Podcasts about Bootstrapping

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Rachel Hochhauser, co-founder of Piecework Puzzles, the art-forward puzzle brand whose puzzles look more like coffee table books than anything you'd find in a toy aisle.Rachel started Piecework in 2019 with her co-founder Jena Wolfe as a creative side project while she was running her agency, Major Studio. It started with a rained-in cabin full of old jigsaw puzzles and four puzzles made with no shot list and no business plan. Then the pandemic puzzle boom hit, and Piecework had to grow up fast.She gets into what came next: bringing on a president as co-owner to run the operations side, bootstrapping through tight cash cycles, and acquiring Areaware, the iconic design house Piecework had admired and stocked for years, while keeping it its own brand. She also shares why cocktail napkins, matches, and textiles now carry real weight next to puzzles, and her two pieces of advice for any brand going into wholesale: get to the right trade show, and get on Faire.Tune in for an honest look at running two brands at once, writing a debut novel on the side, and why every small business is held together with tape and bubblegum.

Senthu Velnayagam (@senthuvelnayagam) is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor and growth strategist who has built his career around scaling companies through execution, operational excellence and sustainable growth.Senthu is the co-founder and CEO of Kimp, one of the pioneers in the subscription-based creative services space. He is also the Managing Partner of Scale Shift Ventures, a venture studio focused on acquiring, building and scaling companies across proptech, AI, SaaS and automation.He joins Ara on this episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss leaving York University to pursue entrepreneurship, why he favours bootstrapping over outside funding, building Kimp's subscription-based business model, investing in founders through Scale Shift Ventures, deciding when to hold or exit a company, evolving from an operator to an architect and why he believes formal education may become less valuable in the future.If you have ever wondered what it takes to build profitable, durable businesses without following the traditional startup playbook, this episode is for you.Follow Senthu:- Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/senthuvelnayagam/)    Timestamps00:19 — Ara introduces this week's guest, Senthu Velnayagam01:40 — Senthu speaks on his early years; born in Jaffna and moved to Canada at 1603:15 — His first few years of entrepreneurship; dropping out of York and building at 1807:20 — Why does Senthu favour bootstrapping?10:44 — From graphic designing and marketing (2003-2017/2018) to co-founding Kimp12:00 — Starting Buy.ca in 2024 with a cashback model13:35 — How does the model work?16:10 — Kimp; the pros and cons of the subscription-based creative service19:10 — Navigating resistance with customers20:50 — Scale Shift Ventures; why he started it, how it operates, and what's worked best25:20 — Writing cheques for founders despite not knowing what they were building25:54 — How Senthu determines when to hold companies versus exit27:36 — From operator to architect; how he stays in touch while thinking high-level31:26 — How he sources business deals31:58 — Going against the grain of the traditional Tamil mindset33:29 — What Senthu would do in the first 90 days if he had to start over from scratch34:39 — Building, investing in, and acquiring; what creates the most wealth?35:29 — Advice he would give his 16-year-old self35:56 — How Senthu wants to be remembered by friends and family36:27 — Thoughts around AI; how he uses it and how it jobs/industries40:34 — Creator Confessions44:19 — The Wrap UpIntro MusicProduced And Mixed By:- The Tamil Creator- YanchanWritten By:- Aravinthan Ehamparam- Yanchan Rajmohan    Support the show

After a viral TikTok video doubled her sales overnight, former comedy writer Bette Bentley built Skimpies—a first-of-its-kind organic cotton liner for leggings—into a multimillion-dollar brand. By committing to live sell on TikTok for three hours a day for six months straight, Bette cultivated a fiercely loyal organic community without spending a single dollar on paid advertising. Today, the startup carries a $10 million valuation and continues to disrupt the traditional intimate wear market. For more on Skimpies, in show notes, click here. Subscribe and watch Shopify Masters on YouTube!Sign up for your FREE Shopify Trial here.

