Stay ConnectedExploring the world’s greatest startup stories.
Get a behind the scenes look into the founding stories of your favorite companies. Learn how the industries they operate in actually work, and learn playbooks and tactics you can use to launch and scale your own business.
Copyright: © Turner Novak
Sean Frank is the CEO of Ridge Wallet, a men’s wallet and accessories brand that does over 9-figures in annual revenue. The company started in 2012 and raised $266,000 in a Kickstarter campaign to sell the first 5,200 wallets. Ridge hasn’t raised a single dollar of outside capital since, and has also expanded into new categories like rings, knives, watches, backpacks, and keys, with dozens of more products coming soon. Sean is known in some circles as the “Einstein of Ecommerce”, and he gives us an inside look at running a consumer brand in 2023.
Brought to you by Packsmith, better fulfillment for growing brands: https://bit.ly/PacksmithBanana
In this episode, we discuss:
Where to find Sean:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeanEcom
Substack: http://seanecom.substack.com/
Podcast: https://9operators.com/
Where to find Turner:
Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
Referenced:
https://www.amazon.com/Great-CEO-Within-Tactical-Building-ebook/dp/B07ZLGQZYC
https://www.theloganbartlettshow.com/
https://www.maryruthorganics.com/
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Dimitri Dadiomov is the Co-founder and CEO of Modern Treasury, an operating system for the new era of payments. Dimitri and his co-founders Matt and Sam started the company in 2018 after running into the same problem working together at their previous startup. Modern Treasury has since raised over $183 million, supported by investors like YCombinator, Benchmark, Altimeter, Salesforce Ventures, Quiet Capital, WndrCo, TQ Ventures, and Edward Lando. Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://bit.ly/3OwGdGC Sign-up for Ramp and get $500: https://bit.ly/3KSqfFV Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/how-to-move-quadrillions-of-dollars In this episode, we discuss: How the global banking system moves over $1 quadrillion per year Why B2B products should be easy to use with broad use cases What makes a good API business Why the YC application is a great forcing function for founders How it took them six months to get their first customer, but never pivoted Why the first customers of a B2B business should get more credit How PLG helped build a better product Finding holes in the market for an initial go-to-market strategy The depth of Modern Treasury’s product Why they should have built a sales team sooner How deep customer relationships across many industries helped them raise a Series A Why it’s important to go slow to go fast How Dimitri set an intentional culture around studying other businesses When distribution can be more important than product What happened inside Modern Treasury during the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank Why Dimitri sends Saturday update emails to entire company The founders Dimitri really admires Where to find Dimitri: Twitter: https://twitter.com/dadiomov LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dadiomov/ Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/how-to-move-quadrillions-of-dollars Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform
Kendall Baker currently leads Yahoo’s sports newsletter business. In 2017 he launched the first daily sports newsletter called Sports Internet, which he sold to Axios in 2019. Before Sports Internet, he convinced the founders of The Hustle to focus their online tech blog on a daily newsletter, which he wrote for a year and a half. And before The Hustle, he produced SportsCenter at ESPN. He’s spent nearly a decade at the intersection of daily news and sports, and this episode is packed with insights on both.
Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://bit.ly/3OwGdGC
Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-business-of-newsletters
In this episode, we discuss:
Listen on other platforms:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-business-of-newsletters-kendall-baker/id1694440669?i=1000624033211
YouTube: https://youtu.be/4es4p7sFMf0
Where to find Kendall:
Twitter https://twitter.com/kendallbaker
Where to find Turner:
Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-business-of-newsletters
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Dan Porter is the Co-founder and CEO of Overtime, a sports network for the next generation of fans. OT reaches 85 million fans per month and runs a basketball league (Overtime Elite, OTE), a flag football league (OT7), and is launching a boxing league (OTX) the week this episode airs.
Dan started Overtime with his co-founder Zack Weiner in 2016, and has since raised over $215 million. OT is supported by investors like the late ex-NBA Commissioner David Stern, Jeff Bezos, Drake, Carmelo Anthony, Trae Young, over 25 other NBA players, Spark Capital, Redpoint, a16z, Greycroft, Afore Capital, and Banana Capital. [Turner Novak and Banana Capital are investors in Overtime].
Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: http://bit.ly/3Qk4RNd
In this episode, we discuss:
Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/how-overtime-grew-to-85-million-fans
Where to find Dan: Twitter: https://twitter.com/tfadp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danporter/
Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/TurnerNovak
Where to find The Peel: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePeelPod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ThePeelPod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ThePeelPodcast
Read the full transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/how-overtime-grew-to-85-million-fans
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Nick Saltarelli is the Co-founder of Mid-Day Squares, a healthy, functional chocolate bar. Nick, his wife Lezlie, and her brother Jake started the company in 2018 from their kitchen in Montreal, and have since built their own factory with $70 million in capacity, and grown the company to a $26 million revenue run rate. Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://secureframe.com/request-demo-4?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=062023-thesplit Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/building-a-70-million-chocolate-factory In this episode, we discuss: The history of the $200 billion chocolate market Competing against 100+ year-old monopolies Finding a huge opportunity in healthier chocolate The dirty secrets of contract manufacturing Why no one knows how to make a Snickers bar, and Coca-Cola doesn't have a patent How to build a moat in CPG Why Mid-Day Squares had to build their own factory Making chocolate like Tesla makes cars Copying Facebook’s launch strategy Measuring product market fit in CPG Almost running out of money during COVID Why every founding team should go to therapy Surviving an 85% drop in revenue How to raise a bridge round Building an enduring brand Why marketers should study the music industry Timestamps [00:00:00] Intro [00:03:07] The insane politics of chocolate [00:04:53] The history of chocolate [00:07:11] The enormous market for chocolate [00:10:24] The nutrition of chocolate [00:15:00] The Mid-Day Squares origin story [00:20:05] Creating the first product [00:25:53] Why Coca-Cola never filed a patent on their formula [00:29:08] Why they built their own manufacturing plant [00:31:35] A crazy and creative fundraising strategy [00:39:26] Taking over an island and finding PMF [00:46:32] Raising $2m to prove 2 things [00:47:15] Automating production and navigating manufacturing chaos [00:51:11] Why he had to "plead with the government on public TV” [00:53:51] On "eating shit sandwiches” [00:57:30] The COVID mistake that dropped revenue by 85% [01:03:02] Advice for raising a bridge round [01:04:55] How to build fans not customers [01:07:12] How to build in public [01:12:23] Rapid fire questions Where to find Nick Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickywonka Where to find Turner LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Where to follow The Peel podcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePeelPod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ThePeelPod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ThePeelPodcast Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/building-a-70-million-chocolate-factory Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform
Ilir Sela is the Founder & CEO of Slice, the online ordering and all-in-one software platform that helps pizzeria’s manage their business. Ilir started the company in 2010 as MyPizza, rebranded to Slice in 2015, and has since raised over $125 million and supports over 20,000 independent pizza shops. Slice is supported by investors like GGV, KKR, 01 Advisors, Primary Ventures, FJ Labs, and RiverPark Ventures. Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://secureframe.com/request-demo-4?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=062023-thesplit Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/arming-the-pizza-rebels-ilir-sela In this episode we cover - The three reasons small pizza shops are growing 24x faster than big chains - How franchising and "reverse franchising" works - Ilir's biggest mistakes building a franchise business before starting Slice - How to explain a new business model to investors - The customer acquisition benefits of a multi-product model - Bootstrapping Slice to $3 million in profit - Turning down two acquisition offers, one that would have made him nine figures personally - Why MrBeast Burger failed - Why we don't need more cloud kitchens - Empowering entrepreneurs to open their own pizza shops - Building a strong board - Advice for founders selling to small businesses Referenced Cloud Kitchens: https://www.thefoodcorridor.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-cloud-kitchens-ghost-kitchens/ Frank Slootman from Snowflake, who Illir said inspires him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankslootman/ Growth in independent pizzerias vs big chains in 2022: https://www.pmq.com/pizza-power-report-2023/ Jeff Richards from GGV Capital, who invested in Slice and gave Illir some advice mentioned in the podcast: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrichards/ Michelle Obama on whether pizza is a vegetable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G14qNHPE4qo&t=21s MrBeast’s MrBeast Burger: https://www.mrbeastburger.com/ The growth of Domino’s stock since 2010: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/25/dominos-stock-yields-higher-returns-than-google-since-ipos.html Slice’s website: https://slicelife.com/ Where to find Turner Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Where to find Ilir: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilirsela Twitter: https://twitter.com/ilirsela