OFF RCRD with Cory Levy

This week, Cory speaks to the Hollywood psychiatrist and author Phil Stutz, who is well known for his client list boasting top writers, actors, producers, and CEOs. Together with Barry Michels, Phil is coauthor of Coming Alive: 4 Tools to Defeat Your Inner Enemy, Ignite Creative Expression, and Unleash Your Soul's Potential and The Tools: 5 Tools to Help You Find Courage, Creativity, and Willpower—and Inspire You to Live Life in forwarding Motion, a New York Times bestseller. In this weeks episode, he talks about the common problems faced among the rich and famous, advice for those facing their fears and how to overcome failures, a few tools such as the reversal of desires, the dynamic evaluation, merit & power system and even gives wisdom on how to build long-lasting relationships.

James Hong on Understanding People, Selling Hot or Not, and Balancing Business and Family James Hong (@JHong) is an entrepreneur turned investor. James and several co-founders started Hot or Not in 1999, a website that let users rate user-submitted pictures. “Today, you see pictures of people all over the place, on Instagram, on social networks and so on. It's not as big a deal today,” says James. In the early 2000’s it was a very big deal. After a single week, the site reached an average of nearly 2 million page views a day. Within a year, the site was a top-25 advertising domain according to NetNielsen Rating’s. “It's a very human thing to want to look at people and also to show yourself off.” Instead of focusing on what’s worked in the past when building a product or starting a company, James works to increase his understanding of the people who will become the company’s customers. “When you want to study a product, fundamentally what you're doing is you're trying to study users and try to understand users. To understand them, I think you have to understand people; users are people.” Entrepreneur Cory Levy (After School, Internapalooza) spoke with James Hong on OFF RCRD about Hot or Not, his transition from entrepreneur to investor, and what other young entrepreneurs should focus on when starting a business. “If they want to come up with good products, they should think about psychology and try to understand people, try understand users, what they like, what they don't like and why,” says James, who has gone on to invest in over 80 companies after selling Hot or Not. Listen here to the full episode and come back each Tuesday for new episodes of OFF RCRD. Connect with us on Twitter @OFFRCRD.

Niko Bonatsos (@Bonatsos) is the Managing Director of General Catalyst, which is now considered one of the top 10 VC firms. One of the early deals that helped get General Catalyst to where they are now, led by Niko, was an investment in SnapChat. When working with other investor groups to raise funding during the early days of SnapChat, investors were skeptical to say they least according to Niko. “All of them would think, ‘Oh great, this is about sharing dick pics and sexting with your friends.’” While investors being worried about dick pics didn’t help fundraising, Niko thinks controversy is “great.” “It's actually a gift. If you leverage it over short periods of time and you graduated from it in order to jump into a new set of controversy for a new customer segment,” says Niko. “Basically, the reason why I like controversy in the early days of a newly launched product is because it amplifies word of mouth. A young startup that launches a product, frankly does not have the resources to do paid user and customer acquisition.” Make sure to listen right here to the full interview with Niko Bonatsos, and don’t miss out on this episode of OFF RCRD.Come back each Tuesday for new episodes of OFF RCRD.

Entrepreneur Justin Kan (@JustinKan) sold his first company on eBay for just over $250,000. He sold his next company, an online streaming platform for video games (Twitch.tv) to Amazon for $970M. Cory Levy (Internapalooza, After School) talks with Justin Kan on this OFF RCRD interview about Justin’s journey as an entrepreneur, his advice for others, and much more. To someone just looking at his success with Twitch and new company Atrium, it might seem as though Justin doesn’t make mistakes. However, Justin is willing to discuss his failures along with advice for other young entrepreneurs. Asked by Cory where most startup founders go wrong, Justin says that some founders “don't base what they're doing on reality or customer feedback, or feedback from trying things.” Instead, Justin says, “they base it on their preconceived notions of how something should work or their own limited worldview or what's in their head that they really want to create, and one in 20 or maybe even one in 10 get it right.” Here all the advice that Justin Kan has for you on this episode of OFF RCRD with Cory Levy. Listen to every episode of OFF RCRD on OFFRCRD.com. New episodes are published each Tuesday. Connect with us on Twitter @OFFRCRDPODCAST. For more on this episode, check out the show notes below.

This week, Cory speaks to product veteran and venture capitalist Josh Elman, who is best known for his integral roles in designing, building and scaling consumer products at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, & Zazzle and he is currently also a partner at prominent venture capital firm Greylock Partners.  In this weeks episode, Josh talks about the early days of the dot com era, his roles at LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, what it was like working with what are now the icons of the industry and what are the questions and qualities he looks in a founder before writing a check.

Albert Wenger (@albertwenger) is interested in many things, including technology, specifically artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. Albert talks with entrepreneur Cory Levy (After School, Internapalooza) about these interests and gives advice for young people and startups in this interview on OFF RCRD. Albert is an entrepreneur and investor with a history of success in both running companies and investing in them. Albert is graduate of Harvard, majoring in economics and computer science, and has a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT. Currently a partner at Union Square Ventures, Albert was previously the president of del.icio.us, which was sold to Yahoo in 2005. In his interactions with young entrepreneurs and students, Wenger is often asked for career advice. Before he gives a single piece of advice, he asks the question, "What's your purpose in life?" Their response isn’t always an answer according to Wenger. “That stops a lot of people dead in their tracks, because they've never been asked that question so directly. Also, it's a little unfair because they didn't expect that I was going to ask that question necessarily. I do think when people coming for career advice, not asking that question is almost like malpractice, because that is the central question. How can you give somebody advice on what they should do in their career, if you don't understand that, or if, more importantly, they don't understand what the answer to that question is?” If you have yet to find your purpose in life, take Wenger’s advice and explore your interests. Doing what you genuinely enjoy doing well can lead to many opportunities, and just may lead you to find your true purpose in life. Don’t miss out on this episode of OFF RCRD. Listen here and come back each Tuesday for new episodes of OFF RCRD.

This week, Cory speaks to musician, businessman and philanthropist Aloe Blacc, who is best known for his hit singles, "I Need A Dollar", "The Man" and writing and performing vocals on Avicii's "Wake Me Up". In this weeks episode, Aloe takes us back to his teenage years, telling us the defining moment when he went from corporate America to landing a record deal and then he offers advice for how young people should feasibly follow their passions. Later in the episode, he very interestingly touches on the current intersection of technology clashing with music and what he thinks the future of streaming will be like.

Music manager and producer Jordan Feldstein has spent the last two decades working with some of the top artists and bands in the world, and even after many successes, he still enjoys his work. “At the end of the day, if you get to be around something that you inherently love, you should just be grateful for that,” says Jordan Feldstein. In addition to managing Maroon 5 and co-running a production company with Adam Levine, Feldstein has also worked with Barenaked Ladies, Relient K, Keyshia Cole, and Robin Thicke. Hear Cory Levy (After School, Internapalooza) talk with Feldstein in this episode about his career, working with Maroon 5, and to ask for his advice for other artists and entrepreneurs. All successful people have routines and strategies that they swear by. Feldstein says that each morning, he purposely doesn’t check his phone for the first hour of each day, and he’s also started meditation. “On the weekends with my kids, I have no phone time, things like that. You got to create boundaries for yourself.” Listen to the full interview with Jordan Feldstein only on OFF RCRD and catch every episode at OFFRCRD.com.

This week, Cory speaks to entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant, who is best known for have founded Angel List, a platform where you can find a great startup job, invest in a startup, or raise money. He's also an active angel investor and has invested in more than 100 companies, which includes Twitter, Uber, Yammer, Postmates and more. In this weeks episode, Naval talks about the perfect way to find what you're good at, how to get started in learning about cryptocurrencies, what's most exciting about the effects of blockchain, the startup ecosystem for both vc's and founders and also what he'd change about the current education system.

