In our season finale episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Jamie Siminoff , inventor of Ring , the smart home security company best known for turning the front door into a connected safety platform. Ring builds video doorbells, cameras, alarms, and neighborhood safety tools that help people monitor and protect what matters most. Before Ring became one of the most recognizable home security brands in the world, Jamie was an inventor building things in his basement, launching companies like P...
May 05, 2026•46 min•Ep. 8
In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Scott Stevenson , CEO and Co-Founder of Spellbook . Spellbook is an AI-powered platform helping lawyers draft and review contracts faster using generative AI directly within their existing workflows. Spellbook enables legal teams to accelerate contract creation and negotiation by embedding AI into workflow tools allowing for real-time drafting, editing, and comparison against market data. The company sits at the intersection of legal tech and AI...
Apr 28, 2026•40 min•Ep. 7
In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Ram Palaniappan , founder and CEO of Earnin , a fintech company reimagining how people get paid by giving employees access to their earnings in real time rather than waiting for traditional payroll cycles. Earnin is building a new kind of payroll system—one that shifts power from employers to employees by enabling on-demand and continuous pay. Instead of the outdated two-week batch system, Earnin is pioneering a streaming model for income, where...
Apr 21, 2026•30 min•Ep. 6
In this episode of The Room Podcast, we sit down with Ben Witte , Founder and CEO of Recess , a consumer wellness brand pioneering a new category of functional beverages designed to help people relax, unwind, and feel better in an increasingly high-stress world. Recess blends ingredients like magnesium, adaptogens, and other functional compounds into beautifully branded drinks that position themselves as the “Red Bull for relaxation.” Before launching Recess, Ben built his career in early-stage ...
Apr 14, 2026•41 min•Ep. 5
In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Scott Woody , Co-Founder of Metronome , a platform helping companies implement usage-based billing and modernize how they monetize software. Metronome enables businesses to move beyond rigid subscription pricing and instead charge customers based on actual product usage. The platform sits at the core of a new shift in SaaS: pricing that aligns directly with value delivered, rather than seats or static tiers, giving companies more flexibility and...
Apr 07, 2026•50 min•Ep. 4
In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Ryan Daniels , Founder and CEO of Crosby , an AI-first law firm rethinking how legal work gets delivered. Crosby combines AI systems with human legal expertise to provide faster, more transparent, and more scalable legal services, moving away from traditional billable hours toward outcome-driven work. Crosby is part of a broader shift in professional services, where AI is not just augmenting workflows but fundamentally reshaping how services are...
Mar 31, 2026•45 min•Ep. 3
In this episode of The Room Podcast, we speak with Alex Halliday , founder and CEO of AirOps , a platform helping companies build AI-powered content workflows and automate complex marketing operations. AirOps enables marketing and growth teams to orchestrate large-scale content generation using structured workflows, AI models, data integrations, and human-in-the-loop systems. The platform is part of a new category emerging in the AI ecosystem: the AI marketing stack, where companies move beyond ...
Mar 24, 2026•51 min•Ep. 2
In this season opener of The Room Podcast, we speak with Nirav Tolia , the co-founder and CEO of Nextdoor , the neighborhood network designed to connect verified neighbors and strengthen local communities. Nirav shares and refelcts the story behind building Nextdoor, one of the world’s largest hyperlocal social platforms, and reflects on the lessons he has learned scaling a product designed around real-world communities. Before founding Nextdoor, Nirav was one of the first 100 employees at Yahoo...
Mar 17, 2026•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 1
Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, Claudia and Madison sit down with Julie Bornstein , founder and CEO of Daydream , a new AI-powered shopping platform reimagining how people discover fashion online. Julie is a two-time founder with deep roots in digital commerce, having previously helped build Stitch Fix and later founded The Yes, which was acquired by Pinterest. With decades of experience at the intersection of retail, technology, and consumer behavior, Julie has b...
Dec 23, 2025•36 min•Ep. 4
In this special live panel episode of The Room Podcast from Inside Summit 2025, host Ash Kumra sits down with an all-star group of AI and product leaders: Noah MacCallum of OpenAI , Grant Lee of Gamma , Malte Ubl of Vercel , and Chris Messina , inventor of the hashtag and longtime product strategist. Together, they represent the cutting edge of applied AI, developer platforms, design tooling, and the social technologies that shaped how we communicate today. Throughout the conversation, the panel...
