The Early Stage Podcast

The Early Stage Podcast

John Valentine

The Early Stage Podcast is devoted to interviewing top entrepreneurs at the Seed and Series A stages of their startups. This project is a deep dive into the initial challenges and breakthroughs driven innovators endure as they build their MVP, launch, raise funding, grow their teams, and find product-market fit. Early Stage is hosted by John Valentine, Manager of Technology Identification and Communications at Thales, a worldwide leader in aerospace, space, defense, transportation, and security. A two-time Founder and early employee at venture-backed mobile payments startup LevelUp, John has deep experience launching new products, building systems, and scaling. In his...

Folia Health - Nell Meosky Luo, Founder & CEO

Folia Health - Nell Meosky Luo, Founder & CEO

The Early Stage Podcast pushes forward with a women in digital health takeover! Nell Meosky Luo, Founder & CEO of Folia Health, is today's guest, and my former colleague and MassChallenge HealthTech Director of Operations, Nina Kandilian, is my co-host. The oldest of seven children and older sister to a brother with Common Variable Immune Deficiency, Nell is no stranger to supporting another with their complex disease state. It took a block of ice literally falling on her head on a New York Ci

Mar 31, 2019 • 0:00

Hall - Albert Nichols, Founder & CEO

Hall - Albert Nichols, Founder & CEO

When you're not at home, and not in the office...what are you doing? From setting up family dinners with his friends in college to launching the Back Bay location of his startup Hall, Albert Nichols has always had a passion for bringing people together. At Hall, Albert and his team (thanks for setting this up, Phil!) have built a comfortable lifestyle space that feels like home but is also a space for grabbing dinner, catching up on emails, and meeting new people. Listen in to learn about Hal

Mar 11, 2019 • 0:00

Infinite Cooling - Maher Damak, Co-Founder

Infinite Cooling - Maher Damak, Co-Founder

Today, we hear from Maher Damak, Co-Founder at MIT-spawned startup Infinite Cooling. For a first time founder, Maher comes across as thoughtful and in control. He and his co-founders have set Infinite Cooling on an amazing run: winning the MIT 100k and a grant by the state of Massachusetts, gaining acceptance and winning the top prize at MassChallenge, and most recently being named to the Forbes "30 Under 30" list for 2019. Combining fluid dynamics with mechanical engineering for social good, M

Nov 29, 2018 • 0:00

Elsen - Zac Sheffer, Founder & CEO

Elsen - Zac Sheffer, Founder & CEO

Why hello startup nation, the Early Stage Podcast rolls onwards! It's great to be back in the saddle for a whole new set of episodes. It's been a while since I hosted panels, I was invited to moderate the Pre-Traction Fundraising panel at Startup Boston at 1:30pm on September 12th at CIC Boston. If you ever wanted to say hi or give me a hug in person, well, this is your opportunity. I usually edit most of my episodes to around 30 minutes, but I had such a hard time figuring out what to cut her

Sep 4, 2018 • 0:00

Joulez - Stephanie Rowe, Founder & CEO [1-Year Lookback]

Joulez - Stephanie Rowe, Founder & CEO [1-Year Lookback]

When I started the pod, one of the things I was super excited about was tracking entrepreneurs closely as they went on the rollercoaster journey that is startup life. The 1-year lookback podcast with RateGravity was so great I decided to do it again. Stephanie Rowe has been hard at work as Founder & CEO of Boston-based IoT startup Joulez, which is reimagining STEM for every girl by designing experiences that inspire them. The company was founded to build fun, fashionable products, starting with

Jul 9, 2018 • 0:00

OpenView Venture Partners, Blake Bartlett, Partner

OpenView Venture Partners, Blake Bartlett, Partner

Today I bring to you an awesome conversation with Blake Bartlett from OpenView Venture Partners. Born and bred in Southern California with a penchant for warm weather and analyzing businesses from a holistic perspective, opportunities at Battery Ventures and now OpenView have led him to meticulously maintain a beard, stock up on winter parkas, and make a number of exciting investments in expansion-stage B2B startups. In our wide-ranging chat, we discuss the keys to making the leap from venture

