Evolution Exchange USA Podcast

In this episode of Founders' Tales, we speak with Luke Winston-Almanzar, CEO and Co-Founder of Reservoir, a climate technology company developing intelligent electric water heaters designed to improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and make sustainable living the obvious choice for homeowners.Reservoir is rethinking one of the most energy-intensive yet overlooked systems in the home: water heating. By combining predictive intelligence with advanced industrial controls, the company is transforming traditional water heaters into smart infrastructure that delivers instant hot water, prevents issues like frozen pipes, and significantly reduces household energy costs.Building in Boston has provided Reservoir with access to world-class engineering talent and a strong climate technology ecosystem. Luke explains how prior networks, including connections formed through Formlabs, helped shape Reservoir’s early momentum and provided valuable mentorship along the way.The conversation explores how Luke and his co-founders built a complementary founding team despite not knowing each other previously, emphasizing the importance of aligning on mission, principles, and execution mindset. Drawing from his experience helping scale Formlabs from early-stage startup to global hardware company, Luke highlights key lessons about staying lean, iterating quickly, and prioritizing simplicity to maintain speed and focus.

In this episode of Founders' Tales, we speak with Meghan Joyce, CEO of Duckbill, a company building execution infrastructure that enables AI systems to complete complex real-world tasks through a combination of automation and human support. Drawing on her experience at Uber and Oscar Health, Meghan shares how her career at the intersection of technology and human services inspired the creation of Duckbill.Duckbill focuses on solving one of the biggest challenges in the AI era: translating digital intelligence into real-world outcomes. While AI can generate insights and recommendations, many everyday tasks still require coordination, judgment, and execution in environments that are unpredictable or not designed for automation. Duckbill bridges this gap by creating systems that allow AI agents to hand off tasks to human operators when needed, ensuring reliable and high-quality results.They also discuss leadership principles such as maintaining high standards while providing strong support, fostering a culture where feedback is encouraged and continuous improvement is expected. Meghan shares insights on how strong team culture enables organizations to evolve alongside the changing needs of the business.Beyond product and technology, Meghan reflects on the importance of resilience in entrepreneurship, noting that persistence is often the key differentiator between companies that succeed and those that fall short. She emphasizes that roadblocks are a natural part of building something new, and progress comes from consistently finding ways to move forward.Looking ahead, Duckbill is expanding access to its infrastructure through APIs and integrations that allow AI agents to interact directly with its execution layer. As AI adoption accelerates, the company aims to become a foundational layer connecting digital intelligence with real-world action.

In this episode of Founders' Tales, we sit down with Naren Tallapragada, CEO & Co-Founder of Tessel Bio, a biotech company pioneering virtual tissue models to accelerate the discovery of new treatments for complex chronic diseases. Drawing from a deeply personal motivation and a background spanning physics, engineering, and biology, Naren shares how Tessel Bio is combining AI-driven modeling with experimental biology to identify new therapeutic targets and better understand disease mechanisms.Tessel Bio’s approach focuses on simulating how human organs behave across different disease states, enabling researchers to predict how interventions may restore healthy function. By integrating computational models with real biological data, the company aims to improve how drug targets are identified and ultimately help bring more effective therapies to patients.Naren discusses the importance of pursuing difficult scientific challenges, including chronic diseases that impact millions worldwide, and why early conviction in a problem space can create long-term opportunity even when market trends shift. He also shares insights on transitioning from academia into entrepreneurship, emphasizing that the most valuable skill researchers develop is the ability to think critically and identify meaningful problems worth solving.The conversation explores how AI can be applied beyond chemistry to better understand biological systems, helping researchers determine where interventions can create meaningful therapeutic impact. Naren highlights the importance of generating high-quality biological data and building predictive models that can guide experimental decision-making, reducing uncertainty in drug development.

In this episode of Founders Tales, Chris Hopkins sits down with Maria Teigeiro, Co-Founder and CTO of Real Time Taxes, to explore how her team is rethinking one of life’s most frustrating financial moments like unexpected tax bills.Real Time Taxes helps individuals proactively plan for tax season by adjusting withholdings throughout the year, ensuring there are no surprises when filing returns. Instead of overpaying or underpaying taxes, users can define what they want tax day to look like and the platform dynamically aligns their financial plan to match that outcome.Maria shares the origin story behind the company, sparked by her own experience receiving an unexpected tax bill, and explains how Real Time Taxes is building tools that improve financial predictability while helping users make better use of their money throughout the year.She also discusses lessons learned while navigating early-stage fundraising, the importance of choosing the right financial partners such as credit unions, and the challenge founders face in balancing when to stay the course versus when to adapt. The conversation highlights how strong networks, community support, and resilience play a critical role in building momentum as an early-stage startup.

