The Almost Era

Welcome to the in-between. The Almost Era explores the space between who we are and who we’re becoming - that slightly comic, deeply honest in-between where ambition, identity, and reality collide. Hosted by Vallabhi Singh, it’s a cultural diary for the stylishly self-aware. Equal parts reflection and reinvention.

The Almost Era is a society podcast hosted by creatives around the world, with 21 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

creatives around the world hosts The Almost Era, a society show with 21 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #11

  Entrepreneurship on Guardrails | Babson College's Ab Igram on Building Through Franchising

  Sep 16, 202620 minS2

  You want to be an entrepreneur. But you’re still waiting for The Idea. What if you don’t need to invent something to build something worth owning? Recorded at Babson College, this episode features Ab Igram, Executive Director of the Tariq Farid Franchise Institute, Babson MBA alumnus, and a mentor whose encouragement comes with experience. Across more than 25 years, he has helped finance businesses, co-founded companies, and worked on over $350M in venture capital investments at GE Equity. He knows entrepreneurship from the investor’s seat, the operator’s seat, and the classroom. This episode explores franchising, challenging the assumption that following someone else’s playbook means you aren’t an entrepreneur. We discuss how much room is there for creativity, why we overlook businesses that don’t sound glamorous, and what should you actually look for before becoming a franchisee. We also discuss using an MBA to change direction, the difference between advising a business and running one, and recognizing opportunities in everyday life.

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  Episode #10

  Is This the Life You Want? | Lauren Makler on Agency and Living Intentionally

  Sep 9, 202622 minS2

  Most women learn early to arrange adulthood around a clock: finish the degree, build the career, find the partner, have children. Lauren Makler, Co-Founder and CEO of Cofertility , joins Vallabhi for a conversation about personal timelines and the pressure women feel to have their lives figured out “on time.” They discuss what it means to design a life intentionally: choosing a partner without letting the biological clock govern the decision, understanding fertility before urgency sets in, and how having more options can change the way a woman approaches her career, relationships and future. Lauren founded Cofertility from her own fertility experience to make egg freezing more accessible and expand reproductive choice. Its investors include Maria Sharapova , who has spoken about the tension between fertility timelines and the demands of an athletic career. Previously, Lauren was an early Uber employee, where she founded Uber Health and helped millions of patients access care through innovative transportation solutions. In 2023, Lauren was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business.

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  Episode #9

  Suffering, on Purpose | Backyard Boston’s Lauren “LK” Rich on HYROX and Choosing Hard Things

  Sep 2, 202616 minS2

  Lauren Rich, the woman who introduced Hyrox to Backyard Boston lost her first boxing match before a sold-out crowd at Boston’s House of Blues, and left the ring feeling as though she had won. Boxing helped her rebuild her confidence and find community after arriving in the city with no phone, no car and no job. Today, she co-owns Backyard, that has quickly become a fixture of Boston's fitness scene. Approaching 40 and pregnant with twins, Lauren chose Hyrox as the challenge that would be waiting for her after pregnancy. Now preparing for her first solo race, she speaks candidly about motherhood, mom guilt and why training with a partner once made time away from her children easier to justify. Beneath the training lies a more difficult question: after years of showing up for everyone else, can she choose something hard simply because it belongs to her?

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  Episode #8

  At 21: One Exit, $1M Raised, and Carrying Didi’s Dream | Mateo Acosta-Rubio

  Aug 27, 202622 minS2

  At 21, Mateo Acosta-Rubio has already sold his first company, raised more than $1M for his next and represented the US at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards Finals. The work that changed him began with Didi, his fellow Babson classmate from South Sudan. After she passed away, Mateo chose to continue the idea they had started together: LetAllGirls. Today, the nonprofit is building DIDI, an offline AI tutor that turns a $300 box into a local Wi-Fi hub where students can learn at once, without internet, signal or grid power. DIDI devices are now operating in South Sudan and South Africa. Born in Venezuela and raised in Miami, Mateo grew up inside his family’s restaurant-franchising business; now a serial founder, he runs Clave, an AI platform for restaurant operations , and can quote the founder podcasts that shaped his thinking almost on command. Mateo and Vallabhi talk about entrepreneurship as grief, the responsibility of carrying someone else’s vision, the deployment that failed after a year and a half of work, and why meaningful solutions must be built with the communities they serve.

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  Episode #7

  Hedge Funds to Handbags | Bianca on Taking HUNT Beyond Brazil

  Aug 19, 202620 minS2

  Bianca Kolberg spent the first part of her career in the financial markets before joining HUNT, a secondhand luxury curation and search platform born in Brazil in 2023, and built primarily through WhatsApp. Founded by four friends, HUNT curates, sources and helps clients find luxury and vintage pieces through a model built on trust and community. In this episode, Bianca joins Vallabhi for a conversation recorded as HUNT launches in the US. The two spent the summer inside Babson College's Summer Venture Program , an intensive 10-week startup accelerator for entrepreneurs building ventures in real time. They talk about moving from finance to fashion, launching a consumer business across cultures, building with friends, learning ownership, and what happens when the predictable plan stops being the interesting one.

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