We sat down with one of the most influential people in tech, Lorenzo Thione, who shares his very inspiring journey and how that led him to be where he is today. Lorenzo grew up in Milan, Italy and had a technical background at an early age. He completed his studies at the University of Texas at Austin, from which he holds a M.S. in Computer Engineering. He is now the Managing Director of Gaingels, a leading LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate and one of the largest and most active private...

In the fall we sat down with one of the godfathers of Venture Capital, Jordan Levy, who shares his very inspiring founder story and how that led to his career as an investor. Jordan co-founded Software Distribution Services which was acquired by Ingram Micro, before going on to be a Partner on the early-stage investing team at SoftBank Capital (SBNY) for 16 years. Jordan has served on the boards of BuzzFeed, TalkSpace, Work Market, ACV Auctions, and many others. Using his upbringing and...

Scott Wayman's shares his epically inspiring founder story. His passion for Kangarootime is next level and the company is currently focused on winning the childcare management software space for daycares and preschools. With plans to expand to the larger “care economy” which includes not only early education & childcare but also elder & senior care. A $648B TAM in the U.S. Alone according to Melinda Gate's Pivotal Ventures. The Kangarootime team brilliantly positioned themselves...

Pete Kazanjy is Ambition Today’s new guest from Southern California. He is sitting in San Francisco, CA right now as we speak, enjoying Alamo Square. He is a serial founder and seasoned early stage Saas executive, advisor, and investor. Pete has cofounded many companies including TalentBin, Modern Sales, and Atrium. He is also an author of “Founding Sales”. He went to Stanford where he learned English and Philosophy. Pete is still going strong and has a lot to offer his clients, be sure to...

  From growing up on a dairy farm, to a successful entrepreneur with hundreds of employees, meet our next guest, Jack Greco. Greco co-founded ACV Auctions, an online auction dealer platform, which was last valued at $1.5B. He never thought that he would be the person to co-found Buffalo’s first unicorn startup in 2014. The great part is the story behind his success. He later reveals to Kevin that he has been fired from every job before he became a founder, and what kicked him in...

  Kevin Siskar and Tim Shisler are at it again, discussing the current news in our world today. Each person brings one topic to the table and they talk about them both. Kevin’s Topic: The Future of American Cities. Kevin starts by discussing how he lived in NYC for a full decade and how he has seen the cost of living has increased significantly, but at the same time, the storefronts are leaving! This is due to the commercial investors also increasing their rent too much where...

Our next guest is so amazing, we had to interview him a second time! He was on nearly 5 years ago on Episode 8! Jeff Wald is an entrepreneur who has started three technology companies, with his latest company, WorkMarket, being sold to ADP. Monday was officially his last day. He is a Board Member on the following boards: Steel Connect, Costar Technologies, TransfrVR, Peerless Systems, and Register.com. But the true reason we brought him on the podcast today was to talk about his book, “The...

In this new episode, Kevin Siskar and Tim Shisler discuss the current news in our world today. Each week, each person brings one topic to the table. This week Tim chose to talk about the sad passing of former Associate Judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18, 2020. She passed away after complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. And brought Facebook to the table. There are real issues with Facebook. Everything from the false advertising that Facebook is not taking responsibility for,...

Our next guest on the show, is the amazing Harold Hughes. He is the founder of Bandwagon, which helps companies discover the identity of their fans in order to increase attendance, offer personalized services, and increase revenue. Growing up, Harold made his first dollar selling AirHeads for cheaper than the school sold them at their cafeteria until he got caught! He went to Clemson University where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics, before going back for...

Imagine being on a cruise with friends and a good business idea comes to mind, then months later, your idea is now being distributed in Walmart’s around the world! Today’s guest, Alexis Beechen was enjoying her time partyin’ and thought, putting wine in a can would be much easier to casually drink. She got home and decided to research this idea and discovered that there would be a good market for it. She partnered with some amazing people and created her brand, The Drop, which is now at...

Packing for a nice relaxing vacation, you look around, and realize, you have these beautiful plants that you have worked so hard in growing, and you wonder, are they going to be thriving when you get home? Our amazing guest today, Dan Nelson thought just that as he prepared for his honeymoon a few years back. There has to be a better way than having dead plants when you get back from vacation! This is the event that gave him a new chapter in life. After countless hours of studying under his...

After a summer break, we are back with a brand new season of Ambition Today! Season 3 brings with it some fresh new changes to the podcast, coming to you from our brand new podcast studio in the heart of New York City! We have some exciting guests coming up and I can’t wait to share all of the great conversations & new questions with you! I hope you enjoy Season 3, now on to the episode! Who struggles with procrastination? Did you know that studies show up to 95% of people struggle...

Bryan Janeczko was recently named one of the Top 23 LGBTQ people in Tech, along side other notable figures such as Tim Cook, Peter Thiel, and more. He has built a strong track record for building great businesses including: NuKitchen, a food preparation service that helped people eat healthier. NuKitchen was later sold to Nutrisystem and pioneered the market long before Blue Apron or Plated even existed.  Now Bryan is the Founder of Gro, an on-demand startup academy. As part of the Loeb.NYC...

From being forced to layoff his whole staff, to selling his company for $140 million, our next guest, Michael Diamant, has great insight on how he became successful. Michael Diamant created a well-known brand with his wife, called Skip Hop, which was sold to Carter’s for $140 million. It all started with a diaper bag in 2003. Michael and his wife wanted a diaper bag that was fully functional, however, also appealed to a fashion savvy crowd. The company continued to grow for 15 more years...

  Today, my guest is a fellow Founder Institute Director, Benjamin Chong. Benjamin has been the director of Founder Institute in Australia since 2011 and is also well known as a partner at Right Click Capital. Right Click Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups. He is an active technology startup community member that has served as a mentor and guest speaker at many different entrepreneurial programs in Sydney, South East Asia, and the United States. ...

  Joining us today is Founder and CEO of Loeb Enterprises, Michael Loeb. Loeb Enterprises is an early stage venture investing company and an incubator for startups. Prior to Loeb Enterprises, Michael co-founded Synapse in 1992 with Jay Walker. Synapse then became the largest seller of consumer magazine subscriptions worldwide and now is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Along with Jay Walker, Michael assisted with the creation and early stage funding of Priceline. Although Michael was born...

Approaching two decades later, our guest, Brian McCullough’s company is still going strong. Brian is CEO of ResumeWriters.com which is the longest lasting company for this service, shout out to Brian. Not only is he a successful entrepreneur, he is also the Author of “How The Internet Happened.” In 2016, he became a Ted Talk Resident, and is also known for his podcasts: Internet History Podcast and Techmeme Ride Home, which is a News Aggregator that now gives you a daily dose of tech news. ...

Reminiscing on my first podcast is my guest, Ramphis Castro. We sat down for my very first podcast in August of 2015 and he has watched it grow over the years. It was great to have him here with me again. Ramphis is a serial entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist that has impacted several companies across 40 countries. His quote sums him up very well, “I am a Computer Engineer and Lawyer by training, serial entrepreneur by experience, and grass-root ecosystem builder by conviction.” A...

Author, Blogger, Entrepreneur, Teacher, Investor, and Consultant, also known as our next guest, Nir Eyal. Well known for his blog, Nir & Far, Nir writes about “behavioral design” the intersection of psychology, technology and business. He helps companies with techniques to motivate and manipulate users. He has successfully founded and sold two businesses in the tech industry and now has his book “Hooked” on the market, with another book coming in September. Nir, originally born in...

Fascinated about how things worked and technology from a young age, today’s guest, Byron Reese, makes you question, are you a machine? Today, he puts his fascination into good use as the CEO and publisher of Gigaom, an industry-leading technology research company. Bryon is also an award-winning public speaker and author of “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity.” Byron grew up in Austin, TX and became an entrepreneur at the young age of 12. He did...

Starting out young, today's guest, Matt Mandell, created his first company at the age of 12. Matt grew up with a supportive family full of entrepreneurs, so Matt was very comfortable with entrepreneurship from the start. He attended college in DC, where he spent the next several years developing multiple companies that were selective to college students. Matt is well known for his serial entrepreneurship and has spoken all across the nation teaching students how to become entrepreneurs...

Entrepreneur, investor, public speaker and author are a few titles that Dr. Dileep Rao is known for. He came from India to America in 1973 for his education, and has been a success ever since. While obtaining his PhD, he started working for an Adventure Capital firm one summer that ended up changing his life. He since then has helped invest in hundreds of businesses, which includes four businesses he started himself. He is now a professor at the Florida International University and has been...

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NASA made history on August 12, 2018, launching the Parker Solar Probe; their first ever mission to touch the sun. Luckily, I was invited by NASA to come down to Cape Canaveral to have a front row seat to the rocket launch! This was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am proud to say I was able to witness with my own two eyes. While there, I had the opportunity and pleasure of interviewing Felipe Ruiz, who is the Deputy Lead Mechanical Engineer from John’s Hopkins Applied...