Most startups don’t fail because the idea is bad.
They fail because the journey is harder than expected.
Inspiring Founders explores what it really takes to survive and succeed in entrepreneurship. Each episode features honest conversations with founders and startup leaders about customer discovery, risk, resilience, and building companies that don’t just launch — but last.
No shortcuts. No startup theater. Just the real work behind innovation.
Everything is giving us feedback!! Elizabeth Greenfield Inspiring Founders Interview
Elizabeth Greenfield spent 25 years as a nurse — 15 of them as a nurse anesthetist — before walking away from a job she loved to build her own functional medicine practice.She was running marathons and triathlons, working 24-hour shifts, and raising two small kids. Her own health was falling apart and every lab came back normal. The answer didn't come from the system she worked inside. It came from a chiropractor who took a different approach, and who told her she already had the credentials to do this work herself.In this conversation, Liz gets honest about:• Why a single blood draw misses most of what's happening in your body• The moment she realised she couldn't keep telling clients to lower their stress while working the most stressful job in the hospital• Rolling out of bed one morning and realising the paycheck had stopped• What a speaking coach meant when she told her, point blank, "you're not ready for this"• Whether her business is "default alive" yet — and her unguarded answerShe also tells the story of her first clinical assignment at 20 years old: sitting with a dying woman whose daughter couldn't reach the bedside, and who happened to share her name.
19 Sept 2026
SJSU Startup, ConscioussAI launches AI on your phone
In mid-2024, Shiven Dave was an aerospace engineering student drowning in wind tunnel test data. So he built a pipeline that let an AI watch his screen and answer his questions. He called it Jarvis — he's a lifelong Iron Man fan — and he had no intention of sharing it. His cousin talked him out of that.Two years later, that bedroom project is ConscioussAI, a twelve-person startup that just launched what Shiven calls the first mobile agent that runs your entire phone. In this episode he demos it live, booking an Uber to the Golden Gate Bridge from his Apple Watch without touching the phone at all.We get into the parts most founder interviews skip: how a team of community college friends charges money from day one, why they pitch at campus tables instead of buying ads, how an agent gets around iOS restrictions on third-party apps, and why every chat stays on your device instead of on their servers. Shiven also shares the harder lessons — the tunnel vision that nearly cost them the mobile pivot, and what it actually takes to not quit.ConscioussAI: https://www.conscioussai.comInspiring Founders: https://www.inspiringfounders.com#InspiringFounders #AIAgents #StartupInterview #SiliconValley #StudentFounder
11 Sept 2026
Saeed Amidi, Founder at Plug and Play talks Entrepreneurship
"You can either get a job at Google or BUILD Google!"
In this episode Saeed sits down with host Mash to talk about pressure as a prerequisite, why he won't back a founder who has a plan B, what he's building with the new AI Center of Excellence in San Jose, and why he believes the AI revolution is 10 to 20x bigger than mobile — and still only the tip of the iceberg.Recorded live in front of an audience at Plug and Play San Jose.
9 Jul 2026
The $100B Fraud Problem
This interview with Mykyta Tretynko, the founder of Billioncore joins us over Zoom to talk about his founder journey, what it's like being a startup in Ukraine, and why he is on a mission to stop fraudsters and chargebacks! Check out his startup at https://billioncore.tech/
25 Jun 2026
The Cloud Startup Saving Founders 40–60% on AWS
Handoyo is the founder and CEO of Lyrid, a cloud infrastructure platform he describes as "Airbnb for data centers" — aggregating compute, storage, and networking from local data centers and hyperscalers into one platform, and delivering it to startups and enterprises at 40–60% less than the big providers.
In this episode of the Inspiring Founders podcast, we get into the gap Handoyo spent years spotting before launching in 2019, why he didn't fundraise until 2023, and how a mission to help founders in emerging markets like Indonesia and Kenya shapes everything Lyrid does. We also dig into his hard-won advice for engineers-turned-founders, why "you'll never feel ready," and the lesson that your product is less than 10% of what actually makes a company.
16 Apr 2026
Can AI Replace Startup Mentors? Natalia Bishop thinks it just might.
What does it take to bridge the gap for entrepreneurs in overlooked geographies? In this episode of Inspiring Founders, Mash sits down with Natalia Bishop—a serial tech founder and the visionary behind Story and Wild. Originally from Colombia and now a pillar of the Louisville startup scene, Natalia shares her journey from "stumbling into entrepreneurship" to building the largest co-working space in Kentucky. We dive deep into the evolution of the Wild Accelerator, a nonprofit serving founders from historically marginalized backgrounds and "flyover states" through grants, mentorship, and holistic support like leadership coaching and therapy. In this episode, we discuss:The Shift to Wild Academy: Why Natalia moved from a high-touch cohort model to a scalable, AI-driven educational platform. Meet "Willa": How they are using AI to provide 24/7 specialized coaching for founders who need advice at 11 PM. Landing Major Partners: How Natalia secured sponsorships from JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and PNC Bank by building a "network of humans" and social proof. Democratizing Success: Natalia’s "magic wand" vision of providing free startup curriculum to entire zip codes to debunk the myth that there isn't enough diverse talent. About Natalia BishopNatalia is the CEO of Story and the driving force behind the Wild Accelerator. She has dedicated her career to ensuring that "first, only, and different" founders have the cash, connections, and education they need to scale global companies from anywhere. Support Inspiring Founders:If you enjoyed this interview, please Like, Subscribe, and hit the notification bell to hear more stories from world-class founders!
