Dr. Lonnie Johnson is a literal rocket scientist who also happens to be the mastermind behind the legendary Super Soaker water gun. He’s also racked up over 250 patents and landed a spot in the National Toy Hall of Fame. Inventor, aerospace engineer, and entrepreneur, Dr. Johnson joins this week’s episode of Before IT Happened to talk about growing…

Millions of people have been affected by data breaches and leaks in recent years. But what if there was a better way to keep our digital identities secure? In this week's episode of Before IT Happened, Locke Brown talks about how his company NuID is working to both simplify and strengthen online security by rethinking the traditional password-based…

Vlad Panchenko, a lifelong gamer and technologist, is on course to one day build a massive metaverse community and exchange by connecting video gamers on mega gaming platforms. Vlad started his career in Ukraine at the age of 16, where he was paid by the kilobyte to translate pirated video games from English into Russian and Ukrainian. Byte by byte…

Feras Bashnak is a serial entrepreneur who knows first-hand the high cost of opening a business. Want to launch a brick-and-mortar restaurant? Half a million. How about a food truck? $100,000. Either way, you’re sinking a lot of cash into a huge commitment that you have yet to prototype ­– risks few young entrepreneurs are willing to take. In this …

Maurice Carrubba—also known as the Warren Buffett of restaurateurs—has a knack for finding classic restaurants with great bones and transforming them into go-to dining experiences. Born and raised in Sicily, Maurice moved to Silicon Valley in 1989 where he now runs a restaurant group and a catering company and employs over 150 people. Maurice also …

Modern life can be isolating. We’re wrapped up in our social media feeds, rushing to log into the next Zoom meeting, hurtling down the road in our metal capsules, or holed up in our houses. Being cut off from the natural world often leaves us feeling disconnected from ourselves and others. Enter this week’s guest on Before IT Happened, Joe Patitucc…

Silicon Valley is home to some of the world’s most innovative products and companies. Mighty among them are the design firms that help build and shape those products. In this episode of Before IT Happened, Tark Abed, founder and CEO of the product design consultancy Mighty Studios, talks to host Donna Loughlin about how he became an industrial desi…

Carbon-heavy agriculture is responsible for 11% of greenhouse gases worldwide. That’s where Mark Schwager and his team at Monarch Tractor roll in, with the world’s first electric, autonomous smart tractor. Monarch sees its tractor as the future of sustainable agriculture, allowing growers to apply precision farming while cutting their diesel costs …

There’s never been a better time to get on the electric bandwagon, or should we say highway? Alan Dowdell, CEO of REVO Powertrains, joins our host Donna Loughlin on this episode of Before IT Happened to talk about the $400 billion global environmental problem he and his company are working to tackle, converting existing, gas-powered trucks and buse…

The motorcycle industry is constantly evolving and Amber Spencer, a triple threat as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Damon Motorcycles, as well as a racer and bodybuilder, is now playing an active role in that transformation. As a minority in the motorcycle industry (women make up only 20% of the rider demographic, and women racers are nea…

Fast fashion has created mountains of unwanted clothing that are rotting in landfills and even washing up on beaches. In this episode of Before IT Happened, host Donna Loughlin talks with Pawan Gupta, CEO and co-founder of the manufacturing platform Fashinza. The son of a factory manager in a small town in India, Pawan Gupta saw small factory owner…

If robots are coming to take our jobs, let’s give them a really dangerous one: window washing. Ross Blum, president and COO at Skyline Robotics, joins host Donna Loughlin to talk about his company’s window washing robot, Ozmo. And cleaning is just the start. If Skyline Robotics achieves its vision, inspections, polishing, masonry, repairs, and test…

Humans have been exploiting the planet's natural resources since the dawn of civilization. This week’s guest on Before IT Happened, Troy Carter, would argue that even the term ‘natural resources’ is exploitative in and of itself. Co-founder and CEO of Earthshot Labs, a venture-funded non-profit backed by the National Science Foundation, Troy Carter…

Technology is transforming our world in a myriad of ways. Witnessing some of those changes from the frontlines is artist and documentarian Agnieszka Pilat whose subjects range from aging machinery to emerging technology. In this episode of Before IT Happened, Pilat joins host Donna Loughlin to talk about growing up behind the Iron Curtain in Poland…

Autonomous trucking will soon transform not just our freeways but the entire global supply chain. Still, serious concerns remain about safety, workforce changes, and policy. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin talks with Paula Bejarano, Director of Business Development for Navistar. Paula started as a reliability engineer…

Among the qualities that make a good entrepreneur, we rarely hear about humbleness, empathy or curiosity. Anne Cocquyt sees that as a problem. Cocquyt is the founder and CEO of the GUILD, a community centered around connecting female entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders. She is also the author of Dare to Launch, which breaks down how to lau…

