Startups and corporates need each other. But most partnerships fall apart. In this episode, Ian Bergman talks with Noga Tal about what actually makes these relationships work. They break down why thinking big early is not hype, it is planning. How founders can back up a bold vision with data and steps. Why corporate bureaucracy kills momentum. How to align on the real why, set shared metrics, and define an exit plan that protects the relationship. They also dig into emerging markets, what AI changes, why AI creates more noise than ever, and how to keep the human element alive while moving fast.

Topics & Timestamps

🚀 00:00 Welcome and who is Noga Tal

🧭 01:07 The accidental techie path from nonprofits to Microsoft

🌍 04:17 Why founders should think global from day one

🧱 05:33 The hidden product and ops decisions that block scale

🎯 07:02 How to pitch big vision with real data and steps

🤝 11:23 Why corporates and startups need each other but struggle to win together

⚠️ 14:05 The real reasons partnerships fail, misalignment, speed, and unclear problems

🧰 18:06 How to de risk collaboration with goals, checkpoints, and an exit strategy

✅ 19:58 How to “fail with success” and keep the relationship intact

🔁 21:26 The story of pivoting a massive partnership when nobody was happy

🌐 26:26 Emerging markets and why new innovation models will matter more

🤖 31:21 AI is changing partnerships and creating a flood of look alike startups

🏎️ 33:20 Standing out with messaging, trust, and speed

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 35:55 Keeping the human element as AI reshapes teams and work

🩺 39:50 A real example of using AI to advocate for better healthcare outcomes

📺🎧 Enjoying the conversation?

Discover more stories of innovation and transformation at alchemistaccelerator.com/podcasts — and explore how today’s leaders are shaping the future.

In this episode, Marcelo Calbucci breaks down the innovation habits that shaped his career at Microsoft, Amazon, and across six startups. He explains why small, fast iterations beat big plans, how narrative driven strategy unlocks clarity, and why today’s founders should embrace niche, hyper specialized solutions. Marcelo also shares how Amazon’s PR FAQ framework can help any innovator inside a startup or a large company make better decisions, avoid wasted cycles, and build products that truly solve customer problems. We also dive into regional and global innovation, community as a catalyst, the future of AI, and the universal truths every builder should adopt.

Topics & Timestamps

🧠 00:00 Marcelo’s background in innovation and why tech pulled him in

🚀 08:00 Why tech enables instant iteration and faster learning

💸 11:20 How the VC model is shifting toward profitable smaller scale companies

🌐 15:05 Why community accelerates innovation and how Marcelo builds founder circles

📘 17:45 Inside Marcelo’s book and the PR FAQ framework

📝 20:00 Universal truths of innovation and why they matter

🏢 25:30 Why innovation is harder in big companies and how to make it work

🧩 28:50 Simple definitions of innovation that actually matter

🛠️ 31:40 How anyone can start using the PR FAQ method today

🏛️ 36:00 How Amazon avoids consensus thinking and mediocrity

✍️ 43:00 Why narrative combined with data is a superpower

🏗️ 47:55 Where startup and corporate innovation should diverge

📞 58:15 Marcelo’s experience at Hiya and lessons on scaling teams

💡 1:15:12 Marcelo’s final advice start small and learn fast

📺🎧 Enjoying the conversation?

Discover more stories of innovation and transformation at alchemistaccelerator.com/podcasts — and explore how today’s leaders are shaping the future.

You can’t avoid pain, but you can choose which pain is worth it.

In this episode of Innovators Inside, Hong Kong–raised entrepreneur and two-time TEDx speaker Yunsu Tang shares her journey from a stable corporate career in Hong Kong and Shanghai to rebuilding in London’s startup ecosystem.

She unpacks imposter syndrome, why anxiety often comes from a lack of data points, and what she learned from hundreds of user interviews. Then she breaks down how her new company Syncro uses AI to turn information overload into actionable stakeholder intelligence—without losing sight of the deeply human need for real, imperfect connection.

