Brittany DiCapua started The Boston Food Journal a year and a half ago by sharing food on Instagram and it has morphed into much more than a side project for her. She describes The Boston Food Journal as highlighting the food and dining industry through social marketing, blog and video content, and photography. The Boston food journal is a strong social influencer of local restaurants, small businesses, and technology applications throughout Massachusetts.   In this episode, Brittany talks...

Beck Bamberger is founder and CEO of BAM Communications, a PR firm for startups. Beck graduated UCLA in two years and was then, the youngest MBA graduate from the University of Pittsburgh at age 21. She started BAM Communications while working as a news anchor in San Diego and won an Emmy in 2011. Shortly after, she also founded BITE, San Diego’s top-rated and largest food tour company in the country and sold it in 2016.   In this episode, Beck talks about:   How founders can know if...

Kevin Kinsella is a venture capitalist in San Diego. Kevin has been a part of the formation, financing, and development of more than 125 companies, including several public companies. In the past, Kevin has led international joined ventures for Solar Turbines International, he was an advisor to the Peruvian government in national nutrition planning, he ran a technology exchange program between the United States and Latin America, and he taught algebra at the American high school in Beirut,...

Sumner Lee is founder of Fuse Integration. Before founding the company, Sumner was in the Navy, and then spent time in SPAWAR and design consultancy. Fuse is a design and engineering firm that brings warfighter focused design to commercial and defense applications.   In this episode, Sumner talks about:   Their unique office space in downtown San Diego, where their walls are covered with murals   What he’s learned from his time in the military and how he applies it to Fuse Integration ...

Brian Oneill has been a product designer for more than twenty years and in the last ten years has been an independent consultant and started his company Designing For Analytics last year. Brian has helped designed products for companies ranging from startups to enterprises including NetApp, TripAdvisor, Infinio, Fidelity, and DataXu.   In this episode, Brian talks about:   The differences between UI and UX and what the role of the product designer is   How to measure the user experience...

David Smith is CEO of LiquiGlide. LiquiGlide’s technology was developed at a research lab at MIT and its function is to provide permanently wet surfaces that can be used in a wide variety of applications including manufacturing, consumer packaging, and oil and gas.   In this episode, David talks about:   The amount of waste we produce every year from product that is left sticking to surfaces   Who some of his mentors are and what he learned from them   How the coatings differ...

Andy Ory sold his last company, Acme Packet, to Oracle for $2.1 billion and soon after co-founded 128 Technology. 128 Technology is on a mission to fix the broken internet. The internet isn’t used for what it was originally designed for and that is putting a major strain on the networking infrastructure. 128 Technology provides greater network security delivered with a much simpler experience for a fraction of the usual cost.   In this episode, Andy talks about:   Why the Internet is...

Liz Powers is co-founder and “Chief Happiness Spreader” at ArtLifting. Liz co-founded ArtLifting with her brother after creating art groups in homeless shelters only to see amazing pieces of art end up in basements and closets of shelters. ArtLifting empowers artists dealing with homelessness and disabilities through the sale of their artwork.   In this episode, Liz talks about:   The differences between handouts and opportunities   Why she didn’t want ArtLifting to be a non-profit   ...

David Delmar is the founder and executive director at Resilient Coders and formerly was a design lead at PayPal. Resilient Coders’ mission is simple:  they take students from traditionally under-served communities and teach them the skills needed to be web developers during an eight-week boot camp. Upon completing the boot camp, Resilient Coders helps connect them to job opportunites.   In this episode, David talks about:   When he first recognized the need for a program like Resilient...

Annie Wang is co-founder, Chief Product Officer, and Creative Director at Her Campus. Annie co-founded Her Campus at Harvard University after she and her co-founders saw the potential of bringing a women’s college-focused lifestyle and fashion magazine online. Today, Her Campus has over 10,000 contributors and over 320 campus chapters. Annie has been named to Inc.’s 30 Under 30, BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Under 25, and Forbes’ All-Star Student Entrepreneurs. She has served as a National Women’s...

Rachel Spekman is currently the Director of Programming at MassChallenge, which describes itself to be the most startup-friendly accelerator on the planet. MassChallenge awards over two million dollars in equity-free prizes every year to help high-impact startups succeed.   In this episode, Rachel talks about:   What sets MassChallenge apart from other accelerators   What the curriculum looks like and which mentors are available   Traits she has noticed in the most successful...

Semyon Dukach is currently the Program Director at Techstars Boston and is an angel investor with roughly over 100 investments. He is also the chairman of SharpSpring, which he took over in 2002 and then took public in 2011. He lead one of the MIT blackjack teams in the early nineties, has started a few companies, and in 2012 Semyon created “The Troublemaker Award”.   In this episode, Semyon talks about:   His time leading one of the MIT blackjack teams in the nineties   Why he loves...

