HackToStart

Mubashar Iqbal aka Mubs is the co-founder of Botlist - and several other startups and side projects. Mubs is originally from Pakistan, but spent most of his early years living in England before moving to the US. Mubs has created a successful career in technology, working in several different industries. He’s also built several side projects over the last few years, winning Product Hunt’s Maker of the year in 2016. Mubs joins us to share his story, how he started his career in tech, why he works on side projects, how he transitions side projects into independent startups, what it’s been like building Botlist, and much more!

Nathaniel Harley, the Co-founder & CTO of Mantl. Nathaniel was previously an analyst with Goldman Sachs before jumping into tech with a Techstars backed startup called Spoon University. Nathaniel then got accepted into Techstars (again), this time as the CEO of his own Fintech startup. Nathaniel joins us to share his story, how he started his career in tech, what it was like going through Techstars - twice, what it’s been like build a fintech startup, why he’s so passionate about the future of FinTech, and much more!

Nathan Bashaw is the Co-founder & CEO of Hardbound. After discovering the world of startups during college, and driven by the desire to build things and implement his own ideas, Nathan became a self-taught developer. He knew pretty early on, that he wanted to leverage technology to create new forms of education and storytelling that was native to new devices like smartphones. After joining Olark as an intern and then working in San Francisco as a full time developer, Nathan decided to pursue his own project - Scratchpad. It was later acquired by General Assembly, where Nathan worked as a Product Manager. While in San Francisco, Nathan met Ryan Hoover and helped him create the first version of what would become Product Hunt. Nathan then decided to focus on pursuing his vision for what would become Hardbound. He and the team recently completed the Techstars Boulder program, raised some funding, and have released a completely new version of the app. Nathan joins us to share his story, some of the biggest challenges he faced in becoming a Product Manager, why he’s so passionate about new forms of education and storytelling, what it’s been like building Hardbound, some of the biggest challenges they had to overcome, what it’s like raising money, what it was like going through Techstars in Boulder, and much more.

David Heimann is the Co-founder & CTO of Purple. David is originally from Gothenburg, Sweden but came to the US for school. Having always been more technical, he focused on the business side of things. After graduation, he took on several sales roles to deepen his skills before joining a development studio called InfiniOne. There David really learnt the in-and-outs of product management and operating as a lean startup. David is now working on his own company, Purple, which he helped launch by working with Rebecca Harris. Originally a long content format website dedicated to political news and information, Rebecca and David noticed that people - especially their peers - didn’t seem to be connecting with the content they were creating. So they re-imagined the format and discovered that SMS and Messaging apps were a more popular way to share and engage with their audience. Purple was then accepted into the Techstars New York accelerator and continues to grow its reach as a platform. David joins us to share his story, how he started his career in tech, some of the most valuable startup lessons he learnt while building products for other people, what it was like going through Techstars, why Messaging is such an engaging medium, and much more!

Sançar Şahin is the Director of Marketing at Typeform. With a background in radio and media, Sançar has become a self-taught marketer. Through several side projects and products built around content and education, Sançar has seen the shift towards new forms of online marketing and brand building. Currently based in Barcelona, Spain, Sançar is leading the Marketing team at Typeform, and leveraging these tactics to continue to build and develop the experience that visitors and users feel when using the product or engaging with their content. He and the team at Typeform are pushing the boundaries of what data collection means and redefining the traditional concept of a ‘form’. Sançar joins us to share his story, how he started his career in tech, how to create engaging content, what it’s like working at Typeform, what the startup scene is like in Barcelona, and much more!

Sean Ellis is the CEO of GrowthHackers.com and the co-author of the new book Hacking Growth. Sean began his career in tech back in 1995 after he invested all his money in a friend’s company. There he helped the young startup overcome lots of challenges related to growth and monetization. This experience led him to realize the potential for growth that could be unlocked through cross-discipline collaboration. Sean then took on more growth roles at startups like LogMeIn, Dropbox, Eventbrite and more - ultimately coining the term ‘Growth Hacker’ - and pioneering a new discipline and skillset. Sean went on start his own company, Qualaroo, which had customers like Uber, Starbucks, Spotify and more. It also grew to millions of dollars in monthly recurring revenue before being acquired. Sean also started GrowthHackers.com the online community for growth minded people. Through these experiences, he and Morgan Brown - another veteran marketer - teamed up to write Hacking Growth, a book that could serve as a detailed ‘How-To’ guide for the next generation of startups looking to acquire customers and grow. Sean joins us to share his story, how he started his career in tech, what it was like growing Uproar, LogMeIn, Dropbox and more, what it was like launching his own startup, why and how he built GrowthHackers.com, why he and Morgan wanted to write ‘Hacking Growth’, some of the biggest mistakes he sees startups making when it comes to growth, and much more!

Maya Prohovnik is the Head of Operations at Anchor, a whole new way to experience audio. Maya studies psychology and linguistics before joining a startup called Aviary. There she learnt all about startups taking on several roles and helping the team grow from 8 to more than 30 before it was acquired by Adobe. Maya then ended up joining Betaworks in New York where she helped organize the first (official) Hackers in Residence program. She also helped launch a product called Glitter while she was there. Maya also introduced the duo of Michael & Nir - who were working on app called Anchor - to Betaworks. She joined their team as the app quickly took off. Maya joins us to share her story, how she started her career in tech, what it was like working at Betaworks, how she joined Anchor, how she’s building a community around a new way of sharing audio, and much more!

