Geng Wang is the CEO and co-founder of Civic Champs, a software startup focused on creating s seamless and rewarding volunteering experience for both volunteers and service organizations
This is Geng’s third commercial venture. He’s previously co-founded two companies; RentJungle.com, an apartment search engine that sold in 2014 to The Rainmaker Group, and Community Elf (rebranded as Cosmitto), a social media management firm which we sold in 2017 to a PE firm, Topanga Partners.
Given his past successes, Geng is looking to both create financial and social impact with his latest company. He has leveraged a number of startup incubators, including TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield, Elevate Ventures, Innovation Works, TechStars Iowa, and Mass Challenge, to get it off the ground.
In this episode, Geng and Aaron discuss how motivation changes through an entrepreneur’s career, the nature of product development, and how to design a startup’s culture.
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Geng Wang’s Challenge; For National Volunteering Month, get out there and go find an avenue to help your community.
geng@civicchamps.com
If you liked this interview, check out episode 12 with Scott Rogerson where we discuss Community Elf, social media management, and their software spinout UpContent.
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Sanjiv Singh is CEO and cofounder of Near Earth Autonomy, a technology company focused on autonomous flight.
Sanjiv has 25 years of experience working on autonomous ground and air vehicles. He came to Pittsburgh 30 years ago to participate in the DARPA challenge and has spent decades exploring different applications for self-driving and self-flying robots.
Near Earth Autonomy started by developing self-flying technology for the United States Government and has expanded to bring their technological capabilities to a variety of enterprise customers.
In this conversation, Sanjiv and Aaron discuss applications for self-flying vehicles, the origins of the company, and the difference between working with the military and the FAA.
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Sanjiv Singh’s Challenge; Imagine a world in which you could autonomously fly from point A to point B.
If you liked this interview, check out episode 306 with Bryan Salesky where we discuss autonomous vehicles and episode 340 with Craig Markovitz where we discuss university technology transfer.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
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Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and host of Hidden Forces, a podcast devoted to exploring the underlying forces driving the most powerful changes we see in the world.
His show covers a wide range of topics, including culture, philosophy, economics, technology, social science, and the hard sciences.
Demetri has previously co-founded Guerilla Gaming Concepts, an interactive entertainment company focused on the middleware of gaming. He has also reported on financial news and told stories to hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
In addition to his show, Demetri consults blockchain and distributed ledger technology companies, helping them anticipate security vulnerabilities by building theoretical attack frameworks against token-based systems, and he consults hedge funds and venture capital firms on how to invest in and around these same emerging technologies.
In this episode, Aaron and Demetri have a far-reaching conversation about truth, technological progress, and geopolitics.
Mentioned
The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O. Wilson
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Demetri Kofinas’s Challenges; 1. Hold yourself to a higher standard.
If you liked this interview, check out episode 463 with Jeff Booth where we discuss the deflationary nature of technology.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
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Black Tech Nation Ventures is launching its first flagship venture fund in Pittsburgh, PA. The firm is founded by three managing partners, Kelauni Jasmyn, Sean Sebastian, and David Motley have come together to form an investment thesis focused on investing in black and other minority founders who have historically missed out on opportunities to raise venture capital.
As David outlines in this podcast, these represent an underutilized asset capable of creating outsized returns, not a charitable donation.
David brings experience from three decades in corporate America, sitting on the boards of multiple public companies, investing tens of millions of dollars into real estate, and a track record of venture investments through the Blue Tree Venture Fund. David has also raised a $207 Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicle (SPAC) called Deep Lake Capital.
David Motley has also co-founded 3 enterprises: The BlueTree Venture Fund, DLM-WCM (a real estate development company) and, MCAPS, LLC (a professional services company focused on Managed Services, Staff Augmentation, and Consulting).
In this episode, David and Aaron also discuss how to craft a fulfilling career, how to raise money from large institutions, and why SPACs are taking off.
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David Motley’s Challenge; Don’t undershoot. Set a goal and go after it.
If you liked this interview, check out episode 265 with Kelauni Jasmyn about Black Tech Nation, episode 290 with Ned Renzi about Birchmree Ventures, or episode 405 with Matt Kesinger about his medical device startup.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
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Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
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We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
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