Managing uncertainty with Habi and Inspired Capital

Today's interview was led by TechCrunch Senior Enterprise Reporter, Kyle Wiggers. Kyle spoke with Romi Gubes, the CEO of Sensi.AI, a startup that has developed 24/7 audio-based AI software to detect and predict physical, cognitive and emotional care-related anomalies. Joining Romi is Sergey Gribov, General partner at Flint Capital and a board member at Sensi.AI, who previously founded the enterprise assets management company AB Systems.Romi and Sergey spoke to us about:Providing an assisted solution for caregivers during the continued healthcare worker shortageWhen to develop your own AI, and when to use an off-the-shelf solutionWe closed out the show with a new batch of founders for Pitch Practice. And as always, if you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts.

This week on the TechCrunch Live podcast, we hear from Mark Rostick from Intel Capital to Garima Kapoor from MinIO. It might not be the buzziest areas to grow a company, yet MinIO found a niche selling object storage, while competing directly with Amazon S3. Perhaps the open source component helps drive interest from its target developer market looking for an alternative from the cloud giant. It’s never easy competing with the likes of Amazon, yet MinIO has been able to find success. Garima Kapoor co-founded MinIO in 2014 and has since grown the company to a billion-dollar valuation. Along the way, Kapoor raised $126.30 million from venture capital, including from Mark Rostick of Intel Capital.We have a lot of questions about MinIO:Why did it get into a business competing directly with Amazon?What role did open source have in building a developer audience?How did cloud-native technologies contribute to your success?What did Mark and Intel Capital see in this company that made them think they could succeed in a crowded and mature market?And you can ask questions too! Each week on TechCrunch Live, registered Hopin attendees can submit questions, and I’ll do my best to ask as many as possible.TechCrunch Live is our weekly event series featuring top founders and investors. The show records live, most Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. PDT. It’s free to register and attend. Watch past episodes on our YouTube channel and subscribe to the podcast here.

Today's interview was led by TechCrunch Global Managing Editor, Ingrid Lunden. Ingrid spoke to Rick Song, one of the co-founders of Persona, which built and offers a large suite of identity verification solutions to address the ever-growing issue of identity fraud. Joining Rick is Mark Goldberg of Index Ventures, a firm that made a prescient move to spot and back Persona early on.Mark and Rick spoke to us about:How Persona keeps pace with AI Verification and Online TrustHow Index Ventures is riding on the wave of the startup’s growthAnd the unique and complex issues that come to the public’s mind with AIMatt Burns closed out the show with audience questions and a new batch of founders for Pitch Practice. And as always, if you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts.

Matt Burns spoke to James Peyer, the co-founder of Cambrian BioPharma, and Maryanna Saenko, co-founder and partner at Future Ventures. Cambrian BioPharma is a new pharmaceutical startup with a revolutionary approach to developing and managing drug development age-related diseases. What we're most interested in, though, is how Cambrian’s executive team attracts and retains top talent. (Spoiler: They give them an oversized amount of equity compared to traditional pharmaceutical companies.)James and Maryanna spoke to us about:Developing therapeutics for anti-aging in a way that works with the existing regulatory structureHow James and Maryanna solve the 'venture capital math problem' But first we spoke on moving research from academia to the real world and fighting misconception and buzzwords around longevity biotechWe closed out the show with a new batch of founders for Pitch Practice. And as always, if you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts.

Today's interview was led by TechCrunch Senior Reporter and edtech expert, Natasha Mascarenhas. Natasha spoke to Sam Chaudhary, the founder of ClassDojo, who spent eight years building the edtech consumer app that focuses on student classrooms, before introducing a formal revenue model. Joining Sam is his investor Chris Farmer, the founder and CEO of SignalFire, a seed-stage venture firm that recently raised $900 million across four new funds.Sam and Chris spoke to us about:How Sam played the long-game in edtech and what he’d do differently if he had to do it all over againWhy SignalFire chose to navigate the edtech space, specifically the connection between kids and consumersHow Chris sees investing in companies that aren’t rushing to monetizeThe "outsider advantage" and its tension with insider knowledgeWe closed out the show with a new batch of founders for Pitch Practice. And as always, if you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts.

