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Samyr joins us to talk about his journey from growing up as an immigrant in Tampa to becoming a founder and building Knack, a peer-to-peer learning platform that grew into a B2B education company. He shares what pushed him to leave a corporate career at just 21 to bet on himself, the early days of building Knack, and the pivots that helped the company grow from less than $100K in revenue to more than $1 million in just six months during COVID. Samyr also gets candid about the challenges that came with rapid growth, raising capital, overhiring, navigating the impact of generative AI, and ultimately turning the business around. After more than a decade building Knack, Samyr found himself at a different point in life, getting married, becoming a new dad, and realizing he was ready for a new challenge. He talks about what it was like to step away from the day-to-day, why knowing when to move on can be just as important as knowing when to keep pushing, and what he wants to build next. The conversation also dives into the future of education, the role of AI in the classroom, why Samyr believes college should be an option rather than the only path, and the opportunities for alternative education and workforce pathways. He also shares his perspective on Florida's growing tech ecosystem, why the state doesn't need to become the next Silicon Valley, and why he believes Florida has an opportunity to build its own identity in tech and entrepreneurship. A conversation about taking risks, betting on yourself, navigating the highs and lows of building a company, and knowing when it's time for the next chapter. Listen to the full episode to learn more about Samyr's journey.

What does the future of education look like? In this episode, Saxon Baum sits down with Erika Donalds to talk about her unconventional path from finance and education reform to building Optima Academy Online, the world’s first virtual reality school. They discuss the challenges facing traditional education, how AI can enhance, not replace learning, and why Florida has an opportunity to become a major hub for technology, innovation and commercial space. Erika also shares her thoughts on what Florida needs to do to attract more entrepreneurs, capital and new ideas and why the Space Coast could be one of the state’s biggest opportunities. Tune in to hear the full story.

In this episode of Skin in the Game, Saxon Baum sits down with Bam Azizi, founder and CEO of Mesh and the first unicorn founder in the FLF portfolio. Bam's story is one of grit, resilience, and relentless execution. They talk about his journey from growing up in Iran to immigrating to the U.S., earning a PhD, launching and selling his first company, NoPassword, and eventually building Mesh into one of the most exciting infrastructure companies in fintech. Along the way, Bam shares what it was like building a company as an immigrant founder, the lessons he learned from hearing thousands of investor "no's," and why resilience matters more than almost any other trait in entrepreneurship. They also dive into the evolution of Mesh, from its early consumer-focused days to becoming the infrastructure layer connecting digital assets, stablecoins, and traditional financial institutions. Bam walks through the pivotal decisions that shaped the company and why he believes we're still in the early innings of a massive shift in how money moves around the world. The conversation covers fundraising, enterprise sales, founder lessons, stablecoins, tokenization, and the future of financial infrastructure. Whether you're building a startup, investing in technology, or simply curious about where finance is headed, there's a lot to take away from this one. Most importantly, it's a conversation about what it really takes to build something meaningful when there is no Plan B.

In this episode of Skin in the Game, Saxon Baum sits down with Marshall Sandman, Managing Partner of Animal Capital, for a conversation that covers everything from venture capital and founder relationships to content creation and the future of innovation. Marshall shares his journey from investment banking and WarnerMedia to launching Animal Capital, a venture firm that has backed companies like Whatnot, Underdog Fantasy Sports, and Colossal Biosciences. The discussion dives into why Marshall believes showing up in person still matters, how he thinks about building trust with founders and investors, and why Animal Capital has intentionally stayed away from many of the industry's biggest hype cycles. He also shares his perspective on what makes a great founder, the importance of storytelling when raising capital, and why some of the best opportunities can be found outside traditional startup hubs. Marshall also talks about his growing presence on social media, his commitment to publishing daily content for founders and investors, and how sharing practical lessons online has helped entrepreneurs connect with him directly. Whether you're a founder, investor, or simply interested in how venture capital really works behind the scenes, this episode offers an honest look at building relationships, making investment decisions, and creating long-term value. Tune in to this episode and let us know your thoughts.

