Selery Talks

Our Guest this week is David Caulkins. David is the founder of a company called Bespoken Art. Bespoken Art is truly unique. They take the sounds of life and culture and capture their sound waves for their customers. David sat down with us and shared the Bespoken story, where the idea came from and where the company is headed. Learn More at bespokenart.com | selery.com

ABC's Shark Tank has reached icon status in American television. The show is ridden the wave of the rising entrepreneurial movement in the US. It has certainly been the tipping point for many companies and is a substantial economic influence. This week on Selery Talks we speak with one of the Shark's movers and shakers, Abe Minkara. Abe is the business development director for the Mark Cuban Companies. He takes these new partners, most of which are early-stage startups, and with his team helps turn them into lucrative Investments. He and his team are e-commerce experts that often develop their Shark Tank investments from scratch. If you've heard a Cuban partnered Shark Tank Company on an episode of our show before it's likely that his team of logistics and marketing gurus have grown the startups e-commerce channel to an upwards of thirty percent of their business, post deal. In our conversation. He took us behind the scenes of what it's like from taping to post Shark Tank episode airing, and how they help grow their Shark Tank companies. Learn More at markcubancompanies.com | selery.com

Konel Banner and Frank Weston never really expected to make money off their product let alone get on Shark Tank. Konel and Frank created a fire starter called Instafire for their own leisurely use. The two are outdoor enthusiast and have spent their lives in the great outdoors. It was a product truly born from it’s founders’ experience in the wild. They had no doubt about the quality and utility of the product, but were not expecting the future demand and the many millions of people it would go on to help. Learn More at instafire.com | selery.com

Neal Hoffman is the founder of plush toy company Mensch on a Bench. Neal started his company after his 4-year-old son asked him for an Elf on the Shelf while shopping in a department store in 2012. The moment he spoke his alternate suggestion out loud the veritable light bulb clicked loud and clear. He had been looking for ways to teach his young kids Jewish traditions. He told his son that, “Jews don’t have an Elf on the Shelf, they have a mensch on a bench.” Little did he know this would be very true in less than a year and a half. Learn More at themenschonabench.com | selery.com

Ecommerce has allowed small to mid-sized businesses to thrive in highly competitive industries against larger companies. The modern day online marketplace allows these companies to compete in a space outside of brick and mortar retail. In this episode, we sit down with Krish Iyer and discuss the role of shipping in ecommerce. Krish is an expert in the latest and greatest in supply chain technology and is often quoted by popular publications such as The Wall Street Journal. Currently, he holds the title of Director of Strategic Alliances with shipping and order management software company Shipstation. Companies like Shipstation and people like Krish Iyer have greatly contributed to the boom of eCommerce that continues to change our marketplace. Learn More at shipstation.com | selery.com

Jake Thompson is full of enthusiasm and confidence. His drive and personality are infectious. Jake has huge goals, but when you spend time with him you leave believing he will accomplish them. His lifestyle and apparel brand Compete Every Day is not only offering fitness apparel, but also in the business of growing and building the whole person. Learn More at competeeveryday.com | selery.com

When craving a snack with protein we don’t necessarily think of chips or cookies first and if you are an American you most likely don’t pull crickets from the pantry. Three Harvard graduates Laura D’Asaro, Rose Wang, and Meryle Natow are trying to change that. Crickets are high in protein, easily sourced, can be ground into flour form. This trio of entrepreneurs are offering crickets in tasty forms such as barbeque chips and chocolate chip cookies. In the process, they are trying to create a revolution in the American food culture. Learn More at chirpschips.com | selery.com

Calvin Carter had always been entrepreneurial. He comes from a long line of entrepreneurs. After college he attempted to work for a large corporation. However, this didn’t last long because, in his words, his “entrepreneurial tendencies took over”. These tendencies led to many entrepreneurial successes as well as failures. He reached a turning point in 2008, when a keynote speech by Steve Jobs would change his life. Apple announced the opening of the app store and nearly instantaneously Calvin started his mobile app development company Bottle Rocket. In year 1, he and a handful of contracted developers would limp along to create 8 apps. Despite the uncertainty, Calvin kept pushing. In 2009, NPR hired Bottle Rocket to develop their mobile app which changed the vision and trajectory of the company. Learn More at bottlerocketstudios.com | selery.com

