CoFounder Weekly intros
CoFounder Weekly intros
CoFounder Weekly: October 18, 2020
CoFounder Weekly is a startup newsletter & more.
Last week, I asked you to share what you’re are working on and thinking about.
Thank you to everyone replied! We got people working on everything from crypto to esports and autonomous drones. Fascinating stuff.
Here’ a rundown:
I'm Steph. I run Trends at the Hustle, write at my personal blog, previously led a publications team of a few dozen, and recently wrote a book all about content that sold $40k in copies in its first couple weeks. I also taught myself to code over the last few years and create fun lil side projects like Eunoia (a directory of words that don't translate).
One of the things I'm thinking about is how we can make education as fun as Netflix or Fortnite.
I'm Nikhil! I'm working on Out-Of-Pocket, combining healthcare analysis and comedy.
One thing I'm thinking about is how to maintain the quality and engagement of an online community past a certain size. I currently run two separate communities, a healthcare slack channel with assignments/talks/etc. and a site called Get Real with very different approaches to building a community. I have no idea if any of these techniques are "right" - but I just wonder if it's even possible to scale communities and if others have thought about best ways to do that.
Tannya Cai: I’m exploring the space of parenting in a world of parents becoming increasingly busy while still wanting to engage with their kid’s development and growth (and ensure they’re not just watching iPads all the time). Nothing concrete yet, but interested in the edtech space!
I'm Victor and this week I am helping with the visual design for A Podcast About Watches, a new podcast about watches created by former Condé Nast Executive Producer of Podcasts, Alex Kapelman. I'm also working on a series of voting graphics for LinkNYC kiosks around the city as part of their Visualize the Vote series. And, as always, continuing to build out the design system for my company BetterPT, which improves access and reduces friction around global healthcare services. I am thinking a lot about our growing telehealth model and how we can build scalable end to end customer experiences in healthcare that put patients first.
Noe Fagnoni: I’m currently working on decision making and Bayesian networks. I ve just finished grad school at Cal in Entrepreneurship and Behavioral sciences.
Would absolutely enjoy discovering likeminded folks and see what people are working on !
Philip from Sweden here. I'm the co-founder of Challengermode, a leading grassroots esports platform providing the fundamental infrastructure solution to the problem of accessibility for the entire esports ecosystem. At Challengermode I spend my time working mostly on product and marketing. I'm also a former product manager and instructor of digital marketing, with a Masters Degree in computer science from Cal State Long Beach. I'm a lifelong learner, always looking for new and better ways of thinking about the world, lessons which I share in my biweekly newsletter. What makes me really excited is when I discover new perspectives about the world that opens up new ways of understanding it, or improves my thinking in some way.
I'm Jacob (we met at the cofounder breakfast in NYC last year!), am a Founder and Community Builder – working on a newsletter about community + business strategy.
Calling it Riveting Stuff! The thesis is that there is a lot of tactical community building tips out there and ideas on how to take a community from 0-1, so am catering to a higher level for the Founder, CMO, or tech-community curious audience –– doing deep dives on community driven businesses (think Notion. Roam, Figma, Twilio, Salesforce), analyzing community as a go-to-market strategy, and exploring how founders/creators can incorporate and adopt community as a core strategic pillar of their business.
Lauren Doyle: I am working on re-envisioning 1:1 marketing for brands. Human connection is more important than ever -- so what does this look like in the future.
Through this, I am building an empowered network of the awesome solo-entrepreneurs, consultants and side hustlers to provide growing brands access to amazing talent to elevate their brands.
That's what I'm thinking about -- how we can create work opportunities and human connection for the good of the world.
I’m Ushir, fellow Betaworks member, and building Namu, automating accounting, taxes and invoicing for freelancers!
What’s something you’re thinking about these days?
Well, on the biz side its how to creatively acquire customers and raise seed funding. On the personal side, it’s how to keep my 3 kids sane through hybrid school and sports while staying sane myself working out of our nyc apt!
Benny Rubin: I'm in a scaling mood. I'm trying to open up new verticals for my Cold Email Outbound-as-a-service business and open to talking to folks who either need help with Cold Email Outbound, are really good at it, and/or have experience scaling service-oriented businesses!
