This week, we are continuing our Forbes 30 under 30 series with Caroline Recchi. She is the co-founder of EdSights which she founded with her sister Claudia. University recruitment and retention directors may be the client, but EdSight's customers are college students, especially those at risk of dropping out. It's a chatbot that checks in with students on issues such as engagement, homework, grades, and personal financial issues and problems. The Recchi sisters, Italian immigrants, are...

This week on ReDirected, I got to chat with a co-founder of Coder, Ammar Bandukwala. Coder’s three co-founders — Bandukwala, Kyle Carberry, and John Andrew Entwistle — first met online while in high school. The three were soon collaborating to build and monetize Minecraft plugins and servers, eventually moving on to a series of other projects, some successful, some not. Frustrated by the complexities of collaborating remotely on software development, after graduation Ammar, Kyle, and John...

Keeping on with our Forbes 30 Under 30 series, today I got to chat with Jeremy Cai. Jeremy is the founder of Italic, an online retailer that sells luxury goods without the brand names -- or the corresponding markup. Instead, the company designs its own products and then taps the same manufacturers used by high-end labels like Alexander Wang, Burberry and Prada to spin out brandless versions. The manufacturer sets the price and splits the profits with Italic. Italic sells 100 products,...

Continuing our Forbes 30 under 30 series, I got to talk to Julia Haried. As the co-founder of MakerGirl, she's working to pave a new path for girls. It all started in a social entrepreneurship class at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when Julia and Elizabeth Engele were inspired by the question "What bothers you?". Motivated by their past experiences, MakerGirl was created to inspire young girls to pursue STEM fields through 3D printing sessions in an effort to shrink the...

Today, we are continuing our Forbes 30 under 30 series with Derrick Emsley. At 16, Derrick and his brother founded a tree planting company that was meant to capitalize on the future of sustainability: carbon offsetting credits. They planted over 150,000 trees while selling carbon offset contracts that totaled over $1 million. While carbon offsetting ended up not being the future, this experience was just the beginning of his tree planting journey. During college, Derrick worked with his...

This week on Redirected, I got to chat with Desh Amilia. A product of immigration, integration, and innovation, Sri Lankan-born, Desh Amila, started from humble beginnings before realizing his dream was in the West and migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 2000. Desh has since pioneered his career as an entrepreneur, entertainer, and educator on a global scale. ​ ‍ After graduating from Melbourne’s Deakin University with a Bachelor of Arts (Media Arts: Screen Studies and Photography) in 2005....

Continuing our Forbes 30 under 30 series, this week I got to chat with Nicole Hardson-Hurley. Nicole is the Co-Founder and Head of Product of Byteboard, an Area 120 funded startup founded by two women of color on a mission to make software engineering interviews more equitable. We are currently working with companies like Lyft, Figma, and many others to assist them in building a more fair technical interviewing process. If you haven’t yet, please rate Redirected and subscribe to hear more....

This week on ReDirected, we have serial entrepreneur, Raz Romanescu. His roles include: Co-Founder and CEO of Gamelancer Inc, a platform designed to elevate the online gaming experience; Co-Founder of Underlining Beauty, which owns and operates notable brands such as Tatbrow, Nailboo and Hide; Co-Founder of 10PM Curfew, a female-focused media network founded with actress Bella Thorne that includes Style and Girls on Instagram and TikTok; And Co-Founder of Guff Media, which owns multiple media...

Italian-born American Football Placekicker and "Gastro-preneur" as co-founder of ElevenTwelve, a lifestyle brand specializing in helping people celebrate life one meal at a time with high-quality wine, pasta, and spreads from the Piemonte Region of Northwestern Italy. A few topics that we cover: Giorgio’s childhood and parents Early days as a foreign service officer NFL journey in one word Giorgio’s first full-time job Sacrifices and the “why” Monotony in experiences The...

Continuing our Forbes 30 under 30 series, I got to sit down with Nick Cherukuri. Nick is the founder of ThirdEye and wasn't deterred by the failed consumer roll-out of Google Glass: He believes that augmented reality glasses can "have a life-changing impact on the way workers go about their everyday tasks." ThirdEye has launched several different models of its smart glasses with features like live video streaming and 3D modeling and has racked up $5 million in paid contracts, with over 500...

Continuing our Forbes 30 under 30 series, I got to talk to Manu Edakara. As Program Director at iVenture Accelerator, Manu manages a startup ecosystem across three University of Illinois campuses, supporting students’ innovative ideas for transforming the state’s economy and education. Its entrepreneurs have raised $11 million—and inspired other departments and universities to replicate the academic model. For his part, Edakara co-founded three startups and a nonprofit still operating in the...