3 Apr 2026
Tom Shen Entrepreneurship is in the Heart
The One Trait Every Successful Founder Needs (It’s Not What You Think)What does it take to build, grow, and exit multiple companies? For serial entrepreneur Tom Shen, the secret isn't a high IQ or a perfect business plan—it’s humility.In this episode of Inspiring Founders, host Mash sits down with Tom Shen and Bob Ashley to discuss the "heart" of entrepreneurship. They move past the spreadsheets and exit strategies to talk about what actually builds a legacy: servant leadership, creating a culture where people want to stay for 20+ years, and why the "smartest person in the room" is usually the one who loses.Key Takeaways:The Humility Edge: Why being the "dumbest person in the room" is your greatest competitive advantage.Culture over Strategy: How Tom and Bob built a 23-year partnership based on trust and a "can-do" spirit.EQ vs. IQ: Why emotional intelligence is the most critical skill for the future of leadership.Leading with Heart: Lessons from the basketball court to the boardroom.
18 Feb 2026
Benjamin Baer on Decision Intelligence, AI Guardrails, and Asking Better Questions
AI can generate an answer instantly — but that doesn’t mean it’s answering the right question.
In this episode of Inspiring Founders, I sit down with Benjamin Baer of DecideWise in downtown San Jose to talk about “decision intelligence” — the tools and practices companies use to operationalize AI in real business processes (with guardrails, compliance, and consistency).
We cover:
• What “decision intelligence” is (and why it’s different from traditional analytics)
• Why regulated industries can’t afford black-box decisions
• How guardrails and business rules shape safe AI outcomes
• The “answer is 42” problem: answers without the right questions
• Why building a community is the hard part — and how it becomes a flywheel
If you’re a founder, operator, or student trying to understand where AI is actually going inside companies, this conversation will give you a solid mental model.
18 Feb 2026
Wayne Fenton on Startup Survival, Product-Market Fit, and Becoming “Default Alive”
In this episode of Inspiring Founders, Wayne Fenton shares lessons from decades in big tech, multiple startups, and now founding a deep tech company in Santa Cruz.
We explore what it really means to become “default alive” — surviving the early stages of a startup long enough to reach product-market fit.
Wayne breaks down:
• Why most startups fail before traction
• The reality of customer discovery (beyond theory)
• When technology can look for the right problem
• How founders navigate risk at every stage
• The evidence you need before moving to the next milestone
If you're building something — or thinking about it — this conversation offers a grounded look at the journey from idea to survival.
6 Nov 2025
Inspiring Founders #4 - Raymond Cheng from Decrypt Compliance Shares When and Why to Launch a Startup
Meet Raymond Cheng, Founder and CEO at Decrypt Compliance, a Silicon Valley Startup providing compliance audits and certifications for small and medium sized businesses. If your startup wants to do business with the government, public universities, health care, or any other highly regulated industry, you probably need to talk with Raymond. His company provides an independent audit and certification that you need when your customer demands trust. Listed to the interview to hear why Raymond started Decrypt Compliance, and how he uses AI to provide better and faster services to his clients.
17 Oct 2025
Inspiring Founders #3 - Sameer Saran from ParkStash talks about Bootstrapping a Startup
Meet Sameer Saran, the CEO and Founder of ParkStash a Parking Management Software for Real Estate used by Apartments, Student Housing, Mixed-use Retail Sites, and even Truck Parking. Sameer has been bootstrapping ParkStash for 8 years and is now profitable and gaining momentum. He sat down for an interview to talk with me about his startup, bootstrapping, and how he overcomes the challenges early founders face... without giving up!
3 Oct 2025
Inspiring Founders #2 - Eli Finn and Edgar Ceron talk free founder resources and support in San Jose, California
Welcome to another episode of the Inspiring Founders Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Ashley and today we are heading over to San Jose to learn how SJSU supports Startups and Small Businesses at the south end of Silicon Valley.Join Edgar Ceron, Director of the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center, and Eli Finn, Director of the SpartUp Incubator at San Jose State University, for a deep dive into communities, mentors, advisors and other resources for Startup Founders and small business owners in and around San Jose, California.
1 Oct 2025
Inspiring Founders #1 - Sol Lipman, PieFi, and the Future of Startups in Santa Cruz
Join Michael Ashley, AKA MASH, for an interview with PieFi founder Sol Lipman and learn what Pizza has to do with Startups coming out of Santa Cruz, California.
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