The Look Back: Keith Newman interviews top Entrepreneurs and Influencers on "Their Startup Journey"

The Dean of the Personal Technology product review was Walt Mossberg and now he joins The Look Back and reviews his early days in journalism to the transition into the most followed column @WallStreetJournal that instantly became a MUST READ for everyone in the PC industry.  Walt shares his approach to proper product reviews and also reflects on his work on All Things Digital and ReCode, home of the famous Code Conference he ran with Kara Swisher. Currently Walt is serving on the Board of News Literacy Project  https://newslit.org/  - working with educators and journalists to give students the skills they need to discern fact from fiction and to know what to trust! (please review the site as they need donations). Help Journalism Stay Free! (now more than ever)

On the 50th Anniversary of the e-game Pong, from Atari, The Look Back on the Tech Startup Network welcomed legendary entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell to the podcast. Here from an amazing entrepreneur share his journey and how he views the opportunities in gaming and AI today and the skills required to become a truly successful entrepreneur. Give a listen and share with a fellow entrepreneur and founder. 

The Look Back welcomes Jim Hamilton to the program. Jim came out of the Tandy workshop back in the day, probably most known for its Radio Shack stores, which Charles Tandy and Team bought in 1962 for $300K and grew to 8000 stores. He  was also an exec with Tandy offshoots Computer City and Incredible Universe - and efforts like Motorola Mobility, Get It Now.gr, and PowerMat. He's been a Professor of Entrepreneurship for the past 8 years at the University of Dallas and shares some wonderful stories from the PC era and lessons for today's entrepreneurs.

Laura McCann is the Founder, CEO and Chief Mood Builder of Adoratherapy, a vertical brand disrupting the aromatherapy category. The former actress and artist turned master brand builder and multi-channel marketer, shares her personal journey that has led her to many exciting (and successful pivots) that provide useful instruction to entrepreneurs across many industries. Please listen and share! 

Max founded PeopleConnect in 2000 to help early-stage co's find top talent across technology, biotech, cleantech, apps, services, medical devices, and consumer products. PeopleConnect provides traditional contingency searches. Other ongoing projects I’m involved in that also support the startup community: ● Angel Investor and member of Keiretsu Forum since 2001 ● Co-founder of Runway Innovation Hub ● Creator & Producer of PitchForce PitchForce is a weekly pitch event for early stage companies with a panel of establish angel investors and CEO's.

The Founder of Ancestry joins The Look Back for a review of one of the coolest Co’s that came out of Internet 1.0 - and lived to tell about - but it was quite a story! Come learn the genealogy while also learning about Paul’s NewCo Soar AI, a venture studio where he’s incubating some 15 AI companies to uplift humanity at work and in life. As a bonus he shares many invaluable Founder/Startup insights. Give a listen and track your success from this point on!

We recently welcomed Aytekin Tank, the Founder and CEO of Jotform, from his home base of Turkey, to The Look Back with Host Keith Newman. For those not aware of the amazing backstory, Jotform is one of the great SaaS app success stories, having recently crossed the 25M users plateau - and more than 600 employees - and what's as impressive (almost) is he has done it all with No Funding (VC or Debt). He has some great Founder lessons for Super Founders in SaaS, Software and almost any bootstrapper looking to blitzscale! Give a listen and share with a few friends! 

Back in the day #GameStop CEO Gary Kusin opened one of the first software only stores in a brick and mortar world. He brought his deep understanding of marketing and retailing with a slim background in software and took the plunge. Hundreds of millions in sales, hundreds of stores and hundreds of stories followed. We chat up everything from the good and bad at the helm of what would become the icon for a meme stock era along with his stories running an innovative cosmetics co and a turnaround of the iconic Kinko's brand only to sell to Fedex. Gary has also written a fantastic new book: "Always Learning" - some great stories along with lessons from a savvy business leader. #Babbages #GameStop #Kinkos #LauraMercier 

Welcome back to the podcast @Tiffani Bova - My first encore guest! Tiffani, a former exec at @Gartner and @Salesforce, who has met with seemingly every top CMO/CEO in the Fortune 500, has just dropped a new book “The Experience Mindset” (changing the way you think about growth) and I found it so kool and insightful I had to bring her on the program to discuss the ideas of working to break down silos, making it easier for employees to have success and taking a bigger view of Go To Market.  A chat that every co can find value. Please enjoy and let me know what you think. 

