Found TechCrunch
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How do you build a company from scratch? How do you take an idea and turn yourself into a founder? Find out from those who’ve already taken the plunge and are in the weeds of entrepreneurship.
Every Tuesday, hosts Becca Szuktak and Dominic-Madori Davis interview founders on their origins, product roadmaps, funding efforts — and how they grow from failures. Found is produced by Maggie Stamets
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Training AI-powered recycling robots with Rebecca Hu from Glacier
Recycling is one facet to solving the climate crisis, but most of us are doing it wrong. Today on Found, Becca and Dom are talking with Rebeca Hu, the CEO and cofounder of Glacier, an AI robotics company that is building robots to accurately sort recycling. They talk about how many of us are wish-cylers who hopefully throw non-recyclables into the bin and how Glacier’s robots are sorting the recycling and making sure all of our recycling mistakes are corrected.
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AI could be the solution for bureaucracy with Emilie Poteat from Advocate
Applying for government benefits is a slow, tedious process that often leaves applicants in limbo for several months. Advocate looks to help. Today on Found Becca and Dom are talking with Advocate’s founder Emilie Poteat, the company that helps Americans engage with federal benefits programs through its technology-enabled services platform. In this episode they discuss how the Advocate team is using AI to automate advocacy and get the wait time for people seeking aid to nearly nothing.
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Building in the DTC hayday with Ariel Kaye from Parachute
Do you know what brand your bedsheets are? Probably not. Today’s guest Ariel Kaye has been working to change that with Parachute, a DTC bedding and home goods company. Kaye started Parachute in 2013—the hayday of DTC brands. She joins Dom to talk about what it was like building as a solo founder while she’s established a well-known brand and expanded beyond bedding.
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Bringing the wedding industry into the 21st century with Shan-Lyn Ma of Zola
This episodes dives into the massive web of the wedding industry with Shan-Lyn Ma, the co-founder and CEO of Zola. Ma talked about why she decided to launch the business after trying to buy a gift for a friend and realizing that wedding registries were still living in the past. Ma spoke about how the company navigated changes in the digital and competitive landscapes over the last decade and how the company powered through the pandemic's impacts on the industry.
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Closing the talent gap and mitigating bias in hiring with Tigran Sloyan from CodeSignal
Is it time for the resume’s reign to come to an end? Tigran Sloyan is the co-founder and CEO of CodeSignal, a skills assessment platform used by many tech companies to hire engineers based on their engineering chops rather than their keyword-packed resumes. In this episode, Becca, Dom, and Tigran talk about how traditional resume-based hiring perpetuates biases and limits opportunities for individuals without extensive networks or prestigious credentials and how skills assessment lead to more equitable hiring. They also get into the CodeSignal team’s plans to go beyond assessment to skills development, how AI will play a role in building out these courses, and the way Tigran thinks about equitable hiring on his own team.
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Bootstrapping until the business finds a home with Beatrice Dixon from The Honey Pot
Not many businesses start with a seemingly incurable case of Bacterial Vaginosis but today’s guest, Beatrice Dixon, found a company and a cure all in one. The Honey Pot is a plant-based vaginal wellness brand that was co-founded by Beatrice after she launched by selling her products at hair shows. On today’s episode, she tells Becca and Dom how those hair shows lead to the Honey Pot hitting shelves in Target.
Customer Reviews
Great in-depth listen
This is a great pod. Rebecca and sometimes co-hosts do a great job not going after the founders we all know about, but finding Founders (sorry) with interesting stories about how they started their companies and what obstacles they’ve had to overcome. Balanced, direct, informative, and insightful.
A never miss
People’s stories are interesting and this podcast exemplifies that there are as many ways to build a startup as there are people. Plus the hosts add context that makes this a really interesting listen even if you’re not that into tech.
Huge fan!
Found has quickly become a favorite in my feed! I'm consistently impressed by the engaging conversations, insightful content, and actionable ideas. I truly learn something every time I listen!