Jun 13, 2018 • 0:00

true tickets - Matt Zarracina, Co-Founder and CEO

true tickets - Matt Zarracina, Co-Founder and CEO

The sun is finally out in Boston, the weather is getting warmer, and the scent of burgers can be detected around the neighborhood. Summer is officially here! Today's conversation with true tickets Co-Founder and CEO Matt Zarracina gives us insight into running with a strong early application of a burgeoning technology, in this case blockchain. The idea for leading the ticketing world onto the blockchain came when white-boarding blockchain applications with a subject-matter expert and later ge

Jun 4, 2018 • 0:00

3Derm - Liz Asai, Co-Founder and CEO [1-Year Lookback]

3Derm - Liz Asai, Co-Founder and CEO [1-Year Lookback]

Wow, what a difference a year makes. For Liz Asai and her startup 3Derm, the last twelve months welcomed a bigger team, bigger markets, and more strategic partners. Artificial intelligence, just a gleam in their eye back then, has now come to the forefront. A few important AI papers came out since my last conversation with Liz showing how a few researchers using open source neural nets trained on skin photos from the internet were more accurate diagnosing skin cancer than board certified derma

May 7, 2018 • 0:00

Vice Cream - Dan Schorr, Founder & CIO (Chief Icecream Officer)

Vice Cream - Dan Schorr, Founder & CIO (Chief Icecream Officer)

Imagine the utter joy and promise of taking a food brand from a regional player to a national powerhouse, meeting the woman of your dreams, getting married, buying your first house, and running 5 New York City marathons…only to find out that you have 12 weeks to live. Such was the devastating news received by Dan Schorr a couple years ago. Not to be deterred, Dan dove into his battles with lymphoma and the ice cream world with equal vigor. 20 months later, he had beaten cancer and expanded Vice

May 3, 2018 • 0:00

Cymbal - Charlie Kaplan, CEO

Cymbal - Charlie Kaplan, CEO

I record each episode of Early Stage with the hope of discovering someTHING special: a tip for raising capital, a secret strategy for growth hacking or closing big deals, or the even the best way to manage a growing staff. Today, I present to you someONE special. It's not easy to share a narrative that led to your startup shutting down, but that's exactly what Charlie Kaplan joined me to do. I was going to use the word failure to describe Cymbal, the "Instagram for music" startup he led with f

Apr 22, 2018 • 0:00

CYBRIC - Ernesto DiGiambattista, Founder and CEO

CYBRIC - Ernesto DiGiambattista, Founder and CEO

Today's guest, Ernesto DiGiambattista, Founder and CEO of CYBRIC, is helping define a new industry term: DevSecOps. Ernesto and Co-Founder & CTO Mike Kail have been obsessed with figuring out how to bring the security process into development without slowing it down, and CYRBIC is their answer. CYBRIC's security orchestration platform helps developers, DevOps, and security teams apply commercial security testing tools throughout the software development lifecycle. Their platform automatically s

Apr 9, 2018 • 0:00

Night Shift Brewing - Michael Oxton, Co-Founder

Night Shift Brewing - Michael Oxton, Co-Founder

Have you ever tried to brew beer in one of those cheap Mr. Beer plastic barrels? How did the batch turn out? Michael Oxton, Co-Founder of Night Shift Brewing out of Everett, MA, started his foray into the beer world in exactly the same manner. For the record, his first batch turned out horrible -- it tasted like rotten cider! Michael and his fellow conspirators wouldn't be deterred, and soon their house was overrun with beer-making equipment and hundreds of friends more than willing to taste te

Mar 12, 2018 • 0:00

Pillar VC - Sarah Hodges, Partner

Pillar VC - Sarah Hodges, Partner

After interviewing Janet Comenos, CEO of Spotted, for Episode 21, I asked her to introduce me to one of her favorite people in the startup world. That night, she connected me with Sarah Hodges, Partner at Pillar VC. Literally 10 seconds into our coffee meeting I realized that A.) she's an absolute force of nature, and B.) I had to figure out a way to share her insights with all of you. After spending years as a a business, strategy, and marketing leader at a number of successful startups, Sarah