In this episode of Skin in the Game, Saxon Baum sits down with entrepreneur Chad Bronstein to discuss the journey that took him from selling Beanie Babies as a kid to building one of the fastest-growing sports leagues in America. Chad shares how an early obsession with sales and entrepreneurship shaped his career, leading him through the adtech world, multiple successful ventures, and eventually the launch of Real American Beer alongside wrestling icon Hulk Hogan. Along the way, he reflects on the highs and lows of building businesses, raising capital, navigating market downturns, and the lessons that only come from failure. The conversation also dives into the creation of Real American Freestyle (RAF), the professional wrestling league Chad founded after recognizing a major gap in the sport he loved growing up. What started as an idea fueled by his son's involvement in wrestling has quickly grown into a nationally televised league, selling out arenas and creating new opportunities for athletes beyond college and Olympic competition. Beyond the business stories, Chad talks about the importance of surrounding yourself with great people, building strong teams, staying resilient through adversity, and why trust and loyalty are often more valuable than any business strategy. Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, athlete, or someone pursuing a big vision, this episode is packed with honest lessons on persistence, leadership, and what it really takes to build something that lasts.

In this episode of Skin in the Game, Saxon Baum sits down with Steven Walchek, Founder & CEO of Liminal, to unpack one of the most unique founder journeys in tech. Steven shares how he went from launching his first company in college—faxing loan documents by hand to building and exiting a venture-backed fintech business alongside his father. But what makes his story different is what came next: solving a problem inside his own company by starting another one. The conversation explores why most founders solve problems in other companies, but rarely their own, and how AI has completely removed the barrier to building technology. Steven dives into the mindset of “I can figure this out” and why it matters more than ever, along with the reality of startup pivots, near failure, and rebuilding from scratch. He also breaks down what Liminal is building today in secure, enterprise-ready AI infrastructure, and why distribution, customer experience, and trust are becoming more important than the technology itself. Steven also shares a powerful perspective on today’s “golden age” for entrepreneurs, where domain expertise combined with AI is unlocking unprecedented opportunity. If you’re a founder, operator, or investor trying to understand where technology and entrepreneurship are heading next, this episode is a must-watch.

In this episode of Skin in the Game, hosts Saxon Baum and Tom Wallace sit down with Eric Ries, the founder and author of the Lean Startup Methodology, one of the most influential business frameworks in modern entrepreneurship. Eric shares his journey from coding in his parents' basement, to dropping out of Yale for a failed startup, to eventually developing the principles that would change how the world builds companies. Eric opens up about his early failures, including his time at there.com, a virtual world startup that had everything going for it except customers. That painful experience led him to co-found IMVU, where he began experimenting with rapid iteration, minimum viable products, and data driven decision making, the core principles that would eventually become the Lean Startup. The conversation takes a sharp turn into today's AI driven world, where Eric offers a refreshingly candid and cautionary perspective. While he acknowledges that AI tools like Claude Code have made it faster and cheaper than ever to build and launch products, he warns that founders are falling into a dangerous trap he calls "dark flow," mindlessly generating code and demos without actually learning, testing, or getting real customer feedback. He argues that the MVP is not the artifact itself, but the experiment and the learning that comes from it. Eric also raises serious concerns about vibe coding, the practice of using AI to generate software that even its creators don't fully understand. He believes this is a ticking time bomb that could lead to a Chernobyl style disaster when AI generated, unreviewable code finds its way into mission critical applications. The episode also covers the state of venture capital in the enterprise AI space, where Eric sees echoes of the dot com bubble, with enormous wealth being generated alongside questionable value creation. He shares his thoughts on OpenAI vs. Anthropic, the future of SaaS, the robotaxi wars, and why he still doesn't understand what Bitcoin is actually for. Eric closes with a preview of his new book, Incorruptible, available May 26th, which digs deeper into principled entrepreneurship and long term thinking in business. Whether you're a first time founder or a seasoned investor, this episode is packed with hard won wisdom from one of Silicon Valley's most thoughtful voices.

