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Today, we have a special guest on the podcast, Anupam Singh, Chief Platform Officer at Roblox. As you all may know, Roblox is a gaming platform with millions of different games within it, allowing players to immerse themselves in gameplay, watch interactive clips, chat with their friends, and even build worlds of their own. In today's episode, Anupam is going to illuminate his career journey, which has landed him at Roblox - along with the incredible tech he and his team are building in Foundational AI & Infrastructure.  Questions:  Your career spans Oracle, Sybase, Informix, two startup co-founders, and Cloudera — and now Roblox. What's the through-line?You met the CEO of Roblox after a year off, were you planning to found a company or did you always intend to join a company? How did you end up joining as SVP of Engineering? What happened in that conversation with Dave?What surprised you most about Roblox once you were inside?What does Foundation AI & Infrastructure actually do — and what was it when you started?What's the biggest technical barrier that's fallen for creators?What does the future of creation on Roblox look like — and what role does your team play in making it possible?Tell me about you outside of being involved in tech (your path to this point, influences, hobbies, family).As you step out on the balcony and look across what you have built, what are you most proud of?Let’s flip the script a little bit... Tell me about a mistake you made, and how you and your team responded to it?Who influences the way that you work? Name a person, or many persons, or something you look up to and why.You’re getting on a plane, and sitting next to a young entrepreneur who has built the next big thing. What advice would you give to someone just getting started on this road?Links https://www.roblox.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/anupamvsingh Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Leap Forward podcast hosted by David Rusenko explores how great companies are actually built. It is a great show for our listeners who want to hear founders and the people who knew them before success discuss the pivotal decisions and unexpected challenges they faced. I hope you enjoy!

Demetrie King grew up in Forney TX, but spent most of his life in Waxahachie. He is a Texas man through and through - and an avid side hustler, owning vending machines, buying and flipping things online, and partnering with companies that dispute property taxes. Outside of tech, he likes to hang out with his friends and travel. He has a unique hobby as well, performing standup comedy in the local DFW clubs.  Demetrie owned a vending machine business in the past. He began asking his consumers to rate the items he was putting in the machine, so he could stock it with the winners. As this progressed, he decided to make this into something bigger, with the main goal of creating a large, virtual focus group - with a "swipe-able" survey.  This is the creation story of Market Match.  Links https://marketmatch.app/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/demetrie-king-65936074 Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Igor Me is originally from Ukraine, but now lives in Portugal with deep connections to the US. He has been an entrepreneur for a long as he can remember, and tends to dig into the rabbit hole to make things happen. For example, he was into music in the past, which led him to want to be a DJ, which led him to opening a night club so he could DJ. His through-line happened 25 years ago, when he was driven to start helping people be more healthy. Outside of tech, he is married to his co-founder, raising one kid. He likes to cook steaks, of which his friends tell him they are the best in town.  Igor and his team noticed that health wearables only track specific data points, but don't do anything to help the wearer to break of out of a high stress state. Rather than just displaying data on a screen, he and his team built a closed loop nervous system modulation device - with real time sensing, and active interventions - and, with the goal of turning biofeedback into immediate physical regulation.  This is the creation story of Neera.  Links https://neerasleep.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/igorme/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Eran Kirzner born and raised in south Israel, then moved to Tel Aviv to be close to the technology center of the country. He isn't able to see himself outside of technology, no matter how far he looks. He's spent 20+ years in compute storage and networking, building things to help scale data centers - IE deep tech. Outside of work, he is married with 3 kids, a cat, and a dog. His startup and family life blend together in a beautiful way, and there is no real border as his family provides him tremendous support. For hobbies, he enjoys mountain biking and running 10-20 kilometers at a time.  In 2016, Eran was approached by one of his co-founders, Avigdor Willenz, to start something new together. They realized that connecting drives across a network was flawed, built off top of an old model - so they invented a new standard. After successfully pioneering this technology across the globe, they started to lean into AI inference, and how to break the GPU memory wall.   This is the creation story of Lightbits.  Links https://www.lightbitslabs.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erankirzner/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mike Link grew up in Rochester, New York, and had no intention in getting into technology... but he loves it now. His educational background was in neuroscience, as he found the brain absolutely fascinating. As he looked into western medicine, he figured out that it wasn't that attractive to him, nor the life style he wanted. He got into building his won things, including a trip to India and a return into sales. Outside of professional life, he lives in San Diego and loves to travel, visiting Mexico City often. He's a huge fan of cooking as well, and when he travels, he enjoys experiencing different cultures through the actual people living there.  Mike was found by his current venture, as he had past experience in elder care. He joined the team to help with the go to market planning, sales, etc. - to be the Swiss Army knife at the company. When they started digging into senior care and the problem around fall detection, he led the group in how they took on this market.  