The Chris Yeh Podcast

Hello from Unreasonable FUTURE!  In this episode, I sit down with Canadian entrepreneur Sean Hinton and talk about his company, Skyhive.io.

Scott Johnson returns to discuss blitzscalable venture deals announced in August of 2023. Today's deals include:

• Ideogram
• Modular
• Atmosfy
• Fizz

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures returns to discuss blitzscalable venture deals for July 2023, including the slowdown in the overall VC market.

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures returns to discuss the state of the venture market, and three new deals:

• Curri
• Albert Invent
• Typeface.ai

Legendary management thinker and podcaster (and fellow Silicon Guild member) Whitney Johnson joins me to talk about faith, spirituality, and how it powers her work.

Chris Yeh and Scott Johnson discuss the most blitzscalable venture deals announced in April 2023. Sorry for the delay--I've been traveling a lot!

Scott Johnson returns to discuss venture deals announced in March. Specific startups covered are:

• Ghost Message
• Matchday
• HeadRace

Scott Johnson returns to discuss blitzscalable venture deals announced in February, 2023. We discuss the slow recovery in venture financing, the potential impact of the Silicon Valley Bank run, and how the drought in venture fundraising might affect our strategy. We also discuss the following companies:

• Magma
• Tazapay
• Descope
• TipLink

Scott Johnson returns to discuss the state of the venture world and help score four deals:

• Liven (liven.love)
• Paradigm (paradigm.inc)
• MacroFab (macrofab.com
• Slay (slay.cool)

Scott Johnson and Jeff Abbott join me to discuss three venture deals announced in October 2022:

• Telda
• Mercantile
• Unito

Scott Johnson and Jeff Abbott join me to discuss a number of deals announced in November 2022.  Deals discussed include:

• Amie
• WalletConnect
• Grouping (which Chris thinks is a fraud)
• Homa

Scott Johnson returns to discuss a fresh crop of venture deals.  Companies covered in this episode include:

• PayAll
• HyperComply
• Emrgy
• Tract
• Fermat Commerce

The entire Blitzscaling Ventures team assembles to discuss the venture downturn of summer 2022 and a few specific deals:

• Stadium Live Studios
• Merkle Manufactory
• Ghost (ghst.io)

My friend Jeff Pfeffer, legendary Stanford professor and management thinker, joins me to discuss his new book, The Seven Rules of Power.  We actually discuss all seven rules through the lens of how I live my own life!

Scott Johnson and I discuss the current venture market and cover three deals from June 2022:

• Soba.xyz
• Hank
• Ledger

Dre and I discuss her life, how she ended up working for Playboy, and share our love of Ted Lasso, Star Trek, and especially Strange New Worlds Season 1.

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures returns to score and discuss a fresh crop of five deals:

• Bubbles
• Switchboard
• StartPlaying
• Bravado
• Primitives

Scott Johnson joins me to discuss blitzscalable venture deals for April 2022.  We also touch on the collapse of Terra/Luna/UST.  Companies discussed are:

• Audyo
• Chalo
• Upside

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures returns to discuss a new crop of venture-backed deals.  This month's podcast covers:

• Disco
• City Mall
• Protege
• Espresso Systems
• Socket

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures returns for another edition of our popular deal reviews.  February 2022 was a record month, with 190 deals overall, and eight blitzscalable deals!

• TrialJectory
• Novi
• VendorPM
• Standard Metrics
• Flashfood
• Island
• PriorAuthNow
• Heygo
• Portals Labs

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures stops by for another round of blitzscalable venture deal analysis.  January's deals include:

• Buffalo Market
• Fan Controlled Football
• Gametime
• Rupifi
• Observable
• Plan Radar
• Draftea

Scott Johnson returns to discuss a crop of six blitzscalable venture deals that were announced in December of 2021:

• Wisdom (wisdom.audio)
• Bounce (usebounce.com)
• Apex.AI
• Mysten Labs
• Sound (sound.xyz)
• Repl.it

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures returns to discuss a new crop of venture deals.  November deals discussed include:

• Fintual
• Imprint
• BetDEX
• Reibus
• NFTfi

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures is back to discuss another crop of blitzscalable venture deals.  This is a particularly controversial month, with a heated debate about WorldCoin.  Enjoy!

Scott Johnson returns for another Blitzscalable Venture Deals podcast!

Scott Johnson of Blitzscaling Ventures returns to assess another crop of blitzscalable venture deals.  This months deals are:

• Bungalow
• Saturn
• Royal
• Pintu
• Balance

The John Madden of Mental Samurai, Dr. Ken Franklin, returns to discuss matters of love and faith.  I've long admired Dr. Ken's ability to be loving, even in the challenging environment of Facebook, and he tells the story of how he developed his faith, how it was tested, and why he won't ever stop trying to love others.  And if you like the wisdom of Dr. Ken, you can get it on tap in his book, "Spit Out That Apple," which is available on Amazon as a paperback, on Audible (free with your free trial), and via Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/Spit-Out-Apple-embrace-rejecting-ebook/dp/B07XNL86MD

Scott Johnson returns to discuss another crop of blitzscalable startups.  The companies covered in this episode are:

• Otter (get paid to take care of one other family's children)
• Choco (digital platform for restaurant/supplier purchasing)
• Block Renovation (managed marketplace for home renovations)
• Jones (insurance compliance for construction and repair contractors)
• Valora (Venmo for crypto in Brazil)
• Nas Academy (Make your own Masterclass for influencers)

I'm pleased to welcome my first Season 2 Mental Samurai to the show (check the archives to listen to my interviews with the three other Season 1 Mental Samurai--with a slightly different definition: Nathan Gonzalez, Dr. Jackie Boehme, and Ben Bergstrom), the purple fauxhawk himself, Wesley Chang.

