Startup Mindsets

Stephan Schenk is the designer-turned-entrepreneur behind Stapelstein, the German startup that is redefining children’s play through vibrant, ultra-light “stacking stones” made from 100 % recyclable EPP. Inspired by a childhood spent in a family of educators, Stephan set out to get kids moving in the classroom; what began as a dynamic chair concept in 2016 quickly evolved into an open-ended play system that lets children (and adults) build, balance, sort, and imagine without limits. Learn more at stapelstein.comToday Stapelstein is a purpose-driven company headquartered near Stuttgart, employing 29 people and posting €40 million in annual turnover. Stephan has hard-wired social and environmental responsibility into the firm through a steward-ownership model, German-made carbon-neutral production, and a commitment to designing products that outlast trends and generations.Under his leadership, the brand’s rainbow-hued elements have earned a string of accolades, including Good Housekeeping’s Best Toy Award 2024 and multiple design honors for their minimalist aesthetic and durability. Stephan’s work has been featured at SXSW 2025, where he spoke on marrying playful design with positive societal impact.Grab a signed a copy of Startup Mindsets: https://buy.stripe.com/5kAaGeddW5tF4WA5kq

Alan Bautista is a good friend since high school. His career story is quite inspiring for those who feel stuck at dead end jobs maybe in the restaurant industry. We also delve into politics, family life, and shoot the shit in this unfiltered conversation. Order your copy of Startup Mindsets on Amazon: =https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Mindsets-Blueprint-Innovation-Driven-Connected/dp/9815204874/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TCL9L0EZPI1F&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.x4QX_wiZMXF5-NRXQnIoccghWJuNE8WRlsD_tNLm5l4.iLyUPuRRmmUiKYfVJpHyA07WmZOQBZDXhOFwhtPvvXc&dib_tag=se&keywords=startup+mindsets+dan+gonzales&qid=1733460395&sprefix=%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1Follow us where you're listening and let us know who you are!

What's up Startup Mindsets Nation! We've been out on the book tour in the Philippines but are BACK and better than EVERIf you've bought a copy of Startup Mindsets already, you don't know how much that means to me, thank you 🙏If you'd like to order a copy, find it on Amazon. Today's guest is Darren Cooke, the Chief Innovation/Entrepreneurship Officer at UC Berkeley. I was honored to have Darren on the podcast. Time Stamps (8:00) What does a CIO do? Coordinates resources(15:00) Working for biotech companies(25:00) How does Berkeley select which startups to work with(36:00) Publishing a book(37:25) Opinion on students pursuing entrepreneurial careers(43:00) Experience at Columbia Law School(45:00) Darren's Big Career Break (47:00) What was your first job(48:42) Book recs

Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director at Berkeley SkyDeck, a world leading startup accelerator. We discuss What it is like running a startup accelerator. How academics make the decision to commercialize their ideas and research.  What Skydeck looks for in applicants. Advising startups on their best path forward. About their fund _ _ _ _The Berkeley SkyDeck Fund is the investment partner for UC Berkeley’s SkyDeck Accelerator Program. The Fund invests $200K into each startup that goes through SkyDeck, and can participate in later stage investment rounds with Berkeley founders. One of the most active seed investors in the Bay Area, the Fund has made over 130 investments in 3 years! In a first-of-its-kind, public-private partnership, the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund shares one-half of fund profits with UC Berkeley. This unique partnership helps support UC Berkeley education and creates a source of funding for UC Berkeley’s public education mission. The Berkeley SkyDeck Fund is run by Chon Tang, Managing Partner, and Brian Bordley, Partner. It is funded by organizations such as Sequoia Capital, Sierra Ventures, and Canvas Ventures, as well as other VC firms, individuals, and large corporations.Learn more about Berkeley Skydeck: https://skydeck.berkeley.edu/our_teamGRAB YOUR COPY OF STARTUP MINDSETS ON AMAZON, UNLOCK VALUABLE LIFE AND BUSINESS INSIGHTS FROM OUR RESEARCH, PODCAST, AND LIFE EXPERIENCES: https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Mindsets-Blueprint-Innovation-Driven-Connected