Dans cette deuxième partie, Natalie Hanczewski, fondatrice de NV Gallery, revient sur ce que dix années d'entrepreneuriat lui ont demandé plus personnellement.Jeune, blonde, associée à un homme plus âgé qu'elle, Natalie voit très vite les rôles se distribuer : lui pour le business, elle pour le marketing.« Mais vous avez un cofondateur ? », « Mais qu'est-ce que vous faites dans la boîte ? » : elle raconte les biais auxquels elle s'est confrontée et les codes qu'elle a dû apprendre dans des environnements encore très masculins, notamment dans l'entrepreneuriat et l'investissement.Natalie parle de cette nécessité pour les femmes de continuellement prouver ce qu'elles font, mais aussi sur la manière dont la créativité peut être dévalorisée lorsqu'elle leur est spontanément attribuée, comme si le business et la stratégie se jouaient nécessairement ailleurs.Nous abordons aussi ce que l'entrepreneuriat peut exiger lorsqu'il se mêle à la vie personnelle. Entreprendre en couple, traverser une séparation tout en restant associés, et devoir continuer à tenir son rôle et à faire avancer l'entreprise alors même que, personnellement, tout ne va pas bien.Enfin, Natalie revient sur sa décision, dix ans après la création de NV Gallery, de quitter l'opérationnel pour rejoindre le board de sa société. Prendre du recul, apprendre à lâcher une partie du contrôle et à faire confiance, tout en continuant à apporter son expertise de fondatrice.Une conversation très lucide sur la place des femmes dans l'entrepreneuriat, ce que construire une entreprise peut demander personnellement et la manière dont le rôle d'une fondatrice évolue à mesure que son entreprise grandit.Bonne écoute !Pour participer aux événements BWP, rdv sur businesswomeninparis.com, @businesswomeninparis et inscrivez-vous à la newsletter.Titre : Not KingsAuteur : Candy SaysSource : https://candysays.bandcamp.com/Licence : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.frTéléchargement : https://auboutdufil.com/?id=561Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2022. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Ben White is a guy who has a passion for life and adventure, especially skiing. He runs a paragliding school and a home concierge service which are both on fire. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. Bootstrapping is rewarding when it goes well. It could be lean at times, but that's okay. 2. We never ever get time back. It's our most valuable resource. 3. Not spending time with friends and family is kind of a waste. Utah's #1 Most Trusted Concierge Service - White Cloud Concierge Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. Hotworx - The number 1 boutique fitness franchise with 850 plus locations. With recurring membership revenue, a low-labor, high-tech model, and a proven franchise system, entrepreneurs gain a scalable business built for growth. Visit Hotworx.net/franchising to learn more. Expat Money - Looking for more options for where you could live, invest, and protect what you've built, without being completely tied to any one country, government, or system? Expat Money has created a free report to help you get started. Go to ExpatMoney.com/fire today.

