Podcast
The Innovators & Investors Podcast
Hosted by FinStrat Management, Inc. · EN
The Innovators & Investors Podcast: Connecting the Startup Ecosystem. We are on a mission to bridge the gap between founders, investors, and industry leaders across the early-stage ecosystem. By bringing together visionaries from cutting-edge startups, venture capitalists, family offices, angel investors, accelerators, and studios, we offer a platform for sharing invaluable insights, market trends, and first-hand experiences. Whether you’re an entrepreneur navigating the challenges of building a business or an investor seeking opportunities in emerging technologies, our podcast provides a front-row seat to the dynamic world of innovation and investment. Tune in to gain a comprehensive understanding of the startup landscape, stay ahead of the curve, and benefit from the collective wisdom of those shaping the future.
Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at
https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/
31episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Reinventing Insurance Through AI with Shaju Puthussery & Deepak Ramaswamy of Lightspun
4d ago00:46:27Tap to summarizeIn this episode of The Innovators & Investors Podcast, host Kristian Marquez speaks with Shaju Puthussery and Deepak Ramaswamy, Co-Founders of Lightspun. The conversation explores how Lightspun is reinventing insurance through AI, building next-generation operating platforms to automate credentialing, streamline claims adjudication, and modernize healthcare financial operations. Learn more about Lightspun work at:https://www.lightspun.com/Connect with Shaju Puthussery on LinkedIn at:https://www.linkedin.com/in/shajuputhussery/Connect with Deepak Ramaswamy on LinkedIn at:https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepak-ramaswamy-0124032/Think you'd be a great guest on the show?Apply at https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/Want to learn more about Kristian Marquez's work?https://finstratmgmt.com
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Accelerating Startup Growth with Gabrielle Marquez of FinStrat Management
1w ago00:54:30Tap to summarizeIn this milestone face-to-face episode of The Innovators & Investors Podcast, host Kristian Marquez welcomes Gabrielle Marquez, Founder Solutions Lead at FinStrat Management (and the host's daughter). Recorded live on location in San Francisco, this episode dives deep into the realities of early-stage venture building, capital raising strategies, and the evolving dynamics of geographic startup hubs. Gabrielle shares her rigorous journey toward building technical financial expertise, her work managing relationships across major accelerator programs, and the vital structural frameworks founders must adopt to secure sustainable market growth.Learn more about FinStrat Management work at: https://www.finstratmgmt.comConnect with Gabrielle Marquez on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellekmarquez/Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/Want to learn more about Kristian Marquez's work? https://finstratmgmt.com
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The Future of Family Care Runs Through Health Tech with Dr. Ashley Blackington of Dovetail | The Innovators & Investors Podcast
2w ago00:45:34Tap to summarizeIn this episode of The Innovators & Investors Podcast, host Kristian Marquez sits down with Dr. Ashley Blackington, founder and CEO of Dovetail. Discover how Ashley’s extensive background as an Occupational Therapist led her to architect a consumer-first healthtech platform designed to empower the 63 million family caregivers in the United States. They discuss the deep operational gaps in healthcare coordination, the strategy behind building direct-to-consumer software in a highly regulated industry, and how Dovetail leverages closed-loop AI to transform informal observations into clinical-grade reporting for physicians.Learn more about Dovetail work at: https://dovetail.care/Connect with Ashley Blackington on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/Want to learn more about Kristian Marquez's work? https://finstratmgmt.com
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Revolutionizing Chronic Care Management with Steven Amiel of Chronilogix
2w ago00:28:07Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the Accelerate Series, host Adam Chen sits down with Steven Amiel, the Co-Founder and CEO of Chronilogix, to explore how advanced automated frameworks are stepping in to remedy America's growing healthcare accessibility crisis. With millions of individuals left completely uninsured or dealing with compromised insurance plans, Chronilogix delivers therapeutic, contextually aware AI coaching models tailored for chronic illness care and mental wellness. Amiel highlights how their multi-layered system handles user interactions safely, ensures behavioral accountability via motivational interviewing, and integrates into corporate benefits packages to optimize patient outcomes efficiently.Learn more about Chronilogix work at: https://chronilogix.com/Connect with Steven Amiel on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenamiel/
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Unlocking Spatial Intelligence with Bill Lakeland of Spexi | The Innovators & Investors Podcast
3w ago00:44:45Tap to summarizeHow can decentralized networks rewrite the rules of real-world infrastructure mapping and spatial engineering? In this episode of The Innovators & Investors Podcast, host Kristian Marquez sits down with Bill Lakeland, Founder and CEO of Spexi. Bill shares his deep background moving from traditional, manned aerial photography to building a decentralized network of autonomous micro-drones that has successfully mapped over 300 cities across North America.What You Will Learn in This Episode:How Spexi leverages consumer micro-drones to deliver automated, high-resolution urban data capture.The strategic positioning differences between satellite data, aircraft photogrammetry, and hyper-local drone networks.How embedded blockchain layers authenticate data provenance and secure real-time proof of capture.The business and operational variations between Canadian risk-based airspace rules and US intent-based licensing.How Spexi’s collaborative integration with Niantic Spatial transforms raw imagery into high-fidelity 3D models to fuel next-generation physical AI applications.Discover more about their recent platform integration here: https://www.spexi.com/blog/niantic-spatial-and-spexi-partner-to-turn-drone-imagery-into-intelligence-for-physical-aiLearn more about Spexi work at: https://www.spexi.com/Connect with Bill Lakeland on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakeland/Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/Want to learn more about Kristian Marquez's work? https://finstratmgmt.com
