On this episode Abadesi talks to Josh Howarth, co-founder of Exploding Topics.

In this episode they talk about...

His early days as a maker and what he would change if he could do things over again

“It’s not the case that you build it and they will come. It took me two months to build and then I was like, now what? I hadn’t thought at all about marketing channels.”

Josh talks about one of the projects that he created at the start of his journey to becoming a maker. He worked on a website plugin that he had seen other people implement where you spun a wheel to see what kind of discount code you would get for entering your email.

He says that he didn’t realize how difficult getting distribution for the plugin would be and spent a lot of his time after releasing it reaching out to different people trying to get business to sign up. He achieved some revenue from it but it seemed to quickly fizzle out.

“You can usually tell pretty quickly whether it will work or not if you’re putting it out there for people to see. I probably should have quit sooner, like after two months instead of six on my previous project.”

He realized that he didn’t have any passion for the project and that it would have been better to work on something that he cared deeply about. In hindsight, he also realized that he spent too much time working on it when it was fairly clear that it would always be a slog to try to keep the revenue up.

“If the goal is to run your own business, you should go for a space that you’re interested in because someone else who is passionate about it will beat you in the end.”

The genesis and evolution of Exploding Topics and the lessons he’s learned through the process

“It’s 100 times easier to bootstrap a profitable online business if you ride one of these big market trends. You will grow with the opportunity and the competition won’t be too fierce either. That’s when I started to build a project that would spot these trends, to scratch my own itch.”

His experience with his previous project led him to research emerging trends that he could potentially build an online business out of. He did a lot of research and turned his research project into a web app when he realized that the results might be of use to other people as well.

“I didn’t intend for it to become a product in itself but I decided I had solved this problem for me, I may as well turn it into a web app and see if other people are interested in it.”

He started to post the project on the web with lists of the top trends that he was seeing at the time, which proved to be very interesting to people. One day his site was near the top of Hacker News when his database went down, leading him to scramble to upgrade to a paid solution before losing all the traffic that he was getting.

He explains what he learned and what he would have done differently with Exploding Topics if he was starting over again.

“You can feel it when you have something that people like and that is taking off. With the with the previous SaaS app it felt like I was pushing like a boulder uphill, but this thing was like snowball, everywhere I posted it people loved it and it just kept growing and growing.”

How writing updates kept him accountable as a solo founder and his advice for finding a co-founder you can work well with

“Make sure there’s a good co-founder fit, make sure that you know them and they’re going to bring a lot.”

Josh says that it was very gratifying to see people use Exploding Topics to create their own sites based on emerging trends. This was what he had hoped to do with his original project with the web plugin.

He says that it was important as a solo founder to write updates on Medium for his users. This encouraged him to make sure that he was making progress consistently on the site, because he needed to show his users and readers that he was always working on it. He also heard a lot of useful feedback from users who would use the site and sometimes even from people who were simply following his journey.

He ended up taking on a co-founder for Exploding Topics via the sale of his site. He explains what the most important attributes in a co-founder are and why he and his co-founder work well together.

“Writing updates and keeping people updated on your progress is fantastic as a sole founder because it keeps you accountable. It also helps to clarify your thoughts and direction. It helps to get support from other people who reach out to offer support, advice and guidance.”

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. 😸

On this episode Abadesi talks to Matthew Paul, software product designer, researcher, and front-end engineer. He’s a former product designer at InVision, he’s worked on software and design systems at IBM, and has designed prototypes at Apple.

In this episode they talk about...

The open-source design project he’s working on, and how to make good design more accessible

“As a designer you always have to bring the customer back to the conversation, and you have to invite the engineers, product directors, VPs, into your conversations with the customers, and let them hear what the customers have to say.”

Matthew points out that type is being used on screens in more and more places these days, including in non-traditional places like in heads-up displays in vehicles and in VR headsets. He says that it’s important to make sure that good type is accessible to everyone, everywhere, and explains how the project he’s working on will enable that.

Common design pitfalls to avoid and advice for working with designers

“Seriously, don’t be afraid to ask for help. At a decent company, at a decent place, no one’s gonna get dinged for asking for help. You’re going to get dinged, not right away, but you’re going to get dinged if you don’t. You just end up burning out or not doing a good job at any of the things.”

He runs through a bunch of different common mistakes that people make when they’re designing a product or working with a design team. He walks through some projects in the past that he’s been a part of that didn’t work out as intended and what the key issues turned out to be on those teams.

