Why We Strive

Nick Nanakos | CEO - Ziki

ZIKI factory - produces modular restaurants with unstoppable unit economics.

ZIKI factory-produce modular restaurants with unstoppable unit economics. The cuisine we operate is Greek-Mexican fusion that uses zero seed oils, soy, or vegetable oils. We opened 10 locations in just 7 months, and closed our seed round ($6.7M) which was led by Gigafund, the same group that invested $1B+ into SpaceX.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Alon Grinshpoon | CEO - Echo 3D

3D asset management for games, 3D apps, and AR/VR experiences

echo3D (www.echo3D.com) is a cloud platform for 3D/AR/VR asset management that provides tools and network infrastructure to help developers & companies quickly build and deploy 3D apps, games, and content.

echo3D serves over 40,000 developers using our SDKs to create real-time 3D experiences (for healthcare, entertainment, retail, gaming, training, and more) and have deployed AR+5G projects with both Verizon and AT&T. echo3D signed partnerships with Unity3D, the world's leading game engine, and NextNav (Nasdaq: NN).

echo3D is backed by Qualcomm Ventures, Konvoy Ventures, Remagine Ventures, Space Capital, and Techstars, and received grants from Y Combinator, Verizon, and NYC Media Lab. We were named AR/VR finalists for SXSW 2020, won the DevProject Award 2019, named among the 2019 Most Fundable Companies, named one of the Top 25 finalists in Sir Richard Branson's Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) 2019, and featured on VentureBeat, The Hill, XRToday, Bold TV, Ynet, Calcalist, and Mako.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Ankith Hathari | Co-Founder - Macro

Adding Identity and Expression to Zoom

Zoom fatigue is never going to be solved by making meetings more 'productive'. Automatic transcriptions, notes, and integrations don't address the core issues of why virtual meetings drain our energy more than in-person interactions. Interactions in real life had more depth, meaning, and dimension - an expression of who we each individually are.

Over Zoom, we've all lost a dimension, quite literally. Communicating within our little 2D box constrains our personality and limits our interactions with others. Macro existed to help you break out of that box. To bring your full self over video. With customization and video-native expression features.

In providing its status-quo breaking experience, Macro built the first true 3rd party Zoom client. You could use Macro to join any Zoom meeting, even if everyone else on the call was still on Zoom.

It's technology coupled with the company's mission of elevating people's digital expression over video led to it's eventual acquisition by mmhmm - a company by Phil Libin (of Evernote fame) founded to give communication superpowers, backed with over $140M  from Sequoia, Softbank, and more.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Smriti Zaneveld | Co-Founder - Lazarus 3D

Using 3D printing we can take your patient's scans and rapidly validate, manufacture and deliver a high quality model of their anatomy in a matter of days. We offer a full turn-key solution: physician only needs to provide the DICOM image and Lazarus 3D takes care of the rest!

Each patient is unique, we strive to establish personalized medicine solutions for patients and physicians alike. Our Pre-Sure® (PRE-operative SUrgical REhearsal) models are made with soft silicones and hydrogels that mimic human tissue making them ideal for practicing incisions and sutures. They allow you to practice on a 3D printed, patient-specific replica before operating. Personalized patient care improves patient experience, maximizes safety and drives better outcomes.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Sam Chason | CEO - Storage Scholars

https://www.whywestrive.com/episodes/storage-scholars-sam-chason

Storage Scholars is the nation's premier provider of student storage, moving, and shipping solutions, with operations on 60 college campuses across the country. They are a young, sharp company obsessed with innovation and service quality. Their proprietary technology documents every step of their process with updates sent in real-time. Their customer service leads the industry with a 4.8-star rating. True to their mission, they employ a new group of students each year to learn the foundations of business, training and serving their peers as the leaders of their respective campus operations. They have employed over 1,000 students and will continue creating on-campus jobs and paid internship opportunities for years to come.

Here is how it works: students receive packing supplies on campus, pack up, and leave. Thanks to their partnership with the University, after the campus closes, everything is moved into storage for the summer. The best part is everything is ready and waiting in their new rooms when they return to campus.

Having been bootstrapped since inception by founder Sam Chason out of his freshmen college dorm at Wake Forest back in 2017, the company's trajectory has changed since appearing on Shark Tank on October 14th in 2022. Since then, they have solidified their integration with StarRez, the largest student housing platform in the world. They partnered with SIRVA, the largest relocation company on the planet, responsible for the majority of the moves for all fortune 500 companies. SIRVA will not only serve as the backbone of Storage Scholar's entire logistics network, but their presence on the E&I cooperative allows us to bypass the RFP process and shoot for global expansion...quickly. All parties involved are incredibly excited. It is like the Crest vs. Colgate decision. Once you pick one, you often use that brand for the rest of your life. Once Storage Scholars moves students from some of the most elite Universities in America to school, during their four years at school and then to their first job when they graduate -- who do you think these same kids (now adults) will be calling to move into their first home or when they need to downsize the offices in their new company that they run? Finally, partnering with Universities often involves Storage Scholars becoming an approved storage and moving vendor, allowing them to bid on or simply accept large-scale commercial jobs to supplement the seasonality of the business. There is no doubt that Storage Scholars will be a globally recognized brand in the next five years.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Jon Werner | CEO - Bones In Motion, Co-founder - Koya Cherie Werner | CEO - Fiesta, Co-Founder - Koya

https://www.whywestrive.com/episodes/bones-in-motion-koya

Your phone is your fitness device. This episode covers the journey of Bones in Motion (acquired by Adidas) and the growth of a new startup - Koya. Bones in Motion - Mobile lifestyle services company acquired by adidas that developed mobile phone applications and web services to monitor and track outdoor enthusiasts in real-time and create a dynamic online journal of their distance, pace, calories burned, and route taken.Won Best Global Location-based App 2005 from Navteq and Best Location-based App 2005 from ESRI. Awarded multiple US and global patents covering a wide-range of mobile fitness innovations. Koya - Canceling loneliness one connection at a time. KOYA Innovations develops products rooted in connection. KOYA for Business helps companies show gratitude to their employees and customers through a relationship-first experience using one-to-one personal videos and optional gifts. KOYA Connect turbo-charges networking events for attendees and provides ROI metrics for sponsors creating a win/win for all.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Daniel Hinojosa - CEO | Lift ATX #24

The best gym in Austin, Texas

Strength in Community | Community in Strength

Lift ATX is a gym with a primary focus of serving the community. In addition to providing an affordable, welcoming, inclusive environment to promote health and wellness, Lift ATX engages the community by hosting fundraisers, drives, and awareness events that center East Austin.​

Our gym is a showcase for local artists, and we frequently feature local Austin vendors at our events and on busy weekends.  And one of our best features- Lift ATX is dog friendly!

Looking for trainers? We also have diverse array of trainers that we're proud to have working with us! Our certified and talented trainers are here to help you become the best version of yourself. Whether you are looking to change your lifestyle, bodybuild, or compete in a powerlifting competition, they are here to help you.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

John Andrew Entwistle | Founder - Wander

We’ve all been there: you’re in desperate need of time away. The countdown is on. The bags are packed. You arrive at your vacation rental and…

It’s disappointing. It looks nothing like it did online. The WiFi is spotty. You can’t get a hold of your host. You’re left with a list of rules, from amenities that are off-limits to cleaning instructions before you check-out. Suddenly, you’re missing home. You reminisce about your own bed. You’re wishing you had booked a hotel.

Life has enough stress. Traveling should be an escape. We built Wander to help you find your happy place. We built Wander for you to create memories with the people you care about. We built Wander because the infrastructure to experience the world is broken, and you deserve better than that. We built Wander so that you could skip straight to the good part.

It starts with owning every single home on our platform, which means we have 100% control over the quality (high), the technology (smart), and the locations (inspiring). It means putting total home control at your fingertips through the Wander app, from unlocking the door and turning on the lights to accessing the Tesla in the garage.

It means getting the best of both worlds: the guarantees of a luxury hotel paired with the comforts (and space) of a home. It means peace of mind with 24/7 concierge service, so if you have questions – you’ll get answers, instantly. It means being able to unwind without having to unplug, with state-of-the-art workstations and super fast WiFi.

