Jordan Gal is the CEO of Rosie, an AI answering service for small businesses. He’s also a five-time founder, husband, and dad to three daughters. Born in Israel and raised in an immigrant entrepreneur household, Jordan shares how that upbringing shapes his parenting and how he and his wife work to combine their very different childhood experiences.…

Sol Kennedyi is the founder of BestInterest which helps co-parents navigate the messiness of that complex relationship. He is a serial founder who has built and sold multiple companies and has been the head of product at Dropcam, a PM at Google and an angel investor in companies like Coinbase, Gitlab and Instacart. In addition to being a serial ent…

Nikunj Kothari is a former investor with Khosla Ventures and a product and growth leader from companies like Opendoor, Shyp, and LinkedIn. He’s now out on his own advising, investing and spending time as a husband and a father of two, including a brand new son! We discussed: * The false dichotomy between ambition and parenting and the support struc…

Brian Holt is Staff Product Manager at Neon and has been a VP of Product and product leader at companies like SQLite Cloud, Snowflake, Stripe and Microsoft. He was also an engineer at both Netflix and Reddit where he was one of the earliest employees. He’s a husband and the father of one son and brand new daughter. We discussed: * Preparing for the…

Robert Wolfe is the co-founder of Zeck a company designed to make managing board meetings easier for everyone. He’s also founded and sold both Crowdrise (to GoFundMe) and Moosejaw Mountaineering (to Wal-Mart). He’s a husband and the father of 2 sons. We discussed: * The journey from founding Moosejaw to today * Founding multiple companies with a ce…

Greg Laughlin is the founder of Campwing, a product designed to take the headache out of summer camp planning. Parents use detailed filters to search through every summer camp in their area in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Prior to Campwing, Greg was the co-founder of Statwing, a statistical analysis product he sold to Qualtri…

Jeff Fritz is principal program manager at Microsoft where he leads production for one oftheir largest developer events. He’s also active in the developer community as a live-coding Twitch streamer, Youtuber, and podcast host. He’s a lifelong developer who got his start working on the family’s Commodore 64. In addition to his work as program manage…

Aaron Francis is the co-founder of Try Hard Studios, a company he started with Steve Tenuto that makes amazing videos for developers and teaches companies how to do it too. He started Try Hard Studios after being laid off from PlanetScale… while on paternity leave with his second set of twins (!). Prior to that he was a data analyst and a developer…

Jeremy Howard is a leader in the data science and AI communities. Along with his partner, Dr. Rachel Thomas, he is the co-founder of Fast.ai - a research lab studying how to make deep learning more accessible and widely applicable and the founder of AI R&D lab Answer.ai. He is a professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, a digital fell…

Mike Yan is the co-founder and CEO of Manychat, a chat automation tool for social platforms with over 250 employees, 1 million customers and growing 2x year over year. With his team, Mike has built the fastest growing platform on Whatsapp and the largest on Instagram. He’s also a husband and a new dad. We discussed: * How he thought he was going to…

Eric Colbert, Jay Chandrasekhar and Eli Szasz are the co-founders of VouchVault, a new platform that helps you get trusted recommendations for products and services you need. Eric and Eli have worked together for years at creative agency, Spark6. Jay is a comedian, writer and actor best known for his movies Super Troopers and Beerfest. Collectively…

Tyler Moore aka TidyDad is a school teacher turned internet sensation and best-selling author. Pushed to the brink of a breakdown after the birth of his second daughter, Tyler went on to tidy up his mind, his life and his household. In the process he built a massive following as Tidy Dad and recently published a USA Today best-selling book called T…

Pouyan Salehi is the co-founder and CEO of Scratchpad—a company trying to take the busy work out of sales. He has founded three other companies, including PersistIQ (acquired by Wishpond) and Stackmob (acquired by PayPal). In addition to being a serial founder and entrepreneur he is also a husband and a Dad to three kids. We discussed: * Coming to …

Alex Lloyd Hunter is co-founder of The Dad Shift—a group of men, dads and co-parents campaigning for better paternity leave in the UK. He has been a founder, a non-profit leader, and an organizer for the Labour Party. In addition to being an advocate for better paternity leave policies he’s also a husband and the father of a young son. We discussed…

Paul Sullivan is the founder of Company of Dads—a community for Lead Dads which he created to provide more support for Dads who are also the primary caregivers at home. He is also the best-selling author of two books: Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Others Don’t and The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of The Super Wealthy. He ha…

Cory 'O’Daniel is the co-founder and CEO of Massdriver, a platform designed to simplify and streamline the management of cloud infrastructure and DevOps processes. Cory had been a software architect and engineer for 20 years leading up to the founding of MassDriver. In addition to being an incredible founder he’s also a husband and the father of tw…

