Ambition Today, Startup Stories with Kevin Siskar - 50 Episodes Later, Ramphis Castro Returns To Talk About Investing In Hard-Tech & Life Science Startups

50 Episodes Later, Ramphis Castro Returns To Talk About Investing In Hard-Tech & Life Science Startups

02/07/19 • 53 min

Ambition Today, Startup Stories with Kevin Siskar

Reminiscing on my first podcast is my guest, Ramphis Castro. We sat down for my very first podcast in August of 2015 and he has watched it grow over the years. It was great to have him here with me again. Ramphis is a serial entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist that has impacted several companies across 40 countries. His quote sums him up very well, “I am a Computer Engineer and Lawyer by training, serial entrepreneur by experience, and grass-root ecosystem builder by conviction.”

A Puerto Rican Native, Ramphis grew up by the beach with his dad, mom and three siblings. He is close to his family and had his mom instilling entrepreneurship in his mind from the beginning. The family always had little ways to make some extra spending money outside of their jobs, which taught Ramphis investing and ways to make money from a young age. He was fortunate enough to go to a school that taught English and went to an Engineering school for college. From there he was hired as a Microsoft, which was the hot company to work for at the time. He then started a consulting service company, had to learn from a few mistakes, and get back up. He has now owned several companies and has helped multiple companies by investing. Listen in to hear more about Ramphis and his path to success:

World happenings from Episode 1
Life in Puerto Rico
Early Entrepreneurial experiences
Working for Microsoft
Starting his own company
Learning from bad experiences in owning a company
Joining Kauffman Fellows
Seeing different Ecosystems around the world
NYCIC
Venture Capital

Ambition Today Question of the DayTM : Where is the future of Venture Capital is going?

The Single Greatest Piece of Advice: Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!

Quote Of The Episode: “You don’t know what you don’t know”

Links from this episode:

Visit Ambition Today on the Web: www.siskar.co/ambitiontoday Follow Kevin Siskar on Twitter: twitter.com/TheSiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Instagram: instagram.com/thesiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Facebook: facebook.com/kevin.siskar Add Kevin Siskar on Snapchat: snapchat.com/add/krsiskar Follow Colors of Colleen: www.colorsofcolleen.com

Kevin Siskar brings you ambitious entrepreneurs inspired by Tim Ferriss Show, How I Built This with Guy Raz, Residual Income, Entrepreneur on Fire, NPR, HBR, TED Radio Hour, the StartUp podcast with Alex Blumberg by Gimlet Media, Pat Flynn, Tony Robbins, The Uncertain Hour, Bigger Pockets, Art of Charm, Dave Ramsey, Planet Money, Jocko Podcast, EntreLeadership, Zigler, APM Marketplace, This Week In Startups with Jason Calacanis, Mixergy, Seth Godin, Joe Rogan Experience, GaryVee, James Altucher, Monocle 24, How to Start a Startup, Crooked Media, and The $100 MBA Show with Omar Zenhom, and Casey Neistat.

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS (apple.co/1NRRPzL), on Google Play Music (goo.gl/LmmciJ), or on Stitcher for Android (bit.ly/1Rn01dy).

World happenings from Episode 1
Life in Puerto Rico
Early Entrepreneurial experiences
Working for Microsoft
Starting his own company
Learning from bad experiences in owning a company
Joining Kauffman Fellows
Seeing different Ecosystems around the world
NYCIC
Venture Capital

Ambition Today Question of the DayTM : Where is the future of Venture Capital is going?

The Single Greatest Piece of Advice: Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!

Quote Of The Episode: “You don’t know what you don’t know”

Links from this episode:

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS (apple.co/1NRRPzL), on Google Play Music (goo.gl/LmmciJ), or on Stitcher for Android (bit.ly/1Rn01dy).

Previous Episode

Understanding Your Habits To Become Indistractable, With Nir Eyal

Join the A-list backchannel to get "Single greatest piece of advice ever received": https://siskar.me/best-advice-ever

Author, Blogger, Entrepreneur, Teacher, Investor, and Consultant, also known as our next guest, Nir Eyal. Well known for his blog, Nir & Far, Nir writes about “behavioral design” the intersection of psychology, technology and business. He helps companies with techniques to motivate and manipulate users. He has successfully founded and sold two businesses in the tech industry and now has his book “Hooked” on the market, with another book coming in September.

Nir, originally born in Israel, moved to the US when he was just three years old and grew up in Orlando, FL. He received his MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he has since then taught. He is also an active angel investor as he believes in putting his money where his mouth is and invests in habit forming products. Listen in to learn more about Nir:

Growing up in Orlando
How Nir knew he would become an entrepreneur
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Nir & Far – the meaning behind the name of his blog
“Hooked”
Types of Manipulation
Creating Habit Forming products
His new book

Ambition Today Question of the DayTM : “What are your thoughts on iPhone addiction? How do we protect ourselves from them?”

The Single Greatest Piece of Advice: Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!

Quote Of The Episode: “It is not the best product that wins, it is the product that captures the monopoly of the mind.”

Links from this episode:

========== Visit Ambition Today on the Web: www.siskar.co/ambitiontoday Follow Kevin Siskar on Twitter: twitter.com/TheSiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Instagram: instagram.com/thesiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Facebook: facebook.com/kevin.siskar Add Kevin Siskar on Snapchat: snapchat.com/add/krsiskar Follow Colors of Colleen: www.colorsofcolleen.com

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS (apple.co/1NRRPzL), on Google Play Music (goo.gl/LmmciJ), or on Stitcher for Android (bit.ly/1Rn01dy).

Next Episode

Brian McCullough How The Internet Happened & What Is Happening Today

Approaching two decades later, our guest, Brian McCullough’s company is still going strong. Brian is CEO of ResumeWriters.com which is the longest lasting company for this service, shout out to Brian. Not only is he a successful entrepreneur, he is also the Author of “How The Internet Happened.” In 2016, he became a Ted Talk Resident, and is also known for his podcasts: Internet History Podcast and Techmeme Ride Home, which is a News Aggregator that now gives you a daily dose of tech news.

Brian grew up in Florida with no entrepreneurial background as his parents were both hard working teachers. Brian went to college to get a degree in Film, which he did, however, it was when he had to write his thesis to graduate, that he ended up becoming an entrepreneur instead. Tune in to hear more about Brian’s story:

Life background
Interviewing people for his book
Internet History Podcast
Techmeme Ride Home
History of the internet

Ambition Today Question of the DayTM : With regard to the venture capital industry whose job is to depict that future, what advice would you have for them based on the history of the internet?

The Single Greatest Piece of Advice: Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!

Quote Of The Episode: “We live in the world where entrepreneurs are rock stars”

Links from this episode:

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS (apple.co/1NRRPzL), on Google Play Music (goo.gl/LmmciJ), or on Stitcher for Android (bit.ly/1Rn01dy).