We believe humans are meant to explore the world, and that these experiences are best when shared. We believe a pioneering spirit – a call to blaze new trails and broaden our horizons – is embedded in our DNA. And we believe that, together with our customers, we can build a network of Wanders across the globe you can access with the push of a button.

When stunning settings and smart technology collide in just the right way, the result is something magical. An adventure that’s unexpected. An environment that stokes creativity and resets the mind. A sense of freedom and possibility that sticks with you long after you’ve checked out. Our product isn’t our app or inventory, but the feeling we deliver to our customers.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Ashley J. Jennings & Dr. Van Truskett | Co-founders - University of Texas Innovation Center

Big Tech. Big Impact. Longhorn Tech Nation. Launched in January 2020, the Texas Innovation Center (TxIC) creates and fosters a community for collaborative research and entrepreneurship in support of technology commercialization for the University of Texas at Austin.

Serving as UT Austin’s venture studio for launching engineering and scientific (STEM) discoveries and technologies to market, the TxIC does this by providing entrepreneurship education, startup resources, network, and innovation funding to all faculty, graduate students, and postdocs from all 18 colleges across campus (including 12,000 graduate students and 3,500 teaching faculty).

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Carson Jones | Co-founder - Reflex 

A better way to work in retail

Front-line workers are extraordinary and the backbone retail industry. But until now, working in retail has been hard — workers are often underpaid and cannot set their own schedule.

Reflex aims to improve the life of front-line workers by building a better way to work in Retail. The Reflex platform connects associates to retail stores on demand. Workers are paid the very next day and can work when they want, where they want.

Founded in 2021 by Mike Meyers and Carson Jones in Austin, TX, Reflex is quickly expanding across Texas and beyond.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Rohan Dang | CEO - Cerebro Sports

Bringing Data Into Basketball Scouting

Performance data from every level, because careers begin well before the NBA.

Cerebro is building the most comprehensive player career profiles, starting in basketball. By collecting simple performance data from every competition level, Cerebro provides decision-makers in the NBA, NCAA and more with earlier data on players.

Want to see Kevin Durant's stats from High School? Cerebro has it. Steph Curry and his 3 years of Davidson? Collected! The projected #1 pick in the 2023 Draft, Victor Wembanyama, already has over 100 games of data in the Cerebro database heading into his final pre-draft season.

Scaling stat collection to every level of the game allows Cerebro to give decision makers more data as they construct their rosters, but more than that - Cerebro is providing a tangible, objective asset for the players themselves to use on their recruiting journey - a first of its kind and a game-changer for the youth sports space.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Jorge Ortiz | CEO - Varsity Hype

Expanding Horizons For Youth Athletes, Coaches, And Fans

Varsity Hype is a web and mobile solution for students, parents, coaches, instructors, and their organizations to store, manage, personalize, and share video, audio, and photo content from any sport or school activity.

Varsity Hype was founded to challenge the status quo in the student video sector. We built our products with the mindset that the perfect video, content, and analytics platform should be uncomplicated, accessible, and affordable. Varsity Hype prioritizes delivering a solution to every sport, art activity, academic activity, and extracurricular activity a student might participate in at every level without sacrificing functionality or costing a stadium full of money. Period.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Michael Marra | CEO - Entre

The New Professional Network - The business super app of the future

Entre is the new professional network designed for the future of work.

How people network and work now is fundamentally changing as technology continues to evolve. As everything becomes more digital, virtual networking and remote work are only going to continue to grow.

Our mission is simple, help individuals and companies connect, collaborate, and communicate in the digital world.

As of today, Entre has over 60k users, raised $2M+ in funding for Entre and has a team of 20 from all over the world.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Neil Thanedar | CEO - Utopic, Founder - Labdoor

Solving The World's Biggest Problems

Taking inspiration from Edison's Lab, Warhol's Factory, and studios like Pixar, Disney, and Def Jam, Neil Thanedar created Utopic to be a modern idea factory, a group of companies where he and many others could spend their careers solving the world's biggest problems.

