Office Hours with Spencer Rascoff – Details, episodes & analysis

Spencer speaks with Ian Cinnamon, the CEO and co-founder of Culver City-based startup Apex, which manufactures productized, configurable satellite buses for the expanding space industry. As access to space becomes democratized, Apex's is poised to offer its scalable solutions to both commercial and government customers. 

Prior to Apex, Ian founded Synapse, a startup that built AI systems for the defense and security worlds, which he helped grow before it was acquired by Palantir.

Ian is an alumnus of the Y Combinator accelerator program and received his undergraduate degree from MIT and MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Apex.)

Eddy Lu, CEO of GOAT, explains his pivot from a restaurant meet-up app, the ups and downs of working with his co-founder, and how insight into the sneaker vertical on eBay helped build the start-up into what it is today.

This episode was originally released in February of 2011. 

Spencer speaks with Sami Inkinen, the CEO and Founder of Virta Health. After winning the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in 2011, the triathlete found out that he was pre-diabetic that same year. Unsatisfied with the conventional wisdom of “exercise more and eat less,” Sami dug into the science of type 2 diabetes, by consulting experts on the science of carbohydrate restriction and metabolic health. Seeking to raise awareness about the dangers of sugar, Inkinen and his wife rowed across the Pacific Ocean for 45 days—completely unsupported—from California to Hawaii for 2,750 miles. While on that journey, the idea for Virta was born. His personal mantra on that trip was "Use Sisu, not Sugar"—with the Finnish concept of Stoicism, tenacity, and grit, as determination to help himself and others reverse their diagnoses. 

Virta is an app-based, health technology start-up that offers treatment to reverse type 2 diabetes without surgery, allowing patients to work with medical providers and health coaches on a nearly real-time basis. Virta’s approach helps patients get off of all diabetes-specific medications while achieving sub-diabetic HbA1c (blood sugar)—in 60% of patients who complete one-year of the Virta Treatment. Of those patients prescribed insulin, 94% reduce or fully-eliminate usage. 

Previously, Inkinen was the co-founder of real estate marketplace Trulia, serving as its COO and president and board member until its IPO and sale to Zillow Group. Sami is also an active angel investor in healthcare. Inkinen started his career as a radiochemist at a nuclear power plant. He holds a Master of Science in engineering physics from the Helsinki University of Technology, and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University. 

(Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Virta.)

Julia Boorstin is CNBC’s Senior Media & Tech Correspondent and has been an on-air reporter for the network since 2006. She also plays a central role on CNBC’s bicoastal tech-focused program “TechCheck” delivering reporting, analysis, and CEO interviews with a focus on social media and the intersection of media and technology. In 2013, Boorstin created and launched the CNBC Disruptor 50, an annual list she oversees, highlighting private companies transforming the economy and challenging companies in established industries. She also helped launch the network’s ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative covering the people and companies closing gender and diversity gaps.

Boorstin speaks with Spencer in this fireside chat recorded at the third annual dot.LA Summit, held on October 20 at The Petersen Automotive Museum located in Los Angeles. Julia’s new book When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them, profiles female entrepreneurs and businesswomen and draws lessons and inspiration from their stories.

A graduate of Princeton University, Boorstin has been a reporter for Fortune magazine, as well as a contributor to CNN and CNN Headline News. She was also an intern for Vice President Gore’s domestic policy office. She lives in L.A. with her husband and two sons.

Tricia Han, the head of MyFitnesesPal speaks with Spencer about her journey from being a Product Manager to becoming a CEO in this episode of Office Hours. MyFitnessPal is a leading health and wellness tech brand, whose popular mobile app allows users to track their daily food intake. Tricia talks about the differences of working in East Coast tech vs West Coast tech, heading a start-up through a change management process, and the importance of representation in the tech space. Tricia also shares some suprising data points logged from L.A. users of the app. 

Prior to MyFitnessPal, Tricia was the Chief Product Officer of Care.com, a U.S. marketplace connecting families and caregivers, CEO of Daily Burn, a fitness tech brand, and Chief Product Officer at Dotdash, all operating businesses of IAC. Her professional experience also includes leading product management teams at a variety of technology companies and start-ups including WebMD, DailyCandy, and Vindigo. Han earned her Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.

Host Spencer Rascoff speaks to David Fields, founder and CEO of both Afterparty and Wander. Afterparty is looking to evolve the event-ticketing space with NFTs to assist creators, musicians and collectors. Previously, Fields worked at Disney and was part of the team that helped acquire Pixar. David was also formerly the head of acquisitions and investments for Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s Investment group, The Tornante Company. Fields has a BA in Economics from Harvard. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Afterparty.)

As CEO and co-founder of Tomo, Greg Schwartz leads the company in its mission to transform the home buying experience. Tomo was founded in the fall of 2020 and raised a $70 million seed round, reportedly the largest in U.S. history. The company’s initial product, Tomo Mortgage, launched in June of 2021 to streamline the mortgage process by bringing e-commerce to the paperwork heavy part of home transactions. Previously, Greg was the lead business executive of Zillow Group for 13 years. Before Zillow, Greg was vice president of advertising sales at CNNMoney, where he launched the advertising sales team and platform. He also served as national accounts director for Yahoo's automotive and finance properties and held multiple senior roles at DoubleClick.  (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Tomo.)