Wesley and I discuss the origin of his trademark look, why his dog has a similar purple fauxhawk, and where he and his fiancee plan on going for their honeymoon.  Wesley also talks about strategy and how he prepared for the show.  It's a great conversation, and I hope you listen in!

Scott Johnson returns to discuss five blitzscalable deals from June 2021.  This episode discusses:

• XCLAIM
• Lessen
• Co-op Commerce
• Shef
• Snackpass

Dr. Ken Franklin returns to help me recap and break down the season finale of Mental Samurai.  We discuss the individual competitors, Caroline Glymph's mental game, and reflect on the patterns we saw for the entire season.  Competitors:

• Hercules Magnus, Real Estate Agent
• Caroline Glymph, Baton Twirler and Psychology Ph.D. Student
• Anya Lester, Forensic Scientist
• Jeromy Robert, Former Navy Cryptographer
• Joshua Florence, Pre-med College Student
• Laith Wallschleger, Former Pro Football Player / Voiceover Artist

Dr. Ken Franklin returns to help me recap and analyze the action from Episode 6 of Season 2 of Mental Samurai.  For the first time ever, Fox aired Mental Samurai twice in the same week, likely to avoid running into the Tokyo Olympics, so Dr. Ken and I pulled a double shift to cover the action.  Competitors this week:

• Devin Collins, Stilt Walker (who also sings and as a teenager, opened for Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick, and Roberta Flack)
• Jeff Vaughn, Professional Poker Player
• Jillian Gloria, Aspiring Astronaut
• Nick Santo, Daytrader / Jewelry Designer
• Kaitlyn Chu, USC Student
• Wes Chang, Reigning Samurai

Dr. Ken Franklin returns to break down Episode 5 of Season 2.  Scott Perry tries to extend his reign as Mental Samurai for yet another episode, but he has some strong competitors standing in his way.  Not only do we break down the action, we also hear Dr. Ken's technique for acing the Memory tower.

This week's competitors:

• Avery Kane: Surfer/Drummer
• Victor Velez: Multi-lingual Speaker
• Layci Petrakis: Hunter
• Wes Chang: Fauxhawk Enthusiast
• Courtney Evans: Dentist
• Scott Perry: The Man Who Married His Cat

Dr. Ken dials in from his road trip to analyze the events of Episode 4, with a focus on defending champion Scott Perry.  We discuss the various contestants, my desire for a Wikipedia page, and where Dr. Ken and his wife have been.

Competititors:

• Meri J Van (model)
• Ashlea Archer (college professor)
• Jeff Ahern (sales)
• Alexa Lowery (homeschool teacher)
• Scott Perry (marketing consultant)

Scott Johnson returns for a joint analysis of venture deals announced in May 2021.  This month's companies include:

• Contractbook
• Skiff
• Rally
• Poparazzi

I'm joined by Season 1 competitor Becky Eldridge, who joins me to recap Episode 3 of Season 2 of Mental Samurai.  We discuss how Becky's life has changed since Mental Samurai, and what she likes and doesn't like about the new format.  Then we recap the action, leading up to the amazing perfection of the newest Mental Samurai reigning champion, Scott Perry.

Contestants:

• Ruby Ortega: Army veteran, antiques
• Aaron Fraley: Lab scientist, Ohioan
• Lisa Overman: Brand manager, gifted child
• Scott Perry: Marketing consultant, laughs a lot
• Don Hecht: Stuntman, Italian
• Dr. Laura Kerber: NASA scientist, Reigning Samurai

I'm joined by Episode 2's Peter Freyer, a former entrepreneur and finance executive who was also a one-time professional magician.  Tune in to learn about how I know his childhood BFF, how he earned so much money doing magic, and hear the story of how being unemployed led to appearing on 11 different game shows, including both Wheel of Fortune and The Price Is Right.

Scott Johnson is back to help me analyze a fresh crop of VC deals.  The deals we feature this month are:

• Plentina
• Atrato
• Spinny
• Streamlit
• Causal
• StarStock
• Pearpop
• Faci.ly

With bonus discussion of:

• Quadrant Eye
• Firstbase
• Synthesia

Dr. Ken returns to help me break down Episode 2 of Season 2 of Mental Samurai.  We discuss the runs of Ben Hockman, his fiancee Dr. Laura Kerber (note that Ben has a Ph.D too), Ryan Shyng, Bianca Harris, Peter Freyer, and Reigning Samurai Gleb Golfin.  Tune in for our analysis, and to learn whether $30,000 is more than $0.

To supplement my Episode 1 recap, I'm joined by Dr. Ken Franklin, critically-acclaimed game designer and fellow Mental Samural Season 1 competitor.  We talk about Dr. Ken's game design career, and he breaks down the specific changes made between Season 1 and Season 2, and what they imply (e.g. Sequence questions are now easier, because they are all 3-item questions, rather than including 4-item questions; how Ava is moving differently).

I'm hoping that Dr. Ken will come back later on in the season, so show him some love!

Season 1 Mental Samurai Chris Yeh recaps the Season 2 premiere.

I discuss the changes to the show's format, and discuss the events of S2E1, including the right way to approach Gridlock puzzles.

Competitors:

• Anthony Trucks
• Michelle Joy Nixon
• Dave Lim
• Erin McLean
• Gleb Gofin
• Deborah Edwards