The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

367: How to Hire Brilliant People & Other Rules for Business | Kayak’s Paul English Jul 21, 2021

Full of wonderful ideas but don’t know how to make them a reality? Our next guest had the same problem…until he managed to turn them into MULTIPLE startups, most of which he’s sold. Paul English bought and sold his first business Boston Light Software for $33.5 million, within just 7 months of its founding. Paul went on to co-found the popular travel site Kayak, which he sold to Priceline for a whopping $1.8 billion.

So what has Paul learned through all this? Well, we asked him. In this episode of the Foundr podcast, Nathan Chan sits down with Paul to discuss:

How you can recruit constantly to curate a team of only the most talented, energetic people
How to get employees to bring their best absolute best
How to validate your next winning business idea
How to solve the biggest problems with your tech company
The importance of vulnerability
How to maintain a balance of skills at your company to ensure the business stays on trackAnd so much more…

If you’re an idealistic entrepreneur who wants to build a business of true worth, this interview is for you. Don't miss it.

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366: Sock It to Me: How the Cofounders of Bombas Became eCommerce Millionaires Jul 13, 2021

What do you get when you mix Daymond John, cozy toes, and a charitable mission?

Bombas.

That's right, you get the world's best sock company.

Foundr CEO Nathan Chan recently sat down with Randy Goldberg and David Heath to learn how Bombas went from a growing ecommerce business to a Shark Tank sensation.

Randy and David talk about growing Bombas from heel to toe, including:

Why they bootstrapped as long as possible
How preparing for Shark Tank helped them boost their business—even before they got a little TV fame
The best advice Daymond John has given them
How an authentic, compelling mission inspires loyal customers and employees
The biggest mistake ecommerce entrepreneurs make
Why they're excited about the future of Bombas

If you're an ecommerce entrepreneur or just a sock-loving fan, this interview is a must.

Who do you want to see next on the podcast? Comment and let us know! And don't forget to leave us a 5-star review if you loved this episode.

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365: How to Build a Community of Raving Fans with Radha Agrawal of Daybreaker Jul 06, 2021

What does a savvy entrepreneur do when she sells her startup for $125 million? She starts another business, of course.

Radha Agrawal, cofounder of Thinx, has launched another passion project: Daybreaker.

Daybreaker is a wellness community that offers sober dance parties in 100 countries around the world. With events at the top of the World Trade Center, Sydney Opera House, and even the White House, Daybreaker is quite literally on top.

And now Daybreaker is offering virtual and hybrid options to increase accessibility to their events while the world navigates through the pandemic.

So how has Radha launched another wildly successful brand? Find out in the latest episode of the Foundr podcast.

Who do you want to see next on the podcast? Comment and let us know! And don't forget to leave us a 5-star review if you loved this episode.

Wait, there's more… If you enjoy the Foundr podcast, check out our free trainings. Get exclusive, actionable advice from some of the world's best entrepreneurs.

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364: The $100B Cereal Entrepreneur: Joe Gebbia of Airbnb Jun 29, 2021

How do you raise capital for your startup? Well, if you ask the co-founder of Airbnb Joe Gebbia, he’ll tell you what worked for him:

Cereal.

That’s right, the company that started with a single air mattress and grew to a $100 billion empire was kept afloat by selling custom cereal boxes.

It was bizarre but it worked. Gebbia muses in this episode of the Foundr podcast:

“We made $20,000 in breakfast cereal, and we're able to basically pay off our credit card debt...The cereal, funnily enough, was how we were able to help keep the options open for us until eventually, the invitation came for Y Combinator.”

In undoubtedly one of our most riveting episodes, Gebbia recounts his incredible journey from struggling to pay rent, to Airbnb’s first angel investor, to one of the biggest brands in the world and Gebbia’s incredible charity work.

Gebbia is candid about how he overcame countless rejections and problems. Listen in as he shares specific advice for entrepreneurs looking to create the next industry disrupter:

“You can see what’s hot. You can go after an emerging industry... Or you can solve a problem. Your own problem. Airbnb was our own problem. We had a rent check that we couldn’t pay. And it forced us to come up with a new way of making ends meet.” Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you are enjoying the Foundr Podcast,, please leave us a 5-star review and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.comSuccess Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

363: Everything I've Learned Spending $30M on YouTube Ads | Tommie Powers Interview Jun 22, 2021

Tommie Powers is a legend in digital paid advertising. He's consulted on $100+ million in ad spend, including $30 million on YouTube ads alone.

So when Tommie talks about paid YouTube ad strategies, we listen.

In a recent interview on the Foundr podcast, Tommie talked with us about everything from diversifying ad spend to crafting a powerful message to calculating ROAS (spoiler: most people are calculating ROAS all wrong).

Check out the latest episode of the Foundr podcast as Tommie tells us how he taps into YouTube's 2 billion monthly active users to bring in his downright mind-blowing ROAS.

Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you are enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please leave us a 5-star review and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.comSuccess Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

362: How to Build a Brand People Love: Red Antler Jun 15, 2021

Inc. Magazine called her the most important entrepreneur on the planet. Fast Company called her the "brand whisperer." Emily Heyward of Red Antler is a master at helping a brand stand out from the crowd.

Heyward has elevated some of the biggest brands on the planet, including Casper, Yumi, Four Square, BirchBox, and All Birds. In this episode of the Foundr Podcast, she reveals her creative process and tells us how she got started in the industry.

If you want a new perspective on building a brand your customers will be obsessed with, listen in on our interview with Heyward.

Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you are enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please leave us a 5-star review and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.comSuccess Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

361: The Near-Death Experience That Fuelled Omaze’s Matt Pohlson Jun 08, 2021

In this episode of the Foundr podcast, we speak with Omaze’s Matt Pohlson to discuss how a near-death experience taught him a powerful lesson about optimism—and how it changed his perspective on business forever.

Pohlson is cofounder and CEO of Omaze, an online fundraising platform that supports causes by offering once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Some of the experiences they offer include top-tier influential figures like Michelle Obama or George Clooney, or million-dollar prizes like cars and properties.

In this refreshingly candid interview, Pohlson discusses his unique business model, gate-crashing charity events to pitch to Bryan Cranston, and how he found himself at the Vatican with the Pope.

Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you ARE enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please leave us a 5-star review and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.comSuccess Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

360: A Proven Formula For Finding Trending HOT Products with Jeremy Gutsche from TrendHunter Jun 01, 2021

As the CEO and founder of TrendHunter, Jeremy Gutsche is at the forefront of trendspotting, innovation, and creating the future. In this ground-breaking interview, the New York Times Bestselling author reveals everything he knows about entrepreneurship and ideas.

Gutsche’s TrendHunter is the world's largest, most popular trend spotting firm with billions of views, and over 10,000 projects for almost every major brand on the market, from Samsung and Disney, to RedBull and even NASA.

The ultimate TKTK interview for entrepreneurs looking for an idea, his 3 methods to identifying a product idea (assessing the market) and the 6 patterns that TrendHunter look for when creating and validating a product idea.

Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you ARE enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please make sure to leave us a 5-star review, and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.comSuccess Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

359: The Secret To Scaling Million Dollar Brands MULTIPLE TIMES: Harry’s Jeff Raider & Andy Katz-Mayfield May 26, 2021

In this episode of the Foundr podcast, Nathan Chan speaks with Jeff Raider and Andy Katz-Mayfield to find out how they scaled Harry’s into a $20 million brand, and how they created other multiple million-dollar brands.

The idea for Harry’s came about after Katz-Mayfield had a disappointing late-night shopping experience at the chemists, and noticed that all the men’s razors were overpriced and overdesigned. Almost 8 years later, Raider and Katz-Mayfield have multiple channels, over 1000 employees, and several multi-million dollar brands.

Listen in as they discuss exactly how they successfully scaled their brands, how they identified potential gaps in the market, the dangers of launching something just to make money, and why they decided to pull the plug on their Harry’s brand of lip balm.

Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you ARE enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please make sure to leave us a 5-star review, and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.comSuccess Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

358: Pro-Product vs. Pro-Marketing: How Heidi Zak of ThirdLove Faced Off With Victoria’s Secret May 18, 2021

Quitting her promising job at Google, Heidi Zak decided to take the plunge and launch ThirdLove, an ecommerce brand for women’s underwear. Today, thanks to Zak’s masterful approach to scaling, ThirdLove is the third biggest ecommerce lingerie brand in America with no signs of slowing down.

Zak’s journey into the entrepreneurial space began after she moved to the West coast and got swept up in the startup world. Launching as a small bootstrapped brand, she never thought that she one day be competing with titans like Victoria’s Secret.

Listen in as Zak discusses the ins and outs of the ecommerce world, navigating scaling, product vs. marketing, and why she believes successful entrepreneurialism is based on perspective.

Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you ARE enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please make sure to leave us a 5-star review, and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.comSuccess Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

357: My Hobby Resulted In A 9-Figure Exit: Jaime Schmidt of Schmidt Naturals May 11, 2021

This week’s podcast is a deep dive with Schmidt Natural’s co-founder, author, and investor Jaime Schmidt. Building her brand from a side hobby to a 7-figure annual income didn’t happen overnight, but Schmidt refused to let fear hold her back.

Although Schmidt says she has had 22 previous jobs, Schmidt Naturals was her very first business. Living off $35k joint-income with a new baby, Schmidt first started creating her all-natural products at home, selling them at farmer’s markets. After years of dedication and very little capital, Schmidt reflects on her 9-figure exit, her journey into investing, and writing her first book Supermaker: Crafting Business on Your Own Terms.

The perfect podcast for anyone who has a vision and a dream, Schmidt is an inspirational entrepreneur who continues to lift up others with her infectious positivity.

Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you ARE enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please make sure to leave us a 5-star review, and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.comSuccess Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

356: Why The Creator Economy Is The Next Big Movement: Joseph Einhorn of Loot May 04, 2021

Joseph Einhorn is no stranger to entrepreneurialism. With almost 25 years of startup experience under his belt, Einhorn knows the ins and the outs of the game.

In this interview with Nathan Chan, Einhorn discusses his incredible journey from becoming a self-taught engineer for Capital IQ, launching and selling the global ecommerce phenomenon Fancy.com, and how his life-long love for comic books evolved into founding Loot.

With a penchant for satiating curiosity and deep respect for creators the world over, Einhorn will leave you inspired to chase your dream and to never give up. Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you ARE enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please make sure to leave us a 5-star review, and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.com Success Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

355: How Jimmy Choo Found Its Footing As A Global Disrupter: Tamara Mellon Apr 27, 2021

As someone who always knew they had a passion for fashion, Tamara Mellon has come a long way from working in a PR firm. As founder of luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo, founder of a new direct-to-consumer brand bearing her own name, and author of In My Shoes, Mellon is a game-changer in the fashion industry.

In this interview, Nathan Chan sits down to speak with one of the most influential figures in the fashion industry to discuss every step of her journey in the fashion industry. Not only has Mellon displayed an uncanny knack for marketing and branding, but she’s also redefined the way we think about shopping.

A must-listen for anyone with a love for fashion, shoes, and disrupting the industry, Mellon gives a refreshingly wholesome insight into the world of entrepreneurialism.

Get FREE, actionable advice from legitimate founders on starting and growing ANY Business… https://www.foundr.com/freetraining And… If you ARE enjoying the Foundr Podcast’, please make sure to leave us a 5-star review, and let us know who you want to see next.

Website: http://www.foundr.com Success Stories: https://foundr.com/success-stories

https://www.ystrickler.com/book

354: What Yoni Assia Of eToro Learned During Dinner with Warren Buffett Apr 20, 2021

In this episode of the Foundr podcast, CEO and founder of eToro Yoni Assia sits down to discuss how he built his empire, getting dinner with Warren Buffett, and how he scaled the world's largest social media investment network.

As someone who has always been passionate about connecting finance and technology, Assia says that he was always someone who loved the intersection between technology and finance. As his second startup, eToro was created to simplify the user experience to make trading and investing something that is accessible for more people.

With a global company spanning 12 offices, over 1000 employees, and now reaching 20 million registered users, Assia’s ability to scale a business successfully is nothing short of incredible.

353: Turning Your Side-Hustle Into A $1B Empire: Shutterstock’s Jon Oringer Apr 13, 2021

After launching 9 companies, Jon Oringer didn’t really think that his 10th company Shutterstock would be the one to stand out from the crowd. Started as a side-hustle, Oringer launched the stock photography business with $10k. Today, his estimated net worth is sitting at $1.5B. Safe to say that Oringer’s journey has been pretty impressive.

Based out of New York, Shutterstock is a global provider of stock photography, stock footage, stock music, and editing tools used by the world over.

In this Foundr podcast episode, Nathan Chan sits down to speak with Oringer to discuss how he launched Shutterstock, creating the first pop-up blocker, and what he believes will be the future of Fintech and entrepreneurialism.

352: The Music Industry Disrupter: How Ola Sars Helped Build A $3 Billion Start-Up Apr 06, 2021

In this digital age, music streaming and subscriptions have quickly become the norm. This week at Foundr, we were lucky enough to speak to an entrepreneur who was there for the rise of streaming and the music-tech space: Ola Sars.

Before he was founder and CEO of the fastest growing B2B music streaming service, Soundtrack Your Brand, Ola was co-founder and COO of Beats Music, acquired by Apple and transformed into Apple Music, as well as the co-founder of Pacemaker, the world's first DJ driven music platform.

Foundr’s Nathan Chan sits down with Ola Sars to map out his incredible journey through one of the most complex industries in the modern world: the music industry.

351: 0- $100m In 3 Years: How Gail Becker, Founder of CAULIPOWER Changed The Game Mar 30, 2021

In this delicious interview, Nathan Chan sits down with CAULIPOWER founder Gail Becker to find out how she took her ecommerce company from $0 to $100M in just 3 years.

Becker takes us on her tasty food brand journey, from her experience in corporate life as a marketer, to branching into the unknown to create something she wanted to see on the market: more food options for celiacs.

Listen in as she discusses the process of getting her product into 25,000 stores on her first try and the future of Amazon.

This interview is perfect for anyone interested in entering the food industry, as Becker lays out everything she has learned along the way. And why in life, you should do something that you love.

350: How Joe Foster of Reebok Raced His Brand In Front Of The Competition Mar 23, 2021

Coming from a long line of shoemakers, it seemed only natural that Joe Foster follow in his family’s footsteps, but instead Foster decided to push his horizons even further and create a brand that would become a legacy. Listen in as Foster shares his incredible journey through generations of shoemakers to bring us the global brand we know today: Reebok.

Foster’s entrepreneurial journey is nothing short of inspiring, as he took the company through ups and downs, broke into competitive markets, and created a niche in the market for his brand. Acquired by Adidas in 2005 for a whopping $3.8 billion, Foster has since retired and authored a book: “Shoemaker: The Untold Story of the British Family Firm that Became a Global Brand”.

In this astounding interview, Nathan Chan and Foster discuss the entrepreneurial journey, and everything Foster has learned along the way when it comes to business and brand.

349: 1 Billion Downloads, Kim Kardashian, and The Future Of AI: PicsArt’s Hovhannes Avoyan Mar 16, 2021

When his 10 year old daughter was upset by negative comments posted about her artwork, Hovhannes Avoyan decided to do something about it. Almost a decade later, over 1 billion app downloads and 150 million active monthly, PicsArt has become a global movement.

Before founding PicsArt, Hovhannes Avoyan was already a successful entrepreneur with five startups that he sold to Lycos, Bertelsmann, GFI, TeamViewer, and HelpSystems. With a strong understanding of the market, scaling, and what it takes to build a viable business, it’s no wonder that PicsArt raised over $45m capital and now boasts partnerships with the world’s biggest influencers like Kim Kardashian.

In this inspiring interview hosted by Nathan Chan, Avoyan discusses the importance of creating a safe space for creative expression, why community matters for a business, the future of AI and its place in design and art, and why he believes failure is part of success.

348: 15 Power Ups You Need To Build A Successful Business With Eric Siu Of Single Grain Mar 09, 2021

Power up, level up, and get ready to take your business to the extreme, with this incredible interview with Single Grain’s Eric Siu.

A former pro-gamer, Siu has been on the quintessential entrepreneur’s journey. He’s faced scaling issues, failure, and trying to do too much at once, and now he is ready to reveal why he believes gamers make the best entrepreneurs.

In this electrified interview with Foundr, Siu discusses why every founder needs to have a good understanding of marketing, essential long-term skills you need to have, and why he predicts Clubhouse will be the ultimate training ground for entrepreneurs.

347: Undaunted: How Kara Goldin Denied Self-Doubt To Launch A $200m Beverage Company Mar 02, 2021

How does someone launch a $200 million beverage company with zero experience and four children under the age of six? Just ask super-mom, author, and Hint Water empire CEO and Founder, Kara Goldin.

Goldin was first inspired to launch her beverage company as an alternative to other unhealthy drinks on the market. Not only did Goldin manage to build a company that is now the largest privately owned non-alcoholic beverage company in America, but she placed Hint on the shelves of her local Whole Foods on the same day she went into the delivery room.

Revealing all of the ups and downs of her journey in her new book, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubt And Doubters, Goldin speaks to Foundr’s Nathan Chan about relentless pursuit of your dreams, and overcoming fears and self-doubt along the way. Key Takeaways

How Kara Goldin first began her mission of creating a healthier option for drinking water
Facing challenges everyday, and Goldin’s commitment to learning all she could about an entirely new industry
Why Goldin believes the best thing anyone can do for themselves is continue to learn and grow
Dealing with naysayers and doubters, and how Goldin decided to instead use their feedback to hone her business vision

346: Why Ideas Don’t Count According To Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph Feb 23, 2021

345: $15B Payments Processed A Year: GoCardless’ Hiroki Takeuchi Feb 16, 2021

In 2011, Hiroki Takeuchi launched his first business GoCardless with his co-founders. Just under one decade later, they are processing over $15b in payments every year!

Takeuchi’s first business began as a service to help streamline the messy process of collecting payments informally. Over the next several years, funding, scaling, and pivoting led him to create a simple service that helped collect recurring and one-off payments from customers.

Takeuchi’s approach to business is inspiring. Not only was he a first-time entrepreneur scaling a global business without experience, but he also knows the pains of imposter syndrome and anxiety over hiring overqualified experts. This interview with Nathan Chan serves to remind us all that greatness isn’t just past experience, it’s the willingness to learn that makes someone a great entrepreneur. Key Takeaways

How Takeuchi launched GoCardless in 2011 as his first business, and how he developed the idea
Evolving the initial business idea from something that sought to solve the problem of collecting payments informally, to a global fintech empire
The importance of having a complimentary co-founder, and how Takeuchi first began planning with his co-founders
Why Takeuchi decided to leverage existing services in order to streamline launch
Demo day, and overcoming getting 64 “no’s” before they got a “yes”
The importance of focus on a singular product, especially in a global powerhouse like finances and payment
How Takeuchi approached scaling, planning, and proactive growth in a high-demand industry
The challenges faced by an international business and scaling
How Takeuchi tackles imposter syndrome, and how he continues to focus on learnings
The importance he places on his team and the people Takeuchi surrounds himself with
What you need to ignore if you want to hire the best of the best for your business
Why you should never underestimate the length of the journey ahead of you, and why you need to be ready for the challenge of being an entrepreneur

344: How Colin Darretta Built A 1m Person Mailing List In 1 Year Feb 09, 2021

Building partnerships and mailing lists as an entrepreneur can be one of the trickiest and most elusive parts of the game. Targetting the right people, understanding brand identity - it’s all a delicate ecosystem to navigate.

The good news is, when it comes to mailing lists and partnerships, we have all the answers you need from the mastermind and guru himself: Colin Darretta.

Co-founder of a number of successful companies including WellPath, a health and wellness plan) and DojoMojo, a software company that helps you build partnerships, Darretta has all the answers.

Not only has Darretta got decades of experience under his belt, but he also has the distinct honor of managing to build a 1million person email list in 1 year, and is the master of monetizing mailing lists.

343: How To Find The Next Big Business Idea with Nextdoor Co-Founder Sarah Leary Feb 02, 2021

For Sarah Leary, entrepreneurship has always been in her blood. Growing up in a household of small-business owners including her grandmother who was also an entrepreneur, she knew she would eventually be one, too. She remembers that even when she was working for Microsoft as part of the founding team for Microsoft Office, she knew that being a business owner was her future.

From her development, launch, and successful scaling of Nextdoor into the world’s largest private social network for neighborhoods, Leary has experience in every aspect of entrepreneurialism. Her advice for budding entrepreneurs comes from years of experience in both scaling a business, building a community, and growing brands.

In this interview with Nathan Chan, Leary reveals the absolute essentials every new entrepreneur needs to tick off when they want to start something new. As a venture partner at Unusual Ventures, Leary has advice straight from the frontline of what she wants to see in a pitch. Key Takeaways

How Leary grew up in a household of business owners and entrepreneurs and why that means she always knew she would be one too
Finding herself in the early start-up culture of Silicon Valley in the 90s
Her first business and how she faced failure, the decision to pivot, and a whole new frontier
The beginning of Nextdoor, and it’s growth internationally over the past decade
Joining Unusual Ventures, and why she wants to dedicate her time to helping others build companies from the ground up
Why founders need to be comfortable validating their ideas and assumptions
The two essential questions entrepreneurs need to ask themselves before starting
How Leary developed Nextdoor through a combination of brainstorming, customer research, and why you need to consider customer painkillers
Why every entrepreneur needs to learn to do extraordinary work for a narrow band of people, and then expand
How Leary fuelled the Nextdoor community, and why networks need leaders
Why Leary believes authenticity is the most important part of community strategy, and why you need to start with it
Why Leary stepped down from Nextdoor, and how the team of Unusual Ventures is rolling up their sleeves to help new entrepreneurs
Leary’s reveals the secret to pitching ideas correctly, and what Unusual Ventures looks for in a new business idea

342: How Alli Webb Turned Drybar Into A $100m Empire Jan 26, 2021

When Alli Webb founded Drybar in 2010, it started as one small salon in Brentwood, California that was designed to do one thing and do it well: blowouts.

Today, her brand has grown to over150 stores in 33 states, a hair care product line that she sold for over $250 million, her own podcast Raising The Bar, and a NY Times best-selling book Good Hair For All.

Best of all, Webb is Foundr magazine’s cover girl for issue 95 (check it out, it’s a good one!)

Guess you could say that Alli Webb is an entrepreneurial genius.

This week’s interview gives you an insight into Webb’s journey from working as a receptionist in a hair salon during high school to the decision to chase her passion for hairstyling.

That decision to pursue her passion is what has led Webb to a $100m empire. Find out how she took the leap, and what advice she has for those looking to pursue their passion, too. Key Takeaways

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, and how that shaped Alli Webb’s idea of business
Realised she had a passion for hair and styling, and worked as a receptionist in a hair salon where she became mesmorised by the craft
Her journey through “a hot-minute” in college, to working in fashion in New York
Starting her own business styling client’s hair at home, and growing her business
How she started “Drybar” and what makes her brand unique
Franchising Drybar, and learning to operate her business on a global scale
How Webb developed her own product line, and how she sold it for $250m to beauty powerhouse, Helen of Troy.
How Webb continues to raise the bar, launching her own podcast: Raising The Bar, and authoring NY Times Best Seller Good Hair For All
Webb’s advice for all budding entrepreneurs, especially women in business, and why they need to follow their passion and what they love doing.

341: Pushing Your Limits with Mental Toughness King and Spartan CEO Joe De Sena Jan 19, 2021

If you want to start a business, you sure as hell better be made of the right stuff. Because Joe De Sena is here to tell you that in business, “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”, and you need to be mentally tough enough to handle it.

In this Foundr interview like no other, Nathan Chan speaks with Spartan Race creator, best-selling author, and badass CEO Joe De Sena on why you need manufactured adversity.

De Sena has faced mountains of failure in business and continues to rise, everything from losing someone during the first ever race and finding them marooned on a desert island a week later, to not turning a profit for 15 years. Nevertheless, this machine of a man bounces back and continues to rise.

This interview is just a snapshot of what you can expect in Foundr’s newest course, Mental Toughness. Touted as the ultimate entrepreneurs field guide to building mental toughness, this is not one to be missed.

Find out why the Olympic wrestling teams are sent to De Sena shape up, why billionaires send their children to him to learn discipline, and why active military personnel flock to him to learn grit.

340: How Gabi Lewis dominated a $40 billion industry Jan 12, 2021

Gabi Lewis, Co-Founder, The Magic Spoon

In this yummy episode, Gabi Lewis, Co-Founder of The Magic Spoon, sits down with Nathan Chan to discuss his journey from founding the revolutionary EXO protein snack made from crickets, to dominating the $40billion a year cereal industry.

Listen in as Lewis reveals how he managed to get Tim Ferris and Nas as angel-investors onboard for EXO snacks, his journey into the competitive world of cereal, and how Magic Spoon continues to stay ahead of the competition.

In this deep-dive interview, you’ll find out why Lewis swears by agencies, the opportunities in influencer marketing, and why product-fit is an absolute essential for any founder.

Lewis’ incredible journey from crickets to cereal is a not-to-be-missed lesson in entrepreneurship and the importance of saying “no”. Key Takeaways

How Lewis started Exo Protein, selling cricket protein bars
Recognizing the paleo food trend and targeting that market
How Lewis got angel investors such as Tim Ferris and Nas
His decision to sell the company and launch Magic Spoon cereal
Why Magic Spoon is a direct-to-consumer product and the advantages of ecommerce
The successful launch of Magic Spoon and the power of influencers
Why product-market fit is the most important aspect of launching a business
How Magic Spoon was affected by Covid and the evolution of hiring and scaling
The decision to not sell Magic Spoon on Amazon, and the power of customer-brand loyalty
Why Lewis believes that a high-quality product is the most important aspect of any business
Lewis’ advice to others that as a founder, you should never be distracted, and why your job is to say “no”

339: How GT Dave Started A $1Billion Kombucha Empire From His Bedroom Jan 05, 2021

In this interview, Nathan Chan sits down with GT Dave, Founder and CEO of GT's Living Foods. GT discusses how he built a $1B empire from his bedroom and his journey of being the first seller of Kombucha in the United States.

In this interview, GT Dave discusses how he first began selling Kombucha, entering the market with a completely new category of product, and the challenges he faced in educating the market on what his product was.

GT Dave is a firm believer in passion before profit, and his integrity and commitment to health shine through as he discusses his childhood and nutrition, how Kombucha helped his mother through medical issues, and the proven benefits of Kombucha.

With a personal net worth estimated at $1Billion, GT Dave’s journey will inspire you to follow your passion and begin building your future, today. Key Takeaways

How GT Dave found an interest in Kombucha and how he began marketing it
Launching his company from his bedroom, and selling his product using his Dad’s Amex card
The challenge of entering the market with a new product and how he went about educating others on an unfamiliar health beverage
How GT Dave helped Kombucha to become the global trend it is today
GT Dave’s commitment to passion over profit, and what health means to him
The importance of validating your product and communicating with consumers
His key advice to those who are just getting started, and the questions you need to ask yourself

338: Foundr BEST OF 2020 Dec 30, 2020

In this epic roundup episode, we took our favorite moments from every interview this year and combined them to create our most jam-packed episode yet: Foundr Best of 2020!

That’s right, in this very special episode, you’ll hear valuable insights from:

Drew Houston, CEO and founder of DropBox: On problem-solving, his formula for success in business, and how he— as a billion-dollar CEO — still learns every single day.
Dylan Mullen, Founder, and Director of Happy Skin Co. Mullen reveals how he built a $20 million dollar company in 24 months, and how they’re acquiring their customers.
Alexa Von Tobel, Founder of Learnvest, & Inspire Capital: Why you shouldn’t spend a dollar on marketing, and what it takes to be a ‘good entrepreneur’.
Gretta Van Riel, 4x Multi-Milion Dollar Founder. Van Riel discusses why she would spend $500k on a post from Kylie Jenner, and her $1.3m manufacturing horror story.
Henrik Werderlin, founder and CEO of Barkbox, and the strategy that Apple and Amazon have used to build global, beloved brands.
You’re about to learn the mistake that every new entrepreneur makes, as discussed by Alex Osterwalder, the Swiss business theorist who developed the “business model canvas”.
Author Kamal Ravikant reveals why you don’t need a mentor (from someone who’s been down the road a few times).
Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers on how she managed to turn $49,000 into almost a million dollars in 3 years— all thanks to the success of her company.
Here’s Skillshare founder Malcolm Ong… who’s about to reveal the one word that will make you a better entrepreneur.
Thor Ernstsson, Founder of Strata. The 2 tips that every single entrepreneur needs to hear.
One of the internet’s greatest pioneers, cofounder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg on what motivates him.
GT’s living foods founder, GT Dave. He reveals to us the key to staying on your path, and not losing your identity.
Andy Frisella, founder of 1st Phorm with one of the most fired up conversations of the year. Enjoy this snippet where he’s going to tell you why building a brand is important, and the issue with comparing yourself to Steve Jobs.

337: What A Future Billion Dollar Business Looks Like: With Google’s Lead Investor, David Lawee Dec 15, 2020

Ever wondered what traits and characteristics Google looks for in a founder?

Wonder no more, because in this interview, Nathan Chan sits down with CapitalG Founder, David Lawee, to discuss the journey of finding the next $1B Unicorn Business. David is Google's Lead Investor, and has over 13 years of experience under his belt working for one of the largest companies on the planet.

Prior to joining Google, Lawee has been a serial entrepreneur. His biggest takeaway from the experience was how to successfully scale companies, and during the interview he finally reveals exactly how to do it.

Lawee shares what he believes it takes to create a billion-dollar company. Lawee reveals all the traits and characteristics he looks for in founders when it comes to investing billions of dollars, and exactly what the company needs to look like. Key Takeaways

How David Lawee found himself working for Google, CapitalG, and what he learned during his time as a serial entrepreneur
The characteristics and traits that he looks for when it comes to investing
The difference between an ordinary company, and the billion dollar unicorn
Lawee’s advice for those looking to open more doors
The change in the market, and an insider's view into Google investment world
Lawee discusses how to align your company with investors’ needs

336: Starting a Business During a Crisis with the founder of Alpha and Strata, Thor Ernstsson Dec 08, 2020

Meet Thor Ernstsson.

The founder of global giants such as Alpha, Strata, and lead architect for Zygna responsible for Farmville, Ernstsson knows business and products.

In this interview, Nathan sits down with Ernstsson to discuss his journey from Zynga game developer, to creating a company that serves half of the Fortune 500. Honest and candid, Ernstsson reveals his decision-making processes behind some of the company's largest pivots, changes, and challenges.

While most people would shy away from the idea of launching a business during a global crisis, Ernstsson is perhaps living proof that not only is it a good decision, it’s the best business decision one can make. Key Takeaways

Thor Ernstsson discusses how he first began working at Zygna, and how he felt about the global success of Farmville
His next business ventures, including Alpha and Strata
Why he decided to pivot the company
The importance of “now”, and why starting a business during a crisis is a good idea
The decision to launch a business that aimed to connect people, while it was the start of the pandemic
How to change the world, and why you should always aim to solve a problem that won’t change
The importance of customers and why they need to be invested in your business’ success

335: From 0 to $65m: With Farmgirl Flowers' Christina Stembel Dec 01, 2020

Faced with 104 rejections, zero-funding, and the prospect of launching a new business during an economic downturn, Christina Stembel has not only grown her company Farmgirl Flowers to a $65m empire, she has also done it completely bootstrapped.

Stembel’s journey from bootstrap to business mogul is nothing short of inspiring. What began as $46k savings and a 2-year window to achieve her goal, her ecommerce flower business saw 5x growth in the first 2 years. As Stembel says, “the fact that I was able to bootstrap without running out of money is the biggest accomplishment of my life”

In this interview, listen in to discover how Stembel marketed and advertised her brand on a shoestring budget, the importance of word-of-mouth and how that helped her achieve her first million, and why she views FarmGirl Flowers as the workhorse among unicorns. Key Takeaways

How Stembel started FarmGirl Flowers, and why she gave herself 2 years
Marketing on a shoestring budget
Complications she faced selling perishable products
Why she views FarmGirl Flowers as a workhorse among unicorns
The importance of product-quality, and why she believes that a good quality product will outsell any level of marketing
The future of FarmGirl Flowers and reaching her first billion

334: What This Tech Pioneer Is Betting On Next | Matt Mullenweg Of Wordpress Nov 24, 2020

As someone who has pioneered the tech industry with his open-source software, and boasts 38% of the internet using his product, Matt Mullenweg is still one of the most humble and inspiring entrepreneurs we’ve ever met.

In this insightful interview, Mullenweg discusses the biggest challenges faced by companies today, and the importance of looking after your team and people. As a company that has operated remotely since it’s beginnings, Mullenweg stresses the importance of team-building, and why he took his entire company to Disneyland.

Mullenweg touches on some key issues faced by entrepreneurs the worldover - chronic dissatisfaction in progress, and that whatever you do is never enough. He says instead of saying to yourself that it’s not enough, entrepreneurs need to say “it is enough, and there’s more to do!”

From the acquisition of powerhouses such as Tumblr, WooCommerce, and his dedication to supporting others, Mullenweg discusses his life’s plan to create as much open-source software as possible and encourage creativity across the globe.

This interview will leave a smile on your face and give you the motivation and drive to work towards a better future for all. Key Takeaways

How Mullenweg founded WordPress, and operating as a remote-working business in the early 2000s
Mullenweg’s beliefs on company culture and the importance of in-person team-building activities especially for remote workers
The future of the office and why he believes it will be obsolete post-Covid
Mullenweg reveals that as an angel investor, the key things he looks for in a business or founder
The future of web development and WordPress
The biggest challenges faced by companies today and the importance of looking after your team and people
Chronic dissatisfaction as a founder and why needs to become a more positive drive

333: The Top Mistakes to Avoid when Managing Remote Teams with Fibre HR Foundr Lisa Spiden Nov 17, 2020

In this week’s Foundr podcast interview, Nathan Chan sits down with Lisa Spiden, CEO of Workforce Analytics and Foundr of Fibre HR to discuss everything a team leader needs to embody in order to help their team do their best work.

Spiden discusses key tactics and methods that team leaders can adopt to help lead their teams through any crisis. Not only does this mean offering support for them during the work-from-home culture shift, but also taking the time to understand and adapt for each individual's needs and workflow.

With something for every team leader, this interview will help you to understand how to build a culture within your team, hiring strategies, and top-talent selection. Key Takeaways

How Spiden found herself working in HR, and the origins of Fibre HR and Workforce Analytics
Spiden discusses tactics to keep team morale high during forced WFH
Why staff motivation is the key to staff retention
Team standups, retros, and other remote team bonding exercises
Addressing top-talent selection, and whether pro-culture or pro-skills is best for your business
Building a great culture inside and office, and how to build on it strategically
Understanding what your team wants, what drives them, what motivates them

332: $16 million a month: The Secret To Success Using Facebook Ads with Nick Shackelford Nov 10, 2020

Ever wondered how the elite pros do Facebook ads? This week’s interview with course instructor Nick Shackelford is just that: a no-holding back, all inclusive, step-by-step discussion on running successful Facebook ads.

Returning again to Foundr’s exclusive podcast, Shackelford discusses his learnings on media buying, running facebook ads that convert, and exactly what he learned from spending a ridiculous amount of money on fb ads.

This interview dives deep into the nitty-gritty of all the lessons Shackelford learned doing media buying for Apple, including the budgets he worked on for the launch of the iPhone 7, iPad Pro, and the Apple Watch (and we are talking huge budgets).

Shackelford also discusses how he single-handedly popularized the Fidget Spinner by using Facebook Ads, and how he started his own agency, Structured Social.

In this interview, not only will you discover why Shackelford’s Structured spends close to $20million per month on Facebook ads, you’ll also hear first-hand tips and strategies to success in FB ads within the hardest markets, across all GEOS, for every product or service.

This is an episode you cannot miss! Key Takeaways

How Shackelford first found his way into the industry
Working for Apple and what he learned from running $100 million Facebook ads
The rise of the fidget spinner, $1m run rate in the first month, and the importance of opportunity
How Shackelford has built Structure Social, and now spends close to $20million a month and has over 50 employees
The biggest lessons he has learned over the years, including the intricacies of media buying, copywriting, positioning, and creative
Why you only have 3-seconds to make an impression with your ad
Shackelford’s key advice for those looking to grow their business through Facebook ads

331: Mastering Your Mindset and Achieving Success with Andy Frisella of 1st Phorm Nov 03, 2020

Mental toughness isn’t something you’re born with, it’s something you learn and practice and develop over time. And Andy Frisella is living proof of that.

The Founder of 1st Phorm, the “Real AF podcast host”, 75Hard program creator, and all around badass Andy Frisella knows discipline and mindset, and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.

It’s no secret that Foundr is a huge fan of Frisella’s work with developing mental toughness and discipline (in fact, most of our team has completed his 75Hard challenge!) and after listening to this interview, you’ll be a fan too.

Frisella is raw, real, and straight to the point with everything he believes in with mental health, building a brand, company values, and aspiring to become the best version of yourself possible. Key Takeaways

Frisella discusses how he has always been an entrepreneur at heart
Frisella reflects on how he began his first business, the struggles, the journey, and how he stayed focussed
Company values and how Frisella recognises greatness and celebrates it within his team
The importance of being a good leader and why you need to communicate values with your team
Why Frisella still compares himself to others above him, and why this is a driving force in success
The struggle of finding the right support at high-levels of success
How to push through discipline blocks and shake off burnout
The evolution of 75Hard and what Frisella is most excited for as a legacy

330: The 4 Questions You Need To Be Asking To Make Better Decisions: Kickstarter Co-Founder and Author Yancey Strickler Oct 27, 2020

Yancey Strickler, Author and Kickstarter Co-Founder

In this inspiring podcast interview, Nathan Chan sits down with Kickstarter co-founder and author Yancey Strickler to discuss his 'Bento Box' method for making better decisions, how his company Kickstarter found it’s feet, and our unhealthy obsession with “financial maximization”.

Strickler was working as a music journalist in New York when a chance encounter with future co-founder Perry Chen in a restaurant led to the creation of Kickstarter, and crowdfunding as a category-defining player in a new field.

A writer at heart, Stickler used his time post-Kickstarter to write the groundbreaking This Could Be Our Future. An in-depth look at our current obsession with financial gain, and how society has conditioned us to always choose whatever will make the most money.

Making the right choices in life is a mission close to Strickler’s heart. As such, he created the revolutionary “Bento Box” framework, an inspiring and humbling process for individuals and businesses alike to frame and structure their decisions.

This podcast is one of our most inspiring insights into human nature and the importance of caring for our future selves and our future business. Learn from Strickler as he gives you the secret Bento Box method to help you make the right decisions in life. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss!

Key Takeaways

Strickler discusses how the idea for Kickstarter came about in 2005 while working in the music industry
Why it took Strickler close to 4 years for the idea to be executed
The conscious decision to frame Kickstarter as a funding method for passion projects and new ideas rather than a charity platform
Why Kickstarter was originally called “Kickstartr”
Pitching the idea of Kickstarter and the initial investors, and getting Andy Baio onboard with the project
How they went from unpaid developers to profitability in 14 months
The effect of being a category-defining player in a new field
Stepping down from his position at Kickstarter
Strickler’s new book “This Could Be Our Future” and our current obsession with Financial Maximisation: whatever makes the most money is the right decision
Strickler’s Bento Framework
Now Me: profitability
Future Me: as a business, your values
Now Us: stakeholders, employees, suppliers, etc.
Future Us: the bigger idea of what you want to be

Key Resources From Our Interview

329: Why You Don't Need a Mentor & Key Traits EVERY Successful Founder Should Have with Kamal Ravikant Oct 20, 2020

Kamal Ravikant, Author and Founder, Venture Capitalist

In this special podcast interview, Nathan Chan sits down with renowned author and founder Kamal Ravikant to discuss his thoughts on mentorship, entrepreneurs, and everything in between.

Ravikant traces his journey back to a point in time most entrepreneurs face: he was doing too much and he was burnt out. In fact, it took losing everything for him to realize what he needed to change: his mindset. Throughout his journey, the ups and downs, the lows and highs, Ravikant is a master of maintaining a balance between persistence and open-mindedness in everything he does.

Listen in as Ravikant discloses the powerful reason he chose to write his bestselling book: 'Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It', and how the book developed from a self-published book to a global success spreading joy and love published in 16 languages.

This podcast is raw, honest, and a deep insight into personal growth. Learn from Ravikant as he discloses the universal importance of loving yourself, being humble, and caring deeply. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss!

Key Takeaways

Ravikant holds the honor of being the fourth ever podcast interview by Foundr back in 2014
His beginnings riding the wave of the internet boom
Why it took losing everything to realize he needed to change his mindset
His ideology that you should build a business by identifying a problem and creating a solution first
The power investors hold over entrepreneurs, and what drove him to become a doer
Why he believes in having a strong entrepreneur mindset
His re-launch of the global bestseller Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It published in 16 languages worldwide
Ravikant discusses his upcoming projects and behind-the-scenes of funds
Ravikant addresses the changes in Silicon Valley, and what advice he would give to upcoming entrepreneurs
Why you need to be humble and care deeply, always.

328: Building a $50M Underwear Empire off $20K with Joanna Griffiths from KNIX Oct 13, 2020

Joanna Griffiths CEO Knixwear

CEO of global intimates brand Knixwear Joanna Griffiths sits down with Nathan Chan to reveal how she took $20k to and made $50m in revenue last year.

In this wonderfully inspiring episode, Griffiths’ discusses how she became an “accidental entrepreneur” with Knixwear. Initially begun as a passion project to create high-quality leak-proof intimates, Griffiths’ put aside her initial goal to run her own media company and instead decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

In school, her business plan won a competition, and she used the $20k prize to begin chasing her dream of solving a universal problem. After years of trials and errors, including a first-time sample order of 40,000 pairs of underwear, Knixwear quickly found it’s feet and is now a $50m a year company. Knixwear has 85 employees globally, and Griffiths’ still reels at the idea that her company sells an item every 6 seconds.

Listen in as Griffiths’ discusses the lows and the highs of being a first-time business owner, TV advertising, and why she always chooses the path of risk so she doesn’t look back and wonder “what if”.

Key Takeaways

How Griffiths’ original plan to run her own media company led her to pursue her MBA
How her intimates brand Knixwear began as high-quality leak-proof underwear
Why Griffiths dedicated her time to solving this universal problem, and why she feels she is an accidental entrepreneur as a result
Why she chose to take a chance rather than risk looking back with regret
Griffiths’ discusses her initial business funding: she won a business plan competition at school and received $20k
How she used the $20k for product development, launching, and crowd-funding
Griffiths’ reveals that the first order was the biggest mistake, but she values progress over perfection
Knixwear has passed $50m annual revenue, and that they sell an item every 6 seconds
Griffiths’ discusses the early days of wholesale business, and the struggles first-time entrepreneurs face
How she identified her target market and shaped her product accordingly

327: How to Outlearn ANYONE & Become the Best with Ulrich Boser of the Learning Agency Oct 06, 2020

Ulrich Boser, CEO, The Learning Agency

Founder and CEO of The Learning Agency, best-selling author, and Foundr course Instructor Ulrich Boser sits down for an in-depth discussion on becoming a better learner, the misinformation surrounding information, and the big secret to mastering any skill (and we mean any skill).

The ability to absorb and retain information effectively is often thought of as some sort of elusive skill that you’re born with, but Boser seeks to dispel this once and for all. The ability to learn effectively isn’t something assigned at birth, no one has a “set learning” style, and your ability to absorb information ultimately comes down to how you decide to approach everything.

Author of the best-selling Learn Better, Boser reveals to Foundr’s Nathan Chan why he started his company, why feedback is crucial, and why he believes everyone should throw away their highlighters if they want to learn better.

In this conversation, Boser takes everything you thought you knew about learning and spins it on its head. If you have any questions about Boser’s upcoming course, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Boser discusses how his childhood sparked his passion to hone and master the ability to pick up skills effectively
Why Boser began The Learning Agency
Boser discusses the prevalence of learning myths
Common learning myths and why they impact learning
Why active learning will always overshadow passive learning
How to engage with the material; quiz yourself, and identify gaps in your knowledge
Why previous knowledge on a topic will boost your learning
The importance of feedback on your learning

326: How Skillshare Co-Founder Malcolm Ong Has Transformed Multiple Industries—From Education To Media Sep 29, 2020

Malcolm Ong has never shied away from change. In fact, his ability to adapt is what has given him a front-row seat to multiple business transformations—first as the co-founder of education platform Skillshare to now as the Head of Product at South China Morning Post.

After launching Skillshare in 2010, Ong led the business through a significant pivot—from being a completely offline, in-person model to one that’s now membership-based and 100% online. In the process, he also witnessed the massive growth of the online education industry, which has only been sped up by the Covid-19 pandemic.

After leaving Skillshare, Ong joined South China Morning Post, a global, English-language news media company owned by Alibaba. His job has been to transform this company from a traditional, local newspaper into a more modern, global media empire. A task that he has exceeded, as he’s grown their number of monthly active users from 4 million to over 50 million and significantly expanded the outlet’s readership beyond Asia.

In this conversation, Ong gives us a deeper dive into these milestones throughout his fascinating career and shares his best recommendations on how to transform a business. If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Why Ong decided to tackle the education industry
How Skillshare launched as a 100% offline education platform
What contributed to Skillshare’s success
The scalability issues that Skillshare faced, and how this led to the company transitioning online
Ong’s advice when it comes to pivoting your business
Why Ong eventually left Skillshare in 2016
What intrigued Ong about the job offer from South China Morning Post (SCMP)
Ong’s experience living in Hong Kong, and how it has given him the front seat to many historical events
How Ong has helped SCMP transform from being a traditional media company to a cutting-edge product and customer-focused business
Ong’s advice to entrepreneurs about trying on different hats

Key Resources From Our Interview With Malcom Ong

Visit the SCMP website
Follow Ong on LinkedIn and Twitter

325: How Whole Foods Market Co-Founder and CEO John Mackey Leads By Example Sep 22, 2020

John Mackey, Co-Founder and CEO, Whole Foods Market

Right now, every company needs strong leadership to guide them through these challenging times. Thankfully, Whole Foods Market co-founder and CEO John Mackey is well versed on the principles of leadership and is launching his latest book, Conscious Leadership, this month to help other founders put those ideas into practice.

In addition to the book, people can see Mackey’s approach to leadership in action with Whole Foods. While Mackey is grateful that his stores are still in full operation during Covid-19, he doesn’t try to hide the fact that circumstances have been extremely challenging—from rapidly scaling its supply chain to accommodate the sudden demands of customers to generating almost no revenue as a result of all the sanitation products the business has had to invest in.

But these obstacles don't bother Mackey. As a conscious leader, his priority is making sure that every single one of their 100,000 team members has access to the resources they need to stay safe at work. He has also raised every in-store worker’s pay by $2 per hour, provided two extra weeks of sick pay for those who have to quarantine, and is giving unlimited callouts during this time.

In this conversation, Mackey shares more about what it means to lead with love, how founders can attract and retain great talent in this challenging environment, and so much more. If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

An overview of Mackey’s best-selling book, Conscious Capitalism
A sneak peek into Mackey’s latest book, Conscious Leadership, and what inspired him to write it
The two most important pillars of leadership
Why Mackey believes in leading with love
How Mackey is putting conscious leadership into action during the pandemic
The challenges Whole Foods has been dealing with from a supply chain and revenue perspective
Why being an Amazon subsidiary adds a layer of complexity to the Whole Foods business
How to attract and retain great people during these challenging times
What Mackey has done to support Whole Foods employees during Covid-19
Why Mackey believes in the win-win-win mindset, and how this attitude can guide your business decisions
The importance of leading by example

Key Resources From Our Interview With John Mackey

Get your copy of Conscious Leadership here

324: How Vital Proteins’ Kurt Seidensticker Generated Insane Consumer Demand For Collagen Sep 15, 2020

Kurt Seidensticker, Former NASA Engineer & Founder and CEO, Vital Proteins

How did Kurt Seidensticker go from being a NASA engineer to the founder of one of the biggest protein brands in the world? Believe it or not, his career path has been a perfect culmination of experiences—one that has led him to his current position as the CEO of Vital Proteins, a brand that was recently acquired by Nestlé and is expected to generate a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue this year.

Even when Seidensticker was working at NASA as an aerospace engineer, he was constantly running his entrepreneurial brain and thinking up new projects to undertake. After several years of working in a diverse array of industries—from cellular phone systems to high-speed internet—he decided to strike out on his own and started his own data center company and ecommerce platform.

Despite appearing to be completely unrelated businesses, these two companies served as the launching pad that allowed Seidensticker to start Vital Proteins in 2013. His ingestible collagen product took the protein market by the storm and saw over 300% YOY growth in its early days.

In this podcast episode, Seidensticker discusses what led to the incredible growth of Vital Proteins—from having first-mover advantage to finding negotiating power when dealing with retailers. He also shares his best recommendations when it comes to influencer marketing, moving fast, and so much more.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Why Seidensticker decided to become an aerospace engineer
The business ideas Seidensticker had while working at NASA and worked on space programs, underneath was entrepreneurial drive
How Seidensticker came to work on pivotal projects in the cellular phone systems and high-speed internet space
Why Seidensticker decided to strike out on his own
How the data center company and ecommerce platform he built became a launching pad for Vital Proteins
The experience that led Seidensticker to explore the world of protein, and how he created a whole new category around ingestible collagen
How Seidenstricker and his team approach influencer marketing differently
Seidensticker’s school of thought when it comes to the power of product vs. marketing
The benefits of operating under the radar and having first-mover advantage
How Vital Proteins educated consumers and drove the market for collagen
Why Seidensticker recommends going online before retail, and how he gained negotiating leverage with retailers
Details about Vital Proteins’ partial acquisition by Nestlé
Why Seidensticker believes in progress over perfection

Key Resources From Our Interview With Kurt Seidensticker

Visit the Vital Proteins website
Find Seidensticker on LinkedIn

323: How To Take A Profit-First Mindset During A Pandemic, According to Mike Michalowicz Sep 08, 2020

Mike Michalowicz, Author & Co-Founder, Profit First Professionals

Right now, every entrepreneur has the same question on their mind: how do I recover or maintain my company’s profit levels during Covid-19?

That’s why we were so eager to sit down with Mike Michalowicz, who is a serial entrepreneur, author, and creator of the Profit First system. Our own CEO and founder, Nathan, used Michalowicz’s teachings to completely change the way he manages Foundr’s finances. And now we want to bring you the same level of knowledge to help you through these challenging times.

In this conversation, Michalowicz shares his best recommendations on how to manage your cash flow, financial priorities, and more during a pandemic. If you have any questions on how to take a profit-first mindset right now, this episode is for you.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

What Michalowicz learned from building and selling his first two businesses
How going into bankruptcy changed the way that Michalowicz views entrepreneurship
Michalowicz’s path to becoming a small business author, and how running two of his own companies contributes to his books
What’s happening during “The Great Big Shift”
How to manage cash flow during the pandemic
The difference between sales issues vs. profit issues
Michalowicz’s tips to organize your financial priorities during Covid-19
Why Michalowicz recommends pulling off the bandaid instead of chipping away when it comes to tough decisions
An overview of the Profit First methodology and framework
Parkinson’s Law, and how it applies to toothpaste
Why Michalowicz recommends trusting wallets over words

Key Resources From Our Interview With Mike Michalowicz

Visit Michalowicz’s website

322: The Rise Of Messenger Marketing, With ManyChat Co-Founder and CEO Mikael Yan Sep 01, 2020

Mikael Yan, Co-Founder and CEO, ManyChat

When Mikael Yan launched ManyChat in 2015, other messaging apps were trying to impress investors with their fancy AI and NLP technologies. But not him. Instead, he made it clear to investors that his app was solely meant to solve a business problem: helping companies better communicate with and market to their customers.

Investors who were initially interested in ManyChat immediately lost interest. But not for long. Even though Yan and his founding team initially had to bootstrap their product, investors eventually recognized the potential behind their vision and got on board.

Today, ManyChat has over one million Facebook pages connected to its platform in over 190 countries. The company also recently raised its Series A from Bessemer Venture Partners. Given that 2020 is the first time in history that the number of messaging app users will surpass the number of social media users, it’s clear that ManyChat is just getting started.

Listen to this interview to learn more about Yan’s thoughts on the future of messenger marketing, the global mobile industry, and the importance of mindset as an entrepreneur.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Why Yan, after years of dabbling in the consumer space, turned his eyes to B2B
How ManyChat made timely use of Telegram Messenger’s API in 2015 and introduced the world of messenger marketing
The rise of private vs. public channels
Yan’s analysis on why China is so ahead when it comes to mobile and messaging apps
Why Yan believes in being product obsessed and understanding the customer experience above everything else
How Yan avoided the trap of building a product for the “cool” factor (and initially lost investor interest as a result)
The power of self belief in entrepreneurship, and how to cultivate this mindset
Yan’s personal glass ceiling
A look into the future of ManyChat and what Yan is most excited about when it comes to the messenger app industry

Key Resources From Our Interview With Mikael Yan

Visit the ManyChat website
Follow Yan on Instagram

321: Birchbox’s Katia Beauchamp On Scaling Relationships, Building Trust, And More Aug 25, 2020

In 2010, only 2% of beauty products were being sold on the internet. When Katia Beauchamp and her Harvard Business School classmate, Hayley Barna, came across this statistic, they were floored. This seemed like a huge missed opportunity—so they decided to dig deeper.

What they discovered was that people were overwhelmed by the prospect of shopping for beauty products. With this problem in mind, Birchbox was created as the simple solution. The monthly subscription box contained a wide variety of beauty samples, and customers could buy the full size of whichever product they liked. In short, Birchbox made the beauty shopping experience easy for the casual consumer.

Since the brand’s launch in 2010, Birchbox has grown to a nine-figure business that now has access to thousands of products, offers over 100 types of boxes for consumers, and has expanded globally. Listen to this podcast episode to learn more about Beauchamp’s thoughts on scaling relationships, building a trustworthy brand, and appealing to your target customer.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Why people weren’t shopping for beauty products online in the mid-2000s
How this problem inspired Beauchamp and co-founder Hayley Barna to launch their beauty subscription box, Birchbox
The idea of the “casual consumer” and how this demographic became Birchbox’s target customer
Why Beauchamp doesn’t view beauty stores like Sephora or department stores as competitors
How Birchbox launched its beta test in 2010, and what it took to grow its customer base
Beauchamp’s thoughts on scaling relationships and building a trustworthy brand
What Beauchamp is most excited about when it comes to the future of Birchbox

320: Why Hinge’s Justin McLeod Decided To Rebuild His Dating App From The Ground Up Aug 18, 2020

It’s not easy to rebuild an entire company—especially when things are going well. But that’s exactly what Justin McLeod did with his dating app, Hinge.

After Hinge first launched in 2012, it saw exponential growth. Despite this, McLeod made the risky decision to rebuild his app from scratch in 2016. Why? He felt that the company had strayed too from its original vision or helping people find and build meaningful connections. So instead of remaining the brand that connects “friends with friends,” it rebranded to become “the dating app designed to be deleted.”

