founderlicious

founderlicious

Founder stories related to the current topics of the day.

Episodes

October 3, 2024 72 mins

(00:00) Introduction to Semyon Dukach's Journey

(02:12) From Immigrant to Entrepreneur: Semyon's Early Years

(04:52) The MIT Blackjack Team: Risk and Reward

(10:09) Starting Fast Engines: The First Company

(20:15) Taking SMTP Public: A Unique Journey

(30:09) Transitioning to Investing: The Angel Investor Path

(45:55) Leading Techstars: Mentorship and Growth

(49:40) One Way Ventures: Investing in Immigrant Founders

(57:32) Navigatin...

Mark as Played

(0:00) Intro

(5:10) Building a competitor to Facebook while at MIT

(10:03) Joining Endeca instead of starting a company

(14:40) Deciding NOT to go to business school to get an MBA

(16:31) Creating a side hustle with early Apple App Store products

(22:50) Becoming an entrepreneur inside Endeca and learning the power of vertical focus

(27:28) Launching Toast as an iPhone app

(30:18) Finding early product market fit

(35:07) Execution ...

Mark as Played

(0:00) Intro

(1:55) Early entrepreneurial influences

(5:20) Starting Wistia

(8:11) Shredding business plans and burning thru savings

(11:02) The portfolio website for artists that didn't pay the bills

(12:44) The first business customer

(15:22) Going up against YouTube and Vimeo

(18:50) The Starbucks barista healthcare backup plan

(21:00) Raising an angel round

(24:50) Closing a $12/month deal after a summer of sorrow with...

Mark as Played

(0:00) Intro

(3:45) Buying CustomMade - relaunching and making every mistake in the book

(7:09) Raising VC for CustomMade and getting on the VC train

(11:24) CustomMade failing

(17:17) Starting ButcherBox as a hobby business while collecting unemployment

(21:56) The 3 core decisions that led to ButcherBox success

(28:06) Growth hacking to Go To Market success

(36:47) Starting 3 businesses at the same time to land on ButcherBox

(41:...

Mark as Played

(0:00) Intros

(1:50) Growing up in a family of doctors

(5:13) Getting his first software job at Thompson Financial during the original internet boom

(7:26) Writing software to automate himself and all the interns out of a job

(11:40) Building and launching one of the first SaaS products in 1997

(16:09) Making a mistake leaving his first job for more money

(18:33) Quitting after 2 weeks without any planning

(19:40) New startup job a...

Mark as Played

(0:00) Entrepreneurship as a kid, starting a business in high school that won a $50,000 contract (6:57) Role models: Mom with her home based piano teaching business was earning 4x his father (12:49) Paying for his own college education with the money he earned in high school (15:42) Getting a job in Silicon Valley in the late 90's (17:53) Timing matters: Chamath Palihapitiya was just 1 year ahead in college - "you can crash your ca...

Mark as Played

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