Startup Project

To stay up to date checkout ⁠⁠⁠thestartupproject.io⁠⁠⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: ⁠@natarajsindam⁠

In this episode Nataraj spoke to Taylor Black who co-founded Fizzy Inc. Post Fizzy Taylor worked at Innovation Science Fund & currently works as a Principal Product Manager at the Office of the CTO Incubator at Microsoft.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Nataraj: To me it always made sense for large companies to have some kind of incubator or accelerator model because one of the reasons I think we are seeing in this bear cycle, sort of like when the wave sort of, you know, falls down, you see who's naked scenario.

[00:00:17] Nataraj: Um, I think any company which survives multi decades has to have multiple large businesses. Mm-hmm. . I think in a lot of ways, I mean, looking back, a lot of companies didn't, uh, look for long-term opportunities as much as they should. Like we can talk about like, uh, Amazon, you know, putting billion dollars into their phone, but I would argue the potential on the upside of suckers was so high they should have put in, you know, one more billion and tried the next version.

[00:00:50] Nataraj: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. , uh, and I. , like argue the same with Facebook in a sense. Like now they're doing this metaverse thing. [00:01:00] Um, and sort of again retreating that back now. But I feel like even Facebook with all its cash flow, uh, didn't really think, um, because they always self constrained themselves to be a social company.

[00:01:14] Nataraj: Um, like I think that's sort of like a self-imposed mental model on themselves. Mm-hmm. , like, uh, I would not impose themselves like a social company. Yeah. You work good at Facebook and WhatsApp, but I mean, look at how many great technologies that came out from Facebook, open source community and like putting that social as a blanket on your company.

[00:01:34] Nataraj: I think. Set a backstage for all these technologies, which could be, you know, productionized and, you know, capitalized. Mm-hmm. . Right. Uh, that's, I feel like a lot of companies, especially the large companies, are with very good cash flow sort of mixed out on business opportunities because of that reason.

[00:01:50] Nataraj: That's my personal view on like, , a lot of companies could have it if it is well run. Mm-hmm. . Um, and should have it because of this reason. Right? Mm-hmm. , it's sort of [00:02:00] like you are the innovation dilemma that you'll encounter at some point as a large company, and you have to have a sort of a backup backstopping mechanism to that innovation dilemma, which every company will eventually face.

[00:02:12] Nataraj: Mm-hmm. , um, So I feel like the innovation, uh, accelerator or the incubator would sort of act as that, uh, you know, that part of small investment, it's sort of like an insurance to the, uh, to innovation dyna that you would eventually encounter anyways, uh,

[00:02:28] Taylor: , I think you're right.

[00:02:28] Taylor: There's a, there's an inherent problem there too, though, is that, um, uh, innovation is inherently a yo low yield. . Um, and so within, and it's my kind of rule of thumb, that within two or three years of any program like ours existence, um, finance is gonna come and say, where's the revenue? Where's the roi? And if you don't have a data driven way of showing your, your anticipated revenue, your anticipated ROI on the basis of your activities, then uh, [00:03:00] it's entirely legitimate that you get.

[00:03:02] Taylor: There's a, there's a, there's data driven ways of showing that the whole venture ecosystem depends on the fact that you're able to show future revenue on the basis of what you're doing now. Uh, that's how you raise funds, right? Um, and so every, uh, innovation program inside an enterprise has to have that same data-driven hygiene.

For full conversation check out Episode 53.

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To stay up to date checkout ⁠thestartupproject.io⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam In this episode Nataraj spoke to Marius Ciocirlan who co-founded ShareGrid, a marketplace for filmmakers and photographers to rent and sell their equipment. It was ⁠acquired⁠ by Backstage and is now Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then more than 130 companies have gone through the program & collectively gone on to raise more than $2.5 billion in capital.  Full Transcript:

[00:00:00] Nataraj: So Techstars is an, you know, traditionally what we call as an accelerator, right? Yeah. Uh, so what are the founders really getting outta, um, joining tech?

[00:00:09] Marius: Yeah, for sure. So, um, the Tech Techstars program essentially, uh, falls into almost three phases. So it's a 13 week program and it's kind of, uh, set up in three phases. The first phase is customer discovery, so we worked with you to ensure that like, , you truly understand who your customer is and what are they buying from you.

[00:00:31] Marius: Like, you know, you, you would be surprised how many people have an idea of who their customer is, but it's not clearly defined. They don't really understand why that customer is interested in their product. So even companies that are farther along, we find. , it's always good to like really reflect on who your customer is.

[00:00:50] Marius: So the first phase is customer discovery. Second phase is go to market and execution, which is more important nowadays, especially given the market [00:01:00] situation. More important than ever to actually gain real traction in your business and prove out that your business has some product market fit. And product market fit can mean different things at different stages.

