In this episode you’re going to hear a conversation that I had with Anna Mason from the Rise of the Rest Fund and Revolution about investing between the coasts and investment themes. The conversation took place during our 9th Annual Startup of the Year Summit presented by ReliaQuest, hosted by Embarc Collective, and powered by Established. We also want to again mention that we live streamed the event, so if you were not able to attend in-person, make sure to watch it on our Youtube channel at: soty.link/ESTYouTube Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear an interview that our Team did with author-extraordinaire, Mert Iseri, at our 9th Annual Startup of the Year Summit, which we hosted with Embarc Collective in Tampa, Florida. Mert is from MATH Venture Partners and he talks about how a startup can “Exit Right,” which is also the name of his new book that came out on February 15, 2022. The book helps founders learn the aspects that go into selling their startups and “delivers the hard-earned lessons that lead to successful exits.” You can buy it today at: www.exitrightbook.com. Some of our Team is also headed back to Austin Texas this year for the 13th time for SXSW Interactive! We wanted to highlight one session that will take place on Saturday, March 12th, geared toward startups and investors titled "Startups and Government: Unlocking $4B in Funding." It is a great group talking about America's Seed Fund and how it can be an important part of a startups overall funding strategy. Find more info at the following link: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2022/events/PP116465 We also want to again mention that we live streamed the event, so if you were not able to attend in-person, make sure to watch it on our Youtube channel at: soty.link/ESTYouTube Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear an interview that Frank Gruber did with Blake Hall, the Founder and CEO of ID.me, at our 9th Annual Startup of the Year Summit, which we hosted with Embarc Collective in Tampa, Florida. Over the last decade, Blake and his team turned their startup into a unicorn business, while developing a way to simplify and share your identity online securely. We also want to again mention that we live streamed the event, so if you were not able to attend in-person, make sure to watch it on our Youtube channel at: soty.link/ESTYouTube Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear a fireside chat that Frank Gruber did with Jeff Vinik at our 9th Annual Startup of the Year Summit, which we hosted with Embarc Collective in Tampa, Florida. Aside from standing up Embarc Collective, Jeff is the owner of the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion, Tampa Bay Lightning. He is also an incredibly accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. His efforts are transforming the Tampa Bay region as it was recently listed by Forbes as a top emerging tech city. Read the article: www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/08/24/emerging-tech-cities-in-the-us/?sh=6533935fa917 We also want to mention that we will be livestreaming the event, so if you cannot attend in-person, make sure to watch it on our Youtube channel at: soty.link/ESTYouTube Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this special episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear from Eric Ingram, the founder and CEO of SCOUT, which was the big winner of the 9th Annual Startup of the Year Summit, which just took place in Tampa Florida. Scout is an amazing company that is developing orbital products and services to enable a new era of space safety and transparency – adding eyes to space and spacecraft. During the Summit, we had our top startups all pitching for the chance to take home the championship trophy and to be named as the Startup of the Year. The Top 5 finalists that competed on stage live at the finals were: - Heroshe - Houston, Texas - Home Lending Pal - Orlando, Florida - Relavo - Baltimore, Maryland - SCOUT - Alexandria, Virginia - Target Arm Inc. - Ridgefield, Connecticut We also had the 9th Annual Startup of the Year People's Choice Award Winners presented by ReliaQuest (voted on by the world via internet voting). The overall People’s Choice Winner was Cope Notes (https://copenotes.com) from Tampa, Florida. We also want to mention that we will be livestreaming the event, so if you cannot attend in-person, make sure to watch it on our Youtube channel at: soty.link/ESTYouTube Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this special episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, our team provides a preview of what will be going on during our 9th Annual Startup of the Year Summit, which will take place in-person down in warm Tampa, Florida, from January 25th - 27th with our local host and partner Embrac Collective and our title sponsor, ReliaQuest, who is also sponsoring the People’s Choice Award. Listeners can find more information about the Summit at: https://summit.startupofyear.com We also thank all of our Sponsors for their help with the event, including: - Title Sponsor - ReliaQuest - Pendo - Strategic Property Partners + Water Street Tampa - UBS Financial Services - The Florida High Tech Corridor and the University of South Florida - Chase - Cherry Bekaert, LLP - Enterprise Florida - Drift - Florida Funders - Hillsborough County EDi2 - Hill Ward Henderson - Holmes & Brakel - Hutchison, PLLC - Lowth Entrepreneurship Center, Sykes College of Business, University of Tampa - Metro Development Group / Metro Places - Omni Public - Ballard Partners - Accenture - Visit Tampa Bay Additionally, we thank our Table Host Sponsors: - Catapult Lakeland - St. Petersburg EDC - Synapse - Tampa Bay Tech - Tampa Bay Wave - TampaBay.Ventures Lastly, we are grateful for our Prize Sponsors: Carta, CDW, Cherry Bekaert, LLP, Hutchison PLLC, Pilea, Republic, and StickerGiant Attendees can expect to spend some time with some of the most amazing notable characters in the startup world, including Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, Jeff Vinink of owner of the back to back Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning, Mac Conwell of RareBreed VC, Blake Hall, ID.me, Jenn Lim, Delivering Happiness, Erica Duignan Minnihan from Reign Ventures, Jesse Middleton from The Community Fund / Flybridge, Paul Sohl from the Florida High Tech Corridor, Anna Mason of Rise of the Rest Fund, and many more. During the Summit, 100 startups that are changing their industries will be pitching to a group of investors and mentors, and expanding their global recognition. The startups will compete for up to $50K in potential investment, the championship title, the People’s Choice Award presented by ReliaQuest, and more. We also want to mention that we will be livestreaming the event, so if you cannot attend in-person, make sure to watch it on our Youtube channel at: soty.link/ESTYouTube Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Brian Murphy, who is the Founder and CEO of ReliaQuest. ReliaQuest is the leader in Open XDR-as-a-Service and they are known for being the force multiplier for security operations teams. Frank also again talks about the upcoming Startup of the Year Summit, which will take place in-person down in warm Tampa Florida from January 25th - 27, 2022 with our partner Embarc Collective and title sponsor, ReliaQuest. Find more information at: https://summit.startupofyear.com Attendees can expect to spend some time with some of the most amazing notable characters in the startup world. We just announced our first group of keynote speakers which include Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, Jeff Vinink of owner of the back to back Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning, Mac Conwell of RareBreed VC, Blake Hall, ID.me, Jenn Lim, Delivering Happiness, Erica Duignan Minnihan from Reign Ventures, Jesse Middleton from The Community Fund / Flybridge, Shila Nieves Burney from Zane Venture Fund, Paul Sohl from the Florida High Tech Corridor, Anna Mason of Rise of the Rest Fund, Howard Tullman from G2T3V, many more. During the Summit, 100 startups that are changing their industries, pitching a group of investors and mentors, and expanding their global recognition. The startups will compete for up to $50K in potential investment, the championship title, the People’s Choice Award presented by ReliaQuest, and more. Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Rohit Bhargava about his new book “Beyond Diversity: 12 Non-Obvious Ways To Build A More Inclusive World.” Rohit is an innovation and marketing expert and the founder of the Non-Obvious Company. He is also a Wall Street Journal best selling author of six business books and also teaches marketing and innovation at Georgetown University. We are excited to announce to all of our listeners that the book is now available for $.99 on Kindle for a limited time, which is a pretty amazing deal, so please make sure to head to Amazon and grab a copy and leave a review. Here is the link: Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Diversity-Experts-Actually-Inclusive/dp/1646870514/ Frank also again talks about the upcoming Startup of the Year Summit, which will take place in-person down in warm Tampa Florida from January 25th - 27, 2022 with our partner Embarc Collective and title sponsor, ReliaQuest. Find more information at: https://summit.startupofyear.com Attendees can expect to spend some time with some of the most amazing notable characters in the startup world. We just announced our first group of keynote speakers which include Jeff Vinink of owner of the back to back Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning, Mac Conwell of RareBreed VC, Blake Hall, ID.me, Jenn Lim, Delivering Happiness, Amy Beckley, of MDF Fertility which makes a product for Proov. During the Summit, 100 startups that are changing their industries, pitching a group of investors and mentors, and expanding their global recognition. The startups will compete for up to $50K in potential investment, the championship title, the People’s Choice Award presented by ReliaQuest, and more. We also want to thank UBS Financial Services for supporting the Summit as a ScaleUp Level, Lunch, and Session sponsorship. UBS is a global wealth management group with operations in Tampa, where they are well-known in the Florida family office community and working with early-stage startups on family office investor strategies. We value their participation. Thank you UBS Financial Services. We also once again talk about Finmark, which is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Jenn Lim during the Beyond Happypalooza event, which featured tons of amazing and inspirational speakers including Adam Grant, Dr. Peter Diamandis, and many others. Jenn is the co-founder and CEO of Delivering Happiness and wrote the new book “Beyond Happiness: How Authentic Leaders Prioritize Purpose and People for Growth and Impact.” Grab a copy today on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Happiness-Authentic-Leaders-Prioritize/dp/1538736888/ Frank also talks about the upcoming Startup of the Year Summit, which will take place in-person down in warm Tampa Florida from January 25th - 27, 2022 with our partner Embarc Collective and title sponsor, ReliaQuest. Attendees can expect to spend some time with some of the most amazing notable characters in the startup world. We just announced our first group of keynote speakers which include Sarah Kunst, of Cleo Capital, Jeff Vinink of owner of the back to back Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning, Mac Conwell of RareBreed VC, Blake Hall, ID.me, Jenn Lim, Delivering Happiness, Amy Beckley, of MDF Fertility which makes a product for Proov. During the Summit, 100 startups that are changing their industries, pitching a group of investors and mentors, and expanding their global recognition. The startups will compete for up to $50K in potential investment, the championship title, the People’s Choice Award presented by ReliaQuest, and more. We also once again talk about OpenGrants, which is a platform with a search engine and expert marketplace that unlocks non-dilutive U.S. funding for organizations around the world. They empower startups, nonprofits, grant writers, foundations, and government agencies to participate in a new paradigm of funding. Sign up for today for free and search grants at www.opengrants.io/established/ Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, introduces an Alumni Spotlight Panel discussion from our 2020 Summit, hosted by our very own COO, John Guidos. The alumni panel included the CEO and Co-Founder of Aperiomics, Crystal Icenhour. We also hear from Dawn Dickson-Akpoghene from Flat Out of Heels and PopCom. The panel also included Cooper Harris, the Founder and CEO of Klickly, which is also an Established Ventures portfolio company. And finally, we also hear from Samantha Snabes from re:3D, the 2019 winner. BIG NEWS!! Our good friend and the CEO of Embarc Collective, Lakshmi Shenoy, shares exciting info about this year’s Summit! You can register today for tickets at: summit.startupofyear.com We also once again talk about TaxTaker, which offers an easy to use tech solution that helps startups claim R&D tax credits and earn back tens of thousands of dollars or more every year. They're on a mission to help startups and founders fuel their growth efforts so they can continue doing what they do best - building awesome companies and changing the world. Get started now for free at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube  *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, introduces an “Ask Me Anything” session that Rich Maloy from our team did with Marc Nager during our 2020 Summit. Marc is the Co-Founder Startup Weekend, former CEO of UP Global, CCO at Techstars, MD of Telluride Venture Accelerator, and currently Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. The 2021 Startup of the Year Summit is coming up in January 2022! We are going to be sharing some exciting news about the Summit in the very near future, so please make sure to keep an eye out for that news at: www.startupofyear.com/startup-of-the-year-summit We also talk about OpenGrants, which is a platform with a search engine and expert marketplace that unlocks non-dilutive U.S. funding for organizations around the world. They empower startups, nonprofits, grant writers, foundations, and government agencies to participate in a new paradigm of funding. Sign up for today for free and search grants at www.opengrants.io/established/ Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Ben Hood who is the Co-Founder & CTO at WattBuy (wattbuy.com). Wattbuy is a one-of-a-kind energy marketplace that helps you lower your annual electricity bill by up to 40%. They work with only PUC-licensed energy companies to provide you with options specifically tailored to your home - allowing you to have confidence that you are getting the right services at the best price. They just added an additional $10 million to their Series A, bringing the total funding to $13.25 million for this round (vcnewsdaily.com/wattbuy/venture-capital-funding/ptgcttqrzp). The guys also talk about their excitement about Elon Musk and Tesla's energy efforts. The 2021 Startup of the Year Summit is coming up in January 2022! We are going to be sharing some exciting news about the Summit in the very near future, so please make sure to keep an eye out for that news. We also once again talk about Finmark, which is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, introduces an Alumni Spotlight Panel discussion from our 2020 Summit. The alumni panel included Dave Dworschak, who is the co-founder of Kamana (https://www.kamanahealth.com/), which was a 2019 Top 100 finalist and was an Established Ventures Portfolio company until they were acquired in 2020. We also hear from Amy Beckley, who is the Founder and CEO of Proov (https://proovtest.com/), and was a Top 100 finalist. The panel also included our old friend, David Aronson, the CEO and Founder of Peanut Butter (https://www.getpeanutbutter.com/), who was a 2016 Top 5 Finalist. Finally, we also hear from Garrett Moon, the CEO and Founder of CoSchedule (https://coschedule.com/), a 2016 Top 5 Finalist. The 2021 Startup of the Year Application deadline has been extended to October 15, 2021! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also talk about OpenGrants, which is a platform with a search engine and expert marketplace that unlocks non-dilutive U.S. funding for organizations around the world. They empower startups, nonprofits, grant writers, foundations, and government agencies to participate in a new paradigm of funding. Sign up for today for free and search grants at www.opengrants.io/established/ Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Lisa Besserman who is an entrepreneur, investor, and the Managing Director at Expa (www.expa.com), a $350M venture fund investing in pre-seed to Series A startups. Lisa is also the founder of Startup Buenos Aires and has been named Business Insider’s “Top 100 Most Influential Women in Tech” as well as the “Business Innovator of Latin America” by the Council of the Americas. Lisa has also been featured by NBC, Bloomberg TV, Reuters, Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, and CNN. She has guest lectured on entrepreneurship and innovation to prominent universities such as NYU, MIT, Northwestern, Berkeley, and University of Pennsylvania. The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about TaxTaker, which offers an easy to use tech solution that helps startups claim R&D tax credits and earn back tens of thousands of dollars or more every year. They're on a mission to help startups and founders fuel their growth efforts so they can continue doing what they do best - building awesome companies and changing the world. Get started now for free at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with the Founder and CEO of GoSun, Patrick Sherwin. Patrick is an entrepreneur and inventor who has committed his professional life to clean technology. GoSun (gosun.co) builds solar appliances to help consumers live with more independence and resilience. It was founded with the goal of making outdoor cooking easier, cleaner and more accessible for people in both developed and emerging markets. Frank and Patrick also briefly discuss the brand "One Day At A Time" (check it out at the following link: http://1dayatatime.co/). The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also talk about OpenGrants, which is a platform with a search engine and expert marketplace that unlocks non-dilutive U.S. funding for organizations around the world. They empower startups, nonprofits, grant writers, foundations, and government agencies to participate in a new paradigm of funding. Sign up for today for free and search grants at www.opengrants.io/established/ Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Heather Wilde. Heather is an author, CTO, Angel Investor, Coach, Speaker, etc. She was the eighth employee of Evernote, where she oversaw