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Sometimes it takes a backpacking trip through Southeast Asia to have an epiphany about the direction of your life. Such was the case with Harry Glaser, the Co-founder and CEO of Periscope Data, an end-to-end analytics platform that enables powerful data team collaboration.   This week Justin Gray invited Harry to the podcast to discuss giving his notice at Google, and how he convinced his college roommate to quit his job at Microsoft and build a startup with him (even though neither knew what that business would be). Harry also breaks down highlights from their start-stop journey at prototyping ideas, and how the need for data insights spurred a weekend side project that became what is now Periscope Data.

Sometimes the key to entrepreneurial success hinges on discovering a solution to a problem after months or even years of laborious trial and error. On the other hand, sometimes the answer is right under your nose. This was the case for Michael Dweck, who moved into a tiny Manhattan apartment with his now-wife Laura only to find his tattered, long-time accumulated sock and underwear drawer could barely shut.  When it came time to refresh and replenish his drawer, Michael found the shopping experience to be a pain. He was faced with the choice of expensive designer products or cheap, generic options, neither of which sounded appealing. Together, Michael and Laura recognized this opportunity and created Basic Outfitters, an e-commerce site that offers high quality and affordable men’s essentials via a convenient digital shopping experience that takes no more than two minutes to customize and complete. 

Just because something has always been done one way doesn’t mean it should continue to be when an alternative comes along, right? That’s one belief held by this week’s guest who found success by challenging long held and outdated practices and is working to flip the earth-mined diamond industry on its head.   Host Justin Gray, a fan of entrepreneurs who think way outside of the box, welcomes MiaDonna  founder and CEO Anna-Mieke Anderson to the podcast. MiaDonna is an eco-friendly jewelry company that pushes boundaries to create a socially responsible diamond industry. Appalled by the hard realities of the earth-mined diamond industry, Anna-Mieke has dedicated her life to creating diamonds in a lab environment. She also started a foundation, The Greener Diamond Foundation, to help children who’ve been caught in the middle of the unethical harvesting of diamonds.  In this episode, Justin and Anna-Mieke discuss her shock after realizing she’d likely purchased a conflict diamond, how activism fuels her entrepreneurial efforts and how she’s overcome negative industry pushback to make positive changes for people and the environment. 

Host Justin Gray welcomes Aditi Madane, CEO of Upsilon Labs, to the Driven & Co. podcast. Aditi grew up in India before moving to the United States for graduate school, earning her masters degree from Florida State University. She spent more than a decade working for companies like IBM, Amazon and American Express. But when she had an idea for a new platform to bring neighbors closer together, she decided to go out on her own. At the same time, a side business - Upsilon Labs - developed and quickly began gaining steam. Before long Aditi was forced to make a decision between the two, and she says it was one of the toughest decisions of her life.  In this episode, Justin and Aditi (both recently named among Phoenix Business Journal’s 40 Under 40) discuss her desire to build a business with a higher purpose, how she’s competing in the outsource technology space, and the many ways she’s working to get more women in STEM careers.  “You have control of your goals and dreams when you work as an entrepreneur,” said Aditi. “I knew it was my calling.”  

Today on the Driven & Co. podcast, Justin Gray welcomes Eliot Wall to the show. Eliot is the founder of Beacinsight, the first operational performance record (OPR) for healthcare providers.   In this episode, Eliot shares the twists and turns of his journey to entrepreneurship. Plus, he and Justin discuss why entrepreneurs can’t help but obsess over certain problems, how his launch week went wrong in every way, and the importance of loving a problem enough to get you through the ups and downs.  “You can think about Beacinsight like Google Maps for doctors,” said Eliot. “Operations decisions are being made constantly throughout the day, and we just help doctors by recommending the right ones each time.”

