Manik Suri, founder and CEO, explains how Therma helps prevent refrigeration issues by providing 24/7 equipment monitoring for companies that use refrigeration.

10/25/2022

Jonathan Grant VP of Finance & Operations
at Osano

Jonathan Grant, VP of Finance & Operations, explains how Osano helps companies manage their website privacy programs and maintains compliance.

10/11/2022

Michelle Valentine Co-founder & CEO
at Anrok

Tracking and paying state sales tax is a complicated issue for businesses, but startup company Anrok streamlines and simplifies the process.

09/26/2022

Alex Kracov Founder and CEO
at Dock

Alex Kracov, CEO and Founder of Dock, explains how Dock helps businesses collaborate by hosting all the information that two organization share.

09/06/2022

Andrew Miller Chief Operating Officer
at Minnesota Vikings

Andrew Miller, Chief Operating Officer of the Minnesota Vikings, tells us how his sports and educational background led him into business operations for NFL.

08/30/2022

Tim Menard Founder and CEO
at LYT

Tim Menard, CEO and Founder of LYT, joins Scott Orn to discuss LYT's connected vehicle and machine learning technologies that optimize traffic flow.

08/23/2022

Ann Jaskiw Founder and CEO
at Tactic

Ann Jaskiw, CEO of Tactic, joins Scott Orn to talk about how Tactic's cryptocurrency accounting platform helps businesses track crypto transactions.

07/19/2022

Sarah Jacobson Co-founder
at FairStreet

Sarah Jacobson, co-founder of FairStreet, discusses how FairStreet helps insurance brokers enroll older adults in the right Medicare health insurance plans.

07/12/2022

David Mayer Founder and CEO
at Elemmir

David Mayer, founder of Elemmir and Emmy-nominated director/producer, talks about the value of video for B2B businesses and the solutions Elemmir provides.

07/05/2022

Leslie Hensley & Lee Turner Co-Founder & People Leader
at HENSLEE

Leslie Hensley and Lee Turner, co-founders of HENSLEE, discuss HENSLEE's HR solutions and how it can help develop a human resource strategy.

06/14/2022

Adam Markowitz Founder and CEO
at Drata

Adam Markowitz, CEO and Founder of Drata, discusses how Drata can streamline data audits and help companies protect their data.

06/07/2022

Courtney McCrea Co-founder and Managing Partner
at Recast Capital

Courtney McCrea, co-founder and managing partner of Recast Capital, discusses how Recast Capital helps link investors to emerging managers in venture.

05/31/2022

Harris Stolzenberg Co-Founder
at Flok

Harris Stolzenberg, co-founder and CEO of Flok, discusses how Flok streamlines and simplifies event planning in order to bring remote teams together.

05/24/2022

Michal Cieplinski Chief Business Officer
at Pipe

Michal Cieplinski, Chief Business Officer of Pipe, discusses how Pipe helps startups by transforming recurring revenue into working capital.

05/17/2022

Rose Punkunus Founder and CEO
at Sudozi

Rose Punkunus, Founder and CEO of Sudozi, discusses how the company streamlines workflows by digitizing offline data and worksheets to help monitor vendor spending and budgets, improving budget insights and decisions.

04/05/2022

Blake Oliver Founder & CEO
at Earmark

Blake Oliver from Earmark discusses the Earmark app which empowers CPAs to earn Continuing Professional Education credit easily from their smartphone.

03/29/2022

Marcelino Pantoja CEO and Founder
at Measurement

Marcelino Pantoja from Measurement discusses launching the first venture capital index fund that brings in investors at the beginning of Series A funding.

03/22/2022

Brian Sterz Founding Partner
at Wavepoint Capital

Brian Sterz, of Wavepoint Capital, joins Scott Orn to talk about launching the Wavepoint Fund, an equity hedge fund focused on disruptive opportunities.

03/15/2022

Alex Song Head of Finance and Capital Markets
at Ramp

Alex Song of Ramp discusses the company's new products for credit cards and cash management, including an assisted travel solution and crypto options.

03/08/2022

David Greenbaum Founder and CEO
at OnPlan

David Greenbaum of OnPlan discusses OnPlan's product which combines spreadsheets, native business intelligence and a multidimensional database.

03/02/2022

Don Muir Co-Founder & CEO
at Arc

Don Muir of Arc joins the Founders and Friends Podcast to explain how Arc's technology and data can streamline the venture debt underwriting process.

02/22/2022

Natalie Paterson Co-Founder & CEO
at Ingarden

Natalie Paterson discusses Ingarden, and talks about the advantages of cultivating microgreens in your home and how Ingarden's technology can help grow food for families.

02/15/2022

Kareem Saleh Founder & CEO
at FairPlay AI

Kareem Saleh of FairPlay AI talks about how the company is working with lending institutions to improve and advance their lending practices to reduce systemic bias.

02/08/2022

Evan Meagher Chief Financial Officer
at CoreWeave

CoreWeave provides companies with compute products on an enterprise scale, supporting intensive workloads.

02/01/2022

Sona Akmakjian Global Head of Strategic Accounting Partnerships
at Avalara

Sona Akmakjian talks about the challenges businesses face with state tax returns, and how the tax compliance software, Avalara, can help.

01/25/2022

Lauren Dai COO & Co-founder
at Cocoon

Lauren Dai of Cocoon explains how the company started, Cocoon's mission, and how Cocoon helps employers more effectively manage employee leave time.

01/18/2022

Jason McKinney Co-founder and CEO
at Truffle Shuffle

Jason McKinney, co-founder and CEO of Truffle Shuffle, discusses how the company began and shares some of the programs and successes.

01/11/2022

Kelsey Chase Co-founder and President
at Aumni

Kelsey Chase provides an overview of Aumni, an analysis tool that provides financial insights into venture capital investment.

12/14/2021

Tom Nguyen Co-founder & CEO
at Café

Tom Nguyen discusses the creation and development of Café, a software solution that allows employees to easily and quickly schedule time in and out of the office.

12/07/2021

Katie Shea Co-Founder & General Partner
at Divergent Capital

Katie Shea of Divergent Capital talks about her background, industries in which she invested, and things she looks for when investing in a startup.

12/01/2021

Mark Khavkin CFO
at Pantheon

Mark Khavkin discusses his experience and the importance of finance in startups, and how finance helps companies operate cohesively with common goals.

11/17/2021

Mike Dombrowski Head of Capital Markets
at InterPrime

Startups need an investment strategy for the capital they raise, and that strategy needs to incorporate the unique needs of startup companies.

11/09/2021

Mike Lederman Senior Managing Director
at Bridge Bank

Mike Lederman of Bridge Bank discusses the bank's phenomenal growth and the bank's ability to service companies from startup through public offerings.

