49 episodes
Office Hours with Dorm Room Fund Dorm Room Fund
-
- Business
-
-
4.9 • 10 Ratings
-
What if the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, investors, and product visionaries held office hours just for student founders?
What would you ask? What stories would they tell? What lessons would product builders teach the next generation of game-changers? We had the same questions. So we asked them.
This is Office Hours with Dorm Room Fund. To learn more about DRF and apply to be considered for an investment, visit our website: www.dormroomfund.com.
-
Miranda Wang, Co-Founder & CEO at Novoloop
Andrew Xu and Daniel Aboul-Hassan speak with Miranda Wang (@mirandaywwang) from Novoloop!
Novoloop is an advanced upcycling company that invents sustainable ways to convert end-of-life plastic into specialty materials.
(0:30) - Introduction
(1:00) - Where did the idea for Novoloop come from?
(2:45) - Key Novoloop moments while in college
(6:34) - Challenges while fundraising as a startup in a less-common industry
(9:04) - Most surprising lesson learned since co-founding Novoloop
(11:06) - What makes the Novoloop team special?
(15:08) - Co-founder dynamics (Miranda and her co-founder, Jeanny Yao, started Novoloop together in high school!!)
(18:47) - At what point did Miranda decide to raise a Series A?
(21:51) - What does Novoloop look in board members?
(22:57) - Andrew tells a funny joke
(23:34) - Miranda's must-visit botanical garden spots & more
--
Get in touch with Miranda!
Website: novoloop.com
Twitter: @mirandaywwang
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaywwang -
Jonathan Chang, XIR at Brex + Founder of Gen Z Scouts
Jonathan Chang is a XIR at Brex, where he works with startups and venture funds. He's also the founder of GenZScouts, a startup sourcing platform and quarterly fellowship for college students to leverage their networks and identify burgeoning startups.
He previously worked in data and analytics roles at NBC and Yumi, as well as numerous venture and investing roles at Lionsgate, Ground Up Ventures, and Global Silicon Valley.
--
To get in touch with Jonathan, shoot him an email at jchang@brex.com -
Connor McEwen, Engineering Lead at Uniswap Labs
Andrew Xu and Daniel Aboul-Hassan speak with Connor McEwen (@connormcewen) from Uniswap Labs!
Uniswap allows people to swap, earn, and build on the leading decentralized crypto trading protocol.
(0:32) - Introduction
(1:22) - What led Connor to join Dorm Room Fund
(2:52) - Deciding whether or not take a gap year during college
(4:24) - Important lessons learned from returning to school
(6:11) - Experience launching makeBU
(8:48) - Being on the engineering side & what people on the Business and Engineering sides can learn from each other
(10:55) - How Connor approached joining a large company vs. startup
(14:20) - Is Connor a Bitcoin millionaire?
(14:30) - Connor's funny story about mining Bitcoin
(15:31) - How to land an engineering role at an attractive startup
(18:10) - 2013 startups vs. 2022 startups
(20:06) - Hottest Web3 take
(21:43) - How should engineers working at early-stage startups view fundraising?
(23:31) - Staying up to date in the crypto space
--
Get in touch with Connor!
Twitter: @connormcewen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmcewen/ -
Josh Belinsky, Co-Founder of Slate Milk
Josh Belinsky is the co-founder of Slate Milk, a venture back CPG company based out of Boston. Slate creates high protein, low sugar, lactose free canned beverages marketed toward adults. The DTC milk brand has raised raised over $7 million to date and is available in over 3500 stores nationwide.
Josh was previously part of the founding team at HqO, as well as a Business Development Executive at New Grounds Food before co-founding the brand with his partner Manny Lubin.
On this episode, Souhail talks to Josh about his upbringing, time at Northeastern, founding the company, appearing on Shark Tank, and much more.
-- -
Ansh Nanda, Co-Founder at Un1Feed
Andrew Xu and Daniel Aboul-Hassan speak with Ansh Nanda (@anshnanda_) from Un1Feed!
Un1Feed allows users to retake ownership of their social media feed.
(0:32) - Introduction
(1:00) - Ansh's background
(1:49) - How a cold-email led to funding from Paul English (co-founder of Kayak) for Ansh's nonprofit, You Change Earth
(2:58) - How Ansh got free tickets to the Duke vs. UNC basketball game
(4:18) - Favorite Duke Basketball moment
(4:56) - Ansh's involvement with Dorm Room Fund (DRF)
(6:44) - How his DRF experience impacted his paradigm as a founder
(9:46) - Why Ansh turned down a Google internship
(11:20) - What is Un1Feed?
(12:11) - How Ansh came up with the idea for Un1Feed
(14:00) - Will Facebook copy Un1Feed?
(17:00) - Challenge of competing with Facebook and other tech giants
(19:13) - Downside of working at a big tech company
(19:31) - Upside of working at Un1Feed (email Ansh if interested!)
(20:30) - Closing remarks
--
Get in touch with Ansh!
Twitter: @anshnanda_
Email: ansh@un1feed.com
Website: https://www.un1feed.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anshnanda/ -
Female Founder Track - Alice Ma, Co-Founder of Mad Realities
This week, Souhail talks to Alice Ma from Mad Realities about her story and previous experience with the Female Founder Track.
Alice Ma is a Co-Founder of Mad Realities, a crypto based media company aiming to bring interactivity and innovation to media and content consumption.
Alice previously co-founded Archer, a social venture making data more accessible. She also played an instrumental rise in helping launch ConstitutionDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that aimed to raised money to buy the U.S Constitution, but ultimately came short.
--
For more information on the Female Founder Track, check out https://linktr.ee/dormroomfund
Customer Reviews
Amazing podcast for any aspiring student entrepreneurs
There’s a lot of entrepreneurship podcasts out there, but this one is truly the best for student entrepreneurs looking to learn from successful startup founders and businesspeople. Interesting guests, great insights, and fun questions that keep me coming back for more.
Amazing podcast
Awesome, thought provoking podcast with some of the best business leaders in the country!