McLeod’s decision paid off. Today, Hinge is a subsidiary under Match.com, has seen huge growth on a global scale, and is setting up a date every three seconds globally. In this podcast episode, McLeod shares exactly what it took to get through this challenging transition and what’s in store for this beloved dating app in the near future.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

McLeod’s own love story, and how it inspired the idea behind Hinge
Why, after years of success, McLeod decided to rebuild his dating app from scratch
The reaction of Hinge’s board of directors and team in response to this change
How Hinge fulfills its mission of getting more people out on great dates
The type of data that Hinge collects to set itself apart from competitors
The power of word-of-mouth when it came to Hinge’s growth
What McLeod thinks are the mistakes he made while building Hinge for the first time (and how he fixed them the second time around)
Why McLeod decided to join forces with Match.com, and how this decision has helped the business scale globally
The type of research that’s happening at Hinge Labs
McLeod’s approach to user testing and product development with Hinge
Why McLeod recommends being firm about your vision but flexible about your tactics

319: Chase Dimond Teaches You How To Crisis-Proof Your Email Marketing Strategy Aug 11, 2020

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools that brands can leverage during the pandemic. With face-to-face interactions still being limited and people spending most of their time at home, there has never been a better time to hit ‘send’ on those email campaigns and flows.

To help guide you in the right direction, we sat down with Chase Dimond to get his best recommendations on how to crisis-proof your email marketing strategy. Why Dimond? Not only is he the co-founder of Boundless Labs, an email marketing agency that was recently acquired by Structured Social, but he has also helped his clients make over $40 million in email attributable revenue during his career.

In our conversation, Dimond shares specific examples of the most successful email messaging, campaigns, and flows that his clients have used during Covid-19. He also reveals fascinating data on the email marketing trends he’s noticed since the start of the pandemic. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just getting started on your email marketing journey, you’re sure to learn something valuable in this interview.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Dimond’s agency merge with Structured Social
How Dimond is thinking about Covid-19 from a business perspective
Examples of email messaging to use during the pandemic
Why Dimond is staying away from fear mongering and focusing on adding value
The difference between email campaigns and email flows
Which categories of email campaigns are working well for Dimond’s clients
The importance of creating an email marketing calendar
Why Dimond recommends splitting your time between campaigns and flows
Examples of successful email campaigns Dimond’s clients have run in the past
Dimond’s thoughts on giveaways
What Structured Social’s data is showing when it comes to open rates, mobile traffic, and the impact of stimulus checks on email marketing
Dimond’s recommendations on getting emails prepared for the summer

318: Global SaaS Powerhouse ActiveCampaign CEO Jason VandeBoom Talks About the Importance of Following Your Instincts Aug 05, 2020

Founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign Jason Vandeboom sits down with Foundr’s Nathan Chan to discuss his journey from launching a small part-time business to running a global SaaS empire.

An email marketing, marketing-automation, and sales CRM platform, Jason owes the company’s success to its “customer first” approach and mindful framework.

By throwing out the “product-first SaaS playbook” to a more customer-centric model, ActiveCampaign has evolved from an old-school on-premise contact management company to over 90,000 customers in 161 countries.

Jason doesn’t believe in a time-box window for creation, and he discusses his belief that you can create innovation over time. He says that when it comes to building a business that is sustainable and long-term, you have to start with the right framework.

With many small businesses facing uncertainty due to Covid-19, ActiveCampaign has made it their mission to provide support and security for their customers. Jason discusses how “there’s a former digital transformation that […] has become a necessity.” Above all, business is about trusting your instincts and trying to find a path that is a different shape to others.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email.

Key Takeaways

Jason discusses his belief in the importance of staying true to being a small business
How ActiveCampaign found its footing as an on-premise contact management businesses
Why Jason believes the key to a successful business is customer-first over product-first, and how this can shape creative innovation
How ActiveCampaign slowly built its foundations in order to secure 100k paying-active companies and over $100 million in annual recurring revenue
Why you should ignore the typical SaaS playbook that insists that in order to obtain growth you will need to upmarket
Jason advises that you should always trust your instincts, and allow time for your company to grow. You only need passion, joy, and the strength to find our way through it all.

317: Rich20Something’s Daniel DiPiazza On Why You Need To Start A Side Hustle Jul 28, 2020

From working as a server at Longhorn Steakhouse, to multiple successful startups, making millions in his 20s, to publishing a best selling book, Daniel DiPiazza knows the entrepreneur's journey like the back of his hand. Here to discuss his upcoming "Start Your Side Hustle" course with Foundr, Daniel is all too familiar with the challenges and doubts faced by today's hustlers, and is here to teach you ways to overcome them.

If you want to start a business but don't know where to begin, a low-risk side hustle by freelancing with your existing skills really is the gateway to entrepreneurship. It's extremely affordable with almost literally zero startup cost. In return, you can expect to make great profits with little to no overheads.

Daniel has done this multiple times and has a unique method for helping you identify your skills, find clients, and getting them to pay you for your service.

If there's any other type of content you'd like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don't hesitate to reach out to us via email.

Key Takeaways

Daniel discusses his first viral article: Hacking E-Lance, the infamous "butterball story," and how he dominated a job board website
Taking the first step towards starting your own business with "sweat equity"
Why service-based businesses are the gateway drug to entrepreneurship
Why freelancing teaches you all the business essentials
Taking the first step; how not to be afraid, what to focus on, and what the competition means for you
The importance of building a skill inventory, defining your skill, and seeing where they align
Gaining confidence in becoming an entrepreneur and why you don't have to be the best in the world at what you do
The fastest way for you to get paid for your big idea

316: Legendary Investor Ben Horowitz Talks Moving Culture, Enforcing Values, And His Favorite Rap Album Jul 21, 2020

Ben Horowitz is one of the most widely recognized names in the world of entrepreneurship. Not only is he the co-founder of the famous venture capital fund, Andreessen Horowitz, but he's also a respected author and thinker with some of the most innovative ideas when it comes to the way companies are run.

In our conversation with Horowitz, we dive deep into the topic of culture—how to create it, move it, and adhere to it. Horowitz also gives us a glimpse into his book, What You Do Is Who You Are, and shares fascinating stories and case studies from it (such as his learnings from prison gang leader, Shaka Senghor).

This isn't a podcast episode you want to miss! Whether you're a fan of Horowitz himself or simply want to learn more about the art of crafting a company culture, you're sure to gain tons of insights in this interview.

If there's any other type of content you'd like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don't hesitate to reach out to us via email.

Key Takeaways

The problem that Andreessen Horowitz set out to solve for technical founders
What compelled Horowitz to publish his book, What You Do Is Who You Are
What it takes to move a culture
The importance of cohesion between culture and strategy
Why you don’t need to establish your company culture on Day 1
What a prison gang leader taught Horowitz about culture and leadership
The creative way that Andreessen Horowitz enforces their value to be respectful to entrepreneurs at the firm
Horowitz’s thoughts on the culture of Netflix versus McDonald’s
The elements that go into creating a high-performance culture
Differentiating between high performance versus long hours
Why Horowitz looks for courage in founders
Bonus: Horowitz shares his favorite rap album from 2019

315: From Elaborate Events to a Major Ski Resort: How the Summit Brand Expanded Into A Global Empire Jul 14, 2020

In 2008, Jeff Rosenthal and his co-founders Elliott Bisnow and Brett Leve convinced 19 people they admired to go on a ski trip with them to Park City, Utah. They wanted to spend one-on-one time with this small group of thought leaders to learn from them and glean some knowledge.

Little did they know that this was only the beginning of their long and successful entrepreneurial journey. What started off as a small event production company has morphed into a global behemoth that includes everything from nonprofits to funds to a major ski resort that all fall under the Summit brand.

While the company is still primarily known for its famous invitation-only events, its biggest impact is its tight-knit community of innovative, creative individuals from around the world.

In this podcast episode, Rosenthal talks about Summit’s explosive growth, what it takes to host a truly extraordinary event, and more entrepreneurial gold.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

What inspired Rosenthal and his co-founders to start their event production company Summit in 2008
How Summit expanded into a family of companies, nonprofits, and funds over the last 12 years
What makes a spectacular event, according to Rosenthal
Why Rosenthal believes “keep it real” is terrible advice when it comes to events, and what he recommends instead
The importance of leadership when it comes to event planning
The correlation between creativity and capital
How Rosenthal manages to lead the multiple entities under Summit
The best advice on delegation Rosenthal received from his mentor
Why profitability isn’t the only measure of an event’s success
What it takes to attract top-notch speakers (and how to set them up for success)
The way Rosenthal approaches balancing quality of experience and scaling

314: From Stay-At-Home Mom to an $845M Acquisition: How Drunk Elephant’s Tiffany Masterson Made The Leap Jul 07, 2020

When Tiffany Masterson was a stay-at-home mom, she was always looking for ways to make a little extra money. So when the opportunity came around to start selling a brand of bar cleanser as a side hustle, she didn’t think much of it.

Little did she know that she would soon develop a passion for skincare, cultivate her own philosophy around what skincare should look like, and launch Drunk Elephant—a brand that was eventually sold to Shiseido in 2019 for a whopping $845 million.

In this podcast episode, Masterson takes us through her unexpected journey as an entrepreneur—from having her brother-in-law as her first investor to snagging a partnership with Sephora, to building an incredible company culture.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

How Masterson, a stay-at-home mom of four children, started selling bar cleanser as a side hustle
Why she developed a fascination with the world of skincare
Masterson’s skincare philosophy, and how she started to create her dream product on paper
What it was like to have her brother-in-law as her first investor
Why Masterson kept the launch of Drunk Elephant in 2013 as minimal as possible
How Drunk Elephant caught the eye of Sephora
The cost of formulating, producing, and packaging 5,000 units of six products
The tough financial conversations Masterson had to have
Why Masterson chose to take things day-by-day instead of looking too far into the future
The biggest trap Masterson believes most founders fall into
How Masterson has kept her turnover rate at less than 2% since 2013
The reason why people get excited about the Drunk Elephant brand
Why Masterson doesn’t believe in trying to “outcompete” other brands

313: Surviving a Failing Startup and Thriving in the Midst of Crisis, With Rippling Founder Parker Conrad Jun 30, 2020

Parker Conrad is no stranger to hard times.

His first startup, Wikinvest, failed to take off during the seven years he was with the company. He then had a falling out with his co-founder, which caused him to leave and start over. Conrad’s next venture, Zenefits, faced scrutiny while he served as the CEO. And now, his current company Rippling is feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Conrad’s strength has always been approaching problems with a realistic and humble attitude. Despite the fact that Rippling’s existing customer base has shrunk since the pandemic hit, the company's top-of-funnel performance hasn’t been impacted. They’re setting up record numbers of demos and doubling down on product investment. Most importantly, Conrad is being strategic about finances and still has three years of runway left.

In this podcast episode, Conrad shares his most honest thoughts on the challenges of Covid-19, what he’s been doing to get through this transition, and what he thinks other struggling founders should do.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Conrad’s most challenging chapter as an entrepreneur of a failing startup, and why he chose to stay for seven years
The pain point that inspired the idea for Zenefits
How Rippling provides an employee system that goes beyond HR
How the pandemic impacted Rippling’s existing customer base
Why Conrad is focused on burn, and what he’s doing to maintain runway
The importance of acknowledging what’s not working while also looking toward a more promising future
Why Conrad hates working from home, and how he got through the difficult transition
Conrad’s unpopular advice for struggling founders

312: How HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah Challenged The Cold Call And Introduced An Entirely New Approach To Marketing Jun 23, 2020

It’s not every day that an entrepreneur creates an entirely new industry category and a nine-figure company at the same time. But that’s exactly what Dharmesh Shah did when he started HubSpot.

Before the company launched in 2006, marketing relied solely on outbound tactics such as cold calling, purchasing billboards, and buying email lists. Shah and his co-founder Brian Halligan saw an opportunity to completely change the game. Together, they founded the concept of inbound marketing, which is all about creating value for your audience to draw them into your company.

Since then, HubSpot has quickly become the most respected and recognized brand within the marketing world—known not only for being the inventor and category king of inbound marketing, but also for adopting an incredible company culture. In this interview, Shah touches on all these topics and shares his biggest takeaways from serving as the co-founder and CTO of HubSpot.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

How Shah and his co-founder Brian Halligan simultaneously came up with the idea for HubSpot and an entirely new category of marketing
The biggest challenges of inbound marketing in the early days
Why Shah decided not to trademark the term “inbound,” and how this decision helped the inbound marketing movement flourish
The history behind HubSpot’s famous 128-slide Culture Code deck
Shah’s tips for keeping culture consistent across a decentralized team
Why Shah recommends approaching your company culture as a product
What Shah and his team do to make sure their customers and employees stay happy
How a maniacal obsession with your craft will help you find success

311: How InCountry’s Peter Yared Turns Ideas Into Companies That Sell For Millions Jun 22, 2020

Peter Yared has a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur. Not only has he built and sold six different B2B enterprise companies (making more than $500 million in exits), but he’s also lived through three different recessions and managed to stay afloat through them all.

In this conversation with our CEO Nathan Chan, Yared dives deep into the world of software businesses and takes us through his process of coming up with an idea, turning it into a company, and successfully selling it. He also explains the most important lessons from the three previous recessions he’s lived through, as well as what he’s learned during the current pandemic.

Whether you’re an engineer who wants to step into the world of entrepreneurship or a business owner who is struggling with the impact of Covid-19, this episode is jam-packed with helpful knowledge!

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

How Yared initially fell in love with programming
Yared’s journey to building and selling six B2B enterprise companies
Why software businesses usually end up being bought out
An overview of Yared’s most successful exits
How Yared decides when to turn an idea into an actual company (and why he prefers to call them “projects”)
The importance of being part of trends
Why Yared’s last five projects started off self-funded
Yared’s best advice for engineers
The idea of push vs. pull selling
Why Yared doesn’t believe the superior product always wins
How to use an engineering perspective to successfully go to market
How Yared managed the impact of Covid-19 for his global company
Yared’s best advice based on his experience with multiple recessions, and how the current pandemic compares

310: How To Convert Your Passion Into A Profitable Online Course, With Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal Jun 16, 2020

What does it take to create, market, and sell a profitable online course?

This question is likely on the minds of many people⁠, especially now that the pandemic is pushing people to turn to online courses as a way to level up their skill sets. Ankur Nagpal has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to this topic, from running his startup Teachable for the past six years to growing his online course platform to host 50,000 creators and reaching over 30 million people since its launch.

Nagpal shares insights on everything from how to create a full-time income from an online course to best practices to follow as a beginner course creator. He also predicts what the future of the online course industry looks like.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

How Nagpal got started with Teachable, the startup that converts passions into online courses
The three factors that are contributing to the growth of the online course market
How the pandemic has impacted Teachable
What it takes to create a full-time income from an online course business
The importance of an NPS, and how it distinguishes the top 1% of courses
Nagpal’s best practices for online course creation, especially for first-timers
Strategies to drive more sales
How to overcome limiting self beliefs
Nagpal’s best advice when it comes to niches, tools, and list building
A look into the future of the online course industry
What Teachable’s recent acquisition means for the future of the business

309: Mighty Networks Founder is Fueling the Passion Economy by Creating Opportunities for Online Course Creators Jun 10, 2020

Gina Bianchini has always loved working with creators. That’s why she co-founded Ning, an online platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks, with Marc Andreessen in 2005. Even after leaving Ning, she couldn’t stay away from the world of creators for long so she launched Mighty Networks in 2017.

Since then, the team at Mighty Networks has been obsessed with serving “creators with a purpose.” The platform powers brands and businesses that bring people together via online courses, paid memberships, events, content, and community.

In this podcast episode, Bianchini explains why she’s so passionate about providing more opportunities for creators. She also shares her best recommendations when it comes to creating successful online courses and communities, and how her team at Mighty Networks approaches these goals within their own platform.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Why Bianchini has always loved working with creators
A brief history of Bianchini’s first company, Ning, and why she left in 2010
The three pillars that inspired the idea for Mighty Networks
Why Bianchini believes in the power of small communities
The reason why creators want to get away from Facebook Groups, and why it’s beneficial to encourage this migration
The story of why Bianchini launched her own online course, and why it’s the best thing she’s ever done
What makes a successful course
The most important things to know about community building in 2020

308: How Henrik Werdelin Built a 9-Figure Subscription Box Business for Dogs Jun 09, 2020

Henrik Werdelin has never been about chasing money, power, or fame. Instead, his focus has always been on creating cool things with people he enjoys being around. That’s exactly how BarkBox, now one of many subsidiaries under BARK, came to be.

Despite Werdelin’s non-material approach to BARK, the dog subscription box company has exploded in popularity since its launch in 2012. Today, it boasts hundreds of thousands of subscribers and it is a nine-figure business.

In our conversation, Werdelin shares the most important learnings he’s collected as an entrepreneur—from finding the right funding option for your business to maintaining the right headspace during challenging times. Werdelin also gives us a glimpse into BARK’s incredible company culture and how he managed to build a quirky, kind, and smart team of people to pave the path for the organization. As a bonus, we also get a sneak peek into Werdelin’s book, “The Acorn Method” to understand how companies can grow in an ever-changing environment.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

Why Werdelin and his co-founders decided to start creating cool stuff for dogs in 2012
The funny story of how Werdelin met one of his co-founders in a heart-shaped bed on a cruise ship
What the pet industry was like when BarkBox first entered the market
Werdelin’s advice on finding the right funding option for your business
How BARK has dealt with the pandemic, and why the pet industry is recession proof
The importance of staying in a good headspace during tough times
How Werdelin and his co-founders approach leadership and decision-making
Why BARK is an inside-out brand, and what that means
A sneak peek into Werdelin’s new book, “The Acorn Method” and the advice it shares on how companies can continue growing during uncertain times
Werdelin’s best advice for entrepreneurs who are struggling during the pandemic

307: Basecamp’s David Heinemeier Hansson On What A Productive Workplace Should Look Like Jun 02, 2020

As we start thinking about re-opening our businesses and offices after Covid-19, many people are wondering what the new “normal” will look like.

While co-founder of Basecamp David Heinemeier Hansson doesn’t know for sure what the outcome will be, he certainly has an idea of what the new world of work should look like. As one of the biggest advocates of remote work, Hansson is hopeful that more and more companies will see the benefits of allowing employees to choose how and where they want to work.

But his vision for work doesn’t stop there. Hansson is also passionate about creating an environment where employees can protect at least a few hours of their day to accomplish deep work. This means no daily stand ups, no open calendars, and no unnecessary distractions that take away from your ability to get s*** done—an approach that’s imbued in Basecamp’s own culture.

If you’re fascinated by the topics of remote work and productivity, you don’t want to miss out on this conversation with Hansson.

If there’s any other content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

The email from Hansson to Jason Fried that eventually led to the birth of Basecamp
Why it’s difficult to tell what the new “normal” for work will be after Covid-19
A look at the most common misconceptions about remote work, and how the pandemic has proven them to be false
Why Hansson believes we need to focus less on the number of hours we work and more on the quality of those hours
The reason why Basecamp isn’t renewing the lease for its Chicago office
Why Hansson doesn’t believe in daily stand ups and open calendars
How to maximize deep work
Why Basecamp’s approach to work is less about productivity, and more about human health and happiness
A sneak peek into Hansson’s upcoming project, HEY
Why the phrase ASAP is overused
What Hansson’s schedule looks like on most days

306: From Myspace To Jam City: Chris DeWolfe Breaks Down His 25 Years Of Experience As An Entrepreneur May 26, 2020

Chris DeWolfe excels at creating massive user bases—a skill he has demonstrated with two companies you’ll likely recognize: Myspace and Jam City.

After DeWolfe launched the biggest social network of its time in 2003, it was only a matter of months before Myspace completely took off and attracted millions of users around the world. Only two years after the start of his company, DeWolfe sold the platform for $580 million. But he wasn’t done yet.

When DeWolfe asked himself ‘what’s next?’ he found himself drawn to the world of gaming. Not only was it easy to scale, but he also believed the current trends pointed toward an explosion in gaming. He wasn’t wrong. Today, Jam City is known for famous mobile games like Cookie Jam and Pop! and Panda, and it’s still going strong to keep up with the growing demand of casual gamers.

In this interview, DeWolfe discusses the hyper growth of his companies, how to stay focused when running such a behemoth of a company, and what it takes to build massive user bases.

If there’s any other content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

How DeWolfe built the largest website in the world and the biggest social network of its time, Myspace
The trends in pop culture and technology that led to the launch of Myspace in 2003
A look into the rapid growth and eventual sale of Myspace in 2005 for $580 million
How Myspace created a roadmap for companies like Spotify and YouTube
The top three lessons DeWolfe learned from his journey with Myspace
How DeWolfe figured out his next step into the world of mobile gaming
Why Jam City targets an underserved audience for gamers
The acquisition of Mindjolt
How to be a great storyteller and create amazing games
What’s exciting for DeWolfe in the future of the mobile gaming business
What it takes to build large user bases
Why DeWolfe recommends taking measured risks in the pursuit of innovation
A sneak peek into Jam City’s latest upcoming mobile game

305: Dropbox’s Drew Houston on Continuous Learning, Decision Making, and Fixing the Way We Work May 19, 2020

By now, the story is legend. When Drew Houston boarded a bus from Boston to New York and discovered that he had—yet again—forgotten to bring his thumb drive, he was frustrated. So frustrated that he sat down and began writing the first lines of code of what would eventually become Dropbox.

After over a decade of changing the way files are stored, synced, and shared, Houston is changing the way people work, once again. This time, to solve a problem that likely plagues every single knowledge worker today: our fragmented, overcomplicated workspaces.

In this episode, you’ll learn more about Houston’s journey—from ideation to launch—with Dropbox Spaces, as well as the most important lessons he’s collected while building a multibillion-dollar company with over 500 million users.

Key Takeaways

The relatable experience that inspired Houston to come up with the idea for Dropbox
Why Houston doesn’t believe there’s any “magic” involved in building a multibillion-dollar company
The importance of decision making and learning continuously on the job
How a conversation with a SpaceX engineer sparked the vision behind Dropbox Spaces
Houston’s advice on “harvesting” versus “planting” when it comes to your business
Why Houston is such a huge believer in intentionally designing your environment—at work and with your personal relationships

304: Alex Osterwalder On Why Products, Technology, And Price Aren’t Enough To Keep Your Company Competitive May 19, 2020

Alex Osterwalder is primarily known for developing the Business Model Canvas, a template that helps startups develop and document new or existing business models.

In this interview, Osterwalder shares his best insights into the world of business models—ideas that are especially applicable now as entrepreneurs try to launch businesses during Covid-19. He explains why products, technology, and price alone aren’t enough to keep your company competitive. Osterwalder also breaks down the innovative models that Apple, Netflix, and Nintendo have used to become industry leaders (and why even these behemoths aren’t safe from disruption).

We also get a sneak peek into Osterwalder’s latest book called “The Invincible Company.” Not only does it contain an entire library of business models for companies of all sizes, but it also provides guidance on how startups can continuously reinvent themselves to stay ahead of the curve.

If there’s any other content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

Key Takeaways

How Osterwalder came to study business models in graduate school
Insight into Osterwalder’s latest book, “The Invincible Company”
Why companies can’t compete on products, technology, and price alone (and why your business model can provide the ultimate competitive edge)
The scalability of business models
Why companies need to transcend industry boundaries
The reason why Osterwalder urges entrepreneurs to test before they build
How Apple, Netflix, and Nintendo are prime case studies of innovative business models in action—but why even they’re not safe from disruption
Osterwalder’s stance on the “magic bullet” when it comes to business models (hint: there isn’t one)

303: Ballsy’s Adam Hendle Talks Community Engagement, Customer Acquisition, And Leaning Into The Pandemic May 12, 2020

Adam Hendle’s company, Ballsy, is eye-catching and humorous, which are some of the most defining characteristics of the brand.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t take his business seriously. On the contrary, Hendle is obsessed with producing the highest quality products and finding creative ways to take his company to the next level. This is exactly how he brought in over $10 million in sales in just two years. And now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he is still finding opportunities to grow.

In this podcast episode, Hendle discusses his unique approach to everything from community engagement to customer acquisition. He also opens up about his most challenging moments in business and explains how he finds opportunities in unexpected times and places (such as during a pandemic). This is a conversation you don’t want to miss!

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com.

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Key Takeaways

What’s changed with Ballsy since the last time we talked to Hendle
An overview of Ballsy’s growth from a sales, marketing, and team perspective
How Covid-19 gave Hendle’s brand an opportunity for growth
The approach Hendle took to lean into customer demand for subscriptions and stocking up on products
How Ballsy stays engaged with its community in fun and creative ways
A deep dive into one of Ballsy’s most unique customer acquisition channels: podcast advertisements
Why it’s important to test your assumptions
Insight into some of the biggest business obstacles Hendle has had to face
Why Hendle has Ballsy’s influencers on a monthly retainer
The reason why product quality is paramount to the Ballsy brand

302: Serial Ecommerce Entrepreneur Rory Boyle On How He Survived (And Thrived) During The Pandemic May 11, 2020

All three of Rory Boyle’s ecommerce businesses were negatively impacted by Covid-19.

But thanks to his strategic—and insanely fast—pivot, two of his companies are now making double the revenue they were before and one (which historically made most of its money through conferences) is still pulling in around 50% of what it used to make.

How did Boyle recover so quickly from the pandemic? In this interview, we were lucky enough to get a detailed analysis around his thought process and strategic decisions. Boyle takes us through how he shifted his sales and marketing tactics (which still includes getting on the phone) and explains how he’s using this time as an opportunity to give back to his community and customers. He also shares tons of tips around scaling sales efforts, the art of cadence emails, and other tactics you can use to grow your revenue.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com to let us know.

If you need want some training on ecommerce, check out our Free Masterclasses:

Learn How You Can Start a Profitable Online Store (In 12 Weeks or Less)Discover the “5 Core Drivers” Behind Today’s Fastest-Growing 7-Figure Stores

Key Takeaways

The origin stories of Hampers With Bite, Promotions Warehouse, and Snacks With Bite
What Boyle means when he says to “control the controllables”
How COVID-19 impacted all 3 of Boyle’s businesses—and how he pivoted all of them at breakneck speed
The approach Boyle is taking to sales and marketing during the pandemic (and why his team is still hopping on the phone to talk to customers)
Why Boyle believes every ecommerce entrepreneur needs to be thinking about the next step instead of focusing on current performance
How Boyle is giving back to his community and customers
How he’s planning around stocking challenges, especially for the upcoming holidays
A super deep dive into Boyle’s best sales tactics and strategies
Why Boyle would encourage entrepreneurs to launch their business in today’s climate

301: 8-Figure Ecommerce Founder Reveals His Best Insights For Ecommerce Entrepreneurs Struggling Through Covid-19 May 05, 2020

Today, we’re excited to share another valuable interview to help you overcome business challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We had the opportunity to pick the brain of Ashwin Sokke, the founder of WOW Skin Science. His global 8-figure skincare and haircare business is extremely popular in India and across the U.S., and it has been a top-selling brand on Amazon for the last four years in those countries.

In this interview, Sokke shares how his company dealt with the impact of Covid-19 which shut down half of his business for several weeks. For businesses who are going through similar pains, he provides incredible insights across many topics—from how to communicate with customers (he believes we should be sending them more emails and texts during this time) to getting creative with your marketing tactics (remember giveaways?). Sokke even digs down into the nitty gritty and breaks down his thoughts on subscription models, ad investments, and SKUs.

We believe this conversation will be valuable for any entrepreneur to listen to, especially those with ecommerce businesses. If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com to let us know.

If you need want some training on ecommerce, check out our Free Masterclasses:

Learn How You Can Start a Profitable Online Store (In 12 Weeks or Less)Discover the “5 Core Drivers” Behind Today’s Fastest-Growing 7-Figure Stores

Key Takeaways

How Sokke got into the health and beauty space
The path to growing WOW Skin Science in India and the U.S. and becoming a top-selling brand on Amazon
Why Sokke develops all of his products from scratch
A glimpse into the company’s incredible numbers: 8-figure revenue and 370% growth in the U.S. last year
The impact that Covid-19 had on Sokke’s global company
Why Sokke believes companies should be sending more emails during this time (and how to be strategic about it)
Why giveaways have been a successful tactic during Covid-19
An overview on a winning stock keeping unit (SKU)
Sokke’s thoughts on how to win with subscription models
The best advice Sokke can offer to the community during Covid-19

300: [Special 300th Episode] Rich20Something’s Daniel DiPiazza And Foundr’s Nathan Chan Dive Deep Into the World of Instagram Apr 29, 2020

The latest installment of the Foundr podcast is a landmark—our 300th episode! So to mark the occasion, we’ve got something a little different for you today.

Daniel DiPiazza, the founder of Rich20Something, was on the cover of Foundr Magazine last year, and today, he returns to Foundr to “reverse interview” our own CEO, Nathan Chan, ahead of the relaunch of Foundr’s beloved Instagram Domination course.

Together, Nathan and Daniel share the details of how they each found success on Instagram for their respective brands. They also explore Instagram’s algorithms, how it compares to other social media platforms, and the right way to use this powerful tool during the Covid-19 pandemic. Plus, they swap stories about their friendly competition, their time in the “Motivation Mafia,” and more!

If you want to learn more about our remastered Instagram Domination course when it launches, sign up for the Free VIP waitlist here (Get a FREE Lesson!).

Key Takeaways

The reason for this special “reverse interview”
How Nathan and Daniel got started on Instagram and are still finding success with the platform today
Why Instagram is the most powerful tool for both personal branding and ecommerce
A glimpse into Instagram’s algorithms and metrics
Why Instagram needs to be about more than just follower numbers
How Instagram can be a powerful tool through the current pandemic
A throwback story about the “Motivation Mafia”
Why Nathan would still pick Instagram as his platform of choice if he were to start a new company today
A comparison of Instagram vs. YouTube
How Daniel’s Instagram account helped him seal a six-figure book deal
The question that stumped Nathan (and why he prefers to focus on the present)
Why Daniel owes Nathan a trip to San Sebastián

299: From $0 To $20M In 2 Years: How Happy Skin Co. Founder Dylan Mullan Went Viral Apr 21, 2020

Dylan Mullan took an extremely unconventional path to entrepreneurship.

While he was in school, Mullan was convinced he wanted to be a lawyer, until he started taking classes at university and realized that he hated them. After that, he spontaneously took an acting course and spent almost five years as an actor. It was eventually a desire to have more control over his life that led him and his business partner to launch Happy Skin Co together.

Through a mixture of hard work, strategic decisions, and a deep investment in understanding their target customer, Mullan managed to grow his at-home hair removal business from $0 to $20 million in just two years.

In this interview, Mullan maps out exactly what this path to explosive growth looked like. He breaks down his approach to everything from market research to Facebook ads and explains why mindset is ultimately an entrepreneur’s most valuable tool.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com to let us know.

Key Takeaways

The path from aspiring lawyer to aspiring actor, and how Mullan eventually wound up in the world of entrepreneurship
A look into Happy Skin Co’s early days, from long nights of planning to packaging products in Mullan’s living room with friends and family
The turning points that catapulted the company from $0 to $20 million in 2 years
How Mullan approached market research and influencer marketing in the early days
What the impact of Covid-19 has looked like for Mullan and his team, and the new opportunities it has opened up
Mullan’s best advice when it comes to creating profitable Facebook ads
An overview of the Happy Skin Co product development process and a sneak peek into what’s next
How to deal with industry copycats
Why Mullan is a huge advocate for visualization and believing in yourself

298: Serial Entrepreneur Josh Snow’s Approach to Influencers, Recurring Revenue, and Paid Ads During a Pandemic Apr 15, 2020

Josh Snow always finds ways to thrive in difficult situations.

Growing up, his family didn’t have a lot of money, and he wanted to help them cover basic expenses. So Snow taught himself how to create websites at his local library, which is how he stumbled into entrepreneurship. He eventually took that knowledge and built a software company from the ground up, which he sold by the age of 21.

Now Snow runs multiple successful businesses—with the most prominent one being his nine-figure teeth whitening business, Snow.

And he’s still finding ways to overcome adversity. Just as most businesses have been impacted by COVID-19, Snow also took a huge hit in terms of sales, with its conversion rates cut in half when the pandemic first emerged. However, by making fast, strategic changes, Snow got his company through the temporary setback and is today seeing higher-than-average sales on its site.

In this interview, Snow shares exactly how he made the necessary changes to his business. He also provides advice to other online businesses on how to get through this time by adjusting everything from your subscription model to your approach to influencer relations strategy.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com to let us know.

Key Takeaways

How Snow stumbled into entrepreneurship through necessity
The journey to selling his first software company at the age of 21
Why Snow believes adversity gives you the opportunity to pause and reprioritize
The inspiration behind Snow, and how it grew to be a nine-figure business
How the company has been affected by COVID-19, and the changes Snow made to help his business bounce back and make more sales than before the pandemic
Snow’s recommendations on how to adjust your subscription products, influencer relations, and paid ads strategy during this time
The importance of evolving and meeting your customer where they’re at
Why Snow believes you have to be an “everything” person if you want a successful business
Advice on using Shopify vs. funnels
The choice between hunting rabbits vs. elephants (metaphorically)

297: Steve Blank’s 3-Step Process to Help Businesses Cope With COVID-19 Apr 07, 2020

Steve Blank is a legend in Silicon Valley. In addition to launching eight startups in 21 years, he’s also a well-known author and educator at Stanford University, Columbia University, and the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Having worked in the realm of entrepreneurship for so long, Blank has survived some of the worst recessions in U.S. history and has first-hand experience of what it’s like to keep your business afloat under high-pressure circumstances—knowledge that’s directly applicable to the COVID-19 global health crisis.

In this interview, Blank shares his three-step process for what every business needs to do right now to survive the pandemic. He breaks down everything from calculating your burn rate to reassessing the way you work with your team. Blank also shares his own personal experiences with the 2008 recession and dot-com bubble.

If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com to let us know.

Key Takeaways

Why Blank believes today’s entrepreneurs should listen to the advice of seasoned founders
The three-step process Blank recommends to understand where your business is headed, from calculating finances to reassessing business models
The biggest lessons Blank learned during the 2008 recession and dot-com bubble
Why Blank believes in planning for the morning after
The importance of high-level execution during times like today
How to think about recalibrating in terms of retaining staff and hiring
The importance of setting expectations—whether in your marketing or management
Why this pandemic could be an opportunity to re-evaluate how you want to spend your life

296: How Invitation Homes CEO Dallas Tanner Scaled a Multibillion-Dollar Home Rental Company at Breakneck Speed Mar 31, 2020

CEO Dallas Tanner on the breakneck creation and growth of multibillion-dollar home rental company Invitation Homes.

Like a lot of successful businesses, Invitation Homes was a seemingly overnight hit that had been in the making for many years.

“We bought the first 30,000 homes in the first 18 months,” says CEO Dallas Tanner, of the single-family home rental company.

Based on that burst of early success, it might seem as though Tanner did the impossible—come up with a brilliant idea, instantly get buy-in from an investor, and reap immediate rewards.

But long before Invitation Homes launched in 2012, Tanner had already cut his teeth in the home rental business. During college, he bought a couple of houses with his dad and managed them while going to class. He later founded the Treehouse Group Companies, which focused on workforce housing in the Southwest.

So, when Tanner set out to start Invitation Homes, he did so with a large body of experience, knowledge, and accomplishments in his chosen field. That could have had something to do with the quick traction he got at Blackstone, his early capital partner and provider of funds for those 30,000 homes.

“High speed, low drag,” Tanner says of their initial goal. There was an intense focus on getting out there, scaling up, and achieving meaningful gain in as short a time as possible. Were they worried, though, that the swift pace might blind them to any turbulence ahead?

“If you’re building an airplane while flying it, there’s always a risk that you may miss a step. We were lucky to have no major issues and that’s because we were comfortable in the area we were building. We knew it and understood it.”

That early work and knowledge of the industry paid off. In 2017, Invitation Homes went public with an initial share price of $20. Two years later, it hovers between $29-30 per share, a 48% increase. Blackstone sold its remaining shares (11%) of the company in November 2019 for $1.7 billion, bringing Blackstone’s total profit from IH to $7 billion.

“As we think about our business, we’ve gotten more and more efficient here in year seven,” he says. “We’re focused on the kinds of things that deliver a really good customer experience but make us as optimized as possible.”

For example, the inaugural days of the business found technicians switching out locks each time a home got a new resident. New tech eventually provided the option of electronic entry, which Invitation incorporated into its homes. Now, when a resident moves out and a new one moves in, only the code needs to be changed. This made the move-in experience that much smoother for new residents and saved time for the team.

Remember, though, that the quest for good systems shouldn’t overwhelm everything. “You’ve got to spend your time being as efficient as possible, but driving growth at the same time,” Tanner says. “It’s always a balancing act.”

He acknowledges that it also takes some luck and good timing. “But, the only way those things go your way is if you’re head down and going hard.”

Interview by Nathan Chan, feature article reprinted from Foundr Magazine, by Rebeca Seitz

295: How 12RND Fitness Founder Tim West Beat His Competitors to the Punch Mar 25, 2020

Believe it or not, there are many parallels between the world of boxing and the world of entrepreneurship. Tim West is familiar with both.

As the founder of the fastest-growing global boxing franchise, 12RND Fitness, West has had his feet squarely planted in both realms for many years.

He started his journey working in brick-and-mortar fitness centers before jumping into tech entrepreneurship, and eventually launched 12RND Fitness in 2014, which quickly exploded across Australia and is now expanding globally. In fact, West is in the process of opening up their first locations in New Zealand, Singapore, London, and Los Angeles this year.

In this interview, West dives deep into his thoughts on the franchising model, his biggest lessons from working in tech, and his approach to overcoming obstacles. Check out the full conversation below!

Key Takeaways

How West worked his way up the rungs of the fitness ladder—from aspiring professional athlete to strength and conditioning coach
Why he jumped at the opportunity to open up one of the first franchises for Jetts Fitness, the first 24-hour gym in Australia
West’s first foray into tech, and the most important lessons he picked up along the way
Why West decided to return to brick-and-mortar fitness, and how he came up with the MVP for 12RND Fitness
How West pressure-tested his business model across Australia
The reason West tested his business for two whole years before opening up to franchisees
A sneak peek into West’s data-driven approach to working with franchisees
Why West is grateful for his struggles

294: Responding to COVID-19: What Entrepreneurs Should Be Doing Right Now Mar 21, 2020

As a founder, you’re likely feeling a lot of stress and anxiety around the current situation with COVID-19. While we hope your business isn’t being too heavily impacted, we want to let you know that we’re always here for you and want to help in any way we can.

We’ve been mulling over how we could be the most useful to the Foundr community and decided it would be incredibly valuable to sit down and talk to Steve McLeod. McLeod is uniquely equipped to share advice about the current circumstances for many reasons: he’s a business coach that has guided thousands of organizations through challenging situations (including Foundr); he founded his own company called Fire And Safety, which is now a $20 million business; and he’s a former firefighter who dealt with many disasters during his eight-year tenure.

In this interview, we touch on many topics—from managing cash flow reserves to communicating with customers to adjusting your mindset—that we hope you’ll find helpful as we navigate this unfamiliar territory together. Whether you’re getting ready to launch a new business or are already running a seven-figure company, the contents of this interview should be applicable for entrepreneurs at every stage.

If there’s any other type content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com to let us know.

Key Takeaways

How McLeod’s background as a firefighter, founder, and mentor is allowing him to guide businesses today through the COVID-19 pandemic
The importance of understanding where your business is today: positioned for growth or in survival mode?
Why you need to be transparent with your teams, regardless of your current situation
McLeod’s advice: cut costs but don’t stop your sales and marketing efforts
Why you need to focus on your existing customers and how you can help them
How to keep your mindset clear during this stressful time
Why connection, discipline, and alignment are more critical than ever before
An overview of cash flow reserves, and how much you should have in the bank now
The reason why McLeod doesn’t believe it’s the right time for work-life balance
How to be a good leader in unprecedented circumstances
Why leaders need to be asking themselves the tough questions today more than ever
McLeod’s advice for businesses that are thinking about launching soon

291: X Prize Founder Peter Diamandis Talks About Creating a Blueprint For The Future Mar 03, 2020

When Peter Diamandis was a kid, there were two life-changing moments that shaped him into the person he is today: the launch of the Apollo space program and the release of Star Trek.

These two events inspired Diamandis’ love of space and taught him to always keep his eyes on the future. It’s no surprise then that Diamandis went on launch over 20 companies in the areas of space, longevity, venture capital, and education.

Diamandis has also dedicated himself to supporting others who make an impact on the world, which is why he founded the venture fund BOLD Capital Partners, the X Prize Foundation, and Singularity University—all organizations focused on promoting technologies that have the potential to improve society.

In this interview, he shares his thoughts on what it takes to build a sustainable business, his predictions for industries like education and healthcare, and what he’s most excited about in terms of future innovations. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss!

Key Takeaways

Why Diamandis ended up going to medical school, despite his love of space
How Diamandis carved out his own life path, which led to him starting 20+ companies in the areas of space, longevity, venture capital, and education
His predictions on which industries will transition from a scarcity to an abundance mindset
The golden rule Diamandis always follows whenever he prioritizes what to work on next
Why Diamandis believes a person’s mindset is the most valuable asset they own
The inspiration behind Diamandis’ latest book, The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives
What excites Diamandis most about the future, and why he feels optimistic about what’s to come

288: Catena Media’s Erik Bergman Talks IPOs, Affiliate Marketing, And Finding Meaning In Life Feb 12, 2020

Erik Bergman’s entrepreneurial journey started with trading hockey cards on the playground.

When Bergman realized that owning coveted sports memorabilia made him feel valued and won him friends, he became obsessed. As he got older, his focus eventually shifted from trading cards to making cash.

After a brief stint as a professional gambler, Bergman co-founded a website consultancy firm called Catena Media in 2012. The affiliate-based marketing company focused on the online gambling industry and eventually IPOd at €160 million.

Despite achieving the wealth Bergman had relentlessly chased since his youth, he was still unhappy. So he set out to learn the true path to fulfillment and eventually found deeper meaning in his life through charity work with his latest project, Great.com.

Check out this interview to learn more about Bergman’s journey to finding happiness and the most important lessons he learned along the way.

Key Takeaways

How trading hockey cards instilled a sense of entrepreneurship in Bergman from a young age
Bergman’s brief stint as a professional poker player
Why Bergman and his best friend Emil Thidell launched a gambling-focused website consultancy agency
From making side-hustle money to officially launching Catena Media
How strategic website acquisitions helped Catena Media skyrocket
The long and difficult road to IPO
Why Bergman found himself in a dark place, despite his newfound wealth
How Bergman became involved in charity work and discovered his “splash of color”
The inspiration behind Great.com

287: How July Founder Richard Li Grew His Luggage Company From $0 to $5 Million in 1 Year Feb 04, 2020

Richard Li puts customer service above all when it comes to his luggage company, July.

This unfaltering commitment is why he personally makes house calls to address complaints and why he recently hand-delivered packages after realizing that some customers wouldn’t receive the luggage they ordered in time for the holidays. But this high level of service is only a small piece of Li’s success story with July.

Li, who has previous entrepreneurial experience from his furniture company Brosa, has also figured out a “magic” formula for manufacturing, marketing, and selling physical products. He used this knowledge to grow July from $0 to $5 million in revenue in just a year. And now he’s looking forward to opening up additional retail stores, introducing more products, allowing for more luggage personalization, and expanding into international markets in 2020.

If you want to learn more about what it takes to launch and scale a business that revolves around a physical product, be sure to give our interview a listen!

Also be sure to check out our latest online course, Ecommerce Masters, where Richard Li is one of the five instructors teaching advanced ecommerce skills.

ATTENTION: We're excited to announce that Richard Li has partnered with Foundr to teach one of the modules in our course, Ecommerce Masters. Get on the Free VIP Waitlist to be notified when we open enrollment!

Get a FREE Lesson from Our Course: Ecommerce Masters! Learn the FASTEST Path to a Million-Dollar Store

Key Takeaways

The opportunity Li saw in Australia’s furniture market that led him to launch Brosa
Why he stepped back from Brosa after five years to focus completely on his new direct-to-consumer luggage company, July
An overview of July’s funding journey, go-to-market strategy, and first sale
The journey from $0 to $5 million in one year
How to find a manufacturer that can grow with your company
Why Li offers July customers a 100-day trial and lifetime warranty
The rules of product development that Li follows
Why Li decided to follow the direct-to-consumer trend of opening up a physical store
July’s four growth pillars for 2020
Li’s best advice for entrepreneurs building a business around a physical product

286: How Annex Products Co-Founder Rob Ward Used the Power of Prediction to Build a Multimillion-Dollar Company Jan 28, 2020

Rob Ward always seems to be one step ahead.

Before Kickstarter took off, Ward and his co-founder Chris Peters launched two successful campaigns on the platform, funding Opena and Quad Lock—the two products that led to the founding of Annex Products. Then Ward was early to the Shopify game, which he successfully used to sell his products for several years. Ward was also quick to see the potential of Facebook Ads and has used them to scale Annex to a multimillion-dollar business.

This ability to spot trends, paired with his finely-tuned approach to product development, has helped Ward find tremendous success as an entrepreneur. While Opena is no longer active, Quad Lock has become a leading device mount and accessory company, serving a wide variety of users—car commuters, motorcyclists, kayakers, even hang gliders. As a result, Quad Lock sells hundreds of thousands of units each year in over 100 countries.

We’re now thrilled to have Rob Ward as one of the five instructors of our latest online course, Ecommerce Masters, teaching advanced ecommerce strategies.

If you’re curious to learn more about Ward’s approach to trendspotting, product development, and more, we highly recommend you check out this episode!

ATTENTION: We’re excited to announce that Rob Ward has partnered with Foundr to teach one of the modules in our course, Ecommerce Masters. Get on the Free VIP Waitlist to be notified when we open enrollment!

Get a FREE Lesson from Our Course: Ecommerce Masters! Learn the FASTEST Path to a Million-Dollar Store

Key Takeaways

An overview of Ward’s prior entrepreneurial experiences with everything from laser machines to 3D printers, and how they helped him get to where he is today
How he and his co-founder, Chris Peters, founded Annex Products in 2012, building on two successful Kickstarter campaigns
Why the duo decided to eventually focus their resources on Quad Lock
How Ward stays on the cutting edge and predicts trends
Insight into Ward’s approach to the product development process—when to start thinking about the next product, the iterative process, and more
Why Ward isn’t too worried about Quad Lock copycats
Why Ward doesn’t believe in following other people’s blueprints for success
A sneak peek into the module Ward will be teaching for Ecommerce Masters

285: The Art of Mind-Blowing Open Rates, Email Flows, and Authentic Email Marketing, With Boundless Labs’ Chase Dimond Jan 22, 2020

At 27, Chase Dimond is already considered a marketing veteran. In addition to overseeing the marketing teams of various companies, Dimond has also founded many of his own ventures, such as Soundjuice and ZenPup.

His most recent company is Boundless Labs, an agency that focuses on email marketing for ecommerce—with a special focus on CBD companies. Thanks to its modern and human-centered approach to emails, Boundless Labs acquired 30 clients with six- to eight-figure revenues in a little over a year.

Dimond has also secured mind-blowing results for those clients, such as sending emails with 40% to 70% open rates (compared to the industry average of 20% to 25%) and helping companies generate 20% to 30% of their total revenue with emails.

If you’re looking to master the art of email marketing, this podcast episode with Dimond is a great place to start! He gives us a sneak peek into the best practices he uses with his own clients at Boundless Labs, along with other helpful insights.

Key Takeaways

How Dimond got his start in marketing, growth, and acquisitions
An overview of Dimond’s ventures, from CBD pet products to a social media platform for musicians
Why Dimond decided to launch his email marketing agency, Boundless Labs, and how he scaled from zero to 30 clients in a year
How design sets Boundless Labs apart from the rest
Dimond’s perspective on email marketing as a source of revenue for his clients
The importance of the human touch when it comes to customer retention and acquisition
How Dimond achieves a 40-70% open rate on customer thank-you emails

284: Mastering the Art of Paid Media: Spending Over $85M on Facebook, With Structured Social Co-Founder Nick Shackelford Jan 15, 2020

Nick Shackelford used to be a goalie for the American pro soccer team, LA Galaxy II. So how did he end up being an expert in the online ad space?

After leaving the soccer league at the end of 2015, Shackelford felt limited by his career options—either training people or playing in a low soccer division—and decided to take the road less traveled instead. He gained experience in paid social media through an internship at PepsiCo. and a stint at a digital marketing agency.

Shackelford used the knowledge he gained to start his own fidget spinner business called Fidgetly. This was where he further cemented his paid marketing know-how and also mastered the art of scaling quickly without breaking the bank. Even after the close of Fidgetly, Shackelford continues to put his knowledge to good use by helping brands through his online marketing, branding and consulting company, Structured Social.

Whether you’re looking to learn more about scaling, media buying, or paid advertisements, Shackelford is your guy. Make sure to check out his interview to take a deeper dive into these fascinating topics!

Key Takeaways

How Shackelford went from pro soccer player to intern at PepsiCo.
His experience working on paid social media campaigns for the iPhone 7, iPad Pro, and the Apple Watch
The rise of fidget spinners, and how this trend helped launch his own business Fidgetly
The discovery of Shackelford’s superpower: scaling via paid marketing
An overview of Shackelford’s work with various brands after closing Fidgetly
How he helped one company clear $10.7 million in sales in 35 days using online ads
Shackelford’s best advice for 6-figure businesses that want to accelerate growth
The traits of a good media buyer
A sneak peek from Shackelford intothe new Foundr course he’s teaching

281: Spartan Race’s Joe De Sena on Being in the Industry of Barbed Wire, Blood, and Bruises Dec 18, 2019

Joe De Sena, like many of us, is a fitness fanatic. But his approach to fitness is a bit more...intense than most.

De Sena used to participate in countless obstacle course races, Ironman events, and marathons around the world. But even those weren’t challenging enough for this hardcore athlete. That’s why, after wrapping up a decade-long career on Wall Street, De Sena decided to start his own adventure racing company.

The first race De Sena hosted was on the British Virgin Islands, and it didn’t go very smoothly. That race cost De Sena half a million dollars and resulted in a participant getting lost at sea for several days.

Thankfully, the races have evolved a bit since then—although are no less challenging—and are known today as the Death Race and Spartan Race, which are collectively a $60 million business that has revolutionized the world of obstacle racing.

Check out this interview to learn more about De Sena’s financial, mental, and physical journey to popularizing this global franchise.

Key Takeaways

De Sena’s decade-long stint on Wall Street, and how it helped fund his next venture
Why De Sena decided to start his own adventure racing company
How the very first race De Sena hosted on the British Virgin Islands went terribly wrong for one participant
The birth of Death Race and Spartan Race
Why De Sena never gave up on his company, despite losing $8 million in the process over a span of 15 years
How the network effect eventually helped the obstacle course races gain traction
The expansion of Death Race and Spartan Race to 45 countries
De Sena’s honest thoughts on work-life balance and what it takes to be an entrepreneur
A sneak peek into his latest book, The Spartan Way

280: From Online Poker Affiliate to Referral Marketing Mogul: Ambassador’s Jeff Epstein Shares His Journey Dec 10, 2019

Jeff Epstein paid off his law school student loans in an unconventional way.

When he and a couple of friends noticed the booming online poker sites in the mid 2000s, they created an affiliate company to refer traffic to them and get paid in return. The business did well enough that Epstein was able to sell his stake to his partners for a nice profit that helped him pay off his debt.

Epstein ultimately decided not to pursue law, but his entrepreneurial experience stuck with him. In particular, he recognized the power of referrals to help businesses gain more customers. As a result, Epstein eventually founded Ambassador, a referral marketing software that enables brands to build and scale referral, affiliate, partner, and influencer programs.

While the journey to growing Ambassador was far from a smooth ride, Epstein picked up many valuable lessons along the way that helped him grow as both a person and an entrepreneur. Eventually, Ambassador became successful enough that it was acquired by a large corporation.

Check out this interview to learn more about Epstein’s journey and hear him open up about his biggest mistakes, regrets, and lessons learned.

Key Takeaways

How Epstein used his poker affiliate business to pay off law school debt
What he learned about the power of referrals in the process
Why Epstein regrets acquiring his first SEO company, and what ultimately led to its demise
How this failure informed the idea for referral marketing software, Ambassador
Why it took six months for Ambassador to get a repeat paying customer
What it was like to run a “fat” startup
How Ambassador’s acceptance into Techstars helped the company take off
The growth of Ambassador and its stressful acquisition by West Corporation

271: Fighting Food Waste and Growing Fast, With Ben Chesler of Imperfect Foods Oct 09, 2019

Ben Simon showed up at his college classmate Ben Chesler’s door with a giant, ugly sweet potato, plopped it down in front of him, and declared, “This is the future.” Chesler believed him.

Simon had visited multiple farms in California, and discovered that 20% of the state’s produce was being thrown out, which amounted to around 3 billion pounds of unnecessary waste. Together, with their friend Ron Clark, the trio launched a service in 2015 that would save ugly, unwanted fruits and vegetables and deliver them to consumers at low prices. They called it Imperfect Foods.

Thanks to an admirable mission and relatively untouched market, Imperfect Foods took off. Four years after the launch, the company now boasts six fulfillment centers in over 20 cities and more than 1,000 employees. The team is also expanding their offerings in order to fight food waste across the entire system, now offering dairy, dry goods, and canned foods to their customers as well.

Learn more about food waste, the power of customer interactions, and the importance of giving employees a stake in a company in this interview with Chesler.

Key Takeaways

How Chesler and Simon got their start tackling food waste in the nonprofit world
The giant, ugly sweet potato that became the catalyst for Imperfect Foods
The hilarious story of how Reddit brought in more customers for Imperfect Foods than The New York Times
Why the original founding team’s first hires were a bunch of teenagers
A look into Imperfect Foods’ massive growth over just four years
Why product-market fit wasn’t on the team’s mind until six months after the company’s launch
The brilliant marketing strategy that helped Imperfect Foods take off
The power of customer interactions
Why Chesler and the founding team make sure every single employee works in the warehouse at least once—and has access to stock options
The biggest challenges Imperfect Foods faces
Chesler’s reasoning for hiring people you have no business hiring, early on

270: Using Licensing To Make Billions in Sales, With Beanstalk Co-Founder Michael Stone Oct 01, 2019

If you’ve ever bought a bottle of Jack Daniels BBQ sauce or Febreze kitty litter, you’ve seen Michael Stone’s powerful approach to brand licensing in action. This attorney-turned-entrepreneur pioneered the form of corporate licensing that makes such products possible and wildly successful.

Stone made his first foray into the world of licensing with the launch of his company, Beanstalk, in the mid-1990s. The firm quickly became the go-to resource for prominent brands like Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and AT&T—all corporations that were eager to expand their reach into different product categories and strengthen their relationships with consumers.

In 2018, Stone and his company were responsible for generating over $7 billion in retail sales of licensed product. While he stepped down as the CEO a few years ago, Stone still serves as the chairman of Beanstalk and is committed to innovation in this industry.

Check out this interview to learn more about the ins and outs of licensing and to hear about Stone’s experience writing his book The Power of Licensing: Harnessing Brand Equity.