11/03/2021

Benjamin Wu CEO, Brex Asset Management
at Brex

Benjamin Wu on Brex Venture Debt, a new startup lending service from the same company that offers the Brex credit card.

10/26/2021

Tyler Griffin Managing Partner
at Financial Venture Studio

Tyler Griffin, Managing Partner at Financial Venture Studio stops by to talk more about how his venture capital and private equity firm invests in great teams who are seeking to improve how Americans conduct their financial lives.

10/20/2021

Shensi Ding Co-founder
at Merge API

Shensi Ding, Merge API's co-founder, explains how her team’s needs led to a startup with product-driven growth.

09/07/2021

Ted Bojorquez & Steve Tessler Executive Vice President, Silicon Valley
at California Bank of Commerce

Ted Bojorquez and Steve Tessler of California Bank of Commerce on how they help businesses succeed in a constantly evolving and dynamic business world.

08/17/2021

Roger Philipp Founder and Chief Creative Officer
at UWorld Roger CPA Review

Roger Philipp of UWorld stops by to talk about how taking the UWorld Roger CPA Review courses can help future-proof your accounting career.

07/13/2021

Lauren Creel Partner, Emerging Companies & Venture Capital
at Cooley

Lauren Creel, partner at Cooley, an American international law firm, talks about how she represents startups and venture capital funds with an emphasis on early-stage companies and financing.

06/22/2021

Antonio Soler Managing Director & Head of US Corporates
at Vistra

Antonio Soler, Managing Director of Vistra, stops by to chat about how with a laser focus on minimizing risk and enhancing efficiencies, Vistra provides expert advisory and administrative support to Fund, Corporate, Capital Market, and Private Wealth clients.

06/07/2021

Chiara Portner Shareholder
at Hopkins & Carley

Chiara Portner, Shareholder, and Counsel at Hopkins Carley, a Silicon Valley law firm, stops by to chat about how she offers practical advice on technology and commercial transactions as well as privacy matters.

05/25/2021

Nate Williams Founder & Managing Partner
at Union Labs

Nate Willaims, Founder of Union Labs, joins Scott Orn on the Founders & Friends podcast to chat about how his company is solving real problems.

05/18/2021

Suneel Gupta Author
at BACKABLE

Suneel Gupta, Entrepreneur, activist, and author of BACKABLE stops by Founders & Friends to chat about his book and how the opposite of success isn’t failure. It’s boredom.

05/10/2021

Job van der Voort CEO
at Remote

Job van der Voort, Co-founder and CEO of Remote stops by to talk about the future of work.

05/04/2021

Dan Westgarth COO
at Deel

Dan Westgarth, COO of Deel stops by Founders & Friends to tell us more about how Deel helps businesses hire anyone, anywhere.

04/27/2021

Charly Kevers CFO
at Carta

Charly Kevers, CFO of Carta, joins Scott Orn on the Founders & Friends podcast to tell us more about how Carta creates more business owners.

04/21/2021

Bryce Emo EVP, Sales
at Quid

Bryce Emo, EVP of Sales at Quid, explains how Quid helps employees of privately-held companies get the liquidity they need to pay for life today.

04/14/2021

Brian Parks Co-Founder and Managing Partner
at Bigfoot Capital

Brian Parks, co-founder and managing partner of Bigfoot Capital, stops by to talk about how Bigfoot helps provide Growth-oriented loans for B2B SaaS companies

04/05/2021

Thejo Kote Founder
at Airbase

Thejo Kote, Founder of Airbase, a cloud-based business spend management software company, chats on the importance of, and the strategy behind controlling spend, and so much more.

03/29/2021

John Houston Founder
at Houston Advisors

John Houston, the founder of Houston Advisors, chats with Kruze COO, Scott Orn, about how his management consulting firm provides revenue operations expertise for Private Equity and Venture Capital investors and their portfolio companies.

03/22/2021

Sandra Miller CEO
at Runway Innovation Hub

Sandra Miller joins us to talk about Runway, a technology innovation hub bringing together entrepreneurs, startups, VCs, mentors, Fortune 500 Corporations, and industry experts.

03/15/2021

Krista Mitzel Founder and Managing Partner
at Mitzel Group

On this podcast, we welcome Krista Mitzel of the Mitzel Group. The Mitzel Group is an integrative law firm that connects businesses all over the world with their strategic legal vision, ultimately guiding their clients to achieve their goals.

03/08/2021

Casey Woo Co-Founder, Managing Member
at Operators Guild

Casey Woo stops by to share more on Operators Guild and how they created an organization that brings together like-minded professionals.

03/03/2021

Evan Meagher VP of Finance
at Logikcull

Evan Meagher Evan Meagher, VP of Finance at Logikcull, a powerful DIY Legal platform, talks about having a remote workforce, 2021 business predictions, bitcoin, and more.

02/22/2021

Ben Parr Co-founder and President
at Octane AI

Ben Parr stops by to tell us more about how Octane AI, a real-time marketing platform, helps merchants to connect, convert, and retain customers.

02/08/2021

Taylor Matthews Founder
at Farther

Taylor Matthews of Farther, talks about how his modern judgement-free wealth management company.

02/02/2021

Joshua Gilbert Region Manager
at American Express

Joshua Gilbert, Regional Manager of American Express stops by to talk to us about how American Express' business cards help startups run, grow and expand their business.

01/27/2021

John Garrett Author and Host
at What's Your And?

John Garrett, consultant, comedian and creator of What's Your And?, a book and podcast, talks with us today about how sharing personal interests makes work and life better.

01/25/2021

Gina Gutierrez Co-Founder and CEO
at Dipsea

Gina Gutierrez Forbes 30 under 30, brand builder, storyteller, chaser of big feelings, and founder of Dipsea Stories.

01/19/2021

John Schroeder Founder and Principal
at Nova Foresight

John Schroeder of Nova Foresight stops by to talk about his company's mission of helping leaders accelerate growth by uncovering hidden opportunities in today's chaotic marketplace.

01/13/2021

Q Motiwala Managing Director
at DNX Ventures

Q Motiwala of DNX Ventures talks about partnering with entrepreneurs on their crazy startup journey.

01/11/2021

Weston Rice Director
at Silicon Valley Bank

Weston Rice of Silicon Valley Bank joins us to talk about how Silicon Valley Bank helps innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward fast.

01/04/2021

Everett Cook Co-founder and CEO
at Rho

Everett Cook of Rho talks about co-founding Rho, the all-in-one digital bank for startups.