Starting with Utopic Ventures, a pre-seed fund to invest in scientific and deep-tech startups, Neil's vision for Utopic includes Utopic Studio (startup studio), Utopic Live (events), Utopic Show (podcast), Utopic Club (community), and more.  Neil is also the founder and chairman of Labdoor, an independent alternative to the FDA that tests and ranks over 1,000 vitamins, supplements, and other consumer products (dog food rankings coming soon!).  https://www.whywestrive.com/episodes/utopic-neil-thanedar

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Josh Cliffords | Free Water - The World's 1st Free Beverage

Our startup has recently launched the world's first free beverage company. Our natural spring water in aluminum bottles and paper cartons is free because we use the packaging as ad space. When you've got that free product in your hand feel free to scan any of the QR codes to interact with Augmented Reality, shop, collect coupons, order food, or download movies, music, TV shows, video games, books, podcasts, software, you name it. You can do anything with our platform but most importantly we donate ten cents from every beverage to charity to build water wells for people in need. When you do the math we only need 10% of Americans to save money and drink our free water and we will end the global water crisis permanently, building water wells for over 800 million people worldwide.

To date we've distributed 75,000 beverages and financed two water projects in Kenya- a rain capture system for a primary school in Tututha and a water well in Atot, Kenya. Our idea has quickly become a global phenomenon as we have amassed over half a million followers across all of our social media accounts. People are reaching out across the world asking how they can contribute, invest, advertise, and distribute our free product. We have a small team at the moment but it is growing quickly. We are bringing on more sales people and more software developers to build out our platform along with our free vending machine prototypes.

Martin Lien + Matt Morfopolous | Volt - The First Messaging Ops Tool

Managing your SMS deliverability takes a lot of manual effort to measure, understand, & improve - it shouldn't

After running an SMS Marketing company for over 3.5 years, we found that while Twilio made building SMS functionality functional, they didn’t make it scalable. There is still no proactive notification when issues occur, and error documentation is vague, resulting in it taking on average 13 hours to resolve each issue. With Volt, that is a thing of the past.

For the first time, companies save hundreds of hours managing their SMS deliverability with a streamlined analytics tool that proactively keeps them informed on delivery issues and tells them how to fix them - saving their bottom line and top line.

Now, those engineering resources can be re-directed where they belong - back to doubling down on the company's competitive edge, building revenue-driving solutions.

About the founders:

Martin Lien - Originally from Norway. Previously with AI omnichannel startup OneReach in Denver. Lead growth for medical device startup Martin Bionics.

Matt Morfopoulos - Also, there wasn't any room for me to add Matt's bio and headshot, so here goes: "Originally from Philadelphia. Previous new business at McCann agency. Lead growth experimentation & guerilla marketing for countless brands.

---

This episode is sponsored by Tequila 512:

Tequila 512 is an Austin owned and operated tequila company. Distilled in Jalisco, it’s made from 100% blue agave and real volcanic spring water. Crisp and clean with just a hint of sweetness – it’s the perfect anytime tequila! Whether you’ve been coding all day and need to unwind, or your VC group is throwing a party – you can always count on Tequila 512 to bring you incredible tequila at an incredible price. You can find the Blanco, Reposado, or Anejo at your local retailer.

Check them out at http://www.tequila512.com/

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Legion - Fixing Our Mental Health Infrastructure

Legion Health's mission is to increase the available capacity of the mental health workforce.

Legion Health is a B2B marketplace for mental health professionals' time.

Mental health is a growing problem for our country. 1 in 5 adults suffered from mental illness in 2020, and suicide was the 2nd most common cause of death for those aged 10 to 34. A common belief among those in healthcare is that there simply aren't enough providers. While it's true that there aren't enough individuals to fill every job opening, we've found plenty of unused time.

Several digital health startups are trying to attack the growing problems in mental health. Most, however, are so focused on novel and high-quality patient experiences that they neglect their providers. This can make it quite difficult to find, retain, and load balance talent—which can really harm patients if their providers leave.

800 mental health professionals in our network have signed up to work between 20 to 30 hours per week—on top of their part-time or full-time jobs. We help fill this capacity, which would otherwise go unused, by supplying it to several different telehealth companies which don't have enough providers to see their patients.

DANIEL WILSON | COO

ARTHUR MACWATERS | PRESIDENT

YASH PATEL | CEO

About the founders:

Arthur, Yash, and Daniel met almost eight years ago during their freshman year at Princeton and were senior year roommates. It wasn’t immediately apparent that the three of them would start a company together. After graduating, they went to separate corners of the country—Arthur, to McKinsey in San Diego; Yash, to the Congressional Budget Office as a health care analyst in Washington DC; and Daniel, to Microsoft in Seattle.

In 2020, they decided to explore starting a company together in the health care space. They quickly realized that the problems in the mental health space were something deeply important to each of them. Yash and Arthur have their own stories—For Daniel, it became particularly important a few years ago when a best friend, suffering from bipolar disorder, almost took her own life. After months of struggling and failing to find professional help, she had decided she couldn't go on.

Technology has done so many amazing things for our world. But, of all industries, health care is perhaps the furthest behind. Being able to make a difference here—in a space that can affect all of humanity—is incredibly motivating. They can't imagine working on anything else in the world.

--

This episode is sponsored by Brex:

https://brex.com/

With everything from free interest-yielding bank accounts & corporate cards to expense management & budgeting and so much more; Brex is your go-to all-in-one financial platform for scaling your business!

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Connor Crawford | Pike Robotics - Autonomous Robotic Inspection Platform

Transforming Inspection of Oil & Gas facilities through Custom Robotic Solutions

Matt Doyle | Array - Turn Paperwork Into A Mobile App

Think big. Start small.

Array is enterprise web, mobile offline forms and automation technology. They offer a web based system for admins to building forms for compliance and audit functions as well as create workflows and schedule tasks and manage users for the business.

Enterprise for Array means their software is highly scalable with over 600 million submissions in the last 2 years.

About Matt:

Matt is the founder and CEO of Array from the UK living in Austin. When not running Array, Matt does public speaking on No-code, Entrepreneurship and Dyslexia.

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Camille May | Model Meals - Bootstrapping An Exit

Our mission at Model Meals is to transform the current American food system by providing clean, locally-sourced, ready-made meals and clean eating advice. After changing her diet through the Whole30 Challenge in 2014, Model Meals’ co-founder Danika Brysha felt very strongly that nourishing food could change the world. She started cooking and delivering meals around NYC from her studio apartment, digging herself into debt and eventually moving into her parents’ garage in Southern California to get her feet back on the ground. In 2015, Danika teamed up with college friend, Camille May, to formally launch Model Meals in Santa Ana, CA, where they organically grew their business to what it is today.

Danika and Camille have both experienced how hard it can be to prioritize eating healthy against the backdrop of a food system that makes it inconvenient, and confusing. After experiencing the transformative effects food had on their lives, they knew that if they could make eating this way convenient and delicious, they could help to create a happier and healthier world.

Camille and Danika bootstrapped their business, growing annual revenues to over $3M before being acquired in July 2021 by Home Bistro, a publicly traded food company for whom Camille now serves as CFO.

About Camille:

Camille is the co-founder of Model Meals, a paleo food business launched in 2015 after she experienced the transformative effect clean eating had on her overall well-being. She and her co-founder bootstrapped the business, growing annual revenues to over $3M before being acquired in July 2021 by Home Bistro, a publicly traded food company for whom Camille now serves as CFO. She currently resides in her hometown of Austin, TX with her 80-pound pit bull, Romeo, and enjoys spending time with her family, drinking mezcal, traveling to Africa, and all things health & wellness.

---

This episode is sponsored by Brex:  Brex is the all-in-one financial toolkit for every scaling business. With products built for scrappy startups, expanding mid-market companies, and large international enterprises, Brex has a suite of financial products that cater to the uniqueness of your business. If you're a founder or overseeing spend in a large organization, Brex keeps your team's spending within policy, on budget, and housed in a single dashboard, saving you time, money, and stress.

With everything from free interest-yielding bank accounts & corporate cards to expense management & budgeting and so much more; Brex is your go-to all-in-one financial platform for scaling your business!

Learn more at https://brex.com/

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Ethan Baehrend | Creative 3D Technologies - Creation without constraint

Creative 3D Technologies takes the idea of multi-tools to the industrial extreme! The company is making powerful manufacturing platforms encompassing a wide variety of specialty manufacturing tools & machinery in robust all-in-one solutions. A jack of all trades may be a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. Creative 3D's platforms not only encompass & combine a wide variety of production tools but individually outperform each specialty machine in function and price.