Key Takeaways

Why Stone switched lanes from practicing law to pioneering brand licensing
The uncharted territory Stone noticed, and how it led to the launch of Beanstalk
The necessary components for successful corporate brand licensing
How Beanstalk became the go-to resource for prominent brands
An explanation of why Febreeze is a better candidate for expansion via licensing than Citibank
Handing over the reins of a business that was responsible for over $7 billion in sales in 2018
Why Stone decided to stick with his existing niche instead of starting multiple new businesses
Stone’s honest warning for aspiring entrepreneurs

267: How TOMS Founder Blake Mycoskie Blazed a Trail for Social Entrepreneurs Sep 10, 2019

Blake Mycoskie had a number of hits and misses as a young entrepreneur, but it was a trip to Argentina that inspired the idea that would become his mission—and end up having a huge impact on the business world.

Mycoskie wanted to find a way to help the children he encountered who didn’t have proper footwear, but he wanted to do it in a for-profit, self-sustaining way. That’s how TOMS came to life.

From there, Mycoskie blazed a trail in the way companies think about social good, by popularizing the one-for-one giving model and building the beloved brand that still exists today. TOMS generates hundreds of millions in sales and still stays true to its mission of giving back to communities around the world.

Check out this episode to learn more about Mycoskie’s advice for those who want to pursue social entrepreneurship, the business model that led to his success, and the expansion of TOMS into other types of products.

Key Takeaways

Why the idea of a “job” was foreign to Mycoskie growing up
How Mycoskie’s entrepreneurial spirit led to him founding everything from a laundry service to a reality cable television channel
The trip to Latin America that inspired the idea for TOMS Shoes
How Mycoskie changed the social entrepreneurship game with his one-for-one model
Why social good isn’t necessarily the right path for every business
Mycoskie’s personal reasons for selling half of TOMS to Bain Capital
How TOMS was able to grow completely organically through social media when it launched in 2006
The journey to achieving millions in revenue and donations
The reasons behind TOMS’ expansion into eyewear, coffee shops, and more
How Mycoskie continues to innovate despite a lack of background in apparel design
Mycoskie’s best advice on choosing the right partners and building a sustainable business

263: From Food Writer to Digital Entrepreneur: Ed Levine’s Journey to Launching an Award-Winning Culinary Website Aug 14, 2019

In business, everyone wants to win.

But sometimes it’s the people who refuse to lose who end up finding success. This is the mindset that food writer, author, and founder of the website Serious Eats carried with him throughout the ups and downs of his career. This tumultuous journey is also the primary focus of his latest book Serious Eater: A Food Lover’s Perilous Quest for Pizza and Redemption.

In this interview, Levine shares the details of how he got into food writing, experimented with media platforms to diversify the way he told stories about food, and ultimately bootstrapped the money needed to launch Serious Eats. From struggling with being profitable to testing his tolerance for risk, Levine shares the sacrifices he had to make to keep his company alive for the eight years leading up to its sale.

If you want an unflinching look at the challenges of entrepreneurship, this is your chance. Levine speaks with candor about the toughest aspects of launching a startup and dispels the most common myths around starting a business.

Key Takeaways

Why Levine published his first book, New York Eats, while working his day job at an ad agency
How the book kickstarted Levine’s career as a food writer
The various media platforms, from TV to radio, he experimented with to expand the way he told stories about food
How Levine’s desire to control his own fate creatively and financially inspired him to launch his first blog in 2005
The journey to bootstrapping enough money to launch Serious Eats
Levine’s struggles with making Serious Eats consistently profitable
Why knowing the limits of your (and your partner’s) tolerance for risk is critical
The financial and emotional costs associated with bootstrapping a business
How Levine’s childhood experiences contributed to his “refuse-to-lose” mentality with Serious Eats
How Serious Eats organically attracted up to 8 million unique visitors per month and was eventually sold in 2015
Why the startup mantra of “fail early and often” didn’t apply to this 52-year-old digital entrepreneur
A sneak peek into Levine’s book Serious Eater: A Food Lover’s Perilous Quest for Pizza and Redemption, which captures the unspoken side of starting a business
Why Levine believes the most important business lessons can’t be learned without starting a business
How Levine defines success
Final thoughts on what it took to build a tribe of people who are passionate about food

262: A Deep Dive Into What Makes or Breaks Habits, With Nir Eyal Aug 06, 2019

When Nir Eyal has a burning question (which he frequently does), he goes on the hunt for an insightful answer.

That curiosity is what led Eyal to publish his first and wildly popular book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. He was inspired to delve into this topic after launching a startup in the advertising and gaming industry, where he observed that product design had the powerful ability to change human behavior. Eyal wondered why some companies were so good at it while others failed.

In this fascinating interview, we chat with Eyal about his early days as an entrepreneur, the behavioral model behind forming habits and get a sneak peek into Eyal’s upcoming book Indistractable: Mastering the Skill of the Century.

Plus, Eyal uses Nathan as a live case study and shares his best tips for breaking bad habits!

Whether you’re an entrepreneur who wants to better understand the link between product design and human behavior, or you’re an individual looking for tangible ways to build better habits, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

Key Takeaways

The story behind Eyal’s successful startups in the solar power, advertising, and gaming industries
How observing the behavior change through product design led to a burning question in Eyal’s mind
Eyal’s journey to understanding the deeper psychology behind how products are designed to be habit forming
The principles behind the Hook Model, and how the Bible is a perfect example
How Eyal’s own book inadvertently helped him improve his physical fitness
How his desire to control his attention inspired Eyal’s upcoming book Indistractable: Mastering the Skill of the Century
A sneak peek into techniques from Eyal’s new book to help people overcome internal triggers
A live case study with Nathan to help him address the habits he wants to break
Why high levels of distraction at a company are usually symptoms of a bigger problem

254: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at How Foundr CEO Nathan Chan Built A Global Brand Jun 12, 2019

Success doesn’t happen overnight.

This is something Foundr CEO Nathan Chan knows all too well. Before he started his business, Nathan was in a common predicament: he hated his job and he had no idea what career path to take. It took many steps to plant the seed that eventually became Foundr.

Even then, it wasn’t an easy path forward. He stayed in his job long after starting Foundr, and at one point, Nathan even launched a webinar from his parents’ basement. There was no magic involved—only hard work, strategic decisions, and many lessons learned.

In this video interview, Dave Hobson, our Head of Growth and Marketing and one of the first to join the Foundr team, has a raw conversation with Nathan about his journey to building a global brand. Nathan opens up about what it took to get Foundr off the ground, shares the key takeaways he picked up along the way, and reveals the nitty gritty details around how he turned a webinar presentation he hacked together into a multimillion-dollar product.

This episode is chock-full of sage advice, life lessons, and even an embarrassing story or two from our CEO’s humble beginnings that you’ll definitely want to hear.

Key Takeaways

How Nathan went from working at an IT job he hated to launching a digital magazine
The steps Nathan followed to turn a webinar presentation to a multimillion-dollar digital product
How falling into the trap of seeking perfection will prevent you from reaching your goals
The difference between “painkiller” and “vitamin” products
Why it’s so critical to build an audience and test your ideas first
How to use concepts like “a thousand true fans” and the “Oprah strategy” to create a successful business

253: How Refinery29 Defied Critics and Became a Digital Media Pioneer, With Co-Founders Christene Barberich and Piera Gelardi Jun 04, 2019

“I think about how little we knew, but how—I believe—how courageous we were,” says Christene Barberich, reflecting on the early days of Refinery29.

Before she and co-founder Piera Gelardi were the women at the helm of one of the fastest-growing digital media companies in the world, they were new entrepreneurs working tirelessly on a vision (first sketched on a napkin) that outsiders failed to understand.

The Refinery29 founding team formed in 2004, and in those early days (before Twitter had even launched), people struggled to grasp even the concept of digital media. The co-founders’ pitches were met with skepticism.

“We would go talk to people, and they would act like we were trying to sell them a carpet or something,” Gelardi says. “They thought it was a scam.”

Potential advertisers and brand partners also didn’t think customers would ever want to buy something online. “I just remember thinking, like, ‘I don’t think that’s true,’” Barberich says.

That skepticism gave them an advantage, though: It gave Refinery29 the freedom to operate and experiment without the pressure of competition.

Today, Refinery29 has an international audience of 550 million and has earned multiple distinctions, including Webby awards and Inc. 500 list mentions.

Key Takeaways

How the two met and influenced each other’s decision to go all in on Refinery29
The early days at Refinery29 when wireframes were hand-drawn
The freedom of operating under the radar when digital media was still the Wild West
The critics who doubted the business model and thought it was a scam
What they lose sleep over
How they approach content creation
What they look for when hiring
The advice they would give to entrepreneurs who want to use content to grow their businesses
How they define quality content

243: The 5 Traits That Help Founders Go From Dreamer to Doer, With Kim Perell of Amobee Mar 26, 2019

When Kim Perell landed a job at a hot new internet startup in 1998, she thought she had hit the jackpot.

She loved her job and learned a lot, but when the dot-com bubble burst, the startup went bankrupt. What was once a dream company that she recruited many friends to join had become a nightmare when she had to lay off those friends, and then lose her own job too.

“In an instant, someone pushed delete on my life, and my future, my identity,” she says. “My multimillion-dollar stock went up in flames and was worth nothing.”

Perell turned to the one person she thought might give her a loan to start over: her grandmother. And sure enough, even though Nanny didn’t know what the internet was, she loaned her granddaughter $10,000, which Perell spent on a computer, a GoDaddy account for a website, and a one-way ticket to Hawaii to live with her boyfriend rent-free.

Perell launched Frontline Direct, a digital marketing company pairing brands with online advertising. Scarred from the bankruptcy, she was eager to work for herself and get back to basics, which meant focusing on profitability and growth. In 2008, Frontline Direct was acquired for $30 million, and again by Amobee, where Perell now serves as CEO.

Through all the ups and downs, Perell has learned many lessons, which she passes on to fellow entrepreneurs in her latest book, The Execution Factor: The One Skill That Drives Success. After investing in over 70 startups, she noticed one thing stood out in particular for those who succeeded: they focused on execution more than anyone else did.

For her, writing The Execution Factor was a way to pay it forward.

“If I could shortcut the system and share, based on my own experiences, what is important as an entrepreneur, that was really meaningful to me,” Perell says. “And I just felt like my grandma made a bet on me, and I was going to pay that back.”

In addition to the book, she established The Execution Factor Fund to provide seed stage funding to execution-driven startups. One hundred percent of the proceeds from her book are contributed to this fund.

(And in case you were wondering: Perell paid back the loan to her grandma.)

Key Takeaways

The rock bottom moment when the internet startup she worked for went bankrupt in the dot-com bubble burst
What she did with a $10,000 loan from her grandmother
Founding Frontline Direct, a digital marketing company, while living rent-free in Hawaii
Frontline Direct’s multimillion-dollar acquisition
Her new book, The Execution Factor
Why vision, though important, is not enough
The five traits you need to master execution
How to attract and retain great talent
What she looks for when investing in businesses
Thoughts on branding versus direct response
On if she felt a loss of identity after selling her business

240: How to Use Excellent Customer Support to Stand Out in a Crowded Market, With Ross Paquette of Maropost Mar 05, 2019

When Ross Andrew Paquette founded email service provider Maropost in 2011, he never expected it to take off.

“The plan was to have 10 customers and maybe sit by the pool a little more often than not,” he says with a laugh.

But since then, he’s scaled the company to nine figures, with an impressive customer list that includes DigitalMarketer, Livestrong, and The New York Post. And beyond email marketing, Maropost has expanded into customer acquisition and ecommerce solutions.

These are extremely crowded markets, but at the core of the company’s success is its strong commitment to excellent customer service, with heavy emphasis on a 24-hour in-app live chat and five-minute support response times.

We chatted with Paquette to learn the strategies he used to so impressively grow his SaaS company in a short amount of time.

Key Takeaways

How Maropost got started
The crazy story behind how Paquette met his co-founder
How Maropost has expanded from email marketing to customer lead acquisition, mobile push notifications, CRM, and more
How long it took to build the first version of Maropost
What makes Maropost different from other ESPs
The strong customer support focus of the business
Why they focus on building a great organization, not just hitting numbers and growth
Where he sees the SaaS market moving in the future
Why he’s focused on building a legacy with his business
What exciting projects are in store for Maropost

239: The Importance of Being Bold in Business, With Real Estate Mogul Dottie Herman Feb 25, 2019

You don’t become the richest self-made woman in American real estate by playing it safe. Dottie Herman has proved time and time again that bold moves pay off.

In the 1980s, in a maneuver that solidified her path to the top in real estate, Herman flew to California and convinced Merrill Lynch to hire her to help the company expand into the real estate market.

In 1990, when Prudential decided to sell its regional holdings, Herman then persuaded the company to lend her $9 million to purchase its own Long Island real estate offices.

And in 2003, Herman expanded her empire into New York City with the nearly $72 million purchase of the most prominent Manhattan real estate company, Douglas Elliman (again convincing Prudential to finance the deal).

“If you don't ask, you don't know,” Herman says. “And the worst that can ever happen is someone says no.”

Key Takeaways

How Dottie Herman got into real estate
Her bold move that convinced Prudential to lend her money to purchase one of its own companies
How she weathered a recession while running her business
The story behind acquiring Douglas Elliman, a prestigious real estate company in Manhattan
Why she wanted to expand her real estate empire into New York City
Her thoughts on branding
How she maintains a good working relationship with her employees
What she hopes to do next

237: Find Your ‘Talk Trigger’ to Spark Powerful Word-of-Mouth, With Jay Baer of Convince & Convert Feb 12, 2019

Jay Baer was born to be in business. As a seventh-generation entrepreneur, he always knew he’d start his own company one day.

Over the years, his ventures have run the gamut—from an early internet company to a design firm to his popular marketing consulting firm, Convince & Convert. His clients have included Hilton, Cisco, Nike, and Oracle, just to name a few.

And if that weren’t enough, Baer is a New York Times-bestselling author, with six books under his belt. His latest, Talk Triggers—co-authored by marketing expert Daniel Lemin—dives into the power of word-of-mouth marketing and how to use it in your own business.

What is a talk trigger? According to Baer, it’s a “strategic, operational choice that creates conversations.”

Take DoubleTree, for example. Their talk trigger is the warm chocolate chip cookie given to every guest who checks in. Baer and Lemin interviewed 1,000 DoubleTree customers for this book, and that’s just for one of the 30+ case studies you’ll find inside.

If you want to acquire customers faster and cheaper, listen in as Jay Baer shares his marketing know-how to help you identify your business’s talk trigger.

Key Takeaways

The origin story of Convince & Convert
How he came to work for an internet company before he even knew what the internet was
How he sold the Budweiser.com domain name to Anheuser-Busch for 50 cases of beer
His latest book, Talk Triggers, and why word-of-mouth marketing is so powerful
How to create a word-of-mouth strategy that will win over customers
DoubleTree’s genius strategy of giving a warm chocolate chip cookie for free to every guest (their talk trigger)
Why small businesses are perfectly primed for a talk trigger
UberConference’s on-hold music talk trigger example
How to (and how NOT to) find your talk trigger
Why Baer invests in several companies
How to use content marketing and inbound marketing to grow your business

236: Bootstrapping a $300M Cinema Company, With Grant Petty of Blackmagic Design Feb 05, 2019

“I don’t think CEOs should be able to be CEOs if they can’t code,” says Grant Petty, founder and CEO of Blackmagic Design.

That’s a bold statement, but Petty is a bold guy. Working as an engineer in the television industry, he realized the technology was overpriced. So he started a company that cut costs and put power into the hands of creators.

“Really what I was doing was a protest against the way the TV industry was,” he says.

And soon, Petty began to challenge the status quo of business in general. He runs his company a little differently: There are no spreadsheets, very little planning, and to him, metrics hardly matter.

“In the Western world, business culture becomes so rigid and so inflexible,” he says. “If you’re a creative person, you can get destroyed by that because they don’t allow you to exist.”

Today, Blackmagic Design boasts nearly $300 million in annual revenue and is still 100% bootstrapped. Its technology is used by 80% of modern day feature films. We sat down with Petty to discuss what he’s learned about how to run a meaningful business in the face of opposition.

Key Takeaways

How his frustrations with the TV industry inspired him to start Blackmagic
The story behind Blackmagic’s first product and how he got it off the ground
The challenges with getting funding and the struggles he faced when he decided to self-fund
The “wave of hatred” that can come when you try to disrupt an industry
How long it took to become an industry leader
How to know when it’s the right time to add a new product to your line
Balancing his creative side with the operational duties of being CEO
One common thing that’s destroying creativity in businesses
Blackmagic’s culture and how it fosters creativity
What’s next for the company

235: Sell Like Crazy: Psychology, Sales Funnels, and Paid Ads, With Sabri Suby of King Kong Jan 30, 2019

These days, Sabri Suby reigns supreme as the founder of King Kong, Australia’s fastest-growing digital marketing agency. But he’s come a long way since his first job, selling ink cartridges over the phone, which he describes as a “cold, hard slap to the face.”

“I sucked incredibly badly at doing that in the beginning,” he says.

Soon enough, thanks to mastering the art of sales and persuasion, he became the top producer in that role, went on to travel the world, and eventually, forged his path as an entrepreneur. For all of his companies, he realized he was asking the same fundamental question: “How do we get more customers?”

His obsession with answering that question has helped him perfect his selling skills and scale King Kong from zero to $10 million in annual revenue in just four years.

In his latest book, Sell Like Crazy, Suby reveals the selling system he’s created and honed over the years, including things like the Magic Lantern Technique and the Halo Strategy. He says he’s deployed this system in more than 167 different niches and markets—and it’s worked every time. With Sell Like Crazy, he shares the steps you need to take, regardless of what stage you’re in, to level up your business.

Key Takeaways

Where to begin if you want to succeed in selling online
Psychology vs. technology and why the traffic channel doesn’t matter
The biggest mistake online businesses are making regarding sales
Why you shouldn’t start a business by looking only at your interests
How to identify a gap in the market that you can fill
Using automation and a funnel to convert sales
Why skepticism online is at an all-time high—and how to overcome it
How to know when to ask for the sale
How to get over the fear of selling
Why you’re doing the world a disservice by not trying to sell
Why paid advertising is key to growth

232: Create a Company Culture That’s Healthy and Profitable, With David Heinemeier Hansson of Basecamp Jan 10, 2019

Eighteen years ago, David Heinemeier Hansson was a college student sitting in his little apartment in Copenhagen when he stumbled across a blog post by 37signals (which would later become Basecamp), a Chicago-based design company he had long admired.

In the post, co-founder Jason Fried posted a question on some aspect of programming. Hansson knew the answer, so he contacted Fried. Several emails later, Fried was asking Hansson to work with him.

“Jason decided it was easier just to hire me than to learn how to program,” Hansson says, “and that's how we started working together.”

That was the beginning of a now-legendary tech startup team, and an illustrious career for Hansson. In Hansson’s early days at Basecamp, he famously created Ruby on Rails, an open-source web development framework once used by Twitter, and still in use by GitHub, Shopify, and many more.

We were excited to talk shop with Hansson (often known as DHH) because, in an industry dominated by breakneck Silicon Valley culture, Basecamp stands out in many ways: It’s been profitable every year since its inception in 1999, it doesn’t chase growth, and it doesn’t even set numerical goals.

With their latest book, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, Hansson and Fried are hoping to challenge the prevailing narrative about chaotic work culture by sharing the unique way they run their company.

This is Part 2 of our Basecamp co-founder interviews. To hear Part 1, check out our podcast interview with Basecamp co-founder Jason Fried.

Key Takeaways

The blog post 18 years ago that brought Hansson together with co-founder Jason Fried, and what compelled Fried to hire him
How Hansson invented revolutionary web development framework Ruby on Rails
Why it’s never too late to learn how to program
The story behind how Jeff Bezos bought a minority, no-control stake in Basecamp in 2006—and how Hansson feels about it today
Basecamp’s philosophy on growth
His latest book, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, and why he hopes to challenge the prevailing narrative about entrepreneurship and growth
How Basecamp defines success, even though it doesn’t set goals
The disadvantages of large companies
How to maintain a strong company culture when your team is remote

230: Startup Legends Talk Hiring, Branding, and Core Values, With Oli Gardner of Unbounce and Ryan Deiss of DigitalMarketer Dec 18, 2018

Most of Foundr’s podcast episodes are one-on-one chats, usually focusing on a particular foundr or their business. This time around, we were fortunate enough to sit down, in person, with two startup icons, and explore some of the most important facets of running a business.

Oli Gardner and Ryan Deiss are both digital marketing pioneers who have grown their online businesses to millions in revenue. Gardner, the instructor of our Landing Page Formula course, co-founded landing page builder Unbounce in 2009. Deiss, a serial entrepreneur, founded DigitalMarketer in 2011.

Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a fascinating conversation, in which Gardner and Deiss share both similar and differing opinions on everything from branding to hiring.

For example, both founders insist that creating core values is an important business practice that will inform your branding and your decisions. “I have had more businesses come close to failure because of too much opportunity,” says Deiss, who adds that having a mission makes it easier to know when to say no.

In addition, as both Unbounce and DigitalMarketer grow, Gardner and Deiss have each honed their strategies for hiring top talent. The details might surprise you, as one of the two companies doesn’t even allow candidates to submit a resume (it’ll get thrown out).

Listen in as Gardner and Deiss join Foundr for this lively chat in Barcelona, where they share their hard-learned lessons from growing online businesses and the sacrifices they’ve made along the way.

Key Takeaways

How to build a great brand
The one thing that keeps your customers coming back again and again
Why creating core values for your company isn’t just a nice thing to do, but a necessity
The latest interaction and design trends—and which ones you should steer clear of
Why community is the new brand and how to build a community that boosts your business
The biggest opportunity in ecommerce right now
How to stay relevant in a changing content marketing landscape
Sure-fire tactics for hiring and vetting top talent
The big sacrifices they’ve had to make as founders

229: Mastering Copywriting and Finding Your Flow With Arman Assadi of Project EVO Dec 11, 2018

NEW COURSE ALERT: Entrepreneur, we wanted you to be the first to know that we’ve collaborated with Arman Assadi to bring you our brand new copywriting course. Learn the copywriting secrets behind 11 seven-figure product launches, taught by Arman himself.

Arman’s broken it down into a 10-step framework that he’s proven with his clients time and time again. He’s even going to give you templates, formulas, and how-to guides so you can start converting customers like crazy.

If you’re tired of seeing ZERO sales for all the hard work you’ve put into your amazing product—then you NEED to learn the power of copywriting. We’re opening the doors to this course soon for a limited time only, and we want to see you there. Be sure to get on the FREE waitlist so you don’t miss it!

Key Takeaways

The “crisis of meaning” that drove Assadi to leave his job at Google, book a trip to Cuba, and pursue freedom as a solopreneur
How Assadi became a self-taught copywriter and began working with the likes of Neil Patel, Lewis Howes, Jason Silva, and Lori Harder
What you should (and shouldn’t) do if you want to find your unique voice as a copywriter
The key to writing high-converting copy and why every entrepreneur should learn the basics
The story behind Assadi’s latest business and how it created the most-funded planner in crowdfunding history: EVO Planner
What’s next for Project EVO and how it’s helping entrepreneurs and creatives find fulfillment in their work

228: A Serial Founder’s Fight for Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrencies, With Alex Mashinsky of Celsius Dec 04, 2018

Serial founder and VOIP pioneer Alex Mashinsky has founded eight companies and raised more than a billion dollars in collective funding since his entrepreneurial start in the 1990s—and he is showing no signs of slowing down. Mashinsky is the founder of Celsius, which allows users to earn interest on and borrow dollars against cryptocurrencies.

While Mashinsky wants his company to succeed, he sees much more at stake here than just his entrepreneurial resume.

Mashinsky is devoting his latest startup to taking on the world’s financial systems and driving the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. Subverting the “big guys” has been a common theme throughout Mashinsky’s career, starting with helping AT&T develop some of the first international VOIP systems, and now fighting to decentralize the world’s banking systems.

According to Mashinsky, “This is the biggest battle that I’ve fought in my life. I fought with the phone companies…in the 90s. This is 10 times worse.”

Listen in as Mashinsky reveals the details of his entrepreneurial journey's highs and lows, his dedication to educate the world about cryptocurrencies, and entrepreneurial lessons only an eight-time founder can teach.

Key Takeaways

How the 2008 recession took down his ride-share company (that was more popular than Uber at the time)
Why Mashinsky is so passionate about educating the world on cryptocurrencies
4 entrepreneurial lessons to guide your business journey
The mindset shift that led Mashinsky to focus on mass adoption of cryptocurrencies

227: From a $20M Business to Starting Over With a New Vision, with Erika Geraerts of Fluff Nov 27, 2018

Frank Body co-founder Erika Geraerts left her $20 million coffee scrub company to invent a new category within the beauty industry.

She's now on a mission to empower young girls everywhere to feel more comfortable with themselves. According to this forward-thinking founder, the world has enough makeup products, and what the industry really needs is better products with better brand messages.

Geraerts thinks makeup should be fun, not a necessity or a chore, which is one reason she called her company Fluff. But there's nothing frivolous about her approach to business. Geraerts is filling a void in the cosmetics industry and raising up the self-esteem of women globally in the process.

In this compelling video interview, Geraerts reveals why she decided to leave her booming skin care company, and what she sees on the horizon for Fluff. She also talks about her strict manufacturing process, her focus on sustainable products, her unique customer development process, and the distinct way the company creates online content.

Key Takeaways

How Geraerts chooses manufacturers to create her products
The company’s unique customer development process for finding out what types of products solve her customers’ problems
Why she won’t be focusing on traditional influencer marketing to promote her products
Fluff’s unique website launch strategy and how they work with their customers and freelancers to curate all of their content

225: New Founders Doubled Business and Hit Their First $10K Month (Consulting Empire Spotlight: Part 2) Nov 13, 2018

Welcome to part two of our two-part podcast series that’s shining the spotlight on successful entrepreneurs who hail right from our very own Foundr community!

If you haven’t listened to part one featuring Gavin Symes, you can check it out right here.

Today, we talk with Danielle Roberts and Shea Kucenski, courageous entrepreneurs who started a marketing agency while working full-time jobs. Roberts and Kucenski took all the action steps laid out in the Consulting Empire course and in two months took their business from slow and stagnant to closing 20% of all proposals, doubling their earnings, and reaching their first $10,000 month.

In this inspiring interview, you will hear about Roberts and Kucenski’s journey to success, how they overcame their perfectionism and fear of failure, and how they land high-paying clients while managing busy schedules.

We are extremely proud of Danielle and Shea’s achievements and we are happy to share their amazing story with you!

ATTENTION: If you want to learn how to start and scale a service-based business like Danielle and Shea, whether you are a consultant, coach, or freelancer, agency founder Sabri Suby reveals all of his golden strategies (the exact ones he used to scale from zero to $10 million) in our Consulting Empire online course.

We only open enrollment a couple of times a year for a limited time, and it's open for just one more day this week! Check out the Consulting Empire course before we close the doors again.

Key Takeaways

How to push past the fear of failure and start moving the needle for your client-services business
Roberts and Kucenski's main focus that helps them seal the deal when they prospect for clients
How they manage their busy schedules (they both have full-time jobs) and keep the business running smoothly
How to get started consulting or freelancing and get your first client

224: Gavin Symes Scales His Consulting Business to $50K/Month in 3 Months (Consulting Empire Spotlight: Part 1) Nov 07, 2018

The Foundr community is full of passionate people from all walks of life, in the trenches daily doing what it takes to make their startup dreams a reality. In this week’s podcast, we want to highlight one of these entrepreneurs we’re especially proud of—Gavin Symes of The Foundry Group.

In part one of this two-part podcast series, we talked with Consulting Empire student Gavin Symes, who advanced his business growth and management skills to create a profitable consulting business.

Symes took all the action steps laid out in the Consulting Empire course—from validating his service to developing a lead-gen machine—and built his consulting business from scratch. Three-and-a-half months into the course, he closed 10 clients and generated over $50,000 of monthly revenue. He plans on scaling to $1 million this year and then to $10 million in three years.

In this inspiring interview, you will hear about Symes’ own journey to success, the biggest problems most businesses face when scaling, and how to set up processes to overcome common business growth challenges.

We are extremely proud of Gavin’s achievements and we are happy to share his amazing story with you!

ATTENTION: If you want to learn how to start and scale a service-based business like Gavin, whether you are a consultant, coach or freelancer, agency founder Sabri Suby reveals all of his golden strategies (the exact ones he used to scale from zero to $10 million) in our Consulting Empire online course. We only open enrollment a couple of times a year for a limited time. Get on the free VIP waitlist here to be one of the first we notify when we re-open!

Key Takeaways

The top problems most entrepreneurs face as they scale their businesses
The one thing that can derail your business if you let it (it has nothing to do with sales or customers)
The very first thing to do if you want to start a freelance or consulting business
How to create business playbooks to fast-track your growth

223: How WPBeginner’s Syed Balkhi Rocketed to Success, Aiding Millions of Wordpress Users Oct 30, 2018

New to the US from Pakistan, Syed Balkhi was a lonely and isolated 12-year-old. Unable to speak English fluently, he took to communicating with new friends—computers—and quickly found comfort interacting with these non-human companions. Soon Balkhi was learning how to code and build websites, and that very same year he made his first dollar from a website he created.

Now 27, Balkhi is the founder of WPBeginner, the first and largest WordPress resource website in the world, and co-founder of many accompanying businesses. He was also named a top entrepreneur under the age of 30 by the United Nations, his websites receive millions of monthly pageviews each month, and his software runs on nearly 8 million sites serving billions of monthly impressions.

Listen in as Balkhi takes you through the early years of his entrepreneurial journey and how, brick by brick, he built his empire.

Key Takeaways

How Balkhi decides which versions of existing software to acquire and improve
Why managing four products independently helps his team increase focus and output
How to build a business, one small step at a time
The key factor behind his companies' explosive growth

222: From Canines to Co-Working: Tobi Skovron’s Journey to Creating Two Revolutionary Products Oct 22, 2018

Tobi Skovron, Founder, CreativeCubes.co

Dog toilets and co-working spaces? An unlikely pairing. But if you talk to Tobi Skovron, you'll find they have one thing in common—they inspired him to create two passion-filled businesses and realize his dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.

Skovron walked away from a promising career in medicine to pursue entrepreneurship, even though he had no idea what business he wanted to run. It wasn’t until Skovron got a dog that he came upon an idea that would take Australia by storm—an indoor dog toilet called Pet Loo. Piggybacking off of the success in Australia, Skovron decided to expand into the US market. He quickly faced a lot of challenges, however, since he made the move right as the 2008 recession hit. Skovron lost half his money right away.

Starting over in Los Angeles, he realized the spare bedroom in his Venice Beach apartment was not the ideal environment for him to breathe life into his US expansion, so he joined a co-working space to rekindle his inspiration. There, Skovron realized a new passion for this collaborative environment, which ultimately led him to his next project.

Skovron sold Pet Loo and started CreativeCubes.co, a hotel-like co-working environment that houses a curated community of passionate people. We here at Foundr have even used CreativeCubes.co to shoot many of our course videos!

These days, Skovron's less interested in financial return, and more interested in providing quality experiences and fostering an environment of positivity and creativity. Listen in and get inspired by this journey from aspiring entrepreneur to two-time founder.

Key Takeaways

How the idea for Pet Loo became a reality (it was his wife's idea)
The 10-year journey of designing, manufacturing, marketing, and selling Pet Loo
How Skovron’s love of the co-working landscape led to the creation of his second successful product
Why Skovron won’t scale his business for the sake of scaling

221: Zero to $9 Million in 4 years: How Chris Peters & Rob Ward Built Quad Lock From a Kickstarter Campaign Oct 16, 2018

Welcome to our newest podcast format, video interviews! You can expect more of this format in the coming months. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here to be notified when we publish new videos.

Today I had the pleasure of sitting down with the co-founders of Quad Lock, a mounting device to securely attach your smartphone to your bike, car, motorcycle, arm or in any situation where you need a hands-free moment. These guys are killing it with $9 million in yearly earnings in only four years!

This was a phenomenal interview, as Peters and Ward gave us 45 minutes of pure gold on how they built a strong brand reputation and high-quality product, how they manufacture their products in China, how they got started as a simple Kickstarter project, and so much more.

They also discuss brand longevity, how to become trendsetters, and how they overcame their biggest scaling challenges. If you want to learn how to build a long-lasting brand and scale your physical-products business, this is an interview you don’t want to miss!

Key Takeaways

What you need to build a physical-products brand with a strong reputation
Why Kickstarter is a good way to introduce your brand to the market, as long as you do it right
How to get started and maintain manufacturing out of China
Quad Lock's biggest challenges around scaling, and how they have overcome them
Quad Lock’s philosophy on hiring A-players

220: Building Community as the Foundation for a Successful Content Business, With Carly Zakin & Danielle Weisberg of theSkimm Oct 09, 2018

Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg started their business as good friends on a couch, with nothing but their laptops and a healthy dose of hustle. Today, their millennial women-focused media company theSkimm serves seven million daily subscribers, employs 70 people, and boasts more than 30,000 enthusiastic brand ambassadors.

The company also just closed a round of Series C funding led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) and a group of mainly female investors—including the likes of Shonda Rhimes, Tyra Banks, and Spanx founder Sara Blakely.

Weisberg and Zakin have maintained a close friendship and strong collaboration throughout their six years in business. This dynamic forms the backbone of their company and sets the tone for daily operations, which is largely focused on supporting and empowering women.

In this interview, learn about the early days of theSkimm, the power of community and connection, and how the brand monetizes its content to build a sustainable media business.

The company publishes news that fits into the daily routines of its members, continually nodding to its mission statement of making it easier for people to live smarter, more connected lives. But if you ask us, these powerful founders are the smart ones, effectively proving the mantra, “We are all stronger when we work together.”

Key Takeaways

How and why they waited two and a half years to monetize their community of loyal followers
How they monetize their content with multiple income streams to build a sustainable, well-rounded business
Details of the Skimm’bassadors program and why it has grown so rapidly
Zakin and Weisberg’s top tips for growing a content-based business

219: From Bankrupt to Bestseller: How Mike Michalowicz Used His Own Failures to Empower Other Entrepreneurs Oct 02, 2018

Mike Michalowicz appeared to have everything an entrepreneur could want—big companies and lots of revenue coming in. But things aren’t always as they seem. As Michalowicz was high on fleeting indicators of success, his businesses were leaking profits. “I got caught up in the vanity metrics…how big my business was revenue-wise and how big my business was people-wise,” Michalowicz says.

After feeling the sting of and two failed investments and losing millions, Michalowicz found himself struggling with depression—along with a realization that ignorance and arrogance were a deadly combination. Thankfully, with support from friends and a rekindling of his love of writing, Michalowicz was able to pull himself out of the ashes and rebuild his career—this time with heart and soul.

Michalowicz used writing as a way to find solutions to all of the biggest challenges he faced as a founder. His books Profit First, Pumpkin Plan, and Clockwork tackle managing cash, business growth, and automating a company, respectively. His next book will focus on how entrepreneurs can serve a greater purpose and make an impact on the world.

Listen in and get inspired as Michalowicz gets brutally honest about his own struggles, and shares years of lessons learned to empower other entrepreneurs.

Key Takeaways

The actions that led Michalowicz to lose millions and hit rock bottom
How Michalowicz found his niche and rebuilt his career after 10 failed companies
Why working too hard can signal a lack of efficiency
How to manage cash and avoid spending money you don’t have

218: Slow Growth and Risk Aversion Wins the Entrepreneurial Race, With Aytekin Tank of JotForm Sep 25, 2018

“It took me 10 years [to create my own business], because I didn’t have the courage to start. But I still had this belief that one day I would start it.”

Fortunately for Aytekin Tank and 3.7 million happy users, he ultimately did start that business—JotForm, a profitable online form builder that houses 12 million forms; integrates with Paypal, Salesforce, and Dropbox; and spans two continents.

It took Tank a decade to build that business, but he couldn't care less. In an entrepreneurial climate where rapid growth and risk-taking are worn as badges of honor, Tank considers his slow growth the reason for his strong company culture and long-term success.

Concerned that your wariness or risk aversion hinders your ability to become an entrepreneur? Listen in and get inspired by Tank’s journey. Anything is possible if you just take the plunge and then keep moving forward—no matter the pace.

Key Takeaways

How Tank has been able to grow consistently even though he started with zero management experience
The friendly company culture Tank built and why it has become so successful
Why Tank believes his slow and steady approach to growth has led to so much success
Tank’s three steps to slow and sustainable growth

217: Mastering the Messy Middle and Finishing Strong, With Scott Belsky of Behance Sep 18, 2018

Scott Belsky, Behance founder, investor, and author of the new book The Messy Middle, is a strong believer in putting in the hard work and then finishing strong. His nine-figure exit from Behance is a testament to this tenacity and determination.

Behance came with its own set of challenges, but Belsky learned over the years that when it seems like things are falling apart, it could mean victory is right around the corner. Your near-meltdown might just be your “messy middle," and sometimes being successful simply means sticking together as a team long enough to figure it out. A labor of love will often work out in the end, even if it's not how you expect.

In this thought-provoking interview, Belsky shares his own “messy middle" from his time with Behance, and some of his best wisdom on product-market fit, perseverance, and startup culture. We were thrilled to get the chance to talk to Scott. There’s a ton of gold in this interview, so don’t miss it!

Key Takeaways

Two guiding principles on whether to stick it out or shut it down
Why Belsky is wary of the MVP craze, and how to balance perfectionism with action
Three tips for finding true product-market fit
How to create a startup culture that attracts and retains the right people
Why Belsky started Behance and what inspired his progress

216: The Art of Creating High-Converting Landing Pages, With Oli Gardner, Co-Founder of Unbounce Sep 11, 2018

“Ninety-eight percent of landing pages are just plain bad.”

This is what Unbounce founder Oli Gardner declared when he began his public speaking circuit four years ago. A bold statement, but he would know.

As co-founder of the landing page software builder, which pulls in $20 million in annual revenue, Gardner confidently claims he has seen more landing pages than anyone on the planet—nearly 100,000 to be exact. These days, he's leveraging his immense knowledge on the topic to help businesses drive more leads and revenue, through Unbounce and as a speaker.

In this interview, learn about the history of Unbounce, Gardner’s top tips for becoming a better marketer, and his golden advice on how to create a landing page that gets his seal of approval.

ATTENTION: We are excited to announce that Oli has partnered with the Foundr School of Entrepreneurship to teach a powerful course, Landing Page Formula. If you want to learn the principles of conversion-center design and get a step-by-step blueprint on how to construct a high-converting landing page (templates included), Oli reveals his proven framework in this in-depth course. We only offer open enrollment a couple of times a year, for a limited time. Get on the FREE VIP waitlist here to be one of the first we notify when we open.

Key Takeaways

The history of Unbounce and how the company rose to prominence
How to make a landing page that impresses Oli Gardner
Gardner’s top three tips to becoming a better marketer

215: Navigating the Unpredictable Journey From Failure to Triumph, With Stuart McKeown, Co-Founder of Gleam Sep 05, 2018

Stuart McKeown started his entrepreneurial career as a college dropout, had a short-lived stint as a DJ, and then lost thousands of dollars on his first startup attempt. But he's nothing if not persistent. McKeown is now a growth marketing and list-building master and the co-founder of Gleam.io, a growth-focused platform used by more than 20,000 brands a month.

The secret to McKeown’s success? He never believed failure was something to be feared, but rather a means to gather the information he needed to grow.

In this interview, learn how McKeown overcame his setbacks to build a powerful platform and brand, how he establishes work/life balance for himself and his employees, and his top four tips for running a viral competition.

McKeown may not have become a world famous DJ, but by staying true to himself and striking out fearlessly despite unforeseen obstacles, he has built a brand to be proud of—a gleaming beacon of success.

ATTENTION: We are also excited to announce that Stuart has partnered with Foundr to teach an epic course, List-Building Mastery. If you want a step-by-step strategy on how to explode your email list from scratch, get your first 10,000+ subscribers, and scale to 60,000 and more, Stuart reveals all of his proven strategies in this in-depth, tactical course. We only open enrollment a couple of times a year for a limited time. Get on the FREE VIP waitlist here to be one of the first we notify when we open.

Key Takeaways:

Four tips for running a viral competition
Why building a product that relies on someone else’s infrastructure can spell disaster
McKeown’s low-key and casual philosophy on work/life balance
How and why failure is necessary for success

214: Nailing Product-Market Fit and Building a Successful Startup, With Legendary VC and Wealthfront CEO Andy Rachleff Aug 30, 2018

Andy Rachleff is not just a product expert; he literally coined the term “product-market fit.”

Wealthfront CEO, former VC backing companies such as eBay, Uber, and Twitter, and technology entrepreneurship instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Rachleff has a wealth of knowledge on creating and scaling powerful companies. I was excited to have the chance to pick his brain on everything from product-market fit, to how he started his company Wealthfront, to how he hires the best of the best to join his team.

In this interview, you will gain access to a true master, who has enjoyed a long career of investing in legendary companies and now gives back to today’s entrepreneurs and investors. Rachleff started his company Wealthfront, an automated investment service that manages $11 billion in assets, as a way to perform a social good by democratizing sophisticated financial advice. In our discussion, he was kind enough to divulge some of his wins and losses and top lessons learned in his storied entrepreneurial career. Enjoy!

Key Takeaways

How to know when you’ve reached product-market fit
The process Rachleff follows every time he builds a new product
How to know when it’s the right time to launch a new product (or let go of a failing one)
How to maintain a close-knit startup culture as the company grows
Why perseverance does not lead to success in technology (and what does)
What type of people he looks for and the three biggest things that make people to want to join his team

Key Resources From Our Interview With Andy Rachleff

Follow Andy on Twitter
Learn more about Wealthfront here

213: Overcoming Depression and Starting Over: Behind the Scenes With Rand Fishkin, Moz Founder Aug 22, 2018

You may know former Moz CEO Rand Fishkin from his characteristic curly mustache, Whiteboard Friday videos, or his SEO mastery. But this interview isn’t about linking, Google rankings, or gray-hat practices. Or mustaches.

In our chat with Fishkin, he opens up about his battle with depression and how it has shaped his past decisions and guided his current ventures. He sympathizes with the many entrepreneurs who have also succumbed to loneliness and wondered why their business success wasn’t enough to make them happy.

Fishkin also talks about his new book, Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World. In it, he shares the conversations entrepreneurs have about their challenges and hardships, whether personal or in their businesses. Fishkin also shares details on his new software project and why he decided to venture into another startup.

If you want to be inspired, encouraged, and take away some great advice from a long-time founder, don’t miss this interview. We hope you find it as moving as we did!

Key Takeaways

Why striving to emulate Silicon Valley startup culture can negatively affect your business growth
How and why Moz’s customer acquisition costs went down after laying off half of his marketing team
How to know when to sacrifice profit for growth
The dark side of entrepreneurial leadership

212: Behind the Scenes With 3 Start & Scale Ecommerce Success Stories Aug 16, 2018

We are always blown away by the success stories within the Foundr community, and we take every opportunity we can to shine the spotlight on them.

In today's podcast, I am thrilled to present to you three of our Start & Scale ecommerce course students who are absolutely crushing it! I got to sit down with each one and ask them how they got started with their businesses, what challenges they faced, and what successes they are now enjoying.

You will hear from:

Adam Hendle

Adam is the founder of men’s personal care product line, Ball Wash. Adam started his ecommerce journey only eight short months ago and has already made more than $1 million in revenue.

Shamanth Pereira

Shamanth is a busy mother who created a new leggings product, and put it to the test with a pre-sale Kickstarter campaign. In a short time, she received nearly £50,000 from more than 1,500 backers. Shamanth is in the process of fulfilling those orders and putting her shop online full time.

Monique and Chevalo Wilsondebriano

Monique and Chevalo run Charleston Gourmet Burger, which was already a $200,000-per-month business, but had yet to reach its potential in online sales. Their goal was turn their website into an online store so they could generate more sales. In two months, they earned nearly $22,000 and attracted 9,110 visits to their website.

We couldn’t be happier for these guys and are proud to be part of their journeys. Please join me in congratulating them. Way to go!

Key Takeaways

Go behind the scenes to learn how three ecommerce stores became successful
Discover the two primary marketing channels Ball Wash leveraged that allowed them to scale so fast
How Shamanth conceptualized and developed her winning product idea
The learning curve for Chevalo and Monique as they transitioned their product to sell online

211: Contently’s Shane Snow on Building a Content Empire and Then Returning to His Writing Roots Aug 09, 2018

While he always had a passion for entrepreneurship, Shane Snow started his career as a freelance journalist, and during that time noticed how many of his peers were struggling to market themselves and find work. This frustration fueled his desire to develop the global content marketing platform, Contently. Contently is a unified content marketing solution for the world’s biggest enterprise brands, and it’s also a tremendous source of income for creative freelancers. By Snow’s best estimates, Contently has paid out more than $46 million (and counting) to freelancers around the globe.

As successful as his time at Contently has been, Snow never stopped being a writer at heart, and now he's back at it. He recently hired a CMO for Contently and became “founder-at-large,” relieving himself of the day-to-day management and freeing up his time to reunite with his first career love.

Today, you can find Snow promoting his soon-to-be-published book, Dream Teams, and otherwise sharing his expertise on team building and storytelling for founders. In this interview, Snow shares his journey to the top of the entrepreneurial mountain and back home again, along with his best advice learned from a seven-year reign at Contently.

Key Takeaways

The two realizations Snow had that sparked the idea for Contently
How Snow transitioned out of his role as founder and returned back to his former love of journalism
Snow's counterintuitive advice on team building and how it relates to innovation
One of the most important things we can do as leaders and team members to build relationships

Key Resources From Our Interview With Shane Snow

Find out more about Shane Snow here
Follow Shane on Twitter
Learn more about Contently

210: How to Create a Multimillion-Dollar Software Product the Market Actually Wants, With Crazy Egg’s Hiten Shah Aug 01, 2018

Hiten Shah has a killer track record when comes to creating software products. He and his co-founders have built several multimillion-dollar releases, including Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, and many of their features were the first of their kind to hit the industry.

It might seem like Shah has stumbled onto a secret formula for software-building success. But to him, it’s simply a matter of creating what his audience wants. Solving a problem is the biggest determinant of a software’s success, and Shah builds this methodology into every new piece he creates.

In this informative interview, Shah shares the details behind his process, from planning the software build and ensuring a market fit, to hiring the right people to bring it to life. As an avid mentor and advisor, Shah also answers our own, real world questions about future software builds for Foundr. Listen in and get inspired!

Key Takeaways

Learn about Shah’s newest software products to hit the market
The secret to building a profitable software product (it starts long before the first line of code is written)
How to avoid building something nobody wants
When to hire internally and when to outsource when building a SaaS product
Where most product managers go wrong during development
How to prevent your software tool from getting too bloated and overcomplicated

Key Resources

Sign up for Shah's newsletter here

209: How Two Fintech Entrepreneurs Found Stable Ground in a Volatile Space, With CoinJar’s Asher Tan and Ryan Zhou Jul 25, 2018

It only took six hours for Asher Tan and Ryan Zhou to put together the incubator pitch for CoinJar, a vision for a next-gen personal finance account that would capitalize on the growing interest in bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Five years later, CoinJar is a leading digital currency platform in Australia and the self-proclaimed “fastest way to access your money from anywhere in the world.” CoinJar’s users can spend, send, and trade their bitcoins, dollars, and pounds globally.

Despite the major challenges that come with scaling in a global market, the company has been profitable for the past three years. In this insightful interview, these brave founders share how they overcome scaling challenges, their next products to hit the market, and their top tips for entrepreneurs interested in creating fintech startups. Enjoy!

Key Takeaways

The specific challenges that come with scaling in a volatile market
Why prioritizing word-of-mouth marketing wins over other advertising channels in this industry
The duo's next products to hit the market
Tan and Zhou’s top tips for fintech startups

208: How a Charitable Mission and Influencer Marketing Sparked Massive Growth, With Griffin Thall of Pura Vida Jul 19, 2018

For Pura Vida co-founders Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman, a chance meeting with two Native jewelry artisans on a beach in Costa Rica sparked an idea that would forever change their lives. They're now running a rapidly growing brand that not only inspires tremendous customer loyalty, but also promotes products that give back in a big way.

Pura Vida (which means “pure life” in Spanish) has grown rapidly since its inception, but this isn’t the brand’s most appealing aspect. Customers also love the company, because it has provided sustainable jobs to 350+ jewelry artisans worldwide, and donated more than $1.5 million to charities using proceeds from its products.

In this inspiring interview, learn how Pura Vida has leveraged influencer marketing and social media to spread its brand message and create a global movement of loyal customers. Matching creative social strategies with a passionate mission has made this brand a massive success and we are proud to feature them. Way to go Pura Vida!

Key Takeaways

The company's unique micro-infuencer marketing program that forms the backbone of their promotional marketing campaigns
The monthly subscription club that is the fastest-growing part of the business
The strategies behind the company’s high customer engagement
How Pura Vida creates a culture and lasting experiences that contribute to customer loyalty

207: BigCommerce Co-Founder Talks Scaling to $100M While Minimizing Risk and Stress Jul 11, 2018

I’m excited to share a very special interview with you today! Mitchell Harper has been my long-time mentor and coach and a driving force behind Foundr’s success. I’m thrilled to share his story with you so you can glean some entrepreneurial gold from his experience.

Harper started his entrepreneurial journey as a software developer, building games as early as 12 years old. He built his first businesses in his teens and sold his first company around the time he graduated high school.

Partnering with another developer in 2003, Harper created Interspire, a suite of software tools for businesses, and grew it to $10 million in revenue in four years. The company eventually became BigCommerce, now one of the web's premier shopping cart platforms. BigCommerce has raised $250 million in its short lifetime, recently hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue, and the company is still growing.

While his big career wins might suggest otherwise, Harper says he is risk-averse and doesn’t believe entrepreneurs need to be big risk takers to achieve high levels of success. He prefers taking the safe route and reveals his strategies for building high impact, low-risk businesses. In this inspiring interview, Harper also shares how he battled with depression and what his journey to wholeness taught him about work/life balance.

I’m so privileged and lucky to have Mitch as a mentor and to introduce him to our Foundr family. Please listen in and get inspired by the man who has been an integral part of Foundr’s success!

Key Takeaways

Why timing is critical when securing investors, from seizing the opportunity early on to waiting long enough to mitigate risk
Mitch’s top book recommendation for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital
Why entrepreneurs don’t need to “risk it all” to become successful
Mitch’s battle with depression and how he altered his life to avoid burnout and achieve work/life balance
The power of an A-player team to grow companies

206: From Animator to Tech Educator, Lynda Weinman Reflects on a $1.5B Exit and Her New Career Jul 05, 2018

Lynda Weinman sold her 20-year company Lynda.com to LinkedIn for $1.5 billion. What is she doing now? She is reinventing herself and enjoying her new role as a champion of independent film.

Weinman is no stranger to the concept of reinvention. In fact, it's that very spirit of constant evolution that led her to become a trailblazer in the online education space, and to ultimately make a massive exit.

Her journey started with a career in animation and special effects, of all things, and even included running a punk store on L.A.’s Sunset Strip. She continued to pivot, until her creative endeavors eventually led her to education, and a business model that allowed her to teach thousands of laypeople about complex tech topics.

The company started as a brick-and-mortar classroom, but after the economic decline that followed the tragic terror attacks of September 11, 2001, Weinman was forced to take Lynda in a new direction. To weather the economic storm, she transitioned to the online subscription business model of Lynda.com.

Lynda.com’s growth was slow going until social media gained ground in 2006, a movement that helped catapult her company's revenue to $40 million and beyond. Even though Weinman never thought about selling, when the offer came in, she knew she had to pull the trigger.

Working relentlessly on Lynda for the past 20 years and now in her early 60s, Weinman has set her sights on a new course. She's now the president of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and invests in independent filmmakers using charitable grants. In this interview, Weinman shares the journey that led to her $1.5 billion exit, how and why she has continued reinventing herself, and her top advice for entrepreneurs.

Key Takeaways

The emotions that accompany the process of letting go of a 20-year company in three short months
Why it may not be wise to focus on churn rate and what to focus on instead
Why getting investors can be a wise choice if you are planning on selling your company
Lynda Weinman’s three top tips for entrepreneurs

205: Finding a Mission and Making the World a Healthier Place, With Munjal Shah of Health IQ Jun 28, 2018

A health crisis that landed Munjal Shah in the ER turned out to be the catalyst for his next mission: making the world a healthier place. On the day Munjal Shah started running a 10K race back in 2010, he was on top of the world. Just the day before, he had sold his company to Google, marking his second successful exit.

Then the chest pains started. Shah wound up in the ER, and while it didn’t end up being a heart attack, the incident was a sobering reminder that his own father had had one while in his 40s. It was a wake-up call for Shah, who was 37 at the time. He started focusing on his health, lost 40 pounds, and decided his next entrepreneurial endeavor would make the world a healthier place.

“People always say, ‘Go find your mission,’” Shah says. He’s now the founder of a new and growing insurance startup called Health IQ, which encourages healthy behavior by taking a data-driven approach to its coverage. “I would say my mission found me.”

Key Takeaways

The journey that led to two successful exits (one was with Google)
The unconventional, non-scalable hiring methods that led Shah to build A-player teams
How Shah discovered his mission and how this fuels his startup’s success
Shah’s top advice for founders looking to raise a round of financing
When and how to pivot: the key to Shah’s successful track record
Shah’s top tips for busy entrepreneurs (it has nothing to do with meetings, investors, or customers)

204: Taking the Road Less Traveled to Build the Business of Your Dreams, With Mike Dillard of Self Made Man Jun 21, 2018

In business, in life, and even behind the wheel of his actual race car, Mike Dillard goes from zero to 60 in the blink of an eye.

In stark contrast to his calm voice and introverted nature, Dillard is a pioneer willing to crash through boundaries and challenge common wisdom. He just prefers to do it through the written word, rather than grand speeches or face-to-face encounters.

The core principle driving Dillard’s pedal-to-the-metal attitude? He deeply believes in the power of one person to change their community, their industry, and maybe even the world. “I approach life with a core belief that anyone can accomplish anything,” his website bio reads. “That not only can one man or woman make a difference, but that it’s one man or woman who always makes the difference.”

Key Takeaways

How Dillard leveraged his introverted nature to find success in an extrovert-driven world
The biggest crash of Dillard’s career, which cost him $12 million in revenue overnight
The one thing Dillard needs to build a business (it has nothing to do with money)
The mission and purpose that has guided Dillard (through the bad times) to build the business of his dreams

203: The One-Two Punch for Sustainable, Consistent Startup Growth, With Dmitry Dragilev of JustReachOut Jun 14, 2018

Dmitry Dragilev has a typical entrepreneurial story, but maybe a little more extreme. Bored in his dead-end, corporate job, he was fearful of ending up like his older, unsatisfied peers. One day, Dragilev read in a magazine about what was going on in Silicon Valley, and up and quit.

He sold everything he owned, hopped in his car, and made his way to California. Equipped only with a knowledge of coding and a drive to succeed, Dragilev had made a decision that changed the rest of his life.

Key Takeaways:

Dragilev's unique growth marketing approach for building sustainable, consistent traffic
How to build quality relationships with journalists to increase your brand's exposure
How Dragilev helped two companies skyrocket sales with two PR strategies
The quick website fix that resulted in a two-second improvement in user session time

201: Zero to $10 Million in 4 Years: How King Kong’s Sabri Suby Went from Work-at-Home Consultant to Booming Agency Founder May 30, 2018

To Sabri Suby, business is a jungle and only the strong survive. To be successful, you need to dominate the digital landscape and crush the competition into a fine powder. That fierce attitude has served Suby, and his clients, very well over the years.