12/29/2020

Mang-Git Ng Founder and CEO
at Anvil

Mang-Git Ng of Anvil stops by to talk about his company's mission of helping companies and governments transition from paper-based forms to PDF-based processes and online workflows.

12/21/2020

Haje Kamps CEO
at Konf

Haje Kamps talks about founding Konf, the virtual conference platform for planning and running events with a focus on networking and social connection.

12/14/2020

Andrew Farah CEO
at Density

Andrew Farah talks about co-founding Density, a software and sensor platform that helps keep people safe.

12/07/2020

Mark Loranger Co-founder
at Braavo

Mark Loranger talks about founding Braavo, a leader in on-demand funding for mobile apps and games.

11/17/2020

Michael Martin Co-founder
at Avenue 8

Michael Martin, co-founder of Avenue 8, talks about the startup's residential brokerage platform that empowers agents to be more entrepreneurial.

11/10/2020

Patrick Lee Founder and Managing Partner
at Top Corner Capital

Patrick Lee stops by to tell the founding story of Top Corner Capital, a venture debt fund for early-stage startups.

11/04/2020

Tarin Calmeyer Chief Wellness Officer
at Remote Team Wellness

Tarin Calmeyer shares how she founded Remote Team Wellness which has become the world's first live virtual corporate wellness solution designed to bring health and balance to companies and their employees through group sessions.

10/27/2020

Mark MacLeod Coach, Advisor, Investor
at Mark MacLeod: Coach, Advisor & Investor

Mark MacLeod talks about his new Executive Coaching practice.

10/20/2020

Zoe Hewitt Operating Partner, Talent
at EQT Ventures

Zoe shares her own Operations journey, EQT's emphasis on building tools that produce insights into entrepreneurs, and EQT's future.

10/14/2020

Ian White Founder and CEO/CTO
at ChartHop

Ian White is the Founder & CEO of ChartHop, an Org Chart Tool & more that brings transparency to your organization.

10/07/2020

Alex Baluta CEO
at Flow Capital

Alex Baluta joins Scott Orn to explain how Flow Capital provides founder-friendly growth capital for companies across North America and the UK.

09/28/2020

Travis Hedge Co-Founder
at Vouch Insurance

Travis Hedge of Vouch on Business Insurance For Startups.

09/22/2020

Matt Van Itallie CEO
at Sema Software

Matt Van Itallie on Sema Software's platform that powers technical due diligence for executives and provides tools to find and fix technical debt.

09/15/2020

Jordan Smyth Founder and CEO
at Gleamin

Jordan Smyth stops by to discuss Gleamin, a beauty company that helps women look their best while empowering them.

09/08/2020

Tamara Steffens General Manager/Managing Director
at M12 - Microsoft's Venture Fund

Tamara Steffens retraces her career as an entrepreneur at Software.com, Boingo, and others.

08/31/2020

Matt Martin Co-Founder
at Clockwise

Matt Martin shares how Clockwise optimizes your calendar for thinking time via smart meeting re-scheduling.

08/26/2020

Rock Felder Co-founder & CFO
at SquadCast

Rock Felder explains the SquadCast origin story and how Covid has made the service more indispensable than ever for podcast creators.

08/24/2020

Dave Zohrob Co-founder and CEO
at Chartable

Dave Zohrob on Chartable's podcast analytics and attribution for publishers & advertisers.

08/17/2020

Eric Gonzales Managing Director
at Montage Capital

Eric Gonzales of Montage Capital on offering minimally dilutive loans for capital-efficient companies.

08/10/2020

Parker Conrad Co-founder and CEO
at Rippling

Parker Conrad joins the Founders and Friends podcast to talk about Rippling's all in one payroll, benefits, and employee management system.

08/03/2020

Natalie Arora Head of Operations
at Susa Ventures

Natalie Arora, Head of Operations at Susa Ventures, shares how she operationalizes an incredible founder experience and announces the Venture Fellows Program.

07/27/2020

Eli Ceryak Senior Vice President and Commercial Real Estate Broker
at Cushman & Wakefield

Eli Ceryak from Cushman Wakefield on How Startups should manage commercial real estate during Covid.

07/20/2020

Nick Ducoff Co-founder and CEO
at Edmit

Nick Ducoff of Edmit - helping families make smarter financial decisions about college, with advice about college savings, the true cost of college, and return on investment.

07/13/2020

Nelson Chu Founder and CEO
at Cadence

Nelson Chu of Cadence - makes investing in Alternative Assets easy and affordable - Cadence works with many alternative asset providers - especially alternative lenders to open up alternatives asset classes.

07/06/2020

Brian Balfour Founder and CEO
at Reforge

Brian Balfour of Reforge - the growth career development company - talks about product led growth.

06/29/2020

Mike Whitmire Co-founder and CEO
at Floqast

Mike Whitmire traces his journey from accountant at a high growth startup to the founder of Floqast, which has raised over $90 million in VC funding, has 150 employees, and hundreds of paying clients.

06/25/2020

Lylan Masterman Venture Capitalist

Lylan Masterman traces his journey from startups, through the Kauffmann program into venture capital.

06/23/2020

David Bergeron President
at T3 Advisors

David Bergeron of T3 Advisors, a leading commercial real estate advisor to venture-funded companies, discusses how COVID will change the future of the startup office.

05/26/2020

Collin Cavote Founder and CEO
at Biome

The founder of Biome, Collin Cavote, joins Kruze Consulting’s podcast to discuss how bioengineering and careful indoor plants can positively improve air quality, worker safety, and productivity.

05/20/2020

Glen Evans VP, Core Talent
at Greylock Partners

Glen Evans, VP of Core Talent at VC firm Greylock Partners digs into why venture capital firms have in-house recruiting partners.

05/18/2020

Lea Dessi-Olive Founder
at Elevation Advisory

Lea Dessi-Olive, experienced outsourced CFO to over 20 funded startups, discusses how she is helping her clients manage through the COVID crisis.

05/13/2020

Seth Freedman General Manager
at Intelligent Observation

Seth Freedman, General Manager at Intelligent Observation, talks about technology that can drive behavior modification to greatly reduce hospital infections.

05/11/2020

Chris Savage Founder and CEO
at Wistia

Chris Savage of Wistia discusses the impact of video content as a powerful marketing tool and as a training platform for COVID health workers and everyone else learning or working from their homes.

05/06/2020

Travis Deyle Co-Founder & CEO
at Cobalt Robotics

Safety, security, and facilities management robots in the time of COVID, with Travis Deyle, CEO of Cobalt Robotics.

05/05/2020

Evan Meagher & Jay Goldberg VP of Finance
at Logikcull

Special episode with two experienced CFOs, Evan Meagher from Logikcull and Jay Goldberg, talking about SBA Cares Act, PPP loans, and how startups can update their financial modeling to adapt it for the COVID-19 crisis.

04/29/2020

Matthew Belloni Editorial Director
at The Hollywood Reporter

Matt Belloni of Hollywood Reporter walks us through the impact the Covid-19 shutdown is having on Disney, the Streaming Wars, and online entertainment news business models.

04/27/2020

Jeff Lee Chief Operating Officer
at Origin

Jeff Lee talks about how Origin pivoted its 3D Manufacturing business to help produce swabs for Covid-19 testing.

04/21/2020

Michael Wang & Rohit Prakash Founder and CEO
at Inspiren

Michael Wang, founder and CEO of Inspiren, and Rohit Prakash, founder and CEO of Coast App, talk about how their companies are making a difference helping healthcare and frontline workers during the COVID crisis.

04/15/2020

Anne Dwane Co-Founder and Partner
at Village Global VC

In a pre-COVID interview, Anne Dwane of Village Global, a $100 million venture capital fund, explains her fund’s “founder-driven” investment thesis.

04/12/2020

Prashant Fonseka Partner
at Tuesday Capital

Prashant Fonseka, a venture capitalist with Tuesday Capital (formerly the CrunchFund), lists the advice he gives to portfolio companies during the COVID crisis.

04/08/2020

Jon Prentice Director of the Investment Team
at Lighter Capital

Lighter Capital provides revenue-based loans to startups. Jon Prentice discusses how this funding strategy works, and how his firm is helping fund startups during the COVID crisis.

04/05/2020

David Blumberg Founder & Managing Partner
at Blumberg Capital

David Blumberg of Blumberg Capital on Fintech & Supply Chain Software's Role in Helping During Covid-19.

04/02/2020

Kelsey Chase Founder & President
at Aumni

Kelsey Chase of Aumni Discusses the CARES Act PPP Loans and how SBA Affiliate Rules Affect Startups.

03/31/2020

Kathryn Hickey Partner
at PilieroMazza PLLC

Kathryn Hickey of PilieroMazza PLLC discusses eligibility for startups under the CARE Act stimulus loans.

03/27/2020

Brock Blake Founder and CEO
at Lendio

Brock Blake of Lendio, a small business and SBA loan expert, talks about the recent COVID / coronavirus stimulus act for startups and small businesses.

03/26/2020

Jacob Yormak Partner
at Story Ventures

Jacob Yormak, one of the co-founders of and Partner at Story Ventures, discusses his journey into venture capital.

03/25/2020

Scott Orn & Healy Jones Chief Operating Officer, CFA
at Kruze Consulting

Congress is about to pass legislation that may make it possible for VC and seed backed companies to access “disaster” type SBA loans.

03/18/2020

Michael Frankel SVP and Managing Director
at Deloitte

M&A expert Michael Frankel of Deloitte discusses the steps startups can take to increase their enterprise value during a sale.

03/11/2020

Georgene Huang CEO and Co-Founder
at Fairygodboss

Fairygodboss founder Georgene Huang found herself pregnant and out of a job.

03/04/2020

Evan Meagher VP of Finance
at Logikcull

Evan Meagher, who is not only the VP of Finance of Logikcull but who also wrote, performed and recorded the theme song to this podcast, talks about the challenges needed to upgrade a late-stage SaaS business to enterprise quality accounting systems.

02/26/2020

Jennifer Vancini General Partner
at Mighty Capital

Jennifer Vancini, VC, explains how her early-growth VC firm, Mighty Capital, uses a network of product professionals to evaluate investments.

02/19/2020

Michael Tannenbaum Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer
at Brex

Brex's Michael Tannenbaum joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to share how they are building an interconnected FinTech company.

02/05/2020

Rich Keen Chief Operating Officer
at Mind Candy

Rich Keen, COO of Mind Candy, discusses building a world class-brand that combines apps, media, and celebrities.

01/29/2020

Amy Lazarus Founder & CEO
at InclusionVentures

Amy Lazarus, founder of InclusionVentures, shares strategies to increase diversity - and innovation - by building a more inclusive startup culture.

01/22/2020

Kelly Nyland Founder & CEO
at Whym

Kelly Nyland, a multi-time startup founder, discusses how eCommerce has evolved, and where she thinks it is going in the age of text messaging.

01/15/2020

Don Butler Managing Director
at Thomvest Ventures

Don Butler has been a Fintech VC for 20 years - he shares his experiences in investing in the original wave of Peer to Peer lenders, and his predictions on why startups have a strong chance to disrupt traditional banks.

01/12/2020

Ronald Bland & Dillon Castro President

at AEIS Advisors

Ron Bland and Dillon Castro of AEIS Advisors strategize on the best ways for startups to provide healthcare benefits to their employees.

01/08/2020

Scott Orn & Healy Jones Chief Operating Officer, CFA
at Kruze Consulting

Scott Orn and Healy Jones of Kruze Consulting break down the massive amount of innovation happening in the startup banking space.

12/17/2019

John Popeo Principal
at The Gallatin Group

John Popeo of the Gallatin Group talks with Scott Orn of Kruze Consulting about how financial regulations are impacting the growth of the Fintech startup market.

12/10/2019

Scott Orn & Healy Jones Chief Operating Officer, CFA
at Kruze Consulting

The year-end is a great time to prepare your startup’s budget for the next year.

12/02/2019

Nicole Sahin CEO and Founder
at Globalization Partners

Nicole Sahin, CEO and Founder of Globalization Partners, has helped thousands of high-growth companies set up their first international hires.

11/25/2019

Kati Radziwon Founder and CEO
at iFlipd

Kati Radziwon, founder and CEO of iFlipd, talks to Scott Orn about the journey of growing her startup from a textbook rental company to a video game rental business to a FinTech play helping college students pay for college.

11/21/2019

Scott Orn Chief Operating Officer, CFA
at Kruze Consulting

Kruze Consulting COO, Scott Orn, discusses why Gusto and Zenefits are no longer letting their APIs talk to each other, and what this means for startups who use Gusto for payroll and Zenefits for benefits.

11/20/2019

Scott Orn & Healy Jones Chief Operating Officer, CFA
at Kruze Consulting

Scott and Healy, our VP of FP&A, get together to discuss Brex, Stripe, Amex, Expensify and the main startup focused banks.

11/18/2019

Kelsey Chase Founder and COO
at Aumni

Kelsey Chase of Aumni is a startup founder, offering technology that helps VCs and founders turn complex deal document data into valuable information.

11/13/2019

David Spreng Founder, CEO & CIO
at Runway Growth Capital

David Spreng of Runway Capital talks with Kruze Consulting about how his experience led him to found a venture debt firm.