Singer-songwriter Mike Posner (@MikePosner) has had several massive hits with Cooler Than Me and I Took a Pill in Ibiza, but it hasn’t come easy. “I really thought that when I got that record deal, that my experience of life would change, that I would be happier and I'd be in the 'promise land', that just my experience of life would be exponentially better and I wouldn't have, really, problems anymore,” says Mike. “It didn't make my life worse or make me more sad and more happy, it just was overwhelmingly the same. That was disappointing and disillusioning because I really thought, before, it was going to solve all my problems, and it just didn't.” Mike then thought, “maybe I just need a big hit song or something', and I set about acquiring that, and I did.” In this episode of OFF RCRD, listen to Mike Posner talk with entrepreneur and investor Cory Levy (After School, Internapalooza). The two talk about Mike’s start as an artist, getting signed to a record deal, lessons learned from Big Sean, advice for other artists, his upcoming album, and much more. Listen here for the full interview with Mike Posner, and don’t miss an episode of OFF RCRD! For more information on the show, check us out at OFFRCRD.com.

This week, Cory speaks to entrepreneur, founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg, who is best known for have founded Automattic, which is behind brands WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Simplenote and more; reaching more than a billion people a month. In this weeks episode, Matt talks about how he got into technology, what his high school and college days were like, being young and in a position within a big company to leaving and risking it all to become a founder, what's his trick to meet great people to work with or invest in and the great story of how he misplaced a half million check!

This week, Cory talks to music management veteran Paul Rosenberg, who famously became Eminem's manager and recently the CEO of record label giant def jam. Paul describes his humble beginnings as a pre-med student and how he experienced a 180 turn into a profession that'd change his life forever. He talks about the risks of starting his own management company, insights into what he did different to stand out from the crowd and a behind the scenes of what led his company to skyrocketing success.

This week, Cory speaks to entrepreneur, founder and CEO Sean Rad, who is best known for creating the revolutionary dating app Tinder, which has made more than 20 billion connections, garnered more than 50 million active users across 195 countries and was recently valued at worth a staggering $6 billion dollars. In this weeks episode, Sean talks about how he got into technology, advice to non-technical people getting started at building technology companies, he takes us back to the very moment the idea of Tinder was born, what he did to get it on the map, early day controversies, the moment he knew it would be transformative to society, and the evolution of its users.

This week, Cory speaks to business woman and social leader Aria Finger, who is best known for her role as the CEO of DoSomething.org, which is one of the worlds largest organizations for young people and social change, boasting over 5 million members in over 131 countries. In this weeks episode, Aria talks about her 12 year journey from joining as an associate to becoming the CEO, she also shares her method of overcoming hard decisions, the importance of transparency and her thoughts on the future of non profit organizations. Aria Finger (@AriaIrene) joined nonprofit DoSomething.org in 2005 as an associate with a dream of changing the world, a tongue ring, and a resume that she posted on idealist.org. Ten years later she became the organization’s CEO and has led DoSomething to engage millions of young people in making positive changes in the world. DoSomething.org uses tech and a growing team of passionate employees to reach and activate youth in activities from clothing the homeless to sending happy Ramadan cards to mosques throughout the U.S. In this episode with host Cory Levy (co-founder of After School, Internapalooza, and DoSomething.org board member), Aria shares her story of how she got started with DoSomething.org, advice on how to keep great employees, her thoughts on the future of nonprofits, and her advice for people who aren’t quite sure what they want to do with their lives. “Go all in on what you’re amazing at and then you’ll be the most successful that you can be,” says Aria. Since her start at the organization, DoSomething.org has grown from a team of around 10 to over 60 employees. Asked about how to retain great employees, Aria says that there are three key factors, including that the employee feels like they are doing important work that they are personally contributing to, great perks, and their co-workers. Aria credits her success to developing strong bonds with co-workers. “Create deep relationships with your peers and support them, because then they will support you.” Listen to the full episode for more from Aria Finger and visit DoSomething.org to get involved. For more interviews and information about the show, visit OFFRCRD.com.

This week, Cory speaks to entrepreneur, actor, investor and social media creative and mogul Jake Paul, who’s well-known for founding modern-day media conglomerate TeamDom, the talent incubator Team 10, starring in Disney’s Bizaardvark, partner and co-founder of venture capital firm TGZ capital and is currently one of the biggest YouTube stars, boasting over 11.2 million subscribers and over 2.6 billion views, at only 20 years of age. In this weeks episode, Jake talks about how he first started in social media, what made him stand out, the various controversies throughout his career and what you can do to get your content seen.