In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Andrea Nicholas, a seasoned corporate leader with over 25 years of experience known for launching award-winning SaaS products and guiding Fortune 1000 companies' growth strategies. Her unique approach, "culture salt hunt," combines coaching and consulting to help high achievers think bigger and lead differently. Andrea shares about her upbringing in a small Midwestern farming community and her involvement in 4-H, wher...
Jul 17, 2024•47 min
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Amos Schwartzfarb, a seasoned entrepreneur and former managing director of TechStars in Austin, Texas. He is known for his ventures in companies like hotjobs.com and MySpoonful, and he has expertise in product-market fit and early sales. Amos has supported over 100 early-stage companies in securing investment during his tenure at TechStars. The challenges of unwinding from a demanding job like TechStars, which operate...
Jul 12, 2024•51 min
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest, Michael Dalley, the Chief Revenue Officer at Aerial Vantage. Despite a challenging upbringing, including the loss of his mother at a young age, Dalley pursued a path of self-improvement and growth. He joined the United States Air Force to expand his horizons and later pursued higher education while working in various jobs, including selling software. Throughout his career, Dalley learned important lessons about authe...
Jul 02, 2024•48 min
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with guest Lourdes Graciela Zuniga, who shares her remarkable journey from Lima, Peru, to the United States with a big dream of making a difference despite facing numerous challenges. Born and raised in Lima, Peru, Lourdes moved to the United States over two decades ago with a journalist visa and a burning desire to explore opportunities beyond her homeland's limitations. She is the founder and executive director of Financial Health Pat...
Jun 25, 2024•36 min
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Steve Schaffer, a seasoned entrepreneur and investor, as he shares his entrepreneurial journey, starting from his early days in the magic business to venturing into Silicon Valley's tech scene. With a focus on continuous improvement, Steve reflects on the lessons learned from his ventures like mysterynet.com and offers.com, emphasizing the importance of metrics-driven decision-making and strategic adaptation in the dy...
Jun 18, 2024•50 min
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Christian Drapeau. Christian is a stem cell scientist, author and creator of the first stem cell supplement. He holds a graduate degree in Neurophysiology and has been involved in medical research for 30+ years, the last 20 specifically dedicated to stem cell research. The author of 5 books, including the best-selling "Cracking the Stem Cell Code,” Christian has published dozens of scientific papers on brain research ...
May 30, 2024•54 min
In this episode of If Not Now Wen, we are so excited to welcome special guest, Grant Newlin. Grant is a founder and general partner of Newlin Ventures , investing at Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A across both North and South America. Grant began his career as a process improvement / strategy Consultant for Ernst & Young where he aided the nation’s largest financial institutions in the post-financial crisis, Dodd-Frank world. He then worked in M&A sell-side and buy-side transactions for Wal...
May 30, 2024•35 min
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Josh Chodniewicz. Not just an entrepreneur, but a leading expert in regulations in crowdfunding, entrepreneurship and investing in startups, Josh has consistently been at the forefront of industry evolution. From humble beginnings selling chicken eggs in his neighborhood to navigating the complexities of the digital art world, every step has been marked by perseverance, vision, and an innate entrepreneurial drive. Tod...
May 29, 2024•54 min
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Lucas Mitchell. Lucas is the founder and managing partner of Infinite Ranges, a company that drives digital adoption by connecting the global integrator and resellers with the outcomes and people needed to deliver solutions. They help clients activate, deploy, and optimize their software securely. Lucas has over 25 years in the tech sector with expertise ranging from cybersecurity, devops, app modernization, and human...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 123
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Rima Chakrabarti. Rima is a partner at KdT Ventures, the standard for early-stage frontier science investing, where she partners with scientific founders engineering the world at the molecular level. Rima studied biology and neuroscience at Brown University and earned her MD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. While in medical school, she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) research fell...
Oct 10, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 122
Our special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Ash Maurya. Ash is the author of two bestselling books “Running Lean” and “Scaling Lean” and is also the creator of the highly popular one-page business modeling tool “Lean Canvas”. Ash is praised for offering some of the best and most practical advice for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs all over the world. Driven by the search for better and faster ways for building successful products, Ash has developed a continuous innovation framework...
Sep 19, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 121
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Valerie Ward. Valerie recently completed her MBA at UT Austin's McComb's School of Business, where she is concentrated in Strategy and Innovation with a special focus on Social Enterprise and Social Impact, and she'll be joining Strategy&'s Customer Transformation practice in early 2024. Valerie was the co-founder of Sweet Ritual vegan ice cream shop and non-profit Good Work Austin. She is a mentor at Capital Fact...
Sep 12, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 120
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re so excited to talk with special guest Jake O'Shea. Jake is a professional match-maker and superconnector. He currently works as the Director of Portfolio Operations at Foundation Capital, building tools and systems to operationalize the firm's network and leading the 30yo firm's Platform and Portfolio Support functions. Prior to Foundation Capital, Jake was Director of Platform at Capital Factory, where he was responsible for managing and developing th...
Sep 05, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 119
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Ron Green. Ron is Chief Technology Officer at KUNGFU.AI’s. A serial tech entrepreneur and expert in machine learning, he has built several successful companies in telecom, biotech, e-commerce, social media, and healthcare. Ron was most recently CEO and founder of Thrive Technologies (acquired by CLOUD), a mobile healthcare startup. Prior to Thrive, he ran software development at Ziften Technologies, Powered (acquired ...
Aug 22, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 118
My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Megan Gallagher. Megan is a 2x TEDx speaker, 4x Amazon best seller, TV Host and mental health advocate. While growing up Megan experienced chronic anxiety and panic attacks. She grew inspiration from reaching rock bottom at 16. She decided to ask for help, and that started her on the journey of understanding herself. She became motivated by her struggles and has been on a mission to change the public school system for the past 10 years. Sh...
Aug 15, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 117
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Lyn Graft. Lyn is the Chief Story Officer at Shār Snacks, founder of Storytelling for Entrepreneurs, and author of the best-selling book, Start With Story. He has filmed over 1,000 entrepreneurs including the founders of Starbucks, Whole Foods, TOMS, and LinkedIn. He co-created and produced CNBC’s first primetime TV series ‘American Made’ and has produced 1,200 videos for entities such as Entrepreneur Magazine, Micros...
Aug 08, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 116
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re so excited to talk with special guest Jennifer Sethre. Jennifer is currently founder and CEO of Intry and AntiBias Tech, a revolutionary HR tech startup. She is a builder of businesses to her core and is re market savvy, technically sharp and an astute leader with a history of building and exiting successful start-ups. She has also run two public companies in China and the US. Highly skilled in creating strategic partnership, Jennifer has collaborated ...
Aug 01, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 115
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest and dear friend Ruben Arias. Ruben is a founder and Chief Executive Officer at Beereaders. He is a seasoned edtech entrepreneur with over 12 years of experience. Hailing from Santiago, Chile, he overcame a challenging upbringing in a low-income household to become the first in his family to pursue higher education. Motivated by his own journey, Ruben has dedicated himself to transforming education and empowering stude...
Jul 25, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 114
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Jimmy Ramirez. Jimmy is Managing Partner for Prometheus Growth Partners (PGP) and BhavaMar Development (BhavaMar). Jimmy oversees the legal, land, construction development, investor relations, cost management, real estate project valuation and private equity investments. Jimmy began his professional career while attending UTSA with a national commercial general contractor in Houston, TX working at the Lyndon B. Johnso...
Jul 18, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 113
My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Matthew Mussenden. Matthew is Managing Partner for Prometheus Growth Partners (PGP), a private investment firm that focuses on supporting founders who are extremely passionate about their business and helps them from the ground up. He is also a partner for BhavaMar Development, a Texas-based residential and commercial development company. Matthew oversees investor relations, cost management, real estate project valuation and private compan...
Jul 11, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 112
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Vincent Hsieh. Vince brings 25 years of relevant entrepreneurial and operating experience in the software and services sectors, including launching and growing two successful software start-ups. Today he is a partner at Cypress Growth Capital where he participates in all facets of Cypress’ investment process and actively supports portfolio companies. Prior to joining Cypress, Vince spent 16 years starting, building an...
May 02, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 111
My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Kevin Parakkattu. Kevin is a Partner at Plug and Play Ventures, where he leads the firm's Commerce, Media, and Consumer investments. Throughout his 5 years of investing at PNP, Kevin has led seed and early-stage investments in over 30 companies including companies like BigID, MANSCAPED (filed for $1b SPAC), Madison Reed, Naadam, ZigZag Global (acq'd Global Blue) and others. He also sits on the Innovation Advisory Board at the National Reta...
Apr 25, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 110
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re honored and excited to talk with special guest Brad Bentz, a partner at ATX Venture Partners. Brad spent ten years as a field archaeologist working on research projects in Pakistan, Syria, Bulgaria, and the U.S. before establishing a second career as a software developer and team lead. After business school, Brad joined a boutique private equity firm and participated in over a dozen transactions involving more than $72M in equity capital. More recently...
Apr 18, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 109
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest and dear friend Nick Spiller. Nick is a veteran of the Texas startup ecosystem and one of the biggest startup supporters, personally providing advice and mentoring many amazing founders. Nick spends most of his days helping entrepreneurs through raising capital. He works at the most active seed stage venture capital fund in Texas, Capital Factory, where they have helped their 750+ portfolio companies raise billions in...
Apr 04, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 108
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Andra Vomir. Andra is a co-founder of Efficient App, a lifestyle business that helps teams find and integrate their software stack and streamline and map their operational processes to the software. Also known as “The Efficient Girl”, Andra is passionate about helping businesses save dozens of hours a day with automation. Andra is also a partner at Efficient VC where she angel invests in the B2B SaaS products that she...
Mar 28, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 107
My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Alex Bass. Alex is a founder and investor who is obsessed with product, automation, and integration. Over a decade ago, Alex Bass founded Efficient App with the goal of helping teams find and integrate their perfect software stack. From seeing first-hand the time savings these tools resulted in, he knew he wanted to get involved on a deeper level. What started as a healthy obsession in product feedback, evolved into a budding career in ang...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 106
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Eric Engineer. Eric is a partner of S3 Ventures where he supports portfolio companies as a board member and advisor for strategic growth. Eric was previously CEO at Invodo, an S3 Ventures portfolio company, which was acquired by CoCreativ in early 2018. Prior to Invodo, Eric was a Partner at Sevin Rosen Funds in Dallas, where he helped lead the firm’s investment in Invodo. He also worked at Microsoft, where he held a ...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 105
In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Cara McCarty. Cara is the Founder & CEO at Betterleave, the leading platform built to support organizations and families as they navigate grief and loss. Prior to Betterleave, Cara co-founded Code Pilot, one of the fastest growing training & recruitment platforms for developers. Code Pilot was acquired by AngelList in 2020, the second largest talent marketplace in the world. Cara loves to partner with founders...
Feb 21, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 104
The name Wen actually means “rainbow in the sky” in Chinese. I was born and raised in a tiny mountain village in the southeast part of China. Where I grew up is a beautiful town where people are born there, live there, and die there happily. But I never saw that for myself and always dreamed that one day I would go and see the world. Now, here I am in Austin, Texas running a global accelerator INNW Institute where our goal and our mission is to support entrepreneurs from all over the world to te...
Jan 17, 2023•10 min•Season 1Ep. 102
My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Justin Siegel. Justin is an entrepreneur and investor, and he is the co-founder and CEO of two successful mobile entertainment companies. The first company, JSmart Technologies, was a pioneer in mobile games. It was acquired by the SK Group in 2004. The second company, JNJ Mobile, backed by General Catalyst Partners and Softbank Capital, built one of the first mobile social networks. Today it is one of Android’s top-grossing social applica...
Jan 10, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 101