Commercial and industrial buildings waste around $200 billion worth of energy every year, and that is just in the US. Mark Chung is the Co-founder of Verdigris, a breakthrough AI-based sensor technology that helps companies monitor and reduce their energy usage. In this episode, Mark joins our host Donna Loughlin to discuss his mission to cut down …

We’ve talked a lot about electrification and sustainable energy and transformational technologies shaping the ways we move through the world on Before IT Happened. In this episode, award-winning industrial designer and co-founder of Untitled Motorcycles Hugo Eccles joins the show to talk about his creative process driven by a passion for both ridin…

With a simple tweak to an airplane’s wing design, the aviation industry's global carbon emissions can be minimized dramatically while also improving safety and operating costs. Jacob Klinginsmith is the president of Tamarack Aerospace Group and his company is working to do just that with their patented active winglet technology. Jacob joins this ep…

Advancements in technology that accelerate change also bring risk. In this episode, I have an enlightening conversation with Carlos Moreira, founder of WISeKey and co-author of the book The TransHuman Code. Carlos has worked to ensure that in our relationship with technology, humans come out ahead. We talk about how we can create a human-centric so…

Impact investing is a rising trend. The massive amount of transactions online is helping users to shape the growth of companies they believe in. Eddy Soffer joins the show to talk about his role at Interactive Brokers helping manage their ESG platform Impact that specializes in environmental, social, and corporate governance investing. He explains …

Pretty soon, blockchain technology is going to touch just about everything you can imagine, including the food we eat. In this episode, Niamh O’Connell, BlockW Co-founder and Senior Business Development Manager at CasperLabs, joins the show to cover many questions around blockchain technology and how it’s creating smarter supply chains for the futu…

Dreaming of space is something many of us have done as kids, but as we grow up, we start to learn that there are only a few seats in every cabin, and not everyone is well represented in that group. Kim Macharia is the Executive Director of the Space Prize Foundation and Chairman of the Board of the Space Frontier Foundation. And it’s Kim’s personal…

Technology isn’t neutral: all technologies were created with a purpose, says Dr. Deb Doing a literature professor at Cal Poly whose work focuses on the intersection between technology and human rights. What does it mean to be human in the age of tech? How does technology shape our future on a day-to-day basis? And most importantly, what about ethic…

Food is an emotional and cultural experience. There is no easy way to replace the traditional ingredients that come from animals, but it may no longer be necessary to think about ‘replacing’ them. In this episode, David Bucca, Founder and CEO of Change Foods, joins the show to talk about the company’s game-changing approach to making dairy-free che…

The meat industry is known for following dirty and often inhumane processes. But the fact that meat consumption is such an ancient practice doesn’t mean that it can’t be reinvented. In this episode of Before IT Happened, Donna meets Paul Shapiro, author of the bestseller Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner And The…

The EV revolution is speeding up. If it’s on wheels, chances are someone has figured out how to take it electric. But what has been the path that has brought us here? In this episode, Donna talks with Paul D’Orleans, founder of The Vintagest and possibly the world's foremost authority on the EV revolution happening on two wheels. We spoke about his…

In the midst of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Daniel Tonkopi, CEO & founder at Delfast joins the show to talk about his entrepreneurial journey from Kyiv to California. While living in Ukraine, Daniel founded Delfast, a company that holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-range e-bike in the world. In the episode, we talked about how the…

Drones may seem like something taken out of sci-fi, but for Rut Patel, the founder of Voyager Industries, they represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Rut’s philosophy relies on doing something that stands out. In this episode, we talk to him about how he applied this principle to his career, discovering how drones can make big tech improveme…

The world's next leaders and CEOs are now going through the difficult task of applying to the best colleges and schools. Jason Ma works to make the most of this stage of life and prepare Gen Z to take the reins. Ma is the Founder, CEO, & Chief Mentor at ThreeEQ. In this episode Jason talks about his career and the different professional assets that…

Dr. Peter Bonutti has practiced over 30,000 surgical procedures during his career but he’s also an innovator passionate about product design and lab research that moves the medical world into the future. In this episode, Dr. Bonutti talks about how he used the money from his work as an orthopedic surgeon to fund his own medical research lab. He als…

In this episode of Before IT Happened, entrepreneur, storytelling coach and bestselling author Park Howell joins the show to discuss the ‘Story Cycle System’ that he created to apply the full potential of ‘the hero’s journey’ to business and entrepreneurship. There is endless competition for our attention and it forces businesses to become acutely …

“Put your money where your heart is.” That’s the tagline you’ll see when you visit Will Peterffy’s mobile trading platform IMPACT. Will is the ESG Director at Interactive Brokers, and his purpose is to help guide younger generations who want to invest consciously. Millennials are the most socially responsible and soon to be wealthiest generation of…

