The technology we get most excited about often involve activities that are beyond the scope of our abilities — we want jetpacks, a shuttle to the Moon, and hey, robot servants would also be nice! But in reality, the most life-changing products are the ones that help us overcome obstacles in our everyday lives. They’re…
Aside from founders telling you that their company is their baby, families don’t often figure into the mythology of the tech startup. One simple reason is that many of the people who are focusing on family life are not in the office: they’re at home with said family. And while some of them are happy…
As pithy motivational business posters like to remind us, big ideas grow from the smallest seeds. The metaphor is actually appropriate for Artem Milinchuk, the CEO and founder of FarmTogether. It was while he was working in finance related to the agriculture and farming sector that he first began to appreciate farmland as a potential…
“Uber for ‘x’” is the most overused, maddening phrase in startup land. It’s hype-marketing shorthand for just about every business idea that leverages the sharing economy. That’s why co-founders Keithan and Quiante Hedrick were initially wary of framing their live-translator-on-demand app, Instaspeakers, as “Uber for translation” to potential investors. But the VCs they spoke…
Ben Houston might not be a household name; but if you’ve been to almost any major movie in the last 10 years, you’ve probably already been blown away by his work. As the founder and CTO of ThreeKit, the Vancouver native spent almost 15 years creating visual effects technology that was used in the Harry…
The way to the heart may indeed be through the stomach (metaphorically speaking), but a food entrepreneur’s path to success is less easily discernible. As previous guests like the JiMMYBAR! Guys have shown, trying to convince retailers and consumers to make shelf space for a new food product is a hard sell. Emily Griffith has…
If business is one big game of chutes and ladders, social media platforms have proved to be the obstacles that have sent even established brands sliding back to square one. For anyone over the age of 17, contemplating not just the functions of these platforms but how people are actually using them — and how…
When you’re building a company, you’ll be given lots of free advice. But your success might actually hinge on knowing which advice to ignore. In the case of Desiree Vargas Wrigley, that would be the old adage about never working with children or animals. While she has yet to turn her focus to the latter,…
In tech, we talk a lot about “hockey stick growth.” A more appropriate metaphor for meal kit company Home Chef might be boiling hot — the startup went from half-baked to fast rising in just four years. As long-term Technori listeners may remember from a previous interview, Home Chef was founded in 2013 by Patrick…
If you buy into the mainstream narrative around the U.S. tech industry, California and New York are the two gleaming lights on either end of a dark and empty tunnel that runs between the coasts. That makes Victor Gutwein the man with the flashlight, shining a glowing beam onto the hidden opportunities all around the…