Matt Burns spoke to Brynne McNulty Rojas, who's the co-founder and CEO of Habi, the hot real estate startup out of Colombia which reached unicorn status last year. Brynne founded Habi to bring modern home buying tools to low- and middle-class home buyers in her home country of Colombia. Now, with a valuation above $1 billion USD, Habi is a serious player in the LatAm home buying market where the majority of the homes for sale are not listed online. Joining Brynne in this conversation is Mark Batsiyan, a co-founder and partner at Inspired Capital.Brynne and Mark spoke to us about:Habi's growth and what it was like to work with US-based investorsHow Brynne built her team's confidence during a period of uncertaintyThe value of transparency and sharing vulnerabilityAnd advice to founders raising in today's marketWe closed out the show with a new batch of founders for Pitch Practice. And as always, if you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts.

Today's interview was led by Neesha Tambe, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield editor who’s also largely responsible for the hundreds of startups pitching and exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt. But she’s here today because of her personal experience with I-V-F. Neesha spoke with Oma Robotics o-founder Kiran Joshi and Root Ventures Partner Chrissy Meyer. Unlike many other fertility providers, Oma focuses on male infertility, and today we’re going to hear about a few things: Oma Fertility's experience building a company in healthcare during a global pandemicHow Root made the jump to virtual-first investments, which is now the new normAnd how founders can craft their story and stand out in a crowded marketAs always, Matt Burns closed out the show with a round of Pitch Practice and audience questions. If you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts. 

TechCrunch's Rebecca Bellan led today's interview, and she spoke with Contrary Capital founder and partner, Eric Tarczynski, and AtoB co-founder Harshita Arora. AtoB’s integrated financial platform is like Stripe for transportation, according to Harshita, but that's only part of what makes this startup interesting - Harshita herself is 21. She started this journey when she was 14 and wrote a best selling app when she was 16. She has a great story to tell.On this episode you’ll hear:Red flags VCs are keeping an eye out for when looking at teamsHow the VC and startup world reacts to the Girl Genius versus the Boy Genius.The pain points of the trucking industry, and why a fintech product aims to solve them.As always, Matt Burns closed out the show with a round of Pitch Practice and audience questions. If you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts.

This week, TechCrunch’s top security editor Zack Whittaker interviewed  Sequoia partner Andrew Reed and Christina Cacioppo, co-founder and CEO of Vanta. Cacioppo started Vanta in 2016 has taken on the important work of compliance and security automation, closing its Series B in October 2022. On today's episode, we talked about:Why startups should focus on compliance earlyThe value of making SOC 2 easy and low-cost for comapniesAnd what VCs are looking for in a company focusing on complianceAs always, Matt Burns closed out the show with questions from the audience and a round of Pitch Practice. Don't forget - you can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts.

This week, TechCrunch+ Editor In Chief, Alex Wilhelm, led the interview portion of our show. Alex spoke to Kleiner Perkins partner Mamoon Hamid and Founder & CEO of Thrive Global and co-founder of Huffington Post, Ariana Huffington. Huffington reckons that her company can help modern workers become healthier and more productive, partly through better habits — including sleep. And Mamoon thinks that the business she’s built around the idea has a big future.On today's episode, we talked about:Mamoon and Ariana's initial thoughts on where to go following Silicon Valley Bank's crashThrive's growth and navigation of macro headwindsEmployee well-being, burnout, and how to provide mental health supportAs always, Matt Burns closed out the show with questions from the audience and a round of Pitch Practice. Don't forget - you can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!The TechCrunch Live Podcast drops at 6:00 a.m. PT every Monday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast,Spotify and all the casts.