11/06/2019

Immad Akhund Founder and CEO
at Mercury

Serial entrepreneur Immad Akhund of Mercury discusses why startups need a financial services company built specifically for their needs.

10/08/2019

Curtis Coleman Founder and CEO
at RVillage

Curtis Coleman, founder and CEO of RVillage talks about growing a niche social network.

10/02/2019

Aman Mann Founder and CEO
at Procurify

Aman Mann, Procurify Founder and CEO, dives into how strategically managing a team's spend can drive purpose, mastery, and autonomy inside organizations.

09/17/2019

Chelsea Shukov Founder and Creative Director
at Sugar Paper

Chelsea Shukov, the founder of Sugar Paper, talks about focusing on quality and distribution to build a successful, offline consumer business.

09/10/2019

Dave Schappell Investor, Board Advisor and Director Of Marketing Operations
at MyPerfectColor.com

Dave Schappell of My Perfect Color talks about raising seed and VC funding as a repeat entrepreneur.

09/03/2019

Brad Gakenheimer Co-Founder
at Roast Umber

Brad Gakenheimer of Roast Umber Coffee Company explains what it takes to start a coffee company.

08/20/2019

Jamie Ceglarz Founder
at Guild Talent

Jamie Ceglarz, Guild Talent founder, has helped many startups make their first finance and operations leadership hire.

08/06/2019

Andre Gharakhanian Founder and Partner
at Silicon Legal Strategy

Andre Gharakhanian of Silicon Legal Strategy talks startup legal strategy and about growing a law firm totally focused on serving fast-growth startups.

07/10/2019

Robbie Mitchell Head of Operations
at Frame.ai

Robbie Mitchell, Heads of Operations of Frame.ai, discusses his founder journey - and much more.

06/25/2019

Stephanie Mann & Anne Foreman Founding Partner
at At Your Core

Stephanie Mann and Anne Foreman of At Your Core discuss how to set the foundation for a strong culture in a startup.

05/21/2019

Andrew Miller Executive Vice President, Business Operations
at Toronto Blue Jays

Andrew Miller of the Toronto Blue Jays discusses aligning an organization to focus on a single goal, winning.

05/14/2019

Lars Kamp Co-founder & Chief Data Engineer
at intermix.io

Lars Kamps, Intermix founder, talks about how to raise a seed round for your startup.

05/07/2019

Mark MacLeod Founder
at SurePath Capital Partners

Mark MacLeod, an investment banker to fast-growing SMB software startups, dives into how SaaS companies prepare for an exit.

04/23/2019

Evan Meagher VP of Finance
at Logikcull

Evan Meagher of Logikcull discusses how to scale finance and sales scale together in fast growth SaaS startups.

04/16/2019

Scott Orn & Healy Jones Startup CFO

at Kruze Consulting

Venture debt expert Scott Orn, of Kruze Consulting, explains what venture debt is and how startups use debt to boost growth while optimizing their cap table.

03/27/2019

Parker Conrad CEO & Co-Founder
at Rippling

Parker Conrad founded Rippling to simplify a startup's entire back-office by uniting Payroll, Benefits, HR & IT.

03/13/2019

Charles Hudson Managing Partner
at Precursor Ventures

Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures goes over the challenges of raising a seed fund in today's environment.

02/27/2019

Mary Lemmer Founder & Improviser
at Improv 4

Mary Lemmer of Improv4 shares how Improv improves startup culture and trains leaders.

02/13/2019

Audrey Grubman & Christina Kramlich Managing Principal

at Parkside Advisors

Audrey Grubman & Christina Kramlich of Parkside Advisors discuss Financial Planning Strategies for Startup Founders & Employees.

02/06/2019

Joel Gragg Managing Director
at ORIX

Joel Gragg of ORIX discusses how growth stage startups use debt as part of their capital structure.

01/24/2019

Eric Frazer & Richie Seaberry Sr. Business Development Executive
at Decisely

Eric Frazer & Richard Seaberry of Decisely discuss Startup Benefits & Human Resources.

01/08/2019

David Bergeron President
at T3 Advisors

David Bergeron, a second-time guest (!!!) discusses T3's analytical approach to the 2019 Startup Real Estate Market.

11/25/2018

Paul Lappas CEO & Co-Founder
at Intermix.io

Paul Lappas of Intermix comes by to explain how his company gives developers and data scientists a single dashboard to monitor mission-critical data.

11/14/2018

Michael Tannenbaum Chief Financial Officer
at Brex

Michael Tannenbaum of Brex comes by to discuss startup corporate credit cards.

10/21/2018

Brian Mullen VP Business Development & Partnerships
at InfluxData

Brian Mullen of InfluxData comes by to discuss the Company's Open Source Time Series Database for Metrics & Events.

10/07/2018

Michael Chapp Board of Directors
at Utomic

Michael Chapp of Utomic talks about the entrepreneurial journey and his Company's iPhone protection hardware.

09/30/2018

Haje Kamps Director of Portfolio
at Bolt Venture Capital

Haje Kamps is a Hardware VC at Bolt VC but in this podcast, Haje gets back to his journalist roots by interviewing me (Scott Orn)!

09/23/2018

Russ Heddleston CEO
at DocSend

Russ Heddleston of DocSend on the Company's Content Management & Tracking System that helps sales and marketing teams be more efficient.

09/18/2018

Ben Raffi CEO and Co-founder
at Growlabs

Ben Raffi of Growlabs discusses the company's B2B Lead Generation & Sales Automation solution.

09/11/2018

Haim Zaltzman & Ben Potter Partner
at Latham & Watkins

Haim Zaltzman & Ben Potter of Latham & Watkins discuss startup funding strategies including the benefits and differences between Growth Equity & Growth Debt.

09/04/2018

Sumeet Howe Product Management Director
at Hover

Sumeet Howe of Hover stops by to talk Startup Product Management and share her career path.

07/11/2018

Jennifer Saxton Founder & CEO
at Tot Squad

Jennifer Saxton of Tot Squad talks about her on-demand cleaning for baby gear. Jen started the company out of Kellogg where she foresaw a huge cohort of millennial moms needing on-demand cleaning services.

06/27/2018

Ryan Shaening Pokrasso Founder
at SPZ Legal

Ryan Shaening Pokrasso of SPZ Legal stops by to walk us through Startup Legal Best Practices.

05/29/2018

Patrick Johnson VP, Tech Banking
at Silicon Valley Bank

Patrick Johnson, of Silicon Valley Bank, stops by to talk about Startup Banking, Venture Debt, and other ways SVB partners with founders and and investors.

05/14/2018

Blake Oliver Senior Product Marketing Manager
at FloQast

Blake Oliver, of FloQast, joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to discuss the latest trends in Cloud Accounting and Close Management Software.

