Building Fires

Angel investor, startup mentor, and now founder himself - Paul Yacoubian has done basically everything in the startup world at this point. After gaining access to a powerful AI (artificial intelligence) software, GPT-3, Paul and his Co-founder Chris decided they wanted to do something powerful with it.

They set out to make the world's greatest copy-generator and they have done just that. Personally, Farhaj and I use Copy.ai at leas...

Yash Santani & Puneet Chadha are the founders of aevus.ai and they are absolutely changing the world. They are both Johns Hopkins grads who are actively trying to improve the lives of diabetics around the world.

"We are building an AI-powered prescription guidance platform for treating Type-2 diabetes - Precision Rx. All it does is give a doctor a second pair of clinical eyes"

They discovered that health systems have been accum...

Martin Lien has one of the coolest startup stories out there. His story begins in Norway, where he was born and raised...and then he ends up attending the University of Oklahoma (just a bit of a culture shock, no?). After college he found himself working at a company and noticed a problem. The solution to this problem would end up becoming Respond Flow. He was trying to help grow the company through texting and he just couldn't fin...

Greg Hallman is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet and he's also an extremely successful entrepreneur. A few years ago, he wanted to get into the OKC Thunder Startup accelerator, Stitch Crew, (the same accelerator Farhaj & I have done) but he didn't have a company. He went through his list of company ideas and Ocupath was born.

After a lot of hard work, his company was able to win multiple grants, one of them being a ...

Jordan Walker has been successful in the startup world for a while now. Yac started with an idea and a very successful ProductHunt campaign. After getting thousands of companies on their waitlist, Jordan and his team knew they were onto something big.

Yac is voice messaging for teams and, personally, I’m a huge fan. You can only text so much to your team members and phone calls are mostly unnecessary. Being able to send a quick voi...

Vincent Dorrian never expected to be the co-founder of a company that exited for $350 Million. When his business partner approached him with the idea for EcoAtm in the early 2000's, the future success was something he could have only dreamed of.

EcoAtm is a company that provides a kiosk that allows you to exchange your old cell phones for cash. Over the past 10+ years they've collected/recycled over 25 million phones and they exite...

Garrett Scott and his co-founder gave his company the name Pipedream because what they're trying to accomplish sounds just like that...like a dream. Their goal within the next several years is to take advantage of the tunnel systems in cities to deliver goods, supplies, etc. to homes through underground tubes. I'll let Garrett's website blurb explain:

"Pipedream is a network of underground tubes that offers near-instantaneous deliv...

I first heard about Adelle while watching Shark Tank years ago. Despite the bright spotlight of being on national television (and having millionaires yell at you), she remained composed and very well-spoken. They even landed a deal with Mark Cuban! Now, years later, their company is growing even faster than they were before and they also just raised a massive funding round!

At Eterneva, they help with your grieving process by turni...

Russ Wilde and his business partner started working on a simple sports blog years ago...they never could have imagined what it would become. Most people write a few posts and then quit. Only a few can stick around creating quality content for years and years until they finally find their big break.

After multiple funding rounds, countless staff hires, and 1000's of articles, Front Office Sports is now one of the most successful spo...

Nathan Butorac is a true entrepreneur down to his core. He started his entrepreneurship journey at just three years old and he hasn't stopped since. After working in several startups, he decided to get one going himself. He's run Better Than a Letter (Parent company) for a few years now and underneath that is his flourishing company, Piñatagrams.

If we skip past all the struggles of a typical early-stage entrepreneur, we'll end up ...

This is the 2nd time that Nathan has been interviewed on our Podcast (Episode #31). 

Nathan started off his entrepreneurship journey by selling things online. It started with re-selling college textbooks and led to selling millions of dollars on Ebay. After that, he ran one of the best Freelancer businesses on the planet, Freeeup.com. The best part? He ran his freelancer business...with freelancers. Since Episode 31 was record...

This week we had the privilege of interviewing Ara Ghougassian with usefluent.co. His website is beautiful and the product itself is even better. Every language platform on the planet focuses on teaching you a new language by using the same, worn-out methods. With Fluent, you're constantly learning words that you actually care about and want to use for your daily life.

They are currently available in French as a Chrome Extension an...

Brian Leonard was the first employee and Co-founder of a company you’ve definitely heard of…Task Rabbit. He and his Co-founder basically pioneered the ‘task’ or ‘local freelance’ market.

By definition, “TaskRabbit is an American online and mobile marketplace that matches freelance labor with local demand, allowing consumers to find immediate help with everyday tasks, including cleaning, moving, delivery and handyman work”.

After ye...

Dr. Eric Cole is one of the "OG's" in Cyber Security. After raising his hand in a CIA meeting 25+ years ago asking the simple question, "How do we know if these systems are defensible", his life was changed forever.

Eric was one of the first hackers at the CIA and spent his life figuring out how to make our country's online defenses more defensive. He's worked as a 'cyber bodyguard' for the likes of Bill Gates, The Obama Administra...

Shrevan started off his career as a Sound Engineer in the UK. After going through a tough situation where his years of working as a Sound Engineer were considered 'invalid', he decided to do something about it. That's when he created Work Simplr.

"Work Simplr is a virtual co-working platform for students, businesses, and professionals to network and collaborate with each other. We aim to create a centralized and professional gig wo...

Yoann Bohbot is the founder of dots SPACE, a higher-end co-working space that operates in Beverly Hills and  Culver City, California (Los Angeles area). Early in his career, he was a critical piece of an IT company whose biggest clients included Honda, Adobe, Nestle, as well as several high profile real estate companies, doctors, lawyers, celebrities such as Seal, the Fugees, Lindsay Lohan, and more.

He later managed the e-com...

Farhaj and I want to welcome you to the brand new Building Fires Podcast (originally called WeStrive). For our first episode, we have the incredible Steve Young. 

Steve is the CEO of AppMasters.com and he is just that...an App MASTER. Steve knows everything there is to know about the app store, ASO, getting featured, and tons of hidden tips/tricks. Throughout the episode, we cover his early life in startups, what it was like d...