Timestamps [00:03:34]: The enormous and fascinating pizza industry [00:04:30]: Why there are so many independent pizza shops [00:07:33]: Illir's deep family history with pizza [00:10:43]: What Slice provides independent pizzerias [00:14:21]: The origins of Slice (mypizza.com) [00:16:55]: Building "Nerd Force" before Slice [00:18:22]: How franchises like “Nerd Force” work [00:22:15]: Selling his first company: Nerd Force [00:23:46]: Forming the idea for Slice [00:27:19]: The very first customers [00:32:37]: Turning down $18 million to double down on Slice [00:33:41]: Raising money and starting Slice phase 2.0 [00:39:27]: An acquisition offer that was “tough to say no to” [00:41:55]: Slice's focus now and in the near future [00:45:01]: Why there are so many pizza shops [00:46:46]: Hot takes on Cloud Kitchen and Beast Burgers [00:51:55]: Why online customers are worth 4x more than offline ones [00:53:32]: Why some investors doubted Slice [00:57:58]: The underrated value of a good board [01:00:57]: Advice for founders serving small businesses [01:03:29]: Hitting $500m annual revenue with Slice 3.0 [01:04:31]: Other categories Slice could go after [01:06:25]: Rapid fire questions Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/arming-the-pizza-rebels-ilir-sela Production and distribution by: https://supermix.io For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform
Adrian Aoun is the Founder and CEO of Forward Health, which is rebuilding healthcare as a product, not a service. Forward is supported by investors like Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Softbank, Expa, Marc Beinoff, Ashton Kutcher, The Weeknd, Lee Linden, Josh Kushner, First Round Capital, Eric Schmidt, DCVC, and more, Before starting Forward, Adrian worked with Larry Page at Google to setup and launch new companies inside of Alphabet. He joined Google through the acquisition of his AI startup Wavii, and spent his first year at Google helping create and build its AI division. Adrian was on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and is an angel investor in companies including Stripe, Uber, Anduril, and more. Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://secureframe.com/request-demo-4?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=062023-thesplit In this episode, we discuss: Rad the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/making-healthcare-a-product-not-a - How the healthcare industry actually works - Why poor incentives make technology in the industry ROI-negative - The founding story of Forward - Why healthcare should be a product, not a service - Building doctor's offices like Tesla builds cars - Being Larry Page’s right hand man at Google - Building a “healthcare operating system” like Apple builds the app store - Adrian’s contrarian views on the food industry - Why animal farming is a bigger climate issue than you might think - Zuck: the man in the arena Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Where to find Adrian: Twitter: https://twitter.com/adrianaoun LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianaoun Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/making-healthcare-a-product-not-a Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform
Immad Akhund is the Co-founder and CEO of Mercury, a digitally native bank for startups. Mercury is supported by investors like a16z, Coatue, CRV, Chapter One, Ryan Peterson, Scott Belsky, Serena Williams, Terrence Rohan, Zach Coelius, Todd Goldberg, and more. Before Mercury, Immad was a part-time partner at YC, co-founded Heyzap which sold for $45 million, and co-founded and scaled Clickpass to millions of users.
Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://secureframe.com/request-demo-4?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=062023-thesplit
Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-future-of-banking-remote-work
In this episode, we discuss:
- The future of banking
- Why Mercury’s beautiful onboarding was an accident
- Cultural mistakes most startups make
- Two lessons from selling his first company for $45 million
- How to get free legal advice
- Why it’s better to build a network of entrepreneurs than investors
- How to fundraise
- Why its contrarian to start a non-AI company right now
- How Mercury is thinking about AI
- Why each operational team has its own engineering team
- The embarrassing pitch meeting that raised his Series A from a16z
- How crypto used up all its goodwill
- The hiring advice he gives every founder
Where to find Immad:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/immad
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iakhund
Podcast: https://curiositypodcast.substack.com/
Where to find Turner:
Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
Mentioned in this episode:
Mercury https://www.mercury.com
The Logan Bartlett Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcL_cjZDeFU
Timestamps:
(0:00) Intro
(5:58) Mercury's "accidentally great" onboarding experience
(8:13) The fundamental banking business model
(9:34) The basics of banking regulation
(11:07) How Mercury works with banks
(13:27) The future of banking
(19:34) Immad's previous startups
(22:30) What culture actually means
(27:06) Importance of ideas vs execution
(32:03) Learning banking from scratch
(35:54) Why the first banking partnership failed
(37:56) Why the second banking partnership worked
(39:24) The difference between compliance and risk teams
(42:08) Why compliance is so relevant for better banking
(50:13) The biggest mistake for doing remote work
(51:21) Mercury Raise
(53:33) The game theory of fundraising
(54:54) Playbook for generating fundraising momentum
(60:45) Common fundraising mistakes
(63:12) Hilarious fundraising mishap in front of a16z
(68:16) Companies that aren't like this shouldn't touch AI
(70:57) Who will win big from AI?
