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

David Suk, Co-Founder and CEO of Saint Luna Moonshine, steps onto the New York Launch Pod to discuss his new moonshine brand which promises to popularize a traditional American liquor and a variety of new cocktails.

While David was the COO of a baby blanket company, Aden + Anais, he started talking to one of his co-workers whose passion was distilling moonshine. Soon they both realized that moonshine was the only liquor that had not yet experienced a premiumization and set out to change that with a cocktail forward modern brand. By working with local suppliers and hitting the pavement to get Saint Luna stocked in a variety of New York City bars and restaurants, David has managed to take a traditional American liquor and modernize it for an elevated experience.

In this episode we talk about the history of moonshine and why it has previously gone unnoticed in the liquor industry, how David came up with the idea for the brand, expanding an alcohol brand in the midst of Covid-19 and much more!

Transcript of this episode available at: nylaun.ch/saintlunamoonshinetr

For more on Saint Luna Moonshine visit: saintlunaspirits.com/

This episode has been sponsored by RezCue, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act compliance software for landlords. For more information on RezCue visit: rezcueme.com

Kalle Simpson, founder of NIGHT, steps onto the New York Launch Pod to discuss her $150 pillow. Is this price tag crazy? Kalle says no, and she’s here to tell you why. In fact, Kalle thinks you should rethink your strategy if you are sleeping on a $20 pillow.

The NIGHT Pillow is meticulously designed to focus on beauty and wellness benefits while providing optimal sleep conditions, which justifies its cost and creates a unique place in the market. The pillowcase is made from couture quality silk which keeps hair and skin hydrated and smooth and also repels allergens and dust mites. The pillowcase comes in a signature black hue to negate light and increase melatonin production. The pillow itself is made from light-weight memory foam, which self-adjusts to accommodate every sleep position.

The NIGHT Pillow has received a lot of attention with a celebrity following that counts Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner as fans. More than that, the pillow is carried by traditional retailers including Bloomingdales and Bed Bath and Beyond.

Kalle is a veteran of the sleep industry. Before founding NIGHT, Kalle worked in the bedding industry for ten years. Seeing a lack of innovation in the bedding space, Kalle decided to go out on her own and invent the best pillow possible.

Listen to the episode to hear the process behind inventing the NIGHT Pillow and all the health and wellness benefits associated with it (including a few that may surprise you)! You’ll learn how Kalle has been able to grow her business into what it is today.

LISTENER GIFT: $20 OFF with code NYLAUNCH (not an affiliate code)

More on Night: https://discovernight.com/

Transcript available here: http://nylaun.ch/NightTr

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

Rebroadcast of Episode 39: A Summer Inside NFTE, original airdate December 28, 2017.

This summer we took an inside look at the New York office of the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship, also known as NFTE. NFTE is a non-profit organization providing educational entrepreneurship training to high school students from low-income, urban communities.

This podcast is the story of high school students throughout their journey through an eight-week intensive training course over the summer. They are bright students who are eligible for free/reduced lunch and require teacher recommendations in order to participate in the program. But it’s also the story about people who are underrepresented in the entrepreneurship community, and who don’t get the flashy headlines (yet). We follow these students as they develop a business idea, earn revenue for the first time and overcome the unexpected challenges that come with entrepreneurship. By completing NFTE’s training, these students acquire business and life skills that will stay with them for the rest of their careers.

To learn about NFTE, however, is more than to learn about what their students accomplish. There is a large community that supports the organization from companies that donate resources, individual professionals who donate their time to mentor, and alumni who return to the program to help in any way possible. The story of NFTE is also about how all these constituencies interact with one another and create an environment where everyone benefits.

For more information about NFTE please visit: http://nfte.com/

For more information about the New York office of NFTE please visit http://nfte.com/offices/new-york-metro/

For a transcript of the episode please visit: http://nylaun.ch/NFTEtranscript

Episode sponsor: https://www.joinwisdomapp.com/ Follow @NYLaunchPod on the Wisdom App and get notified any time we go live!

Miriam Altman, co-founder of Kinvolved, steps on to the New York Launch Pod to discuss the founding of her company that elevates student attendance in schools and provides text message alerts to family members about absenteeism or lateness.

As a teacher in a New York City public school for three years, Miriam saw first-hand that classroom attendance was inconsistent and the problems with chronic absenteeism and lateness. However, once Miriam started establishing a relationship with the parents her students’ attendance increased. Understanding that teachers are over-burdened and that each class represents over a 100 parents, the idea for Kinvolved was hatched.

On her first day at the Wagner School at NYU Miriam met her Co-Founder, Alexandra Meis. Both Alex and Miriam were passionate about education and family involvement. While in graduate school the co-founders were able to understand the need for the product and made time to start the company with the first Beta launching in 2012.

With Kinvolved’s app Kinvo, if a student is late or absent, a text message or email (in a number of different languages) is sent to that student’s parents allowing them to know what is happening in real time as opposed to traditional methods which let parents know at the end of the semester. The result: three in four teachers who use Kinvo have reported increased student attendance, with 93% reporting improved communication with families. What’s more, the app takes a fraction of the time to take the roll versus the traditional Scantron sheets that some schools still use allowing for more classroom instruction.

Go behind the scenes of the start-up that has double bottom line of making money and carrying out a social mission to improve attendance in under-resourced communities, and hear about the challenges and opportunities of working in New York City public schools, the largest district in the United States.