Mar 9, 2018 • 0:00

Tive - Rob Stevens, Chief Revenue Officer

Tive - Rob Stevens, Chief Revenue Officer

As I sit here and look around my apartment, it's likely that every single item has been shipped here from across the state, country, or even the world. Supply chain is an essential cog of the global economy, albeit one of the least sexy industries out there. Tive Chief Revenue Officer Rob Stevens and his team have cracked the code on tracking these shipments in real-time.Their combination of always-connected sensors and cloud-based software gives companies visibility on shipments over sea, land

Mar 5, 2018 • 0:00

Autonomous Marine Systems - Eamon Carrig, Co-Founder & CTO, and Ravi Paintal, CEO

Autonomous Marine Systems - Eamon Carrig, Co-Founder & CTO, and Ravi Paintal, CEO

Why hello Startup Nation, and welcome to Episode 28 of the Early Stage Podcast, the weekly show that gives you a deep dive into startup life right from the source, the founders themselves. I'm @JohnnyStartup, your host. At the top of today's show you're being treated to the final #InnoSprint with Bostinno Tech Writer Dylan Martin, in which he shares some interesting personal news. We touch on his favorite interviewees, why it benefits a startup to be transparent to their customers and the publi

Feb 26, 2018 • 0:00

RadioPublic - Jake Shapiro, Co-Founder & CEO

RadioPublic - Jake Shapiro, Co-Founder & CEO

Why hello startup nation, and welcome to Episode 26 of the Early Stage Podcast. If you're tired of listening to shows full of wildly successful entrepreneurs telling tales of grandeur and more interested in hearing early stage entrepreneurs share their war stories, milestones, fundraises, and pivots, then you've found a home. My name is John Valentine, or @JohnnyStartup on Twitter, and I'm your host. By day I'm scouting aerospace, space, defense, security, and transportation startups for Thales

Feb 18, 2018 • 0:00

Freebird - Ethan Bernstein, Co-Founder & CEO

Freebird - Ethan Bernstein, Co-Founder & CEO

I have an incredible interview coming at you with Ethan Bernstein, Co-Founder & CEO of Freebird, who, with his growing team, is trying to solve a $60 billion pain point. Flight disruptions cause a huge amount of economic loss, and business trips can cost upwards of 10% to 15% more than their original price tags because of the extra costs associated with accommodating unplanned interruptions. Travel managers at big companies can activate Freebird for their most important travelers so when disrup

Feb 12, 2018 • 0:00

RateGravity [Own Up] - Co-Founders Patrick Boyaggi and Mike Tassone [1-Year Lookback]

RateGravity [Own Up] - Co-Founders Patrick Boyaggi and Mike Tassone [1-Year Lookback]

If you listen back to the first few episodes, you'll hear me ask founders where they think they'll be in twelve months. One year seems like a long time in startupland, but it actually goes by in a flash. Patrick Boyaggi and Mike Tassone, Founders of RateGravity and guests on our first episode ever, discovered just that. In this inaugural 1-year lookback, we discussed their $2M funding round with Listen Ventures, Accomplice's BOSS Syndicate, and others, examined how other players in the market

Feb 4, 2018 • 0:00

Buoy Health - Andrew Le, MD, Co-Founder & CEO

Buoy Health - Andrew Le, MD, Co-Founder & CEO

Navigating the healthcare system in America is so exhausting it could make you sick. The average wait to see a primary care doctor in Boston is 49 days. 49 days of being scared. 49 days of potentially getting even more ill. New technologies in the medical field like telemedicine have focused on increasing the number of patients doctors can see, and useful tools like minute clinics are popping up everywhere. These new solutions will help, but a new approach is needed considering our country is ab

Jan 29, 2018 • 0:00

Embr Labs - Sam Shames, Co-Founder and CEO

Embr Labs - Sam Shames, Co-Founder and CEO

I'm super excited to publish today's founder interview. A group of curious material science students at MIT, while working on a project to help commercial buildings save on energy costs by heating people directly, developed a very low-powered thermal heating and cooling device for the wrist called the Embr Wave. Their startup journey took a winding course through Greentown Labs to the MIT Skills Accelerator and later the MassChallenge accelerator. Along the way, they picked up an NSF grant, non

