Forward Thinking Founders is a founder podcast where we interview high potential founders from networks like Y Combinator, The Thiel Fellowship, Product Hunt, Twitter, etc. and brings to light what they're building for the world. Think of it like the opposite of How I Built This, where we interview founders before they are successful, then if they are, we have a moment in time we can look back on in the early days. Does the model work? Look at our early interviews and you'll have your answer.
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Scott Hickle, co-founder and CEO of Throne Science , joins Forward Thinking Founders to talk about building the world's first hands-free gut health tracker — a clip-on toilet device that monitors digestive health, hydration, and prostate health automatically with every flush. Scott shares how the idea started at a poker game in Austin, why his mom (a geriatrician) was the unlikely catalyst for the…
In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat Sherman sits down with Meaghan Franks, founder of Sport Sitters, a marketplace that connects college athletes with families for high-trust, high-energy babysitting. What started as an accidental idea at Arizona State quickly became a powerful new way for student-athletes—especially women and non-revenue sport athletes—to earn income through NIL…
In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat chats with Kosuke July Hata , the founder behind the ROC Camera — a groundbreaking device built to take verifiably real photos in the age of AI. He shares how his background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, and flying cars at Kitty Hawk shaped his belief that “impossible things are buildable with enough time,” and how that mindset led him to…
In today’s episode of Forward Thinking Founders , Mat sits down with Bo Shaffer, founder and CEO of Playswise , a startup using computer vision and AI to unlock deep basketball analytics straight from broadcast footage. Bo played basketball at Duke, and she saw firsthand how much of the sport still relies on slow, manual film review. Playswise is her attempt to change that — bringing NBA-level…
In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat Sherman sits down with Gulmohar Ahluwalia, founder & CEO of Nyxara — a company building a next-generation space-to-ground communications system using cloud-piercing lasers capable of delivering terabits per second. Imagine downloading all of Netflix in five seconds. That’s the world Nyxara aims to unlock. Gulmohar walks through her path from…
Mat Sherman catches up with Connor Waslo, co-founder/CEO of Caddy , a desktop voice interface that keeps you in flow by turning spoken intent into real work across tools like Linear, Slack, Calendar, Gmail, and Notion. Connor shares the origin story with cofounder Rajiv, hard pivots, and craft standards for their private beta. They compare SF’s tech gravity with New York, reflect on learnings from…
In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders , Mat Sherman chats with Jared Lerner, co-founder and CEO of Nappr , a marketplace redefining hotel stays by letting travelers book rooms for short, flexible durations. Jared shares how his own struggles with sleep sparked the idea, what it takes to build trust with hotels, and how Napper attracts both travelers and partners. They dive into Napper’s…
In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders , Mat Sherman chats with Mahdi Nouri , co-founder and CEO of CatDoes , a no-code AI mobile app builder empowering anyone to create apps without writing code. Mahdi shares the story behind CatDoes, the product decisions that shaped its growth, and how he’s navigating the fast-changing AI landscape. They discuss what it takes to build a startup from…
In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders , Mat Sherman interviews Adam Cohen Hillel, co-founder of Dafdef, the company behind AI Key —a groundbreaking device that plugs into your phone and allows AI to directly control it. Adam discusses the development journey of AI Key, the importance of privacy and security, and the potential future applications of their technology. The conversation…
In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders , Mat Sherman talks with Nikhil Yadala, cofounder and CEO of Helome , a company building AI copilots to help people slow their aging. Nikhil shares how Helome uses advanced “aging clocks”, AI models trained on blood biomarkers, to measure biological age and guide people toward healthier, longer lives. We explore his decade-long journey from…