In this episode of Founders’ Tales, Chris Hopkins from Evolution Recruitment speaks with Daniela Cuellar Zapata, founder and CEO of Wipp.ai, an AI driven civic intelligence platform designed to map networks of influence across government decision making.Daniela shares her journey from studying economics and working at PepsiCo to becoming an AI developer during her time at Harvard Business School and MIT. Wipp.ai was created to address the lack of transparency in how policy decisions are shaped, helping organizations better understand how influence flows between lawmakers, stakeholders, and industries.The conversation explores the realities of committing fully to entrepreneurship, the importance of choosing the right co founders, and why shared values and long term commitment are essential when building a startup. Daniela also discusses how early investors often back founders before metrics exist, highlighting the importance of trust, relationships, and belief in a long term vision.She also reflects on the advantages of building in Boston’s academic ecosystem, while acknowledging the challenges of building an AI company outside of traditional biotech focus areas. Daniela shares honest advice for founders about resilience, willpower, and the emotional highs and lows that come with startup life.

In this episode of Founders’ Tales, Chris Hopkins from Evolution Recruitment speaks with Shilpi Gupta, founder of QYN Labs, a longevity technology company building sensing and intelligence systems to better understand human hormones.Shilpi shares her journey from designing large scale robotics systems at Amazon Robotics to applying systems engineering principles to biology. QYN Labs is focused on creating real time hormone intelligence, addressing a major gap in how we measure and understand one of the body’s most critical control systems.The conversation explores how advances in sensing technology and cultural shifts toward prevention and longevity have created the conditions for this innovation to emerge today. Shilpi explains why strong systems architecture is essential in deep tech, highlighting the importance of building solid technical foundations before layering software and AI.She also discusses what separates true builders from operators, the importance of balancing speed with direction, and how founders must develop conviction even when data is incomplete. The episode highlights Boston’s strength as a deep tech ecosystem, where patient, science driven innovation is supported by strong academic networks and long term thinking.

In this episode of Founders’ Tales, Chris Hopkins from Evolution Recruitment sits down with Jack Porter, Co-Founder of BirdDog, a sales technology company helping teams improve research, deal quality, and overall performance. Jack shares how BirdDog started as an investing platform before an unexpected pivot into sales tech, driven entirely by real user behavior. What began as a failed idea quickly transformed into a focused product after sales professionals began using the platform for research, revealing a much stronger opportunity.The conversation explores the realities of early stage building, including spending months refining data quality before generating revenue, the impact of poor onboarding on customer churn, and the importance of deeply understanding user needs before trying to scale. Jack also explains how BirdDog differentiates itself by clearly proving ROI to customers through measurable outcomes like deal size, close rates, and time saved.Jack reflects on the challenges of fundraising, including multiple VC rejections that ultimately led the team to bootstrap the business. This decision allowed them to maintain full control, focus on product quality, and build at a sustainable pace without external pressure. This episode is a practical look at building a startup the hard way, staying focused on customers, learning from mistakes, and creating long term value in a competitive market.

In this episode of Founders’ Tales, Simon Taylor breaks down how he built HYCU into a global data protection platform serving thousands of customers across 78 countries. What began as an attempt to simplify scattered backup systems grew into a unified solution that protects data across on-prem environments, public clouds, and countless SaaS applications.Simon explains how the company discovered the limitations of creating individual backup integrations for every SaaS tool, which pushed them to redesign their product into an open platform where SaaS vendors can build their own integrations. This shift became a defining moment in HYCU’s growth strategy and opened the door for rapid ecosystem expansion.He also reflects on the deeper challenges that come with scaling a company, especially the work of building the right team and nurturing a culture rooted in authenticity, grit, and empathy. Simon shares lessons about fundraising, storytelling, expansion discipline, and the importance of building trust with investors and board members. He also talks about how mindfulness, transparency, and strong relationships play a major role in staying grounded through the uncertainties of entrepreneurship.This episode offers powerful insights into leadership, culture building, and strategic pivots for anyone building in SaaS, cloud, or enterprise tech.