On this episode of the Somewhat Frank Podcast, Frank Gruber (@FrankGruber) and John Guidos (@JohnGuidos) talk about Friday the 13th and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. They also talk about the following current trending topics:  

• #WorldKindnessDay 
• #FridayMotivation
• #Elon
• #PS5

Frank also celebrates the following people from his network: 

• Ari Newman has launched a new seed fund, The Fund Rockies – https://arinewman.medium.com/launching-the-fund-rockies-54a575411ed9
• Josh Williams has relaunched the geo-location app, GoWalla – https://go.gowalla.com/
• Matt Van Horn has launched the Gen3 June Oven, just in time for the holidays. – http://juneoven.com/
• Matt Haggman joined the Beacon Council as EVP. – https://www.beaconcouncil.com/matt-haggman-joins-the-miami-dade-beacon-council/?fbclid=IwAR1bqk1ufKsR5s1Q2Di6Poh63XZrgh4Ja-iUuVFwHQxKNczxPX99eeLkx6E
• Kira M. Newman for editing the new book, The Gratitude Project (https://amzn.to/2Hs6KGA), the result of a multiyear collaboration between the Greater Good Science Center and Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis. 
• Courtney and Tye Caldwell of ShearShare have raised $2.3M more funding (Note: I’ve invested in ShearShare through Established Ventures). – https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/26/dallas-shearshare-has-a-marketplace-connecting-stylists-with-available-seats-at-salons-and-2-3-million-in-funding/
• Mac Conwell on the launch of RareBreed VC. – https://technical.ly/baltimore/2020/10/29/mckeever-conwell-rarebreed-vc/
• Susan McPherson on her book, The Lost Art of Connecting, due out next year. – https://amzn.to/3eWUiuI
• Ron Klain of Revolution on being named President-Elect Joe Biden’s Chief of Staff. – https://twitter.com/FrankGruber/status/1327054751691894788

This weekend we’ll be watching the first NASA launch of astronauts from US soil since 2011. They will be headed to the International Space Station. This launch will be in partnership with SpaceX and is scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 14th at 7:49 PM ET from Florida. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/11/12/spacex-launch-scheduled-saturday-expected-draw-many-spectators/6268327002/ The guys once again chat about the 8th annual Startup of the Year Summit (https://startupofyearsummit2020.eventbrite.com/?aff=FrankVIP). We vetted thousands of startups down to the Top 100 that will compete at our 8th annual Startup of the Year Summit for a shot at a potential investment, prizes, and the championship. If you have a moment next week, please tune into this “Shark Tank” style pitch competition. We will stream this special event for free, online on November 16th – 18th. I’ll also be conducting the following interviews:

• Tim Draper, venture capitalist and founder of Draper Associates;
• Kara Goldin co-founder and CEO of Hint Water and author of Undaunted (order the book today) – https://amzn.to/3lN5lsQ
• Mike Evans co-founder of GrubHub and Fixer.com, and author of forthcoming book Hangry
• Lo Toney venture capitalist and founder of Plexo Capital
• Rohit Bhargava author of Non-Obvious Mega Trends (https://amzn.to/3dB741t);
• Meredith Fineman author of Brag Better (https://amzn.to/3iVDh4E);
• Ximena Hartsock co-founder of Phone2Action
• Marc Nager, venture capitalist of Greater Colorado Venture Fund
• Sarah Evan, marketing & digital PR at Sevans Digital PR 
• Whitney Johnson will teach you how to Disrupt Yourself (https://amzn.to/377g5xZ), and many more. 

We invite you to join me next week by ​registering today at: http://startupofyearsummit2020.eventbrite.com/?aff=FrankVIP Frank also discuss the following things that he is reading/watching:

• Trendspotting: Zoom towns – https://www.fastcompany.com/90564796/zoom-towns-are-exploding-in-the-west ‘Zoom towns’ 
• MTV is back! Kind of… – https://variety.com/2020/music/news/apple-music-tv-launch-videos-1234809088/
• Welcome to crypto, PayPal! – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-paypal-cryptocurrency-idUSKBN2761L6
• Facebook has more than just Farmville – https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/26/21528438/facebook-cloud-gaming-beta-android-web-jason-rubin-interview
• The Power of the Sun – https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a34372005/solar-cheapest-energy-ever/?fbclid=IwAR2oS6CxW1U2po-FHvHbKNox35gcviLnKHuZwN7K2F5nWr7a2s6l0rNfi3M
• There IS water on the Moon! – https://twitter.com/FrankGruber/status/1320811736862236673
• The Vegas Roadtrip is making a comeback! – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-28/las-vegas-vehicle-traffic-rises-for-first-time-since-pandemic
• Apple TV for the win – https://www.fastcompany.com/90570629/apple-tv-plus-secretly-won-the-streaming-war-of-2020-heres-why
• Maybe we should rethink the Electoral College – https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/28/election-results-and-electoral-college-pick-next-president/4718619002/

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