the company’s growth from thousands to millions of customers. She has published popular games, worked with the United States DoD, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force, trained Fortune 500 brands, advised hundreds of startups, and managed major multinational nonprofit-programs. Additionally, she is a fractional CTO through her company ROCeteer, a company that does coaching, mentoring, training, and consulting for individuals, teams, and brands. Heather also talks about her book, “Birth of a Unicorn: Six Basic Steps to Success” which is available at the following link: https://bit.ly/BirthofaUnicorn The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about Finmark, which is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, introduces an Alumni Spotlight panel discussion from our 2020 Summit. The discussion was hosted by the Established Chief Operating Officer, John Guidos, and the alumni panel included Stephanie Lampkin, the Founder & CEO Blendoor. Courtney Caldwell and Dr. Tye Caldwell, the Co-Founders of ShearShare were also a part of the group. Additionally, the panel was rounded-out with Polly Rodriquez, the Co-Founder & CEO of Unbound, and Danielle Rushton, the CEO and Co-Founder of Wherewithal. We also hear the “VC Minute” segment from Rich Maloy of Established Ventures who talks about “TAM.” The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about TaxTaker, which offers an easy to use tech solution that helps startups claim R&D tax credits and earn back tens of thousands of dollars or more every year. They're on a mission to help startups and founders fuel their growth efforts so they can continue doing what they do best - building awesome companies and changing the world. Get started now for free at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, introduces an interview that our team did with Mindfulness Expert, Ash Kumra, during our 2020 Summit. Ash is a wellness entrepreneur, national radio host, and top ranked career coach building Peak Mindful to improve employee wellness. His radio show, podcast and livestream segments have featured 500 influencers with media credits including Forbes, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Entrepreneur magazine. Ash also helped launch the California Chapter for Startup America and he emceed the Wonder Women Diversity Tech Summit for several years. He was also listed as a top 100 impact entrepreneur by The Obama White House, focusing on diversity and inclusivity. We also hear the “VC Minute” segment from Rich Maloy of Established Ventures who talks again about “rewards.” The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about Finmark, which is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, introduces an interview that our team did with PR guru, Sarah Evans, during our 2020 Summit. Sarah is a digital strategist and brand correspondent, who works with global brands worldwide to create and improve their social and digital strategies, advising on branding, marketing, advertising, and public relations. Additionally, Sarah is a digital correspondent for several companies including Paypal, Cox Communications, MGM International, WalMart, the Shorty Awards, and more. We also hear the “VC Minute” segment from Rich Maloy of Established Ventures who talks again about “risk.” The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about TaxTaker, which offers an easy to use tech solution that helps startups claim R&D tax credits and earn back tens of thousands of dollars or more every year. They're on a mission to help startups and founders fuel their growth efforts so they can continue doing what they do best - building awesome companies and changing the world. Get started now for free at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear an interview that our team did with Maxwell Briggs during our 2020 Summit. Maxwell is the acting Program Executive for NASA's iTech Program, which focuses on companies with dual-use and spin-in technologies that are both viable in the commercial market and have potential NASA use cases. In the past, he managed NASA's SBIR portfolio for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate where he was responsible for reducing barriers to entry for entrepreneurial companies looking to engage the program. He is also a recovering engineer who used to work on power generation systems for human exploration and science missions. We also hear the “VC Minute” segment from Rich Maloy of Established Ventures who talks about “risk versus uncertainty.” The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about Finmark, which is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with John Guidos about TurboAppeal, a company that he co-founded in 2015 and grew until a successful acquisition in 2017. TurboAppeal was an evidence-based, data-driven technology that worked to present a more accurate property tax appeal on behalf of real estate property owners. TurboAppeal also participated in the Startup of the Year program in Las Vegas in 2015. We also hear the “VC Minute” segment from Rich Maloy of Established Ventures who talks about planning a runway when raising capital. The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about TaxTaker, which offers an easy to use tech solution that helps startups claim R&D tax credits and earn back tens of thousands of dollars or more every year. They're on a mission to help startups and founders fuel their growth efforts so they can continue doing what they do best - building awesome companies and changing the world. Get started now for free at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear an interview that our team did with John Fein during our 2020 Summit. John is founder and Managing Partner at Firebrand Ventures, a seed stage venture fund. Prior to founding Firebrand, John served as Managing Director for Techstars, a leading startup accelerator with over 40 programs around the world. Before Techstars, he spent nine years at UnitedHealth Group, managing large scale projects including scaling a business from zero to $1.5 billion per year and 1,500 employees in four years. In addition to the interview, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks about our first event in Chicago 15 years ago, when the company was Tech Cocktail, which later became Tech.Co and then ultimately becoming Established. We hear the “VC Minute” segment from Rich Maloy of Established Ventures who provides some more helpful advice for startups that are raising capital. The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about Finmark, which is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Luke Pergande about his company PropSwap (www.propswap.com). PropSwap is the first marketplace to buy and sell active American sportsbook tickets. They assist owners of tickets in finding interested buyers and their goal is to provide liquidity to a market which had none before it came along. PropSwap is also one of our distinguished alumni having participated in the Startup of the Year program in 2016. In addition to the interview, we hear the “VC Minute” segment from Rich Maloy of Established Ventures who provides some more helpful advice for startups that are raising capital. The 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also continue to spread the word about companies and services that can really add value to startup founders. One of those companies is TaxTaker, which offers an easy to use tech solution that helps startups claim R&D tax credits and earn back tens of thousands of dollars or more every year. They're on a mission to help startups and founders fuel their growth efforts so they can continue doing what they do best - building awesome companies and changing the world. Get started now for free at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Ari (Palmer) Salafia about her company TaxTaker, which is automating R&D tax credits for startup companies so they can get back 10% or more for every dollar they spend. It's 100% free to sign up and to see if you qualify you can find more info at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. In addition to the interview, we hear the “VC Minute” segment from Rich Maloy of Established Ventures who provides some tips about the VC capital raising process. We want all of our listeners to know that the 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also once again talk about Finmark, which is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Established and Co-Founder of Established Ventures, talks with Gerome Sapp about his company RARES, which is a platform for investing in shares of particularly notable sneakers (www.rares.io). Gerome is a seasoned entrepreneur that also played in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts with Payton Manning and with the Baltimore Ravens alongside Ray Lewis, amongst others. In addition to the interview, we want all of our listeners to know that the 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also want to let our listeners know about some of our partner events that are coming up: - ventureLAB's Hard Tech Conference on June 22-23 (www.eventbrite.ca/e/hardtech-conference-registration-151863029409) - Aerospace & Defense Week on June 22-24 (https://starburst.typeform.com/to/vRygT4AS) - Rise of the Rest Tech Talent Tour on June 22-24 (https://careerfair.revolution.com/) - Managing Social Media and Mental Health for Entrepreneurs on June 25 (https://www.venturecenter.co/event/socialmediastress/) We also continue to spread the word about companies and services