05/08/2018

Maren Kate Donovan Founder & Managing Partner
at Recruit

Maren Kate Donovan, Founder of Recruit, explains how to scale your startup's recruiting efforts, frequent recruiting mistakes and best practices.

05/02/2018

Matt Gunnin Founder & CEO
at Esports One

Matt Gunnin of Esports One explains the Esports phenomenon and how his company's computer vision powered audience experience makes it that much more enjoyable for viewing. Esports One allows the audience to track the pros and even learn from them. After taping the podcast, Esports One released its new Twitch Extension.

04/09/2018

Kevin Busque CEO
at Guideline

Kevin Busque of Guideline 401k drops by to talk Startup 401ks and how he came to realize the 401k system could be improved dramatically.

04/02/2018

Beth Stevens Head of Legal
at Opendoor

Beth Stevens of Opendoor joins the Founders and Friends Podcast to talk about her experiences running Legal & Compliance at a fast growing startup.

03/16/2018

Shruti Merchant Co-Founder & CEO
at HubHaus

HubHaus CEO, Shruti Merchant, joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to talk about how she is pioneering long-term home sharing.

03/05/2018

Aaron Tyler Managing Director
at TriplePoint Capital

Aaron Tyler, Managing Director at TriplePoint Capital, joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to discuss Venture Debt for Startups.

02/16/2018

Evan Meagher VP of Finance
at Logikcull

Evan Meagher, VP of Finance at Logikcull and another 2nd-time guest (!), stops by to discuss SaaS Startup life. Evan helps run Logikcull which has become a major player in the Legal Discovery software market. In fact, Logikcull just closed a $25M round and is poised for even faster growth.

01/30/2018

Eli Ceryak Senior Vice President/Commercial Real Estate Broker
at Cushman and Wakefield

Eli Ceryak of Cushman & Wakefield, our first 2 time guest on Founders and Friends, stops by to discuss the 2018 Startup Real Estate Outlook. Eli has done a fantastic job for Kruze Consulting finding two offices in San Francisco already and has also helped locate our new San Jose office. Eli is one of the best Startup Real Estate Brokers in San Francisco and has some great advice and predictions in this podcast.

01/08/2018

Rob Sadow Co-Founder & CEO
at Scoop Technologies

Rob Sadow of Scoop talks about how Scoop makes commuting fun and easy. Scoop allows company team members to share rides to and from work through an easy-to-operate app. Scoop has become a widely offered perq in the Bay Area and Seattle.

01/08/2018

Lee Firestone CEO
at OpenReel

Lee Firestone, CEO of OpenReel, joins Scott Orn to discuss how OpenReel makes creating videos easy for businesses through remote capture technology.

01/05/2018

Ben Munoz Co-Founder & CEO
at Nadine West

Ben Munoz, of Nadine West, joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to discuss his entrepreneurial journey to a profitable commerce business.

12/15/2017

Michael Piacente Co-Founder and Managing Partner
at Hitch Partners

Michael Piacente discusses Hitch Partners, the leading Executive Search Firm for Security Professionals, and the explosion in demand for Executives in Security.

12/06/2017

Matt Miller Founder & CEO
at Embroker

CEO of online service Embroker, Matt Miller, joins the Founders and Friends Podcast to discuss his companies' efforts to automate insurance for startups.

12/01/2017

Chuck Pettid Partner, Deal Team Manager
at Republic.co

Deal Team Manager, Chuck Pettid, discusses Republic's unique brand of crowdfunding equity investments for startups on the Founders and Friends Podcast

10/24/2017

Josh Lowy Co-Founder & CEO
at Hugo

Josh Lowy from Hugo joins Scott Orn to discuss the software which makes documenting meeting insights easy and sharing with your team even easier.

09/27/2017

Will Hawthorne Managing Director
at Code Advisors

Will Hawthorne of Code Advisors discusses M&A for Startups. Will explains how a startup can create leverage with multiple buyers, the importance of reliable financials and accounting and important deal points every Startup CEO should know.

09/07/2017

Leslie Sagalowicz Barber Business & Marketing Lead, QuickBooks Community
at Intuit

Leslie Sagalowicz Barber of Intuit's Quickbooks discusses Quickbook's excellent online software package including the newly launched QB Community.

08/21/2017

Kaushik Ranchod Founder
at Ranchod Law Group

Kaushik Ranchod, Founder of the Ranchod Law Group, joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to outline the H1B Visa Process for Startups.

08/14/2017

Zack Blum CEO
at Fleetsmith

Zack Blum joins the Founders and Friends Podcast to discuss Fleetsmith's new Cloud Based Mac Management Software and coming up with the idea while at Wikia.

08/07/2017

Raphael Crawford-Marks Co-founder and CEO
at Bonusly

CEO and Founder Raphael Crawford-Marks joins the Founders & Friends Podcast to talk about Bonusly, a next generation employee recognition service.

07/25/2017

Reilly Brennan Founding Partner
at Trucks Venture Capital

Reilly Brennan, of Trucks Venture Capital, joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to discuss early stage transportation startups.

06/28/2017

Devon Tivona CEO, Co-Founder
at Pana

Devon Tivona of Pana discusses how Pana combines mobile app technology and virtual travel assistants to make travel easy. Although Pana is for business travel, I used it on a recent vacation and loved it. Recently Pana added features for corporate recruiters to make coordinating candidate travel simple.

05/31/2017

Sarah Schaaf CEO
at Headnote

Sarah Schaaf of Headnote retraces her journey from Google Lawyer to legal industry startup founder. Headnote makes billing and collections easy for lawyers. It's a huge pain point for lawyers and the company has already handled over $1M in its very short life. We discuss the value of an incubator (NFX) and how it helped Headnote's team pivot to the right idea. Finally, we talk about working with your spouse and how rewarding and challenging that can be.

05/24/2017

Jesse Freese Senior Business Consultant
at Sequoia Consulting

Jesse Freese of Sequoia Consulting Group joins the Founders and Friends Podcast to discuss the PEO approach for employee benefits at startups.

05/18/2017

Jeron Paul CEO
at Capshare

Jeron Paul, CEO of Capshare, joins Scott Orn on the Founder & Friends Pod to talk about Cap Table Management for Startups and the software Capshare provides.

05/09/2017

Laurie Lumenti-Garty Senior Vice President
at Square One Bank

Laurie Lumenti-Garty of Square One Bank joins Founders & Friends to explain the services that every startup should receive from its bank.

05/03/2017

Peter Lai Co-Founder & CEO
at Emburse

Peter Lai joins Founders & Friends to discuss his new company, Emburse. Peter shares advice and explains how he came up with the idea for Emburse.