What does it actually feel like to be inside a company growing faster than anything the world had ever seen? Abe Smith knows. As one of the key leaders at Zoom during the pandemic, he watched the company go from $600M to $4.1B in revenue in just 24 months and 10 million to 300 million active users in four months. Yeah. Four months. In this episode of the FLF Skin in the Game Podcast, Saxon sits down with Abe Smith, Silicon Valley veteran, LP at Florida Funders, and one of the most globally experienced operators in enterprise SaaS to unpack the wild ride of building some of the most iconic tech companies of the last 25 years. From joining WebEx before Cisco's record-breaking $3.2B acquisition, to looking Eric Yuan in the eye and promising $1B in international revenue at Zoom (and delivering it in 18 months thanks to a little thing called COVID), Abe's stories are the kind you don't usually hear from the inside. They also get into what made Zoom's culture so different, why Silicon Valley still matters, what it takes to spot a real founder, and the big one whether the next generational AI company can be built right here in Florida. If you're a founder, investor, or just someone who loves a great business story, this one's for you. 🎙️ Subscribe, like, and share and if you're building something special, you know who to call.

In this episode of Skin in the Game, Saxon Baum sits down with Brian Hollins, co-founder of Collide Capital, for a wide ranging conversation on venture capital, institutional fundraising, and the mindset required to build a differentiated early-stage firm. Brian’s story begins just outside Washington, D.C., where he grew up as the oldest of three brothers in a disciplined and competitive household. His middle brother, Mack Hollins, famously received no college football offers, walked on at UNC, and went on to build a nine-year NFL career that includes a Super Bowl championship. His youngest brother served in the Marines. That foundation of resilience, accountability, and high standards continues to shape Brian’s approach to leadership and investing. The conversation traces his path from Stanford, where a culture of ambition and innovation pushes students to think boldly, to Goldman Sachs, where he helped build the Emerging Entrepreneurs Coverage Group. During that time, he learned how to create real value for founders before ever writing a check, including early work supporting companies like Plaid. Those experiences laid the groundwork for how he thinks about venture capital today. Brian also explains why he approached business school intentionally, using it as a strategic platform to build relationships and lay the foundation for launching Collide Capital. The discussion highlights the difference between raising a fund and building a firm, and what it takes to earn long-term institutional LP support. The episode concludes with a look at Collide Capital’s investment focus on fintech infrastructure, supply chain and logistics, and the future of Gen Z in the workforce and why the best founders are relentlessly focused on solving one core problem. A thoughtful and candid discussion on building with intention and playing the long game. Tune in to this episode. You don’t want to miss this one!

The founder behind Orlando's first unicorn, Stax, and now, Worth AI, join sus on a new episode of Skin in the Game. Suneera Madhani shares her scrappy story of turning a dream into a billion-dollar fintech business with her brother, exiting their first company together, and how they landed on the idea for their latest venture, an AI-based onboarding & underwriting workflow automation platform, where she currently serves as Chief Evangelist Officer. Suneera also shares about founding CEO School, a podcast and platform giving women the "Have-It-All" formula to scale like real CEOs, and offers some secrets as to why second-time founders move faster. They discuss how AI can enable leaner teams with outsize output and zero in on why Suneera remains deeply passionate about building in Florida.

This episode of Skin in the Game features a deep, candid conversation with Felix Hartmann, founder of Hartmann Capital on what it really means to build and invest at the frontier of technology. Felix’s story starts long before hedge funds and venture capital. He moved to the U.S. from Germany during the 2008 financial crisis, initially planning to stay for just a year. That plan changed quickly. Early exposure to markets, coding, and emerging technology led him down a path of trading, crypto infrastructure, and eventually founding his own firm and launching Hartmann Capital the same day he signed his first apartment lease. A major theme throughout the episode is conviction through firsthand experience. Felix doesn’t invest from a distance. He tests products, uses them extensively, and looks for signals that can’t be captured in a pitch deck. Whether it’s VR games, smart glasses, or brain computer interface technology, he believes the clearest insight comes from being a real user and understanding how a product fits into daily life. The conversation explores why Felix shifted away from liquid crypto trading and toward long-term venture investing in frontier categories like VR, spatial computing, wearables, and neural interfaces. He explains how hardware limitations slowed VR adoption, why smart glasses may be closer to a breakout moment, and how enterprise use cases often precede consumer adoption. The discussion also touches on sub-vocal communication technology that allows people to interact with devices without speaking out loud and why it could fundamentally change how humans interface with machines. Saxon and Felix also discuss the realities of investing on the “bleeding edge,” where traditional metrics don’t exist and patience is required. Felix breaks down how power-law outcomes often come from non-consensus bets and why underfunded categories tend to attract the most mission-driven founders. The episode closes with reflections on geography, talent, and ecosystem building from Florida’s role in capital formation to the continued importance of Silicon Valley and Los Angeles for early-stage innovation.