Dec 16, 2025•36 min•Ep. 3
In this special Inside Summit episode of The Room Podcast, Claudia moderates a powerhouse panel featuring Michelle Edwards , Partner at Perkins Coie, Indy Guha , GP of VMG, Dan Kang , CFO of Mercury, and Jared Roesch , a founder who recently exited to NVIDIA. When startups challenge incumbents, winning deals requires more than just a great product. This episode shares how to master founder sales by building strong relationships and leveraging insider knowledge. Learn about crafting a compelling ...
Dec 09, 2025•35 min•Ep. 2
Welcome back to another LIVE rendition of The Room Podcast! This week, we are back at our live conference, Inside Summit. Listen in as we sit down with Michel Tricot , Co-Founder and CEO of Airbyte — the open-source platform that’s transforming how companies move data across their modern stacks. Airbyte gives teams the ability to extract and load data from virtually any source, empowering both AI-native companies and legacy enterprises to sync their information seamlessly and securely across hun...
Dec 02, 2025•26 min•Ep. 1
Welcome back to The Room Podcast! This week, Claudia and Madison sit down with Tomer London , Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto , the all-in-one people platform that simplifies payroll, benefits, and HR for over 400,000 small businesses across the U.S. From humble beginnings as ZenPayroll, Gusto has become one of the most beloved products in the SMB ecosystem—known for turning one of the most stressful business tasks into a delightful experience. In this episode, Tomer shares the per...
Nov 18, 2025•48 min•Ep. 8
Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, Claudia and Madison sit down with William Allen , Head of Emerging Tech and AI at Cloudflare , and previously a key leader at Adobe and Behance. Will has spent his career at the intersection of creativity, technology, and infrastructure—from helping launch TED Talks and building Behance into a global hub for creatives, to leading initiatives like the Content Authenticity Initiative that aim to make the internet more trustworthy. In ...
Nov 11, 2025•41 min•Ep. 7
We are back with another live rendition of The Room Podcast! This week, Madison sits down with Jack Barrett , Co-Founder and CEO of Almost Friday Media , the creative force behind the viral comedy brand Friday Beers. After starting and leaving his career in investment banking, Jack followed his storytelling instincts into media, co-founding a creator-first company that now spans comedy, live events, digital media, and even its own beer brand. Almost Friday Media has quickly become a cultural tou...
Nov 04, 2025•32 min•Ep. 6
We are back with another live installment of The Room Podcast! This week, we sit down with Barry McCardel and Caitlin Colgrove , Co-Founders of Hex , the collaborative data workspace trusted by teams around the world. Hex empowers data scientists, analysts, and business operators to explore, visualize, and share insights in one connected platform—bringing together code, no-code tools, and now AI-powered features that make data storytelling seamless and accessible to everyone. In this episode, Ba...
Oct 28, 2025•47 min•Ep. 5
Welcome back to The Room Podcast! This week, Claudia and Madison sit down with Eric Simons , Co-Founder and CEO of StackBlitz and creator of Bolt.new , the AI-powered development platform redefining how people build web and mobile apps. From humble beginnings coding in Naperville, Illinois, to literally living inside AOL’s Palo Alto offices at age 19, Eric’s journey is a Silicon Valley legend. StackBlitz emerged from a desire to eliminate setup friction for developers, enabling instant browser-b...
Oct 21, 2025•42 min•Ep. 4
Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, we sit down with Celine Halioua , Founder and CEO of Loyal , a biotech company pioneering FDA-approved longevity drugs for dogs. From a childhood surrounded by rescue animals to an academic journey through neuroscience, health economics, and venture capital, Celine’s path to entrepreneurship is as winding as it is inspiring. Today, Loyal is leading the charge in redefining what’s possible in veterinary medicine—aiming not just to tr...
Oct 14, 2025•45 min•Ep. 3
This week on The Room Podcast, Claudia and Madison sit down with Zach Lloyd , Founder and CEO of Warp . Before founding Warp, Zach spent nearly a decade at Google, where he led engineering on Google Sheets and Docs, and later co-founded the startup Self-Made before launching Warp in 2020. Warp is a modern re-imagining of the command line, transforming one of the most widely used developer tools into an AI-powered, productivity-boosting experience. In this episode, Zach shares lessons from his ch...
Oct 07, 2025•46 min•Ep. 2
In this episode of The Room Podcast , hosts Claudia Laurie and Madison McIlwain sit down with serial entrepreneur Craig Walker , founder and CEO of Dialpad . Craig’s story begins in Cupertino, back when apricot orchards defined the neighborhood and a young Steve Jobs lived just a few houses down. From those early days in Silicon Valley, Craig went on to earn degrees from Berkeley and Georgetown before starting his career as an M&A lawyer advising Cisco, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia. That leg...