Suby is the founder of King Kong, the fastest-growing digital marketing agency in Australia. Last year, King Kong raked in $7 million in revenue from its digital marketing campaigns, over $200 million in sales for its clients, and this year, is aiming to top that.

Hustling since he was a teen, Suby learned how to sell early on. Making a whole lot of cold calls over the course of his life, he never let up. Starting King Kong in his bedroom on his girlfriend's laptop, Suby preferred to jump into the trenches and get his hands dirty instead of wasting time reading business books and attending events. That unrelenting approach definitely paid off.

Listen in as Suby discusses why his agency scaled to millions in revenue so quickly, how to dominate direct response marketing, and why a service-based business should be the top choice for entrepreneurs.

ATTENTION: Suby has partnered with Foundr to teach an epic new course, "Consulting Empire.” If you want to learn how to start and scale a service-based business, whether you are a consultant, coach or freelancer, Suby reveals all of his golden strategies (the exact ones he used to scale from zero to $10 million) in this new course. It’s just about ready so get on the free VIP waitlist here to be one of the first we notify when it launches!

200: Foundr’s Story: How a Humble Side Project Became a Global Brand, with CEO Nathan Chan [Special 200th Episode] May 23, 2018

I refuse to lose.”

It's the mantra that has guided Foundr CEO Nathan Chan through the highs and lows of becoming an entrepreneur. It helped him resist the naysayers, and confront deep insecurities and self-doubt, to build the business he fell in love with right away. That sense of determination and drive continues to fuel Foundr’s big goal of impacting tens of millions of entrepreneurs around the globe with world-class resources and training.

In this inspiring interview, Nathan gets up close and personal and takes us behind the scenes of what it was like starting Foundr—the good and not so good—and the many lessons he learned along the way. Interviewed by Dave Hobson, our head of product and business development and one of the first to join the Foundr team, the two reminisce about the early days, the first goals the company set, and the memorable moments that transformed the company from a side hustle to global presence.

Pull up a chair and a drink (Does Nathan prefer wine or beer? Find out in this interview!) and learn more about Foundr, how the company started, and where it is headed in the near future. Nathan shares it all in this special 200th podcast episode. We promise you this is an interview that will inspire you for many years to come.

Key Takeaways

How Nathan transitioned from his day job to full-time entrepreneur and why the timing was critical to his success
What separates the entrepreneurial success stories from those who never make it happen
How to minimize risk where you can while still making huge strides for your business
The importance of knowing your strengths and weaknesses and getting the right advice from mentors. This is one of the keys to Foundr’s growth.

199: From Passion To Profit: How Payal Kadakia Turned Her Love of Dance into a Global Enterprise May 16, 2018

As a lifelong, accomplished dancer, Payal Kadakia never thought she would become an entrepreneur. But it was that very love of dance that compelled her to help others pursue or rekindle their own passions.

Driven by a strong desire to create something with potential to change people's lives, Kadakia created ClassPass, a platform that helps fitness and dance enthusiasts find and book classes in 8,500 studios in 50 cities around the world. Kadakia has appeared on prominent lists such as Fortune’s Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs and Marie Claire’s Most Influential Women in America, and ClassPass has been ranked among the fastest-growing technology companies in North America.

It may sound like Kadakia effortlessly glided from performing arts to business, but her seven-year journey was full of setbacks. She overcame several problems and had to pivot twice to stay afloat and then thrive.

In this interview, Kadakia explains how she turned her personal passion into a successful business, including the importance of partnerships and how being “mission-obsessed” instead of “product-obsessed” fueled her growth. She also discusses the power of purpose in entrepreneurship and the principles of real perseverance.

Key Takeaways

How passion and success are closely related and how entrepreneurs can connect the two
Why having heart and soul in business is crucial for problem-solving
The partnership model that made ClassPass so successful
Why the size of your company doesn’t matter if you follow your mission

198: How This Breakdancer Built a 6-Figure Instagram Business and Travels the World for Free (Instagram Domination Student Spotlight) May 09, 2018

In today’s podcast, we are shining the spotlight on one of our successful Instagram Domination students, Zach Benson. This driven entrepreneur is in the trenches daily doing what it takes to make his startup dreams (and travel dreams) a reality. And he’s done a great job. We couldn’t be prouder!

Benson was a former professional breakdancer who suffered an injury that ended his dance career. Looking for a “plan B,” he turned to Instagram and joined the Instagram Domination course to learn how to build his personal travel pages and drive valuable traffic. He’s done so well, that in the last 18 months, 170 exotic hotels have given him free stays in exchange for exposure to his network, and he is on track to hit $1 million in revenue.

But, the real magic happened when Benson partnered with a few Instagram Domination students and started an agency to help people grow and manage their Instagram accounts. The agency, Assistagram, has worked with high-profile clients such as The Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton and currently services 50 other companies.

Benson is grateful to the Instagram Domination community for allowing him to connect with like-minded people and create a thriving business fueled by his passions for travel and social media. We are so happy for him and the success he has achieved. Way to go, Zach!

Key Takeaways

How to build Instagram fan pages quickly to drive traffic to your company website
Why Instagram is still powerful even with the recent algorithm changes
What kind of content to post if you want to build brand awareness and grow your following

197: Technology and Tacos—From Fired Facebook Employee to Eight-Figure Founder, With Noah Kagan of Sumo May 02, 2018

At 24 years of age Noah Kagan got tired of being fired. After getting the boot from Facebook and other companies, Kagan decided to create his own job and live life by his own rules. Those rules included posting taco-loving blogs, shooting over-the-top YouTube vids and creating Sumo, an eight-figure global company that empowers business owners to grow their brands using cool, geeky software tools.

Kagan likes to make business exciting and embraces the madness of entrepreneurial life. But aside from his contagious energy, he has a lot of knowledge and loves to help entrepreneurs. In this interview, he shares the lessons he learned building an eight-figure company and his top tips for hiring and maintaining A-player teams.

Kagan also stresses the importance of building relationships in this “era of Tinder-ization,” and teaches entrepreneurs how to set and track intentional goals to drive companies forward. Throw back a few (drinks or tacos) and listen in as Kagan shares his life and business adventures and helps entrepreneurs build and market profitable businesses.

Key Takeaways

The underestimated importance of relationship building in today’s market
How to create and keep a team of innovative employees who are team players
Why some vanity metrics, although exciting, can be a time and talent suck
How to set long and short-term goals that advance businesses

196: Fueling Massive Growth by Adopting a Culture of Experimentation, With Dan Siroker Of Optimizely Apr 25, 2018

Dan Siroker has always believed in the power of data and experimentation. A former project manager at Google and director of analytics under President Barack Obama, Siroker believes that experimentation should be one of the highest-order cultural values of an organization. To that end, Siroker co-founded Optimizely, a globally adopted software tool that enables businesses to experiment and fine-tune their businesses based on data.

From product development to front-end conversions, Siroker believes that a culture of experimentation should start from the top and trickle to the bottom, fueling growth on a large scale. Otherwise, organizations that are too afraid of risk and intolerant of failure end up undermining their ability to innovate.

In this interview, Siroker shares his strong belief in the power of experimentation, and how startups can use data to their advantage, now more than ever. He also shares one of the biggest lessons he's learned in his entrepreneurial career, and how he is building a 100-year legacy with his company.

195: From Pro Skateboarder to Running a Brand-Building Empire, With Rob Dyrdek of Dyrdek Machine Apr 18, 2018

Growing up as a fanatical skateboarder first in Ohio and then moving to California as a teen to pursue skating professionally, many of his friends and fellow skateboarders were older than him and running their own businesses.

From a very young age, he was steeped in skateboarding’s DIY culture, always on the lookout for the next frontier in the sport, or scrappy new brand to emerge from the scene. From skate shops to clothing companies, Dyrdek was exposed to a variety of entrepreneurial ventures early in life.

Key Takeaways

The core traits Dyrdek looks for when investing in businesses and entrepreneurs
What his “core to more” philosophy is and how it contributes to a company’s longevity
Dyrdek’s many business successes (and failures) and what he learned from each

194: From Zero To $20 Million, A Story Of Courage And Relentless Discipline, with Steve McLeod of Fire And Safety Australia Apr 11, 2018

Former firefighter Steve McLeod turned his passion for helping people into a nationwide business, scaling his Fire and Safety Australia company to eight figures in 10 years. In addition to running a profitable company, McLeod also empowers entrepreneurs by teaching them how to become more courageous and run goal-focused businesses that never give up.

According to McLeod, it takes courage to protect and serve, especially when danger could be present at every turn. But it takes another kind of courage to withstand the pressures of entrepreneurship to build and scale a $20 million dollar company.

In this inspiring interview, McLeod discusses his latest book, Courage for Profit, and reveals some of the gold he has learned from his own struggles, successes, and failures. He outlines the key principles entrepreneurs need to embody if they want to scale their businesses. We salute McLeod for his passion for serving and helping people. Way to go!

Key Takeaways

The 4-part formula that fueled McLeod’s massive success
The red-green-yellow matrix system for smashing goals (you've probably never heard this before)
The key to being super-focused, even if you struggle with constant distractions
The two most important things you need to know to scale your company
How to hire and keep the employees who will drive your business forward

193: The Power of Empathy in Workplace Leadership, With Gary Muller of The Mill House Inn Apr 04, 2018

Gary Muller’s company is thriving. His Mill House Inn in East Hampton, New York has been in business for 20 years and recognized by Travel + Leisure and the Travel Channel, highly rated by Zagat, and featured in other prominent publications. His properties have welcomed celebrities and prominent people from all over the world.

If you ask Muller the secret to his success, he'll likely tell you that his family is largely responsible. "Family" is how Muller describes his employees at the inn, and he believes all leaders should treat team members as such, displaying empathy, instilling trust, and creating an environment where going “above and beyond” is a daily occurrence.

Muller is in the people-helping business. Whether that means serving his cherished guests or connecting with his work family, his care for other people runs throughout his unique leadership style. Learn how Muller has grown such a loyal and dedicated team, and how he fosters a work culture that has led to massive business success.

Key Takeaways

The most important trait to look for in a potential hire (it has nothing to do with skills)
When it’s time to let people go, even if it pains you to do so
The difference between leadership and management, and how one is critical to growing a business
How to ensure your team is doing their best work, without micromanaging

192: Best of Foundr: Gary Vee, Tony Robbins, and More Talk Hustle, Mindset, and GSD (Foundr 5th Birthday Special Episode) Mar 28, 2018

Welcome back to our “Best of Foundr” podcast series!

To celebrate Foundr’s 5th birthday, we put together a series of special edition podcast episodes that feature the best snippets from our most popular episodes. We pulled out the gems from each of your favorite interviews and compiled them into a three-week series of pure content gold.

This week we are focusing on hustle, motivation, mindset, and getting things done! In this episode, we have one of my heroes and the king of hustle, Gary Vee. We also have memory and productivity wizard Jim Kwik, morning routine master Hal Elrod, and the mindset king himself, Tony Robbins!

While I have loved the releases in this special birthday series so far, I have to say, we saved some of the best for last. In this episode, you will be challenged and motivated to seriously move to the next level!

191: Best of Foundr: 4 Superstars on Investing, Sales, And Scaling Your Business (Foundr 5th Birthday Special Episode) Mar 21, 2018

Welcome to our special “Best of Foundr” edition of the podcast!

To celebrate Foundr’s 5th birthday, we put together a series of special edition podcast episodes that feature the best snippets from our most popular episodes. We pulled out the gems from each of your favorite interviews and compiled them into a three-week series of pure content gold.

This is the second week of our three-part series. Last week, we heard from four successful entrepreneurs on how to build an epic online presence.

This week we are focusing on investing, sales, and scaling your business. You will be learning from two masters of sales, Ben Chaib and Matthew Kimberley; from the shark himself, Robert Herjavec, on investing and scaling your business; and lastly from Mr. E-Myth himself, Michael Gerber, on setting your business up to scale.

These are some of my personal favorites that have had a huge influence on how Foundr is run today! Enjoy listening to the best of the best!

190: Best of Foundr: 4 Superstars on Building An Epic Online Presence (Foundr 5th Birthday Special Episode) Mar 14, 2018

Welcome to our special “Best of Foundr” edition of the podcast!

To celebrate Foundr’s 5th birthday, we put together a series of special edition podcast episodes that feature the best snippets from our most popular episodes. We pulled out the gems from each of your favorite interviews and compiled them into a three-week series of pure content gold.

This week we are focusing on how to create an online presence with content marketing and Instagram. We are featuring some serious advice from our conversations with Gretta Rose van Riel, queen of Instagram and Influencer marketing; Darren Rowse, the OG of the blogging world; Deonna Monique, Instagram millionaire; and content king Derek Flanzraich, founder of Greatist.

Enjoy listening to the best of the best!

Key Takeaways

The influencer marketing strategies behind Gretta van Riel’s multimillion-dollar ecommerce brands
How to build a successful content-based business with Darren Rowse
The branding and traffic strategies behind Greatist’s massive success
How to use Instagram to generate millions of dollars in your niche with Deonna Monique

189: Foundr Community Member Shifts His Business Into High Gear With Help From Mentors [Foundr’s 5th Birthday Special Episode] Mar 07, 2018

Welcome to Foundr's fifth birthday celebration!

Over the past five years, we’ve been blessed to interact with an awesome community of passionate entrepreneurs who are making it happen and turning their dreams into reality. We want to honor these inspiring entrepreneurs in our community by sharing their stories and highlighting their successes.

In today's special episode, we talk with Austin Peterson, a rising entrepreneur who is working in the trenches daily to build his vintage truck restoration business Black Dog Traders.

Austin reached out to me for advice in early 2017, and it's been amazing to watch him build his business to new heights. In this episode, we're airing a one-on-one coaching session with Austin and mentor David Brim, founder of Tomcar Australia, who is helping him take his business to the next level.

In this episode, get the inside scoop on the advice that is helping Peterson optimize his production, streamline his processes, and continue to scale his company in the coming year.

Well done Austin! We look forward to your continued success!

Key Takeaways:

David Brim’s advice on how to optimize production and streamline processes
How Tomcar acquires leads and funnels them through its sales process
Why offering too many product options can hinder a sale
When and how to outsource to speed up your results

188: Stop Trying And Start Crushing It: Our In-Depth Interview With Gary Vee Feb 28, 2018

“I’m not crippled with being perfect. I’m crippled with not doing,” Gary Vaynerchuk says, and that about sums up the philosophy that propels him ahead in life and business—avoiding hesitation and seizing the moment at all costs.

To many, Vaynerchuck (aka Gary Vee) needs no introduction. He’s a serial entrepreneur, four-time New York Times-bestselling author, venture capitalist, popular podcast host, and sought-after public speaker serving an audience of millions. And he's showing no signs of slowing down.

How does this guy accomplish so much? Vaynerchuk doesn’t agonize or hesitate when starting something new. He dives in voraciously, working his tail off and learning as he goes. He also never aspires to "have it all." Too often, entrepreneurs strive for some lofty material goal as the finish line, but for Vaynerchuk, having it all begins on the first day we embark on our entrepreneurial journeys. The reward is in the process itself.

In this interview, Vaynerchuk shares tidbits from his new book Crushing It! (an updated version of his 2009 bestseller), unpacks epic branding and marketing tips that have led to his success, and reveals his personal philosophy on GSD.

Gary Vee wants aspiring entrepreneurs to crush it with him. Are you on board? Listen in and get inspired.

Key Takeaways

What it really means to “have it all,” and why you may already have it
Why trying instead of doing leads to stagnation
Why all businesses need to be media producers, regardless of their business models
Insights on the personal vs. professional brand debate and how to decide what's best for you
Why omni-channel branding draws more people to your company

187: Fighting Global Poverty by Breaking Entrepreneurial Rules, With Jacqueline Novogratz of Acumen Feb 21, 2018

Key Takeaways

- Acumen's trailblazing vision on global poverty eradication - Why it's better to invest in people first, then ideas - The companies Acumen has invested in and the depth of impact they have made - Key advice from Novogratz to anyone interested in pursuing social entrepreneurship

185: How Defying Silicon Valley Culture Landed 400K Clients, with Melody McCloskey of StyleSeat Feb 08, 2018

Melody McCloskey is the founder of StyleSeat, a San Francisco-based SaaS company that has raised $40 million in funding, powers billions in transactions and is recognized in 82% of American cities. StyleSeat provides tools for beauty professionals, which lets them run their entire business with just one piece of software.

If StyleSeat sounds like your typical booming, industry-disrupting tech startup, don't be fooled. McCloskey is dedicated to running her company in very atypical ways, and in today's interview, she shares how bucking Silicon Valley norms can help you achieve tremendous success—on your own terms.

For example, her startup is led overwhelmingly by women, a rarity in an industry with persistent gender gaps. The company has also chosen to stop raising money, and without a marketing or sales team, it barely invests in marketing.

McCloskey loves what she does and her business decisions are not solely driven by a pursuit of revenue and growth like many of her peers. Her goal is to empower female business owners with amazing products so they can do what they love as well. When they win, she wins.

Check out the interview to learn McCloskey's unique approaches to funding, growth, and staffing, along with other priceless lessons.

Key Takeaways

Why McCloskey, against popular opinion, is not interested in raising any more money
The primary engine behind StyleSeat's exponential growth
Why the startup walked away from a billion-dollar business model
Why McCloskey keeps her team smaller than most comparable startups

184: The Unconventional Approach That Built an Online Education Empire of 3M Students, With Ajit Nawalkha of Mindvalley Jan 31, 2018

Unlike most entrepreneurs, Ajit Nawalkha doesn't focus on profit, revenue, sales, or customer surveys to grow his company. He's also been known to abandon some of his products, even when they're highly profitable, if they don't align with his vision. An unconventional approach, to be sure, but his personal development school Mindvalley has more than 3 million students and counting.

So what does Nawalkha focus on? His mission is to create life-changing experiences for his customers, and does so by bringing them instruction from some of the most powerful speakers of our time.

Nawalkha’s main goal is not to develop products, but to create "heart-centered experiences." And he believes this is the key to Mindvalley’s success in its quest to move their business—and all of humanity—forward. In this unique interview, you will learn exactly how Mindvalley creates these amazing client experiences, and its unconventional philosophy for measuring success.

Nawalkha and Mindvalley have risen to the top by focusing not on conventional indicators of growth, but on making the world a better place—one client experience at a time.

Key Takeaways

How Mindvalley validates its products and finds out what its customers want (without using surveys)
Mindvalley’s secret sauce to creating amazing experiences for its clients
What many new entrepreneurs get wrong that limits their ability to grow and scale
How Mindvalley measures success (it has nothing to do with revenue and churn rate)

183: Husband-and-Wife Founders Share Two Decade's Worth of Game-Changing Entrepreneurial Advice Jan 24, 2018

Key Takeaways

Lessons learned from more than 20 years of experience as entrepreneurs
The defining action that tripled their conversions and led to the sale of their first company
The one marketing strategy that has allowed them to massively scale their business (it has nothing to do with social media or advertising)
How to hire trusted C-level executives to take the load off your shoulders as you grow

182: Eric Ries on Pioneering the Lean Startup Movement and How to Grow Any Company to Scale Jan 18, 2018

Key Takeaways

The hard-earned lessons Ries learned that ultimately led to the creation of his renowned book, The Lean Startup, and ushered in a worldwide movement
How to hire and assign managers successfully
How to create a product your customers will love (Hint: it starts with your product owner)
The downfall of many leaders who want innovation and change but do not see it happen in their organ

181: Running a 7-Figure Business On 5.5 Hours a Day, With Ari Meisel of Less Doing Jan 11, 2018

Entrepreneurs find inspiration in all sorts of places. But for Ari Meisel, founder, bestselling author, and productivity expert, desperation was the driving force behind the launch of his successful company, Less Doing. That same desperation led him to breakthroughs in productivity that changed his life.

At just 23 years old, Meisel was enjoying a thriving real estate career, but after suffering some major business blows and landing $3 million in debt, the stress overwhelmed him and he was diagnosed with debilitating Crohn’s disease. Managing the disease crippled Meisel’s ability to work regularly. Some days he was unable to work longer than an hour.

During this difficult experience, Meisel realized he needed to devise a way to accomplish more work in the limited time he had. Through a long process of experimentation, Ari developed his Less Doing, More Living productivity system, which allowed him the time he needed both to build a new business and improve his health.

A devoted husband, father of five, and dedicated businessman, Meisel now helps individuals and businesses around the world become more effective—all while working only 5 ½ hours a day. He's also recently teamed up with Foundr to teach his Less Doing, More Living system to our awesome community.

In this inspiring interview, learn the secrets behind Meisel’s airtight productivity system and discover how you can also become a productivity master and optimize, automate, and outsource your life and business.

Key Takeaways

Ari’s 15-minute outsourcing rule that frees you up to focus on growing your business
How saying no to new opportunities can grow your business more than saying yes
The power of using machine learning to slash your work time and automate systems
Why working more hours does not always translate into getting more work done

180: How a Made-Up Idea for a Business Became the Second-Largest Expense Reporting Company, with Expensify’s David Barrett Jan 03, 2018

What if you could stumble upon a game-changing idea without spending time and money on validation, industry research, or prototypes? And then grow this idea into the second largest company in your niche? It’s not common, but that's what happened to today’s podcast guest, David Barrett.

Barrett is the founder of Expensify, the second largest expense-reporting company in the world. But in its early stages, Barrett knew nothing about the space, nor was he particularly interested in it. In fact, he completely made up the Expensify idea as a decoy to get some funding for another endeavor, since banks weren’t interested in his “real” business idea.

But the decoy picked up steam as he pitched it, and before Barrett knew it, he was sitting on a potential goldmine. People were talking more about his fictitious business idea than they were his original idea. And Expensify was born.

Keeping with Barrett's unconventional approach to startups, Expensify’s massive growth has also been atypical. Barrett has not spent a dime on advertising, outbound sales calls, or salespeople. The software essentially sells itself.

In this packed interview, learn exactly how Barrett grew his company and how his unique business sales model and contrarian style disrupted the space. David Barrett is a true example of how challenging the status quo and disrupting common ideas can lead to avenues of massive growth and potential.

Key Takeaways

The sales model that allowed Barrett to scale his company without paying for customer acquisition
Why profit should not come at the sacrifice of growth and how the two can coexist
The misguided business advice that almost everyone follows, but leads to failure
The most important factor to building an A-player team
Why reinventing the wheel with your business can limit your potential

179: How Kiva's Jessica Jackley Turned a Simple Idea into $1B in Microloans Dec 20, 2017

Jessica Jackley, co-founder of the game-changing microlending site Kiva, never played the typical role from entrepreneurial stories we're accustomed to hearing. She didn't start a business as a kid, and never dreamed of making millions. Jackley considered entrepreneurship a greedy venture, in fact, and she wanted to be one of the good guys.

But things quickly shifted for Jackley while she was in East Africa doing survey work for a nonprofit. Inspired by her work there with microfinancing, Jackley thought up the idea for Kiva, and wanted to spread it to other countries. Kiva would be a business, but one seeking to make a social impact.

In 2009, as an experiment, Kiva launched its first pilot round of loans. Fast forward 12 years later, and the company has issued more than $1 billion in microloans to 2.6 million borrowers in 84 countries.

Jackley didn’t stop there. After Kiva, she went on to become an accomplished investor, entrepreneur, and the author of Clay Water Brick: Finding Inspiration from Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most with the Least. She currently teaches social entrepreneurship at USC.

Throughout her experiences, Jackley discovered how entrepreneurship and social change could not only coexist, but come together to create a huge global impact.

Inspired to follow in Jackley’s footsteps? Well, don’t be. Jackley doesn’t want you to replicate what she did. She urges entrepreneurs to play by their own rules, define business with their own ideas, and never ask for permission. She believes these principles have always been the key to her success, and she outlines them in detail in this inspiring interview.

Key Takeaways

How and why hesitant entrepreneurs often cripple themselves
Why naiveté can be a strong entrepreneurial trait
The strategies Kiva used to build early-stage momentum and achieve massive exposure in its first three months
The reason Jackley decided to close her latest business venture, Profounder, and pursue a different path

178: How 17-year-old Justin Kemperman and Brandon Monaghan Scaled to $500K in 3 Months (Start & Scale Student Spotlight – Part 3) Dec 13, 2017

Welcome to the final installment of our three-part podcast series that’s shining the spotlight on successful entrepreneurs who hail right from our very own Foundr community! These passionate people are in the trenches daily doing what it takes to make their startup dreams a reality.

If you haven’t listened to parts one and two, featuring Gamal Codner and Shannon Willougby, you can check them out right here and here.

Today, we talk with Brandon Monaghan and Justin Kemperman, superstar entrepreneurs (one hasn’t graduated high school yet!) who developed a stellar brand and scaled their ecommerce business to half a million in sales in just 10 short weeks.

After joining our Start & Scale ecommerce course, they realized they didn’t need to reinvent the wheel to make money in ecommerce. They just needed to improve upon an existing product and build a powerful brand around it.

And, that’s exactly what they did. Their company, The Urban Lash, scaled so quickly that they didn’t have enough inventory to supply orders. They kept on growing, and Brandon and Justin recently sold their business for a nice profit and are ready to start the process all over again.

In this power-packed interview, we go behind the scenes with Justin and Brandon and learn exactly how they scaled their business so quickly, what principles guided their growth, and what they have planned for the future. We are extremely proud of these guys and how rapidly they grew their ecommerce business. Way to go!

Key Takeaways:

The steps they took to rebrand an existing product and blow it up to $500k in sales
The two strategies that created so much growth in such a short time
The advertising strategy that allowed them to scale week after week and remain profitable
The influencer marketing tactics they used to catapult their brand

177: How Shannon Willoughby Turned Her Passion Into a $30K/Month Business (Start & Scale Student Spotlight – Part 2) Dec 06, 2017

Welcome to part two of our three-part podcast series that's shining the spotlight on successful entrepreneurs who hail right from our very own Foundr community! These passionate people are in the trenches daily doing what it takes to make their startup dreams a reality.

If you haven't listened to part one, featuring Gamal Codner, you can check it out right here.

Today, we talk with Shannon Willoughby, a courageous entrepreneur who started from zero and scaled her ecommerce business to $30,000+ per month and growing. Using the principles she learned in our Start & Scale ecommerce course, Shannon was able to surpass $250,000 in sales since starting her aromatherapy business just four months ago.

This episode is packed with advice on how anyone can scale a profitable ecommerce business, but it's also an inspiring story. Not only did Shannon build a business from zero, she's also recovered from two strokes and won the New Zealand rugby National Championship.

Her “never die” attitude will have you dreaming bigger than ever. Learn the strategies that led to Shannon’s success and how to follow in her footsteps. We are extremely proud to share her story with you!

Key Takeaways

The one avoidable mistake Shannon made that slowed her progress and how she turned it around
How passion and personal experience plays into business success
The most important factor that fueled Shannon’s early success (it’s super easy to replicate)
The pre-business step all ecommerce shop owners should take to ensure people will buy their product

176: Gamal Codner Scales His Ecommerce Business to $60K/month In 3 Months (Start & Scale Student Spotlight - Part 1) Nov 30, 2017

The Foundr community is full of passionate people from all walks of life, in the trenches daily doing what it takes to make their startup dreams a reality. In this week's podcast, we want to shine the spotlight on one of these rising entrepreneurs who we're especially proud of—Gamal Codner of Fresh Heritage.

In part one of a three-part Start & Scale podcast series, we talked with this corporate-sales-guy-turned-ecommerce-entrepreneur, who overcame some difficult setbacks to scale his business to incredible success. Codner is a student of our Start & Scale ecommerce course, and was able to leverage the principles he learned in the course to grow his physical products business by 30X in just three months.

Before becoming a Start & Scale student, Codner left his corporate sales job to become a successful affiliate marketer. He then joined an accelerator program and decided to create his own ecommerce business. Codner was having some success but it wasn’t until he joined Start & Scale that he was able to use the principles we teach in the course to catapult his business revenue from $2,000 to $60,000 per month.

In this rare interview with an up-and-coming member of the Foundr community, we learn the exact strategies Codner used to create products his audience loves, and take his business to the next level. We are extremely proud of Gamal’s achievements and we are happy to share his inspiring story with you!

Key Takeaways

The one thing you must have to scale your ecommerce business
How new ecommerce entrepreneurs can get their products in front of large audiences quickly
Codner’s newest content marketing strategy, and how it will help him reach greater heights next year
A low-risk strategy to testing new products before you launch them full throttle
The one low-cost strategy Codner wished he had used during the initial stages of his business

175: How a Navy Seal-Turned-Entrepreneur Scaled His Company From Zero To 8 Figures Nov 23, 2017

As a former Navy Seal, Brandon Webb is no stranger to life’s roller coaster of adversities and triumphs. In the military, pressure is a constant, and learning how to withstand and thrive under that pressure has made Webb a victor in his own battles, whether in business or everyday life.

In this interview with Foundr, Webb shares the story of how he lost millions in his first failed startup and turned his misfortune around to build and scale his eight-figure media and ecommerce business, Hurricane Group, Inc. He shares exactly what the turning point was that gave him a burst of forward momentum and the realizations that led to his success.

Webb’s astonishing accomplishments have been shaped by the principles he's mastered to overcome adversity, maintain laser-sharp focus, and make better decisions under pressure. He discusses how learning the necessary principles of FOCUS have helped help him create attainable, actionable goals that influenced outcomes and have helped him win in life and business.

As a New York Times-bestselling author, Webb also takes you behind the cover of his new book, Total Focus: Make Better Decisions Under Pressure, where he discusses how to approach the challenges and complexities of growing a startup using the indispensable life skills and principles he learned as a Navy Seal.

Key Takeaways

Why saying no to some irresistible opportunities can save your business.
How to figure out the delicate balance between doing too much and doing just enough to move the needle
Why raising money can sometimes bury you deeper into a hole of failure
The one thing all young entrepreneurs should know to avoid an insecure financial future
The single trait an entrepreneur needs to get investors to fork over their money
Webb’s personal and business goal-setting strategies that have led him to winning in business and life.
And more!

174: How to Start a Social Change Movement with 100 Million People, with Ben Rattray of Change.org Nov 16, 2017

Anyone, technically, can build a business. But it takes real skill to convert an audience into die-hard followers who will stick with you no matter what. Ben Rattray is an expert at doing just that, now at the helm of one of the largest online communities in the world, not to mention a major force for social change.

Rattray is the founder of Change.org, one of the world's biggest social enterprises with over 100 million users spread across 196 countries, empowering everyday people to create and join social causes. In 2012, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world, according to Time magazine, and he's partnered with titans ranging from Virgin to Amnesty International.

But before it became the massive vehicle for online activism it is today, Change.org looked very different. In fact, it actually wasn't until 2011 that Change.org became the online petition platform we all know and love today.

Like most entrepreneurs, Rattray had to go through a few pivots before finally developing a model that actually worked. While most entrepreneurs can only afford to pivot maybe once or twice, if they're lucky, Rattray had the power of community behind him. And that power can take you a long way.

Rattray did what most others could not, he managed to not only build a huge community that loved what he was doing, but he was also able to keep them loyal to his brand even while undergoing multiple changes. You don't have to be in social enterprise to understand the magnitude of such an accomplishment, and just how valuable it can be to any business.

Luckily for our listeners, Rattray knows exactly how to do it.

In this episode you'll learn:

Why a name is everything. Rattray goes into detail about how to find the right name for your company
Why you always need to find investment before you launch
How to take advantage of upsells and cross-sells to increase your bottom line
Pivoting and changing your business model
The how-to guide for mobilizing your community using content
& so much more!

173: How to Predict The Future with Kevin Kelly Nov 08, 2017

If you don't know Kevin Kelly's name, you undoubtedly know his work. Staying mostly behind the scenes, Kelly has quietly influenced the world as we know it, from pop culture to how we interact with digital technology.

He launched and built up one of the most influential media brands in the world, with a devoted audience of millions—a brand that's published, and even launched the careers of Pulitzer Prize winners, presidents, filmmakers, and of course, billionaire entrepreneurs.

Kelly is co-founder of the one-and-only Wired magazine.

In his time as editor-in-chief at Wired, Kelly was a pioneer of helping the world understand and interact with the internet and digital technology at large, as their role in our lives exploded. Since then, he's gone on to publish multiple books and launch multiple successful businesses. Throughout this interview, though, one theme persists:

Kelly is a true futurist.

Not only have many of his predictions about the future come true, from crowdfunding to wearable technology, but his keen ability to hack into these cultures early on, before they've hit the mainstream, has been the key to his success.

Luckily for our listeners, Kelly reveals in this sweeping interview his methodology for culture-hacking and how he's just so darn good at predicting the future.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Kelly's method for culture-hacking an audience and building a worldwide brand
The future of print media, and how digital entrepreneurs can take advantage of it
A rare behind-the-scenes look at the history of Wired
The true meaning of "a thousand true fans" and what it means for entrepreneurs
How to package every product "like a magazine"
& much more!

172: Finding A-Grade Talent on a Bootstrapped Budget with Cyan Ta'eed of Envato Nov 01, 2017

For any startup to be successful, it's going to need an amazing team. It's why Fortune 500 companies are willing to pay their executives so much, and invest millions of dollars into finding and hiring the right people.

For the founders of startups, though, especially those that are bootstrapping, there's barely enough money to pay themselves, let alone hire anyone anyone else. The challenge of finding the right person to bring onto your team becomes that much harder.

It's a position most founders find themselves in when they need to start bringing on new staff, and Cyan Ta'eed was no exception.

In the beginning of Envato, one of the world's leading digital marketplaces with over 1.5 million active customers, it was just Ta'eed and her two other co-founders. It was a 100% bootstrapped operation, and still is today, and for a while, the three-person team was enough. But they soon quickly realized that if they were to grow any further, they needed to grow their team.

"We couldn't offer above market, because so many startups who had taken funding to get these amazing, sort of, guns. These people who can command these incredibly high salaries," Ta'eed says. "So instead we would look for people with great potential, people who were entrepreneurial themselves, people who we knew could take the ball and run with it."

Ta'eed hit the pavement and began the seemingly impossible task of finding that unicorn who's driven, entrepreneurial, and a problem-solver. In the end, though, she found a system that made finding and hiring exceptional talent, exceptionally easy.

In this interview you'll learn:

Where to look for when hunting for A-grade talent
How to know whether your new employee is really going to help you grow
What a highly effective founding team should look like
How to juggle building multiple products without losing focus
How Ta'eed disrupts an entire industry
& much more!

171: Shark Tank's Janine Allis Shares Her Secrets for Growing a Startup With Zero Funding Oct 13, 2017

Despite being a prolific investor as one of the judges on Australia's Shark Tank, Janine Allis would rather sell her family home than seek investor funding. How do we know? Well, that's precisely what she did to start her own business.

Allis started her first business while on maternity leave, and it was then, like so many entrepreneurs, when she realized she didn't want to live by someone else's rules anymore. The result was Boost Juice, a retail empire that stretches over 500 stores across the globe, making it the largest and most profitable juice bar chain in the world.

While Allis certainly isn't entirely against the idea of taking investor money, she does caution entrepreneurs that raising capital should never be the first goal. And she has some indispensable advice on how to avoid the common money traps so many entrepreneurs fall into.

The most important stake any entrepreneur has in their own company is their equity and the passion they have for their own project. Bringing on investors not only means that you'll lose out on some of your equity, but it also means that you may have to make room for someone else's passion and vision for the company. And, most of the time, investors are more interested in the bottom line as opposed to the founder's ideas.

"I'm a firm believer that you only ever ask for money when you don't need it," Allis says.

She has seen firsthand how many entrepreneurs get caught up attempting to solve all their problems by throwing everything they have into fundraising—a Hail Mary pass that, more often than not, ends up hurting a business in the long run.

To help you avoid that common pitfall, Allis has some choice pieces of advice that you need to hear.

In this episode you'll learn:

The simple solution to avoiding the money trap and investors
Expert advice on how to build your business to grow as fast as possible
Her secrets to building a killer brand that connects with millions
What to expect when dealing with investors, and how to know if one is right for you
How to have it all as an entrepreneur. No concessions, and no compromises
& so much more!

170: Building a Multimillion-Dollar Startup on Amazon Sales, with Jungle Scout’s Greg Mercer Oct 13, 2017

Greg Mercer built an entire lifestyle business without having to build his own products, distribution network, or even an online store.

Instead of creating his first business from scratch, Mercer took advantage of the tools around him and started selling products on Amazon. It worked, to the point that he and his wife were both able to quit their jobs and start traveling the world. He had achieved the dream that so many of us are working toward, all by cleverly riffing on an industry giant.

Within two weeks, though, he was bored. Fortunately for us, Mercer's next project is helping others find similar success.

Selling everything from wrist braces to cages for tomato plants, Mercer realized he had stumbled upon a proven formula. A formula he could use over and over again that allowed him to find products people wanted, sell them on Amazon, and turn a significant profit. The next step was obvious.

Mercer built a tool called Jungle Scout, which allows other ecommerce entrepreneurs to find opportunities to make money on Amazon. Despite having limited himself to a budget of only a thousand dollars, having absolutely no coding or technical experience, or any experience in the software business, Mercer hacked together Jungle Scout, his first bona fide startup.

After starting out as a complete novice, Mercer began learning on the job, and despite encountering some classic hurdles and mistakes, has found himself at the head of a fast-growing company.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Mercer's strategy that anyone can use to make a profit on Amazon
What every ecommerce entrepreneur should be aware of when selling online
How to build a SaaS from scratch, with no tech skills
What to watch out for in ecommerce opportunities
How to build and manage a remote team that actually works
& so much more!

169: Billionaire Business Lessons with Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban Oct 11, 2017

Mark Cuban is a very busy man. As one of the star judges of the hit show Shark Tank, Cuban has invested in nearly a hundred different startups that have appeared on the program. That's not even mentioning the investments he makes outside of the show, and the dozens of other businesses he's founded or manages himself.

So how does a single person manage to keep so many plates spinning at the same time?

His secret: Hiring the right people.

Cuban is always making sure he has the best people staffing the hundred-plus businesses he's involved in. And while hiring seems like a pretty basic business practice, finding the right talent is a true art, and one that Cuban has mastered.

It's a process of finding the right person, putting them in the right environment, and then continuing to build their personal growth and passion about the job they're doing. And in Cuban's case, multiplying the process for a thousand-plus employees.

That may sound hard, but Cuban says the one skill every founder and entrepreneur needs to master if they want to become a billionaire businessman, is knowing how to be a leader. If you don't know how to recruit and manage people, you're just not going to make it very far.

It can take decades of trial and error to figure out how to deal with the thousands of different personalities out there, and knowing what to prioritize at any given time. But Cuban has figured it out, and he's sharing his secrets with us here.

In this episode you'll learn:

The art of finding and nurturing the talent in your team
How to deal with problem employees, without just firing them
Whether mentors really matter—when you need them, and when you don't
How Mark Cuban manages a thousand-plus employees
The surprising reason you shouldn't be looking for invesment
& so much more!

168: How Owning Less Can Reward You With More. Redefining Success With Joshua Fields Millburn Oct 04, 2017

Often as entrepreneurs, we envision success as owning more objects, like a fancy watch, a big house, or a fast car. But what if there were a more authentic, more enriching version of success? One that involves less?

That's the question that Joshua Fields Millburn seeks to answer, as one half of the duo who call themselves The Minimalists. Millburn and partner Ryan Nicodemus have built an entire brand around how to live a better life by having less.

Millburn runs a website with an annual audience of more than 4 million readers, hosts one of the most listened to podcasts in the world, has published multiple best-selling books, and has even produced and filmed a critically acclaimed documentary. In this episode of the podcast, Millburn gives us the crash course on redefining success, and otherwise decluttering and streamlining your life.

Millburn first adopted the minimalist lifestyle after spending years climbing the corporate ladder. By the time he was in his late 20s, he realized he wasn't happy, despite having everything that he thought he wanted.

"I always felt I was one promotion away in my career from being happy. But of course, I had all these other things that came with that ostensible success like stress, and anxiety, and discontent, and overwhelm, and of course a boatload of debt," Millburn says.

He says that too many entrepreneurs get caught up in the idea of constantly wanting to achieve the next goal, and the one after that, and so on so forth. But rarely do they ever take a moment to think about why they're working so hard, and to what end.

According to Millburn, the key to achieving happiness is to pursue meaning over anything else. And to do that you must first ask yourself, "How can my life be better with less?"

In this episode you'll learn:

What the minimalist lifestyle is and how to start living it today
The key to finding things that give value to your life
Balancing the hunger entrepreneurs have with the minimalist lifestyle
What it means to give yourself permission to be happy
& so much more!

167: How Entrepreneurs Can Change the World, with Leila Janah of Samasource Sep 27, 2017

Great entrepreneurs have that rare ability to take risks that others find crazy, coupled with a single-minded determination that allows them to bring their visions to life. But some of us want to do much more with that talent than simply create a profitable company. Some of us want to change the world for the better.

If that sounds like you, you're going to want to hear what Samasource founder Leila Janah has to say in this episode, as that's exactly what she's done during her incredible career.

Janah runs one of the most influential social enterprises around, responsible for raising over 30,000 people around the world up from poverty, and rebuilding entire communities.

Rather than the typical charity model of distributing donations to make an impact, Janah realized early on that in order to combat global poverty, she needed to come up with a more innovative solution. She decided to build a social enterprise that operates like a business, but in service of reducing poverty.

Janah focused on empowering poverty stricken communities in India, Haiti, Uganda, and more, contacting companies like Google and Microsoft that were looking to outsource their work, and training individuals with the skills they needed to complete that work.

This revolutionary business model has changed the way people think of success when it comes to social enterprises. Janah has shown what happens when you use the powers of entrepreneurship for something other than just profit, and the world is so much better of for it.

In this episode you'll learn:

The role of the entrepreneur when it comes to social enterprises
Keys to leading and managing a global enterprise with thousands of employees
How to pitch your social enterprise to investors and secure funding
Why every business should be looking to make a difference in the world
The skills that every entrepreneur needs to succeed, no matter what industry you're in
& so much more!

166: How to Build a Billion Dollar Mobile Gaming Company From Scratch, with Holly Liu of Kabam Sep 21, 2017

Ask yourself, just how many hours have you sunk into that palm-sized rectangle of plastic, metal, and glass known as the smartphone?

As the co-founder of Kabam, one of the world's leading companies in mobile games, Holly Liu might be able to provide an answer to that, and it would likely be a huge number. But luckily for us, and our listeners, she's far more interested in talking about how she managed to build a billion-dollar company from scratch by giving away her products for free.

If you don't know Kabam already, you've probably heard of the company's hugely popular games, such as Kingdoms of Camelot, The Godfather, and Marvel's Contest of Champions, just to name a few. Each one operates on a "freemium" model, where users can download and play games for free.

This might sound crazy, but it's actually a ludicrously lucrative business model, with Kabam making the bulk of their revenue through in-game currency and advertising revenue. Kingdoms of Camelot alone has, to date, grossed over $250 million.

The secret behind Liu's success is simple, she just asks herself:

"Where are the people?"

That question led to Kabam's successful pivot into building a Facebook game and tapping into the power of viral marketing, to even partnering with the major studios in Hollywood to build games for upcoming movies and franchises.

For Liu, there's so much more to surviving in the mobile gaming industry than building a successful product, especially when great products exist on almost every corner. It takes an equal amount of dedication to marketing, finding the right partnerships, and, as always, understanding where your customers are.

In this episode you'll learn:

What opportunities lie within the mobile gaming industry
How to take your business where the customers are
How to pivot when your first, second, and even third ideas fail
What goes into making a product as viral as possible
Why you should look to grow your company through the power of partnerships
How to make being social your competitive advantage
& so much more!

165: Marketing Guru Neil Patel on Why Building a Personal Brand Was His Biggest Mistake Sep 15, 2017

After 16 years in the game, Patel has established himself as one of the most prolific marketers in the world. Hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs eagerly await his latest blog post, video, or product.

And yet, Patel says, more than anything, he deeply regrets building a personal brand. Pretty shocking, considering the majority of Patel's businesses have been built off the back of his personal brand and status as an influencer.

"If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't build a personal brand, it was the biggest mistake of my career. I built a personal brand by accident," Patel says.

For all the benefits and advantages Patel's personal brand has brought him, he also feels that it's seriously held him back in other areas he wants to pursue. While it's brought him more clients as a consultant, that very same notoriety has made it difficult for him to even build businesses without encountering problems.

But, like any other entrepreneur, Patel isn't stuck on what might have been. He's here to talk with us about what he's doing now, and how he manages to wield the double-edged sword of having millions of people recognize his name as an entrepreneur and a marketer.

In this episode you'll learn:

Simple marketing hacks that anyone can use right now
Why building a personal brand can hold you back as much as it can provide opportunities for success
A behind-the-scenes look at what Patel is working on right now and his past businesses
The astoundingly simple way to create content that drive you traffic, qualify leads, and boost your SEO
What most people get wrong about content marketing according to Patel
& so much more!

164: Why You Need More Swiss Army Knives and Paratroopers on Your Startup Team, says Ryan Holmes of Hootsuite Sep 07, 2017

What separates the companies that make millions of dollars from those that never make it?

It's not the vision, or the product, or even the founder, it's the people. You can't build a successful business, let alone grow it, without having the right people by your side.

It's a lesson that Ryan Holmes, CEO and founder of Hootsuite, is intimately familiar with. Today, Holmes finds himself at the helm of one of the fastest-growing companies around. Hootsuite is a mega-popular social media tool that boasts over 16 million customers and 5 million messages powered by its service every single day. As of 2013, Hootsuite has raised an impressive $165 million in funding from some of the biggest VC firms in the world and continued to dominate the social media landscape.

In this episode, Holmes advises founders that when it comes to finding your first batch of employees, you're looking for the "Swiss Army knives" and "paratroopers" of the world. People who have the ability to take the smallest instruction and make their own way. It can be tempting to want to hire specialists in the early days, but as Holmes explains, they're more likely to hold your business back in the early days.

Finding the right people is as much about timing as it is finding the right skillset. And according to Holmes, the number one reason Hootsuite managed to grow so fast is that he had the right people by his side from day one.

In this episode you will learn:

Why having first-mover advantage means nothing in the startup world
What the number one focus of any startup should be in the early stages
Building virality into your product. Why, and most importantly, how.
Where to find and deploy the "shock troops" of your team
Why you should actually stay away from Silicon Valley when looking for A-players
& so much more!

163: How to Create One of The Most Visited Websites in the World With Steve Huffman of Reddit Aug 31, 2017

Change is inevitable in the startup world, and only the best entrepreneurs stay on top of the game by evolving with it. Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit, knows this all too well, and in this episode of the podcast, Huffman explains how he's ushering the social media giant to the next level.

Huffman was there in the very beginning, when he and roommate Alexis Ohanian first pitched the idea for Reddit to Y Combinator, and he's at the helm again today as the company strives to reach new heights.

On the surface, nothing much has changed about Reddit since it was first created in their college dorm room 12 years ago. The layout, font, and even the logo remain relatively the same. But over the years, it's grown into a massive and highly influential web of online communities.

Today, Reddit is one of the largest websites in the word, with over 250 million active users and 300 million visitors a month. Beyond boasting impressive traffic numbers and a $1.8 billion valuation, Reddit is home to over half a million active online communities, where users can find anything from a laugh to help with addiction or relationships. The company's now making some serious changes under the hood, even to its appearance.

How things have changed.

"It's important to realize that there was never a point in which there was an idea for Reddit the way it exists today. There was just the idea we started with, to build a place where people can find interesting stuff every day. Not anything in particular, just interesting stuff," Huffman says.

In the early days, no one really knew what they were doing, and Reddit has experienced numerous stumbles and challenges along the way. But Huffman's managed to stay on top, and he's learned a tremendous amount along the way. He shares with us what it was like to create one of the largest sensations of the internet, and how to stay ahead in an ever-changing industry.

In this episode you will learn:

Why you should focus on content instead of marketing
The difference between customers and users, and why you need to know what separates the two
How to build an online community that rivals the population of most countries
Picking your battles—when to take a step back and when to step up
What Huffman's

162: Investors, Crowdfunding, or Shark Tank? Maneesh Sethi's Done It All and Reveals His Funding Strategies Aug 24, 2017

"How can I solve a problem in the fastest way?"

It's a question that Maneesh Sethi asks himself almost every day, and it's been the main driver behind who he is as a person, and as an entrepreneur. You see, Sethi lives a life of what you might call extreme productivity, and he wants to help you do the same.

The question has manifested in a variety of ways throughout Sethi's life, including starting his own productivity blog, Hack the System, where he examines how people can be more productive and focused in their lives by looking for unconventional solutions. Then there was the time he paid someone to follow him around and slap him in the face every time he was being unproductive.

Sethi's latest endeavor is par for the course in his never-ending quest to become as productive as he possibly can. As the founder and CEO of Pavlok, a wearable device designed to help you build better habits by literally shocking the bad ones out of you, Sethi is determined to help people transforms their lives. Even if it means giving them a zap every now and then.

Sethi knows a thing or two about the power of a little negative reinforcement, as evidenced by the aforementioned slapping, and the way having your back against the wall can bring out your best ideas.

"Our company has been a consistent sufferer of almost-death, followed by me figuring out something to help us survive, followed by learning a lot from that experience," Sethi says.

To save his company from bankruptcy, Sethi has turned to investors, crowdfunding, and even appeared on the hit show Shark Tank to keep his company alive. Through it all, he's developed a knack for finding the best way out, no matter what life throws at him.

In this episode you will learn:

Fool-proof tactics on how to become more focused and increase your overall productivity
How to build and successfully iterate a physical product for market
What to do if you find yourself on national TV
Where to go when you need funding for your idea, Sethi's answer might surprise you!
How making more sales can actually bankrupt your business, and Sethi's solution
Hacks to supercharge your crowdfunding gain and blow past your fundraising goal
& so much more!

161: How Jodie Fox Turned Her Passion for Shoes Into a Successful Online Business in 2 Months Aug 18, 2017

Jodie Fox loves her shoes.

But unlike your average shoe lover, Fox was able to turn that love first into a living room-based passion project, and then a multimillion-dollar online business. She's the co-founder and CEO of Shoes of Prey, a popular online store that allows customers to design and customize their own shoes.

Shoes of Prey recently raised $25 million in funding as part of its Series B round, and while that's impressive enough on its own, Fox managed to validate, launch, and break even on her very first business within two months. That's mind-bogglingly fast, even by startup standards.

The former lawyer also skilfully scaled her business with a powerful mix of influencer marketing and deals with wholesale giants like Nordstrom, to the point that over 5 million shoes have been designed on the platform. Not bad for a first-time entrepreneur.

"I think a founder's job when you start a business is just to do everything that you haven't hired anyone to do just yet," Fox says.

Together with her co-founders, Fox followed her passion, validated her idea, built her first online store, and from there the wins kept on coming.

We are very lucky to have the opportunity to interview her and receive step-by-step instructions on how this first-time entrepreneur managed to build herself a worldwide business with million of customers at lightning-fast speeds.

In this episode you'll learn:

Why you need to tap into the power of micro-influencers to quickly grow your brand
How to ink deals with the top brands in your niche
Exactly when to look for funding, and when to keep on bootstrapping
How to conceive, validate, and launch your idea in as fast as two months
What holds most online businesses back from being successful, and how to overcome them
& so much more!

160: The Not-So Obvious, But Ridiculously Successful Strategy on Building a Business with Brian Clark of Copyblogger Aug 10, 2017

"The truth is I didn't like working for somebody else."

Most entrepreneurs start their own business because they want to take charge of their own destiny, and for Brian Clark, the CEO and founder of Rainmaker Digital, Copyblogger, StudioPress, and the Rainmaker Platform, his story doesn't start off any different. It doesn't matter if you haven't heard of Clark before, but if you've been anywhere near the startup space in the past 15 years or so, you've undoubtedly felt his influence.

With his first successful business he stuck with what he knew, taking his four years of experience in law and starting his own small law firm. He quickly set himself apart from the rest of the competition with his natural marketing instincts and his ability to build an audience.

"What most young attorneys can't do is develop clients, and I figured out how to do that. And in that moment an entrepreneur was born. I was just so amazed that I could develop a business by myself with just an email newsletter. No one understood what I was doing at the time, they thought I was crazy, but it worked!" Clark says.

A few years, and a couple more businesses later, Clark began working on a small blog that would come to be known as Copyblogger, one of the most influential content marketing blogs in the industry. Some of the world's top content marketers can fondly remember turning to Copyblogger early in their careers to learn how to write better headlines and become better writers.

Clark helped blaze the trail for this new style of marketing, and to this day, he's still pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

While most people are still trying to figure out whether to focus on building the perfect product or growing their audience, Clark has devised a strategy that's allowed him to do both at the same time, all while growing his multiple businesses at warp speed.

It should really come as no surprise that, here at Foundr, much of our own business model and content marketing efforts have been directly inspired by Clark and his successes. This is why we're very excited to present to you this eye-opening interview with the one and only Brian Clark.

In this episode you will learn:

The chicken or the egg? Settling the startup debate between which comes first: building the perfect product or building your audience
What are you good at? How Clark finds co-founders who complement his strengths and weaknesses
The unique business model of combining content, SaaS, digital and physical products for maximum profit
Clark's step-by-step instructions on how to build the perfect product
Why people aren't paying attention to your brand and what you can do about it
& so much more!

159: A Lifelong Founder Teaches Critical Lessons for New Entrepreneurs on Products, Investors, and Selling with Jonathan Siegel Aug 03, 2017

Jonathan Siegel has started close to a dozen different companies—some have been hugely successful, others didn't quite go as planned, and for one, he sold his shares after a falling out with his co-founders. Siegel has been a serial startup founder since he was just 12 years old. Now at 40, he has seen it all, and he's sharing his lessons—on products, investors, and selling a business—with Foundr.

"It doesn't feel like a job, as much as it just feels like I'm getting paid to do something for fun," Siegel says, about his love for the entrepreneurial life.

Siegel has had a knack for entrepreneurship since he was putting together and selling computers all the way back in 1989. From there, he's had a lifelong passion for creating something new every chance he got. Whether it was starting his own businesses, constantly creating new products, or building products for other people.

For Siegel, entrepreneurship isn't so much a money-making exercise or a career, but a lifestyle that constantly allows him to strive forward and look into the future.

"If you do something as a creative outlet, the amount of money is not the goal. And I don't believe that every entrepreneur is running around thinking about how much money they have in their accounts. I think that every entrepreneur runs around thinking, 'Hey I want to bring this thing to life. I want to create something bigger than myself. I want to see the thing that I create influence other people in the way that they work and the way that they live,'" Siegel says.

This passion has helped Siegel learn many valuable lessons on his own journey, not just about himself, but about what entrepreneurship is all about.

In this episode you will learn:

How to turn entrepreneurship from a career to a creative outlet
Understanding the difference between a startup that's successful on paper, and one that works in real life
How to handle disputes between co-founders
Why it's so important to understand your motivation as an entrepreneur
The lifecycle of building companies that you intend to sell
& so much more!

158: How to Build a Worldwide Iconic Brand with Brian Smith of UGG Jul 27, 2017

In the late 1970s, Brian Smith was a young Australian surfer looking for the next big thing. Little did he know that while flipping through a magazine, he would stumble upon an idea that would grow into one of the world's most iconic brands. With more than $1 billion in sales worldwide, you can find the UGG brand in millions of households.

What does it take to build such an iconic brand?

Smith openly admits that, at the time, he had no idea. He struggled to get people interested in his product, and even when they were interested, he found it difficult to turn them into customers. In fact, after his first season of sales, Smith had sold only 28 pairs of boots. The outlook was not good for his fledgling brand.

While many entrepreneurs would become disheartened and give up, Smith realized that no company becomes successful overnight.

"You can't give birth to adults," Smith says.

Smith believed that every successful business in the world has to go through a period of infancy, where almost nothing happens, and only then can you start getting the traction and momentum you need to explode your business.

For UGG, that infancy stage would go on for another four years until that lightbulb moment came and Smith figure out what he had to do. What happened next turned sales from only $15,000 to $200,000 almost overnight.

In the years that followed, Smith would find his sheepskin boots on the feet of young surfers, snowboarders, and eventually A-list celebrities.

In this episode you'll learn:

The stages of building a global brand and how to move through each one as quickly as possible
When to hold em' and when to fold em', Smith details how to recognize when the moment is right to sell your business
How to use grassroots events to build your early customer base
Why the most important element of your brand is not what you think
& so much more!

157: Grow to 400,000 Users In Just Three Years by Mastering B2B Sales With Andrew Barnes of GO1 Jul 20, 2017

Andrew Barnes's company GO1 is a Y-Combinator alum that's raised over $4 million in funding, grown to over 400,000 users, and is currently the world's largest onboarding, compliance, and professional development learning platform. If that weren't impressive enough, Barnes hit those benchmarks in under three years. The secret weapon? An airtight B2B, or business to business, sales process.

In our interview with Barnes, he shares with us how the Australian-startup-that-could found its path to achieving explosive growth and influence, eventually ranked as one of the 100 most disruptive startups in the world. He also tells us how he and his team mastered B2B sales, a huge arena of entrepreneurship today.

"I remember in YC we were up late just basically cold-calling trying to generate interest and see whether they'd take us, we'd try Google Adwords and spent a fortune on that, we tried a whole host of different options. And what we eventually stumbled on is a model with sales development reps that identify people that match our criteria," Barnes says.

Then it's just a matter of knowing the right person to contact, what to say, and when to say it. It's a process that Barnes has mapped out to a T, with a ton of little tricks and hacks along the way to get the job done. Barnes, much to our benefit, shares this sales process to Foundr and our audience, along with the many lessons he's learned as a lifelong digital entrepreneur.

In this episode you'll learn:

One simple hack to turn your cold calls into success stories
How to find and secure high-profile investors for your startup, locally and internationally
How to find A-players for your team no matter where you are
The keys to running a distributed team and keeping everyone on track
Why doing less can actually make you a better entrepreneur
& so much more!

156: Lessons Learnt From Building a $300 Million Dollar Business From the Original #GirlBoss Sophia Amoruso Jul 13, 2017

Sophia Amoruso was a community college dropout, working a variety of odd jobs to support herself, when she set up a humble eBay store called Nasty Gal Vintage. The rapid growth that followed has become the stuff of startup legend, and in this episode of the podcast, Amoruso shares what she learned from the roller-coaster ride of Nasty Gal, and tells us about her new endeavor, Girlboss Media.

Over the course of a decade, Amoruso had a meteoric rise, during which she became the head of a retail empire, and was named one of the richest self-made women by Forbes in 2016. She also became a symbol of brash millennial entrepreneurs and a trailblazing icon for female entrepreneurs especially, following the release of her New York Times bestseller #GirlBoss.

Then, the same year Netflix developed a scripted comedy loosely based on the book, Nasty Gal found itself filing for bankruptcy. In those 10 years, Amoruso had bigger highs and lows than many entrepreneurs experience in a lifetime, but the story isn't over yet.

Today, Amoruso has moved on and is working on continuing the momentum of her book and the devoted following she built around her story. Nasty Gal Media is as focused as ever on helping women around the world launch their entrepreneurial careers.

We were very fortunate to be able to interview Amoruso amid her hectic schedule of growing a new business. She shared with us the many lessons she's learned from her exciting and colorful career, along with fascinating insight into what makes a brand explode, and how to come out on top in today's tumultuous startup world.

In this week's episode you will learn:

Amoruso's guide to creating a brand that leaves a mark on customers and investors alike
Key lessons learned from the rise and fall of a nine-figure business
Customer services mistakes that can kill any business
How to create products that are inherently sharable and immediately recognizable
& so much more!

155: Everything You Know About Content Marketing is Wrong, with Des Traynor of Intercom Jul 05, 2017

In 2011, four lads from Dublin were running a successful business that let programers and engineers know when a user encountered a problem with their program. The problem was that none of them were particularly interested in the world of programming errors.

Instead, they found their passions centered on why it was so difficult for online businesses to talk to customers. They didn't know it at the time, but they were about to reinvent the concept of content marketing.

So Des Traynor and his three co-founders sold their successful business, packed their bags, and moved to sunny California.

"We were four Irish founders and basically our previous company, we had already done the bootstrapping thing. ... When we were going through this change of business and this change of approach, we said, 'What's the opposite of running a bootstrapped business off the north side of Dublin?' Well that's come to Silicon Valley and raise a million dollars, and that's what we did," Traynor says.

It turned out to be the right move, as the company that now known as Intercom raised more than $160 million in the past six years, building a customer base of over 17,000 customers, and making over $50 million in revenue. Their mission was simple: to make online businesses feel less like talking to a robot and feel more personal instead.

The solution to that was to help businesses talk to their customers through their own websites and apps instead of the usual mish-mash of emails, texts, and phone calls. Intercom built its reputation and customer base through the power of content marketing, but in a way that might surprise you.

Instead of following the traditional strategy of hiring a content team, focusing on SEO and backlinks, and churning out at as much content as possible, Intercom went in the completely opposite direction and developed a unique content strategy that led their business to go viral within the startup community, while building a beloved brand.

"We're not one of those people that do all that black hat stuff. I really, really hate that. We had a recommendation recently to go post on discussions.apple.com and write a piece that links back to your site, and it was just so puke-worthy. I could never get excited about gamifying the Google algorithm and building the business on such a messy, fragile house of cards," Traynor says.

Traynor goes in-depth with us in this episode about why the conventional content marketing strategy doesn't work anymore, and how to really get your message across.

In this week's episode you will learn:

How to move quickly and stay lean while managing an international team
Where to find top-tier talent for your startup, no matter where you are
A sly way to make your business go viral
No to SEO! The biggest mistakes marketers make when using SEO
Why you don't need a content marketing team to get half a million page views per post
& so much more!

154: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Marketing Strategies of Multi-million Dollar Companies with Clate Mask of Infusionsoft Jun 29, 2017

Every entrepreneur at some point faces the dilemma of simply not being able to pour any more hours of work into their company. As a result, they get stuck.

That's where Clate Mask, CEO of Infusionsoft, comes in. In the 10 years Infusionsoft has been operating, Mask has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs use the power of email marketing to double their growth, triple their leads, even quadruple overall revenue.

For Mask, automated email marketing is the secret weapon for any business that's trying to scale. In today's podcast episode, he dishes on how to do it right.

"What happens in an entrepreneurial business, when you're running a small company, it's very, very difficult to follow up effectively with all your leads and customers, and things slip through the cracks," he says. "You're wearing 10 different hats trying to run the business, and ... you just can't keep it all straight when the business starts to grow and when you start to have some success."

At that point, you can either hire more people to handle the workload, which can be costly, or learn how to automate your business.

Mask has helped Infusionsoft's 125,000-plus users create their own automation campaigns by mapping out customer lifecycles, and pinpointing the best times and messages to engage customers and get as much of a return as possible.

In this week's episode, Mask tells us what the marketing strategies of his best users look like, and how you can incorporate them into your own business.

In this episode you will learn:

The one thing that most business owners don't recognize is stopping them from growing
A battle-tested, tried and true guide to getting the biggest return possible on every single customer
The three most critical points in the customer lifecycle and why ignoring them puts your business at risk
An exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the email marketing strategies of Infusionsoft's top clients
How to combine automation and authenticity into one winning combination
& much more!

153: How to Survive Entrepreneurial Failure with Steve Olsher of liquor.com Jun 23, 2017

In his lifetime as an entrepreneur, Steve Olsher has crashed, burned, and reinvented himself in the face of tremendous failure. But for Olsher, there was never any other path. If you can relate, he's got some indispensable wisdom to offer.

"I've been an entrepreneur pretty much since I've been old enough to pick up a rake and move some leaves around, or grab a shovel and do some snow-shoveling and clear some sidewalks, driveways, that sort of thing. We're all naturally wired to excel in very specific ways, and for me, I've always just been wired to rub a couple of dimes together to make that quarter," Olsher says.

Olsher has spent his entire life as an entrepreneur, and with it has experienced all the highs and lows, from starting a widely successful business that was prepared to go public within a year, to losing it all and walking away from a company he spent nine years of his life building.

But if success is defined by how well you can bounce back from failure, Olsher is one of the most successful people on the planet. Taking the knocks in stride, and embracing the lessons they taught him, Olsher went on to pursue other entrepreneurial ventures over the next six years, before reclaiming his original business and domain name, Liquor.com, and building his business from the ground up again.

In the years since, Olsher has distilled a lifetime of experience and lessons into helping others figure out what their passion and their purpose are. Today, he is now a New York Times-bestselling author, and is all about helping people reinvent themselves into who they truly want to be.

In this episode you will learn:

Hard truths you need to know when bringing on investors
The importance of needing good advisors and mentors you can turn to when you need it
When you should and shouldn't listen to your gut as an entrepreneur
How to find out what your "what" is, and how to figure out what your purpose is
Where to find your winning business idea
& much more!

152: How to Build a Business You Care About More Than Paying Your Own Bills with Adam Braun of MissionU Jun 14, 2017

Getting rich is for amateurs. A real entrepreneur, one with serious guts and vision, wants to make the world a better place.

If that's you, it's time to enter the world of social enterprise—business that seeks to make both a profit and a positive impact, on anything from education to world hunger. This is a tall order, but it's possible and an increasingly popular form of entrepreneurship. So today's podcast is going to show you exactly how to make money, while also making a difference.

Unlike your traditional businesses, social enterprises have a much harder time securing funding and even staff. The legal frameworks and business models can also be much trickier. Lucky for us, we were able to sit down with Adam Braun, founder of Pencils of Promise and MissionU. He shared with us how he managed to raise over $50 million in contributions, build hundreds of schools, and grow a worldwide staff of more than 125 employees as a social enterprise.

As he turned 25, Braun only had $25 in his bank account, but was still determined to build a school for the less fortunate. Before crowdsourcing was even a thing, Braun turned to strangers to help him fund his first project. He used social media and event marketing to attract people to his cause, relying on influencer and word-of-mouth to secure the funding he needed.

"You start scrappy and understand that maybe one day you'll have the resources to hire full-time staff and work with capital at hand, but most people don't start that way, and I certainly didn't," Braun says.

Starting with this grassroots marketing strategy and an all-volunteer staff, he built Pencils of Promise into a huge success. Today, more than 400 schools have been built as a result, and Braun's turned his sights to education in the United States with his new project MissionU.

In this episode you'll learn:

How to use event marketing to build your brand and attract investors
What makes a story "newsworthy" and how to use it to build an audience
Braun's methodology for attracting A-players to work toward his vision
Social media marketing tactics to reach your target audience without paid advertising
The right way to go about asking for money, whether it's for crowdfunding or from investors
& much more!

151: How to Build a Cult Following Tribe Resulting in 10's of Millions of Annual Recurring Revenue Russell Brunson Jun 08, 2017

Russell Brunson knows a ton about building effective marketing funnels. It's a skill he learned after spending nearly 10 years making money online by building funnels for all sorts of things, from potato guns to coupons. Now as the CEO and co-founder of ClickFunnels, Brunson heads one of the fastest-growing bootstrapped companies in the world.

"We're growing faster than any VC-backed company that I know of, and we do it because we had to do it smarter, and we do it through the funnels that we practice and we preach, and it works," Brunson says.

In a mere two-and-a-half years Brunson has grown ClickFunnels to more than 36,000 active customers and, even more impressively, he's been able to turn those customers into a passionate community of evangelists loyal to the brand. He's since taken his talent and knowledge for building effective sales funnels and has distilled it all into an incredibly easy tool that anyone can use, as well as a number of bestselling books.

But it hasn't been an easy road and it's taken a heap of knowhow, expertise, and foresight to get there. Luckily for us, he's sharing his best advice with the Foundr audience.

In this week's episode you'll learn:

The key to building an effective sales funnel
How to inspire and build a community around your brand
What qualities you need to be a leader who inspires
Why the best way to understand your market is to be your own customer
How to find and keep A-players on your team
& much more!

150: Becoming Masterful with Money with Tony Robbins May 31, 2017

Tony Robbins advises billion-dollar CEOs, celebrities, even heads of state, but today, he's going to show you how to become a master of money.

The New York Times-bestselling author has once again topped the charts with his latest book Unshakeable, and to date, the world-renowned speaker has inspired tens of millions of people all over the globe. Successful people from Bill Clinton to Oprah have sung his praises, and he's had sit downs with the likes of Nelson Mandela.

What you might not know, however, is that before it all, Tony was a penniless kid growing up in Azusa, California. After leaving home at 17, Robbins decided to skip college so he could start working, which at first meant sweeping the floors as a janitor. But he constantly strove to continue learning and feed his voracious curiosity.

Every millionaire finds their start somewhere, and for Robbins it was in the pages of endless books that he found himself glued to. He was determined to be a millionaire, and he wasn't going to let a lack of formal education be a barrier, eventually working his way to the top.

Today, he's the one writing the books, sharing all the wisdom he's collected over all those years. And his latest topic of obsession is finance—how to master money and become truly free from worries about wealth.

Robbins has decades of experience in business and investing himself, but in recent years, he's been questioning the world's greatest financial minds to get to the bottom of that question. Many of the answers are in his new book, but fortunately for Foundr fans, Tony Robbins joins us today to share some of his most important lessons.

In this episode you will learn:

The secret to living well, no matter how much money you have
How to spot a million-dollar opportunity
The simple strategy that has led Robbins, and millions of his followers, to financial freedom
Financial advice specifically targeted at startup founders
Hidden principles of finance Robbins has discovered in his research
& much more!

149: How to Use Influencer Marketing to Generate Millions with Gretta Rose van Riel of SkinnyMeTea May 24, 2017

In 2012, Gretta Rose van Riel, like most aspiring entrepreneurs, found herself spending all of her free time building a business. It was nothing more than a passion project at the time, something to do in her spare time when she wasn't working at her day job.

Despite the fact that she had no real plans to become a full-time entrepreneur with her own business, it wasn't long before that passion project grew into something bigger. She soon knew that this was something she just had to devote all of her time and energy to.

"Basically, I had an idea that resonated with me so strongly, I just knew that it was something that I had to pursue," van Riel says.

The result was a multimillion-dollar ecommerce business called SkinnyMe Tea, the world's first teatox using the natural benefits of tea to help you achieve your health, fitness, and nutrition goals. That alone is impressive enough, but what really separates van Riel from the rest of the pack is that she didn't just build one multimillion-dollar business, she's built many.

In five years, Van Riel has transformed herself from just another employee to serial entrepreneur, with multiple ecommerce businesses under her belt. She's effectively cracked the code on how to successfully build a business online, including coming up with the perfect idea, the best way to market it, and how to rapidly scale.

In this week's episode you will learn:

How to build an incredibly loyal customer base through social media
The easiest way to hack into the power of influencer marketing to build your brand
Gretta's method to developing the perfect product from idea, to validation, to selling
Why Instagram should be your number one channel for customers and sales
The foolproof marketing formula guaranteed to double your revenue
& much more!

148: How to Build a Successful E-commerce Business - The Foundr Incubator (Business Breakdown) with Tom Bilyeu of Quest Nutrition & Jake Mckeon of Coconutbowls.com May 17, 2017

In this very special episode of the Foundr Podcast, we answer all the questions you've ever had about building an ecommerce business and more!

The first installment in what we're calling the Foundr Incubator series, we recorded a live coaching session between one ambitious Foundr community member and the head of a billion-dollar company.

We organized a call with Jake McKeon, the up-and-coming founder of multiple ecommerce businesses, to receive one-on-one coaching from Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of unicorn startup Quest Nutrition. Like so many other entrepreneurs out there, McKeon was doing well, but looking to grow and not sure how. That's where Bilyeu, with his years of experience and wisdom, stepped in.

The result is a fascinating and honest conversation in which Jake asks just about every question an entrepreneur might have about how to grow, how to market yourself, and generally how to take an online business to the next level. Tom doesn't hold back and answers all of these questions and more, sharing his insights on what it takes to create a successful ecommerce business and a thriving community around your brand.

This is an episode you definitely do not want to miss, with so much gold being shared that you can't help but feel empowered and inspired after listening.

In this interview you will learn:

How to stay relevant in your market and stay ahead of the competition
Why you need influencers on your side and how to find them
The metrics you need to focus on to grow your sales
Where to find A-players when you're growing your team
The three things you need to focus on to build a successful e-commerce business
& much more!

147: Lessons from the Master Growth Hacker of Dropbox, LogmeIn, Eventbrite & Many more with Sean Ellis of Growthhackers.com May 11, 2017

Sean Ellis is not just another marketer. In fact, he's something entirely different. He's the world's first growth hacker.

Originally selling advertising in the print industry in Budapest, Ellis found his calling when a friend began building a new company on this relatively new thing called the internet. Despite not knowing that much about it, Ellis immediately recognized the opportunities that online marketing presented.

"Nobody knew much about the internet at the time. But because I was selling advertising, I really liked the idea of being able to target specific ad messages to specific people," Ellis says.

In the years that followed, Ellis continued to stay ahead of the curve. While the rest of the world was still trying to grow their startups the traditional way, by pounding the pavement and paying for advertising with little understanding of the results they were getting, Ellis was already breaking the rules and experimenting with every possibility that the internet offered.

Instead of just focusing on marketing as something separate from the product that was being built, Ellis wanted to experiment and see if he could combine both product and marketing together. The result was a method he called "growth hacking," a term he coined in 2010 that would come to revolutionize how startups looked at marketing, and eventually become the name of his company Growth Hackers.

He tested his methodology over the years and played a key role in successfully growing companies like Dropbox, Lookout, and Xobni, eventually becoming the go-to guy in all of Silicon Valley for startups looking to grow as fast as possible. Today, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone with more experience, knowledge, or passion about the power of growth hacking.

In this week's episode, you'll learn:

The definition of growth hacking
Ellis's early experiments with growth hacking and how they still work today
A behind-the-scenes look at what powered the rise of companies like Dropbox and Lookout
The framework Ellis uses for growing any business
How to identify the right strategies for you to become a fast-growth startup
& much more!

146: How to Secure Guest Posts on Big Publications (Time, Fast Company, Huffington Post & Many More!) with Daniel DiPiazza of Rich20something.com May 04, 2017

At 20 years old, Daniel DiPiazza was comfortable.

He wasn't making millions of dollars at his hourly wage job, but he wasn't struggling for money either. Like a lot of people in their early 20s, he just didn't know what he wanted to do. While the life he led was fine, it was a never ending cycle of making enough money to pay the bills, and that was about it. It wasn't exciting, more than anything it was dissatisfying, and after a few years, DiPiazza found himself restless and wanting more out of life.

"It got to this point where I showed up at work one day and I was intensely irritated. It wasn't anything specifically that happened that day, it was just a culmination of a few years of doing things that were just ... very annoying. I made a decision that day that I was going to make a change," DiPiazza says.

From that point on, it was like a switch had been flipped inside him. Instead of looking at all the things that held him back, DiPiazza began looking for opportunities. If no one was going to give him a job doing what he wanted, the next logical step was to simply find a way to give himself a job where he could follow his passion.

It started simply enough, with a little freelancing on the side helping college students prepare for their exams, which soon grew into a self-perpetuating machine that eventually led to owning his own company, Rich20Something.

Today DiPiazza is a bestselling author and uses his own experience to inspire others in his generation, teaching them how they too can build their own businesses and start carving that bit of financial freedom and independence for themselves. Not bad for a kid who had no idea what he was doing in his early 20s.

In this episode you will learn:

The best content marketing tactics to use to promote yourself
How to never run out of clients as a freelancer
Where to go to start skilling yourself up as an entrepreneur
How to come up with and validate your business ideas with a few simple steps
Strategies to build up your personal brand and influence
& much more!

145: The Importance of Building a Culture for Growth with Mike McDerment of Freshbooks Apr 26, 2017

One of the best ways for an entrepreneur to come up with a great business idea is by scratching their own itch. If something's giving you trouble, it's likely that other people out there are feeling the same way.

That's how it all started for Mike McDerment, back when he created FreshBooks. At the time, McDerment wasn't looking to create a new business, or invent some sort of revolutionary product to sell. He was just trying to solve his own problem—he was tired of using Microsoft Excel as a way to create and send invoices to clients.

It originally started off as simple digital product to make his own life easier, but it wasn't long before others started taking an interest in McDerment's new tool. Instead of selling a complete software package, the common approach at the time, McDerment decided to try out a new business model that was relatively unheard of at the time.

"The truth is, we were SaaS before there was SaaS. We were cloud before there was cloud," he says.

While most people were selling software as licenses, McDerment was determined to build a product that would guarantee a predictable, recurring revenue. It was a new idea, and one that many consultants and others in their space advised against. And it's true that things didn't look great for McDerment and his co-founders after two years of developing and selling the product.

"We had only 10 paying customers paying about 10 dollars a month each. To be making a hundred dollars month after that many human years of effort is by all accounts a failure. And we stuck with it because we really loved what we were doing and our customers were telling us that it was great. It was a little more colorful in the early days," McDerment says.

Refusing to give up, McDerment and his co-founders pushed on, and in the years since, they've served more than 10 million customers, and grown into a company with over 250 employees. Today, FreshBooks is one of the most widely used and preferred methods of accounting and invoicing for small businesses everywhere, and it all began with a simple idea, the passion to never give up, and some interesting strategies for growth.

In this episode you will learn:

Why you shouldn't necessarily follow best practices
How to grow and adapt as a leader
Why the best leaders never need to have all the answers
The importance of instilling the right values within your team and company culture
What "guardrails" you need in order to have your company grow as fast as possible
& much more!

144: Body Language Hacks with Vanessa Van Edwards from the Science of People Apr 23, 2017

Many of us have a secret desire to make a living by following our passions, but not all of us have a passion quite like Vanessa Van Edwards'. Back in college, she loved reading academic and scientific journals. She tore through them.

That might lead you to believe that she wanted to become an academic or work in a lab somewhere, but Van Edwards also had the soul of an entrepreneur. Even as a young adult, she had several successful businesses under her belt. Listening to that entrepreneurial spirit within her, she wondered if there was a way to link up her two loves—business and science.

"All these researchers spend years and years doing this research, and they publish 20-page papers and they get read by, if they're lucky, a hundred people. And I wondered, is there a way to make a business out of this science research? Is there a way to turn science into business?" Van Edwards says.

In 2012, she started the Science of People, a human behavior research lab dedicated to understanding the science behind what makes people tick. Whether it's unraveling the building blocks of a charismatic personality, decoding body language, or just delving deeper into the psychology of relationships, she built a business around her passion for science, with a focus on translating dense academic language into something that everyone can understand.

In her writing, including her latest book, Van Edwards takes the latest research and uses it to explain how to read faster, make excellent small talk, and easily capture the attention of an entire room of people with nothing but your words.

In this episode you will learn:

How to use content marketing as a way to validate your business idea
What qualities make a person a charismatic
How to connect with influencers and get the "yes" you want
Hacks to improve your networking, communication, and leadership
Tricks to dealing with difficult people and how to spot them a mile away
& much more!

143: How to Learn Faster & Unlock Your Superpower with Jim Kwik Apr 20, 2017

When Jim Kwik was in kindergarten, he suffered a terrible fall that resulted in head trauma and a brain injury. This would come to define the rest of Kwik's early life as he grew up suffering from learning difficulties. He constantly struggled to keep up with the rest of his peers and never quite found the ability to focus enough and learn fast enough, all of which was exacerbated by the fact that he didn't even have a fully functioning memory.

"I was the boy with the broken brain," Kwik says.

And yet, today Kwik is considered an expert on memory, learning, and the brain. He teaches thousands of people how they can hack their brains, just like he has with his own, in order to drastically expand their potential to learn and process new information. Kwik can count some of the most influential people in the world as his students, including Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, and Oprah Winfrey, just to name a few.

"Every single person can also do it, you just weren't taught how. If anything, you were taught a lie, a lie that your intelligence, your potential, your memory, is fixed like your shoe size. And we know from just the past couple of decades of research in the brain sciences that's just not true," Kwik says.

So how did the boy with the broken brain become the master of memory?

While most people spend their lives being told what to learn, Kwik has spent the majority of his life finding out everything he can about how to learn.

Kwik has devoted countless hours over years of study into how exactly the human brain works and all the different ways you can teach yourself to not only have a better memory, but to read faster, learn faster, and in general turn your brain into a superpower.

In this week's episode, you will learn:

Why the power of your mind is the most important weapon as an entrepreneur
How to stop being a passive learner and start being an active learner
How to unlock your brain's vast potential for memory
How the most influential people in the world use their brains
& much more!

142: The Breakdown of How Gerard Adams Sold EliteDaily.com for $50 million Apr 12, 2017

At 18, Gerard Adams dropped out of college after one semester. That semester was all it took to confirm what Adams knew all along. Like all entrepreneurs, he just wasn't built to follow the rules. The idea of getting a degree, to eventually get a job, to eventually retire, wasn't going to be the life for him.

"That's when I made the decision to ... really put the pressure on myself to learn how to build businesses on my own," Adams says.

While most people would go out and look for mentors by joining a community of some sort, Adams brought the community to him. In order to pursue his interest in investing and stocks, Adams built an online community for stock traders and investors, growing it to more than 10,000 active voices, and allowing him to learn from the best of the best.

From there, he had his share of wins and losses, from getting a job where he helped build a company to 18,000 shareholders, to having the product demonstration fail in a live demonstration. He then built his own marketing agency and started generating hundreds of thousands of dollars, which he then invested heavily into the stock market, only for the 2008 recession to hit.

No matter what, though, Adams was always learning.

Taking everything that he learned from his experiences, together with his co-founder, Adams built Elite Daily, a news site for millennials, a place where Generation Y could be given a voice to talk about everything from economics to health. Over the next three-and-a-half years, they grew their Wordpress site to a company with more than 200 employees, with 80 million unique visitors to the site per month, and 80 to 100 articles a day. The eventually sold Elite Daily to the Daily Mail for $50 million.

That was two years ago, and since then Adams has invested in multiple startups and mentored many young entrepreneurs by sharing his years of experience.

In this week's episode you will learn:

The blessing and the curse of raising capital and what it means
Adams' amazing story of going from college dropout to the voice of a generation
What it takes to build a media company that reaches millions
How to judge a company through brand equity versus revenue
The true cost of being a founder and what it means to be a leader who inspires
& so much more!

This podcast episode was brought to you by FreshBooks.

When it comes to finding the perfect service to help you manage and track your invoices, time, and expenses, you can’t overlook FreshBooks. Designed for small businesses and entrepreneurs who don’t need full-blown, double-entry programming, but still want to keep their finances in check, you can’t go back once you start using it!

141: Managing People as a Fast Growth Startup with Katelyn Gleason of Eligible.com Apr 06, 2017

At 23, Katelyn Gleason faced, like many people in their early 20s, an existential crisis. She just didn't know what she wanted to do.

"I started thinking about jobs. I was like 'God if I'm going to have to do this for the rest of my life it better be something I really care about, that can be my life's work, that I can really invest all of my time and all my energy into,'" Gleason says.

Her first step was to start reading the biographies of some of the greatest individuals in human history—Marie Curie, Jane Austen, Abraham Lincoln, anything she could get her hands on. Gleason's goal was to learn as much as she could about these great people and how they managed to leave such a large legacy and imprint on humankind today.

It wasn't long before Gleason found herself immersed in the world of healthcare, technology, and startups. It was there she found her purpose. Gleason noticed a problem in the medical industry that no one seemed to be talking about or trying to solve. Doctors and patients alike were getting bogged down with paperwork that was often confusing, and as a result, many were dealing with huge costs simply by filling out the wrong forms.

The next nine months were spent at her kitchen table, furiously working on a solution to this problem. That solution would end up becoming Eligible, a medical billing startup designed to make it as simple as possible for doctors and insurance companies to work together and save everyone money, patients, doctors, insurance companies alike.

As a two-time alumni of Y-Combinator, Gleason led Eligible from quietly testing and validating its product to becoming an explosive fast-growth company. Today, Eligible processes 14 million transactions per month, with a projected 50 million transactions by the end of the year, and has raised more than $25 million in funding.

In this week's episode you will learn:

Every step you need to take as the founder of a startup, from validating to raising capital
How to gain proof of concept as quickly as possible
Where to find co-founders to complement your own skills and talents
What strategies you can use to build a fast-growth company
How to manage the people around you and keep them focused on your goal
& much more!

140: Explosive Startup Growth with Andy Fang of Doordash Apr 03, 2017

If it seems like entrepreneurs are getting younger every year, it's because they are. More millennials are turning toward entrepreneurship as a fulfilling career choice, passing on the traditional route of finding employment with some company.

As the co-founder of DoorDash, Andy Fang is no different, part of the new school of entrepreneurs getting into the startup world while still in college. In 2013, Fang and his three co-founders were still students in Stanford when they had an idea—to create an on-demand delivery service in their area for restaurants that didn't have their own.

It wasn't long after that DoorDash found itself backed by Y Combinator, and has since expanded to several major cities within the US and Canada, recently raising $127 million in funding. Not bad for a student entrepreneur who was once the only delivery driver the company had.

DoorDash is but one of many startups in an ever-growing food delivery market. In order to stay one step ahead of the competition at all times, Fang has had to learn how to adapt quickly to challenges thrown his way, and how to prioritize growth at all times.

In this week's episode you'll learn:

How to put together a team of co-founders based on mutual trust and respect
The key to adapting quickly and executing even faster
Why it's so important to have a clear vision and the guts to stick to it
The logistics behind running a food-based startup
Challenges and solutions when it comes to expanding and entering new markets
& much more!

139: How to Become a Master Networker to Increase Your Income, Happiness and Startup Success Mar 29, 2017

Jordan Harbinger is one of the most influential people in entrepreneurship today, thanks to his popular podcast The Art of Charm. His show recently hit its 10th anniversary, and Harbinger has interviewed some of the greatest minds and personalities in the startup space and more.

Starting off as a law school graduate who landed a job as a financial attorney on Wall Street, it didn't take long for Harbinger to become quickly disillusioned with the life that being a big shot attorney offered. Within a year, he left his job to work full-time the Art of Charm podcast, but not before taking with him some key lessons from his stint on Wall Street.

During that time, Harbinger learned of "the third path" to success that no one seemed to talk about. The one that wasn't about working long hours, or even being the smartest person in the room, but instead was all about networking. He found that the key to success was all about sharpening your social skills in order to develop the key relationships you need in order to succeed.

That lesson turned Harbinger's life around and opened up a whole world of possibilities that he never thought possible.

In this week's episode:

How to develop and master the social skills you need to succeed
The competitive advantage behind networking and building relationships
Why podcasting changed the game and how you can harness its power
How to become a highly influential person
The secret to creating a successful podcast
& much more!

138: The Power of Community & Free Challenges with Jen Hansard & Jadah Selnah of Simple Green Smoothies Mar 26, 2017

The inspiring story behind Simple Green Smoothies started on a playground, with two mothers watching their kids play together.

At the time, Jen Hansard and Jadah Sellner were both first-time mothers, and they shared a desire to get back into the workforce. But they decided they were going to do it on their own terms and by following their passions.

In 2007, they officially made the jump from being playdate partners to professional collaborators when they began working together on a parenting blog. Not long after they were working on more projects together, with Simple Green Smoothies being one of them.

What initially started off as a side-hustle turned into a full-fledged business, getting some serious traction after they discovered Instagram in 2012. Through a mixture of follower challenges, influencer marketing, and a whole ton of heart, they started building a multimillion-dollar business.

Their key tactic? Focusing on community, first and foremost.

“We listen to our community, we poll them all the time asking, 'What do you want from us?' 'What do you need?' 'What’s your biggest struggle right now?'," Hansard says.

“Find ways to really nurture that tribe and get to know them, just like you would in a real romantic relationship, so that you can serve them to the best of your ability," Sellner says.

From being stay-at-home mothers working multiple jobs in order to keep their families afloat, to being the co-founders of a multimillion-dollar business with thousands of customers, the story of Simple Green Smoothies is a must-listen for any entrepreneur.

In this week's episode you will learn:

Why it's all about building a community first
How to reach out to influencers to help promote your product
What social media platform you should use and how to figure out what works for you
How to generate new leads by providing a free experience
Why you need to focus on one core message when you're just starting out
& so much more!

This podcast episode was brought to you by SiteGround.

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137: How to Build a Large Startup NOT in Silicon Valley with Girish Mathrubootham of Freshdesk Mar 22, 2017

Back in 2010, Girish Mathrubootham was a pretty successful tech guy, having risen up the ranks of a company to VP of Product Management. But that didn't mean he was immune to bad customer service.

After spending months and months going back and forth with a company on an insurance claim, in the end, all that was achieved was Mathrubootham feeling helpless and frustrated. He took to a popular online forum to air his frustrations, and that was when he got his first taste of what it means to harness social power. His post went viral, with others airing their own frustrations at the same company, to the point where the president of the company stepped in to personally apologize to Mathrubootham.

He began to understand just how antiquated the systems for customer service were, and just how important social media had become in giving a voice to customers who previously had nowhere else to go. He realized that modern companies needed a help desk that not only tracked complaints through traditional channels like email and phone, but also those that came through on social media channels.

The result was Freshdesk, a company that now employs more than 950 people around the world, and has raised more than $150 million in capital from top VC firms. One more super-impressive thing about the story of Freshdesk—it started out as a tiny company based in India, and Mathrubootham had to overcome the challenge of gaining a foothold in the US.

That seven-year journey had its own share of setbacks, but Mathrubootham has managed to rise above each one that the cutthroat tech world has thrown his way, through a mixture of knowing exactly the right kind of person to hire and his own tenacity and savvy for PR.

In this week's episode you will learn:

What it means to truly harness social power
What to look out for when you're studying your competitors
How to turn an attack into the best PR move you'll ever make
The key to raising millions of dollars from the top VR firms in Silicon Valley
Why you need to hire based on potential and not on academic credentials
& much more!

136: The Power of Building the Best Product in Your Market with Tenko Nikolov of Siteground Mar 15, 2017

For as long as he can remember, Tenko Nikolov has been obsessed with computers. From his very first computer at the age of 7, he fell in love with the simple green and black screen and was fascinated with all that this technology could offer.

Of course, he also got into some trouble, even accidentally hacking into a large US corporation's network with a friend at the age of 13. After a few days of fun messing with their systems and bragging to their friends, the duo eventually sent an email to the company letting them know what they did and how they did it.

The next few days were agonizing as they waited for a response, petrified that an FBI agent would be showing up to his doorstep in Bulgaria. To his surprise, however, the company reached out, thanked them for finding a security loophole and even asked them how much they'd like to be paid for finding it in the first place.

“I realized that I can actually be paid for the thing that I love to do most," Nikolov says.

Instead of asking for payment, Nikolov asked for his own server that he could play around with. After getting his first taste of entrepreneurship, he began seeing how far he could push the limits of computer technology. Looking back at it now, Nikolov pinpoints this as the exact moment that led him to develop SiteGround, a web-hosting server and provider.

But what makes SiteGround stand out from the thousands of competitors out there, is Nikolov's dedication to innovating.

In this week's episode you will learn:

How to build a product that not only learns from its customers, but also continuously improves
When to give up on perfection and focus instead on shipping
How to survive as a bootstrapped company for 13 years straight
How to read the trends and stay one step ahead of your competitors
What it takes to go from a company that nobody's ever heard of to a major player in your industry
& much more!

This podcast episode was brought to you by FreshBooks.

When it comes to finding the perfect service to help you manage and track your invoices, time, and expenses, you can’t overlook FreshBooks. Designed for small businesses and entrepreneurs who don’t need full-blown, double-entry programming, but still want to keep their finances in check, you can’t go back once you start using it!

135: How to Fight Global Poverty with Technology with Leila Janah of Sama Group Mar 08, 2017

A lot of people can recognize an opportunity, but what separates an entrepreneur from the rest of us is the ambition and courage to seize on that opportunity.

The opportunity Leila Janah recognized was enormous. Lucky for her, and the rest of us, she had the ambition to match it. Her goal? Fighting world poverty.

Ever since founding Samasource in 2008, Janah has impacted the lives of more than 30,000 people, raising thousands up from the poorest parts in India, Haiti, Uganda, and more. Janah has been internationally recognized for her work, with accolades coming from the world's most prestigious universities and publications like the New York Times, Fortune, and Entrepreneur.

The opportunity Janah saw was a simple one. There was a trend in the globalizing economy of companies looking to outsource their work, and she wanted to tap into that trend by giving people living in extreme poverty the training and skills needed to fill these jobs. With the idea that by providing people with the right skills could help them rise out of poverty, Janah managed to pioneer a unique and inspiring social enterprise.

In taking on such a massive problem, Janah has faced virtually every hurdle that can be faced in her eight-year journey as a social entrepreneur, and it looks like nothing is going to keep that bold ambition in check.

In this week's episode you'll learn:

The business of tackling the world's largest problems
How to find and instill passion into the people who work around you
The strategy of divide and conquer when it comes to nonprofits
How to keep it simple with project management and personal goals
What you can accomplish as a social entrepreneur if you put your mind to it
& much more!

134: A Blueprint on How to Become a Sales Master with Matthew Kimberley Mar 02, 2017

At his very core, Matthew Kimberley is a salesman.

Whether it's something he was born with, or a trait he picked up while growing up, Kimberley understands the art of the sale. Starting at the young age of 13, Kimberley took to the street as a young street performer. Juggling his way into his first few dollars, and finding within himself that perfect combination of charm, drive, and ambition that make up the best salespeople.

Fast forward to his 20s, Kimberley had built himself an highly lucrative company earning a cool 7-figures a year, and yet, he was unhappy. He just didn't believe in what he was doing, and couldn't find the passion to keep on going. Taking a step back as a founder, he went back to what he knew best: selling.

“I realized what I liked to do is sell and teach people how to sell. So what I did was become a self-employed sales trainer, and I haven’t looked back since.”

To Kimberley, there is no other skill that is as important as knowing how to sell.

“Here’s why sales are important. When you can sell, you don’t need any other skills. When you can sell, you don’t need to be a creator. When you can sell, you don’t need to be a manager. When you can sell, you don’t need to be a writer, you don’t need to be a speaker, you don’t need to be a talker, you don’t have to have a business idea. You don’t have to be a particularly good executor. You don’t have to be good at doing anything, other than asking, persuading, convincing,” Kimberley says.

Today, Kimberley has honed his skills to the point of being one of the go-to gurus when it comes to the art of selling. He's taught hundreds of people and businesses how to not only grow, but double and even triple their profit margins by teaching them his practical system on how to sell hard, and sell fast.

In this week's episode you will learn:

Kimberley's 16 principles of professional persuasion
The best place to learn and hone your skills as a salesperson
Why learning how to sell is the most important skill for an entrepreneur
How to follow your passion while maximizing your profits
The importance of having a mentor and where to find one
& much more!

133: Building a Fertile Future For All Women with Piraye Beim of Celmatix Feb 27, 2017

The phrase “game-changing” gets bandied about a lot in entrepreneurial circles. And certainly, in this era of landmark technological change, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to people and products that have changed the way we live.

We’re about to introduce you to a woman who raises that bar to life-changing. Someone who is paving the way for millions of women to have more personalized, accurate fertility care. One who has truly moved the medical sciences needle. (Pun intended).

Piraye Beim, is indeed a rare woman. A mother to two, soon-to-be three, a world-leading genetic scientist and Founder/CEO at Celmatix – the New York biotech firm putting big data through its paces with some remarkable results.

Since launching in 2009, Celmatix has released two world-first products. The first is Polaris, a cloud-based platform that uses big data to optimize the treatment of fertility patients. Its creation was what Beim refers to as a “happy accident” on the way to solving their number one goal – building the first genetic test for reproductive health. Fertilome, the realization of that mission, was released early this year.

Today, Celmatix are well on their way to empowering an entire generation of women to proactively manage their fertility. And Piraye Beim is just getting started.

In this week's episode:

How critical it is to your success to be a part of a shared community
What the business of medicine is like
The importance of understanding the story of your customers
How Piraye settles the debate between growth and profitability
How to find the time to be both a parent and a game-changing entrepreneur
& much more!

This podcast episode was brought to you by Pipedrive.

Made by marketers for marketers and with over 30,000 users worldwide, Pipedrive is one of the best CRM tools in the business. Keep track of all your sales, customers, and leads with their incredibly intuitive dashboard and simple design. Don't try any other CRM tool until you've used Pipedrive first!

132: The Importance of Leadership for a Fast Growth Company with Timo Rein of Pipedrive Feb 22, 2017

Before heading to San Fransisco to devote himself fully as the CEO of the wildly popular customer relationship management (CRM) tool Pipedrive, Timo Rein was a sales consultant back in his home country of Estonia. With a knack for making sales and closing deals, Rein found himself successfully working as one of the best salesmen in his country for over 12 years.

Despite loving the industry he was in, Rein knew that there was much more he could offer the world beyond just one-on-one consultation and training sessions. There had to be a way for him to apply his years of experience and distill them into a product that could help thousands of salespeople he knew must be frustrated with the exact problems he was facing.

In Rein's own words:

"We should either find a product like this, or build a product like this. We didn't find exactly what we were looking for so we decided to build it."

Leaving the company that he called home for 12 years, he began to build his very first tech product.

The product that would become known as Pipedrive struck a chord. Ever since launching in 2010, Pipedrive has grown to more than 30,000 customers who can be found on every continent on the globe, and impressively raised $9 million in its first round of funding.

Rein shows no sign of stopping as he seeks to continue to grow Pipedrive in his own impressive fashion.

In this episode you will learn:

How to choose between building a service-based or a product-based business
Rein's own tips on how to improve your own sales regardless of the niche
How to find and develop your own leadership style
What types of people you need around you to launch and grow a successful startup
The key to continue moving quickly and efficiently as you grow
& much more!

131: Running 4000+ People Events & Building a Fast Growth Media Company with Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner Feb 15, 2017

After being unceremoniously tossed out of the corporate world 20 years ago, Michael Stelzner took a chance and turned toward entrepreneurship. In the years that followed, Stelzner began building a reputation as an influencer with a huge network of writers and marketers.

It all culminated in 2009 when, after noticing more and more people talking about social media, he decided to run an experimental project: see if he could build a following by creating a blog with detailed articles about social media. Grabbing the name Social Media Examiner, he got to work.

His goal was simple. Instead of being one of the hundreds of bloggers already out there writing about what they didn't like about social media or simply covering the latest news in that industry, Stelzner wanted to create a blog where he would get the best writers to craft articles that would help the average person and marketer understand how to use social media.

To say that his experiment paid off would be an understatement. Social Media Examiner is one of the biggest business blogs in the world, and is widely considered the authority on all things social media.

Beyond having an incredibly successful blog, Stelzner has expanded the brand to include a top-ranking podcast and an annual event that attracts the best marketers and entrepreneurs in the world.

Seven years into his entrepreneurial journey, Stelzner helms one of the fastest-growing and most respected media companies on the planet.

His secrets to success? A powerful mixture of marketing know-how, a strong business model, and understanding how to get the most out of your network.

In this week's episode you will learn:

How to land interviews with some of the biggest names in your industry
The value in giving away your best stuff for free
What it takes to become the most influential authority in your space
How to market effectively and connect with thousands of people
The magic behind networking and how to harness it
& much more!

130: How to Start a Social Enterprise with Scott Harrison of charity: water Feb 08, 2017

For the past 10 years, Scott Harrison has made charity his business, and he's managed to raise $250 million and bring clean drinking water in people in more than 24 countries since he began his nonprofit charity: water.

Ever since learning the majority of diseases suffered by the poor were caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, he has made it his life's mission to bring clean drinking water to those who need it the most. It's been an amazing journey since he first started and his organization has not only affected millions of lives around the world, but he's also inspired hundreds of others to take the path of social entrepreneurship.

But in the beginning, there really weren't many social enterprises quite like charity: water.

"My advice to people is 'go find someone who's doing what you want to do and join them instead of starting something.' In my case, I just couldn't find anyone else doing what I wanted to do, doing what I had the vision for," says Harrison.

Sleeping on the floor of a friend's closet and using the living room as an office, Harrison began to build something that would offer a solution to what he considered the greatest problem facing the world. Taking it upon himself to build an organization that he could believe in, Harrison created a fresh take on how nonprofits could run and worked to rebuild trust in the power of charity.

In this week's episode you will learn:

The art of storytelling and why it's so important for any social enterprise
How to craft a story that everyone can relate to
How to build and run a worldwide enterprise through nonprofit philosophies
How to inspire and build a team of thousands of volunteers who believe in your vision
How to build a brand that inspires
& so much more!

This podcast episode was brought to you by Infusionsoft

Anyone looking for the gold standard in sales and marketing solutions should turn to Infusionsoft. The complete package for small businesses of all types, save yourself some time and let Infusionsoft do all the work for you by automating huge parts of your business.

129: How Lootcrate Became the No.1 Fastest Growing Company in America with Matthew Arevalo Feb 01, 2017

Many of us have been to one of those startup events where you're divided up into teams and have to whip up a company in the span of a weekend. You make great connections and have some fun, but typically the business idea you were working on for past 48 hours is gone by the time your head hits the pillow.

But Matthew Arevalo and his new friend, and soon-to-be co-founder, realized they were onto something special. While most people went back to their daily lives, Arevalo began dedicating all of his time and energy into this new business. The result was a company called Loot Crate, a subscription service that ships a mystery box of items made for geeks by geeks.

"Subscription boxes had been around, and had existed in the past. But a lot of the focus had been on sampling. It had been on trying to get samples of products into a box and get them out to folks," says Arevalo. "Loot Crate really was the first company to work directly and say, 'We're going to put full-sized apparel, figures, collectibles, and items that pop culture fans gravitate towards and have an emotional connection to.'"

Since that fateful weekend in 2012, the fledgling startup has grown into a powerhouse company with more than 650,000 subscribers, making it the fastest-growing company in the US.

But earning such an accolade took a lot of experimenting, perseverance, and a couple of setbacks along the way, all of which Arevalo was more than happy to share with the Foundr audience.

In this week's episode, you'll learn:

The secret to tapping into a niche and creating a true emotional connection with your audience
What your number one focus should be in the early stage of a fast-growing startup
Why it's important to always be looking for feedback from your customers
How to turn failure into a learning experience
The difference between running a physical business and a digital one
& much more!

This podcast episode was brought to you by Fresh Desk.

Make bad customer service a thing of the past with Fresh Desk. Whether it's with their live chat feature, their easy-to-use ticketing system, or their multi-channel customer support system, treat your customer to an experience like no other and keep them coming back.

128: The Godfather of Blogging Shares How to Create Content People Love - Darren Rowse of Problogger Jan 25, 2017

The internet marketing scene is not exactly known for being grounded and humble. It's often as bombastic and self-inflated as a hip-hop rap battle. That’s why it comes as such a surprise to find that Darren Rowse, one of the world’s most successful bloggers, is so … normal.

His down-to-earth nature is only the first thing that will surprise you. The second is where he's from—Rowse isn’t from Silicon Valley, or even the United States as many assume. Rather, he hails from from Melbourne in Australia’s southeastern corner.

Rowse currently has two active blogs. ProBlogger needs little introduction, as it’s been the internet’s go-to place for everything blog-related for more than a decade now. And his second blog, Digital Photography School, has long been a content darling of photographers worldwide. Both of these blogs boast readerships so large, they put national media outlets to shame. In the words of Ron Burgundy, he’s kind of a big deal.

Before every second person decided to set up a space to blog about their special interests, however mundane, there was Darren Rowse. He planted his flag deep into blogging soil before any of us knew it was a thing, and has since grown to become one of the world's leading authorities on blogging. As one of the world’s premiere bloggers, he’s breathing the rarefied air that comes with 5 million-plus monthly readers.

In this week's episode you will learn:

The secrets behind effective content marketing and how it can improve your business
How to understand who your reader is and what kind of content they're looking for
Why you need to network and the best way to do it
What the best practices for SEO are
The key to growing a business beyond yourself
& much more!

127: The Psychological Triggers to Make Someone Buy with Sean D'Souza of Psychotactics Jan 22, 2017

If you're interesting in learning how to market more effectively and land more sales, a quick Google search will bring up thousands of results, each one promising that their specific tip will be the one that changes your business forever. The trouble is sorting the wheat from the chaff. What's the stuff that'll actually work for you, and what's the stuff that's just clickbait?

According to Sean D'Souza, the secret to marketing is actually surprisingly easy to understand. At their very core, all marketing strategies follow the exact same model, D'Souza says. He has cracked the code, and he can prove it.

"What I do is I break down things into little pieces, and when I break them down into little pieces it becomes scientific. That's really what science is. Science is taking something very complex and breaking them down into little pieces and reconstructing it so that anyone can do it," D'Souza says.

Originally working as a freelance cartoonist, D'Souza somehow found himself indulging his talent for marketing and understanding consumer psychology by helping out others with their marketing efforts. It wasn't long before he started writing about his own experiences with marketing and slowly but surely, he began to gather an audience hungry to learn more.

In this episode you will learn:

The psychological triggers behind turning someone from a prospect and into a customer
Why growing your company might not be the best move
Sean's most effective marketing tactics and strategies
The myth behind innate talent and why it's all about the hustle
What the perfect marketer look and sounds like
& much more!

126: Learn How Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan Quit Her Job to Launch One of America's Fastest-Growing Businesses Jan 18, 2017

There are many reasons people choose to become entrepreneurs. Some want to make money, others want the freedom of owning their own businesses, and some, like Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, want to make an impact. For Sivaramakrishnan, a self-described accidental entrepreneur, she never intended to become the founder of one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. It just so happened to be that it was only by doing so could she affect the change she wanted to see in the world.

Originally intending to pursue a career in academia, by the time Sivaramakrishnan graduated from Stanford with a PhD in information theory, she realized that this was merely a milestone on a journey to something greater. After graduating she headed for Silicon Valley and found herself one of the original engineers of a soon-to-be successful startup.

"I felt like here was a place where I could create an impact," Sivaramakrishnan says.

By the time that startup was acquired by Google in 2009, Sivaramakrishnan had developed a taste for the intricacies of the startup world and soon began her own venture called Drawbridge. The company was all about helping other companies of all kinds understand their customers and their buying habits across multiple devices.

Impressively, since she's launched, Drawbridge now has over 150 employees and is considered one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. Growing by almost 2000% in just the past year alone, in regards to size and the amount of revenue it generates.

Not bad for an accidental entrepreneur.

In this episode you will learn:

Where mobile advertising is at now, and what the future holds
How to find data solutions to marketing problems
Why it's so important to find people who share your vision
Who you need to hire as your company starts to grow
The unavoidable, and the avoidable, pitfalls of running a fast-growing startup
& much more!

125: How to Build a Distributed Team for Fast Growth with Wade Foster of Zapier Jan 11, 2017

You can't talk about fast-growing SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies without mentioning Zapier. In about five years, they've amassed a customer base of over 1.5 million registered users, and grown their team from just three founders to 60 people. But perhaps what's most impressive and unique about Zapier, is the fact that those 60 people can be found all over the world.

While Wade Foster and his co-founders reside in San Fransisco, he is quick to mention that does not mean Zapier's headquarters are in San Fransisco. Not just employees, but also members of the executive team can be found on almost every continent, working remotely. Zapier is living proof that entrepreneurs and startups are no longer strictly bound by location, and that there is a whole world of talent out there.

"The internet feels like our true home," Foster says.

You might think that having such a team would be a detriment to a fast-growth company but, according to Foster, having such a large, distributed team is precisely the reason behind Zapier's impressive success. When it comes to managing and leading such a scattered team, all while building a fast-growing SaaS company, Foster is a master.

In this week's episode you'll learn:

How to validate your idea and find your first customer at the same time
The pros and cons of managing a distributed team of over 60 people
What a high-performing distributed team looks like
Keys to building a B2B company as quickly as possible
Wade's favorite apps and tools
& so much more!

This podcast episode was brought to you by Infusionsoft

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124: What it Takes to Grow Multiple 7 Figure Online Businesses with Sol Orwell Jan 04, 2017

Over the past 20 years or so, the common understanding of what an "entrepreneur" is has undergone some massive changes.

It used to be that an entrepreneur was someone who wore a proper suit, courted investors over fancy lunches and dinners, and ultimately cornered entire industries. Then the term started to shift.

These days when you think of an entrepreneur, you're more likely to conjure some hip whiz kid, much more likely to wear jeans and a hoodie than a suit. The attitude has changed as well, with entrepreneurs these days less concerned about building Fortune 500 businesses, and instead wanting to take on creative pursuits that can fuel their lifestyles of travel, leisure, and adventure.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a person who fits that 21st century entrepreneur archetype better than Sol Orwell. At only 32, he has already bought and sold multiple online businesses, co-founded a 7-figure business by the name of Examine.com, and finds himself globetrotting three to four months out of the year for fun. So how does he do it?

Orwell is no stranger to the entrepreneurship life, having started his first online business of buying and selling virtual currency at the age of 14. Ever since, he's been in love with starting businesses, and everything that the online world can offer. As a tried and true digital nomad, Orwell knows exactly what it takes to build up the perfect business for anyone wanting to be a lifestyle entrepreneur.

In this week's episode:

How to find your niche in the online world
The importance of putting the business first before your ego
Why building evergreen content will always work better than anything viral
Orwell's no-nonsense guide to building a self-sustaining online business
The wonders of building a segmented audience and why you need to do it right now
& much more!

123: Startup Growth Pains, Marketing Strategies, Buying & Selling Companies with Wil Schroter Dec 22, 2016

Wil Schroter never set out to become an entrepreneur. In fact, he didn't have that much interest in business in the first place. But in 1995, he found himself in the office of his college guidance counselor saying that he was dropping out to start an internet company.

The question she asked wasn't why Schroter was quitting college, but what was this "internet" he was talking about.

A 19 years old, Schroter was one of the first handful of people in the world building successful businesses based on this world-changing piece of technology. While dropping out of college to pursue a career in entrepreneurship is pretty run-of-the-mill today, back in 1995 it was practically unheard of. Everyone around Schroter told him it was insane, that it'd be suicide, that he'd never make it.

Fast forward a little over 20 years, he now finds himself as the founder of several multimillion-dollar companies, including Fundable, the world's largest business crowdfunding platform, and the internationally renowned startup launchpad startups.co. It's been a successful journey since that guidance counselor's office.

Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Schroter has not only witnessed, but also participated in many of the world-changing impacts the internet has had. He's pretty much seen it all.

In this episode you will learn:

How to survive a business with less than zero business experience
The things you need to know on how to close more deals
Learn how to build a community
How to deal with growth pains effectively
Tips on what it takes to build a successful company
& more!