04/24/2017

Mike Lederman Region Director
at Bridge Bank

Mike Lederman runs the West Coast Region for Bridge Bank. He joins Scott Orn to explain venture debt and other services that Bridge Bank provides.

04/11/2017

Ronjini Joshua Founder
at The Silver Telegram

Ronjini Joshua is the founder of The Silver Telegram, a PR agency for startups and crowdfunding campaigns. She walks us through the best practices for Startup PR, how to get the most out of your PR Agency and a few 'what not to do' stories.

03/27/2017

James Schramko Founder & CEO
at SuperFastBusiness

James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness discusses building productive habits both personally and professionally. James has founded multiple successful businesses on the web and now focuses on SuperFastBusiness, an Executive Coaching service with international clientele. James' SuperFastBusiness podcast is excellent and a must listen.

03/04/2017

Rene Lacerte Founder & CEO
at Bill.com

Founder & CEO of Bill.com, Rene Lacerte, discusses the leading online business payment provider - one of Kruze Consulting''s favorite software tools!

03/03/2017

Tye DeGrange Founder
at Round Barn Labs

Tye DeGrange of Round Barn Labs talks startup growth marketing. Tye takes a data driven approach to marketing. It's all about performance for Round Barn Labs. We talk tactics including the power of Influencer Marketing.

02/19/2017

Peggy Chang CEO
at Activity Hero

Peggy Chang, Co-Founder & CEO of Activity Hero, explains how she came up with the idea of building a one-stop shop website to find and book kids camps and classes. Peggy lived the problem and after a growing frustration, she decided to do something about it and ActivityHero was born. Now parents across the US can easily book and find information on camps and activities for children.

02/13/2017

Vincent Turner Founder & CEO
at Uno Home Loans

Vincent Turner of Uno Home Loans is a Fintech pioneer. Learn how Uno Home Loans is dramatically simplifying the Australian mortgage process.

02/06/2017

Mark MacLeod Founder
at SurePath Capital

Mark Macleod, Founder of SurePath, talks about the metrics a startup needs to raise money, how much money to raise and the difference in fundraising approaches.

01/29/2017

Augie Rakow Partner
at Orrick

Augie Rakow of Orrick is one of the best startup lawyers in the Valley. He stopped by to share tips how he got into law in the first place, why he loves venture backed startups and his best advice for Founders building their startup dream.

01/23/2017

Steve Gillan Chief Financial Officer
at Azure Capital Partners

Steve Gillan of Azure Capital Partners discusses his firm's strategy of investing in Post Seed Stage Startups on the Friends & Founders podcast.

01/15/2017

Healy Jones Head of Marketing
at ForUsAll

Healy Jones of ForUsAll discusses Startup 401k's, including why startups should offer them and how to make them cost effective for employers and employees. ForUsAll is the leading 401k provider for startups and Kruze Consulting is a huge fan.

01/11/2017

Josh Reeves CEO
at Gusto

Premier payroll system Gusto's CEO, Josh Reeves, joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to share his vision and people first values.

01/05/2017

Haje Jan Kamps Contributor
at TechCrunch

TechCrunch's Haje Jan Kamps joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to discuss how to get your startup covered and how he became an entrepreneur.

12/30/2016

Matt Ziser VP of Operations
at Tobi

Matt Ziser, VP of Operations at Tobi, joins the Founders and Friends Podcast to talk about running Operations at a fast growing eCommerce startup.

12/19/2016

Jacob Colker Chief Marketing Officer
at Lighter Capital

Jacob Colker of Lighter Capital joins Scott Orn to discuss startup funding and how to minimize dilution through Lighter Capital's startup loans.

12/16/2016

Ed Aten Founder & CEO
at Merchbar

Ed Aten of Merchar shares his experiences building the leading ecommerce site for all things music merchandise. Merchbar has been featured in the iTunes Appstore 20+ times because it greatly simplifies buying your favorite bands t-shirts, albums and other gear.

12/14/2016

Aaron Moskowitz Enterprise SEO Executive
at SEO Expert

Aaron Moskowitz, an Enterprise SEO Executive, stops by to share his best Startup SEO Tips. Aaron has tons of experience in online marketing and SEO. He also shares what not to do so your startup won't end up in the penalty box. :)

12/08/2016

Sonja Hoel Perkins Founder
at Project Glimmer and Broadway Angels

Sonja Hoel Perkins shares her passion for two women centric organization she has founded, Project Glimmer and Broadway Angels. Project Glimmer inspires girls to believe in themselves. Through the gift of beautiful jewelry, Project Glimmer lets young woman know their community cares. Glimmer has given over 120,000 gifts of jewelry since founding and will deliver another 50,000 gifts this holiday season. You can still donate to Glimmer or host a Glimmer Drive in time for the 2016 holiday season. Broadway Angels is an investment network consisting of successful women VC's & CEO's. The goal of the organization is to fund the best women entrepreneurs while also helping women break into the venture capital business.

12/05/2016

Steve Walker Founder
at Cobaltix

Steve Walker, Founder of Cobaltix, coaches us through how startups can outsource their IT systems. Cobaltix works with hundreds of startups and knows all the best practices. Steve is also an accomplished long distance swimmer and his new book, Where Do the Crazy People Swim is available on Amazon.

11/27/2016

Glen Evans Recruiting
at Slack

Glen Evans runs Recruiting at Slack, he joins the Founders and Friend Podcast to retrace his career and share advice on recruiting for fast growing startups.

11/16/2016

Evan Meagher Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Operations
at SigFig

Evan Meagher of SigFig came by to share the lessons he has learned helping SigFig scale. Evan is Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Operations so he's seen it all. SigFig has revolutionized smart personal investing by offering algorithmic index investing. Sometimes SigFig is called a 'Robo Advisor' because the machines and algorithms do all the work, leaving higher returns and lower fees for consumers.

11/10/2016

Eli Ceryak Commercial Real Estate Broker
at Cushman & Wakefield

Eli Ceryak Cushman & Wakefield stops by Kruze Consulting to talk about the Startup Real Estate Market. Eli specializes in the San Francisco Bay Area but we covered some of the other big startup hubs as well. We also talked about the trade-off's between sub-leasing and being the master tenant with a longer term lease. Eli is super knowledgeable and such a pleasure to work with. He's Kruze Consulting's Real Estate Professional so we know he is terrific!

11/07/2016

Steve Bennet Angel Investor & Entrepreneurship Professor
at Bodega Partners

Angel Investor, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and Startup CFO consultant, Steve Bennet, discusses what Angel Investors look for in an investment.

11/03/2016

Jeff Samuels VP of Sales
at Founder Shield

Jeff Samuels of Founder Shield joins us to talk Insurance for Startups. We discuss General Liability, Errors & Omissions, Workers Comp, and Benefits. It's an episode designed to answer every possible question a startup could have about Insurance.

10/30/2016

Jeff Smith Product Designer
at Facebook

Jeff Smith of Facebook joins us to discuss Facebook.Design, the company's initiative that gives back to the design community with free GUI tools and much more to come. Jeff's career has come full circle as he broke into the design industry by leveraging similar open source GUI tools - Teehan & Lax's GUI's. Facebook.Design is an excellent example of a successful team and company giving back to the rest of the world.

10/23/2016

Brian Sterz Principal
at Miracle Miles Advisors

Brian Sterz of Miracle Mile Advisors talks personal money management for startup founders and team members. Brian talks shares methods for achieving diversification and smart tax planning, two of the most impactful ways startup folks can manage their money intelligently.

10/19/2016

John Pettus CEO
at Fiskkit

John Pettus is the Founder & CEO of Fiskkit, which is developing a better way to discuss the news. Fiskkit is a social enterprise that has created a commentary and fact checking system for the Internet. John came by to discuss the election and how Fiskkit will help people on the Internet have more productive and respectful discussions in the future.

10/17/2016

Amber Merrigan Real Estate Professional
at Avison Young

Amber Merrigan of Avison Young talks Startup Real Estate in Oakland. Amber has covered Oakland for years and it's startup ecosystem is exploding. Find out how to get the best deals, where the hottest locations are and some key terms you need in your lease.

10/11/2016

Lynn Perkins CEO
at UrbanSitter

Co-Founder and CEO of UrbanSitter, Lynn Perkins, joins Scott Orn to talk about how mobile service UrbanSitter makes finding a babysitter easy.

10/04/2016

Matt Rissell CEO
at TSheets

Matt Rissell is the Co-Founder & CEO of TSheets. He shares a great story from his last company that led to the founding of TSheets Time Tracking Software. Matt talks about the early days of prototyping TSheets and wondering whether it could become a real business. Matt bootstrapped for a long time and he shares some great tips on building a startup to last.

09/30/2016

Robert Kohler Founder
at Kohler Law Group

Robert Kohler started Kohler Law Group to provide outsourced in-house counsel for startups. Robert is an entrepreneur himself, having started his own firm and a series of restaurants in San Francisco. He understands the importance of good legal work while keeping the bills manageable for his clients. Robert was also kind enough to share his favorite startup legal tips with us.

09/25/2016

Jamie Ceglarz Director of Growth
at The Sourcery

Jamie Ceglarz of The Sourcery came by to talk about recruiting for growth stage startups. The Sourcery is an outsourced recruiting solution for early stage startups. As the startup scales, so does the relationship with the Sourcery. Jamie shares his best tips on hiring and on how a startup should build its teams.

09/22/2016

Matt Belloni Executive Editor
at Hollywood Reporter

Matthew Belloni is the Executive Editor of The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard. In this episode, Matt talks about the evolution of his own career from entertainment lawyer to journalist and editor. The Hollywood Reporter dominates Entertainment Industry coverage online and offline. However, 5 years ago the Company was an industry trade magazine with competitors. Belloni explains how the print version evolved into a weekly and how the web version has become a traffic monster.

09/20/2016

Patrick Sullivan Co-Founder and COO
at 2600hz

Patrick Sullivan is the Co-Founder & COO of 2600hz. Patrick shares his thoughts on bootstrapping to startup success. 2600hz is a cloud telecom company gives developers and businesses access to cloud telecom services. At Kruze Consulting, we use 2600hz and we love it.

09/12/2016

Monica Ohara Co-Founder
at Datascore

Monica Ohara & Hannah Russin of Datascore came on the podcast to talk Growth Marketing for Startups. Monica & Hannah are all about the data. In this day and age, so much marketing and advertising is done over the Internet, that you should be taking a data-centric approach to your marketing. Datascore tells you how to do it.

09/08/2016

Kathy Woeber Gardner Partner
at Montgomery Pacific LLP

Kathy Woeber Gardner is a Partner at Montgomery Pacific LLP and has spent her career as a lawyer working with startups. Kathy began at Orrick and then moved to Montgomery Pacific. She talks about the transition from big to boutique law firm and building her client base including a special connection with Australian & Asia Pacific Startups. We end with an incredible series of tips for running a startup M&A process.

09/06/2016

Mike Barash Co-Founder
at Codeword

Mike is the founding partner at Codeword (formerly Knock Twice), a hybrid PR, content, advertising, branding and design agency that puts start-ups on the map and builds campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world. Mike is one of the best in the business and we're lucky to have him as a guest. He walks us through the Startup PR Playbook and also gives some great career advice.

09/02/2016

Ashish Desai Chief Product Officer
at 99designs

In this episode, Ashish talks about how a failed Internet venture (with me :)) helped him recognize the opportunity at 99designs. He talks about managing a development team on two different continents and how 99designs' Australian culture helps the team focus on the future and improvement.

09/01/2016

David Bergeron Real Estate Advisor
at T3 Advisors

David Bergeron, of T3 Advisors, joins Scott Orn on the Founders and Friends Podcast to walk us through the San Francisco Startup Real Estate Market

08/26/2016

Jen O'Neal and Jeff Manheimer Co-Founders & CEO's
at Tripping.com

Jen O'Neal and Jeff Manheimer founded Tripping.com to make finding a vacation home anywhere in the world easy. Tripping is like Kayak for the vacation home market. Consumers can go to Tripping and find available vacation homes across many other services, which guarantees the best selection and pricing. The first portion of the the interview occurs as Tripping hit product market fit. The second half comes six months later and you'll hear about the explosive growth.

08/22/2016

Bill Growney Partner
at Goodwin Procter

Bill Growney, a Partner at Goodwin Procter, joins Scott Orn to talk about common mistakes early stage startups make while setting up their company

08/19/2016

David Barrett CEO
at Expensify

Hear from David Barrett, Founder & CEO of Expensify, speaking on the podcast about Expensify - the world's best expense management software.

08/19/2016

Brian Mullen VP Global Connectivity & Mobility
at Twilio

Brian Mullen of Twilio was the company's first business hire. He's a Business Development guru. In this episode he talks about what attracted him to Twilio, how the company's focus on developers paid off and he even manages to sneak in a few comments about Oakland and his Cal Bears.

08/17/2016

Rod Drury CEO
at Xero

Founder & CEO of Xero, Rod Drury, on the a multi-billion publicly traded accounting software company going head to head with Intuit's Quickbooks.