“Don’t run a design sprint unless you actually know what it is and how to do it and have a plan to make it successful.”

He explains the right ratio of designers to software engineers, saying that you want to usually have one designer for every eight software engineers. He also talks about the pitfalls of running a design sprint without really knowing what you’re doing.

He also talks about what it means to be “neuro-atypical” and why we need more inclusion of different thinking, learning, and communication styles in the workplace.

“They expect them to be a certain person, to fit a certain mold, to have good executive functioning, to have a set of cognitive processes that allow you to work in a linear fashion. The fact is, our brains are not all built that way. That’s neurodiversity.”

How he’s working on his personal development and where he learns the most

“I try to meet new people. I literally have gotten every single job that I’ve ever had through Twitter, just through them reaching out to me, me reaching out to them, and introductions happening that way.”

Matthew explains the evolution in his thinking over time on how best to keep up with the latest trends in design and says that he used to follow all the blogs very closely when he was younger but has moved away from that as he’s grown as a designer.

He offers a book recommendation if you’re interested in getting into typography, and says that he learns the most from other people. He tries to travel often to be exposed to new people and talk to them in person about what they’re working on.

“I think I just learn the most from meeting new people and hearing what they’re working on — taking a little spark of what they’re working on and seeing if I can include that in my work.”

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Headspin Mobile for their support. 😸

Books and Products Recommended in This Episode

1Password — Save your passwords and logins with one click.

AirPods Pro — New AirPods with active noise cancellation.

Detail in Typography by Jost Hochuli

Headspace Sleep — Sleep section of the popular meditation app.

Magnet — Window manager for Mac.

Simplenote — Simple, lighter alternative to Evernote.

On this episode Abadesi talks to Kathryn Duryea Wyndowe, founder and CEO of Year & Day. They make beautiful tableware that they sell direct-to-consumer online via their website.

In this episode they talk about...

How she came up with the idea for Year & Day

“I felt very empowered by this idea of buying a new set of plates outside of this proposition of getting married and a wedding registry.”

Kathryn graduated from Stanford GSB and started working at Tiffany & Co., helping to bring them online. She was inspired by the new direct-to-consumer brands and had always loved the ritual of setting the table. She decided she wanted to make “tableware fun again.” Through trying to buy a set of tableware for herself, she found that the experience was confusing and uninspiring. After going through that, she “turned on the other side of her brain” and dug into the market for tableware, which accounts for $7B in annual spend, which led her to start Year & Day.

Her crazy year preparing to launch the brand

“It took about 11 months, almost a year, to go from basically this is my full attention, full-time professional endeavor to now we are selling to customers.”

Kathryn thought that she could launch in eight months, but it actually took almost a year. She talks about the wide range of tasks that she had to tackle, basically by herself, from design to manufacturing to fulfilment to arranging for web development. She talks about “fighting against the inertia of the world” to will the brand new company into existence. She says that her launch strategy was to email 500 of her friends about the company and that in the beginning she had her brother doing customer service. Since then they’ve grown to a team of 8 based in San Francisco.

“All aspects of starting a business are both wildly thrilling with high highs and low lows and real challenges, but what's so exciting about those early months and days is that this idea that you formulated, now you're starting to bring it into shape into the real world.”

The power of Instagram and the rise of direct-to-consumer

“A lot of the product discovery these days happens on social media on platforms like Instagram. People are relying more and more on people that they follow there to help them discover products that they’ll love, that suit their lives.”

The rules for marketing to the digital-native generation have changed with the advent of social media platforms and influencers. Kathryn explains why Instagram is such a powerful platform and why people are gravitating towards a different kind of shopping experience. She talks about the importance of curation when it comes to products like tableware.

She also talks about some of her favorite productivity hacks, including why she meditates, works from home one morning a week, and why she still uses good old fashioned pen-and-paper for her to-do lists.

“As an entrepreneur you could literally work 24 hours a day and still feel like your list is growing, so in order to have a healthy balance you need to actually set some boundaries.”

She also discusses some of her favorite products.

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Knowable for their support. 😸

Companies and Products Mentioned on This Episode

Audm — The world’s best longform journalism, read aloud.

Insight Timer — The best free meditation timer.

Snagit — The best screen capture software.

