Risky Routes

Not PC VC
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Welcome to Risky Routes, a short interview series telling the stories of moments when travel forces you to grow up and adapt fast. Because risk creates perspective. And perspective creates success. We talk about the chaotic, uncomfortable, borderline-bad-idea journeys that pushed people to level up, trust themselves, and take control of their lives.

  1. 1d ago

    Building Casinos Across Cultures: Las Vegas to Macau with Seth Schorr, CEO of Fifth Street Gaming

    Long before Seth Schorr became a casino owner and entrepreneur, Steve Wynn sent him to Macau with a pretty unusual assignment: figure out how the market worked. There were no consultant reports or market studies to rely on. Macau was essentially a black box. So Seth spent months on the ground - staying in the hotels, eating in the restaurants, talking to operators, watching customers, and collecting data himself. That experience helped shape how he approaches business today: don't assume you understand a market. Go learn it. Seth went on to co-found Fifth Street Gaming and today serves as Chairman of the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. His career has also put him unusually early to several major shifts in gaming—from attempting to build online gaming with Steve Wynn around 2000, to esports, sports betting, and now AI. Not every bet worked. Some were simply too early. We also talk about buying his first casino just as the 2008 financial crisis hit and watching revenues fall 60%, why he thinks young founders may be too quick to skip the experience of working inside established organizations, and why founders should be very careful about whose money they take. And, of course, I had to ask a lifelong Las Vegas casino operator his favorite game. Spoiler: we agree. 🎲

  2. Aug 11

    Why Having Kids Made Us Travel More, Not Less with Joe O’Connor, Co-Founder at GFHR (Global Family Home Rentals)

    What if having kids didn’t mean traveling less? In this episode of Risky Routes, I sit down with Joe O’Connor, co-founder of Global Family Home Rentals, who packed up his life in Buffalo in 2022 and moved to Portugal with his wife and three-year-old daughter. What started as a leap into location-independent family life turned into more than four years of slow travel across Europe and beyond. We talk about raising kids across different cultures, the challenges of building community on the road, and why Joe and his wife think about life in seasons rather than permanent decisions. We also get into how their experience helping hundreds of traveling families led them to launch Global Family Home Rentals, an invite-only community built specifically for families who want to live and travel differently. In this episode: Why they moved to Portugal with a three-year-oldHow travel has shaped their daughterThe realities of slow travel as a familyWhy nothing has to be permanentTurning a personal travel problem into a businessBuilding community wherever you are

  3. Aug 4

    Selling a Company While at War with Amit Brandon Kadosh, Head of Growth at Rex, Exited Cofounder and CEO of Encourse

    When Amit Brandon Kadosh started his company, he wasn’t trying to become a founder. He saw a problem (millions of dollars of food going to waste) & decided to solve it. With no technical background and no outside funding, he bootstrapped OnCourse into a multimillion-dollar business serving thousands of locations. Then, everything changed. Just days before returning to the US, war broke out in Israel. Amit was called back into military service, leaving the company he’d spent years building. While serving on the front lines, he received an unexpected acquisition offer with just 72 hours to decide. After a life-altering combat experience forced him to rethink what mattered most, he signed the paperwork from a hospital bed. In this episode, we talk about building a company without chasing investors, why curiosity is a founder’s greatest advantage, how surviving war reshaped his priorities, and the unconventional LinkedIn message that ultimately led him to his wife. It’s a conversation about entrepreneurship, perspective, and what happens when life completely rewrites your plans.

  4. Aug 3

    Why He Bought a Failing Airline with Germán Efromovich, Owner of Synergy Group and formerly CEO Avianca Airlines

    When you meet someone who has built companies across aviation, oil and gas, shipbuilding, and hospitality, you expect them to have one defining story - the moment that changed everything. So I asked Germán Efromovich exactly that. What was the trip, the flight, or the experience that changed the way you lead? His answer caught me off guard. “There wasn’t one,” he said. “It was an evolution.” The more we talked, the more that answer made sense. Germán doesn’t think in defining moments. He thinks in accumulated experiences. He told me about growing up in South America after his parents rebuilt their lives following the Holocaust. For a period of his childhood, his family lived in a shipping container. He laughed while telling stories about accidentally blowing up his mother’s brand-new stove because he didn’t understand the difference between 110 and 220 volts, then nearly burning down the apartment after trying to wire a lamp himself. Most people would call those failures. He called them education. That curiosity, and the willingness to learn by doing, became the thread that ran through his entire career. When we started talking about Avianca, one of Latin America’s oldest airlines, I expected a story about aviation. Instead, he talked about pattern recognition. “I’ve always believed that where there’s a crisis, there’s an opportunity.” It’s a philosophy he’s lived over and over again. Before Avianca, he built businesses during periods of hyperinflation. Later, when the airline entered bankruptcy, almost no one wanted it. He made what he thought was an intentionally low offer just to end the conversation. The offer was accepted. Listening to him, I realized he doesn’t run toward risk because he enjoys uncertainty. He runs toward it because he’s trained himself to see what might exist on the other side. That may have been my biggest takeaway from our conversation. We often think great careers are built around one bold decision. Germán reminded me they’re usually built through thousands of small ones—staying curious, solving the next problem, and seeing opportunity a little earlier than everyone else. Maybe that’s what separates entrepreneurs from everyone else. Not that they take bigger risks. They simply see different possibilities.

