Our Future Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#12 College kids build $50M "Uber for Tutoring" app Sep 20, 2023

Show notes

In #12, Simmy and Michael unpack the stories of Kadama and Crossnet. Founded by University of Washington students who originally hoped to connect students with tutors on campus, Amin and Dani Shaykho, and Marwan El-Rukby pivoted that idea into app-based service when COVID hit. Using a genius TikTok marketing strategy that has produced billions of views and recruited over 2M users, Kadama will do $5M in revenue this year. The next company covered is Crossnet, a new sport invented by brothers Greg and Chris Meade, and Mike Delpapa, that combines four square with volleyball. Marketing strategies in the early days involved playing non-stop on the tourist-packed beaches of Miami, as well as focusing on Australia in the American winter season. Crossnet has generated well into the 8-figures of sales and has a masterplan to launch more games, like Smashnet, in collaboration YouTube star Danny Duncan.

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Check out Kadama: https://www.kadama.com/

Check out Crossnet: https://www.crossnetgame.com/

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

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#11: This "Credit Card for Creators" Startup is Worth $100M+ Sep 13, 2023

Show notes

In #11, the boys are in a fintech frenzy, breaking down the strategies and tactics young founders used to break in to the most regulated industry. The first company discussed is Karat Financial, a buzzy fintech startup that's raised $100M+ to create the American Express of the creator economy. Karat offers a credit card for content creators with limits calculated by a proprietary algorithm that factors in non-conventional data like social following and revenue streams. Co-founders Will Kim and Eric Wei, who are in their late twenties, left their lucrative tech jobs at Palantir and Meta to create access to capital for an emerging class of business owners misunderstood by legacy institutions. Continuing on the fintech note, the boys also cover Yacine Sibous, the 28-year-old co-founder of Parker, a credit card startup focused on the specific needs of e-commerce businesses. Alike Will and Eric, Yacine saw larger banks and lenders misunderstanding the needs of bootstrapped, middle-market DTC companies, so he's raised $157M to solve the problem.

0:00 Intro

01:15 Story of Karat

15:20 Story of Parker

37:05 Conclusion + Outro

Make sure to like, subscribe, or leave a review for Our Future Podcast, the entrepreneurship podcast for young people!

Check out Karat: https://www.trykarat.com/

Check out Parker https://www.getparker.com/

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#10: These NYU DJs built a Ticketmaster rival with 1M+ users Sep 06, 2023

Show notes

In #10, Michael and Simmy unpack two fascinating businesses: POSH and Upswing Sports. Started by two NYU college students, Avante Price (22) and Eli Taylor-Lemire (22), POSH is a next-gen events management platform that allows event hosts to organize paid events. If legacy ticketers like Eventbrite and Ticketmaster weren't paying attention, they are now–POSH has registered over 1M+ users and amassed a sizeable war chest of $5M in venture capital. Next up on the episode is Thomas Shields, Founder of Upswing Sports, a sports media holding company that controls The Dink, which Thomas built to be the leading media brand for pickleball. The Dink has amassed hundreds of thousands of newsletter subscribers and social media followers, but according to Thomas it's just ground zero for a diversified enterprise staked in all the commercial opportunties being created by America's fastest growing sport.

0:00 Intro

0:49 Story of POSH

16:10 Story of The Dink

36:18 Conclusion

Make sure to like, subscribe, or leave a review for Our Future Podcast, the entrepreneurship podcast for young people!

Check out POSH: https://posh.vip/

Check out The Dink: https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#9: 25-Year-Old Exits $50M Weighted Blanket Company Aug 30, 2023

Show notes

In #9, Michael and Simmy dissect the stories of Aaron Spivak and Ritwik Pavan. Aaron is the co-founder of Hush Blankets, a sleep brand he started when capitalizing on the weighted blanket trend and sold a majority stake of in 2021 at a $50M valuation when he was 25. Ritwik is the 25-year-old founder and CEO of Krava, a company he hopes can help solve the affordable housing crisis. It's a a pre-fabricated construction startup that sells $30K ADU's (accessory dwelling units) to customers looking for an extra space - whether it's a golf simulator, gym, podcast studio, or additional bedroom.

0:00 Intro

0:49 Story of Aaron Spivak (Hush Blankets)

16:10 Story of Ritwik Pavan (Krava)

32:30 Conclusion + Outro

Make sure to like, subscribe, or leave a review for Our Future Podcast, the entrepreneurship podcast for young people!

Check out Hush: https://hushblankets.com/

Check out Krava: https://www.getkrava.com/

Follow Aaron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-spivak-hushblankets/

Follow Ritwik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritwikpavan/

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#8: Young Centi-Millionaire Shares $250M Startup and Tax Secrets Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

In #8, Simmy and Mike sit down with Ankur Nagpal who sold his course platform, Teachable, for $250M in 2020 at the age of 31. Prior to starting that business at age 24, Ankur made millions building Facebook apps. Now, he's building Ocho, a platform for business owners where personalized advice helps them optimize their taxes and save money with tools like their solo 401k product.

Make sure to like, subscribe, or leave a review for Our Future Podcast, the entrepreneurship podcast for young people!

Follow Ankur on Twitter:

Check out Ocho: https://ocho.com/

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#7: Students sell Patreon rival for $65M in < 10 months Aug 16, 2023

Show notes

In #7, Mike and Simmy are chopping it up from Morning Brew's NYC HQ and dive into the stories of FanFix and Social Snowball. FanFix, founded by Harry Gestetner, Simon Pompan, and social media star Cameron Dallas, is the leading monetization platform for Gen Z Creators. Think of it like OnlyFans with no nudity or Patreon but mobile-first. The company was acquired for $65M in 2022, less than 10 months after it launched, in a deal the co-founders say was the largest acquisition ever for college students. Social Snowball is the seven-figure-a-year SaaS brainchild of 24-year-old entrepreneur Noah Tucker. It's become the operating system of word of mouth marketing for dozens of the world's leading e-commerce bran. Long gone are the days of clunky email generated codes. Social Snowball provides brands with the tools to implement, manage, and scale an affiliate program to leverage the goodwill of people already in love with their products.