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Kyle Matthews sits down with Jennifer Fisher, founder and Chief Brand Officer of Jennifer Fisher Jewelry, founder of Maedyn, and author of Trust Your Gut.The New York Times called her the Queen of Hoops. Jennifer spent ten years as a wardrobe stylist, starting out on commercials, before making a single piece for herself — a gold tag with her son's name on it, created after years of fertility setbacks because nothing on the market felt like her. She wore it on set, made one for Uma Thurman, and Uma chose to wear it on the cover of Glamour without telling her first.She has lived with a desmoid tumor, a soft tissue sarcoma, since she was 30, at a point when nobody was certain how to treat it. Twelve rounds of chemotherapy shrank it. Turning 50 and living with Hashimoto's, she later read her way into an anti-inflammatory approach to food that became her signature salts, her cookbook, and Maedyn, the lifestyle and media platform she now runs alongside the jewelry business.The conversation also explores bootstrapping for almost 20 years before taking on Centric Brands, a roughly $3 billion licensing company, as a manufacturing partner; the surge in demand COVID produced; how she gets her jewelry onto the people who wear it; and what gold prices and tariffs are doing to the business right now.Topics covered in this episode:- The New York Times naming her the Queen of Hoops- Ten years styling commercials before she made any jewelry- Making the first gold tag for her son after years of fertility setbacks- Uma Thurman wearing her piece on the cover of Glamour- Living with a desmoid tumor since the age of 30- Twelve rounds of chemotherapy while building the business- Why she wants people in the office rather than remote- Bootstrapping for almost 20 years before any outside partner- Why COVID created a surge in demand for the brand- Partnering with Centric Brands to scale manufacturing and wholesale- How she approaches getting jewelry onto celebrities- Hashimoto's, inflammation, and rethinking how she eats- Where the name Maedyn came from, and what it is now- What rising gold prices and tariffs mean for a jewelry business- Her husband coming in to run the company- How her family, and the tumor, still shape what drives herJennifer also explains why the biggest decisions in her career came from listening to herself rather than the people telling her to go another way, and why she kept going through the stretches when nothing went to plan.Whether you're an entrepreneur, founder, creative, or someone interested in fashion, branding, health, or building a consumer business, this conversation offers a close look at the decisions behind Jennifer Fisher Jewelry and the woman who built it.Follow Jennifer Fisher:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferfisherjewelryLearn More About Jennifer Fisher Jewelry:Website: https://jenniferfisherjewelry.comLearn More About Maedyn:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maedynGet Jennifer's Book:Trust Your GutFollow Kyle Matthews CEO:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylematthewsceoTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kylematthewsceoX: https://x.com/kylematthewsceoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylematthewsceo00:00 Rihanna Walks In01:01 Meet Jennifer Fisher02:35 A Day in the Life03:57 Remote Work vs the Office11:24 Work Ethic From Family14:10 Money Loss and Anxiety as Fuel18:13 Living With a Desmoid Tumor21:46 The Jewelry Origin Story24:24 Queen of Hoops25:59 The Anti-Inflammatory Shift28:10 Styling Career and Hustle30:53 Founder Mom Tradeoffs35:32 Raising Hardworking Kids38:35 Always-On Sacrifices40:36 Bootstrapping, Then Partners42:19 The COVID Demand Surge44:58 Scaling With Systems48:15 The Celebrity Seeding Strategy51:04 Trusting Her Gut53:45 New Lines and Menswear54:13 The Maedyn Origin Story58:03 Adversity and Mindset01:01:00 Advice for Starting Out01:02:09 Being a Female Founder01:04:45 Mentorship and Giving Back01:08:50 Defining Success01:10:07 The Nicest Thing Anyone Did01:11:00 Praise From Anna Wintour01:12:40 Fashion Favorites01:13:56 Her Husband as CEO01:16:11 The Rihanna Amex Story01:18:13 Gold Prices and Tariffs01:21:09 Trends and Lab Diamonds01:23:32 The Long-Term Vision01:27:16 Family, Motivation, Perspective01:30:50 Closing Thoughts

Axel sits down with longtime friend and fellow New Hampshire investor Jeff Duchesne — who, alongside his business partner, has bootstrapped a self-managed, ~198-unit portfolio concentrated almost entirely in Manchester, NH, without ever raising outside capital.This episode is essential listening for any investor curious what it actually looks like to build a serious portfolio with just two partners, zero investors, and a deliberate refusal to sell — and why staying hyper-local for a decade can become its own competitive edge.Join us as we dive into:How Jeff and his partner bought their first Manchester three-family with an FHA loan, built an extra bedroom in the parlor, and brought in roommates from Craigslist to live for free.Why they consciously chose to concentrate almost all 198 units within a 5-to-10-minute drive in Manchester, NH, rather than expanding across the state.The transition from small 3-unit rehab loans to their pivotal 8-unit deal on Bridge Street that unlocked scaled growth.Why Jeff's group has held onto their portfolio without selling, maintaining a 54% loan-to-value (LTV) across the portfolio, and using lines of credit for acquisitions instead of cash-out refis.How Jeff kept his W-2 job while building a 100+ unit portfolio and leveraged his employer's banking relationships to finance his own early deals.The reality of in-house property management: running 198 units with a lean team consisting of a couple of maintenance guys and Jeff's sister handling tenant calls.Jeff's specific buy box: targeting Manchester properties with larger bedroom counts (2s, 3s, and 4s), off-street parking, and separate utilities.How prioritizing tenant retention and low turnover over aggressive, peak-market rent increases drives higher long-term cash flow.Connect with Jeff Duchesne:Contact: 603-819-3183Follow him on InstagramConnect with him on Linkedin Are you looking to invest in real estate, but don't want to deal with the hassle of finding great deals, signing on debt, and managing tenants? Aligned Real Estate Partners provides investment opportunities to passive investors looking for the returns, stability, and tax benefits multifamily real estate offers, but without the work - join our investor club to be notified of future investment opportunities.Connect with Axel:Follow him on InstagramConnect with him on LinkedinSubscribe to our YouTube channelLearn more about Aligned Real Estate Partners

Self-funded by beauty creator Desi Perkins, eyewear label DEZI launched with a $2.5 million sell-out day, transforming years of saved brand-deal income into an independent luxury brand. After overcoming early inventory bottlenecks and product setbacks, the company scaled beyond its initial viral launch to reach more than $3.6 million on its first restock. Today, DEZI continues to grow through strategic collaborations, building an autonomous brand designed to outlive its founder's personal fame. For more on DEZI, in show notes, click here. Subscribe and watch Shopify Masters on YouTube!Sign up for your FREE Shopify Trial here.

Thomas Mella, Co-Founder at TrackFlo, and Rich Joseph, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder at TrackFlo, joined Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski and Reed Loustalot on the FreightCaviar Podcast to discuss how TrackFlo helped one brokerage cut track-and-trace headcount by more than half while improving service, what acquisitions like Descartes/Tai reveal about the value behind freight-tech M&A, and why distribution matters in an AI-driven software market.This week's episode is sponsored by Epay Manager, FreightFlex, Goodship, and Highway.Interested in sponsoring our podcast? Send us an email at pbj@freightcaviar.comCHAPTERS:0:00 Intro0:42 Meet Thomas Smella and Rich Joseph1:51 Why Freight Tech Companies Sell for $100M5:59 The $100M Freight Tech Playbook9:05 Why TrackFlo Focuses on One Problem11:56 What TrackFlo Actually Does15:28 How TrackFlo Started16:40 From TrackFlo Customer to Executive18:05 Cutting Track & Trace Staff by 50%+23:09 Bootstrapping a Freight Tech Company25:38 The Anti-SaaS Playbook27:47 Can You Vibe Code a TMS?33:53 The Future of Freight SaaS35:31 Why Expertise Still Matters in the AI Era38:18 How VC Funding Changes the Incentives40:56 The Tradeoffs of Raising Capital45:00 How Far Will AI Really Go in Freight?48:03 Could Freight Brokers Be Displaced?51:39 The LinkedIn Debate57:08 Should a SaaS CEO Build a Personal Brand?1:07:42 Final Thoughts

Il y a dix ans, Natalie Hanczewski cofonde NV Gallery, avec l'ambition de proposer du mobilier design en direct-to-consumer.Dès sa première année, l'entreprise réalise 1,3 million d'euros de chiffre d'affaires en étant rentable, avant de connaître des années atteignant jusqu'à 500 % de croissance.Dans cette première partie de notre conversation, Natalie revient très concrètement sur la manière dont elle a construit NV Gallery, avec une conviction : mettre son produit sur le marché rapidement plutôt que commencer par bâtir un business plan à cinq ans.Nous parlons du 0 to 1, de ses premières erreurs, mais aussi de cette discipline du bootstrapping qu'elle considère essentielle à la pérennité d'une entreprise, quelle que soit sa croissance.Et lorsque vient le moment de changer d'échelle, d'une autre question essentielle : comment choisir la bonne manière de financer sa croissance ? Natalie partage son expérience de la levée de fonds, ce que l'entrée d'un investisseur change dans les équilibres de l'entreprise et pourquoi, lorsqu'on en a la possibilité, la dette peut parfois être préférable à l'equity pour conserver sa liberté.Un épisode passionnant sur ce que dix années d'entrepreneuriat lui ont appris de la construction et de la croissance d'une entreprise.La semaine prochaine, nous parlerons de ce que ces dix années d'entrepreneuriat lui ont aussi demandé plus personnellement.Bonne écoute !Pour participer aux événements BWP, rdv sur businesswomeninparis.com, @businesswomeninparis et inscrivez-vous à la newsletter.Titre : Not KingsAuteur : Candy SaysSource : https://candysays.bandcamp.com/Licence : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.frTéléchargement : https://auboutdufil.com/?id=561Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

In this episode of Strap On Your Boots, I explore why I've become increasingly interested in building companies with customers before turning to investors. Drawing from my experience with Instamour, Vengo AI, Campus Pixel, Spinnr, Axopods, Ortempo, and even my documentary Before the Moon, I look at how much cheaper and faster it has become to launch something today. Bootstrapping isn't about avoiding investors at all costs. It's about building the product, finding customers, generating revenue, and removing as much risk as possible before deciding whether outside capital can actually accelerate the business.

