Entrepreneur Rx

About Entrepreneur Rx

What does it take to build something that matters? Hosted by John Shufeldt, Entrepreneur Rx features conversations with founders, investors, executives, and innovators who are building the future. From entrepreneurship and venture capital to technology, healthcare, defense, and leadership, each episode explores the stories, challenges, and lessons behind creating impactful companies and driving meaningful change. Learn more at www.XcellerantVentures.com

Publisher

John Shufeldt, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 Apr 2021

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 103 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   ShadowGen: Making Voice Work Where Networks Don't

   What if voice communication could work anywhere a text message can get through? In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Julie Gerber, Founder & CEO of ShadowGen, and Chad Gerber, Founder & CTO, to talk about a new approach to voice communication built for the places conventional networks struggle most. ShadowGen is a national security technology company developing resilient voice communications for degraded, congested, and unreliable networks. Its technology reduces the bandwidth required for voice by more than 99%, opening potential applications across defense, public safety, telecommunications, tactical networks, satellite communications, and other mission-critical environments. The path to ShadowGen was anything but traditional. Julie began her career in global public health and disaster resilience, working with organizations including the World Health Organization before moving into music management, licensing, publishing, and technology. Chad built a career as a Gibson-endorsed artist and technologist, contributing to 10 gold and platinum records while also developing new tools for creative collaboration. Their worlds converged through Meloscene, a spatial computing platform built for live creative collaboration. When Julie saw how the underlying technology could address a problem she had encountered years earlier in disaster response, she asked a simple question: “Can we do that with voice?” That question changed the direction of what they were building. John, Julie, and Chad explore how ShadowGen could keep people connected when traditional communications fail, why ultra-low-bandwidth voice matters in national security and public safety, and how the technology could eventually support areas like translation, secure communications, and data analytics. They also get into what it is like to build a deep-tech company as a husband-and-wife team, how two radically different careers ended up converging around the same problem, and the moments that made them realize the technology could have applications far beyond music. About ShadowGen: ShadowGen (https://www.shadowgen.io/) delivers voice where conventional communications struggle. Its technology cuts the bandwidth required for voice communication by more than 99%, helping keep people connected when networks are degraded, congested, or unreliable. Built for national security and other mission-critical environments, ShadowGen is advancing resilient voice across defense, public safety, and telecommunications. About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures (https://www.xcellerantventures.com/) is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund (https://www.jvf.vc/?utm_source=spotify-podcast&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=rx-e18&utm_term=shadowgen) ($5,000 minimum) and select SPVs, while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network. About Deal Titan: Deal Titan (https://dealtitan.com/) is an AI-powered platform that helps investors evaluate early-stage companies faster by turning pitch decks into structured diligence reports covering the market, team, financials, competition, and key risks. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free solo membership, including 10 full analysis reports.

2. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Kristie D'Ambrosio-Correll: Building America's Next Great Luxury Car Brand

   What does it take to build a new American luxury car company from the ground up? In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Kristie D'Ambrosio-Correll, Co-Founder and CEO of Dacora, to talk about what it takes to challenge one of the most established industries in the world and create a modern luxury automotive house built around beauty, craftsmanship, technology, and experience. Kristie's relationship with cars started long before Dacora. She grew up working on cars with her father before studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, where she immersed herself in artificial intelligence at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. She later became CTO of MIRROR, helping bring the product to market and leading the company through its $500 million acquisition by lululemon. That experience gave her a firsthand look at what can happen when beautiful design and technology are built to work together. Today, Kristie and her husband are applying those lessons to Dacora, with the ambition of creating America's next great luxury marque. John and Kristie discuss why American ultra-luxury may be ready for a resurgence, what the automotive industry can learn from Tesla's willingness to question everything, and how Dacora's coachbuilt model allows the company to focus on the elements it believes matter most to the customer while reducing complexity, cost, and time to market. They also explore Kristie's evolution as a founder and leader, from a career driven by achievement and perfectionism to one shaped more by courage, resilience, and a willingness to take risks. Kristie opens up about the difficult pregnancy and birth of her daughter, how that experience changed her relationship with control and success, and why she now believes growth comes from the experiences you accumulate rather than the titles or security you hold. About Kristie D'Ambrosio-Correll: Kristie D'Ambrosio-Correll is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dacora. Before founding Dacora, she served as CTO of MIRROR, helping lead the company through its $500 million acquisition by lululemon. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, where she studied AI at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Today, Kristie and her husband combine a lifelong passion for cars with deep experience in technology and consumer products to build Dacora, reimagining the automobile around experience, personalization, and human connection. About Dacora: Dacora (https://www.dacora.com/) is an American luxury automotive house creating a new vision for modern transportation centered on beauty, craftsmanship, personalization, and human connection. Its coachbuilt vehicles are individually commissioned, combining timeless design and exceptional materials with an AI-native architecture designed to quietly adapt to the people it serves. Since emerging from stealth, Dacora has built a reservation pipeline exceeding its planned first year of production and begun commissioning its first Founder Series vehicles. About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures (https://www.xcellerantventures.com/) is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum) (https://www.jvf.vc/?utm_source=spotify-podcast&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=rx-e18&utm_term=dacora) and SPVs (https://forms.gle/KKTC1VyUmTMxUUUb8), while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network. About My Custom Wine: My Custom Wine lets you build a wine around your own taste. Tell Augustan, its AI sommelier, what you're craving, and it can blend, taste-test, and refine a custom wine from thousands of options before it is bottled with your own blend and label. Visit My Custom Wine (https://www.mycustomwine.com/) to build yours.