This is Mike's creation story at KamiVision.  Links https://kamivision.com/en-us https://kamivision.com/en-us/fall-detection/assisted-living-kamicare https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikelink1/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Alex Olivier lives in London, England, and has been a tech since the early days. In fact, his Dad awarded him an old linux box - from which, he built a Harry Potter website. Five years after he deployed said website, his site was getting 3 million visitors a month, and gained him success and access to red carpet events and interviewing the cast. He studied computer science, eventually going to work for Microsoft, before getting into the startup world. Outside of tech, he is a Dad to a 2 year old daughter - so he doesn't have much free time. But when he does, he enjoys cycling and skiing.  In several prior companies, Alex built, and built, and re-built, solutions around application permissions. Each time he did so, he found himself annoyed that he had to create this type of solution again. He and his co-founders decided to set out and create a company around an authorization management platform.  This is the creation story of Cerbos.  Links https://www.cerbos.dev/ https://www.cerbos.dev/blog/code-story-podcast-building-cerbos-ai-agents-authorization-every-request https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexolivier/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Yash Sinha hates losing even more than he wants to win, as the saying goes. He was born and raised in India, growing up in Delhi and competing in sports like Cricket. He's always been intellectually curious, always looking to the next step - which both of these things led him into entrepreneurship, of which he has started several businesses. Outside of tech, he likes to read fantasy and science fiction, as he enjoys the world building of this genre.  Yash and his co-founders realized that in order for robotics to work, foundational models needed to exist for robotic manipulation. Since hardware was no longer a bottleneck, he and his team focused on building models and deploying bots centered around human level dexterity.  This is the creation story of Intelligence Factory.  Links https://www.intelligence-factory.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/yash-sinha-556b411b3/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Leo Fan grew up in China, performing his undergrad and masters within the country. Eventually, he came to the states to get his PhD from Cornell. Prior to his current venture, his experience has been in academia, and research in computer science. But outside of tech, he's a gamer. In fact, he was pretty good at it, almost entering professional eSports during his undergrad days, playing Counterstrike and Warcraft. Besides that, he enjoys playing tennis and basketball, and eating some good Chinese food or tacos.  In his engineering days, Leo discovered a very powerful system for crypto, with powerful properties to enable it to be so. Once he figured out that this type of model can scale crypto systems, he wanted to build the first full stack compute network - to own the growth of on-chain compute.  This is the creation story of Cysic.  Links https://cysic.xyz/ https://leofanxiong.github.io/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/leofanxiong/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Pooja Brown grew up in India, and now lives in San Francisco. Her family ran manufacturing factories that made fertilizer and medicine - IE real products, real customers, and real consequences when a batch didn't ship. She grew up learning that a product was not done until it was in the customers hands. She came stateside for university, and never left San Francisco. She's held leadership positions in many companies, some notable names being Stitch Fix and Docusign. Outside of tech, she is married with 2 daughters. She notes that in all her years in tech, home is the one place she can't automate.  In 2019, Tribe made a bet that every company would become an AI company. In the summer of 2026, Pooja joined the company during the point of hyper growth, when AI is booming but businesses are still trying to catch up and implement. She stepped in to help lead the charge and build transformational AI systems for the enterprise.  This is Pooja's creation story at Tribe AI.  Links https://www.tribe.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/pgarg/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Brian McKeown is 24 years old, and was born and raised in Dallas, TX. He attended Texas A&M University in College Station, and was heavily involved in rec athletics. Post college, he worked a year or so before getting invited on the rocket ship he has been apart of in manufacturing, and moving to Chattanooga. Outside of tech, he loves being outdoors and in the mountains. He finds the Tennessee area great for hiking and community, which is a bit different than what he grew up with in Texas.  In his prior role, which was more of an old school company, Brian was referred to an opportunity by one of his mentors in college. The founders of his current venture had proven market fit for their product, but needed talented engineers to create a repeatable platform, built on top of a playbook for what works, to deploy in manufacturing plants across the US.  This is the creation story of Harmony AI.  Links https://www.tryharmony.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-mckeown-49b225229 Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jeff Emalaba has a background that has morphed into risk mitigation over the years. He has a professional background in options trading, risk management and auditing, along with over two decades of real estate investment. Jeff is also a licensed agent in North Carolina. Outside of tech and professional life, he enjoys reading and spending time with his family, taking vacations when time allows.  Years ago, Jeff invested $11k of his own money into a property. As it turned out, the investment opportunity had hidden foundation and structural defects. It was this experience that led him to look for a solution that analyzed hidden risks, appraisals, and property data - to be the Carfax for real estate.  This is the creation story of InvestFusion.  Links https://www.investfusion.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-emalaba/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

