Nothing says comfort like chicken soup, and now you can send that comfort to your far-away loved ones with Spoonful of Comfort . Company president Scott Gustafson explains: “Spoonful of Comfort is an on-line gifting platform that enables the sender to send a very personal message of comfort and care to a loved one living anywhere in the continental United States. It allows them to be able to serve up a personal message of care through the time tested product of chicken soup and other gourmet sou...
Jun 29, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch for the Month of June is Daily Harvest, founded by Rachel Drori, C'04 Elevator Pitch, from Rachel: “Daily Harvest makes ready to blend smoothies, ready to heat soups, chia parfaits, overnight oats, all of the incredible drool-worthy foods that you see all over Instagram, frozen, delivered to your door, and ready to eat in seconds.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 22, 2018•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Rachel Drori, founder of Daily Harvest , was raising her Series A, she had an investor ask her this question: How do you plan to be a good mother and an entrepreneur? The bad news is, this is a situation that many female entrepreneurs still find themselves in. The good news is, Rachel came up with the perfect answer, and you can use it, too. In the hour-long conversation between Wharton Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Karl Ulrich and Rachel Druri, Rachel impressed Karl over a...
Jun 22, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just a few minutes into the conversation between Karl Ulrich, Wharton's Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and Gregory Lattieri, founder of Recycle Track Systems, Karl called RTS "the Uber of waste." Want to know why? Gregory explains RTS this way: "We are a technology company first, but we are in the waste and recycling industry. So really a garbage and recycling company without trucks.... We have taken the technology that has been in car service and has been in food and other sect...
Jun 15, 2018•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Listen now for the sheer amusement of hearing Wharton Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Karl Ulrich spend 10 minutes eating bugs: chocolate covered crickets, chile-lime crickets, and coconut brittle bugitos, which Karl describes as, "like peanut brittle, but it's larvae brittle." Don Bugito, founded by Monica Martinez, sells edible insects as a healthy, sustainable snack food. They're high in protein, Omega-3, fiber, and are extremely water-efficient to grow. The whole interview is a ...
Jun 07, 2018•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Summer Crenshaw explains Tilr: "Tilr is a mobile first technology that matches people’s skills to company job requirements to automate the recruitment process. So really we’re in the business of eliminating discrimination and closing the skill gap through our technology." One example she uses: a person who has been a restaurant server and a customer service representative has all the skills for a job as a bank teller--and that's the job Tilr matched her to. And the success rate is terrific. Acco...
Jun 01, 2018•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinalist & Welligence founder Seth Neel, GRW'20. Elevator Pitch, from Seth: “What Welligence does is we gather the richest dataset of upstream oil and gas data, we think, in the world--particularly in Latin America. And we build our own proprietary models to forecast well-by-well production, which is then combined into these pretty clean data tools for our clients to use and make better decisions.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i...
May 24, 2018•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinalist & SpectrumScores founder Philip Williams, C'15, M'20. Elevator Pitch, from Philip Williams: “SpectrumScores was founded as a way to empower LGBTQ patients to take care of their own health care by offering an intuitive ranking and review system for health care providers across disciplines, on the basis of their LGBT competence. By providing all of this information and leveraging the collective experience of the community, we hope to b...
May 24, 2018•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinalist & MD Ally founder Shanel Fields, WG'19. Elevator Pitch, from Shanel: “MD Ally is a non-emergency 911 navigation solution that ensures the appropriate use of emergency resources by providing non-emergency callers with immediate access to medical guidance, transportation services, and then also scheduling into more appropriate sites of care.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 24, 2018•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinalist & Collecto founder Federika Longinotti-Buitoni, WG'18 Elevator Pitch, from Federika: “Collecto is an online luxury retailer that offers an unparalleled gifting experience, and we do so by focusing on three things. The first is a unique product curation. The second is a specialized gift presentation. And the third is a high-touch customer service.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 24, 2018•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinliast & InstaHub founder Michael Wong, W'19 Elevator Pitch, from Michael: “Our vision is to simply simplify automation with snap-on solutions, to help automate energy savings. Our product is a motion-sensing device that goes on top of a light switch, and it mechanically flips the switch for you. So imagine a mini-robot on top of a light switch. You do not have to pull anything out of the wall or hire an electrician to re-wire any systems....
