Innovate Jax artwork

Innovate Jax

18 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 16 ratings

Success in Jacksonville? It’s not a zero-sum game. Doors here are open, warm introductions are willingly made, and hard lessons are humbly shared. The Innovate Jax podcast will introduce you to the Jacksonville change-makers who are propelling our city into a new realm of sophistication. Our goal is to connect you to the people who are leaving their mark on our city today, in hopes that they inspire you to leave your mark tomorrow. Listen and see why our people and our spirit of collaboration are the secret sauce that's found from Amelia Island to St. Augustine.

Entrepreneurship Business Technology florida innovation jacksonville technology startup entrepreneurship
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Episodes

Quang Pham Says This Separates Startup Founders from Follow-on Employees

January 28, 2021 14:41 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MB

Sometimes you meet people who radiate a presence, a calm sense-of-self, and you know there is hard-earned wisdom waiting to be shared. Quang Pham, Chairman and CEO of Westwood Therapeutics, Inc., is such a person. Going from a child refugee of the Vietnam War, to serving his adopted country as a Marine Corps officer and pilot, to successfully launching three separate biopharma/biotech companies since 2000 - and being named an EY Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018, to boot - Quang’s lif...

Kristin Keen is Breaking the Chains of Sex Trafficking

December 16, 2020 14:58 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MB

Maybe it took the Covid health crisis to make us all realize just how much we do deeply need each other. For some women here in Jax, who could be your neighbors shopping in the same aisle or praying near you in the same place of worship, their need is far more profound. Kristin Keen, founder and CEO of Rethreaded, Inc., practically vibrates with the energy of her passion to see women freed from the chains of sex trafficking. This social entrepreneur has had her share of sleepless nights, kep...

Raghu Misra Has Exponential Goals for Jacksonville

October 07, 2020 11:59 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MB

Raghu Misra isn’t one to think in near-term goals or small-scale impacts. A fan of Singularity University and the “abundance” mindset its founders espouse, Raghu, the founder and CEO of Wired2Perform and the Sapna Foundation, is certain he can meaningfully impact one billion interpersonal relationships AND collectively foster $1 billion in economic growth through The Link, his passion project in Nocatee, in the next ten years. A serial entrepreneur from the time he was a teen, Raghu hopes to...

Andrew Rush is Manufacturing in Space and Changing the World

June 17, 2020 15:26 - 27 minutes - 25 MB

The CEO of Made in Space declares that space is a team sport - and needs all professions to be successful. It takes a certain kind of genius to pack a payload for a trip to space, where it’s not just the cargo dimensions but how the materials will respond to blasting through our atmosphere then behaving in zero gravity, that all have to be considered. So what if you could forego some of those complexities - and build what you need in orbit? Enter Made In Space, the world’s first space-enabl...

Jessica Santiago is Making Jacksonville an Art Destination

March 26, 2020 17:50 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MB

Starting with a business-first approach, Jessica Santiago, the CEO and Curator of ArtRepublic Global, is on a mission to transform how business, cities and individuals see the world. With clients ranging from private corporations to local governments, Jessica helps to crystalize brand identities that artists from her global network then translate into public art installations that often break boundaries, and are always memorable. Jessica, a native of Jacksonville, states that Jacksonville is...

Aundra Wallace is Making Generations of Success Possible in Jax

February 12, 2020 14:36 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MB

Every single day, northeast Florida becomes home to 85 new residents - and Aundra Wallace, the president of JAXUSA Partnership, might be the magnet who drew them here. As head of the Jacksonville Chamber’s economic development arm, Aundra makes a compelling case for new industry and investment to select Jacksonville and its region of seven counties as the best place to set up shop and call the city home. More than that, though, Aundra sees the potential for everyone, from your middle school ...

Episode 12 - Aundra Wallace is Making Generations of Success Possible in Jax

February 12, 2020 14:36 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MB

Every single day, northeast Florida becomes home to 85 new residents - and Aundra Wallace, the president of JAXUSA Partnership, might be the magnet who drew them here. As head of the Jacksonville Chamber’s economic development arm, Aundra makes a compelling case for new industry and investment to select Jacksonville and its region of seven counties as the best place to set up shop and call the city home. More than that, though, Aundra sees the potential for everyone, from your middl...

Tim Cost is Catalyzing Change at Jacksonville University and Beyond

January 13, 2020 14:20 - 59 minutes - 54.2 MB

Every university president is impressive, but Jacksonville University’s leader is truly exceptional. A c-level executive at the likes of Kodak, Bristol-Myers and PepsiCo, Tim Cost arrived at the helm of his alma mater in 2013 with decades of Fortune 50 corporate experience and the know-how to execute JU’s yearning to be a preeminent institution of higher learning. Walk onto JU’s riverfront, tree-lined campus today and you’ll discover a hive of innovation, with Jacksonville’s most impressive ...