This week on the Driven & Co. podcast, Justin Gray welcomes Coral Health Founder and CSO Andy Park to the show to talk his journey to entrepreneurship, the pros and cons of risk-taking and using blockchain technology to enable efficient data sharing.   Andy’s background spanned biotech and medical market research before eventually rising through the ranks in private industry. It was then Andy realized his forte for building partnerships and consensus - skills he reaches for often now that he’s on the entrepreneurial side of things.  In this episode, they discuss motivations to build a business, targeting ambitious problems in the world and why money doesn’t buy happiness but does have the power to reconfigure the parameters of your professional ambitions.  “In my first company, I was driven a lot by fear and it turned out to be a good motivator because I would work tirelessly,” said Andy. “Now that I’ve had that exit, I’m able to tackle more ambitious projects to better humanity and devote my energies into doing things that will have dramatic changes and improve paradigms.” 

Meet Chris Rawley, an entrepreneur making it easier to invest in production agriculture. In this episode of the Driven & Co. podcast, host (and farm owner!) Justin Gray welcomes Chris to talk about his role as CEO of Harvest Returns, an online platform for investing in agriculture. They discuss Chris’ background in real estate, his decades in the United States military and what it really takes to get an idea off the ground.   “A few years ago, I started seeing these crowdfunding companies pop up,” Chris said. “About the same time I moved to a rural area and would drive past these ranches raising cattle, goats - you name it. One day, I had a flash realization we could combine equity crowdfunding with agriculture, and we’ve been building it ever since.” 

In this episode of the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Nik Ingersoll.  As Barnana’s Co-Founder and CMO, Nik has received numerous accolades from top press for the product, growth and mission to end food waste. To this day, he still personally designs everything for the brand and its packaging. In this episode of the podcast, Justin interviews Nik about how growing up in rural Western Nebraska has pushed him to always aim high, the ups and downs of quickly scaling a company, and hiring advice that applies during every stage of growing a team.

In this episode of the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Rob Hunter to the podcast. As the Founder & CEO of HigherMe, Rob and his team use data and video to create customized hiring solutions to ease unique recruitment challenges of today’s top retailers. Current clients of HigherMe include Dunkin’ Donuts, Panera Bread and Planet Fitness.   In this episode, Rob shares his foray into the franchise business, later being accepted into Y-Combinator, and landing big clients at HigherMe (shout out to White Castle!).  

In this episode of the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Allen Gannett.  Allen is the founder and CEO of TrackMaven, a marketing insights platform whose clients have included Microsoft, Marriott, Saks Fifth Avenue, Home Depot, Aetna, Honda, and GE.    In this episode, Allen shares why he was compelled to start TrackMaven and how the company acts as a “left brain” for creative marketers who have yet to master data sciences that their roles now require. Allen also shares insights from his new book, The Creative Curve, which tackles the idea that “creativity is this magical, mystical thing that people either have or don’t have.” He shares highlights from interviews with living creative geniuses, and breaks down the four things individuals can do to nurture their creativity.       

This week on the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Levi King to the show. Levi is the founder and CEO of Nav, a free, modern way for business owners to manage their business credit and get streamlined access to financing. “Nav is a credit financial education platform for small businesses,” Levi said. “We help them understand, improve, establish, protect and leverage their credit financial data so they can have a successful business.” In this episode, Justin and Levi discuss the ups and downs of being serial entrepreneurs, how to survive the rocky first years of owning a business and how many entrepreneurs struggle to understand how credit applies to a small business.

This week on the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Brianna Rooney to the show. Brianna is the founder and CEO of Techees, a recruiting firm that specializes in placing technical professionals in a myriad of disciplines, including software engineering, data science, design, operations, leadership, product management and more. Since being founded in 2009, Brianna has established relationships with a wide array of companies, ranging in maturity from seed funded, all the way to pre-IPO, and everything in between. In this episode, Justin and Brianna discuss her journey from broke fashion school graduate to successful recruiting entrepreneur, how starting a business at 22 years old taught her to have no fear and how she masters being both a business leader, sales producer and mom.

Today on the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Clate Mask to the show. Clate is the founder and CEO of Infusionsoft, the leading SaaS platform developed exclusively for small businesses to help them deliver personalized service, grow their business, and succeed.         In this episode, Justin and Clate discuss Infusionsoft’s mission to simplify growth for millions of small businesses worldwide, the different ways Clate makes strategic decisions based on Infusionsoft’s purpose, values and mission, and why he still surrounds himself with advisors and mentors.  