Creative 3D first entered into the 3D printing market with Duo, an all-in-one suite for 3D printing. The Duo line of 3D printers encompasses more than 10+ specialty 3D printers in a single solution for more than 95% less than the closest competition and more than 70% less than any of the individual 10+ specialty printers while still outperforming each.

Creative 3D's team is driven and passionate about disruption and industry innovation. The company loves to see how technology has progressed and wants to empower that growth by empowering creativity and eliminating the constraints behind what is and isn't manufacturable.

About Ethan:

Baehrend is a 3D printing industry veteran. Despite becoming the youngest 3D printer OEM in the industry at the age of 17, he's been in the industry since the patent drop and even ran a successful 3D printing refurbishing & innovation business prior to Creative 3D. He's passionate about eliminating manufacturing constraints and empowering innovation.

---

This episode is sponsored by Brex:  Brex is the all-in-one financial toolkit for every scaling business. With products built for scrappy startups, expanding mid-market companies, and large international enterprises, Brex has a suite of financial products that cater to the uniqueness of your business. If you're a founder or overseeing spend in a large organization, Brex keeps your team's spending within policy, on budget, and housed in a single dashboard, saving you time, money, and stress.

With everything from free interest-yielding bank accounts & corporate cards to expense management & budgeting and so much more; Brex is your go-to all-in-one financial platform for scaling your business!

Learn more at https://brex.com/

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Abigail Rose Baez | Blended Sense - Creative Intelligence for a New Kind of Production

In a content-driven world- creativity wears the crown. Those who make it hold the keys, and those who need it are desperate to have it. Especially at the local scale. The past 3 years required all business owners to find a way to communicate online- in every area of their business- with content. Still, the content creation industry is clunky and outdated. Traditional routes of paying a high premium for one piece of content from an agency is antiquated. As for the creative freelancers- talented but too common- they struggle with customer service, project management, and accounting while running their business solo.

Blended Sense is on a mission to connect the local business owner to the local creative pro. On their end-to-end media production platform, Customers purchase Production Credits to redeem on a Menu of Digital Assets, schedule and attend their Content Sweep, collaborate and create with their matched Creative Team, and access organized ready-to-publish digital assets. It takes the guess work out of content creation, de-risks the investment in creative resources, and frees the business owner of the logistical stress that comes with producing content.

Co-founded by Abigail and Albert Baez, artists and builders from the Northeast and ATX locals coming up on a decade- the company strives to lead with empathy, #Safesets, and creative tech innovation.

About Abigail:

Kyle Wallgren | Edsoma - Read, Learn, and Grow Together with Edsoma.

Edsoma is an application designed to improve literacy through an AI reading assistant while tracking real-time data. The application's real-time scoring system is used to identify strengths and weaknesses in children's reading. With live follow-along technology, Edsoma can ensure that children's reading will no longer be incorrect.

Our mission:

We believe that literacy is the pathway to opportunity. Our goal is to provide everyone access to literacy. Our purpose is to give everyone a reading chance.

What makes us different?

Edsoma is constructed with patent pending Artificial Intelligence (AI) software that helps the reader properly pronounce words using a proprietary syllable breakdown technology. Edsoma includes adolescent speech pattern recognition to provide accurate enunciation of each word in every book in the Edsoma Library.

Over 1.1 billion people around the world read below the standard, with 130 million in the United States reading below the sixth-grade level. Nationwide, only 35% of students are reading proficiently by the fourth grade. Without proficient literacy skills, students have fewer higher education and career options. Raising the average reading proficiency to the 6th grade level would add $2.2 trillion to the GDP in urban and rural economic development.

Kyle Wallgren, President and CEO originally created Edsoma in 2021 to foster a better reading culture between parents and children despite their geographical locations. “I wanted to continue reading with my children even when I could not physically be with them. I created this app not just for myself but for other parents in a similar situation. As I researched and learned of the global need to raise literacy levels, it became my mission to help.”