Charles Hudson is founder of Precursor Ventures and a partner at SoftTech VC. This episode is about startup investing We talk about what makes a great investor, how Charles evaluates founders, how he raised a fund, advice to aspiring investors and more. We also talk about his past experiences at the CIA, Google, diversity in tech, the events business, and much more. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @chudson Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Jason is the founder and CEO of Basecamp. In this episode we talk about building a company that lasts 40 years, what it’s like to build a remote team, how he thinks of the professional year in terms of seasons, daily rituals, and how he defines success. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @Jasonfried Constructive Criticism to @ErikTorenberg

Sierra DeMulder is a renowned spoken word poet who’s just released her third book, Today Means Amen. In this episode we talk about what it means to be a poet today, how a poet makes a living, the craft of writing, editing, performing, and then themes in her work, which include relationships, mental health, shame, humor, and much more. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @Sierrademulder Constructive Criticism to @Eriktorenberg

This week's episode is with Justin Boreta of the Glitchmob, an electronic music group from LA, and the team that helped him make the app Hyperspektiv We talk about what inspired him to make the app in the first place, how he balances art and business, how he defines and measures success, the impact meditation has had on him, and much more. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @boreta Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

We're trying something new. We asked the Product Hunt community on Anchor, a new platform for bite-sized audio conversations, "what's the first thing you built?" Here are some of the answers. Enjoy. :) P.S. Check out Anchor. It's fun. https://www.producthunt.com/tech/anchor-4

This week’s episode is with Auren Hoffman. Auren is a prolific entrepreneur and investor, having started and sold Live Ramp and invested in Thumbtack, Brightroll and many more. In this episode we get into a lot - the concept of who you know vs what you know, preserving optionality regarding career, competing with computers, the future of college, how to pick life partner, how to hire good people, how to give valuable feedback, navigating acquisitions, and much more. Auren is a fascinating thinker and has a lot to say. if you like what you hear tweet @auren to let him know, and do read his fantastic answers on Quora.

Mitch Kapor is a successful entrepreneur, perhaps best known for founding Lotus, and investor, having founded Kapor Capital which focuses on tech startups that have strong social impact This episode we talk about Mitch's come up story, the world of impact investing and how Kapor measures impact, the ed-tech space, the role of government in tech and much more. This interview was recorded last year at the Launch Festival. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @mkapor Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

G-Eazy is a rapper from Oakland California. In this (short) episode we talk about his interest in tech, the intersection of tech and music, community building, brand building and much more. This interview took place last year as a part of the Launch Festival. Edited by @Alexkontis Lavish Praise to @G_Eazy Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Brad is the founder of General Assembly and now Common, which aims to do to co-living what WeWork has done for co-working. In this episode, we talk about his come-up story, lessons learned from General Assembly, what the real estate industry is like especially as it applies to tech, why he prefers being an operator to an investor, and much more.

This week’s episode is with Sam Lessin. Sam is partner at slow ventures and founder of Fin, which aims to eclipse Siri by building something like the technology from the movie "Her". Sam has made a name for himself both as an operator and investor, having started and sold Drop to Facebook and invested in companies such as Venmo, Birchbox, and Makerbot. In this episode we discuss his philosophy behind angel investing, product management, his college friendship and connection with Mark Zuckerberg, and why, if he was to give a controversial TED Talk right now, it would be about the end of capitalism. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @lessin Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

On this episode Abadesi talks to Bill Loundy and Jeff Camera, co-founders of Readup. Jeff is the sole developer on the team, and Bill handles everything else. Readup is a social reading platform designed to help you track and improve your online reading habits.

In this episode they talk about...

How they came up with the idea for Readup and how it has evolved over time

“Pick a problem that’s personal for you, because otherwise how can you care and keep working on it?”

Bill and Jeff are longtime collaborators and have actually been friends since preschool — when they’re not working on Readup, they also like to work on motorcycles together. They explain to Aba how the original spark of an idea for Readup evolved into what it is today. They were frustrated with social media and were lamenting the quality of the comments on online articles, so they got together to build a Chrome extension that would measure the amount of time that you spent on a page, in order to determine whether a person had actually read the article or not. It has since turned into a new take on community and led to the creation of a tool that is like “Fitbit for online reading.” They also discuss the design of the site and why they’ve taken a minimalist approach to it.

How you can have a more peaceful existence on the web and the problems with the current state of social media

“What we’re doing is measuring very precisely the amount of time and engagement that you have on an article and tying that to your reputation and experience, so in some ways we are actually a true attention economy.”

They explain why social media is broken today and why we are perpetually distracted online. They say that social media has become like a slot machine, but that there is no reason that we should have to navigate a slot machine to find someone else’s baby pictures. They point out that we need tools to help us have a better relationship with the web, because we can’t exercise the immense amount of self-control that we would need to block out all the distraction out there on the web. They also talk about some of their favorite books about how the internet has evolved and the unhealthy trends that have sprung up from it.

The challenges of being a maker and how they have overcome them

“Sometimes things are really dark and like it doesn't feel like things are connecting and making sense. For me, the way to survive that experience is to always remember how big the need is for what we're building.”

They talk about the immense effort that went into getting something out there — not just in building the site but also in overcoming the self-doubt they felt to finally release what they’d been working on into the world.

“The extreme indifference that the rest of the world has to your ideas has kind of helped. The first time we put it out there it was crickets. When we posted it again, we would start to get more feedback and it was helpful. I don’t know what we were afraid of.”

They talk about how they overcome the dark days that they sometimes encounter when working as indie makers, and why being reminded of the magnitude of the problem they’re solving helps them persevere through them.

They also talk about why books are still their favorite products of all time.

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Knowable and NetSuite for their support. 😸

Terry Gross has been hosting Fresh Air on NPR for over 40 years. She's done over 13,000 interviews, and is, in many people's opinion, the best interviewer alive. We talk about how Terry got her start, how she met her husband, her experience in therapy, the craft of interviewing, and much more. As a student of the craft, it was an absolute honor to have Terry on the podcast. If you like this epiode, tweet @NPRfreshair and let them know. If you haven’t listened to Fresh Air, I recommend starting with the interviews of Maurice Sendack, Louis CK, Marc Maron, or any other guests that interest you. Edited by Jenna Weiss Berman Lavish Praise (& Money) to @NPRFreshair Constructive Criticism to @erikorenberg

This week’s episode is with Danielle Morill, co-founder and CEO of Mattermark. We dive into her Mattermark story — company building, fund-raising, scaling, etc -- and then we get into her own personal story — what it’s like to start a company with her husband, her personal/professional rituals, her intellectual heroes (Ayn Rand being one of them), and much more. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @DanielleMorrill Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Ramit Sethi is the author and founder of IWT (Iwillteachyoutoberich.com) and GrowthLab (growthlab.com). Ramit applies behavioral psychology to help others lead a rich life, not only rich in finance but also in health, fitness, relationships, career & more. In this episode Ramit shares his come up story, how he’s built and scaled his business over time, how he changed his psychique, how he measures success, how being an immigrant shaped his perspective, his philosophy behind teaching, accountability. and much more.

Bryan Johnson is the founder of Braintree and the OS fund, which invests in science and tech startups aiming to radically improve peoples quality of life. This episode we talk about the Braintree story, advice for entrepreneurs, how he grew up Mormon and then changed his belief system, becoming a father, the future of education, medecine, technology and more. Brian is both a fascinating thinker & a proven entrepreneur, and it was a pleasure having a very candid conversation with him about his life and where the world is headed. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @Bryan_johnson Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Jeff Raider is the co-founder of Warby Parker and Harry's. This episode goes deep in the weeds of building a company and building a brand . We talk about Jeff’s journey building 100 year brands at Warby Parker & Harry’s, mistakes and lessons learned from building and scaling those companies, his philosophy on hiring and firing, and much more. Edited by @AlexKontis Lavish Praise to @JeffreyRaider Constructive Criticism to @Eriktorenberg

Josh is an entrepreneur, investor, and founder of First Round Capital. We talk about his come up story, starting half.com and selling it to ebay, how he started First Round, how he learned how to invest, advice to entrepreneurs, and much more. For anyone looking to learn how to invest, Josh is one of the best in the game and drops a bunch of gems in this episode.

Sarah Tavel is a partner at Greylock, previously ran product at Pinterest, and is one of my favorite investors in the Valley. We talk about her story at Pinterest - why she joined, how it scaled, and how she transitioned from PM to VC. She shares career advice talk about career advice — when to join a company, when to move on, and how to identify a rocket ship. And then we discuss investing and how to get good at it. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @sarahtavel Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Patrick Collison, cofounder of Stripe, is one of the most impressive and interesting CEOs in tech today. We delve into Patrick's story - how he came from Ireland, pursued Stripe while on leave from College, and then built and and scaled his company internationally. Patrick shares advice for entrepreneurs, thoughts on education, immigration, and a whole host of other topics. If you enjoyed the Tyler Cowen or Ezra Klein episode, you’ll also enjoy this one. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @patrickc Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Ezra is a journalist and founder of one of the most interesting media platforms today, Vox. In this second episode with Ezra Klein, we discuss politics: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Obama's legacy. We talk entertainment: highbrow vs lowbrow, and then I ask him a set of broad questions--namely where he differs intellectually from thinkers like Peter Thiel, Tyler Cowen, Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and more. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @ezraklein Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Ezra Klein is a journalist and founder of one of the most interesting media platforms today, Vox. Our talk was so good I had to break it down into two episodes. In this first episode, we cover Ezra’s start in journalism, how he transitioned from journalist to manager, and then we get into the future of news media platforms and what it will mean to be a journalist in 2020. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @ezraklein Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