Jan 22, 2018 • 0:00

Zemcar - Juliette Kayyem, CEO

Zemcar - Juliette Kayyem, CEO

It's 3am Monday morning, and I'm hard at work in the editing room, otherwise known as my couch. Tweaking each episode can take four to five hours, but sometimes the content is so good you finish wondering where the time went. Today's conversation with Juliette Kayyem, CEO of Zemcar, is one such episode. With safety and security the central themes of her career, Juliette spent time post Harvard Law School as advisor to Attorney General Janet Reno, a Homeland Security leader for Massachusetts an

Jan 15, 2018 • 0:00

Spotted - Janet Comenos, Co-Founder & CEO

Spotted - Janet Comenos, Co-Founder & CEO

How many times have your clients or prospects, when sharing their biggest challenges or deepest desires, given you a brilliant idea for your next big venture? How often do those great ideas go unpursued? When today's guest Janet Comenos, Co-Founder & CEO of Spotted, kept hearing from major fashion brands how it was impossible to have a comprehensive, real-time view into the brand preferences of celebrities and influencers, she jumped at the opportunity to solve the problem. Insights gained thro

Jan 8, 2018 • 0:00

Analytical Space - Co-Founders Dan Nevius and Justin Oliveira

Analytical Space - Co-Founders Dan Nevius and Justin Oliveira

Here we are in 2018, and the startup world has never been more intriguing. Early stage startups raised more money in 2017 in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) than venture funding, and seed investment rounds have fallen for the third straight year off 2014's highs. While business formation is down, fast-growing startups are in high gear. Businesses specializing in fields like cybersecurity, big data, artificial intelligence, and frontier tech are filling up the funding news wire -- and for good reas

Jan 2, 2018 • 0:00

Sh*t That I Knit - Christina Fagan, Founder and CEO

Sh*t That I Knit - Christina Fagan, Founder and CEO

Today's guest is Christina Fagan, Founder and CEO of Sh*t That I Knit, a Boston-based knitwear startup. A serial knitter starting in her youth, she put up a simple e-commerce website at the beckoning of her friends, enlisted knitters from around Boston to help fill inventory for her breakout Kickstarter campaign, and networked her way to having celebrities like Kirsten Cavallari and Olympic Snowboarder Hannah Teter fall in love with her beanies and showcase them on their Instagram feeds. All t

Dec 26, 2017 • 0:00

Neurala - Massimiliano (Max) Versace, Co-Founder and CEO

Neurala - Massimiliano (Max) Versace, Co-Founder and CEO

The holidays are upon us, and with that comes family gatherings, delicious food, and a ton of presents. From my vantage point, this also seems like the year artificial intelligence invades the home. Amazon Dot and Google Home are invading countertops, Jibo, the world's first social robot, is dancing up a storm, and kids are building and interacting with toys like the Meccano M.A.X. Interactive Robot. And this seems like just the beginning. To better understand the technology behind these produc

Dec 18, 2017 • 0:00

Petasense - Arun Santhebennur, Co-Founder and COO

Petasense - Arun Santhebennur, Co-Founder and COO

Today, I have the pleasure to sit with Arun Santhebennur, Co-Founder and COO of an industrial IoT (IIoT) startup based in San Jose called PetaSense. Industrial IoT has really come to the forefront through efforts by General Electric (Predix), other large digital industrial companies, and a burgeoning cadre of entrepreneurs. Tons of data is created from manufacturing technologies that are currently not being captured, and old technology is not equipped with sensors that would allow manufacturers

Sep 5, 2017 • 0:00

Tranquilo Mat - Melissa Gersin, Founder & CEO

Tranquilo Mat - Melissa Gersin, Founder & CEO

This episode finds us in a unique space, retail for babies. Joining me is Melissa Gersin, Founder & CEO of Boston-based startup Tranquilo Mat. Like so may of us, Melissa kicked around her idea with colleagues and friends for years before stepping up and bringing the Tranquilo Mat, a revolutionary vibrating mat for soothing crying and colicky babies, to market. This interview dives into the scariness and nuances of her first production run -- from having your first manufacturing partner shut dow

Aug 28, 2017 • 0:01

Vesper - Matt Crowley, CEO

Vesper - Matt Crowley, CEO

Hello and welcome back to the Early Stage podcast, where we listen to some of the most dynamic Founders in the startup scene talk about the origins of their companies, what makes them special, and the unique challenges ahead. I'm John Valentine, resident startup nerd, and I host this humble pod. I'm glad I was able to sneak in a few hours of editing, because I'm really excited to introduce my conversation with Vesper CEO, Matt Crowley. A technology founded in a University of Michigan lab by B