--

About Kyle:

Kyle is a dad of 4 kids and a serial entrepreneur that moved to America five years ago. He's already built and sold two businesses since being in the USA. He was kicked out of school in the 9th grade. Later in life, he saw the need for the Edsoma product because he couldn’t read to his kids. Edsoma was his Daughter's idea and she was 6 at the time.

Sidney Collin | NexStride - Creating the tools to keep people walking safely and confidently

De Oro Devices makes mobility assistive devices to allow people with mobility disorders to walk confidently and safely. We use research-backed sensory cues to help people with mobility disorders walk with improved step symmetry, step length, and overall safety and mobility. In our beachhead market, Parkinson's, we help overcome freezing of gait, one of the most common and most debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Our initial device, NexStride, combines a green laser line visual cue and a metronome auditory cue into a small portable device that can attach to any cane, walker, or walking pole.

These cues have been shown to reduce falls by 40% for people with Parkinson’s. This patent-pending technology can be used in Parkinson’s, Stroke Rehab, Multiple Sclerosis, and Cerebral Palsy, resulting in a $13B global market opportunity for our first product alone. NexStride is already available in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

About Sidney:

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Matthew Iommi | Fetii - Revolutionizing How Groups & Businesses Move

Fetii transports groups and businesses together, on-demand

Fetii is a group rideshare app that lets both consumers and businesses order 15-passenger vans on-demand. Users pay using a QR check-in system that splits payments seamlessly amongst the group at time of boarding.

People love traveling with their friends but reserving a vehicle days in advance, with 5 hour minimums for a 10 minute ride, and splitting the bill for large group rides has always been a pain in the butt. It turns out that if you provide on-demand capabilities and move payment into an app like Fetii, it removes friction and people want to travel together a whole lot more.

Uber has shown that people love on-demand transportation, and it’s a massive business, but the ugly truth is that the unit economics of driving around 1 or 2 people are horrible. We’re taking the only profitable part of on-demand transport - transporting groups - where the unit economics are incredible and there’s still tonnes of demand.

About Matthew:

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Ugochi Owo | Flindel - Decentralizing Commerce Returns

Get rid of your unwanted products from the comfort of your home and spend the cash on what you actually want

Flindel is a technology company focused on decentralizing commerce returns. They enable for consumers to return unwanted products from their homes and receive their payout within minutes via cryptocurrency. They are creating a headache-free returns experience, and a world where cryptocurrency has real-world relevance.

About Ugochi:

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Colby Harvey | Rizse - Augmenting The Workforce With UAS

Creating innovative, accurate, and easy-to-use drone technologies for inspection

Augmenting The Workforce With UAS  Rizse creates autonomous drone inspection solutions for aerospace, defense, and space verticals using industry-leading AI models for anomaly detection. We don't like the status quo; we are reimagining the workforce and alleviating the pressure placed on some of our most critical infrastructures.

Rizse has developed a vertically integrated, fully autonomous drone inspection platform for the aerospace & defense market. The proprietary navigation system can operate in GPS or GPS-denied environments by using a 3D LiDAR. It can thoroughly inspect a narrow-body commercial aircraft in under 1 hour while augmenting the strained employment market. Our system is the next step to automating digital workflows and tooling for aircraft & spacecraft maintenance providers and eliminating costly repetitive work between technicians and administration.

About Colby:

Episode 3 | Tax Taker   Helping startups get more money

By leveraging government tax incentives and non-dilutive funding sources, Startups that partner with TaxTaker can go further, faster.

If you’re a startup founder, you’ve got plenty to worry about. Sometimes keeping up with the dozens (if not hundreds) of Slack messages you get on a daily basis, figuring out how you’re going to ramp up revenue and traction, or putting on your therapist hat to aid a struggling team member, or all the above at once. Taxes are also the last thing you want to think about and researching government incentive programs is even less likely to cross your mind.