On this episode Abadesi talks to Cat Noone, CEO and designer at Stark, a suite of integrated accessibility compliance tools for teams. She is also co-founder of Iris, a modern-day emergency alert system.

In this episode they talk about...

The story behind Stark

Cat was raised by her grandma and says that that experience ingrained in her the drive to create things for people who are otherwise “put aside.” She is a designer by trade and turned out to be an accidental founder. She explains how the project arose out of her earlier work on Iris, which involved creating experiences for older adults. Stark ended up being a product that they built for themselves when they were working on Iris and then evolved into its own standalone product that they now sell to other teams.

Why accessible design matters

“There may be only twenty thousand people on a product using it that have only one arm but what you don't realize is that there are more individuals that have a broken arm. There are also millions of people that are new parents for the first time and only have access to one arm. So now your 20,000 just skyrocketed to 2 million.”

Cat talks about why designing for accessibility and inclusion is important and talks about some of the other initiatives underway in the tech industry to make the web a more inclusive place for everyone. She explains why it’s important from an ethics perspective, but also why it makes financial sense to do so given the risk of negative PR and potential lawsuits. She says that sometimes compliance can be daunting but they are working to make it easier to be compliant with accessibility regulations through their work at Stark.

Why they are “investing in customers” at Stark

“I’m a huge proponent of investing in customers and so I think a lot of people think about cost of acquisition but we should ask 'how do we build a community that give back and in turns fuels our mission to be the gold standard.'"

Cat explains the company philosophy they have at Stark and discusses what it’s like to be a first-time CEO of a “company that’s going somewhere.” She talks about how they think about culture as they grow and the initiatives that they are working on to grow the company, including content marketing, newsletters, and community. She explains what it means to be investing in customers and why they don’t look at customers as an acquisition cost. She talks about why traditional sales don’t work in a company like Stark and why sometimes the best practices for big companies don’t translate well to smaller ones.

How she uses time design to be productive

“I was someone who spent a lot of time working for a long period of time. It’s hard for me to sit here and say you can’t do that, because that’s how I got to where I am now. If I could go back in time, I would probably still work those long hours — but I’d take care of myself.”

Cat admits that she struggled with managing her time in the past but that with some help she’s been able to “design her time” more effectively which has allowed her to get a lot done in the time that she has as a new mom. She says that her entire workday is planned out and that she starts by reading for thirty minutes every day, which she says helps her approach her work with a calm mindset rather than being frantic about all the things she has to do that day. She also says that she works first on the three things that she needs to make sure she gets done in a given day and then starts tackling the rest. She also says that she still makes sure to take care of herself and says that she can be the best mom and businessperson by prioritizing herself.

She also talks about some of her favorite products, including the classics like Twitter, Slack, iMessage, WhatsApp, and Airtable, as well as DuckDuckGo for search. She says that she uses a record player to listen to music and explains what it is about vinyl that makes the music sound so much different from electronic music formats.

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Knowable and NetSuite for their support. 😸