Shannon Falconer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Because Animals, a startup that produces cultured meat products for pets. Their goal is to reduce the pet food industry's reliance on animal agriculture. In this episode, Sharon shares how her love for animals at a young age led to a disruptive career in the biochemistry field. She explains how the proc…

Chick Boss Cake founder Rebecca Hamilton joins Donna on this episode of Before IT Happened to share the story of how she went from being a homeless high school dropout at 16 years old to opening a bakery in Ontario, Canada and achieving $1 million in sales. Satisfy your sweet tooth now by listening to this episode and hearing Rebecca talk about eve…

Few people have managed to document the modern history of technology as Jonathan Littman has. Jonathan is a prominent author and journalist known for the bestselling book The Art of Innovation that he collaborated on with IDEO co-founder David Kelley and his brother Tom Kelley. In this episode of Before IT Happened, we talk about Jonathan’s most re…

Talking about AI and technology innovations to enhance the safety of a local environment is often a sensitive topic, but it is increasingly necessary to become more involved in it. On this episode of Before IT Happened, Donna talks with two AI entrepreneurs about how they're using AI-powered robots to make us safer. Stacy D. Stephens and William Sa…

Back in the 70’s running for women was pretty uncomfortable, wearing a traditional bra just didn’t do the trick for support. Our guest Lisa Z. Lindahl was diagnosed with epilepsy at an early age and because of her complex relationship with her body, jogging became her sanctuary. Soon, the idea for her business breakthrough popped into her head: the…

Johnny Crowder is a lot of things. He's an entrepreneur, the lead singer of the heavy metal band Prison and a TEDx speaker. Today, Johnny Crowder joins the show to share the story of how he created Cope Notes, a company that sends text messages combining peer support and positive psychology to help improve its users’ mental and emotional health. Du…

Before we wish everyone happy holidays, we wanted to share some of our favorite highlights from the Before IT Happened’s first year! This show is about people who are all about innovation and making the world a better and more equitable place. Regardless of their background or the problem, they’re working to solve, it really comes down to the human…

Behind the complexity of artificial intelligence, there are groundbreaking stories like that of AI and robotics expert, entrepreneur and investor Eric Daimler. Eric joins this episode of Before IT Happened to tell us all about his journey from being an entrepreneurial engineering student who found massive success before hitting his twenties to advi…

Many years from now, we will remember this time in history as the moment we started using blockchain. It’s certainly a trend, but sometimes it may be hard to understand the full potential of this revolutionary technology. Luckily, in this episode of Before IT Happened we are joined by an expert, or should we say a black belt, to break down what thi…

Building a meaningful business while living your best life and traveling the world is not easy. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin tells the story of social entrepreneur and philanthropist Jamie Bianchini, who biked through over 80 countries around the world for eight years with a friend calling themselves the ‘Peace Ped…

Today’s episode is perfect for Thanksgiving — a story about kindness, love, and the power of giving. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin talks to author, speaker, and advocate Genevieve Piturro. After a 12-year career as a corporate climber in New York City, Genevieve started visiting shelters to read to children. Soon sh…

Why is it that when we think about Artificial Intelligence, a dystopian universe comes to mind? In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin talks with Steven Shwartz, author, researcher, entrepreneur, and one of the most influential thinkers in the space of Artificial Intelligence. Steven debunks the myths and misconceptions arou…

Sometimes, we all need a wake up call, and after hitting rock bottom the only way to go is up. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin sits down with Bryan Seely, ethical hacker and in demand thought leader on cyber security, to talk about his fascinating upbringing, his recovery from addiction, and how and why he hacked the …

First, we had The Beatles, then we had the 80s New Wave, and now we have The 2 LADS, a couple of young expat British artists in Los Angeles whose life mission is to advocate for mental health and the well-being of men across the world. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin sits down with Daniel Sharman and Christian “Leggy”…

The entrepreneurial lifestyle is definitely not for the faint of heart, as it comes with loads of hard work, nerve-wrecking risk taking, personal sacrifices and a high mental health price tag. Today, our host Donna Loughlin chats with Silicon Valley thought leader Vitaly Golomb, to talk about his amazing journey in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Vi…

Today everything in a car is smart, from the tires to the windshields. But there is something that is still just an ugly piece of metal, your license plate. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin tells the story of Neville Boston, Founder, and CSO at Reviver, a disruptive company that is modernizing license plates from a pie…

Healthy eating has become a multimillion-dollar business. But there’s one superfood that hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserves. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin talks to a pioneer in the plant-based health movement, Doug Evans, co-founder of Organic Avenue, founder of Juicero, and the author of The Sprouts Book. Do…