On today’s episode, Lauren Markler comes on to talk about how her company Cofertility aims to rebrand egg donation by making the process less transactional and much more affordable. She talks with Darrell and Becca about scaling while maintaining a personal touch, building a company remotely, fand inding cofounders that align on the company mission and prioritizing motherhood while building a company. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week. Connect with us: On Twitter On...
Apr 11, 2023•46 min•Ep. 107
This week Becca is joined by special guest co-host TechCrunch reporter Amanda Silberling to talk with Sarah Peterson, COO and co-founder ofTthe Nudge which is a text-based app that helps you make the best plan in your city. They get into the benefits of a sibling/co-founder relations, how to build trust with a user, and why everyone needs that planner friend in the friend group. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week. Connect with us: On Twitter On Instagram Via email: f...
Apr 04, 2023•46 min•Ep. 106
This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Angela Hoover, CEO and co-founder of Andi, a generative AI search chatbox company. Angela and our hosts talk about building in generative AI before Chat GPT made it cool, how she went from working in construction to starting an artificial intelligence company, and how the Andi team plans to use the momentum in the AI space to reach their next goals. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week. Connect with us: On Twitter On Instagram ...
Mar 28, 2023•40 min•Ep. 105
Ben Lamm is no stranger to starting an interesting company but Colossal Biosciences, the world’s first de-extinction company is definitely the most sci-fi startup we’ve seen yet. This week on Found he talks with Darrell and Becca about what bringing back the infamous Wholly Mammoth means for conservation, how they secured VC funding despite being a long way away from profitability, and why they structure the company like a typical SaaS startup. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founde...
Mar 21, 2023•49 min•Ep. 104
Welcome back to Found, the TechCrunch podcast where you hear the stories behind the startups from the entrepreneurs themselves. This week we’re talking to Teddy Solomon, the co-founder of Fizz, a social media app aimed at college students focusing on building community on campus. For this interview, we’re joined by TechCrunch social media expert, Amanda Silberling. Darrell, Amanda, and Teddy discuss what Gen Z is looking for in their social media, how to thoroughly moderate the platform, and how...
Mar 14, 2023•42 min•Ep. 103
While working on developing the iPhone and then going on to co-found Nest, Matt Rogers became an expert in changing consumer behavior on a mass scale by creating products that seamlessly fit into everyday life. In his newest venture, he’s turned his sights to solving food waste starting in the kitchen. Mill sends customers a trash can that dries and shrinks kitchen scraps so they can be sent back to be used for animal feed. In this episode, Matt, Darrell, and Becca talk about thinking through ev...
Mar 07, 2023•46 min•Ep. 102
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the winner is announced! In this episode, we get to know the winner of the 2022 Startup Battlefield competition. We’ll hear what’s next for their company and get insight from TechCrunch staff, VCs, and audience members on why they were the right choice. Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network: Found, Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast, Chain Reaction and The TechCrunch Live Podcast. . Found posts every Tuesday. Subsc...
Mar 06, 2023•33 min•Ep. 99
Last year when we talked to Alice Albrecht from Re:collect, the Found team couldn't stop thinking about the possibilities of a tool like Re:collect, so we're sharing this episode again. Re:collect is a software tool that augments creativity by helping people focus, recall, and connects their ideas. The conversation covered a lot of ground from how to hone your pitch when your product is so cerebral, how technology can help creativity but Alice argues will never replace it, and how developing AI ...
Feb 28, 2023•59 min•Ep. 101
Inside Startup Battlefield is back in our feed with episode three. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the winner is announced! In this episode, we get to know the winner of the 2022 Startup Battlefield competition. We’ll hear what’s next for their company and get insight from TechCrunch staff, VCs, and audience members on why they were the right choice. New episodes of Inside Startup Battlefield drop every Monday. Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast N...
Feb 27, 2023•15 min•Ep. 99
Michael Chime, the co-founder and CEO of Prepared, is leading the charge to modernize 911 calls by providing access to video and photos. Most people are calling in emergencies with their smartphones so the Prepared team is working to help dispatchers have all the data possible to relay to first responders. In today’s episode, they talk about implementing this new tech in an industry that’s slow to innovate, navigating privacy concerns when capturing and collecting videos of emergencies, and how ...
