{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fretro.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fdonald-desantis-7SkHalUr","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Donald DeSantis","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/5c9e161a-9fda-4489-a9c3-28e5378057bc/205c637a-11e3-4a61-a7cf-c79db14a9757/donald-desantis-2.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"<iframe src=\"https://player.simplecast.com/e6017464-eda2-452d-ba66-30bda9c477c5\" height=\"200\" width=\"100%\" title=\"Donald DeSantis\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"></iframe>","height":200,"description":"Today we're joined by Donald DeSantis. Donald is a founder, designer, investor, and (soon to be) author. He was previously co-founder of Hightower (now VTS), which he grew from an idea in a Seattle coffee shop to a 250 person company. In this episode, we talk about why people join early-stage startups, the foundational and operational obsessions of startups and why Merit is called Merit."}