ONE The Come UP

Alexander Harmsen from Global Predictions on "One the Come UP" Podcast

For the twelfth episode of “One the Come UP,” I was excited to have as my guest Mr Alexander Harmsen. The CEO and Founder of Global Predictions, their flagship model is portfolio pilot, your personal AI financial advisor. A Loran Scholar, Mr Harsem decided to attend University of British Columbia for his degree in engineering physics. After graduating in 2015, he started his first company Iris Automation, an AI tech company that specialized in Beyond the Line of Sight capabilities for drones and other uncrewed aerial vehicles. After scaling that company to work with some of the largest fortune 500 companies in the world, and landing government contracts with the FAA, he decided to sell to uAvionix in 2022. Unsatisfied with the quality of recommendations he received from financial advisors, and deciding he could do it better, Mr Harmsen decided to create Portfolio Pilot. From there, he scaled this second company to even higher levels, with over 22,000 individuals trusting over $22 billion for Global to invest in the market. His wife's company, Verisim, is similar in application but for the human body. Creating an accurate human body replication online, and testing responses to stimulations, Verisim has the capability for big Pharma companies to speed up the process of drug development by years. Between predicting the economy and the human body, Mr Harmsen definitely has a pretty good prediction of the future. 

Misha Vitels, Earth Brands on "One the Come UP" Podcast

Entering into the double digits now, the tenth episode of ONE the Come UP, a big milestone for the podcast, what better way to celebrate than to have a big Man with an even bigger Dream: Mr Vitels, with Earth Brands, and his goal to take down the plastic, red solo cup that plagues college campuses across the nation. Mr Vitels and his Co-Founder started this company in 2021 in his junior year at Williams College, where they were star varsity tennis athletes. A tough start for a party accessory company, Covid was a big challenge for the young duo but they persevered. Reaching out to Williams Alumni, and emailing every angel investor on Linkedin, they eventually landed their first investor – Mark Cuban. From there, it wasn’t long before they took off. Their first fraternity was at Cornell, but they quickly spread to other campuses. Becoming the official partner of Barclay center, and starting Earth Brands Alliance, an effort that sells Earth cups for 3¢, demand took off in 2024. Moving from their garage with just 60,000 cups, to opening an entire production facility in Kansas, in a matter of years, their takedown of the red solo cup is almost tangible. The environment isn’t contained to just college campuses, though, so expansion has brought them to other areas. Now found in cafés, homes, and restaurants, Earth Brands has one thing still to do – break the international barrier and really take over the Earth. Who knows what’s in store for the future – solo cups will go the way of the cassette player – but wherever the future of sustainability is, Mr Vitels will be leading it. 

Oscar Walter from Stockly on "One the Come UP" Podcast

Joining me all the way from Paris, for the eleventh episode of “One the Come UP,” is Mr Oscar Walter. The co-founder and CTO of Stockly, a retail technology company that creates a network of shared inventories for partners to sell items they don’t have in stock. The company was conceived in 2016, albeit slightly differently, and officially launched in 2018, a time in which they were a part of the Techstars accelerator. Through several rounds of funding, and keeping up with the latest development in technology, Stockly has proliferated throughout most of Europe. Though the network is not quite as large as Amazon – the main competitor disrupting the European retailer ecosystem – many companies are now able to generate profit levels they hadn’t reached previously. Mr Walter believes they haven’t even scratched the surface of what could be done. Changing the way retail will forever work, and challenging centuries old business practices, Stockly has a difficult challenge to continue expanding and partnering with more and more partners. As of 2025, the company has done over $17 million in funding, has partnered with over 300 retailers, and has over 100 million available items. Plans for this year include AI integration to reduce employee time involved in redundant tasks and a more seamless transaction between partners and consumers.

Ahana Banerjee, CEO of Clear: Skin Social on "One the Come UP" Podcast

For the ninth episode of “One the Come UP,” I was honored to have Ms Banerjee as my guest. The CEO and Founder of Clear: Social Skincare –  a free skin care routine tracking app – Ms Banerjee has always had one goal in mind: to bring a positive value to the world. A never ending pursuit, it started from the culture shock she experienced moving to India from the UK. There, she saw the dual realities of life: luxury and poverty. Questioning why she had the privilege of being born into the former group, she took it as her responsibility to give back for all she’s been given. This initially sparked an interest in physics for her – the underpinning of the science that drives innovation – which brought her to the Imperial College London. In her first year, though, she realized that physics wouldn’t allow her to accomplish her goal. So, to see other avenues of extending her mission, she took up an internship at Morgan Stanley and helped a start-up grow from the initial stages. Realizing from these experiences that entrepreneurship and coding could enable her to bring to life her mission – bring a positive value to the world – she started Quill, an AI note transcriber and her first submission to Y Combinator. They ended up not liking the idea, but loving her, and so gave her 4 days to come up with another idea. Her answer: Clear. After 3 months in San Francisco, a successful funding round, and expansion as a company – the rest is history. Clear now has tens of thousands of users across the globe, and has helped countless people with their skin. The future of skin care treatment will never be the same, and Clear will continue to clear up the world.

Louis Phillip Broze, from Spentlys. "One the Come UP."