Des Traynor is the co-founder of Intercom. In this episode we get deep into the weeds of startup land. We discuss product market fit, advice to entrepreneurs, hiring, firing, productivity, and a lot more. Des is one of the best growth and product founders in the game, and drops gems in this episode. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @destraynor Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Emmet Shear is the CEO and Co-Founder of Twitch.tv and a partner at YCombinator. We talk about the story of Twitch.tv -- and how it evolved from Justin.TV -- how he became a YC Partner, and then we have a broader talk about capitalism, social inequality, and how technology can reduce it. Edited by @AlexKontis Lavish Praise to @eshear Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Alysia Harris is a world renowned spoken word poet. This episode we talk about the the craft of poetry -- how Alysia writes poems, how she advises others who want to write poems -- We talk about the economics of poetry -- how Alysia merges art & business and the tensions therein -- we talk about the artist’s role in society, and then, for good measure, we sprinkle some talk about religion, metaphysics, diversity and much more. Edited by @Alexkontis Lavish Praise to @poppyinthewheat, @libashton Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Cal Newport is a computer scientist, professor, and author of five books. In this episode we explore his book "Get So Good They Can’t Ignore You" which talks about the importance of mastery, and the follies of blind pursuing your passion. We also talk about his new book. Deep Work, which comes out today, January 5th. His book explores the concept of deliberate practice and shares strategies for how to construct an environment where one can perform deliberate practice consistently. Edited by @AlexKontis Praise to Calnewport.com/blog Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg Check out Deep Work below. I highly recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692

Jeff Atwood is a prominent entrepreneur and developer, having founded Stack Exchange and, more recently, Discourse. In this episode we get deep into the weeds on community building - Jeff's one of the best in the game. Edited by @Alexkontis Lavish Praise to @codinghorror Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Kanyi Maqbuela is a partner at Collaborative Fund. In this episode, we discuss Kanyi’s personal story going from Stanford drop out to VC, how he’s navigated failures, built mentor relationships, and we also go broad: We talk about tech and the intersection of education, academia, non-profit, government, culture, philosophy, and much more. Edited by @Alexkontis Praise to @Km Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Arielle Zuckerberg is a former Product Manager at Humin and Wildfire, and a new partner at Kleiner Perkins. We talk about the transition from product manager to angel investor to working at Kleiner, how her life has changed due to her last name (Zuckerberg), her senior thesis on the morality of artificial intelligence, and much more

Chris Sacca is one of the most successful angel investors of all time. He's invested in Twitter, Uber, Instagram, and Kickstarter, among many others. Before that he led special projects at Google and worked as a lawyer at Fenwick. He shares what it was like working with Larry & Sergey at Google, working with Ev Williams and Jack Dorsey as one of the first investors in twitter, becoming a guest shark on Shark Tank, interviewing Edward Snowden, and asking President Obama the tough questions while working with him in his two campaigns. edited by Alex Kontis praise to @sacca criticism to @eriktorenberg

Ryan Leslie is one of the most interesting rappers and artists in the music industry. He graduated from Harvard at age 20, has grammy nominated songs, including one with Kanye West, and recently created the Super Phone, which is backed by Ben Horowitz, Betaworks and others. We talk about Ryan's story coming up in the rap game and the tech game, the future of the music industry, how he thinks about building his audience, and much more. Edited by Alex Kontis Praise to @ryanleslie Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Tracy Chou has been a super early employee at Pinterest and Quora and has become one of the most respected voices in the diversity in tech conversation, both in terms of gender and in terms of race, We talk about 1) her experiences being both a women in tech and asian in tech, 2) what’s it meant for Tracy to become a public figure, 3) how she evaluates who she spends her time with and why, 4) having a social impact beyond tech and more. Edited by @Alexkontis Praise to @triketora Criticism to @eriktorenberg

On this episode Abadesi talks to Sylvain Kalache, co-founder of Holberton School, a project-based alternative to college where you can become a software engineer in two years. They have campuses in the United States and Colombia. Sylvain formerly worked at Slideshare and LinkedIn.

In this episode they talk about...

The story of founding Holberton and why a new type of school is needed

“Some companies are tech and the ones who are not, are either becoming a tech company or they are going to die. Even a non-tech company, like healthcare, retail, media, transportation, you name it, they all need software engineers.”

Sylvain talks about how they came up with the idea for Holberton and the experiences he had that convinced him of the need for the school. He explains how he and his co-founder decided to set out to fix those issues with Holberton. He says that many people he interviewed when he was working as an engineer had spent a ton of money on an education but didn’t have the right skills for the job they were applying for.

How they designed their software engineering curriculum

“It’s really hard in the first place to find a good software engineer, so it’s exceptionally hard to find a good software engineer who’s also a good teacher.”

He talks about the hectic first year of working on the school and what it was like getting everything ready for the first cohort of students in January 2016. They needed to create a curriculum for their school and says that they relied on the community to help them figure out what to include in their education. He also points out that the world of software engineering moves at a really fast pace, so it’s important to have a curriculum that can be flexible and always up-to-date.

How to find motivated and passionate people

“Most of the people I would interview were right out of college and spent a fortune or took out huge student loans to take this training. They were not prepared to take on the job. They knew things, but not the type of skills that we would need from these people.”