122: How Timbuktu Labs Created the Most Successful Publishing Kickstarter Campaign in History (Crowdfunding Series Part 6) Dec 15, 2016

After working in the children's media industry for over five years, there was something that was bothering Francesca Cavallo. She found herself asking the question: "Why does almost every princess in every classical fairy tale needs a prince to save her?"

It was something she didn't particularly care for. But the reality was that there just weren't that many fairy tales where the princess was the hero, and not just the damsel-in-distress. So Cavallo did what any other entrepreneur would do in her situation. If there wasn't a solution to the problem, then she was going to create one.

The result was a book called Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, a collection of 100 stories about great female artists, athletes, politicians, and scientists. Instead of hearing fairy tales like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, children everywhere could instead listen to the stories of extraordinary women like Frida Kahlo, Elizabeth the First, and Serena Williams.

In order to bring her idea into reality, Cavallo, co-founder of Timbuktu Labs, took to Kickstarter to reach her goal of $40,000 in order to print the first 1,000 copies.

The book was a smash hit. Within 24 hours, Cavallo's campaign raised half of its goal, and by the end of the month she had raised over $650,000 in funds and was the creator of the most successful publishing campaign in Kickstarter history.

It was a dream come true, but it was far from being a lucky break. Months before the campaign even started, Cavallo had begun planning. In our interview, she walks us through step-by-step how she engineered the massive success of one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns to date.

In this episode you will learn:

How to validate your idea before you even try crowdfunding
Why the video is the most important part of any crowdfunding campaign
How to establish trust in both your campaign and yourself
The tools you can use to ensure your campaign's success
Step-by-step instructions for what to do before, during, and after your crowdfunding campaign
& much more!

121: How Willi Footwear Raised $36,232 to End Flip Flop Blowouts (Crowdfunding Series Part 5) Dec 08, 2016

A unique product snags attention. A boring product does not.

Brad Munro says crowdfunding is most successful when you have the former—something innovative like Willi Footwear’s improved flip flops.

“The kind of people that are contributing to your crowdfunding campaign, especially if they’re buying a product, they’re doing so because they can’t buy it anywhere else,” he says. “They’re not going to jump on and grab something that they can go down to the shop and get, that’s just as good or the exact same thing.”

But they didn't rely on their product's uniqueness. By shoveling time into their campaign, both the preparation and execution, the team at Willi Footwear was able to integrate consistent messaging with outreach to people they knew, which earned them the money they needed to ensure the success of their fledgling company.

In this episode you will learn:

Why Indiegogo might be a better platform for crowdfunders
How to strike the right tone for your campaign video
What connections you can immediately leverage to ensure your campaign is a success
The elements behind a high-converting project page
What you need to start planning for once you decide to start crowdfunding
& much more!

120: The Master of Systems (Michael Gerber) Shares How to Scale Your Business Dec 01, 2016

Thirty years ago, Michael Gerber released a book called The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About it.

It carried within it lessons on what it means to be an entrepreneur, the importance of systems in building a scalable business, even the different types of people who start their own businesses. It laid out the common pitfalls that happen to most novice entrepreneurs and gave practical advice on how to avoid them.

The best-selling book has since inspired millions of people to start their own businesses, and is still considered to be a must-read for entrepreneurs everywhere. Startup thought leaders like Tim Ferriss and Seth Godin have heaped praise on the lessons outlined in this book.

But before Gerber began changing the lives of a whole generation of business owners, he explains, he never intended to become an entrepreneur. It was only through a chance meeting with a distraught business owner that Gerber found himself with his first client and in the position to help someone grow a business.

"I discovered something I'd never known before, and that is the conclusion I've come to over the years—that despite the obvious differences between industries, between vertical markets, between kinds of companies, what I began to discover was that from a business development perspective, they're not different at all."

Despite all the technological changes that have happened since that first client, Gerber asserts that the key principles behind building a business have remained the same.

In this episode you will learn:

What exactly it is that makes an entrepreneur different from everyone else
How to be a dreamer, a thinker, a storyteller, and a leader
The difference between strategic and tactical thinking, and which one you should be doing
Why everyone should start thinking about building a business
How to make your business unique, even if your product isn't
& much more!

119: How Who Gives a Crap Raised $66,000 by Sitting on a Toilet (Crowdfunding Series Part 4) Nov 24, 2016

Simon Griffiths sat down for what he believed in and, it turned out, parking it on a toilet was an epic marketing win for a good cause.

Griffiths and the team behind Who Gives a Crap toilet paper employed a clever stunt in which they livestreamed their co-founder sitting on a toilet until they reached their crowdfunding goal, and it worked. The company gives half of its profits to charity to increase access to toilets and sanitation in developing countries.

But it takes more than a good cause and a good marketing ploy to have a successful crowdfunding campaign. The team also relied on thorough preparation and consistent messaging to blow away their goal.

Griffiths and his co-founder Jehan Ratnatunga did a first take on their video in January 2012, hoping to launch soon after. But they realized that it wasn’t quite what they wanted, so they went back and tried again, even taking the time to get advice from an ad firm in Melbourne.

The video wasn’t the only thing they had to prepare. The team wanted to be sure that their campaign would be a coherent, quality whole, and if that meant delaying the launch so that they would have time to refine things, that was OK.

“We thought we’d go live in February or March, and then it just kept on getting continuously pushed back, and then it wasn’t until July that the campaign did go live,” Griffiths says.

They were only working on the campaign part-time during the preparation phase, and it ended up taking six months for all of their ideas to come together in a way that they were happy with. Preparing an effective campaign isn’t like heating up a microwave dinner. It’s more like cooking a multi-course feast. It takes time.

In this episode you will learn:

What makes your campaign newsworthy and why people should care
How to make your campaign as shareable as possible
Why the first 24 hours are the most important in any crowdfunding campaign
Kickstarter or Indiegogo. How to pick the one that works for you
How to keep your message consistent across every media channels
& much more!

118: How Canary Raised 20x it's $100,000 Goal on Indiegogo (Crowdfunding Series Part 3) Nov 17, 2016

The Canary team didn’t start their company with crowdfunding. In fact, they had been working on the idea for roughly a year before turning to Indiegogo.

“We decided that crowdfunding would be a great way for us to validate the market a little bit,” says Jon Troutman, co-founder of the company, which offers networked home security systems.

It took the team about a month and a half to plan and prepare the campaign, but Troutman notes that they had already developed a voice for their brand and a story for their product. They didn’t devote as much time to preparation as some campaigns because they could already picture the puzzle. They just had to fit the pieces together.

And getting users involved in the process would be key to doing so. After working on Canary for a whole year, they needed an outside view. “What we’re building is so much about filling a need for people, that it felt weird to go too far into product development without bringing more people into the process,” Troutman says.

One of the great things about crowdfunding is that it lets the market decide in real time whether or not to validate your idea. In Canary’s case, it did.

In this episode you will learn:

The right way to communicate your message to your audience
Where to go when you're looking for expert help
How to analyse the competition and what you can learn from doing so
What questions you need to ask yourself before you launch your campaign
How much time you need to devote to your campaign in order for it to be successful
& much more!

117: How the Oto-Tip Campaign Raised $77,000 to Disrupt the Cotton Swab Industry (Crowdfunding Series Part 2) Nov 09, 2016

A team of doctors and engineers wanted a safer alternative to Q-Tips, so they created it. By understanding where potential users were coming from and staying on point with the idea that their product could alleviate those pains, the Oto-Tip gained the funding it needed to go big.

The lesson from Oto-Tip is, before you start any crowdfunding campaign, you must know how your project will improve people’s lives, and you must explain it in a way that resonates emotionally with potential backers. In this week's episode, Lily Truong, co-founder of Oto-Tip and manager of its crowdfunding campaign, explains how they did it.

“My key question I wanted to ask myself was … ‘Why would someone need this? Why would backers resonate with the story? What pain point are you really solving?’” Crowdfunding campaigns can reach their goals when they offer a clear way to deal with common struggles people experience.

In the case of Truong’s campaign, Q-tips, cotton swabs, ear sticks, they all shove wax deeper into your ear, make you itch, and can even puncture your eardrum. The Oto-Tip offers another, far less irritating approach to earwax.

It all goes back to that pitch: Look, there’s a problem, but here’s a way to fix it. Find out how your own campaign can tap into people’s emotions and offer a solution.

In this episode you will learn:

The importance of getting feedback before you even entertain the thought of crowdfunding something
How to figure out the best media platforms to reach your audience
Why you need a strong story and how to create one that works for you
The good, the bad, and the ugly when working with PR firms
Awesome hacks you can do with LinkedIn to boost your Kickstarter campaign
& much more!

116: How Eskil Nordhaug Raised $123,000 to Change Mobile Video (Crowdfunding Series Part 1) Nov 02, 2016

The problem Eskil Nordhaug wanted to solve for people was simple. Videos taken with smartphones or small cameras are notoriously shaky.

So he simply looked at the needs. He asked himself what it would take to build a company selling a mechanical video stabilizer that exceeded expectations—the kind of product consumers needed, the amount of money he would need, the coverage help press outlets needed, the info his project page would need.

The result was StayblCam, and it was precisely this needs-focused approach that led to a smash-hit Kickstarter campaign and the successful company that followed.

Nordhaug says that the same principle can guide the way for any great crowdfunding campaign. “The most successful ones, generally speaking, are the ones that, there’s a need for it,” he says. “It solves a problem. It’s not just some fancy, weird thing that’s made for the sake of being made.”

Crowdfunding appeals to ordinary people with limited funds, so they can’t back every project that breezes by. When people see your product, you don’t want them to shrug and think it’s neat. You want them to whip out their credit card and ask, “When can I get one?” If your product solves a problem that’s long-pestered people, they’re likely to do that.

Don’t make something that people will want in on—make something that people need in on. Nordhaug shared with Foundr this golden piece of advice, and so many more related to running a successful fundraising campaign.

“It’s about creating value for users,” Nordhaug says.

In this episode you will learn:

Why you need to start working on your campaign months before you even launch
The correct way to figure out what funding goal you should aim for
The best way to contact press outlets and start getting media mentions
Paids ads. How and why you should use them
What a great Kickstarter landing page looks like
& much more!

115: How to Build a Millennial Brand with 10M Monthly Visitors with Derek Flanzraich from greatist.com Oct 26, 2016

There's a common thread in a lot of entrepreneurs' stories: They were facing a problem, couldn't find the solution they were looking for, so went ahead and built it themselves.

That's exactly what Derek Flanzraich did when he started Greatist, a digital media startup that's all about health and fitness, without all the fluff and in-your-face marketing. As someone who has struggled with his weight his entire life, Flanzraich wanted to find a brand that would talk to him on a personal level and not as another client.

Frustrated by the fact that the world was becoming more health conscious, yet at the time seemed to be more interested in shaming those who wanted to get in shape, Flanzraich set out to stake his own claim in an oversaturated market. The key difference, though, was that instead of making his audience feel bad, he would make them feel welcome.

"It wasn't actually about the quality of what we're doing, which we felt that was gonna be best in class or whatever. It was actually the voice that really stuck out," Flanzraich says.

It was a simple change in language, but its message connected with an underserved audience that would eventually translate into 10 million unique visitors every month.

In an era where it seems like every media company is striving for page views above all else, and pumping out nothing but clickbait articles with little substance in order to attract them, Greatist takes a different approach.

"We don't think quantity is a metric that matters. Just like I don't think, increasingly, uniques and page views is a metric that matters. All of these things can be gained and aren't inherently valuable on their own," he says.

Greatist is now one of the world's most trusted brands when it comes to anything about health, fitness, and happiness. It's commitment to keeping a friendly and personal tone in all of its content has resonated with millennials throughout the world. With such a commitment to quality over quantity over everything else, Flanzraich has built from the ground up the kind of branding and engagement that most companies would kill for.

In this episode you will learn:

Why you'll never be ready to be an entrepreneur, and why that's okay
How to find a voice and tone that resonates with your audience
How to calculate your long-term brand value
Flanzraich's unique approach to content and how it holds up against the SEO-focused practices of others
What it means to build a powerhouse brand and how to do it
& much more!

114: What it Takes to Build America's Largest Wine Brand (Barefoot Wine) with Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey Oct 19, 2016

When you think about wine, you most likely imagine stern-faced sommeliers, or parties where tuxedos and hors d'oeuvres on silver platters are the norm.

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey do not fit the stereotype. You probably wouldn't even expect them to be wine-lovers, let alone the co-founders of Barefoot Wine, the largest wine brand in the world. But according to them, the reason they're so successful is precisely because they knew nothing about the industry going in.

Houlihan and Harvey never planned on going into the wine business, but when the opportunity presented itself, they jumped on it.

"If we had known then what we know now, there would be no Barefoot Wine. It's now the largest wine brand in the world, but it would not exist if we had a clue," Houlihan says.

Not having a clue turned out to be their secret ingredient. Instead of being influenced by years of tradition and trying to fit the mold of the wine industry, they decided to do something different and make wine fun and accessible to the average person.

Despite the backlash and criticism they received, despite the fact that they had no established brand or marketing presence, they found a strategy that led them to become one of the fastest-growing wine brands in the nation. To make it even more impressive, it was all achieved without paid advertising.

"It was by contributing to the community, by supporting the same issues that our shoppers were interested in, that we were able to sell our product. Because we weren't paying for advertising, this became our form of advertising. It's what we called 'Worthy Cause Marketing,' and that's what we used throughout the nation when we started to spread the word and grow and expand," Harvey says.

Barefoot Wine has come a long way since its inception in 1986, when Houlihan and Harvey naively thought they would make a profit within four years. Now they're a little older and a little wiser, but they still possess that lively spark that led them to create one of the most popular wine brands in the world.

In this episode, you will learn:

Why ignorance and naiveté might be your strongest weapons in disrupting an industry
What "Worthy Cause Marketing" is and how you can use it to build your brand
The painful lessons in logistics and distribution Houlihan and Harvey had to learn from selling a physical product
Where to go to learn the lessons you need to succeed
How to stay true to your vision and not let anyone else hold you back
& much more!

113: Learn How to Build the Largest Car Company in The World with Robin Chase of Zipcar Oct 12, 2016

When Zipcar first started it was nothing more than a green Volkswagen beetle named "Betsy." It was parked outside of Robin Chase's house and the key was hidden underneath a pillow on her porch. Inside the glove box was a piece of paper where you would write down the time you rented the car and the time you brought it back. That was it.

These days, Zipcar is the largest car sharing service in the world, with more than 13,000 cars spread across almost every major city in the world.

The first time Chase encountered her idea with Zipcar was when her co-founder came back from a vacation in Berlin. Among her many stories about her vacation, she told Chase about a peculiar business she had witnessed where she saw multiple people sharing a single car. Taken with the idea, Chase immediately began setting out to build a better version.

"It's an idea that we didn't even invent. We just executed it way better than other people," Chase says.

Zipcar launched within six months, with a founder who was a mother of three and had no technical experience. It was 1996, when the internet was still new and very different from what we know today. Nevertheless, Chase was determined to make her startup a reality.

We had the pleasure to speak with Robin Chase about her incredible journey as an entrepreneur, a disruptor and a world-changer, and all the lessons she learned in her inspiring career.

In this interview, you will learn:

What it means to create a true minimum viable product to validate your idea
Why the best ideas come from solving your own problems
Advice on who to hire when you're a struggling startup
What qualities you should be looking for when bringing in new people to your team
The importance of user feedback and always listening to your customer
& much more!

112: The Crazy Origin Story of Couchsurfing.com with Casey Fenton Oct 05, 2016

Casey Fenton, like many of us in our 20s, wasn't entirely sure where he would go in life.

Growing up in a small town in Maine, he started to think about this entire world that existed beyond the borders of his hometown, and all the experiences he had yet to have. One thing he knew for sure was that his small hometown wasn't going to be offering him any of the new experiences he was looking for.

"That got me to start buying random plane tickets to anywhere in the world," he says.

From there it was traveling from place to place, mingling with locals and getting a backstage pass to the world's greatest cities. It was then that Fenton formed an idea for a business that would end up spanning the globe.

Today, Couchsurfing.com has more than 10 million members in over 20,000 cities around the world. When it launched in 2003, Couchsurfing was a revolutionary concept. It was one of the first businesses to truly harness the power of a sharing economy. Instead of spending money at hotels and backpacker hostels, travelers were instead offered a choice to stay in the homes of hospitable locals free of charge.

Since then, Fenton's business model has been replicated a thousand times over by the likes of Uber and Airbnb, just to name a few.

We had the chance to talk with Fenton about his entrepreneurial journey, starting with being a backpacker to becoming the founder of a multimillion-dollar company with a reach that spans every corner of the globe.

In this interview you'll learn:

How to go through the hardships of starting your own business
How to figure out which tasks to delegate and which tasks you need to prioritize as a leader
Tips on creating and maintaining a massive and engaged community
How to build an international reputation that people trust
The most powerful drivers that'll get you to scale your business
& much more!

111: Why You Should Never Give up on Your Dreams as an Entrepreneur with Eugene Woo of Venngage Sep 29, 2016

For most entrepreneurs, the real test isn't whether or not you can grow a successful business, but how well you can bounce back from failure. For some, this will prove to be too much and they'll hang up the gloves and never try again. For the true entrepreneurs, though, they'll find a way to jump back into the ring no matter what.

That is exactly what Eugene Woo, co-founder of Venngage, did.

“I had like a taste of failure, but I still went ahead anyway and did it again,” Woo says.

After his first startup went under, Woo found himself back in the corporate world feeling like a failure. Despite it all though, he dusted himself off, took it all as a learning experience and refused to give up.

Armed with nothing but a nagging idea about helping job applicants by turning their resumes into beautiful infographics, Woo went ahead and pitched his idea at Startup Weekend in Toronto and, to his surprise, he won. One thing led to another and he found himself quitting his job once again to work on his startup full time.

The startup known as Visiualize.me blew up, getting featured in places like Mashable and Tech Crunch and gaining more than 200,000 signups before the product was even properly released.

But, once again, it was anything but smooth sailing for Woo.

“I made a lot of the classic mistakes. One of the main ones was I started a company with people I didn’t know very well.”

Within a few months, founders started leaving the company, with one even refusing to turn up to an interview with Y Combinator and leaving shortly after. Stung by failure again, Woo didn't know what to do and ended up selling his company. Despite it all, he knew he had a good idea on his hands. He charged right back into the startup world, this time with Venngage, a tool that allows you to easily make your own infographics, and armed with lessons he learned from his previous failures, he was determined to make Venngage a success.

Today, Venngage has tripled in size with over a thousand new leads to their site every day, and over half a million users per month.

We talk with Woo about the invaluable lessons he learned on his journey to success and ask him to share his best advice on how entrepreneurs can overcome their fear of failure, and the best marketing tactics to quickly grow your startup.

In this episode you will learn:

How to know when to give up or keep on going with your startup
Why so many startups are doing content marketing wrong
The secret to getting your company to start ranking high in SEO as soon as possible
How and why you should do blogger outreach
What the most important metrics are for growing your brand's exposure and visibility
& much more!

110: The Secret to Creating & Mastering Content at Scale with Sujan Patel of ContentMarketer.io Sep 21, 2016

Every morning of every day, Sujan Patel starts his day by getting out all of his creative energy onto paper.

The process is relatively simple. He starts by recording himself talking about whatever topic he wants to write about as a way to order his thoughts. He'll then send this recording to a transcriptionist and when he gets it back he'll spend around an hour cranking out a 1,500-2,000 word blog post. For Sujan, this is the secret to being one of the world's best and most prolific content marketers today.

Just 10 years ago, content marketing just wasn't a thing. Sure, blogs existed but they were rarely used in marketing. Today, content marketing is one of the go-to strategies for businesses everywhere. But with everyone eagerly jumping onto the content marketing bandwagon, simply having a high-quality blog just doesn't cut it anymore.

In order to really harness the power of content marketing and see some tangible results, you're going to need a little out-of-the-box thinking.

"Everyone's writing content for their customers, their existing customers, or who they think their customers are. What I like to do is, I don't even talk about any of that stuff. I talk about content circles. And what a content circles is, is [the] content that circles your industry."

As the founder of ContentMarketer.io, the ultimate tool for content marketers, Sujan is one of the most knowledgable people around, and he shared a ton of his wisdom on the subject with us.

In this week's episode you will learn:

The best way to generate ideas for articles that your audience will love
Just why content marketing is so powerful and why everyone is using it
How to create content that generates you leads and customers
What to do when you find yourself with writer's block
How you too can start writing for places like Forbes, Inc. and Fast Company
& much more!

109: Inside the Mind of the Elvis of Advertising - Alex Bogusky Sep 14, 2016

During a creative career filled with awards and recognition, it took Alex Bogusky a while to realize that none of it mattered unless he loved the work.

“You could win the Grand Prix at Cannes—the next day you’re going to go into your office and look at the same dude across the office and try to think of something. It doesn’t feel any better; it didn’t make you any smarter; it doesn’t make anything any easier,” Bogusky says.

He did, in fact, win the most prestigious award at Cannes Advertising. Actually, under his leadership, the firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky won in all five categories, and became the world’s most awarded advertising agency. Bogusky himself was named Creative Director of the Decade by Adweek magazine, and Fast Company has called him both the Steve Jobs and the Elvis of advertising.

Looking over his many endeavors, Bogusky is a hard person to pin down. There’s a friendly, surfery quality about him, but he’s also gained a reputation as a perfectionist and ferocious supervisor. He’s worked for both car companies and Al Gore’s climate change initiative. He’s overseen iconic ad campaigns for junk food, and the most successful youth-focused anti-smoking campaign in U.S. history. Having left the agency six years ago, he’s now focusing on work with a social responsibility component, supporting multiple creative agencies and a startup accelerator.

But for all of the goals he’s achieved, Bogusky says the happiness he’s found in his career comes from loving the journey—that practice of sitting down with other people and thinking really hard to solve a problem.

“I’ve found that I had to learn to love the process and forget all the goals. Because the goals, as you achieved them, they didn’t really change anything.”

In this interview you will learn:

How to embrace change and use it to fuel your creativity
Why you need to listen to voices outside your startup and what it could mean for you
When and where advertising and branding comes in for a business
How to find opportunities to upset the status quo
How you can start loving the journey regardless of its highs and lows
& much more!

108: The Key Elements to Building a Successful Media Company (The Next Web) with Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten Sep 08, 2016

The future of media, if not the present, probably looks a lot like The Next Web, which is odd considering co-founder Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten says it’s not even really a media company.

The Next Web instead thinks of itself as a tech company, firing on multiple cylinders at once, including international conferences, ecommerce, online courses, and of course, one of the most influential and trafficked news sites on the web. Soon they’re even opening up a brick and mortar space in Amsterdam that will serve as hub for technology startups.

“For some people it’s sort of weird, ‘What, you’ve got a conference and a website and now you’re opening a space? That’s a totally different thing,’” Veldhuijzen van Zanten told Foundr (we’ll just call him Boris from now on).

“For us, it’s a logical next step, instead of losing focus or branching out into different areas. They’re all connected by the brand and a curiosity in technology and the future of technology.”

The Next Web actually started as a conference host. Its annual event in Amsterdam draws some 20,000 international attendees.

However, the company is probably best known for its tech news site. That branch of the business is staggering, drawing up to 8 million visitors a month. But with its conferences expanding, its growing online marketplace, and Boris and his partners always looking for the next opportunity, the most impressive thing about The Next Web is how it merges such a wide range of services to meet the needs of its loyal community. And they do it all with a relatively small staff and a squad of remote contributors.

“Everything is part of a circle that is growing stronger over time,” Boris says. “Part of our revenue comes from advertising on the sites with all the traffic we have, an important part is the conference, and now the ecommerce part is growing stronger.”

Next could be research, consulting, video, anything within reason that the people who have come to love and trust the company might want. And that’s the secret to The Next Web’s success. It’s not a company that makes a product—it’s a network of people.

In this interview you will learn:

The subtle details behind what makes a great event that everyone loves
How to conduct the best interviews with notable influencers
Boris's number one tip on generating amazing content
The tools that every startup should start using
The key to keeping everyone in your company aligned to the same vision
& much more!

107: Mastering PR & Why Ego is Your Worst Enemy with Ryan Holiday Aug 31, 2016

No one ever "gives" an entrepreneur a job, they make one for themselves.

Entrepreneurs don't ask for permission, they just do. And no one exemplifies this better than Ryan Holiday who has made an entire career out of refusing to play by the rules.

As a writer he started off by dropping out of college to apprentice under Robert Greene as a research assistant. To date he's published 5 bestselling books, his first book now being taught in colleges around the world. As a marketer he got his first job as the Director of Marketing at American Apparel by starting off as a marketing consultant and catching the eye of founder Dov Charney.

Today, he works as a world-renowned media strategist he can count among his list of clients the likes of Tim Ferriss, Tucker Max and Linkin Park just to name a few. So how did he manage to achieve so much all before turning 30?

For Holiday it's a mastery of two things: the media and your own self-development.

"I found that the more that I go out and learn stuff on my own, the more opportunities I create through me, then the better I am at my job," he said.

We speak with Ryan as where we talk everything from his process to media strategy to his advice on how to always keep learning in order to be successful.

In this episode you will learn:

The secret to getting driving attention to your business with social proof
How to pitch journalists, bloggers and reports from major media channels
The importance of self-reflection and humility in order to succeed
What works and doesn't work when it comes to successful PR
Where to go and what to do when you need a mentor
& much more!

106: Giving People The Power to Fund Anything with James Beshara of Tilt Aug 25, 2016

In 2012 James Beshara and his co-founder officially launched Tilt, a platform that aimed to make crowdfunding not only more personal but to make the process as easy as possible. But if you ask the Y-Combinator alum himself, he'll say that Tilt was created years before it even launched.

Originally starting off as an offshoot of an earlier startup that he was working on, he soon found himself working on Tilt more and more. It was then he realised he was onto something.

"For every young entrepreneur out there, starting, or building, or founding something. It always sounds like it just starts one day in February or starts one afternoon when you get hit with inspiration. When in truth I think it is the amalgamation of just always starting things, doing things, trying out ideas and one of them just starts to get pulled from you, and you start to spend more time on it."

Ever since it's inception Tilt has been on a tear.

In just four short years Tilt is now valued at $500 million and has crowdfunded some of the world's most memorable campaigns in recent memory. Like sending the Jamaican bobsled team to the Sochi Olympics to raising over $180 thousand for several campaigns providing relief to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Along the way though James has learnt some very valuable lessons on what it means to be the CEO and co-founder of a fast-growing startup. We chat with James today and he reveals his personal methods and strategies on how to build a startup that not only scales, but scales quick.

In this episode you will learn:

The importance of waiting for the right co-founder
How to get out of your own head and move fast, all while developing the best product possible
Why the smartest people in the room might not necessarily give you the best advice
How to design and build a product to grow as fast as possible
The two key things every entrepreneurs needs to focus on if they want to succeed
& much more!

105: Disrupting the Transportation Industry with Millions of Users in 4 years with Polina Raygorodskaya from Wanderu Aug 18, 2016

Something that most entrepreneurs struggle with the most is coming up with an idea for a startup. They'll study business forecasts and look at unique trends trying to find the next big thing. What most entrepreneurs forget though is that the most disruptive startups in the world were created to solve a single problem.

Which is what exactly Polina Raygorodskaya was looking to do when she founded Wanderu, a platform that allows you to find, compare and book bus and train tickets anywhere within the United States. In just 4 years Wanderu have grown their database to over 5 million users. It turns out there were other people that were facing the same problem as Polina.

A long time entrepreneur Polina came across the idea for WanderU while constantly commuting back and forth in New York. Often having to travel by bus or train she quickly found out, to her surprise, that there was no single database to allow commuters to easily find and book bus and train tickets.

Sensing a startup opportunity she closed down her PR firm and began to build Wanderu.

Despite having little experience in the travel industry Polina was undeterred and together with her co-founder they built North America's leading ground travel search platform. Today, Wanderu is now partnered and works together with the leaders of their industry like Greyhound, Megabus, and Peter Pan Bus just to name a few.

In this interview you will learn:

Tips on how to get started in the travel industry, even if you don't have any experience
Importance of finding the right team that shares your vision
How to find and connect with the best advisers and influencers to help you build your startup
When to sacrifice profit for growth
Secrets to creating a valuable network that'll sustain your business in the long run
& much more!

104: How to Use Webinars to Grow & Scale Your Startup with Dave Hobson Aug 10, 2016

There are no shortcuts when it comes to good online marketing, something that Dave Hobson knows all too well.

As the resident expert on all things marketing at Foundr we give you a very special episode today about Dave from how he came to be at Foundr to his thoughts on successful online marketing.

Funnily enough, it is entirely possible that Foundr would not be around if Dave had not cold-called Nathan nearly four years ago. At the time Nathan had only just started Foundr and Dave was at a job where he had to cold-call people and try to make a sale over the phone. Instead of making the sale the founder of Foundr and Dave got to chatting and they eventually became friends.

In order to understand why Foundr may have never existed without Dave Hobson you first must understand his role at Foundr. Essentially he's Nathan right-hand man, the go-to guy whenever a discussion needs to be had about marketing, strategy or the future of Foundr. Even before he started officially working at Foundr, Dave has always been in the background helping Foundr out with his advice.

Today we're very lucky to count him as one of our own and as Foundr's Business Development and Product manager.

In today's episode we show you a little of what's going on behind-the-scenes at Foundr, but more importantly we have Dave divulge the tactics and strategies behind one of our best sale channels: webinars.

Webinars are an amazing tool and they've become a staple in the online marketing world and no one knows that better than Dave Hobson, who knows all the ins and out behind what makes a successful webinar.

In this episode you will learn:

Dave's story and how he came to work at Foundr
Why webinars are so powerful and why almost every business in the world can use them
All the tools you'll need to start doing a successful webinar
The structure every great webinar needs if you want to make sales
How to choose the right webinar topic for you and your audience
& much more!

If you want to learn more about webinars, then check out our FREE guide on webinars at https://foundrmag.com/webinarguide!!

103: Growing a Unicorn Company 57,000% in three years with Tom Bilyeu of Quest Nutrition Aug 03, 2016

The term "unicorn company" describes a startup valued at over $1 billion that managed to get there in a relatively short period of time. Usually when we talk about unicorn companies, we're dealing with Silicon Valley and the cutting edge of the tech scene. Companies that are disruptive in the sense that they've created something totally new.

Rarely, however, do we find a unicorn company that started out in an overcrowded and declining market. Yet somehow, despite the odds, Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of Quest Nutrition, turned a fledgling startup into a powerhouse in just six years.

When Quest Nutrition first hit the scene with their protein bars, they were told by almost every expert in the space that it was insane and that it was guaranteed to fail. Yet Bilyeu and his co-founders persevered and tackled the problem in a way that no one else had thought of before.

First they focused on their customers, to empower them and actually help them make healthy and positive changes in their lives. In short, they treated their customers differently than their competitors.

The result was explosive, growing by 57,000% in their first three years and cracking the $1 billion mark three years later.

We were lucky to sit down with Bilyeu and have him give us the breakdown and strategy behind Quest Nutrition and how they became the unicorn company they are today.

In this interview you will learn:

The challenges of managing a hyper-growth company and how to overcome them
How to navigate the classic entrepreneurial debate of profit vs. growth
Why you need to evangelize to your customer whenever you can
How to build brand loyalty and have your audience believe in your vision
How to crack the notoriously difficult and crowded health and nutrition market
& much more!

102: How to Get up Early and Overcome Extreme Adversity with Hal Elrod Jul 27, 2016

When Hal Elrod was 19 he was involved in a car accident with a drunk driver that left him with brain damage, 11 broken bones, and doctors telling him that he'd never walk again. While many people would understandably give into grief or anger or any other whirlwind of emotions that come after such a traumatic event, Elrod instead made the conscious choice to be at peace with himself.

He knew there was nothing he could control about his situation, but he could control how the situation affected him. While he accepted the fact that he might never be able to use his legs again and was at peace with it, he was also determined to find a way to walk again.

“I’m going accept the worst-case scenario, while I focus on the best case scenario.”

Three weeks later, defying all odds and expectations, he began to walk again.

Since then, he's called upon his life story and lessons he's learned along the way to become a highly sought-after motivational speaker and bestselling author of the book The Miracle Morning. Through his book, Elrod has touched the lives of millions of people with his simple philosophy and has guided them to become more productive, happier, less stressed, and at peace with themselves.

In this interview you will learn:

How you too can start becoming a better entrepreneur, and a better person overall, every single morning
Why the most successful people in the world take their mornings very seriously
When to accept the worst and how to turn that into a weapon
What your potential is and how to reach it
What it truly means to put mind over matter and how to do it
& much more!

101: How to Build a Service Based Business Empire with Brian Scudamore Jul 20, 2016

Brian Scudamore of O2E brands knew all along that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. Relying on that sense of determination, he's built up a sprawling multimillion-dollar business empire, with franchises all over the world. But it all began with junk.

To be specific, it all started in a McDonalds drive-thru, with Scudamore sitting in his car trying to figure out how he would pay for college. What he saw was an old pick-up truck filled to the brim with junk, and he immediately knew that this would be his ticket to chase his entrepreneurial dream.

"A week later, I had a business hauling away junk, and that was the way into my job and a career path that's now been 27 years of pure entrepreneurial passion," he says.

The first business he founded was 1-800-Got-Junk, which has since turned into multiple franchises all around the world and spun off into three more business in the home services niche. Altogether they generate a revenue of $250 million per year!

But it hasn't been smooth sailing over the past 27 years, with many ups and downs along the way and some valuable lessons learned. We're very lucky to learn those lessons directly from Brian today through this week's podcast episode.

In this interview you will learn:

How to get your first round of customers within your first day of business
The secrets to building a successful international franchise
What the franchise business model looks like and how you can make it work for you
Why you need to always hire for culture and fit rather than skill
Traps and pitfalls to look out for when running such a large international conglomerate
& much more!

100: 100th Episode Switch up! Nathan Chan of Foundr Magazine is interviewed by Dan Norris on the Future of Foundr, Lessons Learned & the Direction of The Company Jul 13, 2016

On November 9, 2013, I released the first episode of the Foundr Podcast. It was with Fabio Rosati, then-CEO of Elance. To be completely honest, I wasn't quite sure what I was trying to achieve by releasing a podcast. At the time, it was just another way for us to give to our community, by releasing the audio of our interviews for free.

Fast-forward to today and I can't believe we're at our 100th episode! It's flown by and so much has changed since. But the entire time I've kept in mind this piece of advice from my friend Daniel DiPiazza:

"Keep producing content on a consistent basis every single week, keep getting next-level epic interviews, and people will come.”

He was totally right. In the years since that first episode, we've managed to become one of the top 10 podcasts for business, we have over 70,000 downloads a month, and it's done wonders for our business.

So to mark this occasion, we decided to do something a little different in this episode. Instead of me asking all the questions, I'll be the one getting interviewed for a change! My good friend Dan Norris of WP Curve took over as host, and we took a look back at how Foundr started three years ago and how far we've come since then.

I'm going to share with you the story behind Foundr, how it all started, and the strategies I used to start the company on the path it's on today. I also took a crack at some predictions about where we'll be by our 200th episode.

In this interview you will learn:

The story behind Foundr and how it all started
Who my biggest sources of inspiration are and how they shaped Foundr's vision
My strategy for pitching and landing interviews with the best entrepreneurs in the world
Why you need to focus on design if you want to be successful
What's going on behind-the-scenes at Foundr and what's coming next!
& much more!

99: Building a Product that People LOVE with Janna Bastow of ProdPad Jul 05, 2016

As much as entrepreneurs can go on extolling the virtues of a great marketing strategy or knowing your target customer, at the end of the day, it's all about having something worth selling. No matter how great your advertising campaign may be, if you don't have something that people want to buy then you simply don't have a business.

And yet, entrepreneurs all too often tend to gloss over this fact. They'll focus on everything else, but somehow forget to question whether or not their product is a winner, or even if it's a good idea in the first place.

This is where Janna Bastow of ProdPad steps in, because she, more than anyone else in the world, knows exactly why effective product management is so instrumental to your startup's success.

For Bastow, effective product management is when you're able to find that delicate balance between what's technically feasible, valuable for the customer, and profitable for the business, and define a roadmap on that basis.

Ever since launching ProdPad in 2012, a tool that lets startup teams formally gather ideas, pick out the best ones and turn them into profitable products, Bastow has helped hundreds of startups and entrepreneurs in finding out what their perfect product is. More than anyone else, she knows how just difficult this process can be and why you shouldn't take it for granted.

In this interview you will learn:

What a product manager is and why you need one as part of your startup
The best way to talk to customers and figure out what they actually want
Step-by-step instructions on how to design a product roadmap
Why you need a user story and what it means
How to manage a remote team as a bootstrapped startup
& much more!

98: Robert Herjevac - Lessons on Selling, Investing, Marketing & Building Your Company Jun 28, 2016

Today you might recognize Robert Herjavec as "the nice shark" on ABC's Shark Tank. With a pleasant smile and a reassuring tone of voice, he may seem like an odd fit in the highly competitive world of business and investing.

But don't let that fool you, because behind those kind eyes lies a strength of character and iron will that every great entrepreneur needs to achieve success.

When Herjavec was a young man, he actually wanted to be a filmmaker. In fact, he was a producer for the Winter Olympics in Canada in 1984 while only 22 years old. It was a promising start to his dream of moving to Hollywood and becoming a big-time director. The trouble was, no one was hiring.

With a degree in English literature, a passion for filmmaking, and zero experience or knowledge in computer science, it might seem odd that he would eventually go on to found the Herjavec Group in 2003, one of the top cybersecurity firms in the world. The company grew from $400K to a whopping $140 million in sales annually in just over 12 years.

So how did he do it?

He literally called up the head of the company and, despite having no background in the field whatsoever, offered to work for them for free. With nothing but grit he managed to work his way up the ladder and, despite some setbacks here and there, become the success story he is today.

When not focusing on his own business, Herjavec is all about buying, selling, investing and building great startups, subjects we were very lucky to talk to him about.

In this interview you will learn:

Tips and advice from the Shark himself on how to pitch to potential investors
Different ways to build a company culture that's always striving for greatness
How to scale your business quickly without sacrificing quality
What goes into selling and how to create a story that will get people hooked
Why you need to focus on growth as a business
& much more!

97: Learn Step by Step How to Build & Sell Your Company From Scratch with Nathan Latka Jun 21, 2016

When you think of the word "entrepreneur," the image you're likely to conjure up in your head is one of a fast-talking, brash millennial with personality and ego to spare. That's exactly the kind of entrepreneur Nathan Latka is.

At only 26 years old, Latka has managed to do more in five years as an entrepreneur than most people double his age!

While there may be entrepreneurs out there who wring their hands and refuse to make a move until everything is perfect, Latka instead drives forward like a runaway train and grabs each and every opportunity that comes his way.

This attitude is perfectly showcased when, as a college student, Latka began his first multimillion-dollar business in his dorm room ... while in his underwear. Despite knowing nothing about coding, he began cold-calling and began pre-selling Facebook fan pages at $7,000 a pop. When it came time to deliver the goods he took to YouTube, taught himself everything he needed to know, and started making money.

Before you knew it he had a multimillion-dollar business called Heyo which allowed it's users to create sophisticated Facebook marketing campaigns with an incredibly easy-to-understand interface. Despite having absolutely no experience or knowledge in the area or the startup space, this architecture student doubled down on his hustle and achieved what most entrepreneurs would kill for.

It's this attitude, along with some slick marketing chops, that has allowed Latka to achieve all the success he has today.

In this interview you will learn:

How to start thinking more creatively as an entrepreneur
The best way you can attract and work with top-level influencers
Different ways you can start selling even if you have no product
The power of the webinar and how to harness it
His personal growth hacking techniques and sales process
& much more!

96: How to Build a House Hold Well Known Brand (The North Face) with Hap Klopp Jun 14, 2016

In the late 1960s, when Kenneth "Hap" Klopp traded in his corporate aspirations for the life of an entrepreneur, the support network for such endeavors was not nearly what it is today. But Klopp knew he had what it took to run a successful company, and he was right.

After taking over from co-founders Douglas and Susie Tompkins in 1968, Klopp spent the following 20 years as CEO using pre-Internet disruption and brand-building wizardry to turn The North Face into a global outdoor gear brand. Under his leadership, the company played a role in the growth of the outdoor recreation industry itself, and his journey as an entrepreneur is full of timeless wisdom that only comes from decades in the trenches.

Klopp got his start when he took over the family business, following the death of his father, while finishing his undergraduate degree at Stanford. He then went on to complete his MBA while orchestrating the sale of the company. After graduation, he went out to interview for positions, only to find that no one was willing to hire him to run something—they all wanted him to start at the bottom and work his way up— which sounded pretty boring.

Hap’s focus was on consumer goods, marketing, sales and branding, which landed him an interview at Proctor and Gamble. During the course of the interview, he was introduced to the corporate mores that have pushed so many of us to pursue the life of an entrepreneur. In short, P&G expected each employee to wear a white shirt and tie every day, to refrain from the use of nicknames and to dutifully mind their post until an opportunity for advancement was presented. It was settled, Klopp was not cut out to work for anyone else. “I didn’t want any part of it…I didn’t fit into to it.”

As we know, it’s not enough to simply want to break free from the corporate world—you must have a plan or at least a product. Klopp decided to pursue his passion for the great outdoors and acquired The North Face, at the time just two stores in Northern California beloved by a devoted niche of climbers and otherwise outdoorsy folks.

In this interview you will learn:

The importance of making quality a part of your brand
How to grow and manage a team of over a thousand employees
How to use the power of storytelling
How to build your brand into a globally recognized one
How to overcome the challenges that life throws at you
& much more!

95: What Makes or Breaks a Startup with Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator Jun 08, 2016

Dubbed "the world's most powerful startup incubator" by Fast Company, Y Combinator (YC) has been plucking startups from garages, dorm rooms, coffee shops, and assorted founder hangouts for over a decade.

With a combined valuation of more than $65 billion among its alumni, a list that reads like a who’s who of startup fame—think AirBNB, Reddit, Dropbox, Instacart, Scribd, Weebly—YC has become a Silicon Valley institution. It is described as an elite founders boot camp, a place where ideas are incubated, annihilated, refined, and polished for a period of three months, ready to be served up to a bevy of hungry investors.

As co-founder of this entrepreneurial playground, Jessica Livingston has seen it all: the tears, the tantrums, and the triumphs, while getting a bird’s eye view of some of the startup world’s biggest success stories.

In this interview you will learn:

How to close the gap between a failed startup and a wildly successful one
What Y Combinator is looking for when they take on new startups
The exact process that Y Combinator puts startups through in order to ensure success
The key traits and qualities shared by every successful founder
What signs to look out for that your startup may be doomed
& much more!

94: Building a Multi-Million Dollar Business Around Your Hobby with Alborz Fallah Jun 01, 2016

All entrepreneurs and startups are underdogs in one way or another. After all, in order to be an entrepreneur you're already going against the grain, and in order to be successful you must be willing to challenge the status quo no matter how large or small.

But it's not everyday you find someone who manages to completely disrupt a billion-dollar industry with nothing more than a blog, some hustle, and a keen sense for marketing.

In this modern day tale of David and Goliath, we speak with Alborz Fallah, who armed only with a blog managed to take on the centuries-old automotive industry and come out on top. Today his blog brings in millions of dollars in advertising revenue and challenges some of the biggest media companies in the world.

But it didn't happen overnight. It took some grit and a great understanding of marketing and branding to get to where he is today. Something that he readily shares with us in today's interview.

In this week's episode you will learn:

Tips on finding the right audience and niche for your product
All you'll ever need to know on how to successfully build your brand through trust and customer satisfaction
What it means to have a good reputation in your industry
Where to go when you're looking for resources to grow your company
The best way to foster your brand's community
& much more!

93: Founder of AOL Steve Case Reveals How he Became a Billionaire & Changed The Internet as We Know it Today May 25, 2016

To be a great entrepreneur, you need to have a great vision. Case in point:

Back in the 80s, we were just entering the internet age. At the time, it didn't really exist beyond a few government think tanks and laboratories, and we were only just beginning to understand what was possible. It was during that time that massive companies like IBM, Sears, Microsoft and Citigroup began investing millions of dollars into figuring out this internet business.

Despite all of the competition, in 1985, Steve Case and the team behind a fledgling startup named AOL rolled up their sleeves and helped shaped the internet into what we know it as today.

"When we started AOL in the United States, only 3% of people were online and those 3% were online only one hour a week. So it really was early days in terms of, it was still a niche hobbyist kind of market. I believed that someday it'd be a mass market, someday it'd be a mainstream market, someday it'd change how people got information, communicate, bought products and so forth."

It was that vision that they were building something for tomorrow that turned AOL from a small startup into the giant we know it as today.

In this interview you will learn:

Why focusing on community is the best move a startup can make
How to build for the future instead of building for what's happening today
What it means to develop curiosity and why you need it to be a successful entrepreneur
Exclusive insight into the early days of AOL and how they built a global brand
How Steve judges a startup's disruptive potential when looking to invest
& much more!

92: A Mastery Lesson on the Process of Selling ANYTHING! with Ben Chaib May 18, 2016

One of the greatest misconceptions you'll encounter in the startup world is the one about age. You'll hear would-be entrepreneurs constantly telling themselves that they're too young, or that they're too old, or that they're just waiting for that right moment to finally become an entrepreneur.

That's ridiculous.

There is no perfect moment waiting around the corner for you, because the perfect moment only comes to those who actually go out there and create it.

Ben Chaib, founder of Sell and Succeed, is the perfect example of that. After working in the corporate world for 25 years, he decided that enough was enough. He had the skills and ability to generate millions in revenue, but he wasn't getting the return that we wanted. So he set out and created his own business, and today he's consulting hundreds of other aspiring entrepreneurs on how to market for success.

"We are great at doing things for others, but we are not great at doing it for ourselves. But we deserve it more than others," he says.

While relatively new to entrepreneurship, Ben is no slouch when it comes to knowing how to make a business work.

In our interview with Ben, we get invaluable insight from one of the top business coaches in the world as he breaks down his sales process and shows us what it means to be a great marketer.

In this interview you will learn:

Ben's 8-step process of marketing and making sales
The advantages of having a business coach and good mentors to help you start your own business
Tips on how to make a sales process that is authentically you
How to find clients and target audiences through Facebook marketing
Why you need to get your customers to connect and feel comfortable talking about their business with you
& much more!

91: How to Rapidly Boost Conversions and Stop Losing Customers with Brian Moran of SamCart May 10, 2016

As the dominance of technology keeps on gaining steam, some non-techy, would-be entrepreneurs are made to feel discouraged. How can they compete with all the slick coders starting businesses in this virtual world?

That didn’t stop non-coder Brian Moran from making serious money online, and ultimately making it big in the competitive niche of Software as a Service (SaaS).

No programming geek, Moran was a marketing major, but primarily a baseball player, in college. He had hoped to continue his baseball career after graduating, but an injury forced him out of the ballpark and into the office.

His office job was stable, well-paid, low-stress … and intolerable.

“I was just bored out of my mind. I was getting paid well, great benefits, I had just gotten married,” says Moran. “But someone else was controlling every aspect of my life.”

Six years and a newborn later, Moran is now the founder of the successful SamCart checkout service, which counts Foundr as one of its many customers. In the time between, Moran was consistently hitting it out of the park with multiple online businesses.

Get ready, Moran’s story isn’t your average ball game.

In this interview you will learn:

How to build a SaaS company even if you don't have the technical skills
The 7 key elements of a checkout page that actually converts
Brian's marketing tactics that's led him to build multiple successful companies
What you need to make it as an SaaS startup
How to reduce churn and create loyal customers for life
& much more!

90: Bootstrapping Vs Raising Capital with Ankur Nagpal of Teachable May 03, 2016

The closest thing Ankur Nagpal has ever had to a job was a summer internship at Amazon when he was 18. Ever since then, he's been his own boss at companies that he's built. Outside of that brief fling as an employee, Nagpal has wholly dedicated his life to being a serial entrepreneur.

In his early years as an entrepreneur, he entered the highly competitive startup scene in Silicon Valley as a very successful Facebook app developer. Only he didn't make individual apps. Instead what he was selling was the platform that everyone used to create their own apps. From there, he bowed out with a cool seven figures to his name when that company had run its course.

Just as the real winners of the gold rush weren't those who found gold but the entrepreneurs who sold the tools, Nagpal has made a living as the one people turn to when they're looking for development tools.

Fast-forward to today and he is now the founder and CEO of Teachable, a business that teaches and trains other entrepreneurs on how to create their own online courses with his easy-to-use platform and teaching methods. What once started as a fun side project has now turned into a multimillion-dollar business with more than a million students!

With years of experience in the startup capital of the world, Ankur lets us in on how he became the powerhouse entrepreneur he is today.

In this interview you will learn:

What to do to turn your side project into business succcess
The things you need to know about creating a successful online course
How to create a successful business based on empowering others
Tips to finding paying customers if you've just launched
Where to go to find the best investor for you and what that means
& much more!

89: The Power of Vulnerability as an Entrepreneur with Brene Brown Apr 27, 2016

Brene Brown was a meandering youth in her 20s, doing more traveling and bartending than she was building a business or focusing on school. As a result, she didn't graduate college until she was 30. Nonetheless, after finishing her bachelor’s in social work, she quickly gained her masters and PhD and started a career as an academic at the University of Houston.

But something was rustling beneath the surface for Brown—being a quiet academic and publishing papers wasn’t enough for her. That something was entrepreneurship. Brene Brown started publishing books and doing talks and coaching for executives and successful entrepreneurs.

But Brown is best known for her unique message, calling for entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs alike to open their hearts and minds to vulnerability. What many avoid and even look down upon, Brene Brown insists is a key to success, real intimacy, and happiness.

Brown is a thought leader of our time. In an entrepreneurship community dominated by masculine values and "tough guy" attitudes, she breaks the noise with her message to accept and even embrace discomfort. And she isn’t just preaching: throughout her works, and her now-famous TEDx talk, Brown exposes her own vulnerability. This refreshing, data-based take on life and success has resonated with millions of people who have watched her TED Talk, and the many successful entrepreneurs she currently works with. It also informs the way she runs her own business and was in full display during her interview with Foundr.

In this interview you will learn:

Why vulnerability doesn't have to be a weakness and how you can turn it into your strongest weapon
Where to find the strength to get back up when you've fallen further than ever before
The right way to deal with all the pressures of being an entrepreneur
How to take the data you have and turn it into a profitable business
What it truly means to be vulnerable
& much more!

88: How 5x Founder David Cancel Builds & Sells Companies at Record Speeds - Founder of Drift Apr 20, 2016

As the son of hardworking immigrants, David Cancel saw his parents working seven days a week to support their family. As an adult, he realized that not all people worked the way his parents did, which sparked in him a desire to make a living without getting a “job.”

Cancel always knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur, even if he wasn’t quite sure what that meant. As a kid, he found that flipping through the pages of Inc. Magazine and other early entrepreneurial publications didn’t offer much insight. He saw ads for get-rich-quick schemes and stories of businessmen who had reached amazing heights. Although he wasn’t quite sure what it meant to be an entrepreneur, he knew he wanted in.

The term “serial entrepreneur” gets thrown around a lot, but few have lived a life that defines it as well as David Cancel. Building and selling companies has become a way of life; his obsessions around ideas or problems quickly snowball into companies. He has started and exited five companies in the past 16 years and is currently an advisor, investor, and/or consultant to several more, including BigCommerce, HelpScout, Rapportive, and Yieldbot.

In this interview you will learn:

What it takes to create a successful product
How to listen to your customer and what you can learn from it
What kind of feedback you should listen to and what you should ignore
The secret to iterating effectively and how you can start improving your own products
Where to find the right audience and what it means to serve them
& much more!

87: What it Takes to Sell Your Company to Amazon for $970m with Justin Kan from Twitch.tv Apr 14, 2016

Justin Kan doesn’t come off as the type who lives for the spotlight. Which is funny, because at one point he live-streamed his life, 24/7 for the whole world to see, for months.

That may seem like an unlikely path to a billion-dollar sale, but in fact, the early experiment in the world of live video got Kan and his partner Emmett Shear part of the way there. That unconventional level of dedication and curiosity is a testament to how these two have been willing to dive into the opportunities before them, leading them through a flurry of tech business successes.

Kan’s CV speaks for itself: He co-founded hit companies Twitch, Justin.tv, Socialcam, Exec, and is now a partner at startup incubator Y Combinator, which invests millions annually into tech companies.

A native of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, Kan was not an obvious candidate for someone who would succeed in tech. He has a certain natural charisma, but studied physics and philosophy at Yale, neither of which is necessarily a match for a career in startups. However, he received a crash course in entrepreneurship from an early age by watching his mother run her own real estate business, and it seems to have stuck.

From there, Kan experienced his share of losses and ridiculously spectacular wins, developing a series of products that define the chapters of his fascinating career in tech startups.

In this interview you will learn:

The exact process of coming up with, developing and selling your startup idea
When to pivot and the signs to look out for
What startup accelerators like Y Combinator are looking out for
How to hustle harder than everyone else around you and gain the competitive advantage
Why you should bet on the founders and not the startup itself and the wins that come with it
& much more!

86: The Secret on How Triple Your Leads, and Close 90% of Sales with Gary Tramer of LeadChat Apr 07, 2016

From a very young age, it was clear that selling was encoded in Gary Tramer’s DNA.

His aptitude for sales emerged early when he was a scrappy little kid riding his bike around the neighborhood with his friends. He and his gang would steal their neighbors’ plants, re-pot them into yogurt containers, and sell them back to the same neighbors. With the money they made, Tramer and company would indulge in Fizz Wiz, Warheads, and other junk from the candy shop.

“We were crafting our humble entrepreneurial beginnings,” Tramer says.

From these humble beginnings, Tramer has evolved to start and run several successful sales-focused businesses, up to today’s LeadChat company, where revenues reach over $1 million. He’s become a true master, with roots in face-to-face selling that he adapted and scaled up using cutting-edge digital tools. And he dished all of his secrets for us in this interview.

In this interview you will learn:

From start to finish, what goes into making and closing leads
Dozens of helpful tools you can start using today for your own sales strategy
The different ways you can test your ads without breaking the bank
The process of utilizing traditional marketing techniques in a digital setting
What it takes to train your salespeople with no experience into becoming absolute sales machines
& much more!

85: Creating a $100m+ Marketplace that Dominates Your Industry with Martin Hosking of Redbubble Mar 29, 2016

“Lean Startup” has become a popular concept in the world of entrepreneurship. All founders and founders-to-be have phrases like “pivot” and “fail fast” on the tips of their tongues.

But for Martin Hosking, lean isn’t just a fashionable trend. He’s lived it. And after applying and experiencing lean methods over decades of launching and running tech startups, the methodology has gained a more sophisticated meaning in Hosking’s mind. It is not just a clever strategy for testing markets, but rather staying nimble to truly fulfill the needs of the customer, something that drives him today.

“What I really like about lean is it puts the customer at the center,” Hosking says, adding a caveat. “You need to have lean, but you need to have a good strategic orientation. The customer doesn’t always know what they want."

Hosking’s nuanced understanding of lean startup methodology highlights the deep expertise he’s developed over the course his career. And it’s paid off. After experiencing more than his share of 1990s dot-com boom and bust, Hosking is now CEO of Redbubble, an Etsy-like online marketplace for artists that’s become highly successful.

But as any successful entrepreneur will tell you, it’s not just smarts and experience that get you there.