Continuing our Forbes 30 under 30 series today, I got to talk to Adam Oxner. Adam is a co-founder of MySwimPro. MySwimPro is a personal coach app that helps swimmers in more than 180 countries improve their performance and health by delivering personalized training plans, workouts, technique videos, and analytics. Since its launch in 2015, the app has made something of a splash; netting more than 250,000 downloads from registered athletes. Apple Store editors named MySwimPro the 2016...

This week on Redirected, we continued our Forbes 30 Under 30 Series with Amber Vittoria. Amber is an award-winning artist working in New York City; her work focuses on the portrayal of women within art, and she has collaborated with like-minded brands, such as NBC, Warby Parker, Gucci, The New York Times, and Instagram, on pieces that further said narrative. ​Amber is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Recipient, One Club Young Gun, Society of Illustrators Gold Medalist, American Illustration Chosen...

This week on Redirected, I sat down with restaurant genius, Jeremy Fall. At only sixteen, Fall became the promotions manager of Avalon in Hollywood, producing large-scale events and booking talent at the star-making venue that showcased the first LA appearances of future platinum-selling Grammy winners. It was evident that Jeremy had an eye for potential, and that ability informed his next move: turning a hidden, forsaken attic off Sunset Boulevard into a legendary pop-up nightclub called...

This week, I got to sit down with Reed Duchscher. Former NFL agent turned serial entrepreneur and investor, Reed, has quickly become a leader in the rapidly growing influencer marketing space. Reed is best known for his past work with Dude Perfect and his current role as business manager to YouTube stars MrBeast, Preston, and Typical Gamer. Reed’s brainchild, Night Media, is now the fastest-growing digital talent firm of its kind. Night Media consistently looks for innovative ways to...

This week, we sit down with Kevin Gould as we continue our Forbes 30 under 30 series. He is an entrepreneur, talent manager, brand builder, and active angel investor based in Los Angeles. Gould is the CEO of Kombo Ventures which operates as a holding company to its core operating divisions: talent management, a strategic creative agency, and brand Incubation. He is the co-founder of three direct to consumer brands, all of which have raised no outside capital: Insert Name Here, a hair...

On today's episode, we talked with Erika Olde. After a successful career as a film producer running Black Bicycle Entertainment, Erika Olde is pivoting to creating content in the digital space. She just launched her new comfort food website Olde & New after her own personal struggle to find versions of her favorite recipes that fit into her lifestyle. Erika also continues to run her non-profit organization, The Erika Film Foundation, helping aspiring young filmmakers by providing them...

During today's episode, we talk with SweatPack Founder, Umama Kibria. Umama Kibria is passionate about connecting people through fitness. She believes when people commit to fitness, they develop into game-changing leaders that disrupt the world. After working out at 400+ gyms and playing recreational sports for 11 years, she founded SweatPack. SweatPack helps you sweat and socialize with your weekly fitness team! Find an activity, select your time slot, and join your teammates...

Today in episode 87 of Redirected, we sit down with our next guest on this 30 under 30 series, Olivia Landau. Olivia chats with us today about her journey of transitioning from side hustle to multi-million dollar company. Olivia Landau is The Founder and CEO of The Clear Cut, a 4th generation diamond expert, and G.I.A. Graduate Gemologist (GG). She started The Clear Cut as an educational blog for friends and family and when she met her husband, Kyle, in G.I.A. school, they turned the blog...

Today in episode 86 of Redirected, we sit down with our next guest on this 30 under 30 series, Christina Rakestraw. Christina chats with us today about her journey of transitioning from teaching to tech. Christina founded Homeroom, an online platform for after-school enrichment programs, that offers stakeholders (mostly parents, schools and PTA groups and private programs) a safe online space for scheduling, enrollment, insurance, communication and payment processing. She has since...

Today in episode 85 of Redirected, we sit down with our next guest on this 30 under 30 series, Rooshy Roy.  A first-generation Indian-American, Rooshy Roy used to make skincare at home with her mother using ingredients like turmeric and almond oil. She chats with us about how she made the transition from investment banking to skincare in 2017 after she started Aavrani, her own way to share the secrets of Indian beauty rituals with the world.  If you haven’t yet, please rate Redirected and...

Today in episode 84 of Redirected, we sit down with our next guest on this 30 under 30 series, Nikhil Goel.  Today, Nikhil and I chat about the future of Uber. It was such an honor to talk with him about his plans and the impact he's made at Uber. He started at Uber on the emerging markets team, before cofounding the company's Elevate division. He worked with NASA and Uber executives to establish the vision for Uber Air — a global network of all-electric, urban air taxis. Suffice to say,...