Sylvain talks about how to find motivated people in general, which is useful for both admissions at Holberton — when it comes to figuring out who to accept or not, as well as hiring at Holberton — because in the early days of the company it is difficult to match the perks that huge companies offer, so you have to find people who believe in the product or vision and have a lot of motivation and passion. He says that looking at someone’s side projects, blog, and GitHub can give you a good indication of how self-motivated they are.

How they are working to increase representation in the tech industry

“We gave a lot, as much as we could, not expecting something in return. The power of community is something that we find in Holberton in the learning methodology itself, where students are pushed to work in groups and where helping is not cheating, but helping is collaboration.”

He says that admissions at Holberton are completely blind and that the system for admissions that they’ve developed is automated. He says that there is talent everywhere, but that a lot of that talent is missing the education, which is where Holberton comes in. He says that their program is comprised of half people of color and nearly half of their students are women. He says that they baked in inclusiveness into their philosophy and operations from the very first days of the company.

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Knowable and NetSuite for their support. 😸

Interview with Alexis Madrigal, long-time tech journalist and media entrepreneur. We discuss tech, media, writing process, mentorship, Grantland, legacy, and more. Lead interviewer: Jonah Bromwich Edited by Alex Kontis

Matt Mullenweg is the Founder of Wordpress. In this episode we talk about daily rituals, how he started Wordpress, how being a successful CEO early on has affected his relationships, how he thinks about hiring, investing, and evaluating people. Edited by Alex Kontis Praise to @photomatt Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Peter Diamandis is author of BOLD and co-founder of X-Prize, Singularity Institute, and many others. We chat about Peter’s story, lessons learned from Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Larry Page, and what’s enabled him to succeed across industries, everything from space travel to human longevity to education of the future. Edited by Alex Kontis Feedback to @eriktorenberg

Tucker Max is the founder of Book in a Box and the author of a new book on relationships, "Mate". http://bookinabox.com http://www.amazon.com/Mate-Become-Man-Women-Want/dp/0316375365

Keith has been an early executive at startups such as Linkedin, Paypal, Square, and has been an early investor in companies such as Youtube, Airbnb, Palantir, Quora, Yelp, and much more. In this episode we discuss Keith’s story, his thoughts on career strategy, his philosophy on hiring and why its similar to drafting athletes, and much more. This was recorded during the LAUNCH conference earlier this year. Edited by Alex Kontis Feedback to @eriktorenberg Praise to @rabois

We just launched our new podcast vertical! www.producthunt.com/podcasts The Product Hunt Team -- Ryan Hoover, Alex Carter, and Erik Torenberg -- sit down and discuss podcasts with Nick Quah, podcast connoisseur and writer of Hot Pod, the defining podcast industry newsletter. Edited by Alex Kontis.

Mahbod Moghadam is a cofounder of (Rap) Genius who recently resigned last year. This episode is a bit like a therapy session: We discuss Mahbod's relationships, his perception of his actions, his thoughts on tech, hip-hop, and much more. Mahbod is currently a cofounder of Everipedia which is "Thug Wikipedia". We conducted the interview before he founded it. www.everipedia.com edited by Alex Kontis feedback to @eriktorenberg

In this episode we have Mike Shinoda, star of popular Linkin Park and Fort Minor. Linkin Park has recently launched a Venture Capital firm. We talk about everything tech - how and why Mike got into tech, what he wants to achieve, what he invests, but we also talk about his art - how he thinks about making art vs making a business off his art, how he deals with success and still pushing it - and a lot more. But the one thing I’m curious when you’ve tried so hard, and got so far, in the end, does it really even matter? Does it?

This episode I’m doing something a little different. It's with Mariquel and Gaston two entrepreneurs who run a business called Hickies, which is a shoelace replacement that allows you to to put on your shoes without tying them ,Bbt this episode has nothing to do with their business. It has nothing to do with tech. it has everything to do with relationships. We talk abut how they met, how Gaston courted Mariquel for 6 years, how, once they got together, they decided to build a business together and how that impacted the relationship, and how they’ve continued to build and strengthen their relationship . This is an experiment. I’ve wanted a more formal excuse to pry into peoples romantic and sex life and I’m curious if other people enjoy it. If you do, tweet me and let me know. If you think is this is lame, also tweet me. I’m just not gonna take silence anymore. I’m not gonna do it. Let me know what you think @eriktorenberg. Edited by Alex Kontis.