Feb 21, 2023•53 min•Ep. 100
Inside Startup Battlefield is back in our feed with episode two. In the second episode of Inside Startup Battlefield, we take a trip to TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 to hear pitches from the top five companies: Aaron Hall from Intropic Materials, Elizabeth Lawler from App Map, Chad Mason from Advanced Ionics, Sheeba Dawood from Minerva Lithium, Tim Lichti from Swap Robotics. We get to know the companies and the unique problems they’re solving through their pitches and the judges’ follow-up questions. ...
Feb 20, 2023•32 min•Ep. 99
This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Alex Rappaport, the CEO and co-founder of ZwitterCo, a startup that develops technology that filters waste water. Alex talked about how his childhood on the Potomac river inspired his future career in clean water. He also talked about what it was like to build a commercial business off of existing lab research. Lastly, he talks about his fundraising journey and how amateur boxing injuries may have helped his pitch. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories...
Feb 14, 2023•50 min•Ep. 98
Check out the newest podcast from the TechCrunch Podcast Network: Inside Startup Battlefield, the four-part series that takes you behind TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield competition. In this episode, our host and Startup Battlefield Editor Neesha Tambe breaks down how the Battlefield companies are selected for the TechCrunch Disrupt stage. Then we take a deep dive into what makes a pitch perfect with pitch coach and TechCrunch writer Haje Jan Kamps and Startup Battlefield judge and VC Nisha Dua....
Feb 13, 2023•32 min•Ep. 97
This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Ourside founder and CEO Keta Burke-Williams. They get into what it takes to innovate in a historically luxury industry, the challenges of raising capital as a Balck female solo founder with a consumer startup and, most importantly, how many solid colognes Darrell travels with. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week. Connect with us: On Twitter On Instagram Via email: found@techcrunch.com Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Ap...
Feb 07, 2023•50 min•Ep. 96
Rosie Nguyen (or JasmineRiceGirl as her fans know her) is the co-founder and CMO of PG-13ish content-creating platform Fanhouse. In this episode, Rosie talks with Darrell and Becca about her sometimes-scary experiences creating content on Twitch and OnlyFans that inspired the Fanhouse founding team to build a safer place for creators to monetize their content, how having a creator as a co-founder helped with their fundraising process, and how she balances being a first-time founder with building...
Jan 31, 2023•49 min•Ep. 95
This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Klarna’s Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski to talk about how the company is expanding beyond by now pay later space to become a neobank. Sebastian walks us through his European startup journey, breaking into the US market, how the importance of calm leadership through a market downturn, and what’s next for Klarna. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week. Connect with us: On Twitter On Instagram Via email: found@techcrunch...
Jan 24, 2023•46 min•Ep. 94
Mir Hwang is the co-founder and CEO of GigFinesse. Mir talks about how his struggles to book music gigs as a teenager pushed him to launch the company that connects artists with venues for live shows. Mir also talked about how hard it was to steer the live music-focused business through the pandemic in an industry that was reticent to adopt tech to begin with. Plus, we learn about a fun venue that couldn't be more perfect for Darrell's future poetry residence. Subscribe to Found to hear more sto...
Jan 17, 2023•50 min•Ep. 93
This week we’re mixing it up on Found and welcoming special guest cohost, Neesha Tambe, the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Editor. And we happen to be talking with Sheeba Dawood, the co-founder and CEO of Minerva Lithium—the 2022 Startup Battlefield winner. Minerva Lithium is a clean energy technology that has developed a Nano Mosaic membrane filter system for critical materials extraction from non-traditional water resources. In this conversation, Sheeba speaks candidly about the struggles she’...
Jan 10, 2023•52 min•Ep. 92
This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Brex co-founder and co-CEO Henrique Dubugras to chat about his corporate credit card and expense management startup. Henrique talked about what made him and his co-founder (Pedro Franceschi) decide to launch the company and why the friends, who met online as teenagers, decided to be co-CEOs. Henrique also talks about how Brex navigated changes at the startup this year, and how he personally handled layoffs, all while Darrell and Becca do a questionable j...
Jan 03, 2023•48 min•Ep. 91
Happy holidays! The found crew is taking a week off to relax so we are throwing it back to our anniversary episode. To celebrate our anniversary, we welcomed back four founders whose stories really stuck with us since we talked to them. In what Jordan called a “founder smoothie”, we talked with Brie Code from TRU LUV who was on our second episode, Earl Cole from SMART Tire Company who was on the following episode, as well as Aditi Shekar from Zeta, and Jelani Memory from A Kids Company About who...
