Original Minds

For startup founders, it's easy to be distracted by emerging technology and research. But how do you know when it's time to put your blinders on and focus your core product? In this episode, we chat with SkySpecs co-founder Danny Ellis. SkySpecs is a company focused on wind turbine inspection through the use of autonomous drones. Tune in to hear the story of how SkySpecs was born, the challenges they faced while pitching an illegal product to investors, and how they decided to shift their company's focus.

As we've learned in past episodes, entrepreneurship is all about hedging your bets. But how do you know when it's time to quit hedging those bets and go all in? For Cribspot co-founder Jason Okrasinski, it was after he found himself spending more time on his startup than on his consulting role at Digitas. In this episode, we hear how Jason and his colleagues formed Cribspot, a real estate startup focused on modernizing the college housing search, the lessons they learned from scaling their business, and why you shouldn't wait to test out your ideas.

Are personal assistants the future? Join us as we talk with Clarity Labs (Clinc AI) co-founder, Johann Hauswald. Clinc is building a revolutionary conversational AI platform that connects users to their personal finances. In this episode, we'll hear how Johann and the Clinc team turned their university research into a fast-growing startup, the role a founder's passion plays in building a company, and why the blame should never be on the user.

Is there a right way to fail? Join us as we talk with former University of Michigan professor and co-founder of Sakti3, Dr. Ann Marie Sastry. In this episode, we'll hear why Ann Marie sought to solve the problems she did, why diversity in your talent pool matters just as much as who you choose to hire, and why you should always leave the hard stuff for Monday.

What is the secret to startup success? Is it dropping out of college to raise millions in venture funding? Perhaps not. Join us as we chat with Rishi Narayan, a two-time University of Michigan graduate, angel investor, and co-founder of Underground Printing. In this episode, we'll hear how Rishi founded a now $20M t-shirt company from his college dorm room, learn from his pivots and failures, and discuss why dropping out of college is not always the right approach.