Space Perspective just raised $40M to build the Disney World of space. To do it they’re using Space Balloons. NASA has been toying with space balloons since the 1970s but you may remember them from Red Bull’s halo jump — a skydive from the edge of the stratosphere. Space Perspective is betting that instead of strapping into a rocket for a 12 min trip you might prefer a 6 hour trip with WiFi, a cocktail bar, a culinary experience, and a full bar. And if you’re looking to grow your business,...

When was the last time you enjoyed your Gmail inbox? Shortwave is picking up where Gmail dropped the ball and redesigning your inbox. Find out how. Joe gets straight into conversation with Andrew about why email should be as much fun as WhatsApp, why Slack is email’s greatest threat, and the $9 million Series A they raised in 2020. You’ll also hear Andrew’s plans on building a professional grade email product for heavy users and what the future looks like for Shortwave. And if you’re...

When your crop’s ready for harvesting, you need workers ready to go. But getting reliable, legal workers is tough and that’s where SESO is stepping up. Joe and SESO CEO Michael get into the multi-billion dollar problem facing the agricultural industry, the very messy visa entry system, and why farmers just want to farm without the hassle of backend operations. You’ll hear how SESO is streamlining the hiring and onboarding process, why payroll is the next big win, and why agtech is innovating...

Phil Libin has founded a few companies — Evernote the early mobile app giant, All Turtles a product design firm, and now Mmhmm, the culmination of a decade long mission to kill Powerpoint. We dive into how Phil names companies, what he learned about fundraising from raising $400M from Sequioa for Evernote, and how to build products people love. And if you love listening to Just Raised, please leave me a 5-star review on Rate My Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/justraised Thank you so...

When you can tell Andrew Chen from A16z how to solve the cold start problem, you know you’re on to a good thing. Meet Swaypay, the company with all the answers. And those answers come from Kaeya Majmundar, Founder and CEO, with a $4.2 million Series A to her name. Joe and Kaeya, discuss how Swaypay is riding on TikTok’s coattails, how to capture the longtail of social media through everyday users, and why Swaypay customers pay based on the virality of the post. You’ll hear all about the...

“If you’re not paying, you’re the product”. Josh McManus is shaking financial wellness up with a membership platform helping customers gain financial freedom. The problem with most financial institutions is they just want to sell you things. Fruitful is different. CEO Josh has a clear set of goals: To offer expert advice and powerful tools through a transparent, affordable subscription fee. Joe gets into conversation with Josh about why fintech is a tool for empowerment, how a subscription...

When Everett Cook saw a gap in the market, he didn’t just fill it, he set the bar for the entire industry and took his VC backed company to a new level. In this fly through, Joe gets into it with Everett, talking about why digital financial services are transforming the entire fintech market, how they raised $75 million in VC funding, and how Rho actually makes money.  And if you love listening to Just Raised, please leave me a 5-star review on Rate My Podcast:...

Delphia is using your data to beat the stock market. Today, the stock market is about having an information edge. Hedge funds use satellite imagery of Walmart parking lots and AI that crawls Twitter to bet on a company's returns. Delphia has it's own information edge: your data. Joe and Andrew Peek, Co-Founder and CEO of Delphia, get into why users would give Delphia access to their data - from Venmo transactions to Robinhood trading - Andrew's journey from software and boutique hotels to...

Supply chains are broken. Poor communication among suppliers has the potential to affect all our lives from car safety to well stocked grocery stores. Vendia is building solutions. Tim Wagner and Shruthi Rao, Co-Founders, are, at heart, builders, and when they saw a market that needed their technical eye they jumped right in with Venida, which has just raised $30M in series B funding. Joe jumps into it with Tim and Shruthi. You’ll hear Vendia’s origin story as a problem-solving Venn diagram,...

Ben Lamm is on a de-extinction mission and it’s no coincidence his company is backed by one of the original creators of the Jurassic Park franchise.  As a serial tech entrepreneur, Ben Lamm knew his next startup was always going to have a big impact on the world. With Colossal Biosciences, he’s doing just that.  Joe gets Jurassic with Ben as they discuss how Colossal is building tools and tech to help rescue species on the verge of extinction, how DNA technology can build an elephant, and how...

Pipedream is a delivery startup, but they’re not using bike messengers or Uber drivers, they’re using robots that will deliver you a burrito in minutes via pipes underground.Pipedream is GoPuff crossed with Elon Musk’s boring company. It’s building a hyper logistics network to delivery anything, anywhere in a city in minutes. And they’re doing it with bots running through maintenance pipes.Joe gets into it Founder and CEO Garrett McCurrach, talking about what makes a good city for Pipedream’s...

Meet the founder building a fintech business to upgrade government. Propel is building the banking app for the 42M Americans on food stamps. The US government deploys $70 billion a year into food stamps and it doesn’t have a website where users can check their balance. Propel is changing that and building a killer business at the same time. Jimmy has onboarded nearly 5 million users on less than $20M in venture capital - wildly capital efficient for a neobank. Now he’s building out a...