Aug 1, 2017 • 0:00

LearnLux - Co-Founders Rebecca Liebman and Michael Liebman

LearnLux - Co-Founders Rebecca Liebman and Michael Liebman

You're all in for a special Memorial Day episode, one that almost never saw the light of day. Just a couple days after taping with Rebecca and Michael Liebman from LearnLux, I spilled green tea on my Macbook, rendering it completely unusable. The laptop teased me for a few seconds, then I couldn't click on anything, the screen flickered and went black, and I feared the worst. Roman Kern, a good friend and Senior Director of Operations at MassChallenge, rescued the hard drive and recovered the ep

May 29, 2017 • 0:00

TellusLabs - David Potere, Co-Founder and CEO

TellusLabs - David Potere, Co-Founder and CEO

Hello and welcome back to the early stage podcast, the show that takes a deep dive into rising young startups and their founders. For today's conversation, I brought onboard David Potere, Co-Founder and CEO of Boston-based startup TellusLabs. His startup is in the business of using satellite imaging and machine learning to, at least in the present, project corn and soy crop yields. Commodities is the oldest marketplace in the world, and a lot of the technology around forecasting is world of mo

May 15, 2017 • 0:00

Tyme - Arnar Larusson, Co-founder

Tyme - Arnar Larusson, Co-founder

In this episode, I spend time with Arnar Larusson, Co-founder at Tyme, a Boston-based startup that integrates sensors into clothing to measure various biometrics signals, including breathing and movement. Our conversation starts with his upbringing in Iceland and early signs of entrepreneurs, later moving into how prosthetics stay on the body and discussing his efforts at Harvard to create a fabric that decreases the amount of energy you need to walk. Next, we discuss the benefits and drawback

Apr 24, 2017 • 0:00

Tank Utility - Amos Epstein, Co-Founder & CEO

Tank Utility - Amos Epstein, Co-Founder & CEO

When evaluating all the potential founders to ask on the show, I came across one I hadn't heard of before, Tank Utility. Founded by a few guys from EnerNOC, a smart metering startup that went on to great success, this startup focuses on the propane industry -- a sector largely ignored by startups and innovators. From walking into a frigid ski home with frozen pipes to prototyping and launching their propane tank level monitoring device in market, CEO Amos Epstein and his co-founders think they

Apr 17, 2017 • 0:00

3Derm - Liz Asai, Co-Founder and CEO

3Derm - Liz Asai, Co-Founder and CEO

Liz Asai, Co-Founder and CEO of Boston-based digital health startup 3Derm, joins me on the pod this week. From the dorm rooms of Yale to product launches with some of the top hospital systems and payers in the country, Liz teaches us the power of patience and perseverance. For a healthcare startup to succeed, it needs to pass a wide range of tests, regulations, and coverage approvals -- and finally prove it's mettle against a constantly improving status quo. 3Derm has done exactly that over the

Apr 9, 2017 • 0:00

Mighty Well - Maria Gomez, Co-Founder

Mighty Well - Maria Gomez, Co-Founder

How does a class project in college become a funded, scaling startup? Just ask Maria Gomez from Mighty Well. Maria, CEO Emily Levy, and team blew the doors off a KickStarter they launched for a PICC line cover that was both fashionable and functional. Now, with degrees from Babson College in hand, Maria is helping turn Mighty Well into a multi-product brand with global ambitions. You can reach Maria @LiveMightyWell. Make sure to tweet me @JohnnyStartup with the hashtag #EarlyStage with questi

Mar 27, 2017 • 0:00

ReferralMob - Co-Founders Joseph Schwendt and David Samuels

ReferralMob - Co-Founders Joseph Schwendt and David Samuels

ReferralMob Co-Founders Joseph Schwendt and David Samuels aren't new to big business and the startup game. Before teaming up, they led startups like EnerNOC and Apperian and corporations like Verisign and Intel. Despite their past successes, the pull of building their own company emerged when they hatched a solution to the inefficiencies in the recruiting process. Their technology is powered by users, allowing them to draw from their own networks and refer their friends to great jobs at exceptio

