New York Launch Pod: A Podcast Highlighting New Start-Ups, Businesses, and Openings in the New York City Area (NY Launch Pod)

Julie Sygiel, founder of Dear Kate, steps on to the New York Launch Pod to talk about what Julie calls the “ultimate underwear for women”.

Dear Kate is a women’s apparel and lingerie company that makes functional underwear for women. One day Julie asked herself why no one was making better underwear if every woman has a “horror story during that time of the month”. So Julie set out and spent two years developing the now patent pending UNDERLUX technology and Dear Kate was born.

Listen to how Dear Kate has grown its sales by 400% in EACH of the past two years and how the company’s expansion into activewear started with its underwear-less yoga pants that reached its Kickstarter goal in less than one hour! And find why Julie thinks 2015 is “the year of the period.”

Manufactured and headquartered in New York City, Dear Kate is driven by the philosophy to do what they think is right. Hear how that philosophy has influenced decisions to use models for who they are and what they do- not simply how they look, naming campaigns after famous women, and offering sizes XXS to 3X in order to be size inclusive.

Transcript of the episode available here: http://nylaun.ch/dearkatet

Charlie O’Donnell, Founder and Sole Partner of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, steps on to the New York Launch Pod to discuss his Venture Capital fund and give a behind the scenes look at the venture capital world.

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures invests exclusively in New York City companies with Charlie managing $23 million across two funds, leading or co-leading investments of around $350,000 in companies that have yet to raise $750,000 in capital.

Having worked in venture capital since 2001, Charlie knows the space. He has been named to Business Insider’s 100 Most Influential People in NY Tech five times and served on the founding board of the New York Tech Meetup.

Whether you are interested in the start-up scene, venture capital, or want to know what goes through a venture capitalist’s head, this is the episode for you!

Listen to the episode to hear:

Why Charlie choose New York for his fund. (4:56)

Opportunities to invest in New York (7:28)

The steps Charlie took to start his own fund (10:50)

Charlie’s pitch to his initial investors (15:00)

How Charlie finds his deals (18:21)

How Charlie established himself in the start-up scene (20:20)

What Charlie looks for in a Company (23:1 0)

What Charlie looks for in an entrepreneur and accepting pitches (27:47)

Brooklyn Bridge Venture’s investment in Orchard, our guest in Episode 8 ( 31:05)

Amount of money Brooklyn Bridge Ventures invests in companies (35:36)

Why companies take on a venture capitalist (37:51)

Charlie’s involvement with portfolio companies (41:05 )

What does a typical month for Charlie look like? (42:38)

Predictions for 2017 (47:00)

More on Brooklyn Bridge Ventures: http://www.brooklynbridge.vc/

Transcript Available Here: http://nylaun.ch/brooklynbridgeTR

What’s it like to start a restaurant in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York City? What about if that restaurant was in a subway station when ridership was at an all time low. Is it crazy enough to work?

In this episode we speak to Mario Vivas, the Founder of Criollas, a restaurant located in the Turnstyle underground marketplace in Columbus Circle. Mario immigrated from Argentina in 2012 to New York City in order to reinvent himself. Mario never thought he would open a restaurant but after gaining experience in the industry, he saw his opportunity. As people were closing their restaurants, Mario picked up appliances and equipment and steep discounts, and was able to find high quality employees at the time those employees needed jobs.

Listen to the episode to find out if Mario’s experiment worked and what a new chapter in New York City foodservice looks like!

More on Criollas: https://www.criollasempanadas.com/

Cate Luzio, Founder of Luminary, steps onto the New York Launch Pod to discuss her woman-focused collaboration hub right in the heart of Manhattan. Luminary offers a unique co-working and networking space for women of all professions to build their careers through hosted events, notable speakers, and a variety of amenities that are all designed make the Luminary space feel like a second home.

Before starting Luminary, Cate was the Executive Vice President and Global Head of Multinational Corporate Banking for HSBC managing approximately $2 Billion in revenue and teams across 72 countries. But through her experience in banking, Cate began to notice that many organizations hosting networking events and panels for women did not foster the sense of community or offer a space for daily social gatherings that allowed women to build the relationships that are important to success in the workplace. So to fill this gap in the market, Cate left banking and ambitiously self-funded Luminary to fill the gap in the market.

Luminary offers a mix of formal and informal events, amenities including a gym, a “living room”, and a window lined rooftop dubbed the “glass ceiling”. In this episode we talk about the need for a women-led and women-owned space for career development, the sense of community that is so important to the brand, and Cate Luzio’s decision to build Luminary in New York!

More on Luminary: http://luminary.nyc/

Transcript of the episode available at: nylaun.ch/Luminarytr

Note about this episode: this interview was recorded prior to the Covid-19 outbreak

Resources referenced during the introduction:

How the CARES Act Applies to Businesses (Commercial Tenants) and Residential Real Estate: nylaun.ch/CARESAct

Making Sense of Rent and Mortgage Obligations Amid Confusing Times: nylaun.ch/Mortgage

Preserving Your Commercial Lease Through COVID-19: nylaun.ch/CommercialLease

Mathew Farkash, co-founder of Blueprint Health, a New York City based health accelerator, joins the second episode of the New York Launch Pod to discuss the unique set of challenges that face health care start-ups. Blueprint Health was recently named by Fast Company as one of the top ten most innovative companies in health care, an incredible accomplishment when Mathew and his co-founder Dr. Brad Weinberg teamed up to start one of the first health care specific accelerators. Find out how Blueprint Health built, from scratch, the largest health care specific mentor community of any accelerator in the world and the benefits that provides to participants in Blueprint Health’s program. Listen to hear why Mathew believes New York City is the best place for health care start-ups and what Blueprint Heath looks for in entrepreneurs when it selects only 3% of companies from the hundreds that apply to its program.

Transcript of the episode available here: http://nylaun.ch/Blueprintt

More on Blueprint Health: https://www.blueprinthealth.org/