3. 

   22 Sept 2026

   Chris Franks: Closing the Gap Between Medical Research and Patients

   What happens to breakthrough medical ideas when the science works, but no one knows how to get them out of the lab and into the hands of patients? In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Chris Franks, five-time founder and CEO of Promptus, to explore one of healthcare innovation’s biggest gaps: why so much promising research never becomes a real-world product. Chris explains that the U.S. invests roughly $245 billion each year in healthcare research, yet only a small fraction of resulting technologies ever reach patients. Promptus was built to tackle that problem by identifying promising intellectual property from universities, hospitals, and physicians, then rapidly developing them toward commercialization. John and Chris dig into how Promptus evaluates thousands of technologies to find the rare opportunities that combine meaningful clinical need with a realistic regulatory, manufacturing, and commercialization pathway. They also discuss why great science alone is not enough, the challenges of working with technology transfer offices, and how Promptus aims to compress a development process that can traditionally take years into an 18-to-30-month path toward FDA submission. What makes the model especially compelling is the scale of the opportunity: thousands of technologies are already sitting inside universities and research institutions, and Promptus is building a repeatable system to identify the few with the strongest potential to become real products that can improve patient care. The conversation also goes into the founder journey. After nearly two decades of building companies, Chris shares why entrepreneurs need to get out of the office and talk to the people they are actually trying to serve, why medtech founders have to understand every stakeholder who can say “no,” and why building something valuable requires far more than having a clever idea. Chris also opens up about failure, the toll entrepreneurship can take, and one of the hardest lessons he learned along the way: you are not your company. He and John discuss separating identity from business outcomes, surviving difficult chapters, and why failure can ultimately make someone a better founder. About Chris Franks: Chris Franks is a five-time founder, CEO, and builder who has spent more than 15 years on the founder’s path. After selling his last company in 2023, he began rethinking what sustainable success looks like for founders and leaders. Today, Chris is CEO of Promptus, teaches management and leadership at the University of Colorado Denver, co-hosts the How To Founder podcast, and co-founded Denver Startup Week and the Denver Founders Network. He is also a six-time Ironman finisher. About Promptus: Promptus (https://www.promptus.net/) is a healthcare innovation platform built to close the gap between medical research and commercialization. Through its proprietary Expedited Innovation Platform, Promptus identifies high-potential IP from universities, hospitals, and physicians; acquires or licenses it directly; and develops each technology rapidly and leanly, with physicians involved from day one and a clear path toward FDA clearance in 18–30 months. Promptus is currently focused on next-generation biosensing technology designed to give people greater awareness and control over their health. About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures (https://www.xcellerantventures.com/) is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum (https://www.jvf.vc/?utm_source=spotify-podcast&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=rx-e16&utm_term=promptus)) and SPVs (https://forms.gle/KKTC1VyUmTMxUUUb8), while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network. About Pitch Deck Analysis: For founders getting ready to raise, Pitch Deck Analysis (https://pitchdeckanalysis.com/) reviews your deck like an investor would, with scoring, feedback, and recommendations on what to improve before you pitch. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free Founder Pack with five free runs.

Inside a recent episode

RX28: Entrepreneur Rx Interview with Dr. Tracy Gapin, Founder of Gapin Institute | Founder & CMO at ONOV

Published 26 Jan 2022 · Transcript excerpt

[…] You really look at cortisol and neurotransmitter and organic acids and all these other key hormones that We never freaking learned about it in medical school, never learned about it in traditional medicine. I'm prescribing a ton of peptides as well. Peptides are signaling molecules. They're short proteins that are amazing for reducing inflammation or optimizing immune function or helping musculoskeletal repair or gut health. Peptides like BPC or CJC or thymus and alpha, thymus and beta mod SC, things that we never even heard of when we were in medical training. And they're amazing. And I do a lot of work with wearable tech. […]

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