Inspired with Alexa von Tobel

Latest Episodes:

How to Adapt Beyond Your Vision with Grant LaFontaine of Whatnot Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

What does it take to start one of the fastest-growing consumer marketplaces? According to repeat founder Grant LaFontaine, it starts with an open mind. When he and his co-founder Logan Head launched Whatnot in 2019, they went into it know that their starting place and ending place would be completely different. The team opted to be customer-centric instead of vision-driven. Today, Whatnot is a live shopping marketplace that enables anyone to turn their passion into a business. Whatnot is like Twitch-meets-eBay and was most recently valued at $3.7B. Grant shares why they started building with a niche community (Funko Pop collectors), why creativity is vital for consumer startups, and why this generation of shoppers cares about authenticity.

How to Keep Moving Forward with Jim McCann of 1-800-Flowers.com Nov 22, 2023

Show notes

In 1976, Jim McCann had spent a decade working in a group home for boys and was bartending on the side. A customer at the bar gave him a tip that there was an opportunity to buy a flower shop for $10,000. Jim took the leap and turned that single flower shop on Manhattan's East Side into a billion-dollar omni-channel retailer. He grew store by store, turning on a franchise model, expanding into new gifting categories (from The Popcorn Factory to Harry & David). Through it all, Jim had a knack for adopting new technologies ahead of other retailers. Jim shares where the company's iconic name comes from, how he positioned the company to become the first merchant of any kind on AOL, and why the best way to solve a problem is with a pen and a pad of paper.

How to Follow Your Insatiable Curiosity with Nigel Morris of QED and Capital One Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

Capital One is such an iconic brand that it is hard to imagine a time before it. But when Nigel Morris co-founded the business in 1994, it was wildly innovative—from the products it introduced to the market (like secured credit cards) to a data-driven approach to customer segmentation to an emphasis on team culture. Today, Capital One is one of the largest retail banks in the United States, serving more than 100 million customers across a diverse set of businesses. Nigel's career didn't stop there: he went on to start QED Investors, a fintech venture capital platform that has invested in companies like Credit Karma, Nubank, and Klarna. Nigel shares why Capital One's early success came down to rapid execution, why restlessness is a positive trait for founders, and how one interesting use case of AI is powering one-to-one marketing.

Flashback: How to build a 100-year company with Harley Finkelstein Nov 08, 2023

Show notes

Harley Finkelstein first encountered Shopify as a user. Back in 2006, while in law school, he was one of the first merchants to use the platform. He joined the company in 2010 and now serves as President, helping to scale Shopify to millions of daily active users across 175 countries driving $444B in global economic activity. Today, Shopify is the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow a business—and is second only to Amazon as the largest online retailer in the US. Harley shares why the future of e-commerce is just the future of commerce, why his favorite motto is "how you do anything is how you do everything," and how being a power extrovert has made him a stronger leader.

How to Have a Customer-First Mindset with Chen Amit of Tipalti Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

Approaching a new industry as an outsider and as a team of one would be daunting for most founders. But Chen Amit, Founder and CEO of Tipalti, was a repeat entrepreneur building in a new arena. In the past 13 years, he has scaled Tipalti— a finance automation suite focusing on global payments and accounts payable—into one of the most highly valued privately-held fintech companies in the globe. With a valuation of $8.3B, Tipalti processes over $43B in payments annually. Chen shares why signing his third customer was his biggest signal of product-market fit, what playing poker taught him about taking calculated risks, and why he relearns his job every eighteen months.

How to Build a Lasting Brand with Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker Oct 25, 2023

Show notes

Over the past 13 years, Warby Parker has become synonymous with offering stylish eyewear at revolutionary prices. The company was born back at Wharton in 2010, when a group of classmates—including co-CEO Neil Blumenthal, came together around an idea they couldn't get out of their heads. Since then, Warby Parker has grown to over 200 brick and mortar locations and went public in 2021. They've also hit a giant milestone: distributing 15 million pairs of glasses globally through their Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program, helping people get the glasses they need to learn, work, and achieve better economic outcomes. Neil shares how it took them six months and over 2,000 names to settle on Warby Parker, why getting pricing right was key to their early success, and why empathy is key to business-building.

FROM INC STUDIOS AND SAP - Growth Agents: How Pink Lily went from a side hustle to a multimillion-dollar company Oct 24, 2023

Show notes

The company’s director of finance explains how her job goes well beyond accounting. Tina Hetzer, director of finance at Pink Lily, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. She built Pink Lily’s finance team from scratch and has helped the company become one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Hetzer discusses the cash-flow challenges unique to fashion retailers and explains how working at a smaller, founder-run company can fuel greater collaboration across the organization.

How to Identify Your Growth Factor with Daniel Yanisse of Checkr Oct 18, 2023

Show notes

In 2014, as an engineer at a delivery startup, Daniel Yanisse identified an opportunity to improve a part of the HR tech world that was known to be high on friction. He co-founded Checkr to leverage technology to transform the world of background checks. Today, Checkr is a leading HR tech company that processes over 30 million background checks annually—and has earned a valuation of $5B. Daniel shares why the company is committed to Fair Chance Hiring, how Checkr grew alongside the on-demand economy companies it first served (like Instacart and Uber), and why being new to the industry was an advantage.

FROM INC STUDIOS AND SAP - Growth Agents: Duolingo’s CFO on how the company took over the language learning space Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

Duolingo’s freemium subscription model, beloved brand and strategic investments have allowed it to execute its educational mission and become a cultural touchstone. Matthew Skaruppa, CFO of Duolingo, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. Since he joined the company in 2020, Duolingo has grown its base of monthly active users by more than 80%. Each month, 75 million users hone their language skills on the Duolingo app. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Skaruppa discusses how his analytical background has allowed to him to be a more strategy-oriented CFO. For him, that has meant balancing big aspirations and finite resources, and turning the uncertainties of tomorrow into action today.

How to Pave Your Own Way with Athena Calderone of EyeSwoon Oct 11, 2023

Show notes

Athena Calderone is a multi-hyphenate creator through and through. She is widely known as an interior designer, author, chef, and entertaining expert. Since she launched EyeSwoon in 2012, she's grown the brand from editorial platform into an e-commerce destination and hit major milestones along the way: earning over a million Instagram followers, writing two best-selling books, and launching a collaboration with Crate and Barrel that beat its yearly sales projection in the first 60 days. Athena shares how her parents' careers as hairdressers gave her an early appreciation for aesthetics, why finding your authentic voice takes time, and how she structures her calendar to make space for creativity.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Inspired with Alexa von Tobel

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected