Inc. Founders Project With Alexa Von Tobel

Chainguard founder and CEO Dan Lorenc is building the security layer the entire software industry should run on. After nearly a decade at Google working on open source infrastructure, Dan co-founded Chainguard in 2021 to solve a problem hiding in plain sight. 90 to 95 percent of the code powering the world's software is open source, free, and largely unsecured. Now leading a $3.5B+ company with more than 600 customers, Dan shares his unfiltered take on where software security, AI, and the future of engineering are all headed. What You'll Learn: How Chainguard is securing the open source software the world runs on Why the AI coding boom is making software security harder, not easier What the future of software engineering actually looks like Why CISOs can't afford to say no to AI, even when it scares them Whether we've already hit AGI in the software space How to think about your own digital security right now Chapters: 00:00 Introduction01:30 Growing Up a Builder04:22 The Origin of

Teamshares CEO Michael Brown is on a mission to address one of the biggest problems in the American economy. Millions of small businesses are owned by Boomers and Gen X approaching retirement, and most will never find a buyer. Teamshares buys these businesses from retiring owners. With more than 90 companies acquired across 30 states, over 500 million in revenue, and a Nasdaq listing on the horizon, Michael is proving that the small business economy deserves a better solution. What You'll Learn: How Teamshares actually works and why the model gets stronger as it scales What nearly 100 acquisitions have taught Michael about small businesses that most people don't see Why going public changes everything for Teamshares and why Michael says it's still the first inning How he built through COVID and the 2022-2023 rate shock without losing conviction The long-term mindset behind building a company with a 200-year plan Chapters: 01:30 Michael's Childhood 04:04 What Is Teamshares 07:44 Why Goi

What happens when humanity faces the sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history? Serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm believes we need a backup plan. With a track record of building and exiting companies across AI, gaming, and conversational intelligence, Ben took on his most audacious venture in 2021: co-founding Colossal Biosciences with Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church to bring extinct species back to life. The company has already successfully de-extincted the dire wolf and aims to return woolly mammoths to the Arctic by 2028. In this episode, Ben shares how his self-described "unemployable" streak became his entrepreneurial superpower, why asking naive questions helps him tackle impossible challenges across industries, and how Colossal's breakthrough technologies represent humanity's essential insurance policy for planetary survival. Follow Inspired: ⁠Website⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ ⁠X⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Substack

Watershed CEO Taylor Francis is building the infrastructure for companies to decarbonize at scale. After building Stripe's climate program, he saw how technology could move the needle faster than policy alone and set out on his journey as a founder. With a 500 million ton CO2 reduction goal by 2030 and customers like FedEx, Walmart, Airbnb, and Spotify, Taylor is proving that climate action can be both urgent and profitable. What You'll Learn: Taylor's journey from An Inconvenient Truth to founding Watershed What he learned at Stripe about scaling impact and building mission-driven companies How supply chain collaboration is the real lever for decarbonization (and why it matters more than you think) What the next decade of climate actually looks like and why the world is winning faster than predicted The frameworks and principles that attract the best people to solve the hardest problems Chapters: 1:57 Growing Up and An Inconvenient Truth 5:35 From Princeton to Policy 7:40 What Stripe

Julia Berolzheimer and Thomas Berolzheimer have spent 15 years turning a fashion blog into one of the most powerful e-commerce brands in the creator economy. What started with a camera and an idea in 2011 has grown into a multi-platform empire spanning a blog, Instagram, Substack, ShopMy, Amazon, and their newest venture, Coreli. What You'll Learn: How Julia and Thomas built one of the most trusted brands in the creator economy Why curation beats creation when it comes to driving real commerce How they think about managing content, platforms, and technology as a team Where AI fits in and where it doesn't for creators who've built on authenticity What the next decade of the creator economy actually looks like Chapters: 01:52 Intro 02:35 The Beginning of Julia and Thomas's Journey 04:45 Milestones and Evolution of Gal Meets Glam 06:41 Curation and How Julia Starts Every Morning 11:30 Managing Content Across Different Platforms 15:34 ShopMy 20:25 Tools and Technology

