About Startup Studios - Raja Mawad and Saif Akhtar

We Love Startups!

Raj is an ex investment banker turned founder of Thrv.Health. Saif has been a product manager for various startups and built an incubation center, two accelerators, and an early-stage VC fund. He's currently building Cresance. As founders and investors, we understand many of the challenges entrepreneurs face and do our best to match Founders with problem-solvers in our network.

Every good venture capital firm and accelerator program has someone responsible for "matching" Founders with solutions, like a concierge. That's what we are for founders.

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Every great early-stage VC fund and accelerator program usually has someone responsible for "matching" Founders with problem-solvers within their network. That's what Saif and Raj do for Founders through office hours. We have a big network of specialists, advisors, investors, and resources that we love matching with our people, so if you're stuck or need a solution fast, try us!

Recent Episodes

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Ep 15 - Eric Sophir

Meet Eric Sophir, a seasoned attorney with deep expertise in patent law and startup advising, shares insights for early-stage startup founders.

Ep 13 - Lior Klisman

Meet Lior Klisman, tech nerd and entrepreneur with an extensive background in IT & security who mentors & invests in immigrant founders.

Ep 12 - Kalsoom Lakhani

Meet Kalsoom Lakhani, co-founder of i2i Ventures, Pakistan's first female-founded VC fund empowering entrepreneurs & innovators at their earliest stages.

Ep 11 - Nicholas Ayala

Nick shares his story about exploring various ventures & startups through college to building early-stage operations at Clubhouse, Legion Technologies, and Fair Square Medicine.

Ep 10 - Donna Loughlin-Michaels

Donna has led PR for some of Silicon Valley's best companies and shares tips for early-stage startups who need to make lots of noise.

Ep 9 - Roger Royse

Roger, a legend in the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem. works with startups from zero to IPO.

Ep 8 - Ravi Kurani

Hear Ravi share his story about growing up in the pool business, becoming an analyst support social entrepreneurs, to "solving water" with Sutro!

Ep 7 - Sasha Eslami

Sasha is the founder & CEO of Eversnap, a group photo-sharing app part of the 500 Startups portfolio and acquired in 2020. A must listen for every startup CEO & product manager!

Ep 6 - Ali Mahrouyan

Ali is a veteran in the Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach ecosystems where he's had a front-row seat to incubators, accelerators, angels, and early-stage VCs. Our longest episode so far!

Ep 5 - Timothy Lipton

Hear Timothy Lipton, fractional CFO and advisor to early-stage startups, about how he works with founders from the napkin stage to series-B.

Ep 4 - Young Han

Hear Young Han tell us his story and aspirations from starting his own businesses to driving growth for upstarts like Starbucks, Apple, and Phil's Coffee, Young details the lessons he's learned and the frameworks he uses to decide where to spend his time.

Ep 3 - Fahad Aziz

Hear Fahad Aziz tell us his story starting in Pakistan, finding success as a startup employee through college, moving to the US, and the various experiences that led him to pursue entrepreneurship for himself leading to Caremerge.

Ep 2 - Saif Akhtar

Hear from StartupStudios.co co-founder & co-host Saif Akhtar about being a 1st-gen Pakistani-American, finding his identify, and love for supporting early-stage startups.

Ep 1 - Raja Mawad

Hear from StartupStudios.co co-founder & co-host Raja Mawad about moving to the US as an immigrant, finding success in finance, and then pivoting to health & wellness tech in Seattle with Thrv.Health.

Ep 0: Introducing the Startup Studios Podcast!

Every Tuesday at 10am, your co-hosts Raj and Saif publish a new episode featuring unique founders, advisors, investors, specialists, fractional executives, and ecosystem resources who work with early-stage companies every day.

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