(72:10) Immad's take on crypto
(86:14) Outro
Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-future-of-banking-remote-work Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform
Ryan Delk is the Co-Founder and CEO of Primer, a startup helping ambitious kids unlock their potential by empowering teachers to launch and run their own micro-schools. Primer’s supported by investors like Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Village Global, Susa Ventures, Sam Altman, Naval, Ryan Peterson, Amjad Masad, Julie Zhuo, Tobias Lutke, Lachy Groom, Howie Liu, Dylan Field, Packy McCormick, and many more. Before Primer, Ryan was the COO at peer-to-peer rental marketplace Omni (sold to Coinbase), and prior to that led Growth and Partnerships at Gumroad from $10,000 to $50 million in GMV. Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://secureframe.com/request-demo-4?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=062023-thesplit
Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/turning-techers-into-superheroes In this episode, we discuss: - How the $1 trillion US K-12 education system works - The broken incentive structures in education - Why teachers are superheroes - How to double a teacher’s income - Primer’s origin story - How to open a school - If online school works - Why founders make the best employees - How the US government wastes billions of dollars - Why everyone should care more about local politics Where to find Ryan: Twitter https://twitter.com/delk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delk/
Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Timestamps: (3:42) The state of K-12 education in the US (6:35) The structural problem causing a radical misallocation of resources (8:00) The importance of teachers (9:34) The “totally flipped” incentive structure for teachers (12:22) The problem of bureaucracy in education (13:38) Primer’s thesis (14:52) How to start a school (16:00) How Primer helps teachers start their own schools (18:20) Using underutilized real estate to host micro-schools (20:05) Ryan’s take on digital vs in-person learning (21:59) How Primer supports teachers (23:21) Inspirational stories from Primer users (28:00) The underestimated entrepreneurship of teachers (29:12) How Primer stays affordable for all users (30:26) How Primer gets teachers on board (32:04) The role of after-school activities (33:07) How Primer sets its Curriculum (35:14) Ryan’s unique education and how it inspired Primer (38:39) Why someone hadn’t solved this problem yet (40:24) Primer’s initial strategy (41:30) The breakfast that changed everything (42:09) The concept of “Barrels” from Keith Rabois (42:36) Finding and recruiting Ian Bravo (43:31) How Primer recruits ex-founders (44:52) The 3 things Primer screens for in teachers (46:27) What Primer messed up when launching (48:19) Re-thinking school admissions from first principles (51:03) How they convinced the very first teachers to try Primer (51:59) The ineffective usage of education spending (53:28) Policymakers prioritizing “signal over outcomes” (57:21) The worst public schools are worse than you think (59:08) How the Government wastes billions of dollars and Ryan’s idea for solving this (61:31) The importance of increasing engagement with local politics (63:37) The vision for Primer
Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/turning-techers-into-superheroes
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Ken Ehrman is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Halo Collar, a smart dog collar that tracks your dog with GPS. Halo Collar uses patented technology that allows customers to instantly create up to 20 unique virtual dog fences from their phone using GPS.
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Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-iphone-for-your-dog-ken-ehrman
In this episode, we discuss: - Working for Mike Markkula, the first investor in Apple - Building hardware and the importance of patents - Listening to customers, solving their problems, and sizing a market - Qualifying enterprise customers and selling with "calm confidence." - Early investors trying to buy 95% of his first company - Getting the US Post Office and Army to fund $15 million in R&D - Taking a company public in 1999 with $3 million in revenue - Using AI to train dog movements and make "the Apple Watch" for dogs - The crazy story of how he met his celebrity co-founder, Cesar Millan the Dog Whisperer - What happened when they met famous TikToker Charli D'Amelio Where to find Ken: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-ehrman
Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
Referenced: Buy the Halo Collar: https://www.halocollar.com/ Cesar Millan, 'the Dog Whisperer': https://www.cesarsway.com/ More on RFID tags: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukfpq71BoMo&ab_channel=ALLABOUTELECTRONICS Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-iphone-for-your-dog-ken-ehrman
Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform
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