In this episode, we sit down with Mike Collins, Founder and CEO of Alumni Ventures, to explore how venture capital is evolving and why network-driven investing is becoming increasingly powerful. Mike shares the origin story of Alumni Ventures and how it grew from a small alumni-based experiment into one of the most active venture platforms in the world, backing hundreds of companies across stages, sectors, and geographies. The conversation dives into how Alumni Ventures approaches investing without leading rounds, instead partnering alongside top-tier venture firms while leveraging a global network of investors, operators, and founders. Mike explains how this “connected capital” model creates value beyond the check and why collaboration, rather than competition, is core to the firm’s strategy. We also touch on broader trends shaping the future of venture capital, including artificial intelligence, energy innovation, healthcare, and the globalization of entrepreneurship. Drawing on decades of experience as both an operator and investor, Mike offers a thoughtful perspective on long-term thinking, governance, and what truly drives successful outcomes in venture backed companies. This episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at a modern VC model, with insights that are relevant for founders, investors, and anyone curious about where innovation and capital are headed next.

We sat down with Andrew Wright, founder of Franklin Street, for a fascinating conversation about market dynamics, building resilient businesses, and the future of the Tampa Bay region. Andrew shared how he launched Franklin Street at 26 and grew it into a full ecosystem of real estate services from capital markets and leasing to insurance and property management. He talks about why diversified revenue streams matter, especially in industries that ebb and flow with economic cycles. We also unpacked today’s commercial real estate environment. Andrew describes the moment as a “rain delay” transactions are slow, liquidity is tight, and valuations are still adjusting after rapid interest-rate hikes. Even so, Florida remains uniquely strong thanks to continued population and capital migration. As lenders start pushing stalled assets toward resolution, he believes new opportunities will emerge. Beyond market trends, Andrew shared insights on scaling teams, building culture, and developing young talent. His emphasis on authenticity, mentorship, and long-term potential over static skill sets is a refreshing and realistic take on leadership today. We also explored the future of Westshore, including transportation needs, density, and how thoughtful planning could unlock the next phase of growth for the district. Add in his perspective on AI’s impact on real estate operations, and this episode covers a ton of ground. If you're interested in real estate, leadership, or Tampa’s economic evolution, this is a must-listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What started as one grandson helping his Papa has grown into one of the most innovative companies in healthcare today. In our latest podcast episode, we sit down with Andrew Parker, the founder and CEO of Papa, to explore how a deeply personal family moment sparked a nationwide mission to combat loneliness, support caregivers, and redefine what it means to care for aging adults. Andrew’s story begins with a need familiar to many families: his grandfather simply needed a little help and a little company. Instead of relying on the traditional caregiving model, Andrew wondered, What if we could make companionship more accessible, more human, and more joyful? That question became the foundation for Papa, a platform connecting older adults with “Papa Pals,” a modern, community-driven approach he perfectly describes as “grandkids on demand.” In the episode, Andrew walks us through the early days of the idea, how he tested the concept, what he got wrong, and the surprising ways people responded. He opens up about the challenges of building a company in a space where emotional connection matters as much as logistics, as well as the pressure and responsibility that come with serving some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. You’ll hear how Papa navigated fast growth, shifting market conditions, and the complexities of working with major health plans. Andrew also shares what he’s learned about leadership, resilience, and why the “kindness economy” may be the next frontier for healthcare innovation. His insights offer value not only to founders and operators, but to anyone curious about how a mission-driven business can scale without losing its heart. This episode is a reminder that groundbreaking companies don’t always come from flashy tech or radical disruption, they’re often built from empathy, lived experience, and a desire to solve real problems for real people. Andrew’s journey proves that when you focus on creating meaningful human connections, the impact can reach far beyond what you imagined. If you’re interested in aging, healthcare innovation, founder stories, or simply love hearing how a small spark can turn into something transformative, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.