startup

Starting a business at age 66 with Paul Tasner

November 20, 2019 — Leave a comment
“Recycling is an answer but not the answer.” – Paul Tasner founder of PulpWorks

Paul Tasner, Co-founder and CEO of PulpWorks and more recently, Co-founder of Sort, has more than 40 years of operations experience. He has held leadership positions in ventures ranging from start-up to Fortune 100. For the past decade, his focus has been on sustainability. Paul’s corporate affiliations include The Clorox Company, Clif Bar, Method Products, and Hepagen Vaccines. He has authored numerous papers and presentations on supply chain sustainability and currently lectures on this subject in the MBA Programs at San Francisco State University and Golden Gate University as well as the Packaging Engineering Department at San Jose State University. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Boston University.

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In this episode you will learn:

  • How PulpWorks manufactures packaging for consumer goods using fiber waste
  • The story of Paul Tasner starting his first business at age 66
  • The perks of being your own boss as an entrepreneur
  • The specific challenges PulpWorks faces in securing new customers
  • How to pursue investors in the competitive city of San Francisco
  • Critical questions to consider for people nearing retirement that want to start a business
  • How recycling is an answer but not the answer
  • Why Paul is envious of the millennial mindset
  • How rejecting plastic can make a difference
  • What Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is and how EPR regulations could impact society
  • Paul’s new tech-based recycling business

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Kaveh Azartash – Voice Recognition for Kids

November 6, 2019 — Leave a comment
“We had a really interesting journey coming in from a kids’ language learning background. Understanding the real sound spectrum of different languages, we built a sophisticated sound map.” – Kaveh Azartash, Founder of KidSense.ai

Kaveh Azartash holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, Irvine with a focus on Vision Science. Kaveh’s career has been focused on innovating software applications in the neuroscience and now artificial intelligence domain. He co-founded KidSense.ai in 2015 after realizing children are unable to effectively communicate with the technology around them through voice.

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In this episode you will learn:

  • The story of how KidSense.ai was started
  • Kaveh’s professional and academic background
  • The key components of voice recognition software for kids
  • How AIs can recognize changes in kids’ speech patterns over time
  • How KidSense.ai’s model can be applied to other challenges in voice recognition, like speech impediments or non-native English speakers
  • How KidSense.ai maintains privacy and data security
  • The data collection process required to develop complex AI models that mature overtime
  • Both the acoustic and language components that are behind a voice recognition software
  • Why these new AI technologies are considered valuable
  • The future business goals of KidSense.ai

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Giving women more fertility options with Anne Hogarty, CEO of Extend Fertility

September 18, 2019 — Leave a comment

Egg freezing startups like Extend Fertility may be a democratizing force to give women more child-bearing options. CEO Anne Hogarty discusses how Extend Fertility is giving women more choice through affordable egg freezing. As with any business designed to give women more choice, controversy abounds! Critics have a lot of questions: Is it ethical? Manipulative? Safe? Gimmicky?

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You’ll hear:

  • Why are fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF) so expensive?
  • What are the unique advantages of egg freezing? What are the limitations?
  • Is egg freezing a “bandaid?” Should we, instead, make it easier for women to have children while having a career?
  • Should we be concerned that egg freezing businesses prey on women’s concerns about having children? Or is it unfair to suggest that women can’t assess their situations for themselves?
  • Why has there been pushback from making egg freezing more affordable?
  • Why did Extend Fertility upset so many when they advertised their services on Instagram?
  • What are typical success rates for egg freezing?

About Anne:

Anne Hogarty is Extend Fertility’s chief executive officer. Prior to joining Extend Fertility, Anne was chief business officer of Prelude Fertility, a national network of fertility clinics, and president of MyEggBank, Prelude’s frozen donor egg bank. From 2013 to 2017, she worked at BuzzFeed, the global news and entertainment company, during its period of hyper-growth from a $20 million disruptor to a $250 million digital media leader. There, she served in progressively more senior finance, strategy, and general management roles, including as vice president of international business. In this role, Anne oversaw BuzzFeed’s revenue-generating strategy and operations in 9 countries outside the U.S. and doubled BuzzFeed’s international revenue within two years.

Anne began her career on Wall Street, including several years in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. She graduated cum laude from Harvard College and received her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She is a born-and-raised New Yorker and resides in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood with her husband and two young children.

Anne feels strongly that women deserve every chance to build a family on a timeline that works for their life. She is honored to be leading a company devoted to that mission.

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