Ann Friedman is a journalist who writes about gender, tech, politics, and social issues in her weekly column for New York magazine. She also co-hosts the podcast Call Your Girlfriend with her friend Aminatou Sow. In this episode we talk about how to be a journalist in 2015, how anne’s podcast with her best friend has effected their relationship, and what it means to be an ethical tech consumer. Edited by Alex Kontis For constructive criticism on the episode, message me @eriktorenberg For lavish praise, message @annfriedman

On this episode Abadesi talks to Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a mechanical engineer, social advocate, writer, and broadcaster. She is the author of multiple books and is the founder of Youth Without Borders.

In this episode they talk about...

Her aspirations to work in Formula 1

“I remember it was the best half-day of my life. I walk past two McLaren F1s on my way into the office and I’m working with all these people with English accents and then I get a call from the admin lady at lunch and she’s like ‘hey, do you have your work visa?’ I didn’t, so they escort me off the premises.”

Yassmin grew up in Brisbane where as a young girl she wanted to be a Formula 1 driver. At nineteen years old she managed to find a job with an F1 team in England. She flew across the world for the job only to find out on the first day that she didn’t have the appropriate visa to work at the firm. While staying in the UK for a few weeks afterwards, she honed her hustling skills.

How she hustled her way into jobs

“I wallowed about for a bit and then I started cold-emailing people in the motorsport industry to ask if I could meet them. So I started catching trains to meet all these heads of different motorsport teams. I got offered a place in a really exclusive program but it cost 50,000 pounds, so I decided to work in oil and gas, which is really where my engineering career started.”

Yassmin’s career is a clinic in hustling. From humble beginnings she worked her way to a potential job at an F1 team, and when that didn’t work out as expected, she hustled her way into another job at an oil and gas firm. While working in the industry, she managed to complete a program that normally takes five years in just eighteen months and was poised to take over her own drilling rig.

Navigating engineering culture

“I did mechanical engineering which was super male-dominated then I went into like motorsport and the drilling industry. Throughout I was surrounded by a very strong culture which said women were just less valuable. You internalize that and you think the way for you to be valuable is to be as close to a man as possible and to really minimize your womanhood. So I for a long time was also like, ‘yeah women probably aren't really good engineers, I'm just the exception.‘

She talks about the pernicious culture in male-dominated industries such as engineering and how it affected her mindset and how it held back her career. She explains how she had to fight for credibility and how certain people supported her on her journey.

How she has successfully pivoted her career multiple times

Yassmin no longer works in motorsport or oil and gas. She wrote a book about her experiences as a person of color and what it was like working on the rigs. The company she worked for did not take kindly to the publication of her first book, so she pivoted her career to becoming a full-time writer and broadcaster. She talks about realizing that the company you work for is not a family and that the company will always put the company first. She has also since pivoted from Australia to London.

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Knowable and NetSuite for their support. 😸

Steven Johnson is the author of many books, some of which Future Perfect, Where Good Ideas Come from, Mind Wide Open, and How We Got To Now. This episode is all about innovation, where it occurs in our own lives, where it occurs in communities, and how he keeps finding it in his own life. Innovation is one of those terms like "authentic" that has essentially been co-opted. It’s been used so much to describe nearly everything that it’s almost lost its meaning. But Steven’s been writing about innovation for two decades and has interesting and defining things to say about it. Edited by Alex Kontis For any feedback, message me by @eriktorenberg See more Steven Johnson at www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/ and message him at @Stevenbjohnson.

Jane McGonigal is an author and game designer who believes that playing games and adopting gameful mindset can help improve our health, relationships, and her new book, Superbetter, explains how. In this episode we talk about Superbetter and how it works, we talk about not judging games by their content but by how the game is played, co-operative games vs competitive games, the intersection of games & therapy and more. Check out her book here: http://www.amazon.com/SuperBetter-Revolutionary-Approach-Stronger-Resilient-Powered/dp/1594206368 Edited by Alex Kontis For feedback, message me @eriktorenberg

Troy Carter is the founder of Atom Factory and Smashd Labs. Artists he's managed include Lady Gaga, John Legend, Miguel, and many others. Startups in his portfolio include Uber, Dropbox, Spotify, and many others. In this episode we talk about the convergence between entertainment and tech, the music industry, and how Troy wants to be for entrepreneurs what Nike was for athletes. Edited by Alex Kontis For feedback, message me at @eriktorenberg