https://startupsac.com/series/founder-ama/ News about the Sacramento startup and innovation community as well as interviews with startup founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in the community. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 21:14:47 +0000 en-US © 2019 StartupSac News and interviews about the Sacramento startup and innovation community. Jeff Bennett News about the Sacramento startup and innovation community as well as interviews with startup founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in the community. Startup Sac jeff@startupsac.org clean yes 55da877f-322e-51be-902c-b9a87d1d56ac https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-manvir-sandhu-co-founder-and-ceo-of-zennify/ Thu, 20 Feb 2020 00:51:50 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=10871 Manvir Sandhu,Zennify https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/manvir-sandhu.jpg clean no 1:04:50 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-kevin-kane-beth-dodson-and-john-bodrozic/ Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:37:06 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=10523 Beth Dodson,HomeZada,John Bodrozic,Kevin Kane,Linkd,Meridian https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Kevin-Beth-John.jpg clean no 1:02:21 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-jeremy-perkins-founder-and-ceo-of-precision-medical-products/ Mon, 24 Jun 2019 17:33:41 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=9817 Jeremy Perkins,Precision Medical Products https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/jeremy-perkins-startupsac-happy-hour.jpg clean no 1:03:16 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-waitr-cmo-sonny-mayugba/ Thu, 30 May 2019 21:20:18 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=9698 Sonny Mayugba https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_7186.jpg yes no 1:18:47 Yes no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-sama-learning-ceo-and-cofounder-barb-dehart/ Thu, 02 May 2019 16:20:26 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=9568 Barb DeHart, a startup advisor, investor, and co-founder & CEO of Sama Learning, virtual reality learning platform that recently was awarded “Best Pitch” by a panel of judges at the Capital Region ARVR Accelerator Demo Day. Barb shared her experience and insights as she fielded a range of questions from the audience. Check it out.]]> Barb DeHart,Sama Learning Barb DeHart, a startup advisor, investor, and co-founder & CEO of Sama Learning, virtual reality learning platform that recently was awarded “Best Pitch” by a panel of judges at the Capital Region ARVR Accelerator Demo Day. Barb shared her experience and insights as she fielded a range of questions from the audience. Check it out.]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Barb-DeHart-SSHH-AMA-1.jpg clean no 52:09 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-webconnex-co-founders-eric-knopf-john-russell/ Fri, 12 Apr 2019 14:12:50 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=9341 Webconnex,  Eric Knopf and John Russell. Webconnex is a SaaS platform for event registration, ticketing and fundraising. They have over 30,000 customers and have processed billions of dollars of transactions. They’ve achieved their success without raising a cent of venture capital. Though they’re 100% bootstrapped, they compete and win against the biggest, well-funded competitors in the world. They impressed the audience with their perspectives, humbleness, value on their employees, and long-term views and shared some fantastic insights and advice.]]> Eric Knopf,John Russell,Webconnex Webconnex,  Eric Knopf and John Russell. Webconnex is a SaaS platform for event registration, ticketing and fundraising. They have over 30,000 customers and have processed billions of dollars of transactions. They’ve achieved their success without raising a cent of venture capital. Though they’re 100% bootstrapped, they compete and win against the biggest, well-funded competitors in the world. They impressed the audience with their perspectives, humbleness, value on their employees, and long-term views and shared some fantastic insights and advice.]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Eric-Knopf-and-John-Russell.jpg clean no 54:56 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-kevin-kane-ceo-of-linkd/ Mon, 04 Mar 2019 23:58:53 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=9220 Kevin Kane, CEO of Linkd, a project management, collaboration SaaS application serving Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry. Kevin fielded a range of startup questions from the audience. We recorded it once again to share with a broader community. Check it out.]]> Kevin Kane,Linkd Kevin Kane, CEO of Linkd, a project management, collaboration SaaS application serving Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry. Kevin fielded a range of startup questions from the audience. We recorded it once again to share with a broader community. Check it out.]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Kevin-Kane-SSHH.jpg clean no 49:54 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-trifecta-cofounder-ceo-greg-connolly/ Fri, 01 Feb 2019 21:23:40 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=9091 Greg Connolly, Cofounder and CEO of Trifecta Systems. This was a great event and with the support of our food and drinks sponsors, KiwiTech and Witan Law, we demolished all previous attendance records with 65 people turning out to Hot Italian in Midtown to network and hear Greg answer startup questions. There were some great questions and Greg came through with awesome tips, insights, and advice.]]> Greg Connolly,Trifecta Systems Greg Connolly, Cofounder and CEO of Trifecta Systems. This was a great event and with the support of our food and drinks sponsors, KiwiTech and Witan Law, we demolished all previous attendance records with 65 people turning out to Hot Italian in Midtown to network and hear Greg answer startup questions. There were some great questions and Greg came through with awesome tips, insights, and advice.]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Greg-Connolloy-AMA.jpg clean no 55:08 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-emtrain-cofounder-ceo-janine-yancey/ Tue, 27 Nov 2018 19:54:49 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=8796 Emtrain founder Janine Yancey, fielded a range of startup questions from the audience and we recorded it once again to share with a broader community.]]> Emtrain,Janine Yancey Emtrain founder Janine Yancey, fielded a range of startup questions from the audience and we recorded it once again to share with a broader community.]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Janine-Yancey.jpg clean no 50:01 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-riskalyze-cofounder-ceo-aaron-klein/ Fri, 26 Oct 2018 18:23:06 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=8569 Aaron Klein,Riskalyze https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Aaron-Klein-StartupSac-Happy-Hour.jpg clean no 59:32 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-evolute-founder-kristopher-francisco/ Thu, 30 Aug 2018 22:17:06 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=8178 Evolute, Kristopher Francisco. Kristopher has innovated cloud computing, big data and storage architectures amongst the world’s most admired technology companies (Apple) and the world’s largest technology challenges (Chevron), so he has a wealth of knowledge to share with entrepreneurs. Through 45 minutes of AMA, Kristopher fielded some great questions from the audience about entrepreneurship and running a startup. Here's a sampling of some of the questions:

• Is your team more important than your vision
• How do you overcome the challenge of competing with big competitors
• How do you maintain culture and values in your startup
• How do you attract talented people in such a competitive market
• Thoughts on dividing equity
• Thoughts on first hires
• At what stage do you add advisors and how do you evaluate them
• How to go about securing clients and how to get the first client
• How much value do you put on having a dedicated office space
• Bringing on founders vs advisors
• Using a traditional business plan vs a lean startup model
• How to get press attention early on
• How far into design before filing patents
• What inspires you

]]> Evolute,Kristopher Francisco Evolute, Kristopher Francisco. Kristopher has innovated cloud computing, big data and storage architectures amongst the world’s most admired technology companies (Apple) and the world’s largest technology challenges (Chevron), so he has a wealth of knowledge to share with entrepreneurs. Through 45 minutes of AMA, Kristopher fielded some great questions from the audience about entrepreneurship and running a startup. Here's a sampling of some of the questions:

• Is your team more important than your vision
• How do you overcome the challenge of competing with big competitors
• How do you maintain culture and values in your startup
• How do you attract talented people in such a competitive market
• Thoughts on dividing equity
• Thoughts on first hires
• At what stage do you add advisors and how do you evaluate them
• How to go about securing clients and how to get the first client
• How much value do you put on having a dedicated office space
• Bringing on founders vs advisors
• Using a traditional business plan vs a lean startup model
• How to get press attention early on
• How far into design before filing patents
• What inspires you

]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Kristopher-Francisco-1.jpg clean no 47:36 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-adam-kalsey/ Fri, 27 Jul 2018 18:53:58 +0000 https://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=8011 Adam Kalsey https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/adam-kalsey-startupsac-happy-hour.jpg clean no 47:16 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-engage3-cofounder-ken-ouimet/ Fri, 29 Jun 2018 15:14:15 +0000 http://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7800 Engage3,Ken Ouimet https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ken-ouimet.jpg clean no 52:46 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-pondera-solutions-founder-jon-coss/ Wed, 23 May 2018 17:40:19 +0000 http://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7534 Jon Coss,Pondera Solutions https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Jon-Coss.jpg clean no 1:02:19 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-homezada-cofounder-elizabeth-dodson/ Tue, 24 Apr 2018 19:34:13 +0000 http://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7256