[00:01:12] Marius: But at least in your initial M V P, there needs to be some product market fit. And then the third phase is we're preparing you to go out in front of investors. So we're working on your pitch deck, we're working on your delivery, we're working on all of your documents, uh, getting you ready to ensure that you're ready for, uh, investors and putting you in front of investors.

Full version at thestartupproject.io

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To stay up to date checkout ⁠⁠thestartupproject.io⁠⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam In this episode Nataraj spoke to Taylor Black who co-founded Fizzy Inc. Post Fizzy Taylor worked at Innovation Science Fund & currently works as a Principal Product Manager at the Office of the CTO Incubator at Microsoft. Full Conversation includes:

• Starting a company during law school
• Running a WordPress server farm
• Why WordPress still dominates internet?
• Working at Innovation Science Fund
• Running innovation sessions attended by Entrepreneurs, Nobel laureates, Scientists & Bill Gates
• Fundamental technology breakthrough in Metamaterials
• Funding Starlink competitor
• Incubator inside Microsoft for the Office of the CTO
• Measuring Innovation inside large organizations

You can connect with Taylor here on LinkedIn.

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/startupproject/message

To stay up to date checkout ⁠thestartupproject.io⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam In this episode Nataraj spoke to Marius Ciocirlan who co-founded ShareGrid, a marketplace for filmmakers and photographers to rent and sell their equipment. It was ⁠acquired⁠ by Backstage and is now Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then more than 130 companies have gone through the program & collectively gone on to raise more than $2.5 billion in capital.  Full Transcript:

[00:00:00] So you decided you want to be in tech. Then how did, uh, your, uh, company start, uh, share grid?

[00:00:06] Yeah, so she started, um, actually the idea was kind of originated while I was, was working our group on both my co-founder and I, Raj. He was, he was, he went to film, well he went to photography school. I, uh, uh, I believe it was more of like a media communication, uh, background.

[00:00:24] But he ended up in tech as well. He was a designer and front end developer and um, he was a longtime photographer and we would take walks all the time and. , he, he sold his previous company to Groupon, so he's been very entrepreneurial himself and we were always kicking around ideas of potential startups that we could start.

[00:00:47] And one of the ideas was, uh, it derived from him trying to sell some of his equipment. He was like, I really want this new lens, but I already have so many lenses. How do I justify kind. [00:01:00] Investing more money into more equipment when I'm not even using the equipment I already have. So that was kind of the thread that we started to talk about the idea, and essentially the idea was a lot of filmmakers, photographers invest.

[00:01:15] Quite a bit of capital into, uh, equipment, into, into different, uh, cameras, lenses, audio equipment, lighting equipment, and it's very, very expensive. I mean, we're talking thousands of dollars for a camera or lens. Sometimes for film equipment, you're looking at 40, $50,000 for cinema camera, and that doesn't count all the additional accessories and, and everything else you need.

[00:01:41] I knew about this from my prior film years, and I had a lot of friends who after school, their, their thinking was, if I invest a bit of money into equipment, the chances of me being hired, uh, will increase. Because the film world is actually a very much [00:02:00] a gig economy, freelance type of world. So they were thinking, if we invest in, in this equipment, uh, I will stand amongst the rest and like be hired more frequently.

[00:02:10] That doesn't always happen. So you invest all this money, but your monthly payments are coming in every day, every, every month. , but you're not always getting hired. That equipment's not always being used. So Arra and I saw that opportunity of like, there's all this idle equipment. What if you were to rent that equipment out, similar to other pure tope economies, like, uh, like u you know, like Airbnb, um, So we had the idea and we essentially wanted to validate if this is something that other people would be interested in First.

[00:02:43] I spoke to a lot of my friends from Phil School and everybody said, It's a great idea, but what about if somebody steals my equipment while they're renting it? They don't come back with the equipment. So that was always kind of the big challenge that we had to face. But, but that's how the [00:03:00] idea, just to answer your question, that's how the idea kind of derived is just from a personal need and also just a brainstorm of ideas.

[00:03:07] So it was essentially a marketplace for renting, uh, camera and other high-end equipment for production.

[00:03:14] Exactly. Exactly.

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/startupproject/message

To stay up to date checkout ⁠thestartupproject.io⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam In this episode Nataraj spoke to Marius Ciocirlan who co-founded ShareGrid, a marketplace for filmmakers and photographers to rent and sell their equipment. It was ⁠acquired⁠ by Backstage and is now Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then more than 130 companies have gone through the program & collectively gone on to raise more than $2.5 billion in capital.  Full Transcript:

[00:00:00] So I was like, you know, working on Samsung, making videos and then also like working on sets, like reality TV shows and stuff like that, while at the same time doing a startup and. Uh, learning UX design. So I had to make a decision. I couldn't do both. And the reason I decided to go into tech, I remember having this kind of conversation with my significant other, is that in film it's a very traditional career path, meaning, In order to become a cinematographer or a director or a producer, you have to pay your dues.