Ben Lauzier is the co-founder and CEO of Nurra – an AI-powered health assistant that helps you navigate your healthcare and gives you a health advocate for your complex needs. Prior to that he was the VP of Product at Thumbtack and a long-time product leader at Lyft, where we first met. In addition to being an incredible founder he’s also a husband…

Matt Martin is the co-founder and CEO of Clockwise – an amazing product that optimizes your team’s schedules to create more time in everyone’s day. Prior to that he was an engineer and a lawyer. In addition to being an incredible founder he’s also a husband and the father of three kids, including a set of identical twins! We discussed: * Changes in…

Today I’m releasing the best of Startup Dad from 2024! Across over 50 hours of conversations, hundreds of topics, and approaching 100 Dads (and Moms) I’ve covered a lot. In this episode you’ll hear from dozens of executives and founders like Scott Belsky of Adobe, Immad Akhund from Mercury, Siqi Chen from Runway, Chris Miller from Hubspot, Lane Sha…

Chip Leighton is a comic and the creator and host of The Leighton Show, a social media platform with more than 1.5 million followers and 250 million views. His comedy focuses on funny relationship and parenting moments with teenagers and he’s recently published a book based on them called What Time Is Noon? For several decades he was a marketing le…

Ryan Bozarth is the co-founder and CEO of Dakota, a business bank powered by crypto. Prior to that he was the CEO of Coinbase Custody, a Product Manager at AirBnB and a GM at Square. In addition to all that he’s also a husband and the father of two kids. We discussed: * Using work as a way to teach your kids about important subjects * Demonstrating…

Welcome to a special episode of Startup Dad! It’s the holiday time again when the list of responsibilities, performances, potlucks and gifts goes through the roof for already busy parents. To help you navigate the chaos I’ve asked many of my past guests to share with me their favorite books from the past year – those they’d gift to another person a…

Martin Glover is an IT professional by day and the founder of cooking Website Dad What Cooks by night. He turned a love of bread baking, barbecuing and being the primary cook in the family into a fantastic Website and recipe guide for Dads everywhere. He’s on a mission to help Dads learn cooking skills and be more involved in the kitchen starting w…

Bianca Schulze is the founder and editor of The Children's Book Review—a resource devoted to children's literature and literacy—and the host of The Growing Readers Podcast. Bianca is also the author of DON'T WAKE THE DRAGON which has been translated into 20 languages and is now a six-book series, as well as 101 BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU GROW UP whic…

Carlo Navarro is a former marketing leader turned fractional executive and the owner of the @StartupDad instagram handle (I’m jealous!). He’s been a mentor in the Chicago startup scene via 1871 and a marketing director and sales leader at companies like Blueleaf, Carrum Health, Pandora and more. He’s also a husband and the father of five (!) kids. …

Nathan Jefferson is an entrepreneur, turned tech recruiter, turned entrepreneur (again). His latest company, Dadversity, is focused on helping Dads improve their personal, professional and parenting skills. It’s rooted in his own lived experience with two abusive stepfathers and a biological father who left him at a young age. He’s on a mission to …

Phil Carter is a consumer subscription growth expert and advisor. He has built a popular Reforge course on consumer subscriptions and advises companies on their growth strategy. Prior to that he led growth and product functions at Faire, Quizlet and Ibotta. Phil is also a husband and the father of two kids. Phil’s wife, Ashley, founded a non-profit…

Rob Taylor is a growth and sales advisor and the founder of the Dads in Business community. Dads in Business is a supportive network of content, resources and community to help busy dads better manage themselves, their family and their business. Rob is also a husband and the father of four children. In our conversation today we discussed: * What to…

Michael Perry is a serial founder and entrepreneur. He is currently the founder and CEO of Maple, an all-in-one app that helps parents get and stay organized. Prior to Maple he founded Live For Fame, Giving and Kit which he led for 6 years before selling to Shopify and then continuing with them for another four years. He was early in the leveraging…

Sean Ellis is a growth legend and the creator of the term “growth hacker.” He has built a legendary framework (the “Sean Ellis test”) for determining product/market fit, wrote the original book on Growth (“Hacking Growth), and has founded several companies along with working at or advising companies like LogMeIn, Dropbox, Eventbrite, Bounce and mor…

Dan Doty is the founder of Fatherhood Unlocked – a company that is helping Dads win at work, build deeper family connections and thrive in relationships. He’s also a writer, wilderness guide and has been an inner city high school teacher. Through his work Dan is at the forefront of the global men’s movement to help Dads be better at all aspects of …

Carla Naumburg, PhD is a clinical social worker and the best-selling author of five parenting books. These include her international bestseller, How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t With Your Kids (Workman, 2019), as well as You Are Not a Sh*tty Parent; Ready, Set, Breath and Parenting in the Present Moment.. Her latest, which is recently published and the…

