PODCAST · business
Accelerate OC
by accelerateoc
Carey Ransom brings the innovators, disruptors and next generation of entrepreneurs into conversations with the Orange County community
Episodes
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Larry Armstrong - Chairman, Former CEO of Ware Malcomb
Larry Armstrong joined me on Accelerate OC at a time that his industry, commercial architecture and building, is undergoing the greatest disruption and change of his multi-decade career. It was such an engaging and compelling conversation! He is Chairman of Ware Malcomb, an international design...
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Nick Zasowski - Director of Global Startup Studio Network (GSSN)
Nick Zasowski joined me on Accelerate OC to discuss the recent rise of startup and venture studios globally. Speculation by those following the industry puts the number between 250 and 500 global studios, and Nick and I discussed the role they play, why they are important in the startup…
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David Friedman - President of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), Orange County chapter
David Friedman is a longtime angel investor, and he became President of Tech Coast Angels’ Orange County chapter just recently. He’s has a plan to increase TCA’s engagement and member base, and we talked more about that in our conversation. He’s also been a businessman and executive for…
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Fred Haney - Investor, Author, Former Venture Capitalist & CEO
Fred Haney joined me on Accelerate OC and class was in session. He covered some important points for startups, such as what makes a fundable startup, the importance of strong management teams, and even how entrepreneurs need to understand they are competing for investment dollars. He is a private...
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Neal Polachek - Founder, ThinkLikeAnApp
Neal Polachek is the founder of ThinkLikeAnApp, a methodology and program for companies to better anticipate the future so they can succeed today. Neal recognized that we are increasingly using devices to help us get things done more easily and effectively, and are expecting other businesses to...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Special Episode - with Bill Carpou, CEO of Octane
Bill Carpou, CEO of Octane joined me again on Accelerate OC for a special show, to discuss what Octane is doing to help businesses here navigate the challenges presented by COVID19, updating us on how the Octane team is doing at this time, and what he's seeing and hearing from our business...
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Mike Gentile - Founder, CEO of CISO Share
Mike Gentile is the founder and CEO of CISO Share, which provides on-demand professional services in the information security space, including their unique “security program as a service.” He has been a leader in the infosec (as it’s known) space for a long time. Mike has been doing security...
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Matt Case - President of Bionatus
Matt Case joined me on Accelerate OC to talk about his company, Bionatus, where he is President. It functions as a venture studio here in Irvine, so we had a lot to discuss. Matt, his partner and team have worked with innovators to launch several companies, with a focus on leveraging futuristic...
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Special Episode - Non-profit leadership during a crisis with Dawn Reese of The Wooden Floor
Dawn Reese, CEO of The Wooden Floor, joined Paul and me for a special virtual and distributed episode of Accelerate OC. We had a great conversation about leadership during a crisis, how she is collaborating with her fellow non-profit CEOs during this time to support, encourage and innovate...
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Sinan Kanatsiz - Founder and CEO of KCOMM, Founder of Internet Marketing Association
Super connector and entrepreneur Sinan Kanatsiz joined me on Accelerate OC recently. He is currently the CEO of KCOMM, a PR and marketing agency he started over 20 years ago. He’s worked with many of the largest and most prominent companies in Orange County, as well as some of fastest growing and...
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Special Episode - Intro to OC4 Venture Studio with Kyle Kamrooz & Carey Ransom
My partner, Kyle Kamrooz, and I broke in our new studio at OC4 and shared some thoughts on why we started OC4 Venture Studio, our excitement for the future of building great companies in SoCal, and working with amazing founders, our studio team, investors and partners in the community. We got…
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Matt Hayden - Founder of Sea Purity Investments, Chairman of MZ Group
Matt Hayden joined me on Accelerate OC and we covered a lot of ground. He is currently the Chairman of MZ Group, a leading corporate communications and investor relations firm globally. Matt has been in the industry of company investing for a long time and I believe it provides him with such an...
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Hicham Semaan - President of Tech Coast Angels, Orange County Chapter
Hicham Semaan was a great guest on Accelerate OC. He had such actionable advice and insights for startup company founders with regard to fundraising and investment, among much additional wisdom he shared. He is currently the President of the Orange County chapter of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), one…
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Jeff Bocan - Partner at Okapi Venture Capital
Jeff Bocan is currently a Partner at Okapi Venture Capital, which is his second stint in Venture Capital. Prior to Okapi, he joined one of his investments, Mophie, here in Orange County, and helped lead it from $10MM to over $250MM in revenue and an eventual strategic sale in 2016 to a publicly...