How do you bring in the next generation of crypto users? You create your own currency. Most fintech companies are skimming from customers when it comes to saving and investing but the Eco platform is different. By making spending, saving and investing easy, without the skim, it’s turning traditional finance on its head. And it’s doing that through Eco Points, a rewards currency for the Eco community. Joe brings back Andy, getting into how he got started in Crypto way back in 2014, the launch...

Meet the startup backed by the GitHub CEO and investment team.  Graphite is growing like crazy. Taking inspiration from Discord and Twitter, this is a company offering a code review tool for engineers. Operating as an open source CLI and dashboard, the platform is for users who want to review code quickly and efficiently. Joe gets into it with Co-Founders Tomas and Greg, talking through their recent $20M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, why they’ve welcomed GitHub investor Peter Levine...

Meet the company on a mission to make teamwork the best part of work. Backed by a $14M Series A, Switchboard is one to watch. Tapping into the remote working space, Switchboard brings all the right people and tools together on the cloud to make coworking a breeze. And they’re doing it beautifully. Joe and Amir get deep in conversation, talking about what it takes to build virality and customer acquisition into a product, the process of raising, and why remote working is exhausting without the...

Templates! Great trading strategies can get lost in a sea of spreadsheets and complicated code. Composer makes it easy for traders, with a building block system that can be endlessly customized. Even the most experienced retail investors can get frustrated with the endless amounts of coding and paperwork that comes with creating trade strategies. As investing becomes more complex, having access to a library of tried and tested strategy templates is invaluable. Joe gets into conversation with...

Kicking off Season 2 is an extraordinary guest, building way more than just a business in New York City. Mike Fraietta is creating community, art, and co-working space in this fascinating DAO. Web3 has a new home, a heart in SoHo where the Empire DAO community of entrepreneurs, startups, and developers will have ample space to create alongside artists. Joe talks to Mike, a talented founder with an ambitious vision. Mike explains his triple chicken and egg theory, how expansion is already on...

Fredrik Haga couldn’t have started a crypto startup in a tougher environment, now Dune has a billion dollar valuation.  Three years ago Fredrik and co-founder Mats Olsen were getting used to hearing ‘no’. Rejected by 100s of investors, they decided to go back to basics, zeroing in on creating a product people genuinely wanted and recognizing the importance of traction. Through sheer grit and no small amount of stubbornness from its founders, Dune is now commanding $69 million in Series...

From a cycling chef to CEO of a fleet of EVs, meet the founder changing the face of NYC transport. When you plan on competing with the likes of Uber, you’d better bring your A-game. Revel is that extraordinary company, with a fleet of 100% electric vehicles, with their unique blue livery, and electric mopeds to hire by the hour, the company is also building the largest EV charging station in New York. Joe gets into conversation with Frank Reig, the Co-founder and CEO of Revel. Frank lays out...

Ag Tech! You may have seen crop spraying in movies done by biplanes or Vietnam veteran pilots. That is still how the market works today. Which is why our guest today is building a new kind of ag tech company based on crop spring drones.  We dive into Adam's year in Shenzhen China building protocols-types for an automated dog feeder startup and eventually Guardian, what It means to raise corporate venture capital and have a giant corporation on your cap table, and what the agriculture market...

Rob Meyerson was recruited by Jeff Bezos to run Blue Origin in 2003. He built the New Shepard, the rocket that took Jeff and three civilians to space last summer, and today he's a VC investing in space startups. On this bonus episode, Joe talks to Rob about what the next 10 to 50 years will look like in space. Startups building transportation networks to the moon, lunar colonies and mining, 3D printing, and private space stations. Follow Rob: LinkedIn:...

“A new kind of farm for a new kind of world” - that’s the promise of Plenty, and the world’s first, high capacity, indoor vertical farm. When growing crops is a battle for so many communities around the world, Plenty is on a mission to bring healthy, pesticide-free leafy greens to all. And with that food come jobs, training, and innovation. On this bonus episode, Joe talks to Nate about raising nearly a billion dollars in venture capital, his role as Founder and Chief Science Officer, and how...

Gamer owned universe! When players take ownership of their assets, innovation follows. Meet Faraway, home to 2 million players and counting. Web 2 games studios are fine but gaming is changing. Take GTA, for example. Who knew it would end up getting streamed on Twitch and YouTube as a role play game, adding an extra level of entertainment value? Joe gets into conversation with Alex and Dennis, Co-Founders of Faraway, a games studio and home to Mini Royale Nations. The difference between their...

Zoom! Grain is building a way to record, search, and edit your Zoom meetings. But what started as a transcription service and a video editor has evolved into a new kind of database - a searchable record of all the conversations that happen inside a company. Today Grain is about connecting ideas across teams and divisions that you may never have even known existed. Joe talks to Mike about how Zoom evolved into a platform for new startups, how Grain found their killer app with a Google doc,...