For the eighth episode of ONE the Come UP, I was honored to have Mr Louis Phillip Broze as my guest. He’s our first European Forbes 30U alumni, with his company Spentys based out of Brussels, Belgium. He’s also the first of our guests to go through a seed accelerator – both hub.brussels and BEyond Program. Mr. Broze’s company, Spentys, uses 3D modeling, scanning, and printing to create custom-made orthotics and prosthetics. They are in 20 different countries and have helped over 10,000 patients. Something else unique about Mr. Broze is that he is a Kairo Fellow, a very distinct honor for entrepreneurs in Europe.

Tom Shea from Adgile Media Group

Tom Shea, from https://www.adgile.co/, joined me today to discuss the newest form of advertisement: mobile billboards. His company turns last mile delivery trucks into billboards, and then tracks their efficacy by collecting nearby user data. It sounds like something out of a sci-get movie — or 1984 — but it’s the way of the future. 
 
A native of Long Island, New York, Tom started his first company while a junior in high school. He attended college at BC, graduated with a degree in Computer science, and got a job at McMaster-Carr that eventually led him to Chicago. It was in Chicago that he attended UChicago and met his Co-founder, Max. Originally Adjacent Media, a slightly - but drastically - different idea, they went through Venture Challenge, UChicago's version of Y Combinator. At the end, they were posed with two main problems, which prompted an entirely different course of action. After several months of changes, in March of 2020 they were ready to launch Adgile Media Group – the new and improved version of Adjacent. But the pandemic happened, and they postponed launch until Autumn of 2020. One year later, their company had snowballed. They did $5 million in funding, which allowed them to expand. Now, as of Dec 23, they have done $10 million in lifetime sales, and have even partnered with Sabrina Carpenter. Who knows where Adgile will lead the world next, but wherever it is, Tom will be at the forefront. 

Shirah Benarde from Night Cap

Shirah Benarde is the founder and inventor of Nightcap, a scrunchie-like device for users to put over their cups to prevent spiking. The idea first came to her in a dream when she was just 16 years old, after a college friend of hers was spiked. The product quickly drew national attention, going viral on Tik Tok and appearing on Fox news. In August 2020, Nightcap appeared on Shark Tank, and Shirah closed a deal with Lorrie for $60,000 for a 25% stake. Since then, Nightcap has never slowed down. They are now in 150 universities and colleges, Forever 21, Bumble, and are making their way into bars. With the surface just scratched of the potential to be done, Nightcap has a lot of difference still to make. 

Henry Michaelson, Halla, One The Come UP

For episode 5 of One The Come UP, I discuss with Henry Michaelson the technological side of groceries. His company, Halla, is the search engine behind any e-commerce grocery store platform. Initially, you might not understand the importance or magnitude of this niche, but it is a big, multi billion dollar problem that many grocery chains have. Previously, the technology used by grocery store chains wasn’t up to date. This resulted in sud-par customer satisfaction, and profits being lost. But Halla has fixed that problem. 
In this episode, we dive deep into what goes on behind the everyday things that you use. The algorithms and data, often overlooked by consumers, is an ever evolving and changing landscape for technology companies. We discuss the development of his career, and the corresponding development of AI.

Mitch Deforest, Ramped Careers, Episode Four, ONE The Come UP

A Forbes 30 under 30 entrepreneur; a nomad that travels the world; and a surfer dude that flies first class – Mitch Deforest is a man of many hats. His company, Ramped Careers, has simplified the job search. Just enter your job preferences, add a little bit of information about yourself, and then leave it to AI to get the perfect job for you.
 
Maybe the most fun interview I’ve had so far, Mitch is down-to-Earth and relatable. Although to most people it would seem like he’s living the dream, Mitch knows what it’s like to be “on the come up.” Mitch went to college at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was a D1 swimmer and captain of the swim team. After graduating in 2015, he started his career at Yaypay – a small AR automation start-up with 3 other employees. After developing with them for a couple years, he decided to start his own company, Ramped Careers. 
 
Ramped is an entirely remote company, which allows Mitch to travel the world. Over the past two years, he’s lived briefly in over 30 different countries. He also loves to surf, and takes a “surfer’s attitude” towards everything he does. When describing his story – although it wasn’t easy to get where he is today – Mitch makes it seem like it’s possible for anyone to accomplish their dreams. 
 

Daniel Saks from Appdirect, Landbase, Episode three

Daniel Saks has always been at the lead of technology. In 2009, Daniel recognized the emergence of the Cloud as the future of SaaS. He and his partner started Appdirect, and quickly grew to become the leading B2B commerce platform. Over the course of 15 years, Daniel grew Appdirect to a 1.5 billion dollar company. But he’s brought our current technology to its culmination – it’s great right now, could be better, but never good enough. 
So he’s at it again, starting all over, and creating an entirely new technology – agentive AI. With his new company Landbase, he’s automating the go-to-market process for B2B businesses. As of Jan 1, 2024, this kind of technology didn’t exist, but it’s quickly becoming the “new thing.” Daniel claims that this is going to be 5x bigger than SaaS and will be 10x better than current AI. Using Landbase, users can automate up to 80% of their job – hence the company’s slogan “Reclaim your day.” 
With his great advice, unique perspective, and super successful journey “on the come up,” Daniel and I discuss what it’s like in the big leagues. From cold calling as an intern, to creating two multi-billion dollar businesses, his career has had it all.