He's debated Bill O'Reilly, our guest,Isaac Saul, started a politics newsletter called Tangle. It aims to make sense of the noise in politics by delivering straightforward journalism.We learn about Isaac's interesting path to entrepreneurship in that it took 7 final interview job rejections to say, "Screw this, I'm starting a company."Hear aboutFind the best cheesesteak in PhillyWhen the revenue exceeded the income from his last jobAdvice for entrepreneurs and what success looks like.How Tangle cuts through to write fair honest news.They have 280,000 readers and counting.The only political news source trusted by people from all across the political spectrum. 100% independent, subscriber-supported, and non-partisan.SPONSORSDANPODCASTS is inviting you to play on Underdog. Get up to $1,000 in bonus cash instantly with your first deposit. https://play.underdogfantasy.com/danpodcastsBUY MY BOOK ON AMAZON:https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Mindsets-Blueprint-Innovation-Driven-Connected/dp/9815204874/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TCL9L0EZPI1F&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.x4QX_wiZMXF5-NRXQnIoccghWJuNE8WRlsD_tNLm5l4.iLyUPuRRmmUiKYfVJpHyA07WmZOQBZDXhOFwhtPvvXc&dib_tag=se&keywords=startup+mindsets+dan+gonzales&qid=1733460395&sprefix=%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1

Hello Startup Mindsets fam, happy October! Today's episode features Alan Bautista, a friend from high school who's had a successful career pivoting from working at restaurants to landing a meaningful career in Recently, Alan was ranked Top 25 on SDRleader.com This episode's especially valuable to those looking for a career change, software sales stories, and inspiration to overcome adversity. Connect with Alan on the LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jalan4/ Join our free community of entrepreneurs, hustlers, and the like on Freefuse with the explorer tier. Please leave a review on Spotify or Apple, it really helps us reach more people like you! Follow us on social: @dan.podcasts Grab some merch: https://www.startupmindsets.com/shop

Dan travels to Redwood City to interview Martin in person about The Bonfire Moment, his work as a Principal of Organizational Management at Google, why startups fail, handling feedback and more on this episode. Grab your copy at https://www.bonfiremoment.com and find unique insights from pioneers of Google’s Startup Accelerator on why building teams is harder than building tech—and a proven way to develop a tight team that’s ready for the intense challenges of startup life. Follow Martin on the LinkedIn 👇https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinjosegonzalez Rep your #StartupMindset with merch: https://www.startupmindsets.com/shop Shoutout to our LinkedIn post sponsor, Arcane. We trust Arcane to to turn user insights into impactful LinkedIn posts by automating industry and audience research, copywriting, and more with their AI Toolkit - all whilst maintaining my authentic Tone of Voice! https://tryarcane.club/startupmindsets Are you a brand wanting to work with us? Learn more at https://www.passionfroot.me/startup-mindsets Time stamps 4:20 Merch at startupmindsets.com/shop 4:40 Shoutout to Freefuse and Mike Liu 5:00 Shoutout to Arcane for sponsoring a post: try arcane (5:40) Convo w/Martin Starts (6:00) How do you reduce yourself to a label (7:10) What lead into the book (15:00) Writing a book takes years (16:10) Collaborating w/Earl to write the book (18:10) Getting on USA Today bestseller, selling 5k copies (19:52) Thinking about the people problems on the team (21:00) Study out of Harvard showing top reasons for failure: Not assembling complimentary skill sets (21:43) People issues are what crumble the startup from within (23:17) Friends and family are the most unstable partnerships, people who are acquaintances and more stable are people who were previously coworkers Friends and fam are the most expensive, damage is more severe.  (25:00) Winning the short game, get the product out. (29:00) First time moving to New York  33:40 meeting high profile successful people, underestimating  good luck and s What were the circumstances  that gave them the psychological  and mental capacities to meet that success (35:00) (46:10) What do we find meaningful? (47:50) What kind of pains can I alleviate in the world? Making organizations suck the life out of us less is a battle cry. (48:30) Handling feedback for the book (49:39) Dig for feedback (50:51) Very indirect Filipino communication culture (51:50) Working jobs that you hate and dealing with bad bosses (55:00) Dealing with other coworkers and adjusting (56:34) Assimilating to American life in NYC  (59:05) Filipinos are the Mexicans of Asia? Raising a family in Philippines vs USA Being an immigrant hardens you (1:01:00) show effortlessness while hustling and the US culture behind it.

