If Not Now Wen Podcast Wen Zhang

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Lucas Mitchell. Lucas is the founder and managing partner of Infinite Ranges, a company that drives digital adoption by connecting the global integrator and resellers with the outcomes and people needed to deliver solutions. They help clients activate, deploy, and optimize their software securely.

Lucas has over 25 years in the tech sector with expertise ranging from cybersecurity, devops, app modernization, and human capacity scalability. He also serves as an advisory council member at VMware Tanzu, where his teams collaborate with senior executives from channel partner organizations to explore and validate Tanzu's vision and direction.

Lucas is passionate about creating outcomes that matter and empowering teams to achieve their goals, vision, and direction.

In this episode we talk about:
🔹 Setting goals and pushing limits
🔹 How solving that one problem can lead to big things
🔹 The many hats that entrepreneurs wear and navigating those transitions as your business scales
🔹 Lucas’s biggest lesson and most expensive mistake
🔹 The morning routine that lays the foundation for success

Living life with such resiliency, Lucas runs towards what scares him the most and faces things head on with discipline and determination. He is such an inspiration, and I know you're going to love this episode and get so many amazing takeaways.

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Josh Chodniewicz. Not just an entrepreneur, but a leading expert in regulations in crowdfunding, entrepreneurship and investing in startups, Josh has consistently been at the forefront of industry evolution.

 

From humble beginnings selling chicken eggs in his neighborhood to navigating the complexities of the digital art world, every step has been marked by perseverance, vision, and an innate entrepreneurial drive.

 

Today Josh is the founder of Fundify, democratizing startup investing and empowering both accredited and non-accredited investors, allowing investments starting from just $1. Fundify embodies Josh's unwavering commitment to innovation and his ambition to empower every potential entrepreneur and investor.

 

In this episode we talk about:

🔹 Recognizing the potential of the internet in 1994 and having the vision to see it as the vehicle for endless possibility

🔹 Overcoming hardships and setbacks

🔹 The challenges that come with a merger and the impact it has for founders

🔹 Equity crowdfunding and how Fundify is democratizing the process

🔹 Avoiding fatal decisions as you grow your business

 

Josh is such an inspiration, and he has so much wisdom to share. Tune in to the full episode to hear more of his amazing story.

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Rima Chakrabarti. Rima is a partner at KdT Ventures, the standard for early-stage frontier science investing, where she partners with scientific founders engineering the world at the molecular level.



Rima studied biology and neuroscience at Brown University and earned her MD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. While in medical school, she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) research fellow in the lab of Dr. Helen Hobbs, where she created bio-tools for measuring lipid activity in the body. She attended the University of Pennsylvania for her clinical residency in neurology, after which she jumped to the Fannin Innovation Studio, a human-health focused venture creation firm in Houston, TX, where she directed the development of a portfolio of preclinical assets, three of which are now in clinical trials.



Since joining KdT in 2020, Rima’s investments to date span the fields of material science, cell immunotherapy, cancer metabolism, and surgical robotics. She currently sits on the boards of Dimension Inx, Cypris Materials, and Modulus Therapeutics.



Rima is truly an inspiring example and model for technical founders who are on a path and looking for a way to change the world, and she is doing amazing things on this planet. I know you are going to love this episode as much as I do and get so many amazing takeaways.



We talk about:

🔹 Discovering a passion for building with biology and exploring the “why” of disease

🔹 Uncovering the steps for the commercialization process in the biotech space

🔹 What you need to know about the investor/founder partnership

🔹 Determining if Venture Capital funding is right for your biotech company

🔹 What to focus on in your pitch to get a seed investor excited to partner with you



Rima has such a love for technology, innovation, and creating an impact which is truly making the world a better place. Tune in to the full episode to hear more of her inspiring story.

Our special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Ash Maurya. Ash is the author of two bestselling books “Running Lean” and “Scaling Lean” and is also the creator of the highly popular one-page business modeling tool “Lean Canvas”.



Ash is praised for offering some of the best and most practical advice for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs all over the world. Driven by the search for better and faster ways for building successful products, Ash has developed a continuous innovation framework that synthesizes concepts from Lean Startup, business model design, jobs-to-be-done, and design thinking.



A leading business blogger, Ash's posts and advice have been featured in Inc. Magazine, Forbes, and Fortune. He regularly hosts sold out workshops around the world and serves as a mentor to several accelerators including TechStars, MaRS, Capital Factory, and guest lecturers at several universities including MIT, Harvard, and UT Austin. Ash serves on the advisory board of a number of startups and has consulted to new and established companies.



Ash is passionate about giving back and sharing his knowledge to serve the entrepreneurial ecosystem and create more successful entrepreneurs. He is such an inspiration, and I know you are going to love this episode and get so many amazing takeaways.



We talk about:

🔹 Recognizing patterns in the start-up process

🔹 The 3 stages of the entrepreneurial journey

🔹 Early mistakes for founders to avoid

🔹 How to structure your pitch so that you can discuss pricing with ease

🔹 Defining success and the American Dream



Ash has such a transparency and self-awareness and has so much insight to share. He has such a big heart and is driven to help more people enter this profession and be successful doing it. Tune in to the full episode right here.

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Valerie Ward. Valerie recently completed her MBA at UT Austin's McComb's School of Business, where she is concentrated in Strategy and Innovation with a special focus on Social Enterprise and Social Impact, and she'll be joining Strategy&'s Customer Transformation practice in early 2024.



Valerie was the co-founder of Sweet Ritual vegan ice cream shop and non-profit Good Work Austin. She is a mentor at Capital Factory in Austin and is dedicated to increasing access to entrepreneurship. She has taught, directed, and performed improvised theatre for over 20 years, touring internationally with her troupe Parallelogramophonograph.



An authentic people leader, Valerie is passionate about connecting with others and building a community. She is such an inspiration, and I know you are going to love this episode as much as I do.



 We talk about:

🔹 Finding balance between the dream and the reality of building a business

🔹 Why networks and community are so crucial

🔹 Deciding whether to persist or move on to the next chapter

🔹 Giving yourself grace and letting go of perfectionism

🔹 Advice for founders starting out and those who are in the process of growing and scaling their business



Curious to learn more about Valerie and her amazing story? Catch today’s episode right here!

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re so excited to talk with special guest Jake O'Shea. Jake is a professional match-maker and superconnector. He currently works as the Director of Portfolio Operations at Foundation Capital, building tools and systems to operationalize the firm's network and leading the 30yo firm's Platform and Portfolio Support functions.



Prior to Foundation Capital, Jake was Director of Platform at Capital Factory, where he was responsible for managing and developing the firm's value-add initiatives for portfolio companies. Jake is a co-organizer of AITX, a local Austin AI community. He is also cofounder of Serend.ai, a GPT-powered network management tool, and creator of ShowerThoughts, allowing you to turn your unstructured brain dump into a short summary with highlights and action items that are delivered directly to your inbox.



In this episode Jake gives an inside look into the venture capital business model and has an incredible way of demystifying the investment process in a way that is very clear and refreshing. He is an open book and gives clear steps and game-changing advice for founders.



We talk about:

🔹 The 3-step process for successful fundraising

🔹 Understanding the different rounds of funding

🔹 How to create an incentive for a lead investor to offer you a term sheet

🔹 Determining the right valuation for your company

🔹 How to build relationships with potential investors



Jake has such a big heart, and he is passionate about supporting others and creating a positive impact.  He is a leader with a wealth of knowledge and insights that are incredibly important for founders. I know you are going to love this episode and get so many amazing take-aways.