Solace founder and CEO Jeremy Gurewitz is building a marketplace that connects patients with healthcare advocates—covered by insurance. After losing his mother to pancreatic cancer and witnessing firsthand how difficult it was to navigate the US healthcare system, Jeremy founded Solace to help every American manage the overwhelming complexity of healthcare, from finding the right doctors to dealing with insurance. Now, after raising $130 million in a Series C led by IVP, Solace is expanding into commercial insurance and scaling nationally. With a patient NPS of 90 and data showing improved outcomes and lower costs, Jeremy shares how he is building for a future where healthcare advocacy becomes as standard as having a primary care physician. What You'll Learn: Jeremy's personal journey from losing his mother to building Solace How healthcare advocacy works and why patients achieve a 90+ NPS Why the US healthcare system is so broken and how advocates fix it Where Jeremy sees healthcare heading i

Kevin Ryan is known as the godfather of New York City tech. Over three decades, he's founded or backed companies worth more than $40 billion combined, including DoubleClick (acquired by Google), MongoDB (now valued at $30 billion), Business Insider (sold for $450 million), and Gilt Group. As founder of AlleyCorp, Kevin has spent his career building category-defining companies and correctly predicting major technology shifts before they happened. From betting on the internet in 1996 to understanding AI's trajectory today, Kevin shares his framework for seeing what's next and why speed executed properly changes everything. What You'll Learn: How Kevin spotted the internet would change everything in 1996 and the patterns he uses to see what's next The two categories Kevin is betting on: vertical AI applications and deep science breakthroughs Why winning the first four years matters more than anything else How to compete for top 0.1% talent in today's market Kevin's 2036 predictions for work, N

Flock Safety founder and CEO Garrett Langley is building the technology infrastructure to eliminate crime in America. A repeat entrepreneur who previously built and sold two companies for over $200 million each, Garrett now leads a $7.5 billion company serving more than 6,000 communities, 5,000 law enforcement agencies, and 1,000 businesses while helping achieve nearly a million arrests annually. He shares his conviction that safety drives economic prosperity, the surprising fact that drones arrive on scene 94% of the time before officers, and how AI will free police officers from paperwork to focus on community relationships. What You'll Learn: Why it's getting easier to commit serious crimes in America and what's driving that trend How technology creates precision in law enforcement that's never existed before Why drones are transforming emergency response and saving cities money How AI will reshape policing by eliminating paperwork and doubling community presence Why safety is the foundati

Alexa is sharing her bold predictions for 2026, from physical AI transforming our crumbling infrastructure to quantum computing breakthroughs that will reshape innovation. With her signature focus on walking into the office "in 2035," she explain why AI won't destroy jobs but will instead free us from mundane work, how autonomous vehicles will give suburban parents their time back, and why smart machines are finally taking us out of the Roman times. Chapters: 00:09 Prediction #1- Physical AI 02:06 Prediction #2- Quantum 03:00 Prediction #3 - Jobs 05:04 Prediction #4 - Autonomous cars Follow Inspired: Website⁠ Instagram⁠ LinkedIn⁠ X⁠ Substack

Suno founder and CEO Mikey Shulman is building the future of music creation. A Harvard PhD physicist who led machine learning at Kensho before it was acquired by S&P Global, Mikey had a realization in 2022 that audio was a backwater in machine learning—despite being everywhere in human life. He turned that realization into $2.5B company Suno, which grew from zero to over 100 million users. Mikey shares how Suno scales to users generating seven million tracks a day, why music's format will change as dramatically in this era as it did in the shift from vinyl to streaming, and how AI is democratizing creativity for billions of people who never thought they could make music. What You'll Learn: How growing up in a loving, stable environment with parents who encouraged following your passions shaped Mikey's leadership style Why audio was overlooked in machine learning and how Suno made it a first-class citizen How Suno went from zero users to 100 million and zero revenue to $200 million in under three