  5. Jul 21

    The Future of Work is Uncomfortable with Zara Ali, Founder at Clover Street Partners

    The future of work isn’t just changing…it’s becoming increasingly uncomfortable. In this episode of Risky Routes, I sat down with Zara Ali to talk about why the traditional career ladder is disappearing and what replaces it. Rather than chasing certainty, Zara argues that the next generation of professionals will need to become comfortable with ambiguity, continuous learning, and creating their own opportunities instead of waiting for someone to hand them one. We explore why AI is accelerating this shift, how work is moving from credential-based to outcome-based, and why adaptability may become the most valuable skill anyone can develop. The conversation isn’t about predicting which jobs disappear—it’s about understanding how to build a career in a world where the rules are constantly being rewritten. We also discuss: Why discomfort is becoming a competitive advantage. How AI changes what employers actually value. The difference between collecting credentials and creating proof. Why building relationships and solving real problems matter more than sending hundreds of applications. How young professionals can create leverage by making themselves impossible to ignore instead of competing in broken hiring systems. It’s a conversation about embracing uncertainty, redefining success, and realizing that the future belongs to people willing to bet on themselves even when there isn’t a clear roadmap.

  6. Jul 14

    High Speed Train Chase Across Russia with Elena Levine, Managing Partner at Forcoda Ventures

    Elena Levine has spent the last 12 years building technology companies, helping founders bring products to market, and now raising a venture fund focused on AI and fintech. But one of the biggest lessons that shaped her leadership came during a Christmas trip home to Russia. After missing an overnight train to see her family, Elena found herself stranded in St. Petersburg exhausted, without cash, and convinced the trip was over. Then a ticket agent предложed (see what I did there, haha) an unexpected solution: board a high-speed train to Moscow, race ahead of her original train, and intercept it several hours later. Against all odds, it worked. That story became a metaphor for how Elena approaches entrepreneurship. Missing one opportunity doesn't mean the journey is over. Sometimes the fastest path forward is the one you never planned.

  7. Jul 7

    The Mount Everest Base Camp Lie with Lauren Molenda, Co-owner of Riveter Design

    Lauren Molenda, co-owner of Riveter Design, has trekked to Everest Base Camp, summited Kilimanjaro, run a marathon through the Alps, and spent years intentionally putting herself in uncomfortable situations. But one of the most important lessons she learned came from a moment when she was convinced she was failing. While trekking to Everest Base Camp, Lauren struggled with the altitude and the mental weight of comparing herself to everyone around her. She became convinced she was slowing the group down and falling behind. Then she learned the truth: she wasn't at the back of the group at all. She was near the front. That experience revealed the "Everest Base Camp Lie" a story our brains tell us when we're tired, uncomfortable, or uncertain. Often the narrative in our heads is far harsher than reality. In this episode of Risky Routes, Lauren shares how adventure, endurance, and discomfort have shaped her leadership style, why confidence is built through evidence rather than motivation, and what challenging experiences can teach us about self-perception. We also discuss fear, resilience, and why some of life's biggest breakthroughs happen when you're willing to be uncomfortable for longer than everyone else.

  8. Jun 29

    Inside Walgreens during the $150MM Theranos Fraud with Harry Leider, former Chief Medical Officer at Walgreens

    What do you do when something feels wrong but everyone else seems convinced it’s right? In this episode of Risky Routes, I sit down with Harry Leider to discuss one of the most infamous corporate failures in recent history: Theranos. As Chief Medical Officer at Walgreens, Harry had a front-row seat to the partnership between Walgreens and Theranos as the company promised to revolutionize blood testing. What started as an exciting vision for the future of healthcare eventually became a lesson in skepticism and leadership. We talk about decision-making under uncertainty, asking difficult questions, and why experience often teaches you what success cannot.

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About

Welcome to Risky Routes, a short interview series telling the stories of moments when travel forces you to grow up and adapt fast. Because risk creates perspective. And perspective creates success. We talk about the chaotic, uncomfortable, borderline-bad-idea journeys that pushed people to level up, trust themselves, and take control of their lives.

Information

  • Creator
    Not PC VC
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Not PC VC
  • Show Website
    Risky Routes