Guests

Rajesh is the founder of i-flex, a software company that provides the infrastructure for the banking industry. i-flex enables banks across the globe to perform multiple tasks, from approving your credit card at the checkout counter, to giving you cash at the ATM machine. i-flex is one of the only software companies with a “Made in India” label.

Rajesh speaks with Jessica about how he built one of the world’s leading financial software companies, from scratch.

Couch potatoes were thrilled when the online movie rental business came along, because they no longer had to leave their house to get another movie.

Netflix, co-founded by Reed Hastings, was the pioneer behind this phenomenon. Netflix now offers over 80,000 titles to more than 7 million customers. Blockbuster has had to change its business model in order to compete. Reed tells Jessica the story behind Netflix, from scratch.

Where do those eggs on your plate come from? Were the chickens cage free?

These answers have become increasingly important to Americans in recent years. Who are some of the pioneers who used local, seasonal ingredients in restaurants before it was “in?”

Jessica’s guest is one such restaurateur, Alice Waters. Alice is the founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley California, and the Edible Schoolyard, a foundation that pushes for food education in the nation’s public schools.

Alice describes how she’s trying to change the way Americans eat, from scratch.

What do college kids find funny? For millions of American students, CollegeHumor has become the sine qua non of online college comedy. Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen were high school friends from Baltimore Maryland who launched CollegHumor in 1999. They started by posting silly photos, essays, and videos created by their friends, and the site grew to become one of the most popular online destination among the college crowd. CollegeHumor was sold to Barry Diller’s Interactive Corporation in 2006.

Jessica speaks with Ricky and Josh about the evolution of CollegeHumor, from scratch.

If you’re looking to buy or sell your home, where do you start? What’s the right price? Traditionally, the consumer had unequal access to information, making the real estate market imperfect. Zillow is an online real estate service that helps consumers make more informed decisions by providing them with free information and tools. Jessica speaks with the co-founder of Zillow, Rich Barton.

Prior to starting Zillow, Rich started Expedia, the largest online travel service. Expedia started as a project inside of Microsoft before it was spun out and sold for roughly $4.5 Billion. Rich tells us how he helped to transform the travel industry, and now the real estate sector, from scratch.

Chemotherapy and surgery are two ways to treat cancer, but these procedures are expensive and invasive. What are some of the less invasive alternatives?

Jessica speaks with Dr. John Adler, a neurosurgeon at Stanford Medical School and founder of Cyberknife, a medical device that destroys solid tumors without anesthesia, or harm to healthy tissue. Dr. Adler describes how he is pioneering less invasive treatment of tumors, from scratch.

When you pass a Starbucks, you may often find customers at their computers, hooked up to the internet through a wireless connection; but how do these wireless systems work? You can increasingly check your email, speak on the phone, and watch a video on the same device… but how?

Jessica’s guest is Effi Atad, founder of WiNetworks, a company that enables satellite and cable operators to offer “triple” play services (voice, data, and video) to their customers. Effi explains the wireless landscape and describes how he is launching one of the leading wireless infrastructure companies, from scratch.

Jessica speaks with Seth Goldman, co-founder and “TEO” of Honest Tea, an organic bottled tea company. Seth started Honest Tea with his Yale Business School professor in 1998. Seth describes why he started the company, and how he managed to get his bottles on store shelves, from scratch.

Social networking sites help people connect for all different reasons. You might go to craigslist to find an apartment, ebay to find a buyer for your toaster, or kiva.org to lend money to an entrepreneur. Matt Flannery and his wife Jessica Flannery founded Kiva in 2005 in order to connect lenders in developed countries with small business owners in developing countries. If you have $25 and an internet account, you can lend money to a butcher in Bulgaria, a hair stylist in Iraq or a clothing vendor in Uganda.

Matt speaks with Jessica about how he came up with the idea for Kiva, got the lending platform off the ground, and how he’s helping to provide capital to thousands of entrepreneurs globally, from scratch.

Rosalyn Drexler, born in 1926, is a novelist, playwright, painter, former professional wrestler, and singer. She painted and exhibited among pop artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein in the 1960s. Her work can be found in the collections of museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN. Rosalyn walks Jessica through her life of experimentation and artistic provocation, from scratch.