Technori Podcast With Scott Kitun

Frankly Apparel's appeal is as straightforward as it gets: stylish, comfortable clothing for women to wear without the need for a bra. CEO Heather Eaton and her co-founder Jane Dong bonded over discussing their very different body types (Heather large-chested, Jane- tall, small-chested) and lack of clothing options that truly fit them. The idea of Frankly was born and after a successful Kickstarter, they are on their way to redefining bra-less clothing to fit all cup sizes and become the new standard. Heather joins the show to talk with Scott about changing the fashion industry, building a company in the pandemic, serving an underserved niche in the market and what it's like to use TikTok as a viral marketing tool.

1World Online founder and CEO Alex Fedosseev joins Scott on the show to talk about the state of digital advertising, why no one wants to see old practices like pop-up ads and auto-play videos, and how to do digital ads, smarter and natively.

When Noah Berkson and Raul Henriquez started their business together helping young companies with tech development and resources, they quickly realized how many issues founders were commonly facing, particularly prioritizing decisions on what aspects of the core product to focus on and building the core team. They launched Candor Ventures to invest in companies with their own capital and tech assets to power young businesses to operate like mature, Series B companies but at the pre-seed stage of development. Noah and Raul join the show to talk with Scott about the importance of human capital, location-based serendipity and helping startups get out of their own way to have a better chance at success.

The popularity of organic produce is matched by question marks around its sustainability. Edible Garden's blend of emerging tech, locally grown food and state-of-the-art greenhouses across the country have positioned it well to meet demand and create less waste for grocery stores losing money on expired products. CEO Jim Kras joins the show to talk with Scott how he "refounded' Edible Garden, the organic agriculture economy and how they are making produce last longer in store with the same quality of taste.

Whether you are a rabid anime fan or never seen a show (you should!), the art form has indisputably risen in popularity globally and in the US. Netflix, Hulu and HBO have all pumped up their animation offerings (exclusives and syndication) the past few years, elevating top-tier anime shows like Evangelion: Neon Genesis, Avatar and Funimation's Attack on Titan to the mainstream. Colin Decker, CEO of Sony-owned Funimation, known for mega-hit series Attack on Titan (airing 4th and final season starting this week), joins the show to talk about the business of anime, what makes anime different from every other genre and the personal connection that drives a relationship between the creator and the consumer that's more relatable to music movements than other types of film.

Megan Blu joins the podcast to talk with Scott about her American Dreamhouse property, Boeing Ave, that's an investable property that has already sold out on Republic Real Estate. Originally a designer, Megan began fixing up and selling homes in California 6 years ago and has made a career out of flipping. She talks about how flipping homes is nothing like what you see on HGTV, but lots of negotiations and competition to get properties in the first place. When she was introduced to Republic Real Estate, she saw a way to crowdfund money she needed for a buy, renovate and flip a house. Ideally, this allows Megan to get the money quicker to fund her projects and the investors get a return on the property once it's sold. Her Boeing Ave property's investment page sold out within 48 hours.

When you look around the wellness industry, there are a lot of well-intentioned and thought out products covering physical and mental needs. However, when it comes vaginal health and feminine sexuality, many products lacked this thoughtfulness and usefulness, sorely underserving a $181 billion addressable market. Quim provides a line of proactive, plant-based, and sustainable products for the full-spectrum of intimate needs. Cyo joins the show to talk with Scott about switching from B2B to retail, purposeful use of CBD for sexual health and pioneering changes in sextech.

Scott talks with the Co-Founder and CEO of Upshift, Ezra Goldman. Upshift is a fractional car subscription service that is a smart alternative to owning a car for people who don’t drive every day. In short, They have eliminated all the hassles of owning a car. With Upshift, whenever you need a car, just send them a text and they’ll deliver you a new, clean Toyota Prius or RAV4 hybrid SUV in under 1 hour. And when you come back, they’ll valet park and refuel it for you. Upshift saves you time and money so you can focus on things that matter.

VC firms are known for catapulting some of the most iconic tech companies into unicorn status and their founders into stardom. They're not known for looking at founders outside the tech bubbles, much less founders that don't come from money. That's where Mac Conwell wanted to step in. A founder in his own right (one success, one flop) Mac has seen the how hard it is to start a business and get the proper support to make it run the way it should. His firm, RareBreed Ventures, works as a pre-seed fund for founders solving unique problems in across all industries from overlooked areas of the country. Mac joins the show to talk with Scott about his entrepreneurial journey, a healthy look at the founder-VC relationship and how he wants to help people with their ideas through investment.

Intellivision is one of those OG gamer console brands that had its initial run through the 70s, 80s and 90s. Now in 2020, the brand is revived and humming with the upcoming launch of their new console, Amico. Led by CEO Tommy Tellarco, the Intellivision Amico is a simplistic and largely offline gaming experience geared towards playing with the whole family at home. With a basic controller scheme, Amico games are intended for children and grandparents alike to easily understand how to play games together, reflecting the success of Nintendo's Wii console from the 2000s. Tommy joins the show to talk with Scott about leading Intellivision through their crowdfunding campaign on Republic, bringing back retro-gaming for the modern family and creating the "Disneyland of consoles".

Brynn Michelich, Chief of Staff at Chicago-based Jellyvision, joins Scott to talk about the panic surrounding COVID-19's impact on businesses everywhere, what Jellyvision has had to change and what they haven't, how to maintain and improve team culture and keeping the team productive in our new normal.

John Green and the team at Nada wants to make you CEO of your largest asset: your home. Nada simplifies the home ownership buying and selling process by handling mortgage, title and insurance services while eliminating realtor fees. John joins Scott on the show to talk about how his background as punk rock musician helped shape his career as a strategist, understanding the problems in the real estate market, how to test product-market-fit and putting more equity in homeowners pockets.

Jason Fried, founder and CEO of Basecamp and HEY Email, joins the show to talk with Scott about the future of email, why it's gotten mucked up and why bringing privacy back into our lives is a correction long overdue.

Albert Baez, co-founder of Blended Sense, joins the show to talk with Scott about the missing infrastructure small businesses need to succeed digitally and drive revenue. Blended Sense is a platform and content management system for production communication, project management, and delivery of high quality assets. Using a subscription model, Albert and his cofounder, Abigail, provide a centralized marketplace for business owners to fulfill needs and source creative talent locally, who are matched on projects automatically based on project needs and receive steady work.

Gaming has been a part of Ben Goldhaber's life since he started as a competitive player in his teens. He's stayed in the industry ever since, and after his experience as part of the founding team at Twitch through the Amazon acquisition, he saw firsthand the broad market opportunity, exponential growth in the gaming industry and most importantly saw what was missing: a centralized platform to get the best information on all things Esports. That's the engine behind his startup Juked, which Scott likes to compare to the Bleacher Report-for sports. Ben joins the the show to talk about how he came up with the idea, how the model works, monetization strategies, the rapid esports transition into the mainstream, gambling, and how you can invest in the company today through their crowdfunding campaign on Republic.

You've heard the stories about WeWork. The private jet parties, the billions of investment and unfathomable $47 billion valuation. What you don't hear is the the back story behind the man that started it all, Adam Neumann. Reeves Wiedeman, NY Mag writer who penned their feature article detailing the behind the scenes work of Adam, goes into full detail in his biography "Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Fall of WeWork". Reeves joins Scott on the show to discuss the business fallout from the failed IPO, who Adam really is, lessons in entrepreneurship and why the best intentions can still mask a graver reality.

Securities aren't as dependable as they used to be, and with alternative assets like crypto, crowdfunding, PE, etc growing in popularity, future retirees aren't reaping the benefits like previous generations could from stocks. Eric Satz, founder and CEO of AltoIRA, joins the show to talk about retirement investing, why it's changing and what individuals need to do to diversify their investments and be actually able to retire comfortably.

Pillar Booth creates ventilated, soundproof desk spaces that give you a safe space to avoid distraction. Ryan Leavitt, a repeat founder previously of LearnCore (acquired by Showpad) and Catapult Chicago, shares his long entrepreneurial journey and how the shift towards open office spaces leaves employees with no place to take a phone call in private and generally diminishes productivity. The booth allows workers to focus better on specific tasks, make calls and with the slow return to the office, a safe place to get things done.

Whether you work remotely or in an office, you're no stranger to the overload of project management apps your company has you use in the name of productivity. Slack, Asana, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Notion- all have their pros and cons, but how do they all work togethers across different company departments? That's the question Jonathan Friedman set out to solve when he founded TrueNxus, a platform that shows how work is being done against the greater project plan, and tracks results with visual predictive analytics. Jonathan talks to Scott about taking an overview look at a business and how teams work together, his background and how to stay out of Google Sheets and Powerpoint hell.

When COVID-19 put the office workers at home indefinitely, Thru Shivakumar thought her company would be dead in the water. However as the dust began to clear (working professionals and parents struggling to work from home),it's evident offices have a place in the current work environment. Cohesion empowers real estate owners to maximize asset and portfolio value with all building systems, workflows and people seamlessly connected in one intelligent building platform. Thru joins the show to talk about the future of the workplace environment, how Cohesion uses IoT to make office systems more efficient, employees safer and more comfortable.