Mar 20, 2017 • 0:00

Wellist - Ashley Reid, Founder & CEO

Wellist - Ashley Reid, Founder & CEO

Where were you the moment you decided to leave your career behind, follow a passion, and build a startup? Ashley Reid, Founder and CEO of digital health startup Wellist, was helping her dad landscape the yard when she made the decision that has had tremendous impact on thousands of patients' lives. Wellist leverages proprietary patient data and human compassion to increase patient satisfaction, outcomes, and loyalty. A hospital visit sometimes means a marked shift in a patient's autonomy and wa

Mar 12, 2017 • 0:00

Fortified Bicycle - Tivan Amour, Co-Founder & CEO

Fortified Bicycle - Tivan Amour, Co-Founder & CEO

Boston-based @FortifiedBike Co-Founder and CEO @TivanAmour is no stranger to big challenges. Launching "The Defender" on Kickstarter as a test netted thousands of orders for the theft proof bike light and gave him the confidence he needed to join Co-Founder @SlavaMenn. With a full bike now on the market, revenue ramping up hard, and positive cash flow in sight, Tivan and I dig into a number of juicy topics for early stage entrepreneurs. What is it like to have 40 investors on the cap table? Wha

Mar 6, 2017 • 0:00

Looop - CJ Bertam, Founder & CEO

Looop - CJ Bertam, Founder & CEO

Imagine if you had x-ray vision, being able to see into spaces before you arrive. CJ Bertam, Founder and CEO of Looop, has a vision to help the masses decide where to go so they can spend more time enjoying themselves in a place that fits their mood. Making place-based data actionable is a challenge but potentially lucrative opportunity, and CJ is positioning the Looop app and his team to take advantage. Give this episode a listen for his advice on funding, building a strong team, launching a s

Feb 27, 2017 • 0:00

Humon - Alessandro Babini, Co-Founder & CEO

Humon - Alessandro Babini, Co-Founder & CEO

In this episode, Forbes "30 Under 30" honoree Alessandro Babini shares his journey from growing up in Paris, France, to launching his own startup, Humon, while at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Humon is a wearable that helps endurance athletes train smarter by measuring muscle oxygen levels in real time. Alessandro and his team of 4 took the concept from a class research project to beta tests with hundreds of athletes on less than $1M in funding. With a full-scale launch on the horizon i

Jan 29, 2017 • 0:00

3DFortify - Co-Founders Josh Martin, Phil Gregory, and Karlo Reyes

3DFortify - Co-Founders Josh Martin, Phil Gregory, and Karlo Reyes

3DFortify founders Josh Martin, Phil Gregory, and Karlo Reyes have set out to turn the promise of additive manufacturing into reality through their patented process that combines 3D printing and magnetics to create aligned reinforced carbon fiber composites. Hailing from the labs of Northeastern University, these founders tell the story of how they met, how the research was done, when they realized their platform had a true opportunity to be successful in the marketplace, and what they like to d

Jan 24, 2017 • 0:00

Joulez - Stephanie Rowe, Founder & CEO

Joulez - Stephanie Rowe, Founder & CEO

Joulez Founder Stephanie Rowe (@StephanieLRowe) is giving tween girl permission, and a medium, to learn STEM skills while expressing their creativity. To reverse the discouraging trend of fewer women receiving technical degrees and pursuing STEM fields for their careers, Joulez is preparing to launch an IoT lamp kit that introduces coding and elementary electronics alongside arts and crafts. In this episode, Stephanie shares her personal story driving this passion. An early stage founder, she d

Jan 16, 2017 • 0:01

RateGravity [Own Up] - Co-Founders Patrick Boyaggi and Mike Tassone

RateGravity [Own Up] - Co-Founders Patrick Boyaggi and Mike Tassone

When Patrick Boyaggi (@patrickboyaggi) and Mike Tassone (@mike_tassone) left Leader Bank to create RateGravity, their goal was to make the home mortgage process easier by providing transparency, cutting human processes out of the equation, and supporting local and regional lenders -- those who know the market and can service customers the best. This episode is a deep dive into the origin of their startup, when they decided to make the jump, how they built out the founding team, their strategie

Jan 6, 2017 • 0:00

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