Passion is the vital ingredient that needs to be present to keep a company going during the hard times and bring it out of the shadows to phenomenal success. It’s a kind of passion that can’t be reeled in or held back. It comes out immediately when you meet a true entrepreneur. Martin Hosking is a prime example; the passion and dedication he has for his work spills out from his fast and excited manner of speaking.

In this interview you will learn:

What it really means to go lean and how to get there
The secrets to developing a passionate group of users
How to be prepared when the unexpected arises
The processes that Martin goes through in order to make sure that his business is always running in top shape
What goes into building a successful online business
& much more!

84: How to Build a Successful Business without Startup Funding with Rob Walling of Drip Mar 23, 2016

As a full time software developer working for a large company, Rob Walling dreamt of becoming an entrepreneur – and more than a decade later he has obtained serial entrepreneur status.

Rob Walling is many things…as a serial entrepreneur he has been at the helm of several tech companies including Drip, Micropreneur, HitTail and DotNetNovice. His personal brand is supported by regular posts to his blog which he forayed into a book, Start Small and Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup. In his spare time, he wears the hat of a podcaster, conference host, teacher, angel investor and audio book junkie.

When the entrepreneurial itch first infiltrated Rob’s being, he left his full time job and began consulting and freelancing. The move was great at first but he soon found that freelancing and consulting was a lot like working for someone else – which was seriously uncool.

His new dream was products – build something that people will buy on his own terms without the watchful gaze of a boss. But, it didn’t work like that…instead; Rob’s second transition came when he acquired a small software application and tasted true freedom. As Rob puts it, “My goal was to cobble together enough of a portfolio so that I could stop consulting.”

His acquisitions ran the gamut from a site that sold beach towels (but ranked high on Google) to a book on bonsai trees but eventually, he was able to give up consulting completely. He developed a strategy built on incremental progress - a solid stair stepping approach that has made every acquisition, his biggest acquisition.

In this interview you will learn:

What to do when you want to bootstrap and how to make it work
The secrets to keeping yourself in check and managing expectations
The secrets to self-confidence in the startup world
How to build yourself a top mastermind group
What it takes to ensure that you have a proven product that people will love
& much more!

83: From Bankruptcy to $20m exit with Tim Fargo of Tweet Jukebox Mar 16, 2016

It's not easy to admit when you're wrong, but you'll rarely find a better time than when you're filing for personal bankruptcy.

That's what Tim Fargo of Tweet Jukebox had to do when he was a young man in 1991 and found himself a little too in over his head. But today he's the founder of one of the most exciting and innovative social media automation engines in the world, right after selling his previous company for $20 million.

So how does someone go from bankruptcy to $20 million?

Well, you do it by paying attention and learning from your mistakes, which is exactly why Tim is where he is today. He's experienced both the lowest and highest points any entrepreneur can go through and he's walked away from a better businessman and all the wiser for it.

We're very lucky to share with you today this episode of the Foundr podcast, in which he talks openly about the lessons he's learned throughout his career and all the different pitfalls and traps you need to avoid.

If you ever wanted to learn from someone with over 25 years of highs and lows in the world of entrepreneurship, you don't want to miss this one.

In this interview you will learn:

What it's like to file for bankruptcy and how to recover from it
The do's and dont's of cash flow management
How to keep yourself in check and on the right track when starting a business
The key steps to growing your business rapidly
What you can learn from going broke
& much more!

82: The Secrets to Success & Hustle with Gary Vaynerchuk of Vayner Media Mar 09, 2016

Gary Vaynerchuk is a bona fide Internet celebrity. At last count, he was sitting pretty at 1.21 million Twitter followers, and 226,000 Instagram followers. He’s appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, Ellen, CNN, and MSNBC. He’s now the CEO of VaynerMedia, a digital agency with more than 600 staff. Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur, investor, New York Times best-selling author, speaker, and, hailing from greater New York City, a fervent Jets fan.

But his success all started with Wine Library TV, a video blog he started when YouTube was still a 1-year-old Internet debutante. From the start of his career, Vaynerchuk has mastered social media to draw attention to his online persona GaryVee, and since then has leveraged his fame to build success with over a decade of shrewd planning and execution. But there’s one secret to success that Vaynerchuk always comes back to.

“The reason that I’m speaking to you is that I’ve worked harder than you.”

These brazen words were uttered by Vaynerchuk during one of his many training videos. While it’s impossible to know just how true that is, this is a belief central to Vaynerchuk’s life. Hard work is everything.

When discussing his success, the word hustle frequently bobs to the surface. “My hustle is better than everybody else’s,” he says, “so I have to bet on it. I bet on my strengths.” And despite living in an age of lifehacks and shortcuts, Vaynerchuk remains a staunch advocate of simple hard work. Armed with little more than his ball-of-fire personality and a will to succeed, he’s built an attention-hungry business empire worth millions.

In this interview you will learn:

The best strategies to leverage social media for your business
What to look out for when it comes to creating the perfect social media strategy
The secrets to creating valuable content and why it works
How to take care of your employees and build long-lasting and loyal relationships
The secrets behind each social media platform and how to take advantage of each one
& much more!

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Better yet, FreshBooks is offering a month of unrestricted use to all of Foundr listeners totally free right now and you don’t need a credit card for the trial!

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81: 15 Million+ Followers on Instagram & Counting! Interview with The Instagram Queen Gretta Rose van Riel Mar 01, 2016

Every day there’s an entrepreneur out there who believes that they’ve found the golden ticket. The one idea that is so revolutionary that it’s going to change the landscape of their niche and bring them a huge success.

Unfortunately, no matter how great of an idea it may be, nothing happens unless you have a brilliant plan to execute it.

So where to start in this crazy startup world?

Well, according to Gretta Rose Van Riel, it starts off with finding not just the right product idea but the perfect one. By using a bit of research, and a little bit more patience, she was able to find the type of product that took her to over 600k in revenue in just under a year!

By utilizing Instagram she managed to spread her brand’s message and exposure, growing to over 15 million followers in just a few years! It is very rare you’ll find anyone else as savvy as the founder of SkinnyMe Tea when it comes to the world of e-commerce.

In this interview with Foundr Gretta breaks down for us the nitty gritty details of the e-commerce world and shows us just what it takes to make it as a 21st-century entrepreneur.

In this interview you will learn:

Learn the easiest and cheapest way to build a website for your business
Important Insights on how to use Instagram to help start, grow and build up your brand account
Learn how to identify trends and physical products that you can successfully sell online
How to get your perfect funnel for you to start selling immediately
The do's and don'ts of E-commerce

& much more!

80: How to Explode Your Local Business Using Instagram with Ramy Georgy Feb 23, 2016

One type of entrepreneur we don't give enough credit to is the local business owner. While it seems that everyone in the startup world these days is trying to come up with the latest app, or next revolutionary SaaS, we often forget about that entrepreneur looking to create something on the ground.

One of the biggest struggles for local business owners is finding a way to get their business out there. When you're running a brick-and-mortar business it can often feel like your options are limited when it comes to marketing and brand exposure.

Ramy Georgy is about to change to way you think about local business.

Ramy is a local dentist in Foundr's home base of Melbourne, Australia and today he runs one of Australia's most recognized and sought-after teeth-whitening clinics. The most impressive part? He achieved all of this within his first year of operation.

By thinking creatively and using the power of Instagram and celebrity influence, Ramy has managed to turn his local business into an international one, proving once and for all that traditional and digital businesses don't have to live in separate worlds. In fact, when used together, you can produce some phenomenal results.

In this interview you will learn:

How Instagram works in turning your followers into actual clients for a local business
Tips on how to sell your local product and increase your business internationally at the same
The importance of having influencers on your side when taking on the global market
Ways to start a business and be recognized in the dental industry
Tips on choosing the right influencers to work with
& much more!

79: How to use Instagram to Generate Millions of Dollars in Your Niche with Deonna Monique Feb 16, 2016

One common trait among successful entrepreneurs is a sense of urgency—spotting a need and responding without hesitation in order to address and capitalize on it, even when that means taking a risk.

Deonna Monique is a prime example. As a consumer of hair extensions, she had long struggled with finding the right product, and what she saw as a lack of authenticity in the market. But when she realized through social media that the problem was much bigger than her own, she started a company.

“I thought I was on to something,” Monique tells Foundr. “So a week after I opened my business, I quit my job. I just went for it.”

Despite some serious tests of faith along the way, Monique stuck with her company Boho Exotic Studio, and ended up earning seven figures in that first year, she says. Now approaching three years in business, and she has a strong foothold, all with her chief channel of marketing being social media platforms like Instagram.

Monique’s lack of hesitation, no-nonsense approach to connecting with her customers, and faith in the quality of her product and service, have added up to a stunningly fast ascent, all in the face of serious business and personal hurdles.

In this interview you will learn:

How to let your customer be the face of your company
What to do when it feels like you've hit rock bottom as an entrepreneur
The best ways to hack social media marketing to further your brand and grow your audience
The perils and benefits of diving straight into building a business as a new entrepreneur
The importance of looking past all the doubters and believing in yourself and your dreams
& much more!

78: Dominating Your Customer Acquisition Channel (SEO) with Raj Sheth Feb 09, 2016

No matter how you crunch the numbers, starting your own business is expensive.

In fact one of the first crossroads moments you'll encounter as an entrepreneur, among many, is trying to figure where you're going to get that funding. Do you self-invest and bootstrap it? Or do you start talking to investors?

Raj Sheth goes deep on that issue in our interview today, as he openly talks about how he and his co-founders funded their way to the top with Recruiterbox.

Nearly five years since its launch, Recruiterbox is used by more than 1,500 customers, with next-level businesses like Groupon, Couchsurfing, and Crunchbase praising the SaaS that Sheth has created.

In one of our most insightful interviews to date, Sheth talks about the lessons he's learned throughout his entrepreneurial journey, from being the founder of two failed startups, to using SEO as a source of customer acquisition.

In this interview you will learn:

Bootstrapping 101: How to start a software business on a tight budget
The importance of having a well-rounded founding team
Do's and don'ts of building any kind of software product
Top strategies on how to utilise SEO with the right kind of content
What to do to get your name out there and have top-level influencers and companies use your platform
& much more!

77: How to Own Your Story & Level Up Your Life with Steve Kamb Feb 03, 2016

In just a few short years Steve Kamb has successfully created a multimillion dollar business by orchestrating one of the most intriguing communities online.

As the founder of Nerd Fitness Kamb has positively influenced and empowered thousands of people in the world into living a healthier lifestyle. By looking past the stereotypes and the norm, Kamb has managed to break through the highly competitive fitness market and find a niche that was looking for the answer that only he could provide.

However the key to his success?

Being able to speak the language of his target market, in this case geeks and nerds. The average joes and desk jockeys who want to look like Captain America but aren't sure where to start.

By putting his community first and realising that there's more to fitness than the latest bodyweight exercise, or the different flavours of protein, Kamb has managed to gamify fitness and, in doing so, win the loyalty of every member of his community.

In this interview you will learn:

How to start a multimillion dollar business in the online fitness industry
Strategies on writing successful articles to target a specific market of readers and culture
Not only the importance of an engaged community but the secrets to building one
Ideas on how to start on writing and publishing your own self-help book
Important health tips for the busy entrepreneur
& much more!

76: 8 Million Users, $233m Valuation & Rockstar Investors all in 2 Years? The Canva Story with Melanie Perkins Jan 26, 2016

Finding the right startup idea is difficult even for lifelong entrepreneurs. But when it comes down to it, the best approach is to take a long hard look at what you're passionate about and try to figure out a way to share that with the world.

By sharing her passion for graphic design to anyone who was interested, Melanie Perkins was able to become a certified tour de force in the entrepreneurial world.

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, in just under two years her company has grown to 8 million users, is now valued at $233 million dollars, and has the backing of heavyweight investors like Guy Kawasaki, Bill Tai, and Lars Rasmussen, just to name a few.

As the CEO and founder of Canva, Perkins knew that everyone had a little bit of an artist's streak inside them. The trouble was, the tools to bring that out were either too expensive or too clunky to learn. So she did what every good entrepreneur does. She made a product that took the complex and made it simple.

Responding to the rapid expansion of social media and the growing importance of being able to communicate visually, Perkins has made it possible for anyone to pick up her product and start making visually striking images.

With an eye for even loftier heights along with her keen eye for design, Perkins shares with us her lessons on how to turn your passion into a multi-million dollar success story.

In this interview you will learn:

The tools that you need to kickstart your own graphics design company
The importance of finding and empowering the right people on your team for maximum results
Why you need to fundamentally believe in what you're trying to achieve with your startup
How to get people to use your platform and software in a crowded market
What you need to do develop your team's focus, decision making, and leadership skills so your business works for you
& much more.

75: How to Build & Grow A Successful Blog for Your Startup with Yaro Starak Jan 19, 2016

For some, being an entrepreneur is the only life to live, and it means essentially not having a job. For others, working for yourself, always hustling and without a dependable paycheck, sounds insane.

Today's guest is firmly in the former camp, and very proud to say that he's never had a job in his life. There have been some part-time gigs, some casual work here and there, but Yaro Starak has only ever seen one side of the fence, and it's always been green.

While there are those out there who will insist that you're unlikely to turn your passion or hobby into a successful business, they've never met Starak, the quintessential lifestyle entrepreneur. Armed with a truly entrepreneurial spirit, Starak has managed to turn almost each and every one of his hobbies into an immensely profitable business.

While it may be impressive to say that you've made it big in the e-commerce field, it's truly impressive if you can say you've been doing it for more than 10 years!

As one of the original dot-com entrepreneurs, Starak has made a living working from nothing but just a laptop and an Internet connection. While others crashed when the market folded, Starak simply adapted.

But the one constant throughout his experiences with e-commerce has been the power of blogging. With his blog, Starak has generated millions of dollars in revenue whether sitting at home or traveling the world.

And here's how he did it.

In this interview you will learn:

Everything you ever needed to know about the importance and power behind blogging in the e-commerce world
What to look for when you want to capitalize on any niche
How to quickly grow and monetize your email list
The ins and outs of internet marketing and how to crush it
Secrets being building an epic sales funnel online
& much more!

74: Building one of the Largest Adventure Travel Companies in the World with Darrell Wade from Intrepid Travel Jan 12, 2016

Anyone can have a great idea, any entrepreneur can get lucky and make it big, but it takes something really special to turn your startup into something that lasts.

For the past 27 years that's exactly what Darrell Wade has done with IntrepidTravel. It all started in 1988 when two friends went on a trip to Africa and came back with an idea, something that would revolutionize the travel industry forever.

Despite the lack of confidence from the banks and everyone telling them otherwise, Wade and his cofounder knew that there was a market being underserviced out there. So channeling his own passion for traveling, he created a startup where, for more than four years, his salary was only a third of his previous job.

Since then, IntrepidTravel has turned into a $300 million business and has successfully transported 350,000 travelers around the globe in the previous year alone!

Despite hardships, Wade vigorously reinvested back into his business, focusing on building the best product he could possibly offer, and creating a company with staying power to support it all.

Today IntrepidTravel is one of the premiere travel agencies in the world and it all started with a passion and desire to change.

In this episode you will learn:

How to start a business in the travel industry
How to make your business grow on a tight budget and learn about the risks that you have to take for your startup travelling business
The advantages of re-investing to make your business grow
Unique ideas and Actions items to get a lot of travellers book with your agency
The importance of mutual respect when it comes to leadership and your organization
How to identify the leverage points where you can scale up in your business
& much more!

73: How to Build a Super Successful Online Business with John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire Jan 05, 2016

There is a quintessential moment that every entrepreneur will face at some point in his or her life. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re running, or what kind of niche you’re in, there's a particular experience unique to those who dare to try their hands at entrepreneurship.

It’s the moment when you look in the mirror and realize that you’re not happy doing whatever it is you’re doing. You decide that the system doesn’t work for you, so instead you’re going to go out there and create something for yourself.

For John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire, that didn’t happen until he was 32 years old.

“I gave myself my own job and that's what I kind of love about it, because I've been asking, begging, pleading for jobs really for the first 32 years of my life,” Dumas says. “I said, ‘You know what? It's time to get out there and create my own job, a job that I want, that I'm actually excited and passionate about.’”

You’ll likely know Dumas as the founder and host of Entrepreneur on Fire, a podcast in which, for the past four years, he’s been interviewing the top entrepreneurs in the world and in the process building a multimillion dollar business.

Today, Entrepreneur on Fire boasts 1.3 million listens a month, making it one of the most popular business podcasts in the world. But it took more than 10 years of trial and error for Dumas to get to where he is today.

In this interview you will learn:

How to create a business podcast from scratch.
The importance of seeking out courses and communities that will teach you what you want to learn.
Learn how to take methods and strategies from experienced entrepreneurs and learn what works for you.
Why it is good to be authentic and transparent as possible to your podcast audience.
Learn about the marketing concept on how to build and retain a loyal audience and following.

72: Internet Marketing Mastery with Los Silva Dec 22, 2015

Carlos "Los" Silva is rightfully considered today one of the top business marketing trainers in the world.

After a 10-year entrepreneurial journey, he finds himself at the helm of multiple, million-dollar businesses that aim to teach other entrepreneurs different ways they can achieve startup success. His advice is sought after by master entrepreneurs in their own right, with his client list boasting names like Disney, Ryan Deiss, Kent Clothier, and many more.

Which is why we're super excited to be sharing this interview with you today, and delivering his secrets on Internet marketing and what it takes to build a local customer base and successful startup.

And alas, Foundr family, this will be our final post for 2015 as we head into the holidays. We'll be taking a much-needed break during the next week to spend some precious time with our own families, and we hope you do the same. We'll be back in a week with more amazing content.

See you all in 2016, and until then, enjoy the interview!

In this interview you will learn:

How E-commerce helps on your startup and how to identify opportunities on the e-commerce space.
Why social media plays a huge role in selling your digital products.
The different tools that you need to help grow your business online.
The importance of building good relationships and business partnerships that can help support your system.
The process to increase your email list and get more people to join your webinar and Techniques in Educating buyers about your products.
& much more!

71: Mastering Social Media & Evangelism with Guy Kawasaki Dec 15, 2015

During one of Guy Kawasaki’s first marketing assignments in the early 1980s, he would knock on the doors of startup software companies across Silicon Valley armed with a stack of non-disclosure agreements and a prototype computer in a bag. “We would say, ‘If you sign this, we’ll show you what’s in the bag,’” he says. The prototype, Kawasaki explains, was a top-secret project that, if knowledge of it was widespread, would cannibalize sales of their main computer hardware product. It’s name? Macintosh—a project run by a team of developers at Apple, headed up by Jef Raskin and a then 29-year-old Steve Jobs. As far as marketing a computer is concerned, “it was hand-to-hand combat.”

Of course, Kawasaki was successful in his efforts marketing the Macintosh, and the rest is history. Today, Guy Kawasaki is a famed tech startup guru who notoriously spearheaded the marketing cause for Apple in 1984, before going on to work on a number of startups, a venture capital firm, and a stint at Google.

It’s a title that stands out because when you think evangelist, the image that often pops into mind is that of a middle-aged man with slick hair, a pink suit and a Texan accent on late-night television, prancing about on a stage and shouting about the bible. In Kawasaki’s case, that couldn’t be further from the mark.

At 61, Guy Kawasaki comes off as a truly decent human being, affable, humble and easy-going. The sort of guy you’d be happy chatting with at a friend’s barbecue for hours without having to fake a bathroom visit to get away.

In this interview you will learn:

How to inspire and convert your audience.
Learn the importance of Visual Marketing.
The importance of building your brand's social media platform.
Techniques on how you can evangelize for your startup without a huge budget.
Learn about the Two simple ‘tests’ to apply to any content your company shares on social media to ensure that it has maximum traction online and has the maximum benefit for your business.

70: How to Manufacture a Disruptive Product (Without Selling a Kidney) with Lisa Fetterman of Nomiku Dec 08, 2015

There’s a simple rule that all entrepreneurs live by: Aim for disruptive change. Everything you need to know about being an entrepreneur lies in that beautifully simple rule. Yet, as many entrepreneurs will tell you, it’s easier said than done.

But that’s exactly what Lisa Q. Fetterman went ahead and did as the co-founder and CEO of Nomiku.

Nomiku takes it name from “nomikuii” a Japanese word which means to eat and drink- a perfect name for the revolutionary kitchen appliance that’s finding homes in professional and personal kitchens worldwide, creating disruptive change as it simplifies the science of gastronomy for food-lovers everywhere.

Lamenting the fact that she couldn’t create restaurant quality food at home because of the lack of a sous vide machine, she sought to change that.

Ever since that simple idea in 2010, Nomiku has amassed over $1 million between their two Kickstarter campaigns. Gaining the distinction of having raised the highest amount of money for any product within their category with just their first campaign alone, they raised nearly $600,000 within 30 days. They then went on to break their own record by raising $750,000 with their next project. Today the Nomiku sees itself in kitchens from the White House to Michelin starred restaurants around the world.

Nomiku is an entrepreneurial success story that can only exist within the 21st century. Fetterman has tapped into the power of hackerspaces, accelerator programs and crowdfunding in order to be invited to the White House as a “White House Honored Maker”, listed on Zagat’s 2014 “30 under 30”, and listed again as “30 under 30” in 2015, this time on Forbes.

Why it's important to love what you do.
How to utilize social media, blogger and word-of-mouth to generate buzz and excitement for your product.
The important strategies in launching a crowdfunding campaign.
The resources that you need when investors aren't listening.
How to have a product development strategy to overcome the struggles of manufacturing.

69: How to Launch Your Startup in 7 Days and Build a $1m Business with Dan Norris of WPCurve Dec 03, 2015

Building a startup is hard, from generating an idea, to developing an MVP, to launching a product, and eventually growing a business. It's just really hard.

But what if I told you that it's entirely possible to launch a startup in 7 days and build a profitable business almost instantaneously? Sounds crazy right?

Well tell that to Dan Norriss of WP Curve who went ahead and did just that.

After seven years of trying his hand at various business, it wasn't until 2013 that Dan struck gold with WP Curve. A worldwide team of Wordpress developers providing constant support for small business of every kind 24/7. Today he impressively manages a worldwide team and just started his craft beer brewery, and there's no sign of slowing down.

He shares with us the lessons he's learned through his career as a serial entrepreneur and as an award-winning content marketer. Teaching us everything from the importance of content marketing in today's world of startups to managing a remote team and what it's like to be in the modern tech industry.

In this interview you will learn:

How to start your own website from scratch
The importance of getting all the opportunities to get press release in launching your ideas
How to manage a huge remote team around the world using different online tools
What content marketing is and how to build and grow a business with it
Why you should be producing awesome evergreen content
& much more!

68: Building The Best Workplace in The World with Vishen Lakhiani of Mindvalley Nov 23, 2015

How can you attract top talent, and create a workforce that goes the extra mile for the company? The answer – surprisingly – isn’t salary, perks or bonuses. It’s culture.

Making the effort to build and invest in a positive business culture can drain time, resources and money. But research suggests that the ROI on a happy workforce can be measured in dollars as well as satisfied, secure staff.

According to The Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, good culture-building activities successfully cultivate a companywide commitment to satisfying customers. Other benefits include enhanced performance, reduced staff turnover, increased job satisfaction, greater employee engagement, fewer errors and enviable status as a workplace of choice.

The jury is officially in: happy and healthy employees cost companies less. A 2011 academic study through the London School of Economics found that for costs spent promoting well-being in the workplace represented a substantial annual return on investment of more than 9 to 1, with increased productivity and reduced absenteeism. And it doesn’t just happen. If you’re a business owner, creating culture is up to you, with former MIT professor Edgar Schein once commenting that the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.

So how do you create a good workplace culture? CEO of Mindvalley, Vishen Lakhiani, is the man officially standing at the intersection of mindfulness and business and has workplace culture down to a fine art.

In this interview you will learn:

How to turn the power of meditation into your superpower
What it takes to build a great company culture and keep top talent
The benefits of having a great looking office and how it can double your employee's performance
How to strip back the perks but still keep an amazing company culture
The process Vishen uses when it comes to hiring A-players
& much more!

67: The Secret to Getting Ridiculous Amounts of Press for Your Business with Scott Jordan of SCOTTeVEST Nov 19, 2015

Scott Jordan is no wall flower. He is a force to be reckoned with – and when he became frustrated with carrying devices and wanted something better than a man bag or a fanny pack he quit his job as a lawyer at a startup and launched SCOTTeVEST– a travel clothier that specializes in multi-pocket clothing specifically built around the tech gear we all carry.

That decision, fourteen years ago, was made based on a philosophy that has guided much of his entrepreneurial journey – anything worth doing is worth doing now.

Scott Jordan’s first product, the eVest 1.0, has morphed into a full line of clothing for men and women and a company that has landed on Inc.’s Fastest Growing Companies List three consecutive years. With global sales exceeding $10 million and Board of Advisors that includes Steve Wozniak (yes, the Steve Wozniak) and Kenneth “Hap” Klopp (co-founder of North Face), SCOTTeVEST has traversed the startup desert and reached the land milk and money.

In this interview you will learn:

How to use the power of storytelling to sell a product no one's ever heard of
The power of PR and spin, how to make the best out of a bad situation and come out on top
What is controversy and why it isn't always a bad thing
Answer to the question of whether or not you should bootstrap or go after investors
The strategies that Scott used to get his name and his business on the map
& much more!

66: How to Raise Capital for Your Startup with Brad Feld of Techstars & Foundry Group Nov 12, 2015

However great it is, entrepreneurship is hard. It can mean disappointment. It can mean exhaustion. It can mean frustration. It can mean failure. Starting a business is less smooth sailing and more stormy seas, often with waves of worry even as you tack toward horizons glowing with promise.

“If you’re obsessed about this product that you want to bring to life, this business that you want to create, you’ll get through it,” Feld says. “If you’re not, you won’t.”

He would know. Feld has been open about grappling with depression and dealing with the difficulties of a demanding job, yet he’s worked obsessively over dozens of years to get to where he is today.

In 1987, he built a profitable software consulting company. Six years later, he sold it. He soon began investing money in other startups, a path that would lead him to co-found two venture capital firms, including Foundry Group, where he works today. He also co-founded Techstars, a massive startup accelerator.

Feld has heard pitch after pitch—both successful and not. He has invested in company after company—including Harmonix, Zynga, and Fitbit. Pair those facts with his first-hand experience running a business, and it becomes clear that Feld knows how to get things done.

In this interview you will learn:

What makes, and breaks, an true entrepreneur
The importance of finding balance when it comes to work and your personal life
What to do when you hit those roadblocks and feel like giving up
The key to rockstar pitches and how to impress investors
How to blend short-term and long-term thinking in order to become a successful entrepreneur
& much more!

65: How to Write Copy That Converts Like Crazy with Joanna Wiebe Nov 04, 2015

Joanna Wiebe isn't someone that's focused on money, a statement that some of entrepreneurs would be horrified by. However what she is passionate about is words, the power of them, and their ability to inspire, convince, and persuade.

It's this passion for writing that has led her to create one of the most premiere copywriting services in the world where her skill as a wordsmith is sought after by hundreds of businesses. She doesn't do this by making good copy, she does it by making GREAT copy.

If you've ever wanted to learn how to separate yourself from the pack and have your voice get noticed then you need yourself some great copy.

Which is why you'll absolutely love this episode where Joanna takes us through the ins and outs of how to make great copy, and how you can use it to convert like crazy.

In this interview you will learn:

The building blocks of what makes great copy
How to use the power of words to instantly grab someone's interest, turn then into a friend, and make them a customer
The power of using the right words, how to find out what your customers are saying and take advantage of it
Why you the last thing you want to be is just like everyone else
A full breakdown of how Foundr's own copy stacks up from the master!
& much more!

64: 8 Startups, 4 IPO's, Lost $35m of Investors Money to Paying Them Back $1b Each! Startup Lessons From Steve Blank Oct 29, 2015

If you’re new to the startup space, Steve Blank is the biggest name in tech you haven’t heard of. A serial entrepreneur turned educator, in entrepreneurial circles he’s referred to as one of the “Godfathers of Silicon Valley.” A master of the startup, he was involved in or founded ’s started eight venture-backed Silicon Valley companies, including software company E.piphany, which alone raised $66 million prior to going public in 1999, before being acquired by a larger corporation for $329 million in 2005. Basically, he’s a Silicon Valley pioneer who was killing it in the startup space when the rest of us were watching Muppet Babies.

Drop his name around the offices of Facebook, Apple, Google, et cetera, and you’ll get knowing and approving nods. Follow him around Palo Alto and you’ll see him get asked for autographs. It seems in the way startups operate today, everyone owes a debt to this man. If you’ve heard of the Lean Startup, you’re familiar with his work already.

Today, Blank actively lectures at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and the joint Berkeley/Columbia MBA program, NYU and UCSF, as well as the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, through the Innovation Corps program he developed. The Harvard Business Review named him one of 12 Masters of Innovation in 2012. CNBC recognized him as one of the 11 Notable Entrepreneurs Teaching the Next Generation. In 2013, Forbes listed Blank as one of the 30 most influential people in Tech. Blank’s books, blog, and interviews are often featured in world news publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, Inc, TechCrunch, and The Wall Street Journal. His teaching commonly focuses on the Customer Development methodology that he developed throughout his accolade-rich career.

His 2003 book The Four Steps to the Epiphany launched the Lean Startup movement. And a decade later, the sequel The Startup’s Owner’s Manual cemented his place on all entrepreneurial required reading lists. Not bad for a man who’s technically been retired for over a decade.

In this interview you will learn:

What it takes to become an entrepreneur, all without going to business school!
The secrets to building a fully-functioning lean startup
What it takes to become a leading player in Silicon Valley
The unexpected highs and lows of entrepreneurship, the harsh truths, and positive realities
What it takes to get ahead, and stay ahead
& much more!

63: The Secret Weapon to Success is No Longer a Secret with Tony Stubblebine from Coach.me Oct 21, 2015

Tony Stubblebine was not one of those 22-year-old tech startup CEOs, wearing hoodies and distributing profane business cards. He got his start as a sharp programmer, working alongside people like Ev Williams and Biz Stone, and has been steadily climbing his way up the ladder since.

The path to becoming a successful CEO involved a lot of growth and personal development for him, almost like an athlete in training. One thing he could have used much earlier is a good coach.

“I didn’t get my first coach until it was way too late. Why didn’t I have an exec coach grooming me to be an executive, to be a CEO?”

Follow Stubblebine's journey as he took, what others perceived to be, his weaknesses and turned them into strengths that made him a force to be reckoned with.

Stubblebine shows just what it takes to become a great leader and a CEO of a multimillion dollar business.

In this interview you will learn:

A full breakdown of all the elements that make up a great leader and CEO
The secrets to utilizing meditation in order to stay grounded and tackle any and all challenges
Why you don't need to be a jerk, and there's nothing wrong with being the 'nice guy'
The process of building a great product that drives social change
How to bring out that 'elite performance' mindset from yourself and achieve it
& much more!

62: The $100 Million Dollar Man, Chris Strode from Invoice2go Oct 15, 2015

All the most successful ideas in the world were when entrepreneurs realized that there was something about their current life that they wished could be done a little easier. The only difference between entrepreneurs and regular people though, is instead of just complaining, they go ahead and built it.

For founder Chris Strode it all began because he wanted make the lives of small business owners a little easier back in 2002. Today Invoice2go is one of the highest grossing business app on the market, and the number one invoicing app worldwide for small businesses.

In this interview you will learn:

Exactly what it takes to bootstrap your way to $100 Million
How to create a brilliant product by identifying a personal problem
The importance of finding, and defining, your perfect customer
How to grow a business as a one-man startup
The key to persevering when the odds seem stacked against you

61: The Power of Email Marketing Automation & Why You're Missing Out Big Time if You Don't Have it in Your Business with Micah Mitchell Oct 07, 2015

Today's episode is a little different than most, but as always it is one not to be missed.

If you've ever wondered how to harness the power of Email Marketing, this one will not only be an massive eye opener of what's possible, but also a sure fire way for you to quickly understand what you need to do, to sell your products/services on automation with Email Marketing.

We sit down with Micah Mitchell who is an Infusionsoft master, co-founder of a popular Membership SaaS (Memberium), and also knows a lot about creating and profiting with online courses.

In this episode you will learn:

What is Email Automation and how it can EXPLODE your business
How to create profitable online courses
An intro into how to nurture leads, and convert prospective customers into sales with Email marketing
How membership sites work and how you can tap into this multi-billion dollar educational industry
Email Marketing and funnels
What to do when someone steals your business idea
What is Fear/Loss/ & Greed when nurturing leads
How to create a profitable SaaS
& So much more!

60: How to Become Financially Free with Tony Robbins Sep 30, 2015

Tony Robbins talks fast. Conversing with him is like riding Space Mountain: You get in, you hang on, and before you know it, it’s over and you’re left feeling bewildered, slightly euphoric, and wanting to smooth your hair.

Robbins has become a household name as the man who popularized life coaching. Imagine your client list including Oprah, Princess Diana, and Bill Clinton—all before you hit your mid- 30s. He’s spoken to more than 50 million people in 100 countries. To call Tony Robbins just a self-help guru would be like calling Muhammad Ali just a boxer. It doesn’t quite cut it. He is a force of nature, an industry, and a global brand. His advice is still sought by the likes of professional athletes, CEOs, movie stars, rappers and world leaders.

When Foundr interrupted Robbins’ schedule for an interview, he was 40 miles from the Arctic Circle, racing Lamborghinis across a frozen ice lake. As you do. “I was eaten up by my crazy schedule, going to 15 countries a year, so I decided, ‘I’m going to find a little time to play,’ and this was on my list. So it’s nice to be able to experience it.”

It’s a fitting vacation. Robbins is best known for his high-intensity seminars. To say he’s bursting with enthusiasm is an understatement. It seems as though he’s sitting atop an erupting volcano of energy and optimism. His voice is booming, with its trademark rasp. He makes each point with the force of an artillery bombardment.

In this interview you will learn:

How to deduce your market to the metrics that matter
The steps you need to take in order to be financially free
Turning past pain into pure motivation and a hunger for success
Tony's ethos in living for impact, and how the money will follow
How to serve your client in the best possible way
& more more!

59: How to Create an EPIC Physical Product (PAX) which is sold over 500,000+ times with James Monsees Sep 23, 2015

PAX Labs is changing the way we look at smoking. The beautiful elegance of the product is restoring luxury to the vaping world. But, developing a product that essentially sold itself for the first two years required an innovative approach to need finding.

In this episode you will learn:

What goes into developing a product so innovative that it is its own category
The T-Shaped principle when it comes to building an effective and harmonious team
How to use personal experience to develop a product that achieves immediate market response
Secrets in finding that sweet spot between the product and market to achieve epic growth
The "lights out" approach to mass-producing with affordability, scalability, and expertise
& much more!

58: 1 Billion YouTube Views & Counting With Michelle Phan Sep 15, 2015

Michelle Phan wears many hats. Or more perhaps more aptly; lipstick hues.

YouTube pioneer, mega brand boardroom heavyweight, company founder, creative director, global beauty queen.

Phan has makeup tricks that will make your eyes pop. But the numbers behind her success could make them water. Approaching 8 million YouTube followers, 1.1 billion video views, and over 1 million subscribers to her online beauty community and sampling service, ipsy.

Not bad for a 28-year-old who started touting the perfect pout online as a hobby during university.

But don’t be mistaken, Phan’s success is not a story of luck but one of awesome internet savvy, authenticity and getting there first to opportunity.

In this interview you will learn:

How to develop fresh angles and stories that your audience will love
Key tips on developing your own personal brand
The importance of good storytelling, whether it's video, audio, or written
How to stay creative and be constantly inspired
What exactly YouTube is for marketers and the best way to utilise it
& much more!

57: How to Make Your App go Viral with Rameet Chawla Sep 10, 2015

Founder of Fueled and the Fueled Collective, Rameet Chawla, explains what it takes to consistently build the finest mobile apps, defines the Viral Coefficient and reveals how his need to be creative and independent lead him to leave the world of corporate finance to create a job for himself, which started by building his dream company.

In this episode you will learn:

What goes into making and developing the right MVP
The secrets to getting the best kind of user feedback, when to listen, and when not to listen
How to develop the right technological triggers needed to click with users
The right and wrong way to network and build professional relationships
The analytics tools and metrics that Ramee relies on to track the success of his apps
& much more!

56: The Foundr Incubator (Business Breakdown) with Derric Haynie & Mathew Michalewicz Sep 02, 2015

A couple of months ago we sent an invitation to all the readers of our weekly newsletter. We asked if there was anyone who would like to have a one-on-one with tried and true entrepreneurial professionals.

Out of the hundreds of responses we received we picked out Derric Haynie former professional poker player and today the founder and CEO of Splash. An online marketing consultancy based in San Diego.

He sat down with Foundr’s own CEO, Nathan Chan, and Mathew Michalewicz, author of Life in Half a Second and entrepreneurial genius to talk strategy. You might remember our previous interview with Matthew where we talked about the science of success, and his journey in building 4 incredibly successful businesses.

What happened was a full breakdown of Derric Haynie’s business, his goals, what he wanted to achieve, and the steps he needed to take in order to get there.

There has never been an episode before where we’ve given away so much actionable advice and strategy, invaluable guidance, and lessons in entrepreneurship.

We’ve also included a special deal for the first 50 listeners of this episode! If you wish to access it go to - www.foundrmag.com/mattm

This is an episode you definitely don’t want to miss.

In this interview you will learn:

Invaluable insight on how to exponentially scale your business with the goals pyramid
The best way to pitch potential clients and investors
How to generate the right leads
The steps you can take today to become a successful entrepreneur
Multiple marketing strategies for online, cold calls and emails, referrals
& much more!

55: Branding 101 and What it Means to Lose it All with Daymond John of Fubu Aug 25, 2015

In the 1990s, the FUBU brand was everywhere, including on the backs of A-List celebrities like Will Smith, Janet Jackson, and LL Cool J. Like most trends, it seemed to come out of nowhere.

But in the case of FUBU, it sort of did. When Daymond John started the company with his longtime friends, they only had about 10 shirts. They’d sneak into a hip hop video set, put a shirt on one rapper, then take the shirt back and go do the same at another video set.

“Before you knew it people started to think of us as a huge clothing company, when we literally still had 10 shirts in a basement,” says John, now a celebrity investor on the hit reality show Shark Tank.

Daymond John’s talent for building hype didn’t hurt, but that was only the beginning. While today John can regularly be seen on TV in flawless suits, closing six-figure deals, the rise of his game-changing streetwear company was a tumultuous one. The branding icon gained his financial chops the hard way, with lots of stumbles, and a constant learning process that continues today.

In this episode you will learn:

Marketing hacks to grow your business
The key components of what makes a successful business
How to bring confidence to the table when negotiating
The importance of education and mentorship
How to build an unwavering drive to succeed
& much more!

54: What I Learnt From Interviewing Richard Branson Aug 16, 2015

In this weeks episode, Nathan goes through in detail the steps he took to interview Sir Richard Branson for a Foundr Magazine front cover story and what he learnt from the whole process.

If you would like to check this interview out, you can download Foundr Magazine on any Tablet or Mobile device on the iTunes and Android stores.

iTunes - www.foundrmag.com/itunes

Android - www.foundrmag.com/android

In this episode you will learn:

- The key things Nathan took away from Interviewing Richard Branson

- How to get in touch with hard to reach people

- The secret strategy to convince influencers to be interviewed for your magazine / show

- Why this interview was game changing for Foundr Magazine

- & So Much More!

53: From Monk to Transforming the Lives of Millions Through Meditation, The Headspace Story with Andy Puddicombe Aug 05, 2015

The trials of starting a business—even if you forget, for a moment, the typical travails of day-to-day living—often overwhelm entrepreneurs. Late nights, endless work, big choices, and extreme uncertainty can swirl together to form a raging twister that ravages the landscape of life, shredding business hopes and ideas along the way. But the forecast is much better for some, including Andy Puddicombe.

Puddicombe is one of the minds behind Headspace, a guided meditation app that’s reaching new users every day. He can also say something that few entrepreneurs can: he’s rarely overwhelmed.

In this episode you will learn:

What is Mindful Meditation and how to use it effectively
The importance of when, and when not, to listen to customer feedback
How to improve your product by living in the present
How Andy inspires and leads a worldwide movement for meditation and peace
Key tips on how to avoid burnout
& So much more!

52: $20m in Sales in 1 Year Using Instagram? - The Frank Body Story Aug 03, 2015

Two years ago, the owner of a local coffee shop, Steve Rowley, was asked by a regular customer for coffee grounds to be used as an exfoliate. This simple act was the catalyst for a brand that has experienced amazing growth driven heavily by Instagram.

Frank Body creates coffee scrubs formulated with minerals and essential oils and is set to bring in more than $20 million this year. The Frank Body founding team included Bree Johnson, Erika Geraerts and Jess Hatzis of Willow & Blake.

In this episode you will learn:

How to find your voice and personify your brand
How to turn influencers into brand ambassadors
Key tips on speaking to your target market
The best ways to generate content for Instagram
Hacks to scale your business to epic proportions
& much more!

51: How to Start Your Own Social Enterprise and Make a Big Impact with StartSomeGood's founder Tom Dawkins Jul 11, 2015

He was told it couldn’t be done. Social good was meant for nonprofits. Businesses were for making money. But Tom Dawkins always felt like there was a puzzle to be solved, that he could put the pieces together and run a profitable business that created change in the world.

A serial entrepreneur from a young age, Dawkins worked in both nonprofits and tech startups before finally solving it. The result was StartSomeGood, a crowd-funding platform for anyone—nonprofit, for profit, or individual—with an idea to make positive change in the world.

In this episode you will learn:

- How to start your own social enterprise

- How to measure your impact and why

- The true definition of social entrepreneurship

- How find a problem that needs solving

- Budgeting 101 with a for profit social enterprise

- & So much more!

50: An Inside Look Into Foundr's EPIC Design with Karan Jain Behind The Scenes with Foundr Magazine's Art Director Jul 10, 2015

In this episode we go behind the curtain and shine the spotlight on someone part of the Foundr Magazine team that is an absolute superstar designer, entrepreneur and ruckas maker.

Enter Karan Jain.

You wouldn't probably know this, but Foundr Magazine wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for Karan. Karan taught me the power of design and branding. This bold move that we've made with the level of Foundr's design has allowed to build great reputation in the entrepreneurial space. Not just as brand itself, but also as an influencer in the entrepreneurial space.

In this interview you will learn:

- What it takes to have epic design and branding in your startup

- The untold foundr story you wouldn't know

- Behind the scenes on the creation process of Foundr Magazine

- Key lessons from Karan on how to choose a design agency

- & So much more!

49: Changing the World (Wide Web) with Dan Tocchini founder of the Grid.io Jul 09, 2015

Dan Tocchini wants to change how we use the web. His website design startup The Grid have had almost 50,000 founding members and they might just pull it off.

For all of the advances in how we use the Internet in recent years, the options for the average person who needs to make a website can still be simultaneously dizzying and uninspiring. It usually comes down to either paying someone a bunch of money, learning to do it yourself, or buying a template.

Dan Tocchini wants to change that. His startup The Grid poses the questions: What if having your own unique website was as easy as posting to Facebook? What if you could just supply the content, and a program just did the rest for you?

The answer he and his team came up with is an automated alternative to services like Wordpress or Squarespace. And if Tocchini’s right, it might just change how people view the web. While the company hasn’t gone live yet, the team has racked up two hit Kickstarters, two rounds of funding, more than 31,000 preorders, and an offer from Facebook (they turned it down).

So what’s all the fuss about? Well, the corners of the Internet that are thriving these days have developed fancy algorithms and design features that make it as simple as possible to connect and share information (think of the curated Facebook feed or Twitter’s 140 characters). They take the flurry of anxiety-inducing decisions away from the average person (see Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice). But website creation has been sort of left behind, Tocchini says, and relatively few Internet users have their own sites. For those who do, it’s kind of a pain.

“Websites are like the atomic building block of the web, and they’ve been completely ignored by the big tech companies,” Tocchini says.

He thinks the web can do better. His team has spent the past few years creating a platform that starts with content and uses software to automatically turn it into a website. Think of it as having your own web designer that makes all of the decisions for you, except that web designer is artificial intelligence.

If you would like to becoming a founding member of the grid, make sure you go to https://thegrid.io/ to sign up now :)

In this interview you will learn:

- Why you would turn down a buyout offer from facebook

- Leadership 101

- How to come up with an epic idea

- How Dan's vision is going to revolutionize the web

- The problem with websites right now and how the Grid plans to solve this massive problem

- What it truly takes to become a successful entrepreneur

- & So much more

48: How to Make $1m in 1 Week Online, The Secrets of a Product Launch with Ed Dale Jun 21, 2015

It is with great pleasure we bring you this interview with the one and only Ed Dale.

If it wasn't for this man, Foundr wouldn't exist. I've been lucky enough to learn a lot of my marketing and online business chops from Ed Dale, so I thought what better reason to bring him on the show to share with us the infamous secrets to doing a $1 million launch.

Ed Dale is the creator of The Challenge and co-founder of MagCast. He's helped over 300,000 entrepreneurs start online businesses and is a world re-knowned online marketer.

The best place to find Ed is at eddale.co

In this interview you will learn:

- The processes that Ed goes through to prepare for a $1m launch

- What is good will, and why it matters when it comes to doing a $1m launch

- The secrets to getting other people to promote your products/services when it comes to getting affiliates

- What it takes to create a successful digital product

- & So much more!

47: The Art of Asking with Amanda Palmer Jun 17, 2015

In business, in music, or in life, there are few people you will meet as unapologetically honest as Amanda Palmer.

A lifelong nonconformist, Palmer has evolved from living statue to award-winning musician—as one half of cabaret rock duo Dresden Dolls and soon to hit the stage opening for Morrissey and Blondie—from TED-talker to esteemed author, and now thought leader.

Palmer’s Twitter bio colorfully advertises a performer, writer, giver, taker, yeller, listener, love-lover and rule-hater to her one million-plus follower base. And from our own conversation with Palmer, all of these qualities seem fairly apt.

But there’s one thing this self-account fails to capture, and that is how authentic she is. Palmer has built legions of passionate fans—and certainly her share of detractors—by having a unique voice that is louder than her music ever could be. And by simply asking.

And the answer for many is a loud and resounding YES.

Ask, Don’t Tell

Being a born storyteller has perhaps taken Palmer in directions even she did not foresee. As an arts graduate Palmer began her professional life as the Eight-Foot Bride on the streets of Cambridge, Mass. During this time she honed a deep curiosity for genuine human connection that has been the underlying theme of all her achievements.

It is this story that Palmer shared on the global TED stage in 2013, when she spoke of the profound encounters she experienced with people from all walks, often people who Palmer sensed were very alone. In her recollection, they would momentarily enjoy very intense eye contact and “fall in love a bit.”

In seeking this connection with others, Palmer and her Dresden Dolls bandmate Brian Viglione made a habit of always spending time “signing and hugging” with fans after each concert, and from here, the story takes off. In the past decade, Palmer has couch surfed the globe several times, sourced music, food, instruments and a hundred other forms of support from her loyal fan base, crowdfunded a cool $1.1 million to produce an album, and whipped up a good deal of controversy along the way.

In this interview you will learn:

- How to embrace your audience

- How to endure criticism and become a revolutionary in your industry

- The importance of asking for help

- How to build an extremely strong community

- Breaking the rules and why they were created

- & So much more

46: Seth Godin on Why You Shouldn't do What You're Told Jun 15, 2015

Marketing guru and multiple New York Times bestselling author Seth Godin explains why you should focus less on doing what you're told and more on doing work that's worth doing. In order to take advantage of the unique opportunuties afforded by our times, some rules just have to be broken.

Some people just get it. They grasp the spirit of the times in ways that ordinary people don't. They understand the patterns and progression of history, and can interpret current events and trends with rare wisdom and insight. Seth Godin is one such person.

You might say his knowledge about the world of business borders on the prophetic. You could also safely say Seth Goden is a man who sees the world not for what it is, but for what it could be. He's in the business of change: predicting it, implementing it, and watching it unfold.

You've probably seen his TED talks, his books, his blog, his podcast; he's the one of those characters who are grounded, yet somehow still larger than life. For those late to the Godin party, he's a marketing guru, founder of Squidoo.com and world-renowned author of 17 business bestsellers including Linchpin, Unleashing the Ideavirus, Tribes, and Purple Cow. For a man who understands tribes, he has proved time and again that he can walk the talk, building, in the process, a legion of raving fans-people who thrive on his entertaining blend of business and sociology.

In this interview you will learn:

- How to when to ship a project and when its ready to be released into the world

- Why perfect doesn't exist

- The best analogy we have ever heard for good marketing

- Seth's failures

- Why it's YOUR turn!

- The importance of blogging every day

- & So MUCH MORE!

45: Our Top 7 Instagram Hacks To Generate 100's of Thousands of Followers Jun 10, 2015

So we've decided to mix things up a little with this podcast episode.

This one is a short bite-sized episode, detailing our top 7 hacks for Instagram. You're probably not aware, but in the past 8 months we've been quietly building up a very strong community on Instagram, and within the space of 8 months our Instagram account is 197,000+ followers from the time of writing this.

So often our community is asking us how we did it, so I wanted to share with you our top tips and tricks on how to gain a massive following on Instagram fast.

In this episode you will learn the following tips:

- The importance of posting content regularly

- How to create epic content and why

- Why you should have a CTA (call to action after every post)

- The importance of optimizing your bio and account

- How to use hashtags and a secret hack to increase your engagement in 30 seconds

- What an S4S is, and why it's super important

- Why you should be commenting on other pages.

If you would like to learn more on how to take advantage of Instagram for your business make sure you sign up to find out more about our course that we're launching soon called 'Instagram Domination'. You can do so here - www.foundrmag.com/getig

44: How to Become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur & The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes May 29, 2015

If, like me, you think the job Lifestyle Entrepreneur seems completely made up, you’d be right.

Lewis Howes’ title, like everything else about his career, is completely self-styled and made into reality on his own terms.

The popular School of Greatness podcast host, who is also an accomplished author and former Arena League football player, quite possibly achieves more before breakfast than most of us do in a week. And it’s all because he took the time to design the life he really wanted. In part, the job description includes overseeing his School of Greatness Academy, a resource for entrepreneurs that gives people access to tools, a community, and accountability coaching to bring their business and lifestyle to the next level.

We sat down with this marketing guru, lifestyle coach and all-round nice guy to learn how he went from couch-surfing to being one of the most sought after online thought-leaders. We also picked up a bunch of expert advice on how one achieves the level of greatness that would warrant such a slick, albeit made-up title.

Wander the halls of the School of Greatness and you’ll find them stocked with high-achieving alumni, each with a unique story in their chosen field or industry but who share the commonality of success. It is an inspirational and fascinating fraternity, one that keeps millions of listeners coming back to Lewis Howes’ podcasts week in, week out.

So how did a kid who dreamt of nothing more than becoming a professional athlete wind up inspiring people on the Internet?

In this interview you will learn:

- Lewis's top 3 marketing must do's

- The importance of selling an online course before you have created it

- How to build relationships Lewis Howes style

- Branding & Copywriting 101

- The School of Greatness and the strong clarity and purpose he has behind everything he does

43: Inside the Mind of a Billion Dollar Startup Founder - Rod Drury of Xero Accounting May 18, 2015

Rod Drury conveys a palpable sense of urgency. If there’s one thing he’s picked up in his many years as an entrepreneur, it’s that having a certain velocity can make all the difference.

“Biggest thing I’ve learned in business is actually making things happen. So picking up the phone, asking why, why aren’t we doing it now, why’s it going to take a week, let’s go do it today,” Drury says. “Just driving urgency, and getting things done puts you so far ahead of most other businesses that you can win in a really significant way.”

It’s the kind of attitude you’d expect from the cofounder and CEO of a company that went public on day one, raising $15 million out of the gate with only about 100 customers. (“I think they were all blood relatives.”)

Since that early IPO in 2007, Drury’s accounting software company Xero has been essentially building a startup in the public eye, and that very sense of urgency has translated to some pretty incredible momentum. Over the course of eight years, the company has raised more than $300 million, they now have more than 1,000 staff, and more than 400,000 customers globally.

Not bad for a little company from New Zealand.

In this interview you will learn:

- Rod's key ingredients to success

- What it takes to build a Billion Dollar Startup

- Why Rod decided to list Xero on the NZ stock exchange when everyone doubted him

- How to develop a compelling vision and lead a team to success

- How Rod manages his life and work life balance

- Raising capital & pitching 101

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

42: What does Snoop Dogg, Disney, Scarlett Johansson and Kevin Durant Have in Common With Shaun Neff? May 12, 2015

Beanies, caps, eyewear, tees and tops, watches, snow accessories, backpacks, hot tub shorts. You name it, Neff rocks it.

So how did Shaun Neff, founder and namesake of the California-based clothing company, skyrocket this global apparel giant from his humble backpack into the big time? By keeping it real, staying rad and being an insanely astute businessman.

On the surface, Shaun Neff might seem like just another hip, down-to-earth cat — but don’t be fooled. The 35-year-old Californian native is as sharp as they come. He’s also a lifetime opportunist and networking powerhouse. As the founder and CEO of Neff Headwear, he also bears the lofty responsibility of serving up trends to the world’s most sort-after audience — the youth market.

The tale of how Neff got to where he is today, at the helm of a multi-million dollar brand selling in 50 countries, is particularly intriguing. It’s one that takes a sharp departure from the usual “worked my way up from the bottom” story. Mostly because Shaun Neff, to this day, is still working his first job.

“It’s crazy but this is the only job I’ve ever had. Since high school I had dreamed of starting a surf, skate, snow-inspired brand that reached out to youth. So when I was up at college in Utah, snowboarding every day, I thought, ‘Alright it’s go time,’ and just went for it.”

In this interview you will learn:

- How to find the secret sauce to connect with influencers

- Branding 101 and the 3 simple principles Shaun has used to turn Neff into a 100m+ empire

- The power of authenticity and why it can make or break you in business

- How to know when to "take some of your chips off the table" and sell some of your company

- Key entrepreneurship lessons for starting out

- & Much more

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

41: How to Hack Time with Tim Ferriss (not to be missed) May 03, 2015

We’ve all been curious about the best way to get better at languages, sports, cooking, fitness, and of course, how to start a business. Using a grand total of four hours per week, Tim Ferriss showed us how. Ferriss needs no introduction. Multiple New York Times best-selling author. Entrepreneur. Self-help guru. Investor. Celebrity. And now star of his own television show.

Even if you know nothing of entrepreneurialism, you probably know the work of Tim Ferriss. The 4-hour Workweek ring any bells? Chances are, it’s that book your roommate is always gushing about. A #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller, it has seeped into the zeitgeist and changed more lives than its detractors would like to admit. The 4-Hour Workweek was on the New York Times best-seller list for four-and-a-half years straight and stayed on other lists for seven consecutive years. Released in 2007, this seductive and seminal book was about escaping the workaholic lifestyle to “find your muse.” For the uninitiated, that means a business that takes up little time, yet turns over enough revenue for you to enjoy a sort of freedom from the office bullpen.

If it weren’t for Tim Ferriss and The 4-Hour Workweek, a lot of us wouldn’t be where we are today. I know I wouldn't! So it's with great pleasure I bring you the man, the myth and the legend Tim Ferriss.