Introducing our new series, The Look Forward. Have a listen to hear what's next for the podcast. -Keith

Want to start a digital media/content startup or just some great startup insights? Then check out my chat with media and e-commerce entrepreneur, @JillKoziol , CEO and Board Member @Mother.ly , a media business focused on supporting the Journey of Motherhood. #MotherlyAdvice #FounderJourney #TeamMotherly #mediastartup #thelookbackpodcast #thelookforward

The Fox in the Hen House > I just finished a great chat with former Apple and Cisco executive Keith Fox. Keith walks us thru his journey from the growth daze at both Co's and how that led him to a late career in philanthropy and mentorship. Great lessons shared and special attention to his new project https://www.civiltalk.com/ - wow, love to see this get some support! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-fox/id1560219589?i=1000609583610

The Look Back welcomes Mitch Kapor -- Founder of Lotus Development and CEO of the groundbreaking spreadsheet 1-2-3. Kapor converted his early software success into building the Kapor Center and Kapor Capital. Now, he is an advisor and investor to 150+ under-represented founders and rocking his mission of creating an Inclusive & Equitable Technology Sector. And while a successful venture fund isn't as easy as 1-2-3... Mitch, his wife, and team have built an impressive organization HQd in Oakland, California.

Taking Startup Shots with Lean and Mean Steve Blank.  Steve Blank is an Adjunct Professor @Stanford and co-founder @Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. He’s also been described as the Father of Modern Entrepreneurship and Credited with launching the #Lean Startup movement, Blank has changed how startups are built; how entrepreneurship is taught; how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate. We had an awesome convo covering the #History of Silicon Valley and lots of insights for Founders and Startup leaders.  Steve blogs at www.steveblank.com.

In the Startup Dictionary with the definition of "entrepreneur" is a picture of Mark Goldstein. An old friend who always cuts to the quick and tells it straight even if it hurts....An old friend who I met way back when post college Mark was at Apple and while there caught the startup bug - which manifested into RealityTech, BlueLight, Loyalty Lab and a slew of other businesses that took the bleeding edge and added a sales pitch and it was off to the races.....and he has been rolling out new ideas nearly non-stop with thoughtful breaks at real world - like now where he's Partner at  Builders Venture Capital  www.builders.vc and a super impressive 501c3 called the Digital Health Foundation. Check out his formal background at www.markgoldstein.com  Watch Digital Health Hub Foundation Awards Grand Finale @ HLTH https://youtu.be/0WicV5xO0_Q?si=EzwC7QGgEd6aqM7n

The Look Back welcomes the head of Plug and Play, Saeed Amidi, who takes us thru the 20+ year evolution and the new model @ PnP as an innovation platform. The VC firm-incubator with major companies and sponsors has touched 50,000 startups, 500+ world-leading corporations, and hundreds of venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies across multiple industries. Learn from the man himself how to climb aboard this rocket ship and leverage its power platform. 

David Strom is my go-to guy for all things Networking and Security -- the two hottest topics for the last 20 years. He's also an alumni friend who ran Network Computing, eWeek and has contributed or led many other tech-oriented media products. Strom was coerced to join me for a chat on The Look Back and in return I feel obliged to mention his must-read bylines on @SiliconAngle -->  one of the sharpest perspectives on internet and security issues. 

Tune in, strap in, and get ready to remix! We were somehow able to get the man who I consider to be the creator of multimedia and one of the coolest software geeks out there, Marc Canter, to sit down and do The Look Back podcast session with me. We hit on those early days of Apple, Mac, multimedia and head into Metaverse, VR and of course AI - he has a unique perspective and some kool drops. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed talking to Marc. 

Great discussion on the future of Transportation with none other than @AnnabelChang, Director of Public Policy @Waymo, who is trying to to make driverless cars a reality. Already a hit in Arizona and SF, Chang is a change agent who came to Waymo from @AlaskaAirlines and @Lyft where she ushered in the world of #RideShare #GigWork and disrupting the transportation world - clearly not one to shrink from challenge Annabel shares lots of insight in future of transportation along with major shortcuts for entrepreneurs and innovators. 

Tony Uphoff has media instincts in his DNA -- as a child born into a media active family, Tony was destined to a world of publishing -- but at the helm of eWeek and InformationWeek and many other well known brands, and is not lending his experience and energy to Media/Research disruptor, @Acceleration Economy. Tony also led the turnaround and successful sale of Thomasnet.com to Xometry for $300M - just a blast to catch up with an alumni brother and someone I’ve always learned from and admired.