George Damouny, Venture Partner at Plug and Play, has a diverse background of finding startups to operational roles, before applying his experience to investing in venture capital early 2014. Since then, George has led venture deals in over 200 startups, primarily in retail, financial services and sustainability.

Some of his deals include Honey (acq. by Paypal for $4B), Kustomer (acq. by Meta for $1B+), Rappi ($5B+ val.), BlockDaemon ($3.25B+ Val.), Flutterwave ($3.25B+ Val.), BigID ($1B+ Val.), Turing ($1B+ Val.), Esusu ($1B+ Val.), Manscaped, Power (acq. by Marqueta), Even Financial (acq. by MoneyLion), Airkit (acq. by Salesforce), Stellar, Onfido, PayActiv, Madison Reed, Albert, Naadam, Symend, Oxio, Railz, Zama, Gr4vy, Heirloom, and many more.

George holds a B.A. in Behavioral Science with a Minor in Communications in the information age from San Jose State University, where he graduated with both the President's and Dean's Honors Awards.

During this episode, we discuss:

• How George joined Plug and Play very early, when it had less than 20 employees, and now there are nearly 800
• His past experience founding a company in the B2C space before running a medical facility
• How venture capital fell into his lap
• Being a generalist before specializing
• His favorite deals he’s been a part of
• The importance of learning from mistakes and having the opportunity to invest
• Why it’s crucial to understand founder dynamics
• The combination of the right market, right team, and right product
• Popular sectors in tech right now
• His shoutout to Salil Deshpande of Uncorrelated Ventures

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things VC and great deals!

Rebecca Lyons is the founder and CEO of HerSay, an AI-powered doctor visit companion that helps women advocate for their health with clarity and confidence. After her own journey with medical gaslighting and a delayed diagnosis of stage 4 endometriosis, Rebecca turned pain into purpose—building a tool that empowers women before, during, and after every appointment.

A seasoned sales and strategy leader turned tech founder, Rebecca blends over a decade of experience in operations, consulting, and digital transformation with a bold, mission-driven approach to femtech.

During this episode, we discuss:

• Noticing her first symptoms of endometriosis about 8 years ago but her results came back as “normal” so her doctor was dismissive about it
• How the diagnosis became a very empowering experience
• What she found with women who were navigating the medical system were likely less heard and experiencing medical gaslighting
• How she used a series of Meta Ads to publish hypothetized problem statements
• Her process for working with a no-code tool to build the app to create a prototype and then brought it to a developer
• Doing a soft launch/beta with small cohorts
• Her advice for knowing which feedback is worth implementing or not
• How she works through compliance and the regulatory landscape
• What she wishes she knew earlier on in her founder journey
• Her shoutouts to Megan Kane of Rellia and Argentina Beltran of InclusifAI

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things women’s health!

Shane Lykins is a founder and product builder based in San Francisco, exploring the intersection of AI and marketplaces. He’s worked on product and growth across some of tech’s most recognizable names, including Airbnb, Pinterest, and Outdoorsy. Today, Shane focuses on building AI-powered micro-SaaS tools and launching fast, scrappy experiments that solve real problems for startups. Whether he’s advising early-stage teams or spinning up his own ventures, Shane brings a builder’s mindset, a founder’s urgency, and a curiosity for what’s next.

During this episode, we discuss:

• His grandfather’s business that planted the entrepreneurial bug in him
• Shane’s interest in computers at a very young age
• How he lived in Austin and worked as a flight instructor until he decided to move to San Francisco and work in tech
• His career at Airbnb, Outdoorsy, and Pinterest
• What led him to starting his own business
• The company he founded and shut down
• What makes a great product and why startups should embrace AI
• All of the projects he’s built and launched lately
• How to know which ideas are worth chasing
• His shoutouts to Collin Gardner of Yonder Ventures & Clif Claycomb of Longtail

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things vibe coding and product!

Kendall Crocker is a fractional COO and strategic advisor with a 15-year track record across venture capital, startups, and strategy consulting. She works with early-stage founders at Seed to Series B to help them scale faster and punch above their weight in fundraising and execution. Most recently, Kendall was a Partner at a global early-stage VC fund, leading deal execution across six countries, with board roles in three. Before that, she was the first VP of Operations at a Series B startup, where she helped scale the company to a $50M Series C. She launched her career in strategy consulting with Monitor Deloitte, leading large-scale transformation and customer experience work for clients from Exxon Mobil to Tiffany & Co. Kendall brings a combination of operator intuition and analytical rigor to the organizations she supports. Outside of work, you can find her cycling, meditating (certified mindfulness instructor), traveling (40 countries), or up early with her toddler.

During this episode, we discuss:

• How Kendall started in a corporate environment doing strategy consulting, working with Fortune 50 clients, before leaving to launch an innovation function for Fortune 100
• Why she decided to go into startups in her early 30s and how she jumped in with both feet
• Getting her first startup job by meeting a founder for coffee, staying for three hours, and immediately getting an offer letter
• Why she transitioned into a career as a VC
• Advice for if you’re getting into VC “later” in your career
• The importance of building a community
• Why you need to prioritize leveraging your personal brand
• How she switched gears to becoming a fractional COO, now known as the “Fundraising Sherpa”
• Her advice for any founder who realizes they waited until it’s too late to get help with operations and fundraising
• The importance of paying attention to founder mental health
• Why you should take more risks in your career
• Her shoutouts to Unlock VC by Sophie Winwood, The Helm, Dream Ventures, and Golden Hour Ventures

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into taking leaps in your career and trying something new!

Zinnie Zhang is a 25-year old pioneering founder and CEO of Enttor, an AI-native marketing platform that empowers enterprise teams to scale authentic content creation and workflow efficiency. A Vanderbilt Computer Science graduate, she made the bold decision to leave Harvard Law School in her first year to pursue her vision of transforming the marketing stack through generative AI. With a deep understanding of tech and strategy – honed during her tenure at Yext – Zinnie led her team from dorm room to real-world impact, signing a major enterprise contract, raising pre-seed funding from MaC Venture Capital, a16z scouts and Knot API’s CTO as well as gaining advisory guidance from tech luminaries like Kieran O’Reilly and Nicholas S. Zeppos. Zinnie is passionate about building a future where AI amplifies human creativity. She advocates for women in tech and AI leadership, and regularly speaks on the intersection of AI, enterprise software, and diversity.

During this episode, we discuss:

• How she previously worked for an enterprise marketing software company and noticed inefficiencies that led her to building Enttor
• Where she’s failed and how she’s bounced back after failure
• “No” isn’t forever
• The importance of building in public
• How to be flexible and hold accountability as a founder
• What nudged her to leave Harvard and continue building Enttor instead
• Her advice for young founders
• What founders who are building with AI should know
• Her shoutout to Anna Monaco of Paradigm

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things being a young founder!