P.S. If you would like to check out Tim's new TV show, 'The Tim Ferriss Experiment' which we highly recommend! You can visit - www.itunes.com/timferriss

In this interview you will learn:

- Tim's strategies on how he exploded the 4-hour work week brand (the early days)

- How he builds solid relationships with influencers and doesn't use the hard sell

- The no.1 marketing strategy he uses for approaching any project and making it explode

- The top 5 productivity tools that are changing the game for Tim right now that allow him to hack the hell out his time and get insane amounts of work done (gamechanger)

- Tim's new epic TV show and the secret to learning any skill FAST

- An extremely humbling story of how Tim got his first customers for his first business, and what it's like for every single person when they first start out on their entrepreneurial journey

- & So much more of course :)

40: The Power of Transparency & Creating a Raving Community with Pat Flynn Apr 30, 2015

Getting laid off is enough to make anyone want to crawl into a hole and hide. But Pat Flynn went the other direction. He took the opportunity to open himself up, and put his experience in the spotlight. And that very openness became the key to his success, as his Smart Passive Income Community has now reached millions of entrepreneurs.

It’s not every day that you have the chance to become an overnight sensation, but for Pat Flynn, the stars seemed to align perfectly for him on a gloomy day in 2008. After landing the job of his dreams and working passionately at it for many years, the mid-2008 recession hit him harder than he’d ever imagined. Being recently promoted at a large architecture firm, he was shocked when his boss announced that the company could no longer pay for his services and expertise.

Although he was clouded with the fear of unemployment during the first few weeks, this obstacle was the golden opportunity that would change his life forever.

Enter Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

In this interview you will learn:

- How Pat has built a raving super engaged community so powerful that he often receives emails from community members asking for his amazon affiliate link as they want Pat to receive the affiliate commission from Amazon

- The power of building extremely deep relationships with your audience and how to build epic amounts of trust

- A throwdown on the Foundr Podcast and core action items on how to improve your podcast

- How Pat has built one of the top ranked business podcasts

- The power of transparency and how it has helped Pat grow his business exponentially

- What Pat believes it takes to build a successful online business these days

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

39: Life in the Shark Tank with Barbara Corcoran Apr 21, 2015

Barbara Corcoran doesn’t look far past the family tree for inspiration. While many entrepreneurs seek seasoned businesspeople to learn from, Corcoran’s mentor was her mother, not because her mother managed a company—she didn’t—but because she managed a family.

“She ran our little, tiny two-bedroom flat like a corporation,” Corcoran recalls. Everything was organized, and everything had a system. Her mother did a phenomenal job motivating each of the children, helping them do what they did best. “If she had been in business, she would’ve been a tycoon,” Corcoran says. “I wouldn’t have wanted to compete with her.”

Common sense was one of her mother’s virtues, and it’s a trait that Corcoran says is vital in business. “I think you have to trust your natural instinct,” she says to aspiring entrepreneurs. Business is about street smarts. It’s not something you can learn in a classroom — you have to do it.

That’s exactly what she has done. Corcoran’s resume includes several businesses and millions of dollars, and she’s now a “shark” investor on ABC’s popular Shark Tank TV series.

She started young. “I had a flower-of-the-week club when I was in college that failed miserably,” she says. “It was good for a while and then it failed. How did I get that job? I just invented it.”

She later founded two real estate companies, including the Corcoran Group, which she started with a $1,000 loan and ultimately sold for $66 million. Corcoran has channeled her experience into her role as an investor on Shark Tank, a reality TV competition that pits entrepreneurs against each other in a contest to pitch their ideas and get big funding. The show’s run includes six seasons, and she’s been along for the whole ride.

In this interview you will learn:

- Barbara's story on how she rose to success

- The critical elements she believes it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

- A super productivity hack to get the most of your day

- Real estate investing tips

- What it takes to get your idea funded

- What Barbara looks for in an entrepreneur and the companies she invests in

- & Much more

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

38: Growth Hacking 101 and Creating Epic Courses with Mattan Griffel Apr 11, 2015

Mattan Griffel wasn’t prepared for his first job. After he graduated college, a startup company asked him to be their marketer, but he didn’t know how to be a marketer. Mattan had studied philosophy and finance, but despite years of delving into the life of the mind and the management of money, he couldn’t snag a job in the financial sector. So he sat there, tasked with an entirely different field: marketing.

Griffel really wasn’t prepared, so he decided to fix that. He charged into the challenge, devouring books on marketing, consuming online classes, doing everything he could to eat up as much knowledge as possible. In just a year and a half, he says, he learned more about marketing than four years at university taught him about finance.

Learn voraciously. A passion for new skills can expand your opportunities and multiply your successes.

Griffel’s drive to be good at whatever he did gave him the ability to successfully manage a marketing budget of half a million dollars.

Now, that same drive has put Griffel at the helm of One Month, a Y Combinator-backed education startup aiming to provide what he calls a “no-BS first month of learning.” The company has created a contingent of lightweight courses that each teach the basics of a topic—ranging from Ruby on Rails to HTML to growth hacking and more—in 15 minutes per day for 30 days.

It was his endeavor to gain marketing skills that exposed Griffel to entrepreneurial education outside the brick walls and stone pillars of formal schooling. Having learned from platforms like Udemy and Skillshare, he eventually began teaching for them. While instructing an in-person class on coding at General Assembly, Griffel met Chris Castiglione, with whom he would one day found One Month.

In this interview you will learn:

- Epic growth hacking strategies

- Key lessons from a Y-Combinator backed startup

- Mattan's experience at Y-Combinator

- Key Entrepreneurial lessons learned along the journey

- How to create powerful and valuable courses that sell

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

37: How Justin Gold Turned His Kitchen Hobby Into a Multi-Million Dollar Peanut Butter Powerhouse Apr 02, 2015

Some people thought entrepreneur Justin Gold was nuts for trying to disrupt the peanut butter market. A decade later, he’s been recognized by Inc. and Ernst & Young as one of the food and beverage sector’s rising stars.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Gold is one of the Boulder, Colorado startup community’s big success stories, having moved to the mountain town after becoming disillusioned with his original career plan to become a lawyer. The keen outdoorsman made the most of the biking and skiing lifestyle while waiting tables to support himself, and found himself frequently chowing down on peanut and almond butter for the protein benefits.

Gold decided to start making his own at home, experimenting by adding everything from maple syrup to berries in his concoctions. They proved a big hit with his roommates, who ate everything he whipped up, so Gold started labeling the jars “Justin’s,” at first just to keep them away.

“At that point it changed from a kitchen experiment to a project,” he says. Being completely new to business, he had a million questions about how to start a company, from company structure through to labeling, packaging, and food regulations. Leaning on the Colorado University business library as a resource, Gold came up with a business plan. And since Boulder is home to a number of other companies in the natural foods space, from Celestial Seasonings to Rudi’s Organic Bakery, he started reaching out to their founders for advice.

Having raised about $30,000 from friends and family, Justin’s launched in 2004, selling to local stores, but a few years in, wasn’t growing as Gold had hoped. He knew overnight success was unlikely — his own mentor Steve Demos, the creator of milk alternative Silk, struggled for nearly 30 years selling tofu first. Being a “little naive and a little stubborn” kept him going, he says, with the idea that they would figure it out eventually.

In this interview you will learn:

- When, and how to know how much equity of your business you should give you

- The importanance of starting your business idea

- Why curiosity can be an amazing trait as an entrepreneur

- How Justin turned his idea peanut butter idea into a multi-million dollar empire

- Key leadership skills to build a solid team

- How to scale a business when you recieve rapid growth

- When, and how to know how much equity of your business you should give up

- A key concept to keep your employees super motivated

36: How to Find Mentors and Overcome Adversity with Sean Stephenson Mar 28, 2015

Bleeding brain. Fractured skull. Concussion.

These were the effects. The event was just as sudden. One Thursday in late July, Sean Stephenson took his dog for a stroll. Then he fell — ripped from his wheelchair, Stephenson crashed onto the concrete ground, a traumatic impact that landed him in the hospital and left him for some time without short-term memory.

But he had dodged death, and not for the first time. When Stephenson was born, he was diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta, an uncommon disease that brings stunted growth and fragile bones. Doctors predicted he would quickly perish.

Instead, he lived, growing up to become a motivational speaker and businessman. After traveling for years, speaking to audiences far and wide, Stephenson has cut down on the airplane flights and shifted to holding seminars in one location in Arizona. His success hasn’t been easy, but he says that only a fraction of his challenges stem from disability. The rest have to do with the sorts of things most people struggle with in various ways: friends and money and marriage.

Stephenson’s story shows that entrepreneurship — no, life itself — is laced with challenges. Sometimes, you’re buffeted by events that you can’t control. He recommends that in those instances, when you really can’t control the outcome, you stop trying to. If you can change your circumstances, do so, but if you can’t, don’t stress for no reason.

“I know that if I’m willing to let go of control, it’s going to be a lot easier process than trying to fight for the control with some invisible force out there,” he says. “Call it God, call it universe, call it law of attraction, call it science, call it whatever makes you comfortable, but there are powers that play outside of us that are much bigger than us.”

As he recovered from his July accident, Stephenson felt out of his depth, so he did what made sense to him: he sat back and had to laugh, waiting to see where it would all go.

As much sense as relinquishing control sometimes makes, it’s not an everyday play. In most areas, Stephenson doesn’t passively await his fate. He shapes it, because there’s a flipside to the challenges he has no control over: the ones he does.

“The start of my career is not sexy. It really started with discrimination,” he says. At age 17, Stephenson applied to a number of jobs, all of which he believes rejected him because of his disability.

In this interview you will learn:

- How Sean has overcome his challenges in life and business as an entrepreneur

- How to find mentors

- Key factors and insights on what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

- Marketing 101 the Sean way!

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

35: Cold Hard Business Advice & How to Dominate Your Goals with Multi-Millionaire Steve Mehr Mar 21, 2015

This is not your typical interview where I interview someone well known in the entrepreneurial space.

Steve Mehr is an entrepreneur, businessman, all round hustler and the founder of an Ad Agency called Webshark 360 in Southern California. I met Steve through Instagram via his extremely popular account (@agentsteven) and we have been great friends since. Overtime Steve has actually taught me a lot about life and business, so I thought why not get him on the show to share with everyone how he has built a multi-million dollar empire.

In this interview you are going to learn:

-How Steve built his empire and fortune from the ground up

-How to achieve scale with businesses and grow them at a rapid pace

-Key mindsets required to not stay successful in business and life once you have attained "success" in the eyes of society

-Hiring and Recruitment 101

-Managing a team

-Setting goals and why it's Steve's secret to success

-Instagram and the Importance of it

-The importance of measuring

If you want to learn how to dominate your goals, make sure you check out Steve's book here, fantastic read and I highly recommend it! - http://stevemehr.com/

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

34: Epic Marketing Strategies & Customer Development 101 With Rob Rebholz of Spaceways Mar 12, 2015

A very long time ago before I even considered starting a business, I once read that the self storage industry was a brilliant business model, and a booming industry.

Little did I know 4-5 years later I would be speaking to a disrupter of this industry.

Enter Rob Rebholz, Co-founder of Spaceways whom are currently turning the self storage industry on it's head at a rapid pace, with the kind of growth that most startups would dream of.

Rob is an extremely savvy and interesting entrepreneur and in this interview he shares with us:

- The story behind spaceways, how the idea was conceieved

- Customer Development, and how to find out what your customers truly want

- Marketing 101 and the power it can bring to your business if you done properly

- His experiences being backed by Rocket Internet

- Top web apps and tools that they are using to help manage a rapidly growing business and team

- & Much more

I need your help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!

33: Marie Forleo Reveals How to Build an 8 Figure Business with Heart Mar 04, 2015

In the brave new world of business that has arisen with the growth of the web, there are many types of entrepreneurs. There is the planner, who plots every move from the beginning, never a scandal in sight. There is the accidental entrepreneur, who falls into a business and makes it work. There is the enfant terrible, such as Mark Zuckerberg, who was likely always going to be successful, but couldn't have anticipated the impact Facebook would have on the world.

And nestled neatly within the pack there is the visionary, the type of entrepreneur that could just as easily pass for a seer such is their knack for knowing what to do and when to do it.

Marie Forleo, the founder of Marie Forleo International, is nothing if not a visionary.

Forleo's first rule of business is to lead with your heart, and it is safe to say that in 2015, with 14 years of entrepreneurship under her belt and an eight-figure business, Forleo's heart has served her well.

Marie was named by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation and one of Inc’s 500 fastest growing companies of 2014. She reaches over 275,000 readers in 193 countries worldwide and leads dynamic training programs that teach individuals to succeed in business and life. She’s the creator of the award-winning show MarieTV and has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, Glamour Magazine, Self Magazine, Forbes.com and The New York Times among others. Marie has been interviewed by Tony Robbins as one of the world’s leading lifestyle and online marketing experts and mentored young business owners at Richard Branson’s Centre of Entrepreneurship in South Africa. Her bestselling book, Make Every Man Want You: How To Be So Irresistible You’ll Barely Keep from Dating Yourself is published in 13 languages. Through her Change Your Life, Change The World® initiative, each for profit training program is tied to a non-profit partner who supports women, the environment and entrepreneurship.

Choosing whether to follow her heart or listen to her head, however, hasn't always been easy. Forleo openly admits to questioning herself and wondering whether it was all worth it, "but I had this deep feeling in my heart that I was doing the right thing."

In this interview you will learn:

- How Marie Built her Online Business step-by-step

- The importance of building your business with heart

- How to challenge yourself

- The importance of Value

- Marketing & Copywriting hacks that are absolutely essential to know!

32: Creating Beer that No One Will Like & One of The Largest Breweries (Stone Brewing Co) in the US with Greg Koch Feb 22, 2015

Greg Koch doesn’t care if you don’t like Stone Brewing’s Co.’s beer. Case in point, the label on a bottle of Arrogant Ale:

This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory…

Koch, Stone’s CEO and cofounder, insists that when he wrote that caption back in 1997 when they first released the beer, it wasn’t a marketing gimmick. He really didn’t want people who prefer “fizzy yellow beer” to buy this hoppy, high-alcohol monster without fair warning. Of course, he did have some fun with it, reveling in the mocking tone of the Arrogant Bastard.

“That’s a tone of voice that I attribute to the beer and not to myself. Although maybe there is a little bit of me in there,” says Koch, who with partner Steve Wagner started in 1996 what would become one of the largest and most beloved craft breweries in the United States.

That little bit of arrogance — although you might swap that descriptor out with optimism, passion, or persistence — is in large part what has made Stone the giant success it is today.

Stone Brewing started early in the craft beer revolution, when the market had little interest in bitter, heavy brews, but Koch and Wagner had strong and unwavering opinions about good beer. When they decided to start their own brewery they knew they had to stick stubbornly to their ideals, and accept that some set of people would like it … or they wouldn’t.

But they did, and as Americans came around to more aggressive flavor profiles in their beers (with Stone and other small breweries leading the charge), the Southern California-based operation grew rapidly, averaging 50 percent annual growth and ranking consistently as one of the country’s fastest-growing companies and best-reviewed breweries.

In this interview you will learn:

- Why Greg has never had to ever pay for advertisement for Stone Brewing Co

- How to develop a cult following

- Creating something that people truly want

- What it means to follow your heart and create true art

- The Stone Brewing story, and how it all started

- Marketing copy 101

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

31: Buying Your Time Back With Outsourcing Guru Chris Ducker Feb 13, 2015

37,000 feet high in the air. Hurtling forward at hundreds of miles per hour.

This was it. This was the scene. This was where Chris Ducker sat when he wrote his resignation letter – a step that helped his career take off and reach new heights.

“I got my job because I ultimately become unemployable,” he says. His current job: CEO. But as he sat aboard that plane to Hong Kong in 2006, Chris wasn't the boss – he was being bossed around. He says that the head of the company he worked for was “such a painful boss, just a micromanaging boss.”

Living in the Philippines, Chris worked for a Florida-based infomercial company. But his work earned the company half a million dollars per month in sales, which was far more than his salary. Throw that fact on top of the fraught feelings he bore towards his boss's management methods, and Chris was itching for something different.

So he crafted his resignation letter on an airplane flight to Hong Kong. When the plane landed, he sent the email, officially resigning. He didn't intend to return to the world of work as someone else's employee, so he entered entrepreneurship.

Having been involved in the Philippine call center market for several years, Chris decided that the niche could support a new company. He launched with seven staff and a lot of courage.

Eight years on, Chris still works as CEO for his Live2Sell group of companies. Composing the group is a call center, a business to help people find virtual staff, and a co-working space. Starting with seven staff, the group now boasts 270 employees.

To get there, Chris worked hard. He poured time and effort into his companies, striving to build them up to where they are today. And he pulled it off.

In this interview you will learn

- How to attain virtual freedom

- Chris's strategies and tactics on buying your time back as a business owner

- Productivity hacks

- How to outsource & train overseas staff

- Chris's best advice for entrepreneurs right now trying to grow their business

- The 3 lists you need to create to attain freedom

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

30: Developing One of the Largest Marketplaces Online with Collis Ta'eed Feb 04, 2015

This episode is proudly sponsored by DesignHill - The World's #1 Marketplace for Custom Designs. If you go to designhill.com/promo/foundrmag, foundr listeners will get $40 off the contest posting fee and $50 worth power upgrade of services for free. There aren’t too many startups on the planet that regularly make millionaires of their community members. Or who have doubled user, traffic, and revenue numbers consistently for the better part of a decade.

The story of Envato going from a modest Flash design resource to a multi-site, multi-million dollar, online heavy-hitteris the essence of startup success. In fact, as a case study, it should probably be taught in business school. Except for the small fact that the journey of CEO and Cofounder Collis Ta’eed has been anything but textbook.

Since its inception in 2006, Envato has boomed. Actually, you would have to say it has BOOMED. One and a half million active buyers, eight thriving marketplaces, 250 employees and over $215 million paid out to authors to date — all born from an idea to start a business that could support the travel aspirations of Ta’eed and his wife Cyan.

“We had just got married and we had a lot of freelance clients. It was beginning to feel like a drag! Cyan said, ‘Let’s go traveling!’ I had always wanted to start a business and we had some ideas about how it would work, so we just thought, let’s go for it. Even though we had to keep freelancing for a long time to keep living as we built the company,” Ta’eed recalls.

Since Envato launched FlashDen, its first digital marketplace that sells content created with Adobe Flash, the company has grown to include eight online marketplaces. There’s a good chance you’ve heard of at least one of them. The Largest of the Marketplaces is ThemeForest, which sells website themes and plug-ins. ThemeForest, is to digital creatives what Home Depot is to DIYers, The Envato Market also includes GraphicRiver, CodeCanyon, VideoGive, PhotoDune, 3DOcean, AudioJungle and ActiveDen (formerly FlashDen), while the broader Envato group is also home to freelance hub Studio and learning platform, Tuts+. Phew.

In this interview you will learn:

- How Collis validates his business ideas for marketplaces and how he chooses the right ones to pursue amongst the hundreds

- How he has rapidly grown Envato

- Raising capital vs Boostrapping

- How he got his first 1000 customers

- Marketing tactics and strategies for growth

- What it takes to manage a large team and becoming a leader

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

29: Nathan Answers Your 5 Most Popular Questions That Entrepreneurs Are Struggling With Right Now Jan 28, 2015

This is a short episode of around 20 minutes. In this episode I answer your top 5 most popular questions.

As I'm hearing from so many of you in our community, I'm finding a lot of commonalities in the questions that I'm being asked. Since I'm on this journey with you as an entrepreneur working towards building a successful business, I thought it would be fun to share with you what I'm learning and how I can further help you tackle these common problems and mix things up from our regular schedule.

Please let me know if you would like me to do more of these kind of episodes by emailing me at nathan@foundrmag.com

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

28: The Future of Content Marketing with Chris Brogan Jan 26, 2015

“What's the relationship-minded way that we can make cool stuff happen on the web?”

“How do we use all these digital tools to be human at a distance?”

“How do we make people feel like they're cared for and treated well, and how does that translate into revenue for companies?”

Chris Brogan has big questions. He also has answers for those questions – answers that inform his own business endeavors and the efforts of companies that he has consulted for. This isn't middle-tier dabbling. Brogan has worked with big names like Disney, Motorola, Coke, Pepsico, Microsoft, and Google. Yeah, he's a big deal.

But Brogan’s company, Human Business Works, doesn't just serve corporate juggernauts. It also helps small businesses and solo entrepreneurs act on a community-centered approach to boost business. His company offers publications, online courses, and in-person training. He doesn't just have answers. He has proven solutions that could work for you.

That's what has propelled Brogan to the top of the online blogging and entrepreneurial space. Besides working as CEO and president of Human Businesses Works, he publishes Owner magazine and delivers anticipated keynote speeches at conferences worldwide. With a massive following, Brogan has earned the respect and admiration of entrepreneurs everywhere.

In this interview you will learn:

- Content marketing and the future of blogging

- What it really means to develop deep relationships with your customers and how?

- What influences Chris's business decisions

- Community building 101

- How Chris has become an extremely influential marketer, blogger & entrepreneur online

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

27: Curing Stress & Anxiety as an Entrepreneur with Charlie Hoehn Jan 20, 2015

Eight years ago, Charlie Hoehn had no job. He submitted application after application to no avail. Only two companies offered him employment. His choices? “Back-breaking labor and a pyramid scheme,” he says.

Today, Charlie turns down work. He is a speaker, an author, and a marketing strategist. His recently-released book is Play It Away: A Workaholic's Cure for Anxiety. At one point, the former unemployed man worked so much that it burned him out – but he triumphed over that, too, and wrote a book about curing stress. The turnaround is dramatic, and Charlie attributes his successful employment to his signature strategy: work for free.

He didn't figure it out immediately. Charlie graduated in Colorado State University's Class of 2008 and soon faced a job market mired in recession. Bleak. Job-seeking millennials know it well.

“I was just blasting out my resume to all these companies for jobs that I didn't really even want … because that's what everyone was doing,” Charlie says. “All my friends were doing that and that's what I was told would work.”

Conventional wisdom wasn't working. Go to school, submit applications, get a job – Charlie rejects that.

“We get caught into these dead-end careers, and once we start buying a bunch of stuff with the money that we've earned, we've built ourselves a golden cage … that's surrounded by nice furniture and all these nice things,” Charlie says. “And then after five or ten years we think, 'Well, I can never go back, you know, I can't give all this stuff up.'”

At that point, Charlie says, “you've built your own prison.”

He looks back to his days of blasting out job applications and sees a mistake. Life isn't a sprint, he says: it's a marathon. There's no need to rush for a mediocre position that doesn't interest you. He found this out firsthand – his work-for-free strategy required patience, but it took him from being an unemployed college grad to later landing jobs with Tucker Max and Tim Ferriss.

In this interview you will learn:

- Tactics and strategies for curing stress and anxiety

- Why we work so hard and how to slow down

- Ways to connect with highly influential people

- What Charlie learnt from working with world re-knowned entrepreneurs like Tim Ferriss & Seth Godin

- How to become a recession proof graduate

- What Charlie believes it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

- & Much more of course!

I Need Your Help!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

26: The Eventbrite Story - Building a $1 Billion Startup with Julia Hartz Jan 16, 2015

Meet Kevin and Julia Hartz.

In 2003, Kevin and Julia were sat next to each other at the Santa Barbara wedding of mutual friends. They hit it off, and the rest, as they say, is history. In 2006, they celebrated their own wedding, and in 2008, they welcomed the first children.

You would be forgiven if you think this story sounds familiar, like the stuff Hollywood movies are made of. But rest assured: this story is anything but familiar.

Along the way, the duo also founded Eventbrite, a self service ticketing platform for event organizers valued at $1 billion as reported by The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource.

But let's start at the beginning.

When Kevin and Julia first met, Kevin was a serial entrepreneur working on his second startup, the Silicon Valley-based money transfer company XOOM, which he had cofounded in 2001. Julia, meanwhile, was working in television development for FX Networks in Los Angeles.

Their chance encounter at the wedding of mutual friends brought them together, but for a few years at least, their respective careers kept them geographically apart, navigating the murky waters of a long-distance relationship.

Eventually, that had to change, so Julia decided to "make the leap and move to the Bay Area."

In this interview you will learn:

-Growth secrets to eventbrites success

-The birth of eventbrite

-Sticking points and how they leveraged them

-How to understand your DNA as a founder

-How and why you need to seek great advisors

-Building a great culture in your workplace

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

25: How to Get more Traffic, Users, Sales & Conversions with Derek Halpern from Social Triggers Jan 13, 2015

Forget social media. When it comes to marketing techniques, newer isn’t always better, according to marketing wunderkind Derek Halpern.

You just started your blog. And now you’re ready to set the fiber-optic cables on fire with your wisdom and start raking in sales. In doing so, most likely you’ll be staring into a blue glowing screen until the early hours, cobbling together posts that your growing list of readers will find both valuable and compelling.

Starting from scratch, how do you build an audience and debut a digital product? What’s more, how can you convince people to buy it? Among the several schools of thought, the predominant is you could just let the product to speak for itself, provided it’s good enough. Or, as some of the more savvy marketers have found, you could get just better at selling.

The soft sell is out, and according to expert marketer Derek Halpern from New York, the hard sell is back. In a world of new fandangled sales techniques and buzz jargon, Halpern demonstrates that an adherence to the time-honored traditional sales process with a psychological spin is enough to cut through the noise to reach the modern-day consumer.

There’s been a rise in the number of books on the forces affecting buyer behavior, including Adam Alter’s seminal Drunk Tank Pink. Yet the motivating factors behind buyer behavior still, for many, remains elusive. Why do some people buy and not others? What are the triggers that will get someone to purchase your product over someone else’s?

Derek Halpern is founder of Social Triggers, a blog and podcast about effective internet marketing strategy. There since 2011, he has provided information on marketing to 140,000 subscribers. What’s more, the Social Trigger’s podcast recently hit #1 in the business section on iTunes, beating the likes of the Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal.

In this interview you will learn:

- How to master sales

- Next level Conversion strategies

- Derek's amazing story

- Content strategies

- The buying process and the psychology behind it

- Creating sales funnels

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

24: Andy Sheats -The $100 Million Founder Who Didn’t Want to Start a Business Jan 08, 2015

Forget everything you know, and everything you think you know, about starting a startup.

If Andy Sheats' success with health.com.au tells us anything — and let's be clear, when you're bringing in $100 million in revenue within three years of launch, you're a success — it's that to be an entrepreneur, you need to think of yourself as everything but an entrepreneur.

Sure, an Internet search of the phrase "how to start a business" would tell you otherwise. But the numbers speak for themselves. Doing things the Andy Sheats way might just be the path to victory that every startup founder is looking to find. So just what is the Andy Sheats way?

In this interview you will learn:

- The secret to Andy's success with health.com.au

- How to evaluate your startup idea

- Achieving rapid growth on a mass scale

- How to handle growth (quality problem to have)

- The key questions you need to ask yourself when starting a business

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

23: Telling Your Boss to Go Shove It & Become a Remarkable Misfit Traveling The World with AJ Leon Jan 06, 2015

AJ Leon walks backs to his corner office on the 28th floor. He closes the door behind him and walks past his $8,200 mahogany desk to his window. He surveys the stark Manhattan skyline in the winter morning sunshine. The Chrysler building, the Empire State. Without warning, tears begin to drip down his cheeks. In his boss’s office, right next to his own, he’d just been offered a promotion. His six-figure salary would track up to seven-figures. All before his twenty-sixth birthday. It dawns on him that he has to do something radical: walk away.

Have you ever had the sensation of living someone else’s life, or that you didn’t choose the path you’re on? Most people experience this, including AJ Leon.

AJ Leon is no stranger to striding halls of financial power. “One thing led to another until I became a financial executive in New York,” AJ says. When he graduated college with a degree in finance and accounting, he took “the biggest offer at the largest firm that I could find. I really didn’t care what I would be doing for them or where I’d be.” In his mid-twenties, he’d ascended the corporate ladder until he boasted a corner office in Manhattan. AJ was making “an absurd amount of money, with big bonuses. I didn’t even work a ton of hours. I was kind of at the top.” Yet he was crestfallen. The problem, he confesses, was: “I hated my life. I was completely and utterly passionless about what I was doing and always had been.”

When he was presented with the dream promotion, he was working on Wall Street. It was December 31, 2007, the month that saw the beginning of the global financial crisis and US recession. AJ Leon was offered a job that promised a salary double his previous one. Imagine while the world begins to crumble, you are selected to be groomed to make partner in one of the most successful firms in New York city. “[My boss] said basically you’re going to make twice as much money as you do. You’re effectively going to be number three in the company.” AJ realized he was just offered something that he would never be able to walk away from. “I got truly depressed to the point where I was crying, alone, in my office.”

In this interview you will learn:

- AJ's inspiring story on what it means to give up society's perfect life that is mapped out for you

- How to become a corporate misfit

- The secret to creating a movement that people can really get behind

- What it takes to turn your idea into reality

- How to obtain Freedom

- What it truly means to do work that matters and change the world one step a time

- How to live a life of adventure and fun!

- & So much more!

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

22: My Startup Failed & Here is What You Can Learn From it with Nikki Durkin Jan 04, 2015

This is a story not to be missed.

So often in the startup world, we only hear about the successes, the acquisitions, and how much money this person is making.

But how about the real story of entrepreneurs? The struggles? The failures?

Enter Nikki Durkin.

Nikki Durkin founded 99dresses, a company that allowed women to trade fashion items with other users.

99dresses was a Y-comibnator backed startup that had thousands of users and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for it, but recently had to shut down.

In this interview you will learn:

•How Nikki started her business

•What her biggest lessons and realizations were as an entrepreneur and what you can learn from her mistakes

•The best way to approach launching a startup

•Why you have nothing to lose when starting a business

•How to overcome the fear of failure

•Why she has no regrets what so ever

•The power of vulnerability

•How the media really thinks and glamorizes success

•Biggest takeaways a startup founder

•Future plans for her next startup

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

21: True Hospitality in the Hamptons - What it Takes to Build a top Bed & Breakfast in the Hamptons with Gary Muller Dec 31, 2014

A life in the Hamptons, running a picturesque inn perched at the end of Long Island, sharing fine food and drink with visitors from around the world. Sounds like a version of heaven to many.

Without a doubt, Gary Muller — chef and co-owner with his wife Sylvia of the high-end bed and breakfast The Mill House Inn — certainly does enjoy his work. But for Muller, it’s the joy of the business and the people he gets to interact with that truly make him happy. Hearing Muller talk about his work, it’s unmistakable how much he loves taking care of people.

“The reason they’re coming back isn’t the room. It isn’t about the accommodations. It’s because there’s people there who care about them,” Muller says of his guests. That attitude is a necessity in this line of entrepreneurship.

That’s because, as anyone who has worked in hospitality, even as a server or a line cook will tell you, it can be an extremely difficult business, as challenging and chaotic as it is rewarding. It can be a life of wax and wane, feast and famine, fortune and misfortune.

While there are certainly aspects of running an inn in the Hamptons that are unique to that line of work, at the end of the day, the business lessons Muller has learned are universal. He’s navigated the rough waters of entrepreneurship using a mix of confidence in his craft, quick-but-prudent decision-making, and perhaps most of all, good listening. Muller has learned the most important lesson, and it applies to any business.

“I think it’s all people. I don’t think I ever sold food, and I know I certainly don’t sell rooms right now. But I know the one thing that’s for sure — it’s people. It’s all about the people. The only real asset you ever have is your team, your staff. You fail immediately without them and you succeed so well with them.”

In this interview you will learn:

- Gary's amazing insights on what he has learnt from some of the most successful business man and women that have stayed at his B&B

- His fascinating journey on developing one of the top bed and breakfasts in the hamptons

- What it means to truly care

- How to provide value

- How create an experience that will last with you for ever

- Hospitality 101

- What true customer service really means

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

20: How Danae Ringelmann and Indiegogo Helped Start a Funding Revolution Dec 30, 2014

You can fund your baby on the Internet. That’s the world we live in. One in which a couple who wanted a child but could not conceive naturally were able to turn to strangers on the web to raise money for in vitro fertilization. A new life, crowdfunded.

The couple’s campaign for a bundle of joy might seem odd — it’s certainly not ordinary — but it is a triumph of technology and humanity. It’s a story made possible through crowdfunding, a method of raising money for ideas online by seeking small contributions from a large numbers of backers, who usually receive perks in return for their support. The couple in question acquired funds to conceive their child by running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, which, along with the New York-based Kickstarter, is one of the world’s preeminent crowdfunding platforms.

Danae Ringelmann often recounts the couple’s story, because it conveys the extraordinary potential of crowdfunding. Few ideas lie outside the bounds of what can be funded (within the law, that is) — you just need to convince people that an idea has merit. Crowdfunding gives ordinary people, including budding entrepreneurs, a door to financial backing that once stood closed to all but the well connected.

Ringelmann, Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer of Indiegogo, says that the platform’s users have funded “ideas from businesses to urban gardens to schools to medical cures to babies to films and music tours to you name it.”

She has firsthand knowledge of how to succeed with crowdfunding, but also an even more unique insight into the development of Indiegogo and the very advent of crowdfunding itself. In this interview you will learn:

- How crowdfunding started, and how Danae conceptulized the idea of democratizing finance

- What it takes to disrupt an industry

- Gold advice on crowdfunding and how to get your campaign fully funded

- What Danae believes it takes to build a successful business

- Tips on bootstrapping

- The indiegogo story

- & much more!

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!

19: The Real Battle Scars of an Entrepreneur - The Brent Grundy Story Dec 26, 2014

Brent Grundy was a man with a simple business idea who built his empire from the ground up, and became living proof that someone can go from flat broke to running a business that turns over $32 million per year, in just 18 months. But Grundy’s road to success has been anything but smooth. An unfortunate but often present component of any success story is that of hardship or failure; and Brent Grundy’s story is no exception.

After a major business setback, Grundy found himself in the unenviable position of helplessly watching on as his money, home and dreams disappeared before his eyes. With barely enough money to fill a fuel tank, he prepared himself to break the devastating news to his young family that they wouldn’t be celebrating Christmas that year; the down and out businessman had hit rock bottom.

With nothing left to lose, he decided to accept his losses and turn his life around. With a renewed focus, Grundy was sitting in a play centre one day when staff told one of the older children that she was too big to play on the equipment. It was then that an idea came to him; to fill a gap in the entertainment market that caters to adults and children alike.

Today, Grundy is the Founder and Chief Executive of Australia’s first and largest Trampolining franchise business, Flip Out, and his story continues on its way into the history books. Since opening 18 months ago Brent’s business has enjoyed unprecedented success. Flip Out has expanded to a whopping twenty-one sites across the country, employing over 350 people and drawing thousands of customers through its doors each day.

Grundy’s accountant has said that in his 22 years of being in business, he has never witnessed an opportunity that allows the franchisee to recoup their initial investment within four to five months.

The zealous businessman now has his sights set on global domination; currently building centres in Dubai, Brent expects to open in 13 more countries in the next year. He also plans to use profits to donate centres to Afghanistan and Cambodia by year’s end.

In this interview you will learn:

- What it feels like to have your company sold underneth you and come back even bigger and better

- The importanace of systems and how to develop them in your business

- What it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

- How to develop a rock solid mindset where you can't lose

- The franchising business, how it works and how to start

- Secret growth strategies

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

17: The Science of Success & How to Become a Super Successful Entrepreneur Before It's Too Late with Matthew Michalewicz Dec 21, 2014

Where do you see yourself in ten years? And more importantly, is that where you want to be? Without a doubt, you've spent an unproductive afternoon at your desk staring listlessly out the window, listening to the chatter of co-workers, staring at piles of reports, puzzled on how you ended up there. What happened to the life you dreamed about when you were in high-school? If you’re feeling a little unfulfilled, the good news is, you're not the only one. According to Harvard studies, a whopping 74% of people are unhappy in their work. Job satisfaction in the USA recently fell to its lowest level in 22 years and continues to show a consistent downward trend. There's a reason why three-quarters of employees don’t walk away and cash in their chips, and instead opt to stay unfulfilled. To find out why, we spoke with Matthew Michalewicz.

Michalewicz is an international expert in entrepreneurship, innovation, and success psychology. He has established boards that include former heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize winners, and Fortune 500 CEOs, and has a track record of starting businesses from scratch and selling them for tens of millions of dollars. His work has been featured in numerous television shows and publications, including Time Magazine, Newsweek, and Forbes.

In this interview you will learn:

- How to pitch Rockstars like Bill Gates

- Learn the science behind what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

- The secret sauce on the most successful entrepreneurs in the world

- How Matthew Has built 4 extremely successful businesses

- Key mindsets for becomming a super successful entrepreneur

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

16: Supercharge Your Business with James Schramko - Learn How to Build a 7 Figure Business and Have Systems in Place that Allows You to Work a 25 Hour Week Dec 18, 2014

Employed by Mercedes-Benz, pulling in $300,000 a year … By a lot of standards, James Schramko was doing pretty well for himself. Yet he felt stifled. He was relying on one source of income, which although high, he felt was capped, and didn't have creative control. As he tells Foundr, he wanted to be the primary beneficiary of his own efforts, rather than have his employer reap the rewards.

The upside was that it prepared him well to strike out on his own, as he did six years ago. “Running a multimillion dollar business for someone else … really gave me the solid training to be able to run a business,” he says.

He admits it was grueling juggling his job with a budding business to the tune of an extra four hours every day, but now he works about the same amount, minus the 9-5, that is. He aims for a 25-hour week with time for at least one surf session a day – fitting work around the tide charts.

Schramko's thing is internet marketing and coaching. It's a field littered with snake oil and empty promises but he stresses that “a website is not a business” and “internet marketing is not about sitting in your underpants scamming people with a false promise that they're going to get rich”. Rather, he wants to help others build their businesses and avoid the gauntlet that he ran himself in the early days. Having done the yards and made it through, he's distilled that knowledge and is sharing it online.

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

15: Mari Smith - Social Media 101 With One of the World's Most Influential People on Social Media Dec 17, 2014

Becoming one of the world’s most influential people on social media is no small feat. Author and entrepreneur Mari Smith explains that it comes down to a love of technology, and above all, a love of people.

Challenging traditional notions of marketing, author and entrepreneur Mari Smith explains that relationship marketing is based around creating trusting associations with customers that last a lifetime.

It’d be an understatement to say that social media has fundamentally changed how we communicate and ultimately do business around the world. Some people have a natural flair for it, others have to be trained. Mari Smith is one of the former. Widely recognized as the top Facebook marketing expert in the world, Mari Smith is the coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day and lead author of The Relationship Age, a collection of strategies from leading social media experts to help users navigate the world of social media. Smith is a relationship marketing specialist among the world’s foremost experts on using Facebook as a marketing channel.

She is a Forbes top 10 Social Media Influencer and travels the world to deliver keynote speeches and trains businesses on how to use social media. Speaking exclusively with Foundr, it’s easy to see how Mari Smith has thrived on social media: her warm personality and her value of people underpins her every sentence.

In this interview you will learn:

- Timeless Facebook tactics that are proven to work

- Relationship marketing

- How to develop a deep connection with your audience over social

- What it takes to build a thriving business via social media marketing

- Some of the coolest tools and resources for making your social accounts explode

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

14: The Art of Rejection: 100 Days of Rejection Therapy and Overcoming The Fear of Failure with Jia Jiang Dec 15, 2014

Fists clenched, hidden iPhone filming from his shirt pocket, Jia Jiang stands in a glossy-tiled shopping mall in east Texas. And, as if tugged by a magnet, he ambles towards a seated security guard. With beads of sweat gathering at his temples, Jia plants his feet. The guard glances up. Jia swallows. “Can I have a hundred dollars?” This is Jia Jiang’s first foray into the world of deliberate rejection. And he will continue deliberately seeking rejection for one hundred days.

Have you ever walked up to ask someone for something, and been terrified of the response? Maybe it was asking for a raise. Maybe a bank loan. Maybe it was asking someone on a date. You feel your chest tighten, heart rate increase. And all of a sudden your little request starts looking more like Everest the closer you get. The fact is, the fear of rejection paralyzes us all.

In this interview you will learn:

- Jia's inspiring story of how he overcame the fear of rejection

- Tactics and strategies of how you can overcome rejection too

- One of the coolest stories you will hear

- What it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

13: How Houzz Built a Community of 450,000 active professionals and 25M Unique Visitors a Month with Adi Tatarko Dec 14, 2014

Adi Tatarko, co-founder of online home design platform Houzz, began her journey by purchasing her dream home built in 1955 – a fixer-upper – and then setting about renovating it. “Unfortunately the process itself wasn't so dreamy… it was pretty much a nightmare,” Tatarko says. “So we ended up building Houzz in order to make the whole process better.”

The cliché holds – a picture paints a thousand words – and in order to best communicate the vision of their dream home to their architect, Tatarko and her husband Alon Cohen started a humble website displaying images of home interiors.

It was Silicon Valley, 2009. In that environment, the journey from personal project to company is a natural progression. They created an online platform to showcase the work of architects, so home renovators could access endless images to inspire the vision of their own dream home.

The couple then asked local Bay Area architects to upload their portfolios. Their initial community was made up from “twenty local homeowners, mainly our friends, and a group of professionals from the Bay Area.” What started as a trickle of design portfolios soon became a flood.

Tatarko is a veteran of the tech startup space and this comes across in her delivery. A sharp and articulate businessperson, Tatarko coolly communicates a vision splendid for the company. “We really wanted to help people learn more about the [remodeling] process, about design, about what's possible, and about different materials to help them make the right decision. And help them be more knowledgeable when they start their project.”

Now Houzz is an online hub that not only hosts a plethora of images but displays the portfolios of “450,000 active professionals from all over the world” and receives 25 million monthly unique visitors. In five years, the site has become the biggest residential remodeling community online.

In this interview you will learn:

-What it takes to create and build massive community

-Startup 101 product development tactics that helped Houzz grow so fast

-Challenges faced that Adi had as an entrepreneur

-Investing and how to know when you need an investor

-The key mindsets to building a successful startup

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

12: Building a Car From Scratch and Selling it - The Tom Car Story Dec 11, 2014

David Brim never meant to get into the car manufacturing business. He initially planned to import and sell the Tomcar Australia — an Israeli military vehicle — in Australia, but as things snowballed he found himself running a full-fledged business selling highly customized ATVs to defense, agriculture, mining, emergency services and the odd individual.

“Once we’d started we loved it. Nine years later we’re selling cars across Australia and people are loving it.”

Speaking to Foundr along with Tomcar Australia CMO Steve Sammartino, he says they were just a couple of car fans who stumbled into a staid industry. The pair met at a startup event — a “profitability party” of all things — where Sammartino was suitably impressed by the fact that Brim’s startup made real tangible products, and one thing led to another.

“Sammartino here gives a fantastic talk … To start a car company in Australia you need two things. You need no idea what you’re doing, ‘cause if you did you wouldn't do it. You need no money, ‘cause if you did have money you wouldn’t spend it on starting a car company,” he laughs.

In this interview you will learn:

-How to develop a strong story for your startup and make it "newsworthy"

-The importantance of product development and how to create something people love

-How to sell a $30,000 ticket item online

-How to make people fall in love with your brand and develop a community

-What it takes to build a car from scratch

-Disrupting an industry

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

11: How to Use Growth Hacking to Rapidly Scale and Grow Your Business with Bronson Taylor from Growthhacker.tv Dec 10, 2014

Growth Hacker TV launched on May 1st of last year and has taken the entrepreneurial world by storm. Co-founder Bronson Taylor has suddenly provided a place where experts on startup growth reveal their secrets and we are eating it up!

But Bronson, ever humble, shares his remarkable success as the tale of two brothers with a dream: “About four years ago, I guess, my brother and I decided to start a company. So we started a company called Dumb Punk and it was a web development shop,” he says. “But we were a couple of nobodies with no track record. Nobody knew about us.”

Bronson and his brother began their initial business driving around, visiting local businesses with poorly-made websites, selling web development services completely cold.

“That’s how we started,” admits Bronson, “which is kind of ridiculous, but we finally got enough clients that we were able to create a little business out of that and then we got more and more into products and then eventually some of the stuff that you see now with Growth Hacker TV.”

In this interview you will learn:

- Some of the best growth hacking tools out there right now

-Top strategies and tactics for growth

-What it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

-How to get insane amounts of PR for your startup

-How to capture gold user feedback

-How to create a launch loop to make your launch go viral

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

10: Creating a Social Movement & Doing Work That Truly Matters with Dan Flynn - The Thankyou Group Story Dec 08, 2014

Nine hundred million people around the world do not have access to safe drinking water. Globally, consumers spend $60 billion on bottled water each year. In the face of these stark mathematics, most might give a resigned shrug and consider it someone else’s problem. Thank you Water Founder Daniel Flynn was 19 when he discovered the alarming facts about the world’s water. His response? Make it his business to change the world.

In this interview you are going to learn:

-What it takes to create a social enterprise

-How to do work that truly matters

-The interesting struggles that an entrepreneur has when starting

-How to build momentum

-How to create movement

-& Much more

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

09: Leading a Billion Dollar Company (SurveyMonkey) to Success - Entrepreneurship 101 with Dave Goldberg Dec 07, 2014

Obstacles, opportunities, and the ability to operate amid them: that's the business of business. Dave Goldberg knows. He does it every day.

After post-college stints in management consulting and the music industry, Goldberg wanted to lead. He had one problem — his young age. But he turned that obstacle into an opportunity.

“I needed to try running something, and no one, at [my] age of 26, was going to let me run anything,” he says. “So I decided to start my own company.”

That company, LAUNCH Media, was such a success that Goldberg ultimately sold it to Yahoo. He went on to become the CEO of a small company called SurveyMonkey, which has grown in size and profit under his leadership. With more than 20 million users, the company is reportedly worth more than $1 billion. In his personal life, Goldberg has two kids and is married to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

In this interview you will learn:

- Leadership 101

- A key secret that Dave applies to his life that has held him in very good stead

- How to build a great team

- Why the SurveyMonkey business model is so successful

- What it takes for a startup to succeed

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

08: The Making of a Young Millionaire - The Neil Patel Story on marketing, content , startups and musings of a successful entrepreneur Dec 04, 2014

Neil Patel is the cofounder of two well-known and highly successful analytics companies: Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics. He is based in Seattle, Washington and wears many hats including that of an entrepreneur, analytics expert, blogger (www.quicksprout.com) and angel investor.

Neil’s story is interesting with lots of takeaways because of how he attained his success. For example, he started selling $1,600 vacuums at the age of 16. From the outside looking in, this venture was a failure. Of all the doors he knocked on, only one person said yes. However, that person would later return their $1,600 vacuum and ask for a refund. He did learn some key lessons from this venture that would serve him well in the future. Namely, be aggressive, be persistent and never give up.

In this interview you will learn:

-Neil's secrets to driving traffic

-What good marketing is, and how to do it

-Thoughts on content marketing and the future

-Start up tactics for growing and scaling

-Key entrepreneurship lessons that Neil learnt from losing millions of dollars with his first business

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

07: Reverse gears - Yaro Starak Interviews Nathan on the Story behind Foundr and creating a successful media startup Dec 03, 2014

In this episode of the Foundr Podcast gears are reversed and Nathan invites his good friend Yaro Starak to interview him for the show.

Yaro Starak is an entrepreneur, blogger and internet marketer from Entrepreneur’s Journey (www.entrepreneurs-journey.com). Yaro is a well-known internet marketer and entrepreneur that has grown several ventures and has a pretty popular blog on how to grow your business.

In this interview Yaro and Nathan Discuss:

- Nathan's Journey and how he started Foundr

- Nathan's Key lessons learnt from a first time entrepreneur

- How Nathan interviewed Richard Branson and got in touch with him

- Nathan's vision for the magazine and the digital publishing space

- & Much more!

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

06: The Productivity Master Ari Miesel - Learn the latest tools, tricks and hacks from a productivity guru Dec 02, 2014

Well before sunrise each day, Ari Meisel wakes up.

The 30-year-old serial entrepreneur, husband, and father rises at 5:30 each morning to get started on the day's work. Along with business and blogging, he helps to take care of his three young children.

Ari has a lot to juggle. But that doesn't faze him – after starting a series of successful businesses and even battling Crohn's disease, he holds a perspective of relentless optimism and a drive to help others. In an interview, Foundr publisher Nathan Chan asked him, “Do you ever feel overwhelmed?”

“No,” Ari replied. “No, I never feel overwhelmed – ever.”

Balancing his personal and professional lives, Ari is a productivity expert and writes on the subject at his blog, The Art of Less Doing.

“The Art of Less Doing was born of this desire to help people free up as much time as they could possibly free up in order to reclaim their own minds and do the things that they want to do,” Ari says. “So I basically have been helping people optimize, automate, and outsource everything in their lives.”

Ari has a deep understanding of how to put those words into action. Entrepreneurial ambition and medical challenges have fed his knowledge and led him to develop practical productivity strategies for overcoming the obstacles that stand in his way – as well as those that block others.

In this interview you will learn:

- The latest tools Ari uses to automate his life and business

- Life hacks that you need to apply straight away to save massive amounts of time

- How Ari Miesel overcame Crohns disease

- Success mindsets

- Entrepreneurial tips

- & Much more

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

05: The Life of Chris Guillebeau - Visiting Every Country in the World While Building a Startup with $100, a High Traffic Blog, and Making a Difference Dec 01, 2014

“Writer. Traveler. Fighter of the status-quo.” This is how Chris Guillebeau describes himself on his website. Besides that, he is also a practical and logical guy. He couldn’t have otherwise accomplished his dream of traveling to every country in the world, 193 in total, by the time he turned 35.

Mind you, he didn’t wander aimlessly. Fascinated by discovery and exploration, the travel hacker had thoroughly planned his adventure step by step to make it feasible.

He analyzed the challenges of traveling to certain countries, costs, visa issues and such. Speaking of costs, one would think he was filthy rich to be able to afford his trips, but he only spent an achievable amount of money - $30,000.

When asked to define his “job” Guillebeau recalls: “I discovered when I was about 19-20 years old that I was unemployable.” For 10 years he started different entrepreneurial ventures to support and allow himself to do what he loved doing. That included travelling, playing music, and volunteering.

He spent four years in West Africa as an aid worker having no specialized skills. But he was in his element: “I felt like I was tangibly making a difference, carrying medical supplies into a village in Sierra Leone that’s emerged from a civil war. If I didn’t bring those medical supplies, they wouldn’t have any at the clinic. It was a very direct relation as opposed to writing a check and hoping something good will happen with it.” That experience changed him.

In 2008 Guillebeau started his writing career and launched his blog The Art of Non-Conformity (TAON) so he could document his travel adventures, sharing information that would help others. That blog turned into a business and a community of its own, and became the driver of writing his first book. That led further to his $100 Startup NYT bestseller and founding the World Domination Summit (WDS).

In this interview with Chris we cover:

- How to start a business with $100

- How to build a high traffic blog

- Tactics he uses to push his comfort zone

- What he believes it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

- How find purpose and meaning with your life

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!

04: Finding Investors & Purpose for Your Startup with Kamal Ravikant Nov 30, 2014

“My company fell apart. My relationships fell apart. My health fell apart,” Kamal Ravikant says. It was one of the darkest times in his life. “I was just locked in my bedroom, miserable out of my mind.”

As a tech entrepreneur, Ravikant had his share of success. He also failed. In fact, the failure of his last company struck him down. But he got up. His embrace of one simple concept — loving himself — ended up saving him emotionally and then financially, as his writing on the subject allowed him to bounce back and become a venture capital investor. He's eager to share his experience through two books he wrote about his own epiphanies: Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It and Live Your Truth.

In this interview we go through with Kamal:

-How to find an investor

-How to find purpose in life and your startup

-Why persistence doesn't always pay off

-His best selling books (Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on it, and Live Your Truth)

- & much more!

“If you come from a place where you're just giving, and you are worthy, and the world responds, that's amazing. That is success,” he says, “because if you still have the self-worth issues, no matter how much you make, it'll never be enough.” If you define your own goals, allowing success to stem from inside, then outside troubles can never shackle you.

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

03: Marianne Cantwell Shares with us Step by Step How to Escape the 9-5 and Build a Business and Life You Love Online Nov 22, 2014

Ever wondered how you ended up working the job you’re doing? Ever felt like you sort of just, fell in to it? Ever wondered how to escape ‘the corporate cage’? Finding out what you are good at, what drives you as a person, and then finding suitable work based upon that should be a keystone of our society, but unfortunately, it is not.

Entrepreneur Marianne Cantwell aims to change all that.

Marianne Cantwell works in helping people find their driving passion, breaking free from the corporate cage and creating “free-range” careers. She runs a successful business called free-range-humans and explains that your interests should be a key driver behind your actions, not the blind pursuit of riches.

Marianne Cantwell explains that living a dream is simple, it’s possible, and takes guts. As a woman who has thrown away the security of the 9 to 5 quite early in her career to chase down projects she loves, she is an authority on the subject. Put simply, she broke away from the corporate life and has succeeded doing what the rest of us dream about, which is running her online business from anywhere on the planet.

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

02: Learn How to Master Any Skill with Robert Greene Nov 22, 2014

Let’s say that through some miscarriage of justice, you find yourself locked in prison tomorrow. Browsing through the prison library, you find there is one book that is constantly requested, but hard to get your hands on. What would you think that book was? Legal case studies? Lock-picking manuals? The Bible perhaps? Close, but no cigar. It’s none other than Robert Greene’s bestselling The 48 Laws of Power, which has sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide. Greene’s books are famously the most requested in correctional facilities across the United States, an achievement he bears with pride. (The author has a folder dedicated to the fan mail he receives from inmates). However, it’s not just convicts who have taken to Greene’s works. His books are a favourite of Wall Street executives, movie moguls and hip hop superstars. Some of his more notable fans include rappers Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, Jay Z, and Kanye West.

With five international bestsellers on strategy power and seduction, Greene is the hero of schemers, manipulators and the power hungry; from the Hollywood elite to the lowliest criminal. If the subject matter of his books is anything to go by, you’d think he would present like a character from Game of Thrones, cold and conniving. Yet for all his accolades, Greene seems astonishingly normal. A native of Los Angeles, Robert Greene currently lives a quiet life in a Spanish-style villa in the suburb of Los Feliz.

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!

01: Elance-oDesk CEO Fabio Rosati on How to Disrupt an Industry Nov 09, 2014

How to Disrupt an Industry - The Age of working Differently.

The Elance Story with Fabio Rosati

It’s not every day you change the way the world works. But with Elance, Fabio Rosati did just this, altering the way global labor markets operate for the foreseeable future. It’s no small task, but by providing an easy and secure way for businesses to find, hire, manage and pay freelancers, Elance’s online staffing platform has revolutionized the freelancing economy. And it’s one of the fastest growing companies in the industry, expanding at a rate of 50% per year. As of 2013, Elance has over 3 million users, with 800,000 businesses hiring from a pool of 2.8 million registered freelancers, earning over $300 million yearly.

Today's Guest - Fabio Rosati

Hailing from Florence, Italy, Elance CEO Fabio Rosati is polite and softly-spoken. Conversing with him, you wouldn’t pick that in the last five years he had become one of the most influential individuals in the entrepreneurial space globally. A thought leader on work, the freelance economy and online staffing, Rosati’s views on the burgeoning online labor market have appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Inc., and The New York Times. It’s no small wonder then that in 2013, Rosati was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist.

I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!