Topics & Timestamps

🎯 00:00:00 Choosing your pain and intro to Yunsu & Syncro

🌏 00:01:22 Growing up in rural Hong Kong and going global

🎓 00:03:00 Leaving a top firm for LSE and entrepreneurship

🧠 00:06:06 Imposter syndrome, emptiness, and mental health

🔍 00:08:21 300+ interviews and what’s broken in career coaching

⚙️ 00:13:44 What Syncro is and why stakeholder intelligence matters

📡 00:17:25 Information overload, AI, and filtering real signal

🧪 00:19:20 Biggest challenge: narrowing features and pivoting

💬 00:25:14 Human needs, raw content, and connection in an AI world

🔥 00:30:08 Resilience, survival mode, and finding joy in hard things

🚀 00:33:56 What’s next for Syncro and upcoming milestones

💡 00:35:19 Founder advice: you can’t avoid pain—so choose yours

📺🎧 Enjoying the conversation?

Discover more stories of innovation and transformation at alchemistaccelerator.com/podcasts — and explore how today’s leaders are shaping the future.

You hit the goals, earn the title, and build the career… yet something still feels off. In this episode of Innovators Inside, Ian Bergman sits down with Dr. Sharon Spano, PhD, to dig into why high achievers so often reach success and then suddenly feel empty, stuck, or disconnected. Sharon breaks down the stages of adult development, how unresolved trauma shows up in leadership, and why self-awareness is directly tied to creativity and innovation. They explore the tension between “founder mode” and collaborative leadership, the importance of somatic awareness for modern executives, and the habits leaders need to stay grounded as the pace of change accelerates. If you’re building what’s next and feel like something still isn’t lining up, this conversation offers a powerful reset.

Topics & Timestamps

🎯 00:00:00 Rethinking success for high-impact leaders

👩‍👦 00:02:28 Sharon’s path from advocacy mom to leadership advisor

🧱 00:06:12 The achiever stage and the emptiness of success

🧭 00:09:01 Moving from “stuck” into deeper growth

🏔 00:11:53 Consciousness as a mountain and center of gravity

🧠 00:19:27 Why self-awareness matters for innovation

👑 00:21:24 Founder syndrome, ego, and learning to listen

⚙️ 00:28:05 Leadership in a fast, tech-driven world

💥 00:33:43 Trauma, triggers, and anger at work

🫁 00:35:22 Somatic awareness, breathwork, and calmer leadership

🏃‍♂️ 00:37:05 Hustle culture, burnout, and what Europe gets right

📵 00:40:25 Boundaries with tech, media, and modeling change for the next generation

📺🎧 Enjoying the conversation?

Discover more stories of innovation and transformation at alchemistaccelerator.com/podcasts — and explore how today’s leaders are shaping the future.

Season 7 of Innovators Inside kicks off with Sherwood “Woody” Neiss — entrepreneur, venture capitalist, architect of the JOBS Act, and author of Investomers. Woody walks through how investment crowdfunding went from an eight-bullet framework to a 485-page regulation that opened startup investing to everyday people. He and Ian dig into the rise of the “customer-investor,” why doctors, scientists, and operators are backing the tools they actually use, how crowdfunding is changing access to capital for women and minority founders, and why health tech and biotech are now leading the pack. They also explore how data, AI, and tighter feedback loops are creating new “signals” for VCs, what founders get wrong about valuation and communication, and why lean, disciplined fundraising is back.

Topics & Timestamps

👋 00:00 – Meet Sherwood “Woody” Neiss and the story behind the JOBS Act

🧾 06:02 – Writing a new exemption: from Reg D to equity crowdfunding

🏦 11:09 – Why crowdfunding is just a new way to do an old thing

🚀 15:31 – Making the bull case for investment crowdfunding (beyond “last resort” money)

👩🏽‍💼 18:56 – Democratizing capital: women and minority founders at 50% of raises

🧬 20:36 – Why health tech, life sciences, and biotech are suddenly #1 in crowdfunding

📖 22:45 – Inside INVESTOMERS: a manifesto on early-stage finance and Web3/AI

🌍 24:09 – Building crowdfunding ecosystems in 43 countries with the World Bank

🤖 27:17 – AI everywhere: from animated Sasquatch to drones in agriculture

📈 33:17 – D3VC and Capital Pulse: using data and ML to find the best deals

⚠️ 36:42 – The two biggest reasons crowdfunding raises fail

📉 38:13 – Great tech, no customers: hard lessons from a failed portfolio company

🔁 40:09 – Tighter loops: customer feedback, investment, and product iteration

📺🎧 Enjoying the conversation?Discover more stories of innovation and transformation at alchemistaccelerator.com/podcasts — and explore how today’s leaders are shaping the future.