On March 6th 2008, Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s app store to the world. Most people wouldn’t become aware of the enormity of this new technological development until later. However, it changed Calvin Carter’s life immediately. He started his company, Bottle Rocket, the next day. His venture began when he started filling pads of graph paper with drawings of app concepts. Calvin had no idea the heights he would go with Bottle Rocket, He just knew he was committed no matter what. Learn More at bottlerocketstudios.com | selery.com

Divine Health began out of the decades old medical practice of Dr. Don Colbert. Dr. Colbert has been practicing medicine and writing books for over 33 years. In 2007, he began formulating nutritional supplements and started Divine Health. After a rocky start and struggling through the recession years of 2008 and 2009, his son, Kyle Colbert took over the company. New to the nutritional supplement industry, Kyle says he had well everything to learn. He did that and more while blazing a new path to growth for the family business.

Aaron Rubin is no stranger to eCommerce. He has been making money on the internet since the early 1990’s. He began coding at 7 and made money online by 12 years old. After starting a successful eCommerce company in college and learning many lessons in logistics, he teamed up with a friend of his, Nicholas Daniel-Richards to build an eCommerce shipping and inventory software solution called Shiphero and help others avoid the same mistakes he made himself. Learn More at shiphero.com | selery.com

Griff and Lee, served our country together as Army Rangers in Afghanistan. The two-passed time at outposts, on patrols, and in armored personnel carriers spit balling about startups they could launch after their military service. The seed that took root would come in the form of a make-shift flip flop made from the sole of a combat boot. Their company, Combat Flip Flops, started by selling their uncommon flip flops and later added clothes, shoes, and other accessories. Their mission is to help communities and cultures that have been devastated by war. Their approach is “business over bullets” and their army of customers is called, the “unarmed forces.” Learn More at combatflipflops.com | selery.com

On this week’s episode we will feature 2 guests. First up is Mike Chaffin, the co-founder of lifestyle and apparel brand Three Commas which he co-founded with Mark Cuban in 2015. In addition to Three Commas, Mike’s resume includes founding and developing tech companies, consulting, speaking nationwide, and today is the long-time business manager for rapper, Nelly. Mike’s passion is developing the entrepreneurial spirit and seeing startups succeed. This is the heart behind Three Commas. Our Second guest is sportswriter David Ubben. David has written about college football and basketball for ESPN and Fox Sports. He is currently writing for The Athletic and USA Today’s sports blog Sports on Earth. He is also working for a very unique startup company called Fan Plan which makes a sports and entertainment indemnity product. Since this isn’t something really ever seen in the sports world we asked David to come tell us about it. Learn more at threecommas.com | afanplan.com | selery.com

Our guest this week is David D’Agostino of a company called The Beach Glass. David and his co-founder Jason Klinge spent the bulk of their careers in the construction business. The two were together with some friends and the unexpected next phase of their careers began simply because of a broken wine glass. David joins us for the second episode of Selery Talks to tell the full story that resulted in their unique product. Learn More at thebeachglass.com | selery.com

Welcome to Selery Talks and thanks for joining our conversation this week. Our guest is Katie Sanchez the founder of a company called Bee Free Honee. Katie stumbled upon the idea of honey without Bees, but would later come the find out the immense benefit and demand of the product. The company has seen steady growth since 2013 and appeared on Shark Tank in 2016 which led to increased exposure and further growth. Learn More at Beefreehonee.com | selery.com

Selery Talks features ideas that have come to life through eCommerce and the stories behind them. We’ll look at business ideas and the people that made them part of their stories. We will sit down with the founders of companies and hear how and why they turned their ideas into realities.