Eric Colbert the founder/ceo of  @vouchvault2321  joins the pod to share his story creating the company, 🏄‍♂️ surfing, and being an entrepreneur. Start vouching today on the app: https://www.vouchvault.com Startup Mindsets launched our merch collection! Rep your startup mindset: https://www.startupmindsets.com/shop Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC0U3wic27w Check out our book set to publish early next year: https://www.penguin.sg/book/startup-mindsets Join the newsletter: https://www.startupmindsets.com/contact Book us to speak at your next event: https://www.startupmindsets.com/speaking

Making passive revenue or income is a major key in scaling any business. You don't want to have to be always selling when you can leverage machines/technology to do work for you. Our book: https://www.penguin.sg/book/startup-mindsets will be published November 2024. Join our Newsletter to be entered to win free copy! Follow us on Social IG: @dan.podcasts or @startupmindsetspod

Kenny Eliason shares funny career and life stories and what led him to start his company, Record. Learn more about The Client App That Legal Teams Love at https://www.recordclient.com Collaborate with us as a brand partner: https://www.passionfroot.me/startup-mindsets Our debut book, Startup Mindsets, is set to be published this November. Read all about it https://www.penguin.sg/book/startup-mindsets

Dr. Jonathan Baktari is the founder of E7 Health, U.S. Drug Test Centers, and eNational Testing. He was formerly the Medical Director of The Valley Health Systems, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Culinary Health Fund. He also served as clinical faculty for several medical schools, including the University of Nevada and Touro University. We landed a book deal with Penguin Random House SEA and I spoke a bit about my debut book this November. Enter your email for a chance at a free copy of Startup Mindsets: A Blueprint to Thrive in an Innovation Driven and Globally Connected World. Enter Email Here: ⁠https://www.startupmindsets.com/contact⁠ Sponsors: -------------------------------------------------------------- SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSOR: SHRED SAFE LLC is a Dallas Fort Worth based shredding company for businesses with paper shredding needs. VISIT: ⁠https://www.shredsafe.org⁠ OR DIAL 469-265-8142 FOR MORE INFORMATION Learn more about Jonathan and his businesses below https://www.baktarimd.comhttps://www.enationaltesting.com https://www.usdrugtestcenters.com https://www.e7health.com

Julia Enthoven is the Founder & CEO @ Kapwing, the startup that provides a new, collaborative platform for creating images, videos, and GIFs. Highlights: 📝 GROWING UP IN DALLAS AND MOVING TO STANFORD & SAN FRANCISCO 📝BEING MENTORED BY CAROL DWECK 📝 INNOVATE ON DISTRIBUTION PROCESS 📝 LEAVING GOOGLE TO START KAPWING 📝 HOW KAPWING CREATES CONTENT IN LESS TIME 📝 SEEING THEIR WATERMARK ON PRESIDENT ZELENSKY'S SPEECH VIDEO 📝 The startup environment in 2019 vs 2024 and why it's harder to raise money 📝Why content creators should keep creating, best restaurant in SF Give Kapwing a try for your next video edit: kapwing.com -------------------------------------------------------------- SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSOR: SHRED SAFE LLC is a Dallas Fort Worth based shredding company for those with paper shredding needs. VISIT: https://www.shredsafe.org OR DIAL 469-265-8142 FOR MORE INFORMATION OUR BOOK: STARTUP MINDSETS: A BLUEPRINT TO THRIVE IN AN INNOVATION DRIVEN AND GLOBALLY CONNECTED WORLD is set to publish this year with Penguin Random House. To stay in the loop: subscribe to our email list: https://www.startupmindsets.com/contact