that can really add value to startup founders. One of those companies is TaxTaker, which offers an easy to use tech solution that helps startups claim R&D tax credits and earn back tens of thousands of dollars or more every year. They're on a mission to help startups and founders fuel their growth efforts so they can continue doing what they do best - building awesome companies and changing the world. Get started now for free at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. Finmark is another company that can help startups. Finmark is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear an “Ask Me Anything” session from our 2020 Summit, where the Established Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Jen Consalvo, talked with Marlon Nichols, who is a founding managing partner at MaC Venture Capital. Marlon is a former Kauffman Fellow and Investment Director at Intel Capital, with an extensive background in technology, private equity, media and entertainment. His unique eye for global trends and shifts in consumer behavior has helped him capture many high-potential investments, which include Gimlet Media, MongoDB and many other companies that reflect overlooked markets. Marlon was also recently featured in an LA Times full spread article on the front page of the business section (https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-06-05/black-latinx-and-female-entrepreneurs-are-still-ignored-by-most-venture-capitalists) and he is als an investor in SoLo funds, which is also one of our Established Ventures portfolio companies. We also want all of our listeners to know that the 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also want to let our listeners know about some of our partner deadlines that are coming up. The DoD SBIR/STTR 2021.2 deadline is June 17th and you can apply at the following link: https://rt.cto.mil/rtl-small-business-resources/sbir-sttr/ The Greater Colorado Pitch Series Application deadline is June 18th and you can find the info for the event at the following link: https://airtable.com/shrtwoOvOBMHrjiaV Lastly, the SBA Growth Accelerator and SBIR Catalyst Prizes deadline is July 2nd and you can apply at the following link: https://www.sbir.gov/accelerators We also continue to spread the word about companies and services that can really add value to startup founders. One of those companies is TaxTaker, which offers an easy to use tech solution that helps startups claim R&D tax credits and earn back tens of thousands of dollars or more every year. They're on a mission to help startups and founders fuel their growth efforts so they can continue doing what they do best - building awesome companies and changing the world. Get started now for free at TaxTaker.com/SOTY. Finmark is another company that can help startups. Finmark is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear an “Ask Me Anything” session from our 2020 Summit, where our team talked with Carolyn Rodz from Hello Alice. Carolyn is the Founder and CEO of Hello Alice, a company that helps small businesses find funding, opportunities and experts. Check out their site at: helloalice.com. Carolyn is an investment banker turned three-time award winning Latina entrepreneur from Bolivia and is on the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list. We also want all of our listeners to know that the 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also hear about Finmark, which is one of our partners and portfolio companies. Finmark is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, I talk with Jason Barsema, the Co-founder and President of Halo Investing (haloinvesting.com). Halo is the first multi-issuer technology platform for protective investment solutions. Halo was founded in 2015 with a mission to provide access to impactful investment opportunities previously unavailable to most investors and is changing the world of investing by democratizing the protective investment marketplace through transparency and efficiency with the help of technology. We also hear from Rich Maloy, VP of Engagement at Established and part of Established Ventures, who has some tips on validation for startup founders with a segment called the “VC Minute.” We also want all of our listeners to know that the 2021 Startup of the Year Application is open! The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. You can see if your startup fits our criteria and apply today at: soty.link/apply We also hear about Finmark, which is one of our partners and portfolio companies. Finmark is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark Lastly, if you’re listening to this podcast we’d love for you to become a part of our community by going to: est.us/join and signing up. You will then have access to the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup.  Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear an interview from our 2020 Summit, when our Director of Strategic Operations, John Guidos, talked with Natasha Mascarenhas, a reporter at TechCrunch. Natasha covers seed and early stage founders, as well as the networks they take to get their first check. She also focuses on education amid COVID-19. Before TechCrunch, she was at the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Crunchbase News. We also hear segments from Rich Maloy, our VP of Engagement, and our co-CEO, Jen Consalvo, who both have advice for startup founders. We want to invite all startups to become part of an amazing community and make sure to apply today for our Startup of the Year program at: soty.link/apply. The top 100 startups will come together for additional opportunities to connect, showcase, and potentially take home the title of Startup of the Year at our annual Summit. We also want to let everyone know that we have been working with Powderkeg on their 2021 Unvalley event which will take place on May 19 - 20th. Gary Vee is a keynote and there will be a lot more amazing speakers from our community like Anna Mason, Mary Grove, Mac Conwell and more -- register today at: est.us/UVPK We also discuss Finmark, which is one of our partners and portfolio companies. Finmark is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. It is one of those few products that we truly believe in and I think that it will help a lot of our community members, so please go check out Finmark and signing up for 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark. Lastly, if you’re listening to this podcast, you’ve somehow found us and we appreciate it and we’d like to invite you to be a part of our community around this very podcast by going to: est.us/join. Join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to to elevate your startup. Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber talks with Dave Dworschak, the Co-founder and CEO of Kamana (www.kamanahealth.com), about their recent acquisition by Triage Staffing in 2020. Kamana is an alumni of the Startup of the Year program and was an Established Ventures portfolio company. More specifically, Kamana is is customer-centric, feedback-driven software for the healthcare staffing industry and it enables the healthcare workforce to manage their credentials and careers from a single place, and staffing agencies to hire and collaborate with the workforce far more efficiently. We also hear segments from some of our Established Team members. Our Co-CEO, Jen Consalvo, shares some words of advice for startup founders on how to tell their story. We also hear from Rich Maloy, our VP of Engagement with Established and part of Established Ventures, who has some tips for startup founders about how to communicate with investors in a segment called the “VC Minute.” We’ve also recently been active on the Clubhouse app where we have created our new “Startup Community Club” for our community and we hope that you all will join or follow the “Startup Community Club.” You can find it at est.us/clubhouse. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. When you are part of the community you can join our new Startup Slack channel, where you can mix and mingle with our team and other entrepreneurs about various different topics. For all of you startup founders out there, we want to let you all know that the Startup of the Year 2021 application is open. So if you are a startup looking for exposure and to become part of an amazing community make sure to apply at soty.link/apply21. We are also working with Powderkeg on their 2021 Unvalley event which will take place on May 19 - 20th. We are still in the planning stage, but you will be able to find more info in the near future at powderkeg.com/events. We think it is going to be a really good time with some pretty huge speakers and other activities. More info to come about the event in the future... We also give a shout out to Finmark (another one of our portfolio companies). Finmark is financial planning software for startups for revenue forecasting, cash projections, and runway. Check out Finmark and sign up for a 30-day free trial at est.us/finmark. Lastly, we want to continue to let our startup listeners know that the NASA iTech program is looking for for startups for their various pitch sessions and you can apply by visiting our link at: est.us/nit Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we listen to Frank Gruber’s interview with Tim Draper at the Startup of the Year Summit in the fall of 2020. Tim is a top global venture capitalist, founder of Draper Associates, DFJ and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. Tim’s investments include