How to split equity with co-founders

How to scale the business

How did Homezada develop the product and what were the technical challenges

What are the technical challenges moving forward

The business model of Homezada

Dealing with privacy policies in the light of Facebook and Cambridge Analytics

Tools used for customer service

How to prototype and test releases before they go live

Top two or three things that every startup founder should know

and more

 ]]> HomeZada

How to split equity with co-founders

How to scale the business

How did Homezada develop the product and what were the technical challenges

What are the technical challenges moving forward

The business model of Homezada

Dealing with privacy policies in the light of Facebook and Cambridge Analytics

Tools used for customer service

How to prototype and test releases before they go live

Top two or three things that every startup founder should know

and more

 ]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Elizabeth-Dodson.jpg clean no 1:01:52 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/startupsac-happy-hour-ama-with-john-bissell/ Thu, 12 Apr 2018 15:03:20 +0000 http://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7163 John Bissell, cofounder of Origin Materials. Once again we captured that AMA session so  we could share it with the broader startup community. In this episode you can hear John address issues and topics such as:

• Background and origin story of Origin Materials
• Navigating the idea maze
• Who did John lean on, who was his mentor
• Grant funding
• Investment from corporate VCs
• Making mistakes
• Resources available as an undergrad
• As a founder, figuring out what you're good at and should work on versus to having others do
• First non-technical management hire
• As a technical founder, learning the business aspects of founding a company
• Trying to own intellectual property
• Culture and diversity issues of founding and running a startup
• Advisors and consultants
• Favorite business books
• and more

]]> John Bissell,Origin Materials John Bissell, cofounder of Origin Materials. Once again we captured that AMA session so  we could share it with the broader startup community. In this episode you can hear John address issues and topics such as:

• Background and origin story of Origin Materials
• Navigating the idea maze
• Who did John lean on, who was his mentor
• Grant funding
• Investment from corporate VCs
• Making mistakes
• Resources available as an undergrad
• As a founder, figuring out what you're good at and should work on versus to having others do
• First non-technical management hire
• As a technical founder, learning the business aspects of founding a company
• Trying to own intellectual property
• Culture and diversity issues of founding and running a startup
• Advisors and consultants
• Favorite business books
• and more

]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/John-Bissell-Idea-Maze.jpg clean no 53:09 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/dermveda-cofounder-venita-sivamani-at-startupsac-happy-hour/ Fri, 02 Mar 2018 20:26:39 +0000 http://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=6797 Dermveda,StartupSac Happy Hour,Venita Sivamani https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SSHH-Venita-Sivamani-Ftrd.jpg clean no 45:26 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/co-founder-of-skyslope-d-j-stephan-at-startupsac-happy-hour/ Thu, 01 Jun 2017 03:52:06 +0000 http://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=4851 D.J. Stephan,Skyslope https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DJ-Stephan-HappyHour.jpg clean no 55:07 No no https://startupsac.com/podcast/sonny-mayugba-qa-at-startupsac-happy-hour/ Wed, 01 Feb 2017 05:22:23 +0000 http://startupsac.com/?post_type=podcast&p=3695 Sonny Mayugba, serial entrepreneur, former budding rock star, skateboard & snowboard thrasher and publisher, founder and co-owner of Red Rabbit, founder of Requested, alum of Launch accelerator, and now CMO of Waitr spent an hour and half answering all kinds of questions from Sacramento startup founders and entrepreneurs at the inaugural StartupSac Happy Hour at The Golden Bear in midtown Sacramento. Subscribe to the StartupSac podcast on iTunes Note: This audio recording contains some colorful adjectives sprinkled into Sonny's stories.   ]]> Requested,Sonny Mayagba,Waitr Sonny Mayugba, serial entrepreneur, former budding rock star, skateboard & snowboard thrasher and publisher, founder and co-owner of Red Rabbit, founder of Requested, alum of Launch accelerator, and now CMO of Waitr spent an hour and half answering all kinds of questions from Sacramento startup founders and entrepreneurs at the inaugural StartupSac Happy Hour at The Golden Bear in midtown Sacramento. Subscribe to the StartupSac podcast on iTunes Note: This audio recording contains some colorful adjectives sprinkled into Sonny's stories.   ]]> https://startupsac.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/IMG_3658.jpg yes no 1:36:33 Yes no