Summary: Steve Rolle, an entrepreneur and e-commerce business owner, shares his journey from serving in the military and working in engineering to building a recruiting business and eventually growing an Amazon business to more than $70 million in revenue. He discusses how his first business taught him the importance of having a repeatable customer acquisition process and why simply having a good product or service is not enough to build a scalable company. Steve explains how he built systems, hired and trained employees, and eventually stepped away from the day-to-day operations of his business. He also shares lessons from business failures, including losing hundreds of thousands of dollars by investing heavily in a product before proving demand. Steve and Mitch discuss customer validation, pricing, sales, delegation, leadership, hiring, personal branding, and the importance of building a business that can operate without the owner. Steve also talks about his podcast, personal brand, and book, The Future You Choose, and how communication and content creation can help entrepreneurs build credibility and long-term opportunities. Keywords: entrepreneurship, e-commerce, Amazon business, business development, customer acquisition, scaling a business, business systems, delegation, leadership, hiring, customer validation, pricing strategy, sales, personal branding, content creation, business failure, bootstrapping, recurring revenue, passive income, small business, business growth, Steve Rolle Takeaways Steve Rolle grew an Amazon business to more than $70 million in revenue by building a repeatable business model and strong operational systems. A good product or service is not enough. Entrepreneurs need a reliable way to consistently acquire customers. Before investing heavily in a business idea, validate that real customers are willing to pay for it. Starting small can help entrepreneurs identify mistakes before they become expensive problems. Business owners should understand who has the problem, what customers will pay, where those customers can be found, and how to acquire them. Competing only on price can make it difficult to maintain healthy margins, hire good people, and continue growing. Delegation is essential for creating a business that does not depend entirely on the owner. Owners often need to do more work in the beginning so they can document processes and eventually train others to take over. Hiring people does not replace the need for the founder to figure out the business model first. Strong leadership and finding people who are naturally motivated by their work can make a major difference. Business failures can provide valuable lessons when entrepreneurs learn from them and avoid repeating the same mistakes. Building a personal brand through content, podcasting, and communication can create new business opportunities. A systems-driven business gives owners more flexibility to keep the company, step away from operations, or eventually sell it. Steve emphasizes perseverance, long-term thinking, and building relationships with people you would want to work with for years. Titles Why Most Business Owners Never Escape the Business They Built The Business Model Mistake That Keeps Owners Stuck How to Build a Business That Runs Without You Why Customer Validation Matters Before You Invest From Side Hustle to a $70M Amazon Business Sound Bites "You have to figure out the repeatable business model." "If you don't have a repeatable system, you own a job." "People aren't going to pay you for your idea." "You have to validate that somebody is willing to give you money." "To do less, you have to do more first." "If you're competing on price, it's really hard to scale." "You don't want to be the employee of the business that you own." "You have to build the bridge from where you are to where you want to go." Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 03:20 Military and Engineering Career 07:10 Starting a Recruiting Business 12:20 Lessons From the First Business 16:30 Building an Amazon Side Hustle 21:40 Growing to a $70M Business 25:30 Building Systems and Delegating 30:00 Finding the Right People 34:00 How to Test a Business Idea 38:10 Customer Validation and Market Research 42:20 Learning From Business Failures 46:10 Bootstrapping and Raising Capital 50:00 Pricing, Margins, and Customer Acquisition 54:30 Sales and Business Development 58:20 Building a Personal Brand 01:02:00 Content Creation and Communication 01:06:00 Creating a Business That Runs Without You 01:10:00 Holding vs. Selling a Business 01:14:00 Long-Term Partnerships and Future Plans 01:17:00 The Future You Choose 01:20:00 Advice for Entrepreneurs 01:22:00 Closing and Contact Information

