Natasha Mascarenhas Podcasts

As a reporter at TechCrunch, Natasha Mascarenhas writes about early stage startups. She joined us to talk the future of media and higher education, asking more thoughtful questions, and telling better stories. It's always fun to talk to people who love what they do, but are also much more than their work. Enjoy! [2:43]: A day in the life of a TechC…

Charlie Feng is the Co-Founder of Clearbanc, the fastest, most affordable way for founders to fund their business and the biggest investor of eCommerce businesses in the world. Previously, he spent time founding companies in the chatbot and marketing automation space, and even had a short stint as a professional gamer. In this conversation, he and …

Stephanie Bowker is the Head of Marketing at Spendesk, one of the fastest growing Fintech startups in all of Europe. Previously, she was the first Product Marketer at Gusto and during her time at Intuit, had the opportunity to work closely with Co-Founder Scott Cook. In this conversation, we talk first principles of effective marketing, how to divi…

Erika Hairston and Arnelle Ansong are the co-founders of Edlyft (YC W20). While they pieced together their own support systems as CS majors, they're building Edlyft to provide structured mentorship for aspiring engineers, at scale. On who gets to start a startup, betting on people of different backgrounds, and more. [2:13]: Leaving jobs at Bain and…

Tim Harsch is the CEO and Co-Founder of Owler, a business insights company bringing transparency to private businesses around the world. After joining the company as an Associate Product Manager out of college, Tim's relentless work ethic and technical expertise lead him to become the CEO of the company all before the age of 30. We discuss the many…

Allison Barr Allen is the Co-Founder and COO of Fast, a startup working to bring 1-click, passwordless checkout services to the five billion users of the Internet. Previously, she served as the Head of Global Product Operations at Uber as the company scaled from 2,000 employees to more than 26,000 worldwide. She's also deeply committed to supportin…

Blake Robbins is a partner at Ludlow Ventures. His unique combination of sincerity and grit is embodied by the early-stage firm itself. We did an entire episode based off Blake's old Tweets. On influencers, creators, building a career with cold outreach, and writing checks from the heart of Detroit. [0:57]: Why the new dream job is becoming a YouTu…

Alberto Arenaza is the co-founder of Transcend Network, a global fellowship for entrepreneurs focused on the future of learning and work. He was also a member of the Minerva Schools' first graduating class — a journey which took him from Buenos Aires to Berlin, and now back to San Francisco. Hear why Alberto thinks this experience is an unfair adva…

Mike Raab is the Director of "The Garage" in San Francisco, a coworking space that provides community and resources for Northwestern alumni, operators, and investors. Previously, Mike was an investor at Sinai Ventures where he invested in early-stage consumer tech companies, and has a wealth of experience as a freelance writer with articles commiss…

DeWayne Johnson explains streetwear, overlap between the worlds of art and venture capital, cold outreach and his newsletter on marketplaces — Double Sided. His job at Lambda School is to help other people get jobs. Hear DeWayne's uniquely inspiring story to understand why that work matters to him. [0:55]: Similarities between the worlds of art and…

Helena Merk and Brian Li started Glimpse (YC W20) with an ambitious goal: to combat loneliness and create the rare social product which actually makes us happier. Its arrival couldn't be more timely. Hear their story and why early users are addicted to these 2 minute, one-on-one video chats. [0:33]: Taking on loneliness and an early pivot [5:55]: L…

Varadh Jain is an angel investor and digital nomad currently doing one-off projects in different parts of the world. Most recently, he spent three years as an early employee at Opendoor, helping to scale the company from 200 employees to nearly 1,500. Before that, he was on the founding team of Polymail (YC S16) and spent time at a seed fund in Los…

Wes Wagner is a remote worker and former Head of Growth at Microverse (YC S19), a coding bootcamp with a unique model. On this episode, he shares with Ethan what it's like to split time between Medellin and Indianapolis, why we should optimize for quality over quantity in our relationships and how he thinks about the future of education. [1:21]: We…

Eric Jorgenson is a product strategist, writer and (rarely) an Angel investor. He is on the founding team of Zaarly, and has been publishing online since 2014. His business blog, Evergreen, has educated and entertained over a million readers. He's also the author of the soon-to-be-released "Almanack of Naval Ravikant", a book of Naval's most valuab…

Justin Potts, co-founder and CEO of Avenify, joins Ethan to discuss their innovative lending platform for income share agreements. The marketplace allows top college students to finance their education debt-free, backed by investors who earn a return when they succeed. Before launching, he and his co-founder Timo spent 3 months RVing to different c…

Cameron Porter is an investor at AlleyCorp, a New York City based venture studio that's incubated the likes of Business Insider, Mongo DB, and more. After leading all of college soccer in scoring his senior year at Princeton, Cam dropped out to play professional soccer in the MLS, while simultaneously working for the league as a software engineer. …

In the latest episode of Worth, Asher sits down with Vedika Jain, ex-Stripe and True Layer, and currently the Chief of Staff at Weekend Fund. Among other things, we discuss advice she received from Harry Stebbings on breaking into venture, ways in which Weekend Fund is looking to help founders from underserved markets, and what she believes makes a…

Among other topics, in the second part of this conversation we touch on mentors, college entrepreneurship and getting a foothold in venture. If you're building something (especially if it's in the elder care space), check out Mike Maples Jr.'s podcast — https://greatness.floodgate.com/ — and slide in Shawn's DMs! Twitter linked below... [0:31]: Sha…

Ethan sits down with Shawn Xu of Floodgate, recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in venture. Shawn shares how his passion for different cultures has guided him from launching international markets at Square, to investing in brilliant student founders at Dorm Room Fund and now to learning under the legendary Ann Miura-Ko and Mike Maples Jr. at Flood…

Mehak Vohra knew that dropping out at 19 was a huge risk. Since taking the leap in 2016, she's been featured by Forbes, ABC, Adweek, Huffington Post and a slew of other publications while growing her agency, Jamocha Media, into a six-figure business. In this conversation with Ethan, she pulls back the curtain on her childhood, transitioning from co…

In this episode, Asher speaks with Prateek Swain: recent Princeton graduate, and the 23 year old co-founder of GreenTiger, an app that allows people in India to trade U.S. stocks commission free. After being accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2019 batch, and being dubbed "Robinhood for India", we caught up with Prateek and talked about some of the…

In this episode, Asher is joined by Jess Li, 23 year old VC at Soma Capital and former Partner at Rough Draft Ventures. We talk through Jess' decision to not return to Morgan Stanley after her junior summer, her experience working for multiple Y Combinator backed startups, and how she thinks about career development. [1:45]: Jess' background and ch…

In this episode, Ethan speaks with James Gallagher: income share agreement expert, EIR at On Deck and a member of Pioneer's first ever cohort. We dive deep into ISAs, James' experience as a publicly-traded person and why he believes in Jerry Seinfeld's "Don't Break the Chain" mentality when it comes to writing and publishing content. [2:42]: why In…