Make sure to like, subscribe, or leave a review for Our Future Podcast, the entrepreneurship podcast for young people!

Check out FanFix: https://www.fanfix.io/

Check out Social Snowball: https://socialsnowball.io/

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#6: 25-yr-old makes $6M/yr with bootstrapped SaaS tool Aug 09, 2023

Show notes

In Ep. 6, Mike and Simmy dive into the story of Stephen Hakami, a 25-year-old college dropout who built Wiza: a SaaS tool that enriches Linkedin prospect lists with high-quality contact info so they can be targeted off-platform. He started the company only 3 years ago and today it's generating over $6M/yr in revenue! Then the guys put on their lab coats for a discussion about Kathryn Cross, the 24-year-old founder of Anja Health. Kathryn has created a DTC startup in the nascent industry of stem cell banking, raising millions from investors like Balaji and Alexis Ohanian. Anja helps new parents save the placenta and umbilical cord at birth and store it for decades so the valuable, unique-to-you stem cells it contains could be used at some point in the future to treat a life-threatening disease for you or a loved one.

0:00 Intro

1:20 Story of Stephen Hakami (Wiza)

18:20 Story of Kathryn Cross (Anja Health)

Make sure to like, subscribe, or leave a review for Our Future Podcast, the entrepreneurship podcast for young people!

Check out Wiza: https://wiza.co/

Check our Factored Quality: https://www.anjahealth.com/

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#5: Newsletter millionaire Sam Parr's CEO community on track for $1B?! Aug 02, 2023

Show notes

In Ep. 5, Michael and Simmy sit down with their long-time mentor Sam Parr. Sam founded daily email newsletter company, The Hustle, and sold it to HubSpot in 2020 for tens of millions of dollars. Part of that deal meant he'd continue co-hosting his acclaimed business podcast, "My First Million", which has recently exploded in popularity and has transformed Sam into something of a B-List celebrity. Recently, Sam announced his newest company, Hampton, a private membership community for high-growth founders which is already making millions per year with hundreds of members and a waitlist in the thousands of people. This conversation spans several topics:

0:00 Intro

01:12 From hot dog stand to hanging with billionaires within months

8:20 Story of how Michael and Sam became friends

13:49 How to get Sam's attention as an outsider

20:30 Wild newsletter growth hacks: kindle scammers, romance novels, and lawsuits

26:20 VICE acquisition talks at The Hustle and Our Future

29:31 Why it's so hard to make a media company a tech company

39:26 Why Sam's personal brand mismatches his success

42:35 Sam's ethos on building his second company

50:20 Mindset on competition (Morning Brew example)

52:33 Challenging Sam on what people are joining Hampton for + deep dive on the business

1:03 How to come up with the idea for your second company

1:07 Sam's celebrity lookalikes

Make sure to like, subscribe, and a leave a review for Our Future Podcast, the entrepreneurship podcast for young people!

Check out Hampton: https://www.joinhampton.com

Follow Sam on Twitter: @thesamparr

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#4: College bros build $10M "Disney FastPass for Bars" Jul 26, 2023

Show notes

In Episode 4, Mike and Simmy study the success of two fascinating startups built by young founders. The first is LineLeap. 25-year-olds Max Schauf, Patrick Skelly, and Nick Becker built an eight-figure business that digitizes America's nightlife industry with "line skipping passes", mobile payments, and drink ordering. Company #2 is Factored Quality. 25-year-old CEO Prince Ghosh raised $7M building a software platform in quality inspection, helping American DTC companies work with their overseas factories more effectively.

0:43 Story of LineLeap

16:00 Business Ideas similar to LineLeap

20:44 Story of Factored Quality (Prince Ghosh)

32:14 Business Ideas similar to Factored Quality

Make sure to like, subscribe, and a leave a review for Our Future Podcast, the #1 business podcast for young people!

Check out LineLeap: https://www.lineleap.com/

Check our Factored Quality: https://www.factoredquality.com

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#3: 23-yr-old Stanford dropout is disrupting $9B market Jul 19, 2023

Show notes

In Ep. 3, Michael and Simmy explore two exciting martech companies built by Gen Z founders and discuss a few interesting business ideas after each segment. The first comes from 23-year-old Stanford dropout and Thiel Fellow: Akshaya Dinesh. Her startup Spellbound, a no-code SAAS platform, has partnered with the likes of Mr. Beast's Feastables and Ollipop. It's revolutionizing email newsletter engagement by allowing readers to purchase products, recover abandoned carts, and play interactive games all within email. The boys also cover Foreplay. Started by 27-year-old Zachary Murray, it's "Pinterest for ad creative" and offers marketers a software platform to aggregate ads that catch their eye and then collaborate with team members to create their own campaigns. Foreplay is generating well into the seven figures per year as the first step in the modern marketer's journey.

0:00 Intro

1:05 Story of Akshaya Dinesh/Spellbound

10:30 New business ideas inspired by Spellbound

14:45 Story of Zachary Murray/Foreplay

26:48 New business ideas inspired by Foreplay

Check out Spellbound: https://www.spellbound.io/

Check out Foreplay: https://www.foreplay.co/

We're a YouTube-focused pod, go watch us there: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtrwNtR3_ilqa2nS6GEKL7w