Ein Restaurant am Dienstagabend, halb leer. Die meisten Gäste denken: schön ruhig heute. Malte Herbst dachte: das ist entgangener Umsatz. Aus diesem Abend ist HiddenTable geworden: Eine App, die kurzfristig freie Plätze in gehobenen Restaurants als fertig kuratiertes Menü vermittelt. Anderthalb Jahre hat der gelernte Bankkaufmann das Unternehmen komplett aus eigenen Mitteln aufgebaut, mittlerweile hat es knapp über 80.000 Nutzer und mehr als 15.000 vermittelte Gäste in fünf Städten. Jetzt sucht er 1,5 Millionen Euro. Im Gespräch mit Christoph Fröhlich erklärt Herbst, warum jeder zusätzlich vermittelte Gast für den Gastronomen fast reiner Gewinn ist, weshalb er konsequent auf Rabattcodes verzichtet und wie es sich anfühlt, Kapital für ein Food-Startup zu suchen, während der Markt fast nur über KI spricht. Außerdem: der Business-Angel-Deal, den er kurz vor dem Notartermin hat platzen lassen. Der teuerste Gründerfehler, den er sich je geleistet hat. Und die Frage, ob er morgen verkaufen würde. Eine Folge über Deckungsbeiträge, Plattformökonomie und eine Branche, die Herbst selbst „angeknackst" nennt.

Should you sell your business, or build it to own forever? Ankur Nagpal sold Teachable for $250 million and Carry for $76 million. I bootstrapped Kit and turned down a $200 million acquisition offer from Spotify. We took very different paths as founders.I sat down with Ankur to break down why we made those choices and how they've played out. We get into the key considerations for selling a company vs. building it to own forever, why raising venture capital can quietly trap founders into a specific kind of business, and the hiring and go-to-market tactics Ankur used to build two companies from scratch.Ankur also shares how founders can use the QSBS tax break to keep millions more from an exit.If you've ever thought about selling your business, or you're trying to decide whether to bootstrap or raise venture capital, this is the episode to listen to before you make that call.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction01:37 Teachable's Story03:39 Why Ankur Sold Teachable04:47 Nathan's Approach to Building07:16 Building to Sell vs. Building to Keep08:34 Carry's Story09:30 Understanding QSBS Tax Benefits16:06 Being Bought vs. Having to Sell16:40 Why Raise Capital for Carry?18:25 Bootstrapping vs. VC22:54 Lessons for Second-Time Founders26:10 Ankur's Next Chapter: USVC28:36 Recruiting Great Talent32:24 Our Contrarian Beliefs34:50 Go-to-Market Strategies39:18 Ankur's AI Content Strategy46:25 Staying Focused48:58 Content Workflows59:16 Product Market Fit Evolution01:02:08 Closing ThoughtsIf you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review. I read every single one.Learn more about the podcast: https://nathanbarry.com/showFollow Nathan:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanbarryLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarryX: https://twitter.com/nathanbarryYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thenathanbarryshowWebsite: https://nathanbarry.comKit: https://kit.comFollow Ankur:X: https://twitter.com/ankurnagpalLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankurnagpalInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ankurnaFeatured in this episode:Teachable: https://teachable.comCarry: https://carry.comHighlights:03:00 The Perfect Exit?10:40 QSBS Tax Benefits For Founders18:30 Bootstrapped vs. VC: Which is Higher Status?23:20 Product Market Fit for Second-Time Founders32:20 Our Contrarian Beliefs

How do you decide whether to go all-in on your SaaS or hedge your bets with side income?"If you're not full-time on MetaMonster, no one is full-time on MetaMonster."In this episode of Small Effort (Season 4, Episode 16), Sean and Andrew get into the career fork Andrew is actually standing at: stay all-in on MetaMonster or carve out two days a week for side income. They cover the 2-year growth model Andrew built with Claude, why part-time founders quietly stall, the box-rental business a Las Vegas regulation accidentally created, and why four months of burn is really a $20K bet on the business.Links:Andrew's Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/MetaMonster: https://metamonster.ai/Slackletter: https://slackletter.com/Sean's Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/Margins: http://margins.so/Sean's website: https://seanqsun.com/For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/