Coinbase, Robinhood, TwitchTV, Skype, Tesla, Baidu, Focus Media, YeePay, Hotmail, SolarCity, Athenahealth, Box, SpaceX, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC, Ledger and many others. Tim is also a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin, Blockchain, ICOs and cryptocurrencies. He has served on the California State Board of Education, and led a movement for Local Choice in schools culminating in becoming proponent for a statewide initiative for School Vouchers. Tim also led an initiative to create competitive governance with Six Californias, followed by Three Californias, which was approved for the ballot, but was rejected by the California Supreme Court before the vote. We also hear from Rich Maloy, our VP of Engagement with Established and part of Established Ventures, who has some tips about keeping top of mind in a competitive funding landscape in a segment called the “VC Minute.” We also celebrate one of our alumni, Blake Hall, and his company ID.me (which is a digital identification platform that simplifies how individuals securely prove and share their identities online) recently raised Nine-Figure Round. There is also the upcoming CTA Foundation's 2021 Virtual Pitch Event (sponsored by AARP Innovation Labs) which will take place on March 31st. Join us as eight startups pitch their innovations and engage in Q&A with experts. This year there will also be an audience favorite award, where attendees vote LIVE as startups pitch! You can find out more info and register for the event at: est.us/331EB. We’ve also recently been active on the Clubhouse app where we have created our new “Startup Community Club” for our community and we hope that you all will join or follow the “Startup Community Club.” You can find it at est.us/clubhouse. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. It is also that time of year again when the Startup of the Year 2021 Application is open. So if you are a startup looking for exposure and to become part of an amazing community make sure to apply at soty.link/apply21. Lastly, we want to continue to let our startup listeners know that the NASA iTech program is looking for for startups for their various pitch sessions and you can apply by visiting our link at: est.us/nit Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we listen to Frank Gruber’s interview with Meredith Fineman at the Startup of the Year Summit in the fall of 2020. Meredith is an entrepreneur, writer, best-selling author, speaker, podcast host, and women's advocate. She is also the founder and CEO of FinePoint, a leadership and professional development company with a focus on visibility and voice. Meredith is also the author of Brag Better: Master the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion. It’s an Amazon Bestseller and has been mentioned in outlets from The New York Times to FastCompany and more. You can purchase the book on Amazon at https://amzn.to/30VWA7o. We also hear from Rich Maloy, our VP of Engagement with Established and part of Established Ventures, who has some tips for startup founders with a segment called the “VC Minute” Frank also talks about our SXSW Serendipity & Innovation events, where we had two really interesting programming segments. One of the sessions was for Government Funding Opportunities for Startups, which featured some of our partners from NASA, SBA, NSF, NIH, and the DOE. The second segment was a Venture Capital Reverse Pitch, where investors actually pitched their funds to startups. Both sessions were fantastic and we will be posting recap videos of each in the near future on our Youtube channel at soty.link/ESTYouTube. We also utilized the Clubhouse app both days so that audience members could interact with some of the speakers in an additional Q&A session. The Clubhouse rooms were hosted in our new “Startup Community Club” and we hope that you all will join or follow the “Startup Community Club.” You can find the club at est.us/clubhouse. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. It is also that time of year again when the Startup of the Year 2021 Application is open. So if you are a startup looking for exposure and to become part of an amazing community make sure to apply at soty.link/apply21. Lastly, we want to continue to let our startup listeners know that the NASA iTech program is looking for for startups for their various pitch sessions and you can apply by visiting our link at: est.us/nit Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we listen to Frank Gruber’s interview with Lo Toney at the Startup of the Year Summit in the fall of 2020. Lo is the founding managing partner at Plexo Capital, which is an institutional investment firm he incubated and spun out from Google Ventures. Plexo Capital invests in emerging seed-stage VCs led by diverse teams and invests directly into companies sourced from the portfolios of VCs where Plexo Capital has an investment. Prior to founding Plexo Capital, Lo was a Partner on the investing team at Google Ventures where he focused on marketplaces, mobile and consumer products. Before Google Ventures, Lo was a Partner with Comcast Ventures where he led the Catalyst Fund and worked with the main fund where he focused on mobile messaging and marketplaces. Lo also worked with Zynga as the GM of Zynga Poker with full P+L responsibility for Zynga’s largest franchise at that time. He has also held executive roles with Nike, eBay, as well as startups funded by top tier investors. On another note, we have a very exciting SXSW event planned on March 15 - 20. Our programming will also include a segment for Government Funding Opportunities for Startups and a Venture Capital Reverse Pitch, where investors will actually pitch their funds to startups...which everyone is really excited about. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved visit: www.est.us/sxsw21. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. It is also that time of year again when the Startup of the Year 2021 Application is open. So if you are a startup looking for exposure and to become part of an amazing community make sure to apply at https://www.startupofyear.com/application. We also want to congratulate Kamana Health (Established Venture Portfolio & 2019 Top 100) for announcing that they've been acquired by Triage. Kamana is a software platform connecting healthcare providers and staffing agencies with traveling nurses and other medical professionals. Learn more at the following: https://www.kamanahealth.com/an-open-letter-to-our-customers/. Lastly, check us out on the Clubhouse App, where we are planning a bunch of new rooms and sessions coming out regularly and we will also have some rooms during our SXSW festivities. Follow our Club - Startup Community Club. Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/ Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we listen to Frank Gruber’s interview with Dr. Ximena Hartsock at the Startup of the Year Summit in the fall of 2020. Ximena is the Co-founder of Phone2Action, the world's leading technology company for civic participation and stakeholder engagement. The platform has empowered millions of advocates to make over 40 million connections with elected officials. She is passionate about education and about empowering people to take action to make this world a better place. In addition to running her own companies, Ximena is a member of the board of directors of Consumer Technology Association which produces CES and she is also on the Forbes list of Women Crushing it in Technology. When we heard from her at our Summit in the Fall of 2020 she was still working with Phone2Action, but after eight years, she announced that she left the Arlington-based civic tech company to pursue a new venture and launch a new technology product. We are excited to hear more about her new endeavor when more details are available. We also hear from Rich Maloy, our VP of Engagement with Established and part of Established Ventures, who has some tips for raising capital with a segment called the “VC Minute.” As many of you may know, we’ve had a long tradition of heading down to Austin, Texas every March for SXSW and we want to quickly let you all know we have something brewing again this year in mid-March. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved visit: www.est.us/sxsw21. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. Lastly, check us out on the Clubhouse App, where we are planning a bunch of new rooms and sessions coming out regularly and we will also have some rooms during our SXSW festivities. You can follow us at @frankgruber, @jenconsalvo, @johnguidos or we will be updating our Clubhouse calendar in our weekly newsletter. Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/ Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber talked with Suneel Gupta at the Startup of the Year Summit in the fall of 2020. Suneel teaches innovation at Harvard University and is the author of the upcoming book, “BACKABLE,” which just came out on February 23rd. The book is rooted in Suneel’s journey from first-time entrepreneur to being named “The New Face of Innovation” by the New York Stock Exchange, and explores how to get people to believe in your ideas. "BACKABLE" can be purchased at the following link: https://amzn.to/3aPtRab Suneel’s ideas have been backed by firms like Greylock and Google Ventures, and he served as an Entrepreneur in Residence inside Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He has personally backed startups including Impossible Foods, AirBnB, 23&Me, Calm, and SpaceX. In 2019, Suneel established the Gross National Happiness Center of America in partnership with the Kingdom of Bhutan. We also hear from Rich Maloy, our VP of Engagement with Established and part of Established Ventures, who has some tips for raising capital with a segment called the “VC Minute.” As many of you may know, we’ve had a long tradition of heading down to Austin, Texas every March for SXSW and we want to quickly let you all know we have something brewing again this year this year in mid-March. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved visit: www.est.us/sxsw21. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/ Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber talks with Zvi Band, the co-founder CEO of Contactually, a top CRM which empowers professionals in real estate, consulting, and other professional industries to build authentic relationships. He is also the author of the book Success is in Your Sphere. Zvi co-founded Contactually in 2011, and led the company to $12M in venture backing, 75 employees, and tens of thousands of customers, including 8 of the top 20 real estate brokerages in the country. Contactually was then acquired by Compass, where Zvi stayed on as a General Manager until this year. Zvi started off the year with some big news by announcing that he left Compass and is now building a new company, which will be interesting to hear more about in the near future. We also hear segments from some of our Established Team members. Our Co-CEO, Jen Consalvo, shares some words of inspiration for startup founders, and Rich Maloy, our VP of Engagement with Established and part of Established Ventures, has some tips for raising capital with a segment called the “VC Minute. As many of you may know, we’ve had a long tradition of heading down to Austin, Texas every March for SXSW and we want to quickly let you all know we have something brewing again this year this year in mid-March. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved visit: www.est.us/sxsw21. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/ Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Yearhelps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Establishedis a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter -@EstablishedUsand Facebook -facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber talks with acclaimed author and the CEO of WLJ Advisors, Whitney Johnson.    Whitney is a former Wall Street Analyst and is the cofounder of the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen in which they invested in at least one unicorn. She is also an executive coach, speaker, and innovation thinker who was recently named one of the most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50.    She also is the author of “Build an A-Team” and the critically acclaimed author of “Disrupt Yourself” among other books. Lastly, Whitney hosts the weekly Disrupt Yourself podcast, where every week she explores her passion for personal disruption through engaging conversations with disruptors. You can find the podcast at: http://whitneyjohnson.com/disrupt-yourself-podcast/   We invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country.   Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber talks with Rohit Bhargava about business, marketing, and his book “Non-Obvious Mega Trends.”    Rohit is an innovation and marketing expert and the founder of the Non-Obvious Company. He is also a Wall Street Journal best selling author of six business books and also teaches marketing and innovation at Georgetown University. His most recent book is titled “Non-Obvious Mega Trends” and it is the culmination of a decade of Non-Obvious trend books. You can buy the book at: www.nonobvious.com/megatrends   Rohit is hosting The Non-Obvious Beyond Diversity Summit on January 26 - 29th, where Frank will also be speaking about investing in diverse startups along with Courtney Caldwell of ShearShare, Travis Holoway of Solo Funds, Ash Kumra of Peak Mindful, Marlon Nichols of MaC Venture Capital, and Allyson Kapin of The W Fund. Find out more about the event and at: www.nonobviousdiversity.com   As always, we invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country.   Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast we’re going to hear an interview that Rich Maloy, our VP of Engagement at Established, did with Aaron Froug.   Aaron is the Co-Founder and CEO of Grifin, which is a cool new fintech app that makes investing as energizing as buying your morning coffee. Basically, the app allows users to invest a dollar in every company where they spend money. It is pretty amazing and I’ve never really seen anything quite like it.   Grifin was the People’s Choice Award winner at our Startup of the Year Summit last Fall and our entire team was pretty excited about it and most actually downloaded the app. Aaron also talks about raising capital and other tips and tricks that he has learned while navigating the waters as a  startup entrepreneur.    We also want to invite all of our listeners to get involved with our programs by visiting: www.established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country.   As always, we’re still offering a free domain to anyone interested in claiming a .US domain. So if you’re listening and want register a new domain for a new idea or for an existing business, simply go to to http://est.us/SummitUs and register right away, thanks to our partnership with our friends at .US   Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/ Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, Frank Gruber talks with Kara Goldin about her journey as an entrepreneur and her new bestselling book “Undaunted,” which was just released in October of 2020.    Kara is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., the leading unsweetened flavored water and they also make hand sanitizer She has been named one of InStyle’s Badass 50, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, amongst other notable awards. You can find more information about Kara at: www.karagoldin.com    We also hear some segments from some of our Established Team members. Our Director of Strategic Operation, John Guidos, provides some tips for startup founders, and Rich Maloy of Established Ventures provides some tips for our startup founder listeners during the “VC Minute.”    As always, we invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country.   Finally, we’re still offering a free domain to anyone interested in claiming a .US domain. So if you’re listening and want register a new domain for a new idea or for an existing business, simply go to http://est.us/SummitUs.    We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and we’ll be back in 2021 with more episodes of the Startup of the Year Podcast.   Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year podcast, Frank Gruber talks with Mike Evans at our 2020 Summit. Mike shared his story behind starting and taking GrubHub to IPO. He also talked about his new startup Fixer.com, and forthcoming book Hangry.    Frank also takes a moment to share that the Established team has been mourning the recent loss of Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos and author of Delivering Happiness, and the man behind the Downtown Project to revitalize downtown Las Vegas.   Tony was a visionary whose thoughts on culture changed the e-commerce industry with Zappos.com and inspired us and so many to lead with a solid company culture. He was a very generous person who dreamed big and chased the vision rather than the money. He was an investor in our previous company, TechCo and we worked closely with him over the last decade. His work in downtown Las Vegas impacted many with the small business and startups that were attracted to the area to take part in his huge vision to revitalize the previously faceless downtown area and make it a place for live, work and play. He was loved by us and so many, he will be missed greatly. Gone too soon at only 46 years old, rest in peace, Tony Hsieh.   We also hear some segments from some of our Established Team members. Rich Maloy of Established Ventures provides some tips for our startup founder listeners during the “VC Minute.” Also, our Director of Partnerships, Jacqui Dietrich, provides an update about our Partner Programs and specifically discusses the following: REUNION - joinreunion.com Halcyon X Black Girl Ventures Intensive https://halcyonhouse.org 2020 Startup of the Year Ambassadors - https://summit.startupofyear.com/sponsors-and-partners Learn How You Can Partner with Us - https://www.startupofyear.com/partner-with-us Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year podcast, we included a recap of highlights from the 2020 Startup of the Year Summit.   During the episode, we also hear commentary from some of our Established Team members. Rich Maloy from Established Ventures pitches in with the “VC Minute.” Our Director of Partnerships, Jacqui Dietrich, also provides an update about our partner programs and specifically discusses the following items:    IFundWomen, https://ifundwomen.com/ AMSE Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs https://www.amse.co/ Boomtown Sports Tech Accelerator  https://boomtownaccelerators.com/accelerators-startups/sports-tech/   Feel free to nominate a Startup Ambassador or Investment Partner by emailing [email protected]. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: www.established.us/programs    For those of you who did not attend the Summit, we again congratulate our big Startup of the Year winner SoloFunds! Travis Holoway and his team are really building a fantastic company on a mission to provide affordable access to loans for those in need by connecting borrowers to lenders through our convenient mobile Marketplace. As part of being named the Startup of the Year winner, they are also candidates for an investment from Established Ventures.   During the Summit, we had to narrow down thousands of applicant down to the Top 100 companies -- an amazing group of judges helped us narrow it down to the Top 15 companies which included: Freeman Capital YellowCard Andonix Mi Terro Cherry Blossom Intimates Inclusology Grifin MITO Material Solutions SweetBio Otolith Labs Finmark Jeenie Hoy Health GLASS SoLo Funds   The judges then narrowed the group down to the Top 5 Finalists which included: Finmark - Who eliminates the need for complex spreadsheets with a simple to use platform, so founders can easily create, update, and share their financial plans. GLASS - A software ecosystem powering high-performance governments to aid the procurement process Jeenie - On-Demand Interpreters for Better Communication Hoy Health - Whose vision is to provide access to bilingual English and Spanish speaking healthcare professionals that include Doctors, Nurses, Psychologist and a variety of other health care related professionals. And of course our winner - SoLo Funds.   At this year’s Summit we also highlighted the special .US Veteran Startup of the Year category thanks to our partnership with the .US domain, and I am proud to announce that Jeenie, who won a $10k non-dilutive cash prize, which was given to a startup founded by a US Veteran - Spouse - or Dependent.    We also had the Startup of the Year World Impact Award winners: Leda Health Leaf Global Vonzella 70 Million Jobs CRPWrap Perimeter Youth Enrichments   There were also the Startup of the Year Honorable Mentions, which included: Spira CloudCampaign Otrafy At Ease Rentals Corporation Calendar Refactr TiLT TipTags Rosy TruGenomix, Inc. Beagle Learning Lineus Medical Target Arm Fulcrum Gardenio   We also had our People’s Choice Award, for which we were tallying votes up until the end of the Summit and we are happy to announce the winner of People’s Choice award is Grifin!  Grifin is a really interesting app/product that allows you to invest in all of the companies that you buy things from, making it easier to invest in the places you purchase things from.    We also want to congratulate the winners of a few other People’s Choice categories:  Fintech & Security Category Winner - Just Protect Health, Wellness, MedTech & Biotech Category Winner  - Clear Child Psychology Platform Technology, AR/VR, AI Robotics Category Winner - Airgility Social Impact, Lifestyle & Culture, EdTech, Smart Cities Category Winner - Neolth.   Also, at the Summit, in addition to the pitch competition we had a lot of other activities including some amazing “Ask Me Anything Sessions, Alumni Spotlight sessions (where we caught up with some startups that previously participated in our events). To see a full list of all of the experts, judges, AMA panelists, please go to: summit.startupofyear.com/summit-experts   We also had Curated Office hours (where we paired startup founders with mentors), and networking hallways where attendees could get to know one another and discuss synergies between their companies.   We also featured a number of exciting speakers including: Tim Draper, venture capitalist and founder of Draper Associates and entrepreneur.  Author Kara Goldin will discuss her journey in starting Hint Water and her new book Undaunted. Entrepreneur Mike Evans will share his candid story behind starting and taking GrubHub to IPO plus his new startup Fixer.com, and forthcoming book Hangry. Author and entrepreneur Rohit Bhargava will share learnings from his latest book Non Obvious Mega Trends. Author Meredith Fineman will teach us tips from her new book Brag Better. Author Whitney Johnson will teach you how to Disrupt Yourself. Zvi BandCo-Founder & CEO, Contactually and GM, Compass, and Author, Success is in Your Sphere. Lo Toney, Founding Managing Partner, Plexo Capital. Dr. Ximena Hartsock, the Co-Founder, Phone2Action Suneel Gupta, who is a Professor, Harvard University and Author of the upcoming book, Backable.    We had a lot of sponsors that we would love to thank. You can check them out at: summit.startupofyear.com/sponsors-and-partners   We also had incredible judges throughout the competition and we share some words from our finals judges who included:  Anna Mason is a Partner on Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.  Karen Kerr is the founder and Managing Director of Exposition Ventures.  Lo Toney is the Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital, which he incubated and spun out from GV. Mary Grove is a Managing Partner of Bread and Butter Ventures.  Dan Mindus is the Founder and Managing Partner of NextGen Venture Partners, a seed-stage venture fund that works with more than 1400 Venture Partners.    Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year podcast, we talk with Dawn Dickson-Akpoghene, the Founder & CEO of PopCom, which has developed software to make kiosks and vending machines intelligent through data and analytics at the point of purchase. PopCom uses facial recognition, A.I, and blockchain technology to help retailers collect valuable customer insights. We first met Dawn when she participated in the Startup of the Year program with a company called Flat Out of Heels.   We also hear some segments from some of our Established Team members. Rich Maloy of Established Ventures provides some tips for our startup founder listeners during the “VC Minute.” Also, our Director of Partnerships, Jacqui Dietrich, provides an update about our Partner Programs and specifically discusses the following:   AFWERX SBIR Open Topics - Contracts worth up to $50K http://afwerxlearning.com/ Centrepolis - Industry 4.0 Accelerator Program https://www.centrepolisaccelerator.com/Programs/Industry-4-0-Accelerator MassChallenge - Applications Open - https://masschallenge.org/   As mentioned in the episode, please join us for our upcoming 8th Annual Startup of the Year Summit which will be held online on November 16-18. The Summit is a curated experience for emerging founders, seasoned entrepreneurs, corporate innovation leads, accelerators, and investors to build relationships that fuel success. Summit is also the culmination of the 2020 Startup of the Year competition, and attendees can expect some of the following: The Top 100 Startups will compete for the 2020 Startup of the Year championship title. Up to $20K in potential investment from Established Ventures for one of the semifinalists. $10K non-diluted cash prize for a U.S. Veteran-led company from sponsor .US Curated connections for the Top 100 with investors and corporate leads. "Ask Me Anything" sessions with VCs, Corporate Leaders, and Seasoned Entrepreneurs. Opportunity to network with expert judges and mentors, such as Phil Nadel, Lesa Mitchell, Erica Minnihan, and more.   Also, at the summit we will be featuring a number of exciting speakers including Tim Draper, venture capitalist and founder of Draper Associates; entrepreneur and author Kara Goldin will discuss her journey in starting Hint Water and her new book Undaunted; entrepreneur Mike Evans will share his candid story behind starting and taking GrubHub to IPO plus his new startup Fixer.com, and forthcoming book Hangry; author and entrepreneur Rohit Bhargava will share learnings from his latest book Non Obvious Mega Trends; author Meredith Fineman will teach us tips from her new book Brag Better; author Whitney Johnson will teach you how to Disrupt Yourself, and more. Learn more about the Summit and register now at: est.us/Summit2020   This year’s Summit will also highlight the special .US Veteran Startup of the Year category. In partnership with .US, there will be a $10,000 non-dilutive cash prize given to a startup founded by a US Veteran, Spouse, or Dependent.    .US is offering our community a free .US domain offer. This is a great opportunity for you to get your idea online - and have your dream domain. You can find more info at: https://soty.link/dotusplus    Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year podcast, we included a recap of our Startup of the Year online pitch event that we hosted, where we featured Black Founders.   We had an amazing group of companies presenting their pitches. The startups included: CPRWrap, Freeman Capital, SoLo Funds, Thermaband, and Youth Enrichments    Additionally, the event was presided over by an incredible group of judges that included Shila Nieves Burney the Founding and Managing Partner at Zane Venture Fund; Edward Jean-Louis a Partner at Tale Venture Partners; Aubrie Pagano a General Partner at Corigin Ventures; and Christie Pitts a General Partner at Backstage Capital.   Congratulations to Freeman Capital for winning the Pitch Competition! They are now one of the Top 100 Semifinalists at the 8th Annual Startup of the Year Summit.  Youth Enrichments also had the honor of taking home the People's Choice Award.    During the episode, we also hear commentary from some of our Established Team members. Rich Maloy from Established Ventures pitches in with the “VC Minute” to provides some advice for planning the amount of capital that a company should set out to raise. We also hear from our VP of Programs, Lori Thiel, with her favorite part about the upcoming Startup of the Year Summit being virtual this year.    