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AI-Powered Political Texting with Andrew Missey of Convos | The Innovators & Investors Podcast
4w ago00:43:08Tap to summarizeAndrew Missey, co-founder of Convos, joins the show to discuss the mechanics of AI-powered political texting. We cover how to move from "spam" to genuine dialogue, the technical guardrails required for accuracy, and how to scale outreach in the highly regulated 2026 election environment.Learn more about Convos work at: https://convos.ai/Connect with Andrew Missey on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmisseyThink you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/Want to learn more about Kristian Marquez's work? https://finstratmgmt.com
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Preserving Multi-Generational Wealth Beyond the Balance Sheet
Jul 800:38:14Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the Innovators and Investors Accelerate Series, host Adam Chen sits down with Alex Kirby, the founder and CEO of Total Family, a SaaS platform flipping the traditional wealth management paradigm on its head.As the financial sector braces for an unprecedented multi-generational wealth transfer, capital flight is proving to be a quiet crisis: wealth advisors routinely lose 50% to 80% of assets when they transition from primary clients to their heirs. Kirby argues that the remedy isn't a better financial model—it's capturing the human element. Relying on James E. Hughes’ landmark "Five Forms of Family Capital" framework, Total Family offers a scalable software solution that enables multifamily offices and advisors to steward family stories, values, and institutional memory without getting bogged down by high-risk compliance data.Kirby also pulls back the curtain on his own unconventional background—navigating a beautifully complex upbringing of six marriages and ten step-siblings—to explain why money alone never resolves family friction. From tactical advice on preventing the compounding of errors on "bad days" to his company’s zero-policy PTO and project-based hiring methods, this episode serves as a masterclass in high-conviction leadership and industrial evolution.--Links:Total Family's Website can be found here https://totalfamily.io/Alex's LinkedIn profile can be found here https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-kirby-tf/Learn more about FinStrat Management here https://finstratmgmt.com
Transcribe →Transforming the Real Sector with Decision Intelligence with Sonali Vijayavargiya of Augment Ventures | The Innovators & Investors Podcast
Jul 700:42:07Tap to summarizeSonali Vijayavargiya, Managing Director of Augment Ventures, joins Kristian Marquez to discuss the firm's 15-year journey investing in foundational technologies. They explore why industry "operators" make the best founders, the geographic bridge between Michigan and California, and how AI is transitioning from a buzzword to an active decision-making layer in the industrial sector.Learn more about Augment Ventures work at: https://www.augmentventures.com/Connect with Sonali Vijayavargiya on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonaliavThink you'd be a great guest on the show?Apply at https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/Want to learn more about Kristian Marquez's work?https://finstratmgmt.com
Transcribe →Deploying Agentic AI for Legal Support with Logan Brown of Soxton | The Innovators & Investors Podcast
Jun 3000:40:59Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we explore the intersection of law and AI with Logan Brown, founder of Soxton. We discuss why the billable hour is outdated, how AI can reduce legal costs for startups by 90%, and the importance of maintaining human expertise in an automated workflow.Learn more about Soxton work at: https://www.soxton.ai/Connect with Logan Brown on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/logan-brown-03765552Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://finstratmgmt.com/innovators-investors-podcast/Want to learn more about Kristian Marquez's work? https://finstratmgmt.com
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Ending Interview Theatre and Finding True Professional Fit
Jun 2400:33:53Tap to summarizeEpisode Overview: In the mid-2026 landscape of shifting markets and sweeping tech layoffs, early-stage companies face a unique paradox: an unprecedented surplus of pedigree talent hidden behind broken evaluation systems. In this episode of the Innovators and Investors Podcast, host Adam Chen sits down with Kingshuk Khan, a former Google and IBM engineer and the founder and CEO of Ikigai. Khan breaks down why the traditional resume and interview process has devolved into "theater" and introduces a behavioral AI framework designed to quantify qualitative alignment, reduce devastating startup mishires, and protect organizational momentum.Key Takeaways: The Failure of Pattern Matching: Why relying solely on elite corporate pedigrees frequently leads to execution friction in early-stage environments.Quantifying the Qualitative: A look inside Ikigai's predictive engine, which accurately identified 16 distinct post-hire failure modes in a retroactive case study using only pre-hire data.The Proximity Effect on Productivity: Examining the stark metrics behind team dynamics, where physical or collaborative proximity to low or high performers can shift an individual’s productivity by up to 30%.The Limits of Large Language Models: Why true corporate breakthroughs rely on human "euphoria moments" that AI cannot replicate.--The road to seed and Series A has never been more complex, but the opportunities for AI-native startups to disrupt the status quo have never been greater. If you enjoyed this deep dive, make sure to check out our main podcast feed at finstratmgmt.com/podcast, where we host broader conversations on the intersection of finance, strategy, and innovation. There, you’ll find our full library of episodes and resources designed to help you scale smarter. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review if you found today’s insights valuable.--Links:Ikigai's Website can be found here https://tryikig.ai/King's LinkedIn profile can be found here https://www.linkedin.com/in/kingshukkhan/Learn more about FinStrat Management here https://finstratmgmt.com
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