What up Startup Mindsets fans! I just had to come on here and spill my 2 cents about what it's actually like running a business and its affect on your personal finances. Last year as a side hustle we made about 2.5K from the podcast which is something to celebrate as an entrepreneur. A lot of people will judge you for starting a company but only you know how fulfilling and rewarding it truly is. Your business has costs and so do you! What are you willing to pay to grow? AKA what are you willing to sacrifice in exchange for what you want? Is there an asymmetrical ROI? How sustainable will it be? How much cash runway do you have? https://www.startupmindsets.com https://youtube.com/@startupmindsets Thank you for listening be sure to subscribe!

Dan catches up with one of the first startup founders he met while working as an analyst at VU Venture partners. Circuit is an all-electric, on-demand, local shuttle service. Download the app & Ride Circuit. https://www.ridecircuit.com Connect with Alex on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/espositoalexander Interested in sponsoring this podcast via strategic ad placement? Give us a holler: ⁠https://www.startupmindsets.com/contact Time Stamps 2:45 What is Circuit? On demand shuttle service focused on small trips  10:00 Selling advertisers 19:00 Operating and scaling a mobility operation,  20:00 Moving 150K passengers a month  21:25: Thoughts on autonomous cars  27:00 When was your first Uber ride? 34:10: Getting first customer and starting the company 35:10 testing out an idea for a company and keeping desk jobs until it made sense financially to leave Taking out 3 car notes to start the business  38:00 Closing first advertiser for 10K  44:00 Differences of working as an employee of a company vs being a founder Get in touch with Startup Mindsets/Dan. Join the discussion with me and other like minded listeners on our⁠ Substack email list⁠. Website: ⁠https://www.startupmindsets.com⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/dan.podcasts⁠ Youtube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@startupmindsets⁠ Linkedin:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangonzales1

Ed Latimore is a writer, physicist, and Professional Heavyweight Boxer. He's been on the world's top podcasts such as Fresh n Fit, Knowledge Project, and Modern Wisdom. It was an honor to interview Ed and we're delighted to share our conversation. Ed's Website: https://edlatimore.com Learn how to control your mind, body, and emotions with my Stoic Street-Smarts Newsletter Follow Ed on X: https://x.com/EdLatimore Get in touch with Startup Mindsets/Dan. Join the discussion with me and other like minded listeners on our Substack email list. Website: https://www.startupmindsets.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dan.podcasts Youtube: https://youtube.com/@startupmindsets Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangonzales1 Interested in sponsoring this podcast via strategic ad placement? Give us a holler: https://www.startupmindsets.com/contact Time Stamps (14:34) If you don’t take a risk, there’s no way to get tough.  (30:11) Approach 1,000 women to get with 100. Approach to a formidable situation. There’s an a symmetrical ROI (39:54) Getting quoted by Steven of Diary of CEO (40:32) Getting quoted by James Clear (46:32) Setting limitations, Why people do it (50:32) Era of humanity we’re in is way different (64:40) We only see the highlights not the downs on social media

Francis Lacoste speaks about how he fuels growth for VPs of Engineering as a coach. Drawing from decades of startup experience at Heroku and Salesforce, Francis puts into practice operational principles that help teams scale past 20 employees. He coaches technical executives to become leaders who nurture amazing engineering cultures by helping CTOs transition from “building the product" into “building the org that builds the product”. Before coaching, he spent over twenty-five years in the open-source and cloud developer tools industry. He started as a software engineer working on open-source technology. He transitioned into engineering management at Canonical. Francis' experience with remote environment led him to Heroku where he built the remote engineering culture. In 2019, he realized that the engineering management path wasn't fulfilling to me, and moved into a role dedicated to supporting the engineering culture within the Salesforce Platform.- He's worked remotely for 24 years. Interested in promoting your product/service via sponsoring the podcast? Fill out this form. Learn more about at https://thevpe.coach “Thank you for tuning in today! If you found our discussion insightful, there's a good chance your friends will too. We'd love it if you could take a moment to share this episode with a loved one who you believe would appreciate it. It's an easy way to spread the word, and it helps our podcast reach more people just like you.”