Anthony Pompliano is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Full Tilt Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. Anthony served as a Sergeant in the US military and is an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. After his service in the military, Anthony launched two startups of his own in North Carolina - which were both later acquired. Anthony then decided to move to San Francisco and learn from larger startups. He worked on growth at both Facebook (with the Pages team) and later with Snapchat. Today, he’s leading one of the most active venture capital firms - having made more than 22 deals in their first 90 days. Anthony joins us to share his story, how he started his career in tech, what it’s like building a venture capital firm, what they look for in investments, and much more!

Gina Gotthilf is the VP of Growth and Marketing at Duolingo, a platform for free language education for the world. Gina is originally from Brazil, but has spent much of her career in New York. After a few years of working at social media agencies, Gina joined Tumblr to help lead their internationalization efforts in Brazil and South America. She then launched her own consulting company to help other US bases companies navigate these complexities. Today Gina is the VP of Growth & Marketing at Duolingo, a platform with over 170M users worldwide. Gina joins us to share her story, how she started her career in tech, what it was like running her own internationalization consultancy, how she ended up joining the team at Duolingo, what it’s been like growing the app internationally, how they’ve created an amazing community of contributors, and much more!

Andrew Pelling, an award winning Scientist, Professor, TED Senior Fellow and entrepreneur. His work and innovations have been featured in Wired, Motherboard, Scientific American, Popular Science, BBC and more. Andrew directs and manages the Pelling Research Lab, out of the University of Ottawa. The lab uses low-cost, open source materials and methods to explore new technologies and ideas. He has, for instance, created human body parts made from plants and grown living skins on LEGOs – innovations with the potential to replace prohibitively expensive commercial biomaterials. Andrew has also founded pHacktory, a street-level research lab in Ottawa that amplifies community ideas through a potent mixture of craft, serendipity and curiosity. Andrew joins us to share his story, what motivated him to take a completely different approach to research and academics, what it’s been like creating significant impact through his biomaterial innovations, what it’s like building and growing his open source based biomedical research company Spiderwort, what he’s looking to do with pHacktory, and much more!

Jeff Sheldon is the designer and founder of Ugmonk. Jeff started Ugmonk as a side project to serve as his creative outlet from his day job as junior graphic designer. Several years in, Jeff reached a tipping point and decided to go all-in and make Ugmonk his full time focus - growing the product line from t-shirts to other new items with a unique sense of style and minimalistic design. 10 years later, Jeff has shipped his products to over 67 countries, has spoken at conferences like 99u, been featured in publications like The Great Discontent, and launched charitable campaigns that have helped to provide over 50,000 meals to kids. Jeff joins us to share his story, what motivated him to launch Ugmonk, what it was like building the company in the early days, how he know when it was time to go all-in, some advice on building e-commerce brands, where the name “ugmonk” comes from, and much more!

Nick Patrick is the co-founder & CEO of Radar, the location platform for mobile apps. Nick has a background in computer science, but has coupled that with an MBA from Harvard and extensive experience as a Product Manager at Microsoft and later at Foursquare and a startup called Handy. Even though smartphones have been around for the past decade, location is still relatively new and often under used. That’s because it’s always been a challenge to add location into apps effectively. Nick and his cofounder Coby are looking to change this. Radar was accepted into Expa Labs and is currently building the location platform for developers, aiming to make location as simple as Stripe created payment processing. Nick joins us to share his story, how he got into tech and startups, what it’s been like building Radar, what it was like being a part of Expa Labs, how Radar is approaching building a developer community, and much more!

Hanna Kulin is a Product Designer at Facebook. She is originally from Sweden where she hustled to become a designer and ended up joining Spotify through an internship. While there, an opportunity presented itself for Hanna to become one of the first Product Managers to work on what would become Spotify Business. While backed by Spotify, Hanna and her colleagues built this side of the business from scratch, very much like a startup of their own. Though this process and to help meet her own needs in documenting user feedback on mobile devices, Hanna also helped create a product called Lookback.io - which would go on to become a startup of it’s own and even raise funding. Today, Hanna is a Product Designer at Facebook where she’s part of the video team. She’s currently focused on Facebook Live and building creator tools for this rapidly growing platform. Hanna joins us to share her story, how she got into tech and startups, what it’s been like building her career at Spotify and now Facebook, how she’s approached designing and helping to building creator tools for Facebook live, the differences in startup culture between Sweden and San Francisco, and much more!

Swish Goswami is the CEO & co-founder of Technotronics, a recipient of Canada’s Top 20 Under 20 and TEDx Speaker. Swish is originally from Singapore and moved to Canada at a young age. He began his career as a social entrepreneur launching several initiatives including the World Youth Fund, which has helped to support over 70 projects created by young entrepreneurs all over the world. Today, Swish is studying at the University of Toronto while working on his wearables startups - Technotronics, which is backed by the NBA Brooklyn Nets’ power forward, Trevor Booker. Swish joins us to share his story, how he got into social entrepreneurship, what it’s been like working on Technotronics, how he’s approached building the partnership with Trevor, his advice to other young entrepreneurs, and much more!

Stephen Ufford is the Founder & CEO of Trulioo. Stephen decided to become an entrepreneur after high school in order to pursue his idea of enabling online credit reports - after seeing first hand how out-of-date the process was. He launched iQuiri in 2000 and within 3 years it was acquired. Following his mantra of creating impact, Stephen went on to create 2 more companies following his early success, both within very similar markets. These startups were also acquired. Today, Stephen is working on his 4th startup, Trulioo, which has raised over $25 million dollars to create the leading global identity verification service, provide instant electronic identity & address verification for 4 billion people in 60+ countries. Stephen joins us to share his story, how he got into startups, what it’s been like building 4 startups in the fin-tech industry, his advice on how to approach fundraising, why he focuses not on product-market fit, but creating impact, what it’s like building a startup in Vancouver, and much more!