It’s understandable, the odds are no one on your small team enjoys or has time to find and apply for tax credits, let alone want to submit paperwork any time new credits are added. In fact, you’re not alone.  More than 80% of startups are either completely unaware they are eligible for government sponsored tax credits or don’t have an easy way to get them. That’s why securing these refunds (R&D tax credits, Employee Retentions credits, etc.) is a job perfectly suited for tax nerds like TaxTaker. TaxTaker has literally spent decades in the field listening to the pain points of businesses and their accountants, which is why they’ve spent the last few years building, honing, and refining their platform to make it absurdly easy for startups to get cash back so they can focus on what they do best -- building awesome companies and changing the world. And today, they’ve supported hundreds of Startups and put tens of millions of dollars back into their pockets.

About Ari:

This episode is sponsored by SunShader: SunShader is THE sun shade, heat shade and privacy shade for your laptop, so you can work efficiently from coffee shops, co-working spaces or with your friends on Campus, from the beach, the pool, your backyard or balcony, from airports, airplanes and AirBnBs. I've got one, and it is now part of my everyday work gear.  SunShader can also be co-branded with your company logo and brand story for incredibly practical Swag, to give to your employees, customers and partners.

Check them out at sunshader.com and use WHYWESTRIVE for 15% off!

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Episode 2 | Stonks   The Home For Startup Demo Days

Stonks is on a mission to spearhead the mass adoption of startup investing by making it "Approachable AF". The big problems here (among accredited investors) are Access, Education, and Liquidity. By creating "The home for startup Demo Days' we believe we have made leaps toward solving the Access problem (and hopefully some of the Education side, as well).

"Democratization" is a word that gets thrown around enough to lose its true meaning but at Stonks we've been working hard to provide ordinary prospective "Angel Investors" (as well as emerging funds) access to the best possible investment opportunities that typically would have only been available to the top 10% of VC firms.

We're still a new company but we're incredibly passionate about the problems we're solving and we believe we are headed toward a world where the average person you'd pass on the street has some startup equity in their "portfolio" alongside individual stocks, ETFs, crypto, etc.

Stonks is backed by A16Z and 35 amazing Angels/Funds

About John:

John is a multi-startup founder (DTC, Creator Economy, Live Streaming) and paramotor pilot who suffers from imposter syndrome just as much as (or more than) the next person. A high school dropout AND a college dropout, John likes to think he has a handle on how his time is best spent.

---

This episode is sponsored by SunShader:  If you've ever tried to use your laptop outside, or on the move, you'll know that it is impossible to see your screen in direct sunlight, and laptops will overheat and shut down surprisingly quickly outside. Here in Austin, the team at SunShader have solved that problem. SunShader is THE sun shade, heat shade and privacy shade for your laptop, so you can work efficiently from coffee shops, co-working spaces or with your friends on Campus, from the beach, the pool, your backyard or balcony, from airports, airplanes and AirBnBs. I've got one, and it is now part of my everyday work gear.  SunShader can also be co-branded with your company logo and brand story for incredibly practical Swag, to give to your employees, customers and partners.

Check them out at sunshader.com and use WHYWESTRIVE for 15% off!

--

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve

Episode 1 | PipeDream  Turning Delivery Into Teleporting  

Pipedream provides the citywide infrastructure to make delivery cheaper, so you can start deciding what you want delivered and whether the fees are worth it. Pipedream's all-electric system allows cities to make deliveries cheaper while reducing the Co2 emissions generated from traditional vehicle deliveries and making cities quieter, safer and reducing traffic. By allowing drivers to deliver more items per hour, Pipedream makes the work of delivery drivers more efficient, without the stress.  

Providing better delivery infrastructure in cities, means more opportunities for the people and businesses that call your city home.

---

This episode is sponsored by SunShader:  If you've ever tried to use your laptop outside, or on the move, you'll know that it is impossible to see your screen in direct sunlight, and laptops will overheat and shut down surprisingly quickly outside. Here in Austin, the team at SunShader have solved that problem. SunShader is THE sun shade, heat shade and privacy shade for your laptop, so you can work efficiently from coffee shops, co-working spaces or with your friends on Campus, from the beach, the pool, your backyard or balcony, from airports, airplanes and AirBnBs. I've got one, and it is now part of my everyday work gear.  SunShader can also be co-branded with your company logo and brand story for incredibly practical Swag, to give to your employees, customers and partners.   

Check them out at sunshader.com and use WHYWESTRIVE for 15% off!  

--  

🎵 Intro song by: Dyve