In this episode of the AlchemistX Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman sits down with Tiya Gordon, co-founder & CEO of It’s Electric, to unpack a deceptively simple approach to urban EV charging: power curbside chargers from the buildings they sit beside. Tiya shares how “shallow tech” beats heavy infrastructure, why cities and property owners say yes, and how this model accelerates electrification without trenching streets or tapping new utility feeds.

We cover:

• “Left of the boom”: designing for climate resilience before the crisis

• The behind-the-meter model (240V/40A) and two-day installs

• Free-to-city, revenue-share for buildings, and amenity upside

• Shifting EV load to overnight to balance grids (vs. daytime destination charging)

• Serving 40M street-parkers and rideshare drivers (NYC’s Green Rides)

• Beating legacy players, winning Boston, and first curbside installs in SF & Detroit

• Design-thinking as a founder superpower outside “energy/power” pedigrees

• The used-EV wave and what falling prices mean for adoption

If urban electrification is on your roadmap—or you just want a playbook for practical innovation at scale—don’t miss this conversation with Tiya Gordon.

For full show notes and resources visit: https://www.alchemistaccelerator.com/podcasts

Ian Bergman sits down with entrepreneur and author Alistair Croll, Founder of Fwd50 a to unpack ideas from his new book Just Evil Enough: The Subversive Marketing Handbook. They explore why product-market fit is no longer enough, how product-market-medium fit wins today, and why legitimacy—not features—decides who gets chosen in crowded markets.

Croll shares a builder-friendly approach to go-to-market: crafting “zero-day” marketing moves, spotting weak signals, and exploiting asymmetries competitors can’t or won’t match. From Dropbox’s built-in virality to IKEA’s customer-assembled value chain and Taylor Swift’s “Taylor’s Version” legitimacy hack, Ian and Alistair map the playbook for standing out when anyone can “vibe-code” a product.

You’ll hear a timely framework for the era of a million tiny horses (niche winners), the shift from an attention economy to an outcome economy, and a clear ethical line—Don’t Actually Be Evil—for running bold, subversive campaigns without crossing into fraud or harm.

Takeaways

• Think in mediums: Aim for product-market-medium fit; platforms have norms, mechanics, and governance you must design for.

• Compete on legitimacy: Make your offer incomparable so you’re chosen, not just compared.

• Hunt weak signals: Look for early indicators that, if true, unlock outsized advantage.

• Exploit asymmetry: Build plays rivals can’t respond to without breaking their own model.

• Disrupt the value chain: Merge, split, reorder, or reassign steps (à la IKEA, Talk) to create a new reason to choose you.

• Ship zero-day GTM: Treat distribution like product—engineer referral, incentives, and narrative into the build.

• Stay ethical: Subversive ≠ sinister. Set rules like “don’t assume consent” and “don’t commit fraud.”
  

If this conversation sparks ideas, check out Just Evil Enough, and explore more resources at justevilenough.com. Subscribe and share with the innovation agitators on your team.

For full show notes and resources visit: https://www.alchemistaccelerator.com/podcasts

In this episode of the AlchemistX Innovators Inside Podcast, Ian Bergman sits down with Maura O’Neill to explore her bold mission with The Decade Project: reshaping U.S. entrepreneurship so that it reflects the full racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of the nation.

Maura unpacks the economic and social potential of inclusive entrepreneurship — from unlocking trillions in GDP growth to empowering millions of new business owners. She shares the four pillars driving this transformation: access to capital, knowledge, connections, and belief — and reveals how innovation in financial instruments, mindset, and mentorship can spark systemic change.

Drawing lessons from her time in both the public and private sectors, Maura reflects on what it takes to drive large-scale innovation inside complex systems, why diversity and dissent fuel better solutions, and how optimism and urgency can turn impossible goals into reality.

Key Takeaways:

• The four levers to close the entrepreneurship equity gap

• Why innovation in capital and funding models is overdue

• How to balance audacity with structure when leading change

• The power of being “more curious than certain” in leadership and innovation

• What entrepreneurs and policymakers can learn from USAID’s transformation journey

  
  

A masterclass in purpose-driven innovation and the belief that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things.

🎧 Listen now to discover how Maura and The Decade Project are turning one of America’s biggest challenges into its next great opportunity.

For full show notes and resources visit: https://www.alchemistaccelerator.com/podcasts