Rob MacLeod is founder of Neoscape, a one-stop shop for clients including real estate developers, architects, designers, and corporations for everything from 3-D renderings, imaging, filmmaking, animation, interactive development, branding, and strategy. Rob was a full-time carpenter and went to school for architecture before founding Neoscape twenty-one years ago.   In this episode, Rob talks about:   Virtual reality, including where Rob sees the field going and how Neoscape’s clients...

Enrico Palmerino founded botkeeper to focus on the software solution for bookkeeping by using artificial intelligence. Enrico started his first company ThinkLite while attending college at Babson. ThinkLite is a lighting designer, manufacturer, and installer that allows customers to pay for lighting solutions as a percentage of their savings with no upfront costs. After ThinkLite, Enrico was co-owner and managing director at SmartBooks and eventually founded botkeeper. In 2011, Bloomberg...

Maya Rafie is founder of Bistara, the first freelance marketplace to hire college students for creative gigs. Maya, a freelance photographer, founded Bistara while attending Emerson College. Bistara encourages students to “be your own boss” in order to build up a portfolio of work prior to graduation. Today, there are over 700 freelancers and over 300 clients on the platform.   In the episode, Maya talks about:   How they originally started building out the marketplace for Bistara   The...

Doug Morgan is the Director of Engineering at Lola Travel. Doug joined the company when Lola acquired HopOn, the company he co-founded. Lola connects travelers with in-house personal travel consultants who help customers plan, book, and manage their travel in an effort to make trips more personal and rewarding.   In this episode, Doug talks about:   The process of being acquired   The transition from founder to employee   The key to building a successful engineering team   Lessons...

Win Smith’s father was a founding member of Merrill Lynch and he worked there for twenty-eight years as the executive vice president. However, when new management was brought in and disagreed with the values that the firm had been founded on, he left. Win moved from New York City to Warren, Vermont to run Sugarbush ski resort full-time, which he had purchased a few years prior. At the time, Sugarbush was nearing bankruptcy, but thanks to investments made by Win and others they were able to...

 Rory Crawford is co-founder and CEO of BevSpot. BevSpot is a hospitality management software that allows restaurants and bars to monitor and order inventory three times faster and provides visualizations to help identify trends in usage, inventory, profitability, sales, and variance.   In this episode, Rory talks about:   Why building out a prototype allowed him to stand out and attract co-founders   Biggest trends happening in the bar and restaurant industry   Why they wanted to...

Cort Davies is founder of StartupCMO, an aid to small companies with limited budgets for marketing. Cort first got into online marketing after realizing that the Internet was the next big platform after real estate. After helping friends generate leads for their companies, Cort founded StartupCMO to help more companies with marketing budgets too low to hire someone full-time, but adequate enough to still achieve great results. Along with his primary passions, Cort is also a mentor at...

Karin Brandt is founder and CEO of CoUrbanize. CoUrbanize allows residents to participate in the development process of their neighborhood. Ideas can be exchanged and considered without having to physically go to meetings and sort through piles of paper.   In this episode, Karin talks about:   What the Techstars experience was like for her   The benefits of CoUrbanize for real estate developers and municipalities   How planners and developers can go about getting engagement from the...

Rob Biederman’s co-founded Catalant (formerly HourlyNerd) while getting his MBA at HBS as a requirement to for his Field III Course. They started by going to small businesses surrounding the campus and asking what problems they were facing and how they could help. MBA students from surrounding schools would then carry out the work needed for the small businesses. Today, Catalant has over 28,000 experts on their platform and has completed projects for small companies and enterprises such as...

Ken Cowan has made his way from a consultant, to CEO of an automotive services company to an investor. Currently, Ken is an associate at OpenView Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that focuses on expansion-stage software companies. Ken quit his first job at age 13, caddying at a local golf course, because he found it too boring and quickly found a new job working at a startup organizing and running tests on laptops. Since graduating from BC, Ken has mostly been involved with startups...

Rory Cuddyer was named the City of Boston’s Startup Manager by the Mayor in March of 2015. But what does that mean and what does he do? I sat down with Rory to find out. Previously, Rory was an advisor the Mayor’s Chief of Staff and was named the Startup Manager because the Mayor wants to ensure the city is doing as much for startups as it’s doing for more well established companies.   In this episode, Rory talks about:   What the Startup Manager does on a day to day basis   What...

Ellen Chisa started her career in Program Management at Microsoft then moved to Kickstarter as a Product Manager where she was the fiftieth employee. In 2015 she joined Lola Travel as the first employee as the VP of Product. Lola is Paul English’s second travel company, and connects travelers with in-house personal travel consultants who help you plan, book, and manage your travel, allowing you to have a more personalized and rewarding trip.      In this episode, Ellen talks about:   The...