Sep 30, 2025•53 min•Ep. 1
Welcome to a special bonus episode of The Room Podcast, recorded live at New York Tech Week! This week, we're thrilled to chat with Shreya Murthy , Co-Founder and CEO of Partiful , the modern social events platform that is revolutionizing how we make plans and build real-world relationships. Since launching in 2021, Partiful has scaled to millions of users and earned major accolades, including Google's Best App of 2024, Apple's Editor Choice, and recognition as one of Fast Company's Most Innovat...
Jul 01, 2025•55 min
In this season’s finale of The Room Podcast, we're thrilled to chat with Neil Parikh , Co-Founder of Casper and current Co-Founder of Slingshot . Neil first disrupted the mattress industry by building Casper into a household name, pioneering the direct-to-consumer sleep revolution before taking the company public. Now, he's tackling an even bigger challenge with Slingshot, building a foundational AI model specifically designed for psychology and mental health therapy. In this episode, Neil takes...
May 27, 2025•49 min•Ep. 8
Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, Madison and Claudia sit down with Alex Konrad , former Senior Editor at Forbes and now Founder of Upstarts Media . After a decade covering technology and venture capital at Forbes, where he pioneered coverage from the Midas List to the Cloud 100, Alex has launched his own media company focused on telling the stories of early-stage founders and companies challenging the status quo. Throughout this conversation, Alex shares insights f...
May 20, 2025•43 min•Ep. 7
Welcome back to another episode of The Room Podcast! This week, we're excited to chat with Anna Kazlauskas , Co-Founder of Vana , a pioneering company creating an alternative to centralized AI monopolies. Vana uses crypto principles like ownership, incentives, and decentralization to build AI models that users collectively own and benefit from, empowering individuals to control their data while earning from its use. In this enlightening conversation, Anna takes us through her journey from growin...
May 13, 2025•43 min•Ep. 6
In this episode, we are joined by Elia Wallen , Founder and CEO of Engine (formerly Hotel Engine), the B2B travel booking platform that's streamlining how businesses manage their travel needs. From its origins as an internal tool for Elia's previous company, Travelers Haven, to becoming a $2.1 billion company, Engine has carved out a significant niche by focusing on serving SMBs with a frictionless approach to corporate travel management. In this conversation, Elia shares his unconventional path...
May 06, 2025•35 min•Ep. 5
Welcome back to The Room Podcast! In this episode, we sit down with Matan Grinberg and Eno Reyes , co-founders of Factory , a company building the command center for software development. With backgrounds in physics and computer science, this dynamic duo is unifying all engineering contexts from GitHub to Notion, empowering product and engineering teams to collaborate with autonomous AI systems. Their impressive journey has already attracted $20 million in funding from Sequoia, Lux Capital, and ...
Apr 29, 2025•54 min•Ep. 4
This week, we're excited to speak with Tiancheng Lou , Co-Founder and CTO of Pony AI , a leading autonomous vehicle technology company that went public in November 2024. As a two-time Google Code Jam champion and former engineer at both Google X and Baidu's Autonomous Driving Division, Tiancheng brings exceptional technical expertise to his pioneering work in developing driverless technology with over 40 million kilometers of autonomous driving testing. In this episode, Tiancheng shares fascinat...
Apr 22, 2025•48 min•Ep. 3
In this episode, we're joined by Alexa Grabell , Co-Founder and CEO of Pocus , a company revolutionizing how sales teams work by creating AI agents that supercharge sales representatives. Pocus has developed a suite of tools that combine internal and external data to help sales teams identify opportunities, prepare for calls, and close deals more effectively, generating over half a billion dollars in pipeline for their customers in a single quarter. During our conversation, Alexa shares her jour...
Apr 15, 2025•44 min•Ep. 2
Welcome back to another season of The Room Podcast! To kick off season 12, we are joined by Ryan Petersen , Founder and CEO of Flexport , the revolutionary digital freight forwarder transforming how goods move around the world. Launched in 2013, Flexport combines technology and logistics expertise to bring transparency and efficiency to the complex world of global trade, having grown to become the third-largest American company in the ocean freight industry. In this episode, Ryan takes us throug...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 1
In this special holiday episode of The Room Podcast, we sit down with Agatha Kluk and Sonia Farber, the co-founders of Kluk Farber Law (now part of Perkins Coie), a specialized law firm dedicated to supporting innovative founders and startups. Their firm provides strategic legal guidance to entrepreneurs navigating the complex landscape of building and scaling companies. This candid conversation takes us through the evolution of their practice, from its founding in 2017 to its strategic partners...
Dec 19, 2024•51 min•Ep. 9
