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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve â â â @onlyDyve on Instagramâ â â â â â https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Teamâ â â đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah â â â @umarbrimah on Instagramâ â â --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at â â â whywestrive.comâ â â  to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: â â â twitter.com/whywestriveâ â â Instagram: â â â instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve â â @onlyDyve on Instagramâ â â â https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Teamâ â đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah â â @umarbrimah on Instagramâ â --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at â â whywestrive.comâ â  to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: â â twitter.com/whywestriveâ â Instagram: â â instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve â â @onlyDyve on Instagramâ â â â https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Teamâ â đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah â â @umarbrimah on Instagramâ â --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at â â whywestrive.comâ â  to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: â â twitter.com/whywestriveâ â Instagram: â â instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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-SureŸ (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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve â @onlyDyve on Instagramâ â https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Teamâ đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah â @umarbrimah on Instagramâ --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at â whywestrive.comâ  to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: â twitter.com/whywestriveâ Instagram: â instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve â @onlyDyve on Instagramâ â https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Teamâ đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah â @umarbrimah on Instagramâ --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at â whywestrive.comâ  to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: â twitter.com/whywestriveâ Instagram: â instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve â @onlyDyve on Instagramâ â https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Teamâ đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah â @umarbrimah on Instagramâ --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at â whywestrive.comâ to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: â twitter.com/whywestriveâ Instagram: â instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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.â 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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
John Andrew Entwistle | Founder - Wander Vertically integrated the vacation rental industry, creating a radically better experience for travelers. Weâve all been there: youâre in desperate need of time away. The countdown is on. The bags are packed. You arrive at your vacation rental and⊠Itâs disappointing. It looks nothing like it did online. The WiFi is spotty. You canât get a hold of your host. Youâre left with a list of rules, from amenities that are off-limits to cleaning instructions before you check-out. Suddenly, youâre missing home. You reminisce about your own bed. Youâre 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 â youâll 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 â a call to blaze new trails and broaden our horizons â 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 thatâs unexpected. An environment that stokes creativity and resets the mind. A sense of freedom and possibility that sticks with you long after youâve checked out. Our product isnât our app or inventory, but the feeling we deliver to our customers. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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 Austinâs 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). -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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 â 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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
Jorge Ortiz | CEO - Varsity Hype Expanding Horizons For Youth Athletes, Coaches, And Fans Providing digital solutions for coaching and learning, recruiting, and preserving memories for athletes, coaches, and fans alike. 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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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 -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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. We recently launched a crowdfunding campaign at www.fundrazr.com/freewater and would really appreciate it if everyone listening could donate a few dollars and share our campaign with their friends and family! --- 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/ -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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 didnât 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, itâs made from 100% blue agave and real volcanic spring water. Crisp and clean with just a hint of sweetness â itâs the perfect anytime tequila! Whether youâve been coding all day and need to unwind, or your VC group is throwing a party â 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/ -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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 talentâwhich 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 weekâon 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 wasnât immediately apparent that the three of them would start a company together. After graduating, they went to separate corners of the countryâArthur, 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 storiesâFor 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 hereâin a space that can affect all of humanityâis 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! -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
Connor Crawford | Pike Robotics - Autonomous Robotic Inspection Platform Transforming Inspection of Oil & Gas facilities through Custom Robotic Solutions Pike Robotics was spun out of UT's Nuclear and Applied Robotics Group and originally funded by Phillips 66 to help with the real need they have for maintaining their product storage and refining facilities. We provide a next-gen robotic solution for in-service inspection of floating roof storage tanks (simulation and demo of robot Here) (Inspection results video Here). Our alternative to manned entry inspections increases safety of personnel, reduces operational issues associated with confined space permits and tank downtime, and accurately quantifies previously subjective inspection results. This approach also makes the seal inspection process simpler and less costly to the tank owner operators. The ability to monitor a large source of methane emissions also allows Pike to play an important role in cleaning up our environment, while at the same time improving the Environment, Social, & Governance scores of many companies in the Energy space. www.pikerobotics.com About Connor: Connor is the CEO & Co-Founder of Pike Robotics. He officially transitioned into the world of Robotics by returning to graduate school at UT Austin in 2019 and working as a GRA for the Nuclear and Applied Robotics Lab (NRG). While pursuing research and studies, he formed a business to commercialize the technology directly related to his research. This novel wall-climbing inspection robot technology will improve maintenance operations in the Energy industry. For most of his adult life, Connor has been involved in all aspects of engineering, from mechanical design and analysis to electronics to programming. He spent four years in the Aerospace Industry, working mainly for Lockheed Martin as a design engineer on the F-16 retrofit team, a manufacturing engineer on the Dream Chaser spaceship, and other Classified Programs. --- 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/ -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
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. -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod
Camille May | Model Meals - Bootstrapping An Exit Modeling how to live and eat cleaner 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 Mealsâ 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 parentsâ 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/ -- đ” Intro song by: Dyve @onlyDyve on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/c/Dyve-Team đ„ Video edit by: Umar Brimah @umarbrimah on Instagram --- The Why We Strive Podcast sits down with successful startup founders, investors, and professional athletes to learn about what they strive for and why.  Visit us at whywestrive.com to read watch interviews, learn more about the companies, and check out discounts from our sponsors. --- Twitter: twitter.com/whywestrive Instagram: instagram.com/whywestrivepod