This week on the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Annie Eaton to the show. Annie is the founder and CEO of Futurus, an Atlanta-based future technologies company where she creates immersive, engaging and interactive experiences in virtual reality, augmented reality and 360 capture. In this episode, Justin and Annie discuss why she’s fascinated by the possibilities of AR/VR, her unwavering support of women entrepreneurs, and how she is looking into the future and making moves based on what is about to happen in the world of XR.

This week on the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Beatrice Fischel-Bock to the show. Beatrice is the co-founder and CEO of Hutch, the home decor tool that mixes 3D technology with online shopping to let you virtually decorate your space. During this podcast, Justin and Bea discuss starting a company while still in college, appearing on Shark Tank, raising funds (including from Tinder’s Sean Rad and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund), and taking funding. “We are tackling the frustrating experience of finding the furniture you like, understanding how much you should be spending and understanding how it will look in your particular space,” Bea said. “It’s kind of like having a fitting room for your clothing, but your fitting room is our screen with your room and the new pieces of furniture in it.”

On the latest episode of Driven & Co., host Justin Gray chats with JT Marino, CEO of Tuft & Needle - a Phoenix-based company that pioneered the disruption of the mattress industry. At T&N, JT leads the R&D, product development, architecture, design, and software development teams. He is a passionate storyteller, facilitator, and teacher, inspiring T&N's most challenging and disruptive projects. In this episode, JT fills Justin in on his background in software, the terrible mattress buying experience that led him to co-found Tuft & Needle and why Phoenix is an ideal place to build and grow a company. “We started with a goal to disrupt the mattress industry in its entirety,” JT said. “To be perfectly honest, it’s really simple. We’re just doing the opposite of what all the other mattress companies are doing.”

This week on the Driven & Co. podcast, host Justin Gray welcomes Eloise Bune to the show. Eloise is the founder and CEO of handwriting.io, a digital handwriting app. It uses authentic digital handwriting across print and digital media. She is also the founder of ScribbleChat, which sends customizable, animated messages using unique handwritings, fonts and animation. In this episode, Justin and Eloise discuss the massive need in the market for a technology that digitized personalization, and the steps Eloise has taken to position her company to capture that niche in the B2B and B2C space. “I never envisioned being a technology CEO,” Eloise said. “I jumped into this without thinking about it at all, which in some ways is the best way. A lot of entrepreneurs have these great ideas, but you can talk yourself out it because it’s so scary.”

This week’s Driven & Co. podcast features Jesse Lakes, founder of GeniusLink, an intelligent link management company.  In this episode, host Justin Gray hears how Jesse became an expert in affiliate programs, parlayed his “endless summer” lifestyle into a job at Apple, and why he left to pursue the rampant problem of geo-fragmented audiences across platforms.

The latest Driven & Co. podcast features Devan Kline, Co-founder & CEO of Burn Boot Camp, a boutique fitness concept that creates a fit community for moms and women to come together, build confidence and inspire one another through fitness. In this episode, host Justin Gray and Devan Kline unpack the twists and turns that led Devan to found his company, including his time with the San Francisco Giants and lifelong passion for wellness.

This week’s Driven & Co. podcast features Sylvain Kalache, an entrepreneur and software engineer who has worked in the tech industry for more than a decade. Sylvain’s most recent endeavor is co-founding Holberton School, a two year programming school in San Francisco training highly skilled full stack software engineers. In this episode, host Justin Gray and Sylvain discuss different types of learning methods from around the world, the lack of project-based education in the United States and the importance of learning by doing. “If you teach skills to someone, you get them a job,” Sylvain said. “If you teach them how to learn, you give them a career.” Other podcast highlights include: What inspired Sylvain to quit his job and start the Holberton School The benefits of peer-based and project-based learning Providing a different path for learners who don't want to go through traditional channels The importance for entrepreneurs to have a trusted co-founder when tackling a huge problems The exciting next chapter for Sylvain and the Hoberton School Plus, tune into other episodes to learn about the zigs and zags entrepreneurs take to succeed.