May 24, 2018•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinalist & Chipper founder Haley Russell, WG'18 Elevator Pitch, from Haley: “Chipper Pet is an environmentally conscious pet food company that enables pet parents to do good for their pet and for the planet. We do this by using sustainable alternative proteins. Our first product is a dog treat that uses cricket protein, which is really powerful. It has two-and-a-half times the amount of protein as your traditional animal meats, and it uses just a ...
May 24, 2018•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich talks with Startup Challenge Semifinalist & Avisi founder Rui Jing Jiang, W'18 Elevator Pitch, from Rui Jing: “Avisi is a medical devices company that's working on a product called VisiPlate. VisiPlate is a nanoscale aqueous implant for the drainage of intraocular fluid in glaucoma patients. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world, and it currently has no cure.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 24, 2018•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Republic is, in founder Ken Nguyen's words: "an investment platform that allows everyone, not just millionaires, every day people, irrespective of your income of net worth, to actually invest in private companies, may it be crypto or equity. It's a relatively new thing. It's only been legal for a little bit less than two years." This means that you--yes YOU--can go on Republic.co right now and invest as little as $10 and as much as 10% of your income in the startups that Republic has vetted and ...
May 17, 2018•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast As an analyst at a big Wall Street bank, Wharton Executive MBA grad Jack Kokko spent a lot of time digging through information, and he vividly remembers the feeling of “fearing that you're missing something critical that's putting a billion dollar deal at risk.” Other analysts need no longer suffer as Jack did, thanks to Jack himself, CEO and founder of AlphaSense. In Jack’s words, “AlphaSense is an intelligent search engine for knowledge workers in corporations and financial firms. We're doing ...
May 10, 2018•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich does a great job of summarizing what Kabbage, founded by Kathryn Petralia, does, after several minutes of intense conversation around APRs and credit lines: “I can get a reasonable amount of money in ten minutes, at not-onerous interest rates, with you guys doing the work of filling out the forms based on access to my financial records.” Here’s how Kathryn puts it: “Kabbage is a data and technology platform, enables real-time lending just to small businesses. We do this both directly...
Mar 26, 2018•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast When it comes to finding patterns in huge quantities of data, computers are way better than the human brain--at least once they're properly trained. (This is the hard part.) Zebra Medical Vision is training computers "how to detect malignant tissues in breast mammograms, how to detect brain bleed in head CTs, how to detect vertebral fractures in chest and abdomen CTs, and how to detect opacities and congestive heart failure in chest x-rays and many others." Because not only are computers better ...
Mar 23, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for March is VEERAH, founded by Stacey Chang, WG'12. Elevator pitch, from Stacey: “Veerah is inspired by women, made for warriors. We are a mission-driven luxury shoe company founded for women to conquer the world in style and make a positive impact. Veerah is PETA approved vegan. All of our shoes are responsibly sourced and meticulously crafted without compromising quality and style. We are proud that we are the only luxury shoe brand that offers high f...
Mar 16, 2018•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast How do you go about convincing factories to work with your startup--especially if you're trying to make a luxury shoe entirely vegan, without sacrificing quality craftsmanship or comfort? Stacey Chang, WG'12, founder of VEERAH, knows, because that's exactly what she did. Listen to her and Karl Ulrich, Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Wharton School, talk about her manufacturing journey, plus the story of how she got Suzy Welch into a pair of VEERAH shoes (hint: it involves I...
Mar 16, 2018•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast After 20 years as what she calls a "sick care entrepreneur," Ashley Dombkowski wanted to truly become a health care entrepreneur. She’s now Co-founder and CEO of SpoonfulOne, a startup that is trying to stop food allergies before they start. Based on intellectual property licensed from Stanford University, SpoonfulOne introduces the foods are responsible for 90% of food allergies to babies when they are just four to six months old and starting to eat solid food. The science behind this says that...
Mar 09, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Finding a new place to live is stressful, but VeryApt—founded by two Wharton MBA alumni, Scott Bierbryer and Ashrit Kamireddi, both WG’14—aims to reduce that stress by restoring trust in the apartment search process. Recently, Scott joined Karl Ulrich, Wharton’s Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, on his radio show, Launch Pad. Here’s Scott’s elevator pitch for VeryApt: “VeryApt is an apartment marketplace that allows renters to search, schedule and sign an apartment all on one platfor...
Mar 02, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fig Loans is super cool for a bunch of reasons: 1)They’re in the payday loans business, but they’re helping people rebuild their credit; 2)The founders are Wharton alumni who met and founded the company while they were getting their MBAs (fun fact: their first project, created at PennApps Hackathon two weeks before school started, was a game called Llama Run); 3)Karl loves the way they identified the opportunity for Fig Loans; 4)Their goal is to “survive indefinitely and to not rely on venture c...
Feb 22, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for February is Rockets of Awesome, founded by Rachel Blumenthal. Elevator pitch: “Rockets of Awesome is a personal shopping service and vertical apparel brand for kids. What we really seek to do is to deliver solutions and services to parents. And what we had identified is that kids are outgrowing their clothes every single season. So unlike you and me, where maybe we want a new pair of jeans or a new jacket, my kids actually need an entire new full dre...
Feb 15, 2018•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich has given a LOT of thought to how to come up with a great company name, but his conversation with Rockets of Awesome founder Rachel Blumenthal has made him revise his naming rules. Listen to hear why he thinks Rockets of Awesome is such a great name--as well as for some great entrepreneurial insights about how to validate an idea, and for hints on the huge importance of data—as Rachel puts it, “We are actually a tech and data science company, that is masked by a kids' apparel brand.”...
Feb 15, 2018•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the words of Sally Poblete, WG'00, Wellthie founder: “Wellthie is a marketplace and sales optimization platform so that small businesses can find the best fit insurance for them across the United States, with the help of a licensed insurance expert.” Wellthie lays out the full array of insurance options for small business—with under 50 or, in some states, under 100 employees—which account for 95% of businesses in the US, employing about 50-60 million people. Sally knows this industry from the...
Feb 09, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast You need to deck out a new home--you need Snowe. Founder Andres Modak, WG'12, G'12, has sourced luxury essentials and priced them way below fancy department stores. Here's his elevator pitch: "Snowe is first and foremost, a vertical brand. We're building the home goods destination for the contemporary consumer. What we do is, we simplify shopping for the home by providing, designing, and selling the perfect luxury quality home essentials at attainable prices. So, what does that mean? We're prima...
Feb 02, 2018•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for January is The One Health Company, founded by Penn and Wharton alum Benjamin Lewis. Here’s Ben's elevator pitch: “The One Health Company is changing the way that animal testing is done. We’re totally turning it on its head, from something that hurts animals to something that actually benefits animals. Rather than taking animals in the laboratory that are otherwise healthy, giving them a disease, and then testing on them, what we do is we work with pe...
Jan 19, 2018•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Here’s founder Ben Lewis' elevator pitch: “The One Health Company is changing the way that animal testing is done. We’re totally turning it on its head, from something that hurts animals to something that actually benefits animals. Rather than taking animals in the laboratory that are otherwise healthy, giving them a disease, and then testing on them, what we do is we work with pet parents whose dogs and cats are naturally sick, and we pair them into pharmaceutical trials in an effort to try to ...
Jan 19, 2018•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Possibly the worst part of healthcare is the sheer incomprehensibility of the bill. Is it right? Is it wrong? With all those codes, and back and forth with the insurance company, who can tell? As it turns out, people mostly just don’t pay healthcare bills. According to Chris Wolfington, founder of FinPay, “in 2016 there were $460 billion, with a b, in out of pocket expenses for consumers. Only 19% paid their bill.” Chris explains why this happens: “People don’t pay things they don’t understand, ...
Jan 12, 2018•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you can lead soldiers into battle, you can cold call 140 investors. Neuroflow founder Chris Molero, WG’17, is a veteran, and he’s seen the effects of PTSD. As he reminds us, “20 veterans a day commit suicide, on average.” Neuroflow is his way of fighting back. Neuroflow uses wearables to measure the physical effects of stress, and quantify them in a way that is useful to therapists who are treating people for severe anxiety and stress. For the first time, therapists can use quantifiable measu...
Dec 22, 2017•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
