Dare to Disrupt Episode 1: Riding the Founder’s Wave With Matt Brezina

For Penn State alumnus Matt Brezina, timing was everything. In 2007, Brezina moved out to a San Francisco apartment complex with a bunch of other startup founders on the verge of great success while building his own startup, Xobni — “the Google of personal information.” In this episode, Brezina shares his experience going from Penn State student to Silicon Valley startup founder and what it was like to work with and learn from the founders of DropBox, Reddit and HubSpot.   

At the end of this episode, Divya Rustagi, a College of Engineering senior and founder of Apoio, an AI-powered clinical decisions support (CDS) tool, joins us to talk to Brezina about entrepreneurship culture in Silicon Valley and the state of the mental healthcare tech industry overall.  

Episode Chapters

• 0:00 – 8:59 Setting his own path, buying stocks at a young age
• 8:59 – 13:14 Dropping PhD program to launch first startup
• 13:14 – – 17:59 Y Combinator experience
• 17:58 – 22:04 Early mistakes surrounding a lack of clarity around roles
• 22:04 – 27:03 Turning photo on your phone into a postcard with Sincerely
• 27:03 – 29:10 Investing in other startups
• 29:10 – 32:54 Building bike safety infrastructure
• 32:54 -38:55 Advice for young entrepreneurs, importance of travel to other countries
• 38:55 – 48:48 Student section

Download full episode transcript

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Dare to Disrupt is a podcast about Penn State alumni who are innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders, and the stories behind their success. Learn more.

About Matt Brezina

Matt Brezina graduated from the Penn State Schreyer Honors College in 2003 with a degree from the College of Engineering.