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Doug Wilson - Founder & Chairman of CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County
Doug Wilson is the founder, and currently the Chairman, of the CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County, formed as a group of CEOs from some of the biggest companies here, working together to “build a thriving Orange County for all.” We talked a lot about the formation and work of CLA (as it’s...
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Toby Corey - Stanford Lecturer, Former President of Tesla
Toby Corey joined me on Accelerate OC and we explored so many areas - his time working with Elon Musk, his passion for working on critical climate change issues, how to build a thriving startup ecosystem and inspiring people to be bold and excellent. It was a fun conversation with so much wisdom...
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Marinela Gombosev - CEO of Evoke Neuroscience
Marinela Gombosev is currently President and CEO of Evoke Neuroscience, a medical diagnostic technology company focused on memory loss and other cognitive disorders. They have twice been ranked in the Inc. 500|5000 fastest growing private companies. I was excited to talk with her about it and…
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Sergey Sundukovskiy - CTO & CPO of Certemy
I was happy to have Sergey Sundukovskiy on Accelerate OC. Sergey is currently founding CTO and Chief Product Officer of Certemy, a startup here building a software platform for professional certification, licensing & compliance. Prior to Certemy he was CTO and CPO of Raken, a software company in...
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Andy Fathollahi - Founder/CEO of The Kanvas Company; Founder/Chairman of Incipio Group
Andy Fathollahi joined me on the show and immediately delved into the reality of being a founder and longtime entrepreneur. He’s a serial one and done it here in Orange County. He founded Incipio here over 20 years ago and is still Chairman of its Board. He’s also founder and CEO of his latest...
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Tom Baine - President of Landsea Homes
Tom Baine joined me on the show to talk about the homebuilding industry, which he's been in for 30 years in Southern California. That’s a lot of change he's seen in both our area and his industry! I looked up before the show the population change over those 30 years here in Orange County - 2.4MM…
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Nick Smoot - Founder & CEO of Innovation Collective
It was so fun to have my friend, Nick Smoot, join me while traveling in from Coeur d'Alene, ID. We discussed his amazing initiative, Innovation Collective (IC), the education and human development company he started there and is expanding to communities around the country. We also did it in front...
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Sue Parks - CEO of Orange County United Way
Sue Parks became the President and CEO of Orange County United Way in 2017, after a 15 year history of volunteering and working with the organization, including being the Chair of its Board. Before she signed on as CEO of United Way, she was an entrepreneur and business executive. She co-founded...
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Reynolds Bish - CEO of Kofax
I was super excited to have Reynolds Bish on Accelerate OC. He’s had an illustrious career in the technology industry, mainly here in Southern California, and we had a lot to discuss. He is currently the CEO and a Member of the Board of Directors of Kofax, one of the largest software companies in...
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Charles Antis - Founder & CEO of Antis Roofing & Waterproofing
Charles Antis possesses energy and passion like few people I've ever met. It just makes me want to hang out with him more. We spoke about his leadership and life philosophies, his company and its mission and purpose, and the amazing other work he’s doing in Orange County. He is the founder and…
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Ike Kavas - Founder & CEO of Ephesoft
Ike Kavas joined me on Accelerate OC to share his story, leadership philosophy and current company, Ephesoft, where he is the founder and CEO. It's a company he founded here in Orange County nearly 10 years ago. They have built the first document capture platform for the cloud and serve global...
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Peter Polydor - Founder of Eureka Building & Eureka Hub; President of Ergo Holdings
Peter Polydor is the founder of Eureka Building and Eureka Hub, a 3-acre event, office and creative campus that many of our community has enjoyed and visited in the last 6 years since it opened. Peter’s vision was to support the startup community here with it, and it has. Eurekafest is an annual...
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Neel Grover - Founder & CEO of Indi
Neel Grover is currently the founder and CEO of Indi, a software as a service video platform to help brands engage their customers and enable "individual commerce" (where the name Indi comes from). He shared more about Indi and how the opportunity came to him in our conversation. Before Indi he…
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Lori Torres - Founder & CEO of Parcel Pending
It was a lot of fun to welcome Lori Torres to Accelerate OC to share her amazing journey with Parcel Pending, a company she founded in 2013. She was the founding CEO and remains in the role today, and I could hardly imagine anyone else ever replacing her! Lori grew the company to over 150 people...
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Dan Heinfeld - President of LPA
Dan Heinfeld is currently the President of LPA, a leading national architecture firm, and he has been there for over 30 years. He leads their design and sustainability initiatives as well. LPA has more than 400 people in 6 offices in California and Texas. Their Orange County office, in Irvine, is...
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Kurt Johnson - Founder / CEO of FreightPop
Kurt Johnson is currently the founder and CEO of FreightPop, a cloud-based software that makes logistics simple. They give one login for all transportation management, including inbound and outbound freight management across all different freight types. Kurt is a grizzled startup veteran, with…
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Scott Duffy - CEO, SD Media Holdings; Top 10 Speaker
Scott Duffy is driven by one simple idea: helping people live their dreams through entrepreneurship. He uses his media channels, speaking and best-selling books, to help people breakthrough in their lives and businesses. He’s worked with many of the world’s top entrepreneurs and innovators, and…
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Dawn Reese - CEO, The Wooden Floor
Dawn Reese joined me for a great Accelerate OC conversation, and we explored her early career in the technology industry and then her transition to helping establish the Software Council of Southern California (now Technology Council Southern California) and eventually joining amazing non-profit,...
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Mike Daniel - Regional Director, Orange County & Inland Empire Small Business Development Center Network
Mike is the Regional Director of the Orange County and Inland Empire Small Business Development Center Network, which assists aspiring entrepreneurs and current business owners throughout Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Before this role he was the director of an SBDC office in Long...
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Lawrence Greaves - Co-founder & CEO of OPKIX
Lawrence Greaves is both an entrepreneur and investor, as well as a board advisor. Prior to being an entrepreneur he had roles in boutique advisory firms and large national consulting firms, advising on a number of large international M&A transactions. Lawrence invested in and co-founded OPKIX in...
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Don DiCostanzo - Founder & CEO of Pedego Electric Bikes
Don DiCostanzo has a really cool current company, Pedego, which is also his passion. That's clear in how he talks about it. Don is the co-founder and CEO of Pedego® Electric Bikes, the number 1 electric bike brand in the United States, according to Navigant Research. They are sold at more than…
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Nick Kovacevich - Co-founder, Chairman & CEO of KushCo Holdings
Nick Kovacevich is the Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of KushCo Holdings, a publicly-traded company providing ancillary products and services to businesses operating in various industries, including legal cannabis and CBD. It was formerly known as Kush Bottles. Nick became CEO 5 years ago and has...
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Peter Nguyen - founder, CEO of Ad Exchange Group
Peter Nguyen is the founder and CEO of Ad Exchange Group, based in Irvine. It is a leading direct-to-consumer digital performance-based agency, reaching $100M in revenue in less than 2 years in business. Both Peter and the company have received many awards for growth and entrepreneurship from...
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Lori Seal - CEO, Blytheco
Lori Seal has an amazing story, incredible leadership philosophies and such thoughtful perspectives on life, business and people. She is currently CEO of Blytheco, a leading national reseller of software that she took over from the founder, Steve Blythe, at the beginning of this year. He had been...
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Cary Breese - co-founder, CEO at NowRx
On this episode of Accelerate OC, we get to hear from Cary Breese and his journey from software engineer to insurance company executive to tech startup CEO, and his current venture, NowRx. Cary is currently the co-founder and CEO of NowRx, a tech startup in the pharmacy experience industry. Using...
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Grant Van Cleve - CEO Buy It Installed; Chairman Tech Coast Angels
I was super excited to have my friend Grant Van Cleve join the conversation on Accelerate OC. We got to hear about his amazing journey and he shared his wisdom about both investing in startups and leading one, as well as his thoughts on Orange County as an innovation community. Grant is currently...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Carey Ransom brings the innovators, disruptors and next generation of entrepreneurs into conversations with the Orange County community
HOSTED BY
accelerateoc
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Accelerate OC have?
Accelerate OC currently has 67 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Accelerate OC about?
Carey Ransom brings the innovators, disruptors and next generation of entrepreneurs into conversations with the Orange County community
How often does Accelerate OC release new episodes?
Accelerate OC has 67 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Accelerate OC?
You can listen to Accelerate OC on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Accelerate OC?
Accelerate OC is created and hosted by accelerateoc.
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