Kyle Lacy is the Chief Marketing Officer of Jellyfish—a platform that helps developers make data-backed decisions on resource investments. Across two decades he has built companies like Lessonly, Openview, Salesforce and ExactTarget. He’s also a husband and the father of two kids. In our conversation today we discussed: * Managing work, life and pa…

Kevin Hanaford is an engineering leader at popular chat application, Discord where he oversees security, safety, privacy and platform teams. His career has included companies like Microsoft, PayPal, Amazon, Salesforce, and autonomous vehicle company, Cruise. In addition to his roles at some of the most significant technology companies of the last t…

Martin Pannier is a French entrepreneur who started the company Primo to help small and medium-sized businesses get their IT work right for new employees. He’s worked as a product leader at iziwork, Gusto and several others. In addition to being a founder he’s also a husband and the father of one young daughter. In our conversation today we discuss…

Linda Flanagan is a freelance journalist, researcher, and former cross-country and track coach. She is the author of numerous articles on youth sports and the book Take Back The Game - How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids Sports—And Why It Matters. She is a founding board member of the NYC chapter of the Positive Coaching Alliance and her writing h…

Rob Schutz is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of multi-billion-dollar online health company, Ro. He has also founded the domain name service company, Snagged. He invests alongside me in the 20Growth fund. In addition to his skill as a founder he’s also a husband and the father of two kids. In our conversation today we discussed: * How to s…

Adam Nash is a long-time Silicon Valley executive, investor and advisor. He was the President and CEO of Wealthfront, a Product executive at Dropbox and LinkedIn, and teaches a course on personal finance for engineers at Stanford. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Daffy, the donor-advised fund for you and a champion of charitable giving. In…

Andrew Capland is the founder of Growth coaching and advisory, Delivering Value. He’s also been the Head of Growth at Postscript and Wistia and was an early employee at Hubspot. He’s a loving husband and the father of two kids, including one who was 6 weeks old during our chat! In our conversation today we discussed: * Going from one kid to two and…

Jordane Giuly is a 3x co-founder having started French Fintech unicorn Spendesk and most recently SMB financing company Defacto. As a French entrepreneur he brings an interesting, international perspective to parenting and company building. He’s a loving husband and the father of two kids. In our conversation today we discussed: * Comparing Califor…

Dave Boyce is a successful five-time exited founder, a GTM expert and owner of the newsletter ProductLedGTM.com. He sits on the board of Forrester and has just completed the final manuscript for his book on GTM strategy which comes out in 2025. He’s a loving husband and the father of six kids, ages 16 to 28. In our conversation today we discussed: …

Darby Saxbe is a professor at USC and holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Her research includes studying the effects of stress hormones in couples and most importantly the changes that the male brain undergoes after becoming a parent. She has scientifically discovered slight gray matter loss in men following fatherhood and termed it Dad Brain. She …

Eric Bahn is the co-founder and a GP at Hustle Fund—a pre-seed venture fund that invests in very early stage founders. He has also been a founder himself as well as a product leader at companies like Intuit and Instagram. Most importantly, he’s a husband and the father of two kids. In our conversation today we discussed: * What it means to feel joy…

Join us on a journey to learn more about the intersection of linguistics and AI with special guest Emily M. Bender. Come with us as we learn how linguistics functions in modern language models like ChatGPT. Episode Notes Discover the origins of language models, the negative implications of sourcing data to train these technologies, and the value of…

Yousuf Bhaijee is a Growth Gdvisor and interim Head of Growth to companies like Brightwheel, HP, Evernow and Blackbird. Chris Lloyd is an engineer who most recently worked at AI company, Humane, and also Pinterest, Assembly and Opera. Yousuf is the father of three kids and Chris is the father of two. Chris and his family, Yousuf and his family and …

Scott Belsky is the Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of Design and Emerging Products at Adobe. He took on this role after being Chief Product Officer for their flagship Creative Cloud products. In 2006 Scott founded a company for creative professionals called Behance which he later sold to Adobe. He is also an active angel investor having invested in…

With Frank Lee, Shawn Pierre, and Jessica Creane, we discuss the future of the video game landscape and the transition from game player to game maker. We explore what draws people into the gaming space, what video games mean to the people who play and create them, and what gaming organizations are doing to push the narrative. Episode Notes Discover…

Patrick Thompson is a three-time founder, starting a company right after college and then founding and selling his second company, Iteratively, to Amplitude in 2019. He stayed on as a Director of Product until leaving recently to co-found his third company, Clarify, a next generation CRM platform. He’s a loving husband and the father of one kid. In…