In this podcast episode, Dan catches up with Rene Morkos, CEO of Alice Technologies about his company's advancements in construction scheduling and simulation. Rene highlights the invention of a parametric scheduler and simulator, which now deploys 100 times faster, and the unexpected optimization of schedules with their software. The company has seen positive beta feedback and a shorter sales cycle. Morkos discusses targeting conferences for customer acquisition, maintaining company culture in a distributed team, and the complexities of scaling and managing a growing organization. The episode delves into Alice Technologies' impact on the construction industry and its commitment to continuous innovation. Entrepreneurs shouldn't value themselves based on how well a company performs. ALICE Core harnesses the power of optioneering to find the most efficient construction paths, all based on your existing P6 or Oracle Primavera Cloud schedule.

David Gaz is the founder and creative director behind several successful ventures, including the award-winning documentary "Kindness Is Contagious" and The Bureau of Small Projects, a branding agency dedicated to amplifying the impact of small businesses, startups, and nonprofits. The Bureau of Small Projects is a think tank of sorts. They're rated in the top 5 agencies in the Los Angeles area for branding and marketing. Their clients are not these well known brands but unknown organizations struggling to make a difference or well known people in their own right with noble missions, but not huge budgets, like Animal Planet Star Jackson Galaxy who has an incredible nonprofit to help at-risk shelter cats, or Bill Nye the Science Guy. The Bureau Of Small Projects started as an incubator within their old firm and it was so successful that it actually out-performed the parent company so in the spring of 2014, they spun The Bureau Of Small Projects off into its own company. Kindness is central to our brand values and our vision. Attract Don't Sell, Create attractors (15:30) Problems Scaling a company (18:30) A $100,000 Problem Learning how to Trust and Delegate to employees (25:18) Pricing a service: websites, marketing (30:00) You can't fail if you don't quit (43:00) How word of mouth of one client lead to AI startups becoming their clients (48:00) A film on luck (01:08:33) Hear how Kindness is Contagious Be a path, not a goal person

Our guest today is Dorothy Chang who has had an incredible career from venture capital, leading a successful nonprofit working with celebrities and billionaires to being an entrepreneur. She shares cool career stories and her take on being an entrepreneur, and lessons throughout her journey. She's the Co-Founder of Lynx Collective - Supporting startup founders, helping them make their dreams come true: https://www.lynxcollective.com Read their substack: https://lynxcollective.substack.com Previously, as the President of Kode With Klossy, she worked with the org to empower young women to break into the tech industry. Dorothy spent her career working in technology. Leading marketing and communications for category-leading technology startups and enterprises like Foursquare, Paxos, Brew Media. In 2012, she was the first woman to startup a VC fund (Liberty City Ventures) investing in the crypto/blockchain space. I continue to angel invest and advise tech companies - especially where I can be supportive of emerging technologies (Web3, metaverse, etc), female founders and social impact. Check out our new & improved website: startupmindsets.com

Luke Diaz has a passion for building and leading high-performance Customer Success orgs (CSM, AM, SA, Support) to drive 3 outcomes: 1) accelerate product adoption, 2) drive quantifiable business impact for customers, and 3) achieve best-in-class gross & net retention. Customer Success is an underrated segment of startup success, it ensures users are getting value out of the product and even increases their customer value in an increasing revenue stream. Luke is also an angel investor and managing partner at DBT (Do Big Things) Ventures having invested in Kahawa 1893 coffee. If you're a coffee drinker use code: Luke at Kahawa's website at checkout for a discount. On the show, Luke shared a story about investing 100K into the company before they got into Trader Joe's and major grocery stores. Take a gander at their book summaries of over 40 business and self help books: https://www.dbtventures.com/library