Operate Podcast

Paul O'Brien - CEO of MediaTech Ventures

Paul O'Brien is currently the CEO of MediaTech Ventures, based in Austin. They are a leading venture development group at the intersection of media and technology. They also run an incubator called Collective, which Paul and team run as part of MediaTech. He’s also been Director of the Founder Institute Texas for the last few years. Paul also founded a group called Funded House a year and a half ago, which is designed to be a place where Venture Capital Firms connect directly with startups at their Series A or B rounds at conferences or online in virtual summits. Paul is a mentor and advisor to a number of other startup, venture and economic development organizations throughout the world as well.

Nearly 10 years ago, Paul and his family relocated to Austin from the Bay Area.  He had been part of early companies there like Yahoo, and ones that had built up and sold to companies like GoDaddy and Stubhub.

I’ve always appreciated Paul for his abundance mindset, willingness to share wisdom with and teach others, and his comfort with developing his own points of view.  He recently posted about building a startup team and thinking about it like building a family – some great content for our chat. We spoke a lot about startup ecosystems, what's worked in Austin and is still needed in the years ahead there.  There's a lot for us to learn from there to apply to Orange County!

Derek Herrera - Founder of Spinal Singularity

Derek Herrera is the founder of Spinal Singularity, a medical device company that develops products to improve lives for those with spinal injury.  He started the company in 2015 after working for another startup medical device company to learn a bit of the ropes. 

We discussed his path to becoming an entrepreneur and journey so far.Derek graduated from the Naval Academy and was a Marine Corps officer for many years.  He was shot and injured while on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and was paralyzed.  He has been a very active advocate for Marines and veterans and is on the board of several foundations.  It is amazing how many parallels his military experience and startup journey have, and his training there has been very helpful to him. 

He’s also been building community amongst medical device industry founders in the area, so we’re kindred spirits in trying to connect more people here for greater support, encouragement and advantage. Derek is exactly the type of entrepreneur we need to support, encourage and provide "unfair advantage" to for creating an innovative company here in Orange County.

Spencer Rascoff - Founder of dot.LA, Former CEO of Zillow

 

Spencer Rascoff and I had a lively conversation about many of the exciting things happening in the LA and Southern California startup community. Spencer has fully immersed himself here and is helping to build it as the next global innovation center, and I couldn't be more excited to have him here! We discussed the many advantages we have here, such as diversity of economy, creativity in abundance, and quality of life that is second to none.

He has done a lot so far in his career. He has co-founded two businesses that became household names, Zillow and Hotwire. And earlier this year he launched his latest company, dot.LA, a media company dedicated to covering and connecting L.A.’s startup world. I also hear he has at least one other new startup he’s developing, which is in stealth mode.

Spencer co-founded Zillow in 2005, had several roles, including CEO for nearly 10 years and took them public. He also led them through 15 acquisitions.  He co-wrote a best-selling book while he was there, and led a company where people loved to work, as they were often awarded for it and their culture. He also co-founded Hotwire.com and we all know that jingle. He and his team sold it to Expedia in 2003.  Prior to that he worked in private equity and investment banking.  He’s lived several lives! 

Spencer relocated back to LA a few years ago, after many years away. I’m excited that he’s back here to share his wealth of experience in building world class and industry shaping technology companies.  When you build a company that gets a single letter ticker symbol, Z, and reaches $10B market cap, people should listen. It will be fun to work with Spencer and the dot.LA team to highlight exciting developments and people here.

John Bradley Jackson - Investor, CSUF Professor, Author, Startup Adviser

It was a pleasure to welcome John Bradley Jackson to Accelerate OC. JJ, as his friends call him, is an Investor, Professor at Cal State Fullerton, Author and Startup Adviser.  He is the Director of the CSUF Center for Entrepreneurship and he’s also the Director of CSUF Startup Incubator. The CSUF Startup Incubator helps startups validate business models. JJ is a Professor at CSUF where he teaches Social Media, Entrepreneurial Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Commercializing Technology, New Venture Creation and Launch.

He is the Founder of Titan Angels, an Angel and Pre-Angel investment fund based in Orange County where they fund very early stage companies and ideas.

JJ is also Founder of The BirdDog Group, a consulting firm that specializes in helping small to medium sized firms with marketing, sales, and strategy. He’s also an Author of "Socially Close: Social Media Marketing for Small Business",​ "Déjà New Marketing: Increase Sales with Social Media, Search Marketing, E-mail Marketing, Blogs, and More"​ and "First, Best, or Different."

He is a board and advisory board member of a number of companies and area organizations, such as Junior Achievement, the SoCal committee for the Olympic Games and the LA Venture Association.

I so appreciate his can-do attitude and commitment to paying it forward to others in the community, as he works to connect, enable and help so many here.

Nicole McMackin - President & CEO of Irvine Technology Corporation

Nicole McMackin is currently the CEO of Irvine Technology Corporation, an award-winning Information Technology Solutions and Staffing provider with roots in Southern California. For over 20 years they have helped local and national companies with technology personnel needs, provided through their seasoned technologists, recruiters and support team.  Consistently ranked as one of Orange County’s Best Places to Work, ITC focuses on the quality of our people, commitment to customer service, and exceptional performance. ITC is also a Women Owned and Certified (WBENC).

Nicole is a leader who loves to develop others on her team and help them achieve their goals. We’re kindred spirits as we both started our careers in sales. She quickly became a top performer in her first company, and was a leader in providing staffing to a group of larger clients, as well as managing a team of account managers. Many of her clients are Fortune 300 companies.

She is also active in promoting women in technology roles, even starting a Women in Leadership CIO development program at UCLA last year. We talked about it during our conversation.

She is a SoCal native and is a graduate of the UC Irvine, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. 

Nicole is a great example of a world-class leader here in our community, accelerating things in her industry, business and in Orange County. It was great to have her on Accelerate OC!

Dr. Wallace Walrod - Chief Economic Adviser of Orange County Business Council

Dr. Wallace Walrod is currently the Chief Economic Adviser for the Orange County Business Council and he’s led research there for over 20 years. During that time he has done strategic projects with most of the biggest companies and cities here, such as Toshiba America, Irvine Company, First American, as well as the cities of Anaheim and Santa Ana.

Wallace is also the Founding President of the Center for a New California, which plays a key role in shaping the state’s economic future by focusing on Workforce Development, Economic Development, Infrastructure, and emerging trends in corporate social responsibility.  He develops programs, strategies, and policies across companies, government and foundations, and we talked about some of that work.

He is at the forefront of the demographic and economic changes underway in Orange County, and publishes regular reports that highlight those changes, as well as ideas for positively addressing challenges the changes pose.

Wallace is also one of the smart guys educated right here in OC. He earned his Ph.D. in Regional Economics from UC Irvine.

Steve Pfrenzinger - Serial Entrepreneur, Hall of Fame Angel Investor and Executive Coach

Steve Pfrenzinger is a successful multi-time entrepreneur, hall of fame angel investor and long-time executive coach specializing in self-awareness and how it can become your X-Factor for success.  Currently he is the head coach of the self-awareness mastery series that he’s developed, as well as his own mastermind to work with executives and entrepreneurs.  Steve has been coaching for over 3 decades with hundreds of successful clients at companies like Sony, Disney, Broadcom, Oracle and beyond.  

Along with that he was also the founder of 2 very successful technology services companies.  He’s built and sold these firms, so he’s been there in the humble and risky beginnings all the way through to growth phases.  He’s also written and spoken extensively in areas around coaching, as well as personal branding, personality type, and how to better manage your mindset.

Steve is also a long-time angel investor as part of Tech Coast Angels and was even named to their hall of fame, with his amazing track record of investing.  His super power, he says, it starts with picking the right jockey.

I also spoke with Steve about personality typing, an area I’ve had great interest in for a long time, and one that he has a lot of experience and expertise in, such as Myers Briggs and DISC. We covered a lot of ground and he shared the feedback that changed his life, as well as some great stories and wisdom.

Niall McSheffrey - Managing Partner of Elementz Ventures

 

Niall McSheffrey is currently Managing Partner at Elementz Ventures, a new VC fund here in SoCal. He is a successful entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in startup investment, product management, application development, and creating digital product strategies and solutions. He moved to Orange County in 2019 and is in the process of raising capital for his first fund.  Hear how he's navigating this current environment.

Niall excels in developing digital product strategies with clients, leading sales and marketing efforts, and defining the vision and direction of a company. He is an expert in creating long lasting relationships and thoroughly supporting his clients throughout the design and development process. He's been at the forefront of leveraging new technologies for Elementz, including mobile and web apps to better serve his clients’ business needs.

He graduated from the Thunderbird School of Management with a global MBA. He brings his expertise and experience around the world by engaging with different audiences regarding mobile app technologies, agile processes, and team development. It's great to have Niall here to help Accelerate OC!

Dean Kline - Senior Managing Director at USC Rossier EdVentures

Dean Kline is the Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of a newer group at USC called Rossier EdVentures, which is an education ecosystem at USC. We talked a fair bit about it and the exciting things they're doing to support innovation across the education landscape.  He’s also Co-Founder and Managing Director for Penn Venture Partners, a VC fund for primarily for early-stage tech companies in business services, edtech, life sciences, media, specialty manufacturing, and workplace learning. He’s been a venture investor for over 20 years and has had IPOs and many other acquisitions among his investments.

Previously he was an executive of an organization which setup children’s hospitals in developing countries. Dean was also Assistant to the Executive Director at the World Bank, focusing on project quality, education and health sector policy, Africa, and Asia. He began his professional career as an International Economist at the U.S. Treasury Department.  He has led several efforts to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly as it relates to learning; and he’s been a lecturer at several universities as well.

Dean and I met last year shortly after he relocated out here from the East Coast, and he’s spending a fair bit of his time in Orange County.  I know he’s found some interesting Education Technology or EdTech startups down here, too, which we discussed.  And he believes Orange County has a lot going for it to be a world leader in education innovation going forward as well.

Carson Lappetito - President of Sunwest Bank

It was very timely to have my friend, Carson Lappetito, on the show. He is currently the President of Sunwest Bank, an OC-based business bank started 50 years ago by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Sunwest is active in Orange County and works with businesses from startups to multi-national corporations.  Carson is also innovative in how he thinks about technology in the banking industry and even rolled out an online application for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ahead of almost every other bank in the country.  We discussed that as well as how the bank is responding to the current COVID19 crisis.

Carson is a banker, and also an entrepreneur, and I laugh since often those 2 things seem to run counter to each other.  He’s worked in a variety of roles with numerous financial institutions. He is also an investor in other businesses and was part of a hedge fund focused on investment opportunities in the financial services industry.  We’re both transplants to Orange County with our Economics degrees, so we’re kindred spirits there, but he’s way smarter - he also studied Political Science and got a minor in Mandarin.

We covered a lot of ground around fintech innovation, banking, the economy and the current stimulus program.  Enjoy!