Tyler Godoff!: My current focus: Advising an early-stage company as it raises its first institutional round. The company is building an OS for the autonomous drone industry.
Hey I'm James :)
I'm working on an AI writing assistant called Sudowrite and am doing a bunch of thinking around how AI can be used to create "centaur artists" (ie. human-machine artists) and the implications to creativity.
My name is Maria, I'm a cofounder of GoodQues, currently working on an exciting project for Tik Tok and thinking about how to pivot from a services based company and productize our offering!
My name is Graham, I work for a tech company based in Montreal (unito.io), though I'm currently back in my home province of Nova Scotia (have been since March), where we've managed to avoid serious COVID infections.
I work on growth at Unito, which includes everything from pricing, to activation, to retention, and changes a little bit each quarter. We just released a big product revamp in September which was a big milestone for the company.
Outside my day job, I try to read and write when I can (grahammann.net), have been working on restoring an old motorbike (1971 Honda SL125) with my brother, and have been enjoying surfing and cycling and golf here in beautiful Nova Scotia.
Matt Newberg, founder of HNGRY - a media startup examining how technology shapes the way we eat. Just launching a paid subscription and thinking about channels for growth!
My name is Eli G and I'm working at ConsenSys Software. I'm currently working on a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project and am thinking about the value of the Uniswap Token ($UNI) and whether Serum will become one of the biggest decentralized exchanges in the next couple of years.
I'm Adam and work in VC as my day job. I'm working on a project where I interview creative professionals (writers, musicians, painters, etc.) on their creative process. I'm thinking about form functions and if this project lives best on a substack, website, or if I want to do the lift to make it a podcast.
I'm William. Working on building a learning company that focuses on the before and after aspects of learning at thinkmyelin.com
Michael Kubin: I'm your dad and I'm working on making addressable television ubiquitous through broadcast programmer inventory. If that sounds unintelligible to most people, that's because it is. But it's really what I'm working on and if it all works properly it should become a multi-billion dollar business in a few years.
Mathias Guttu: I am working on SchoolHouse which allows teachers to start their own micro-schools with small class sizes and flexible curriculum. We think it's a better way to learn and a way to unlock every kid's potential. I am thinking about how remote work, driverless cars, and solutions like SchoolHouse will change behaviors of where and how people live.
Isaac Rosenberg: Hi there!
I’m working on a platform to help architects and urban planners redesign cities.
I think a lot about the future of cities, specifically how to make them more affordable, walkable, and accessible to the average American.
I also think a lot about what regulations need to change at the local and state level to make this happen like zoning and permitting processes.
Here's a piece I wrote that gives some insight into what I'm thinking: https://www.notion.so/irosenb/2030-Vision-cc0c94a1f787457595303455c55535e6
If this catches your attention, reach out to me on Twitter.
Hey, I'm Whitney, Creative Director & Founder of Maker, a strategy, branding, and experience design studio focused on building lasting brand equity for early stage and growth businesses. Alongside our studio work, we incubate a few brands each year.
Here are a few things we're excited about:
-A waste free home essentials market that splits packaging into compostable delivery-optimized shippers and elevated, reusable storage and service-wear.
-Entering Phase 2 of Design with a focus on hospitality in a Post-Covid World, for Marram, a hotel in Montauk which we launched last year.
-Kicking around a fair-wage dining concept that seeks a more sustainable restaurant model by shifting the margin to higher priced food and cocktails in return for retail priced wine and liquor.
Tristan Pollock: Hey friends! I'm working on building CTO.ai - a workflow automation platform for developers that you can use with your CLI or Slack. I'm looking for dev teams who care about velocity and observability to join our community and try out CTO.ai. Join us here and I'll make sure you are taken care of: https://w.cto.ai/community
I’m Greg! I’m co-creator and host of Business Trip, a podcast about psychedelic entrepreneurship. Also co-founder of HelloSponsor. And chief dreamer at CoFounder Weekly.
I’m thinking about (1) helping people start companies and find jobs in psychedelic medicine (2) experiments (like this one) to run with the CoFounder Weekly community. Ideas welcome!
(If you want to get in touch with someone above, reach out directly or I can make an intro),
Greg
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