Podcast
The Social Radars
Hosted by Jessica Livingston · EN
Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy are The Social Radars. Carolynn and Jessica have been working together to help thousands of startups at Y Combinator for almost 20 years. Come be a fly on the wall as they talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
24episodes
Episodes
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Jessica & Carolynn Announce Season 5!
Dec 2300:02:38Tap to summarizeJessica & Carolynn Announce Season 5 of The Social Radars
Transcribe →Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic
Dec 801:24:02Tap to summarizeIn today’s episode, we talk to Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic. Building a supersonic airliner sounds hard, and it is: startups often have dramatic ups and downs, but Boom’s are among the most dramatic we’ve heard. His story was a gripping series of last-minute saves.
Transcribe →Founder Mode: Sajith Wickramasekara, Founder & CEO, Benchling
Oct 1700:13:20Tap to summarizeIn today's Social Radars, we talk to Sajith Wickramasekara of Benchling. For Sajith, founder mode means a pervasive feeling of responsibility for everything at the company. Nothing can be bad at Benchling.
Transcribe →Founder Mode: Jen Herbach, Founder & CEO, Adventris Pharmaceuticals
Oct 700:16:17Tap to summarizeIn the latest Social Radars, we talk to Jen Herbach of Adventris, which is working on a cancer vaccine. She was in the audience of Brian Chesky's famous founder mode talk, and immediately went home and started changing things.
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Surbhi Sarna, Founder of nVision Medical
Dec 18, 202401:04:41Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we speak with Surbhi Sarna, founder of nVision Medical, a pioneering company in women's health diagnostics. Surbhi shares her journey from experiencing a personal health scare as a teenager to founding nVision, which developed a microcatheter for the detection of ovarian cancer. nVision was acquired by Boston Scientific for $275 million in 2018. Now a Partner at Y Combinator, Surbhi discusses her transition from founder to mentor, offering insights into the challenges of healthcare innovation. Her book, Without a Doubt, was released in 2022.
Transcribe →Tyler Shultz, Theranos Whistleblower (Part 2)
Dec 4, 202401:32:14Tap to summarizeWe’re back with Tyler Shultz for the second part of his story: the whistleblowing. He’d resigned after noticing potential fraud within Theranos. After he spoke on background to the Wall Street Journal, Theranos retaliated with a series of legal threats, intimidation, and surveillance -- all designed to silence him. Tyler tells us about the nightmare leading up to when the news story broke, and the world found out about Theranos. (Learn more about Tyler at tyler-shultz.com.)
Transcribe →Tyler Shultz, Theranos Whistleblower (Part 1)
Nov 27, 202401:33:15Tap to summarizeTyler Shultz went to work at Theranos right out of Stanford and soon noticed that things weren't as they seemed. Lots of other employees knew there was something fishy going on, but Tyler was one of a tiny handful able to resist the mesmerizing and intimidating Elizabeth Holmes and speak out about the fraud that was putting patients at risk. This podcast is a lesson for anyone who wants learn what it takes to speak out against misdeeds by powerful people. (Learn more about Tyler at tyler-shultz.com.)
Transcribe →Replit Co-Founders, Amjad Masad & Haya Odeh
Aug 14, 202401:04:32Tap to summarizeToday we talk to Amjad Masad and Haya Odeh of Replit. They're not just cofounders but married too, and Replit is woven through their lives. Listen in as they describe their mission to bring coding to everyone.
Transcribe →Ryan Petersen, Founder & CEO of Flexport
Jul 31, 202401:06:48Tap to summarizeIn today’s episode we chat with Ryan Petersen, Founder and CEO of Flexport, a global logistics company that Y Combinator funded in 2014. Ryan takes us on a journey from his early days importing motorcycles, through the supply chain disasters of the pandemic, to a company with thousands of employees and billions in revenue. If you want to hear about established industries being transformed by startups, this is the episode for you.
Transcribe →Dan Siroker, Co-Founder of Limitless & Optimizely
Jul 17, 202401:06:03Tap to summarizeToday we catch up with Dan Siroker, co-founder of Limitless, which trains a personal AI to remember things for you. Y Combinator funded his previous company, Optimizely, in 2010, and it was acquired a decade later. But before he started Optimizely he ran the new media group within the Obama campaign, which achieved stunning results through A/B testing. In fact Optimizely was the software he wished he'd had then.
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