[00:00:35] Like there is very strict rules about what certain people could do on a set and what they can't do, like. I've been told in my position as a production assistant was like, you are not allowed to move that equipment. You're not allowed to move that chair because the union, you don't belong to that union.

[00:00:53] So it's actually like a safety regulation or. It was a very traditional kind of [00:01:00] career path, and I realized that like I was not going to reach my dream of becoming a cinematographer or director well into my forties, probably fifties, and it was gonna take a long time where in tech it was actually the complete opposite.

[00:01:18] The younger you were, the more respect you got and almost the more opportunities you received. So my goal was always like, I really enjoyed. and it seems like doors are just really opening, people are just much more supportive. If you have big ambitions, you don't have to like, wait in line and wait your turn.

[00:01:38] You could just act on those ambitions. Uh, so it just felt like a much friendlier community and just more embracing. So, um, it went towards tech and I, I always planned like at some point in my career, I'll make it in tech and then I'll come back at an older age and a film and I'll be a producer and I'll fund my own films or uh, [00:02:00] documentaries or whatever, whatever that might be.

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/startupproject/message

To stay up to date checkout thestartupproject.io & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam In this episode Nataraj spoke to Marius Ciocirlan who co-founded ShareGrid, a marketplace for filmmakers and photographers to rent and sell their equipment. It was acquired by Backstage and is now Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then more than 130 companies have gone through the program & collectively gone on to raise more than $2.5 billion in capital. 

Full Conversation includes:

• How skateboarding led do film school
• Raising funds via grants
• Startup weekends
• Early days at Groupon Mobile Team
• Origin story and cofounding Sharegrid (acquired by Backstage)
• Joining Techstars Seattle as Managing Director
• What's special about Techstars Seattle?
• How founders should think about Techstars Seattle

If you are founder and is interested in applying to TechStars Seattle you can get in touch with Marius at [email protected]

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/startupproject/message

To stay up to date checkout thestartupproject.io & follow us on twitter: @natarajsindam

Deedy & Nataraj talk about

• Why is there no criticism about Indian startups in Indian media?

• What are the insidious loops in Indian startup ecosystem?

Don't forget to follow Deedy's opinions at ⁠@debarghya_das⁠!

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Past guests of Startup Project podcast include Ali Moiz (stonks.com), Kirby Winfield (Ascend.vc), Eric Bahn (Hustle Fund), and others.

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To stay up to date checkout thestartupproject.io & follow us on twitter: @natarajsindam

Full Notes:

One of the interesting things in Shark Tank India versus Shark Tank US that I've noticed is Shark Tank US is pretty much small and medium enterprise.

If a Silicon Valley style pitch comes up, like Mark Cuban will throw them out, uh, you know, this kind of ration doesn't work here. One thing I was amazed to see in this season particularly is, um, it's much more closer to Indian startup ecosystem. Um, I've actually seen couple of these pitches before they were on track tank, like Flatheads, uh, was the shoe company, which is similar to like a shoe company here.

Um, those other, um, mind peers was like a mindful company that came on recently, which I've seen before. Um, The interesting thing is it's much more similar to a venture, uh, you know, ecosystem than the S m E market that we are seeing, even though we see a lot of SME companies, but the language is pretty close to vc.

Like no one says, Hey, we are doing a pre-seed on Shark Tank us. Right? We are just asking for money. And, you know, this is a small and medium business

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Past guests of Startup Project podcast include Ali Moiz (stonks.com), Kirby Winfield (Ascend.vc), Eric Bahn (Hustle Fund), and others.

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/startupproject/message

To stay up to date checkout thestartupproject.io & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam

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In this episode Spoke to Deedy who writes amazing twitter threads on immigration,  Indian startups and more.

Topic covered include:

• Tweet threads on Indian startups
• Shark Tank India vs U.S
• Generative AI, LLMs & Search 
• Zero Interest Rate Phenomenon

& a lot more.

Don't forget to follow Deedy's opinions at @debarghya_das!

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Past guests of Startup Project podcast include Ali Moiz (stonks.com), Kirby Winfield (Ascend.vc), Eric Bahn (Hustle Fund), and others.

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/startupproject/message

To stay up to date checkout thestartupproject.io & follow us on twitter: @natarajsindam

In this episode of Startup Project Nataraj spoke to  Jacob Colker - Co-Managing Director AI2 Incubator.

Inaugurated five years ago by the late Paul Allen and Professor Oren Etzioni, the commercialization arm of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence was tasked with creating an incubator program for the brightest minds in AI to launch the next wave of technology companies that would change the world. Jacob Colker, Vu Ha, and Bryan Hale were tasked to fulfill this mandate.

Full conversation includes:

1. Origin story of Allen Institute Incubator
2. Hype in AI 
3. Will LLM's disrupt search business model
4. AI effects on knowledge work

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Past guests of Startup Project podcast include Ali Moiz (stonks.com), Kirby Winfield (Ascend.vc), Eric Bahn (Hustle Fund), and others.

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