Dylan Taylor, founder and CEO of Voyager Technologies, is building the infrastructure that will define humanity's future in space. Through defense, space solutions, and Starlab, Voyager is working on some of the most ambitious aerospace projects of our generation. In this conversation, Dylan takes us from watching Star Trek as a kid in Idaho to becoming a publicly traded space company CEO. He shares what it's actually like to reach space aboard Blue Origin, why we're living through the biggest space boom in human history, and how space will transform our global economy. What You'll Learn: Why space isn't an industry but humanity's eighth continent His experience going to outer space How perfect real-time information about Earth will create trillions in economic value Projects that Voyager is working on How ambition shifted from personal glory to reflected glory through leadership Predictions for the space industry The frontier innovations that will enable humans to live and work in spac

Axion founder Daniel First is building the command center for American manufacturing that detects product failures before they reach customers. His AI-powered observability platform links IoT data, technician reports, and customer feedback across aerospace, medical devices, and consumer products to identify emerging issues manufacturers don't even know exist. Born from watching enterprise AI pilots fail at McKinsey, Axion is architecting customer-centric manufacturing where products iterate in real time based on what's breaking in the field. What You'll Learn: The trillion-dollar quality crisis plaguing American manufacturing and how AI is solving it Why most enterprise AI fails and what makes the rare successes different The future of American manufacturing competing on speed of customer learning How real-time field data is transforming product development cycles Unconventional founder habits that enable exceptional speed and deep thinking  Chapters: 2:00 From Orthodox Debates to Indepe

Interior designer Nate Berkus is one of the most recognizable names in design. He started his firm at 24 with nothing but authenticity and hustle, building an empire spanning TV, books, product lines, and high-end interiors that's landed him on the AD100 list for a decade. His journey includes 12 years as Oprah's design expert, surviving the 2004 tsunami, and building a life with Jeremiah Brent as one of TV's first openly gay families. With his new book Foundations releasing November 18th, Nate reflects on what it takes to stay creatively obsessed for 30 years and build a household name in design. What You'll Learn: • How he started his firm at 24 and convinced clients to take a chance on him • Working with Oprah and his strategic approach to media • How surviving the 2004 tsunami fundamentally changed him and his reflections on that experience • Why he believes design is part magic, part alchemy, and part sociology • How he and Jeremiah Brent collaborate as both partners and business collaborators • The f

Writer CEO May Habib is building the future of enterprise AI. Born in Lebanon as the oldest of eight kids, May grew up navigating chaos, multiple languages, and cultures, skills that shaped her into a founder willing to challenge assumptions. After pivoting from Qordoba, she built Writer's own foundational models and spent a decade solving real AI problems for Fortune 500 companies. Now leading a $2B+ company, May shares her bold vision for where AI is headed, from self-evolving LLMs that proactively guide us to why work in 2030 will be unrecognizable. What You'll Learn: How growing up as the oldest of eight in a Lebanese family shaped May's leadership style Why Writer focuses on highly regulated industries like healthcare and financial services The critical difference between generative AI and agentic AI How self-evolving AI will proactively prompt you instead of waiting for commands Why execution is going from scarce and expensive to abundant and on-demand What the average knowledge work

Atria Health Institute founder Alan Tisch is rebuilding America's healthcare system from the ground up. After two near-death experiences in his mid-20s revealed how broken preventive care truly is, Alan made it his life's mission to tackle a system designed to profit from sick people rather than keep them healthy. With a multidisciplinary team of 15 medical specialties and cutting-edge diagnostics, Atria is pioneering the preventive healthcare movement to extend not only lifespan but healthspan. What You'll Learn: Why the healthcare system profits from keeping you sick instead of healthy How a $150 test can prevent heart attacks 20 years before they happen The difference between healthspan and lifespan and why it matters Why team-based care across specialties beats the traditional siloed approach How to think about preventive diagnostics like whole body MRIs and genetic testing Why now is the most exciting time for healthcare Chapters:00:00 Intro02:40 Early Influences and Family Back

ShopMy co-founders Harry Rein and Tiffany Lopinsky are building the most sophisticated three-sided commerce platform that revolutionizes how creators monetize authentic recommendations, how brands scale through trusted advocates, and how consumers discover products through curated networks they actually trust. Powered by intricate product graph technology and advanced data infrastructure that maps millions of products across retailers, they're architecting the future of commerce driven by intentional curation rather than algorithmic impulse buying. What You'll Learn: Why the "curator economy" matters more than the "creator economy" How their Circles feature creates personalized shopping through trusted networks The product philosophy of minimizing "calories" in user experience design How they thought through scaling ShopMy’s audience Why authentic recommendations outperform traditional performance marketing How complementary co-founder skills drive success The "sweep the floors" menta

World quantum expert and professor Jeff Thompson, founder of Logiqal, shares his journey from academia (at Yale, Harvard, MIT, and Princeton) to now building the first scaled quantum computer. He explains why the world needs this breakthrough, how Logiqal’s neutral atom technology makes it possible, and what it could unlock for medicine, materials, and the future of innovation. What You’ll Learn: What is quantum? Why the world needs a scaled quantum computer Jeff’s journey through Yale, Harvard, MIT, and now running a lab at Princeton Why failure drives scientific discovery How Logiqal is using neutral atom technology and ytterbium What quantum could unlock for medicine and materials How Jeff balances academia and entrepreneurship How he sees the global race for quantum computing Chapters:01:58 Intro 08:04 Quantum 101: Bits, Qubits, and Schrödinger’s Cat09:40 The State of Quantum Today: Early Days, Big Potential13:19 What Really Counts as a Quantum Computer?14:35 How Many Qubits Do

Dr. Becky Kennedy from Good Inside shares her journey from private practice psychologist to building the #1 consumer parenting tool on the planet. She reveals how blending emotional connection with practical action helps parents raise resilient kids and become sturdier themselves. What You’ll Learn: • How Dr. Becky built Good Inside into a global parenting movement • The secret to becoming a “sturdy parent” and raising resilient kids • Why parenting feels hard even for good parents and how to navigate it with confidence • How to break cycles of shame and foster deep connection at home • The lessons Dr. Becky learned while scaling a mission-driven brand • Good Inside’s future  Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:58 Becky’s Origin Story 5:34 Parenting Genres of Our Generation 9:38 Early Career and Education 14:11 Internal Family Systems (IFS) Explained 17:19 Private Practice to Parenting Work 21:15 Instagram and the First Viral Posts 27:39 Founding Good Inside 30:34 Parenting as the Last Frontier 39:15

What if the secret to solving impossible problems isn't avoiding failure, but learning to leverage it? Serial entrepreneur and inventor Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at X (Alphabet's Moonshot Factory), discovered this counterintuitive truth growing up in a family where intelligence was everything. The grandson of Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, and a Nobel Prize-winning economist, Astro learned that being smart wasn't enough. He had to develop his creativity into his philosophy of "being yourself on purpose." Today, Astro is responsible for steering X’s projects—like Waymo, Dandelion, and Verily—through the bumps and scrapes they meet along the road to reality. In this episode, Astro shares how childhood stories of the Manhattan Project's creative community inspired X's culture, why he transformed from trying to outsmart employees to becoming a "culture engineer," and why intellectual honesty is the real key to turning science fiction into reality.

What if we could predict infrastructure failures before they happen instead of scrambling to fix them after disaster strikes? Serial entrepreneur Alex Hawkinson quips that the Romans would be laughing at us if they saw our current approach to managing the critical systems that power our world. Known as the father of IoT for creating SmartThings—a platform supporting over one billion connected devices before its acquisition by Samsung—Alex is now tackling his most ambitious challenge yet: awakening America's crumbling infrastructure through physical AI. With nearly 500,000 sensors already deployed across water, energy, and essential services, BrightAI is shifting entire industries from reactive maintenance to proactive intelligence. In this episode, Alex shares how BrightAI's observability layer creates an unbreakable competitive moat, how his "swing big" philosophy attracts world-class talent, and why transforming infrastructure management represents humanity's next great technological leap forward.