Please join us for our upcoming 8th Annual Startup of the Year Summit which will be held online on November 16-18. The Summit is a curated experience for emerging founders, seasoned entrepreneurs, corporate innovation leads, accelerators, and investors to build relationships that fuel success. Summit is also the culmination of the 2020 Startup of the Year competition, and attendees can expect some of the following: The winner can take home up to $20K in potential investment from Established Ventures. There will also be curated connections for the Top 100 with investors and corporate leads. We also plan to have keynote speakers, such as Tim Draper, Mary Grove, and more. And attendees will have the opportunity to network with expert judges and mentors, such as, Phil Nadel, Lesa Mitchell, Erica Minnihan, and more. All programming across the three days will be complimentary for registered attendees. We're building a flexible schedule so that you can best fit programming into your day while not having to miss out on anything - meaning both our featured speakers and helping with homework. Attendees can also participate during 'Ask Me Anything' Sessions with industry experts. Fireside chats from Mike Evans, the co-founder of GrubHub; Rohit Bhargava, the Founder and Chief Trend Curator at the Non-Obvious Company; Meredith Fineman, the Founder of FinePoint and Author Brag Better; and many more. You can lean more about the Summit and register for the event at https://summit.startupofyear.com/   This year’s Summit will also highlight the special .US Veteran Startup of the Year category and there will be a $10K non-dilutive cash prize given to a startup founded by a US Veteran - spouse or dependent. Please get your free .US domain today by going to the following link: soty.link/dotusplus.    Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year podcast, we hear from Polly Rodriguez, the founder, and CEO of Unbound, a sexual wellness company for women. They make and sell vibrators, lubricants, and accessories online along with their digital magazine. Polly and Unbound competed in the 2017 Startup of the Year program and finished in the Top 5 that year.    We also hear some segments from some of our Established Team members. Our Co-CEO, Jen Consalvo, provides advice for startup founders that are trying to find their path. Also, our Director of Partnerships, Jacqui Dietrich, provides an update about our Partner Programs and specifically discusses the following: Backstage Capital - https://backstagecapital.com Halcyon Incubator - https://halcyonhouse.org/incubator/apply American Inno - https://www.americaninno.com Startup Space - https://startupspace.captivate.fm   As mentioned in the episode, please join us for our upcoming 8th Annual Startup of the Year Summit which will be held online on November 16-18. The Summit is a curated experience for emerging founders, seasoned entrepreneurs, corporate innovation leads, accelerators, and investors to build relationships that fuel success. Summit is also the culmination of the 2020 Startup of the Year competition, and attendees can expect some of the following: The Top 100 Startups will compete for the 2020 Startup of the Year championship title. Up to $20K in potential investment from Established Ventures for one of the semifinalists. $10K non-diluted cash prize for a U.S. Veteran-led company from sponsor .US Curated connections for the Top 100 with investors and corporate leads. Keynote speakers, such as Tim Draper (Draper VC), Kara Goldin (Hint Water), and Mike Evans (GrubHub), and more. "Ask Me Anything" sessions with VCs, Corporate Leaders, and Seasoned Entrepreneurs. Opportunity to network with expert judges and mentors, such as Phil Nadel, Lesa Mitchell, Erica Minnihan, and more. You can learn more about the Summit and register for the event at the following link: https://summit.startupofyear.com/   Also, please get your free .US domain today by going to the following link: soty.link/dotusplus.    Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear some startup wisdom from the Founder and CEO of Blendoor, Stephanie Lampkin. Blendoor is inclusive recruiting and people analytics software that mitigates unconscious bias. Candidates are sourced from hundreds of strategic partners and universities and presented to recruiters without the candidate’s name, photo, or dates. Blendoor was also the winner of the Startup of the Year pitch competition in 2015.   We also hear some segments from some of our Established Team members. Our VP of Engagement, Rich Maloy, provides some advice with the “VC Minute” and our Director of Strategic Operations and managing member of Established Ventures, John Guidos, gives his “Pitch Deck Pointers.”  Lastly, our Co-CEO Frank Gruber provides his thoughts about how to stay positive in the current state of the world.    As mentioned in the episode, please join us for our upcoming 8th Annual Startup of the Year Summit which will be held online on November 16-18. The Summit is a curated experience for emerging founders, seasoned entrepreneurs, corporate innovation leads, accelerators, and investors to build relationships that fuel success. Summit is also the culmination of the 2020 Startup of the Year competition, and attendees can expect some of the following: The Top 100 Startups will compete for the 2020 Startup of the Year championship title. Up to $20K in potential investment from Established Ventures for one of the semifinalists. $10K non-diluted cash prize for a U.S. Veteran-led company from sponsor .US Curated connections for the Top 100 with investors and corporate leads. Keynote speakers, such as Tim Draper, Mary Grove, and more. "Ask Me Anything" sessions with VCs, Corporate Leaders, and Seasoned Entrepreneurs. Opportunity to network with expert judges and mentors, such as Phil Nadel, Lesa Mitchell, Erica Minnihan, and more. You can learn more about the Summit and register for the event at the following link: https://summit.startupofyear.com/   Also, please get your free .US domain today by going to the following link: soty.link/dotusplus.    Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we catch up with David Aronson, the Founder & CEO of Peanut Butter, a company that helps employers offer student loan assistance as a benefit. David has over 20 years of business experience and has founded 6 ventures as an entrepreneur. He previously served as Senior Director of Business Development for Sears Holdings, and Director of Corporate Development for Gevity HR, beginning his career at the Aronson family's Tasty Bakery.   We also hear segments from some of our Established Team members. Our VP of Programs, Lori Thiel, provides some thoughts about our 2020 events. Also, our Director of Strategic Operations and managing member of Established Ventures, John Guidos, gives his “Pitch Deck Pointers.”   As mentioned in the episode, please get your free .US domain today by going to the following link: soty.link/dotusplus. Also, please join us for our upcoming 8th Annual Startup of the Year Summit which will be held online in November. You can lean more about the Summit and register for the event at the following link: https://www.startupofyear.com/startup-of-the-year-summit   Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at: www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at: www.startupofyear.com/   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we catch up with Cooper Harris, the founder, and CEO of Klickly, an A.I. impulse-payments platform. Cooper invented a payment layer that leverages machine-learning to make purchasing directly within digital UIs possible. This significant innovation creates a huge efficiency in the market – the platform's machine-learning identifies payment situations and uses sophisticated cross-origin calls to facilitate the transaction.  As such, she has been invited to share her insights at international summits including the United Nations, CES, Cannes Lions, SXSW, ShopTalk, Sundance, Los Angeles TechWeek, London Technology Conference, and Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH Scale.  Ms. Harris speaks on topics including FinTech / Retail Tech / MarTech, fostering women in STEM, and disrupting the status quo using technology/innovation. We also hear some segments from some of our Established Team members. Our VP of Engagement at Established, Rich Maloy, provides some advice with the VC Minute and our VP of Programs, Lori Thiel, provides a tip for startups looking to get found. Also, our Co-CEO, Jen Consalvo, provides insight about starting a company, and our Director of Partnerships, Jacqui Dietrich, provides an update about our Partner Programs and specifically discusses the following: Hello Alice Pitching Investors Virtually Guide: https://helloalice.com Techstars 2021 Application: https://www.techstars.com/ SEED SPOT Impact Accelerator: https://seedspot.org/ AFWERX SBIR Program: http://afwerxlearning.com/ Become an Established Startup or Investment Community Partner at: https://est.us/cp As mentioned in the episode, please join us for our upcoming 8th Annual Startup of the Year Summit which will be held online in November. You can learn more about the Summit and register for the event at the following link: https://www.startupofyear.com/startup-of-the-year-summit Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/ Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.   Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.  The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.