NEWS: Mogul Secures Oversubscribed $15.5M Series A Led by Draper Associates to Scale Its AI-Driven Real Estate Investing Platform Alex Blackwood grew up in different areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. He had a transformational experience at boarding school in South Jersey, and eventually went to Georgetown on a rowing scholarship. Post college, he went to Goldman Sachs doing conventional investment banking, and eventually private equity. Outside of tech, he is married and loves to play and watch golf. He enjoys reading business books and science fiction. He notes that he can't do e-readers - he has to have the physical book in his hand, which helps his attention and retention.  In 2021, Alex bought his first single family rental after getting his real estate license. He notes that the process of buying this was pretty terrible, with 10+ different people scraping fees from the process. During his "garden time" - IE month off from investment banking - he put together a thesis and pitched his now co-founder, on a fractional ownership platform for real estate.  This is the creation story of Mogul.  Links https://www.mogul.club/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-blackwood-a3996a135/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today, we have a special episode of the Code Story podcast. Joining us today is Caitlinn McMinn, Executive Director at TechFW. TechFW is a nonprofit startup incubator in Fort Worth, TX. The group is here to prove that the next generation of world-changing companies begins right in the heart of Cowtown. In our conversation today, Caitlinn is going to elaborate on the incubators story and model, illuminating how the team supports local entrepreneurs through opportunity and community.  Questions: TechFW operates on a 100% equity-free model for founders. In an incubator landscape where equity stakes are standard, why is retaining equity so vital for early-stage tech founders, and how does that alter the relationship between TechFW and its entrepreneurs?TechFW has been fostering innovation in North Texas since 1998. Looking back over more than two decades, how has the Fort Worth startup landscape evolved, and what core principles have allowed TechFW to remain a constant anchor for local founders?People talk about 'entrepreneurial ecosystems' all the time, but what does a thriving ecosystem actually look like on the ground in a city like Fort Worth, and what is its most fragile component?TechFW recently partnered with Texas Woman’s University to launch ThinkLab OnDemand, alongside close ties with local institutions like UNT Health Science Center and Texas A&M Fort Worth. How do university partnerships feed the innovation pipeline, and what advice do you have for regions trying to bridge academia and entrepreneurship?Through Cowtown Angels, TechFW bridges early-stage founders with local angel investors. How do you cultivate an angel investor community that is willing to back early-stage, high-risk tech ventures right here in North Texas?Through ThinkLab, you help founders test viability early. What is the single biggest misconception first-time founders have when transitioning an idea into a validated business model?Startups often move fast and break things, but scaling on top of weak processes can be fatal. In the FastForward program, how do you help founders balance aggressive growth with operational rigor?Founder isolation is real. How does TechFW build peer-to-peer community so founders don't feel like they're navigating the journey entirely alone?Your career spans finance, sales enablement, HR systems, and operations consulting before stepping into the Executive Director role at TechFW. How does having that 360-degree operational background shape how you diagnose what a startup actually needs versus what they think they need?Running an innovation hub requires balancing the needs of founders, community donors, corporate sponsors, and board members. How do you keep 'founder-first' as the North Star while managing those stakeholder dynamics?Fort Worth and the broader DFW metroplex are seeing massive economic growth. What unique advantages does Fort Worth offer tech startups compared to traditional hubs like Silicon Valley or Austin?As technology evolves rapidly—from AI to biotech and manufacturing—how is TechFW expanding access so underrepresented founders and non-traditional entrepreneurs can participate in the tech economy?If an ecosystem builder or civic leader in another mid-sized city was listening today and wanted to spark a tech community from scratch, what is the very first step they should take? Links https://www.techfortworth.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-mcminn/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

David Moore started day trading when he was 16, along with his brother. By the age of 19, he had a 7 figure portfolio, indicating some solid success. He did some angel investing, and then moved into entrepreneurship, starting a few companies. But eventually, got into a sales role that led to his current venture. Outside of tech, he loves music, and in particular, is really enjoying 15th century classical music. He has a lazy French bulldog, enjoys Italian food, and finds himself either reading Octavian literature, or - his bible.  David got into a sales job for a friend of his, and in doing so, build some tools using AI to help in the business. When he shared these ideas, and eventually was replaced by an offshore resource, he and his brother took off to build their own thing - a solution to help your business score leads.  This is the creation story of Stalex.  Links https://stalex.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/stalexai/ Current Sponsors: Tiger Data Protected Harbor Render Fitnexa Perplexity Entelligence Checkout our Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Check out our Patreon! Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor. Our Sponsors: * Check out Granola and use my code granola.ai/CODESTORY for a great deal: https://granola.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy