serial-entrepreneur

(343)
Legend
Felix Rodriguez Has Never Been Good at Being Finished
Founder · Engineer · Operator

Felix Rodriguez Has Never Been Good at Being Finished

A childhood among small business owners taught Felix Rodriguez to follow the money and the unfinished work. Three technology exits, a finance startup and its eventual wind-down made that education considerably more complicated.

felix-rodriguez · finallyRead →
Legend
Krish Ramakrishnan and the art of changing the plan
Founder · Operator · Executive

Krish Ramakrishnan and the art of changing the plan

Before BlueJeans connected incompatible video systems, Krish Ramakrishnan learned to connect a company’s ambitions with what customers actually needed. His career runs through Internet Junction, Topspin, a dog park, and a recurring willingness to reconsider.

krish-ramakrishnan · bluejeansRead →
Legend
Murali Aravamudan and the problem with one more button
Founder · Engineer · Executive

Murali Aravamudan and the problem with one more button

Before co-founding nference, Murali Aravamudan worked on telephone networks, mobile video and televisions that could understand a conversation. His career keeps returning to a familiar frustration: getting the machine to do more of the work.

murali-aravamudan · nferenceRead →
Legend
Brian Ree and the $40 question
Founder · Operator · Executive

Brian Ree and the $40 question

Brian Ree built DAILYLOOK to make getting dressed easier. Keeping the company alive meant asking customers to put a price on the help.

brian-ree · dailylookRead →
Legend
Scott Carver went fishing. The work followed.
Founder · Executive · Operator

Scott Carver went fishing. The work followed.

The PlanSource founder retired in 2019, then brought his software experience to the river. At onWater, a lifelong interest in fishing became another company to build.

scott-carver · plansourceRead →
Legend
Yo Shibata and the Art of Staying in the Game
Founder · Investor · Executive

Yo Shibata and the Art of Staying in the Game

After building apps, selling companies and backing other founders, Yo Shibata chose a problem he wanted to keep working on. At Tailor, that means giving businesses more say in how their software works.

yo-shibata · tailorRead →
Legend
Alicia Navarro and the business hiding inside the business
Founder · Executive · Advisor

Alicia Navarro and the business hiding inside the business

She built Skimlinks by letting go of the product she meant to sell. With FLOWN, Alicia Navarro is following another problem she encountered herself: finding the space to do work that matters.

alicia-navarro · skimlinksRead →
Legend
Prem Jain and the Trouble with Being Early
Founder · Engineer · Executive

Prem Jain and the Trouble with Being Early

His first startup had technology customers weren’t ready to buy. Decades later, the Pensando co-founder had learned to ask a more useful question: when will they be ready?

prem-jain · pensandoRead →
Legend
Al Goldstein and the Business of Starting Again
Founder · Operator · Executive

Al Goldstein and the Business of Starting Again

A refugee childhood, an online lender, a sports bar that went wrong. Al Goldstein’s career keeps returning to the same question: who is being overlooked, and what would it take to serve them?

al-goldstein · albert-goldsteinRead →
Legend
Stu Sjouwerman and the Trouble Between the Keyboard and the Chair
Founder · Executive · Operator

Stu Sjouwerman and the Trouble Between the Keyboard and the Chair

After building antivirus software, Stu Sjouwerman found a problem the code could not solve: people could be persuaded to let attackers in. That observation became KnowBe4, and his next venture asks another question about human behavior - what customers really mean when they speak.

stu-sjouwerman · knowbe4Read →
Legend
David A. Steinberg and the art of changing seats
Founder · Executive · Operator

David A. Steinberg and the art of changing seats

A switched dinner card brought David A. Steinberg next to John Sculley. Three decades of selling, a bankruptcy and a second public company explain what he did with the introduction.

david-a-steinberg · zeta-globalRead →
Legend
Adrian Ryan and the information hiding in plain sight
Founder · Operator · Executive

Adrian Ryan and the information hiding in plain sight

At flydocs, Adrian Ryan helped airlines put aircraft records to work. Now the co-founder and former CEO is building RoadHow around what drivers know - with a familiar team and a different set of wheels.

adrian-ryan · flydocsRead →
Legend
Kirit Ruparelia and the business worth building twice
Founder · Executive · Operator

Kirit Ruparelia and the business worth building twice

He sold United Clearing in 2006 and founded Nextgen in 2007. Kirit Ruparelia’s second act grew around a familiar promise: help mobile operators make sense of the bill, then be there when they need an answer.

kirit-ruparelia · nextgen-clearingRead →
Legend
David Sosna Keeps Asking What Happens Next
Founder · Executive · Operator

David Sosna Keeps Asking What Happens Next

He helped banks spot fraud, then helped them understand their customers. After 13 years leading Personetics, David Sosna is back with a new company and a familiar concern: useful information that arrives too late to be useful.

david-sosna · personeticsRead →
Legend
Muddu Sudhakar Keeps Coming Back to the Waiting Room
Founder · Engineer · Executive

Muddu Sudhakar Keeps Coming Back to the Waiting Room

From storage networks to Aisera to Salesforce, Muddu Sudhakar has spent his career finding the places where enterprise work gets stuck. His latest project returns to a familiar queue: the IT help desk.

muddu-sudhakar · aiseraRead →
Legend
Alan Matthews and the resignation that became Rapid7
Founder · Engineer · Operator

Alan Matthews and the resignation that became Rapid7

When a colleague tried to quit, Alan Matthews reached for a blank sheet of paper. The company that followed grew out of a career spent writing software, starting businesses, and asking what makes people stay.

alan-matthews · rapid7Read →
Legend
Tony Miller and the art of leaving a company behind
Founder · Investor · Operator

Tony Miller and the art of leaving a company behind

He helped build Definity, Carol and Bind, then watched each find a new owner. For the founder of Lemhi Ventures, a successful exit has repeatedly become the beginning of another working life.

tony-miller · lemhi-venturesRead →
Legend
Zorik Gordon and the business of making life less complicated
Founder · Executive · Operator

Zorik Gordon and the business of making life less complicated

From online games to local advertising, home repairs and Certemy, Zorik Gordon keeps returning to the same question: how much work should a customer have to do? His career offers a revealing answer, and a few changes of plan along the way.

zorik-gordon · certemyRead →
Legend
Amir Ashkenazi and the art of changing his mind
Founder · Executive · Engineer

Amir Ashkenazi and the art of changing his mind

A guitar lesson gave the Shopping.com and Adap.tv founder an idea for working together online. Then he had to decide whether the company he had built was solving the right problem.

amir-ashkenazi · airtopRead →
Legend
Andy Hill and the business of staying power
Founder · Operator · Executive

Andy Hill and the business of staying power

He built startups, led retail teams, and found that making money left another problem to solve. At Sundial, Andy Hill is putting an operator’s experience to work for founders, their families, and businesses built to endure.

andy-hill · sundialRead →
Legend
KG Ganapathi and the problem hiding in plain sight
Founder · Engineer · Executive

KG Ganapathi and the problem hiding in plain sight

He began with drones that could count warehouse stock. Listening to customers led SK “KG” Ganapathi toward a larger question: how do you make the inventory record agree with the world?

kg-ganapathi · sk-ganapathiRead →
Legend
The Forty-Year Game Behind NinjaOne
Founder · Operator · Executive

The Forty-Year Game Behind NinjaOne

At 12, Christopher Matarese and Sal Sferlazza pooled their money for a strategy board game. Four decades and several exits later, the same partnership controls a profitable IT company valued at $12.3 billion.

christopher-matarese · ninjaoneRead →
Legend
David Albert Kept Waiting for the Future. Then He Put It in an iPhone Case.
Founder · Engineer · Scientist

David Albert Kept Waiting for the Future. Then He Put It in an iPhone Case.

For decades, David Albert carried the same stubborn idea: serious medical signals should travel. One homemade video, one accidental LinkedIn share and an iPhone 4 finally gave the idea somewhere to go.

david-albert · alivecorRead →
Legend
David Karandish Learned to Take the Punch - Then Built for the Next One
Founder · Executive · Operator

David Karandish Learned to Take the Punch - Then Built for the Next One

A Google update once turned a $127 million acquisition unprofitable in two hours. The St. Louis founder answered with a lesson in controlled failure, patient reinvention and a second company built to outlast the platform beneath it.

david-karandish · capacity-aiRead →
Legend
Mark Brosso and the Business of Making Messy Data Speak
Founder · Executive · Operator

Mark Brosso and the Business of Making Messy Data Speak

Three healthcare-data companies, two exits, and one recurring problem: Mark Brosso has spent a quarter-century turning disconnected records into decisions people can use.

mark-brosso · purplelabRead →
Legend
Ranjan Reddy and the Price of a Stranger’s Face
Founder · Executive · Operator

Ranjan Reddy and the Price of a Stranger’s Face

He sold his first startup after barely a year. Then he spent the next decade chasing a harder question: how can the internet know whom to trust without making honest people prove themselves at every door?

ranjan-reddy · bureau-idRead →
Legend
Fahad Hassan Wanted One Honest View of His Money. Then He Built Range.
Founder · Operator · Investor

Fahad Hassan Wanted One Honest View of His Money. Then He Built Range.

A household spreadsheet sent the repeat founder back to first principles. His answer was Range - a flat-fee financial platform now betting that software and advisers can share the same desk.

fahad-hassan · range-financeRead →
Legend
Uri Raz Bet on the Call Before the World Picked Up
Founder · Executive · Engineer

Uri Raz Bet on the Call Before the World Picked Up

A fourth-time founder built Tango for the moment when video calling felt faintly futuristic. The more revealing story is what he did after messaging moved on without him.

uri-raz · tangoRead →
Legend
Gaugarin Oliver Built a Career Around the Signal Inside the Noise
Founder · Investor · Operator

Gaugarin Oliver Built a Career Around the Signal Inside the Noise

From speech recognition to media intelligence and enterprise AI, Oliver has spent decades turning unruly information into useful decisions - then carrying that habit from Boston boardrooms back to the place his family calls home in southern India.

gaugarin-oliver · fullintelRead →
Legend
Kira Makagon Has Been Thinking Three Moves Ahead Since She Was a Girl
Founder · Operator · Executive

Kira Makagon Has Been Thinking Three Moves Ahead Since She Was a Girl

Before she ran products, sales, marketing and operations at RingCentral, Kira Makagon learned to beat the boys at chess. Her career has followed the same discipline: see the board, build the team and make the next move count.

kira-makagon · ringcentralRead →