Dec 27, 2022•46 min•Ep. 90
Welcome back to found, the Stories behind the startups. This week co-hosts Darrell Etherington and Becca Szkutak talk with Alice Albrecht from Re:collect, a software tool that augments creativity by helping people focus, recall, and connect their ideas. The conversation covered a lot of ground from how to hone your pitch when your product is so cerebral, how technology can help creativity but Alice argues will never replace it, and how developing AI requires building safeguards from the jump. Ta...
Dec 20, 2022•59 min•Ep. 89
Take our listener survey for a chance to win a free year of TC+ at bit.ly/tcpodsurvey. When Ceryl Sew Hoy had her first child, she discovered the importance of the infant gut microbiome. As a research-driven entrepreneur, she learned everything she could about gut health and how to help infants avoid the chronic health issues that occur if they don’t receive the essential microbiomes from the mother. Tiny Health was started to fill a gap in OBGYN care and provide the first-ever gut health test f...
Dec 13, 2022•47 min•Ep. 88
We’re so excited to be back with new episodes of Found and to introduce you to our brilliant new co-host Becca Szkutak! In this episode, we talk with Valentina Milanova, the founder and CEO of Daye, a gynecological health company that’s working to close the gender pain gap and raise industry standards when it comes to women’s health products. While researching menstrual pain relief and tampon manufacturing, Valentina found there was a shocking lack of innovation, research, and health and safety ...
Dec 06, 2022•54 min•Ep. 87
At last month’s TechCrunch Disrupt, Jordan sat down with Serena Williams and her co-founder Alison Rapaport Stillman to talk about their investment firm, Serena Ventures. The conversation was so interesting, we couldn’t help but share it on the Found feed. Serena, Allison, and Jordan talk about her approach to startup investing, how competitive she is both on and off the court, and how the French Open distracted her from the missed investment she regrets the most. And she shares how you can stil...
Nov 01, 2022•31 min•Ep. 86
Shanthi Rajan is a career-long entrepreneur so when she realized the construction industry was in need of disruption, she was ready to build a solution. Linarc is a cloud-based construction management software that helps teams stay on track by centralizing the data to share meaningful information on timelines, budgets, and everything that keeps projects on track. In this episode, Darrell, Jordan, and Shanthi discuss breaking into a slow-changing industry, building a team with talent across the g...
Oct 25, 2022•44 min•Ep. 85
Telehealth startups had a boom during the pandemic and for certain marginalized communities not having to physically go onto a traditional doctor’s office allows them to access specialized high-quality care. That’s where this week’s guests come in. Jerrica Kirkley and Matthew Wetschler are the co-founders of Plume, a telehealth company that focuses on transgender care. After Jerrica spent time working in the non-profit world she realized that to enact the change she wanted to see, a VC-backed st...
Oct 18, 2022•55 min•Ep. 84
This week Darrell and Jordan talk with Scott Gravelle, the CEO and co-founder of Attabotics, a robotics company that specializes in distribution and supply chain. Scott talks about how he was inspired by the Cutter Ants to design a vertical warehouse and create an automated system that was not human-centric but instead functioned as a world that was great for robots. They also spoke about caring for mental health as a founder and developing new leadership skills for a virtual world. If you love ...
Oct 11, 2022•52 min•Ep. 83
This time last year, we talked with Kiki Freedman the founder of Hey Jane, a virtual health care startup aimed at women with an initial focus on delivering remote abortion care. After the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe V. Wade, access to abortion is in a more precarious position than ever. Listen back to how Hey Jane provides access to consultations with doctors, available 24 hours a day, and home delivery for FDA-approved abortion pills. And Freedman tells us about how her experien...
Oct 04, 2022•43 min•Ep. 82
When Phil Libin co-founded Evernote he spent tons of money making the perfect working environment with chic offices, a shuttle bus, and headphones to block out all of his employees' distracting co-workers. He’s since seen the work-from-home light and co-founded mmhmm to make working remotely more efficient and even more fun. In this episode, Phil breaks down his pyramid of communication, explains how embracing asynchronous videos changed everything about meetings at mmhmm, and why he will never ...
Sep 27, 2022•55 min•Ep. 81
Welcome back to another bonus episode of Found. This week, producer Maggie catches up with Kathy Hannun from Dandelion Energy. Since we last talked, Dandelion’s team has grown, and through a new deal, their heat pumps are being installed in brand-new housing developments along with their retrofit business. Kathy and Maggie talk about this growth, how Kathy has found joy in her job again by stepping into the head of product role, and how the economic downturn has been a reminder to prioritize pro...
Sep 22, 2022•20 min•Ep. 80