Cutler Knupp is Laying the New Foundation for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

December 16, 2019 14:59 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MB

When it comes to technology adoption, a 2016 study ranked the construction industry at the bottom of the innovation heap - right next to agriculture and hunting. Jacksonville’s esteemed construction, engineering and architecture business, The Haskell Group, immediately seized the opportunity to propel their industry forward by launching their own innovation and investment arm, Dysruptek. In our tenth episode of Innovate Jax, Dysruptek’s director, Cutler Knupp, shares how with everything from...

Chris Solomon Is Making Golf Media Coverage Fan-Driven

November 20, 2019 16:07 - 57 minutes - 52.8 MB

Proof of concept for any successful entrepreneur is table stakes - without this validation of your product’s feasibility, you’re stuck in the starting gate. For Chris Solomon, proof of concept for “No Laying Up,” the podcast and media company he co-founded with Todd Schuster, Phil Landes, and Neil Schuster, arrived in 2016 on a golf course. Not just any golf course, but where the Ryder Cup was in play. From the ninth tee box, Rory McIlroy, one of pro golf’s most elite players, stops his play...

Mari Kuraishi is Advancing Entrepreneurship for Social Good

October 21, 2019 11:00 - 43 minutes - 40 MB

You know that feeling you get when someone is looking at you? You tend to look around to see if your Spidey sense is right. Imagine then if you’re the person doing the looking, but the people you’re observing don’t bother to look up - because they exist in the Communist state of East Germany and are too defeated to return the avid gaze of the high schoolers watching them from the West German side of The Wall. This real encounter in the early 1980s changed Mari Kuraishi’s life trajectory, evo...

Maria Hane is Making Culture Inclusive

September 16, 2019 14:49 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MB

Like Shark Week on TV, anything with big teeth is a barnstormer at the Museum of Science and History of Jacksonville (the MOSH to locals). But talk with MOSH’s president, Maria Hane, and you’ll soon discover her mission isn’t just to foster learning about science and history through immersive experiences. It’s equally about helping the people of Jacksonville understand more about ourselves and each other. In this divisive age, Maria has made MOSH a place where curiosity is welcome, free of a...

Vic Nole is Creating Jacksonville’s Front Door for Innovation

August 19, 2019 14:25 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MB

No one would contest that the Jaguars put Jacksonville on the map in 1993, but long-time residents will also recall the electricity that pulsed through the city in 1986 when The Mayo Clinic opened its Jacksonville campus, still one of just two US-based locations outside their Minnesota headquarters. With its new Life Sciences Incubator, this globally-ranked brand is investing even more heavily in our city. And incubator director, Vic Nole, believes that not only will the incubator help Mayo’...

Dwight Cooper is Transforming the Workplace Environment

July 23, 2019 16:16 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB

If you work for a company that values employee culture above all else, you might have Dwight Cooper to thank. In 2016, Dwight exited PPR Talent Management, a recruiting company he founded in 1996 and grew to $100 million in revenue, to focus his entrepreneurial talents on Hueman People Solutions, a small division that he was passionate about building into his next award-winning human resources company. Now Hueman, like PPR before it, sweeps the workplace culture awards and earns accolades fr...

Donna Orender is Leveling the Playing Field

July 03, 2019 20:29 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MB

When Donna Orender was growing up in the 60's, if you were a girl who played sports, you had to wear boys’ shoes -- because who expected girls to play sports? Perhaps not even Donna’s father, who dismissed her afterschool stick-ball games as “unladylike”. Not one to bow to conventions, Donna Orender went on to blaze trails not just by playing three years for the first women’s professional basketball league, but in redefining sports casting and production, negotiating how golf was marketed an...

Gwen Griggs is Making Law Practice Agile

June 27, 2019 13:42 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MB

At ADVOS, Gwen Griggs' law practice she co-founded in Ponte Vedra Beach, forget chasing billable hours - really toss all the stereotypes that you typically conjure when you think “law practice". Replace it with an entirely new paradigm (not hyperbole) that sees this cutting-edge group of ten people operate using a system that mirrors the high-growth entrepreneurs her firm exclusively serves. Think agile. Think strategic. Think speed to scale. This is the DNA of a law practice that has consis...

Brian Kornfeld is Building a Better Future for Florida

June 25, 2019 20:11 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MB

When it comes to creating a new center of gravity for entrepreneurship and innovation in the U.S., Brian Kornfeld isn’t just going to stand by and let Florida be left in the proverbial dust. As co-founder and president of Synapse Florida, Brian is working to change the way we network, what stories are told, how corporations solve problems, and elevating the core skills non-traditional investors need to fund burgeoning sectors like technology and healthcare. A man of massive talent, vision an...

Craig Mandeville on the 'Why' behind Innovate Jax

June 20, 2019 19:42 - 16 minutes - 14.9 MB

Forcura's founder and CEO isn't lukewarm about his adopted city - he's a full-on evangelist who wants everyone to know that Jax is ready for its close up! In our first episode, Craig shares how Innovate Jax will feature the city's change-makers across business, academia, culture and technology. Join us as we meet the fantastic, innovative people who are making our city a true contender as most innovative in the southeast (and beyond!). For a complete list of show notes and all our episodes,...