We catch up with Carson, the founder of Jahpoo, on how a frustrating start in public land duck hunting turned into a motion duck decoy company built through trial, error, and pure persistence. We dig into the real work behind product development, why “process” matters more than hype, and how hunters' expectations shape what sells. • Miller Lite vs Busch Light culture and why marketing sticks • The “Busch Latte” story and teal color coincidences • Carson's path into duck hunting through his Lab and early struggles • How Jopu got its name from a Grinch misheard joke • Social media highlight reels and realistic expectations for new hunters • The true costs and barriers to entry in duck hunting • Why product development never goes to plan and what delays really look like • Expanding decoy species, paint schemes, packaging, and QC realities • Bootstrapping the business, career pivots, and fundraising lessons • Backyard manufacturing chaos and the mural artist warehouse solution • Decoy detail debates and the truth about “selling to the hunter” • Where to find Jahpoo online and how to reach out Want to Duck Hunt in Arkansas? Call Kade at Delta Thunder Outfitters at 870-926-7944 DM One Hell of Life podcast on Instagram or TikTok to enter the monthly listener drawingCall or text 850-251-8650 or visit www.floridaducks.com to book your trip, Williamson OutfittersUse code ONEHELLOFALIFEOUTDOORS for 15 percent off your order @ www.froggtoggs.comDirty Duck Coffee: use code onehellofalife15 for 15% offFollow us on instagram! https://www.instagram.com/onehellofalifepodcast/?hl=en

Discover how Cozy Earth built a $100M bedding empire through organic channels, Oprah's endorsement, and a bootstrapped growth model. For more on Cozy Earth, in show notes, click here. Subscribe and watch Shopify Masters on YouTube!Sign up for your FREE Shopify Trial here.

Getting press rarely starts with a pitch. For Irene Chen, co-founder of Parker Thatch, it started years earlier with relationships she built long before she had a bag to sell.On this episode of Dear FoundHer, host Lindsay Pinchuk talks with Irene Chen about turning a stationery line called Iomoi into Parker Thatch, a founder story rooted in scrappy beginnings. Irene shares how she cut her first pattern with the woman who hemmed her pants and bought canvas at Joann's with a 50% off coupon.Bootstrapping forced Irene and her husband to figure out bag production from the ground up, despite Irene's background in fashion and finance. She also explains how her friendship with Kate and Andy Spade helped shape two major turning points for the company, with Kate encouraging the move into leather and Kate and Andy pushing them to rethink the Iomoi name.Getting press came easier once those relationships were already in place. Earned media and word of mouth remain one of her biggest drivers of growth today, proof that building relationships in business and networking for women pay off years later. Publicity followed the story, not the other way around. Listen to hear how one friendship changed the direction of an entire company.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Meet Irene Chen, Co-Founder of Parker Thatch02:30 The Original Idea: E-Stationery Before the Web05:15 From Paper Goods to Home Products07:00 Cutting the First Bag Pattern at a Dry Cleaner09:30 Sourcing Fabric and Leather on a Shoestring Budget11:00 Getting Press Through Editor Relationships, Not Pitches12:26 How Kate Spade Sparked the Leather Pivot13:03 Renaming the Brand From Iomoi to Parker Thatch17:00 Keeping Customization Alive at Scale26:19 The Friendship With Kate Spade Beyond Business39:50 Three Pieces of Advice for New FoundersConnect with Irene Chen: Follow Parker Thatch on Instagram Follow Dear FoundHer on InstagramJoin the Dear FoundHer... ForumPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we talk about harnesses, agents, orchestration layers, and other terms that mostly mean the same thing.

Most companies waste their entire swag budget without ever seeing a return, and Ross Greenstein has the data to prove it. Ross, founder of a swag platform built for scaling businesses, reveals that 99% of swag is given away rather than sold, and even major brands like ESPN have tried and failed to turn branded merchandise into a real revenue stream. You will learn why rewarding your top 2% of customers with swag store credits is far more effective than expecting people to open their wallets for branded gear, and how smart companies are connecting their swag stores directly to CRM and HR systems to automate gifting at every key touchpoint. If you have ever wondered whether your company swag is actually doing anything, this episode will completely change how you think about it.------------------------------------

Janan Knust @jananknust es un emprendedor chileno, fundador y CEO de KLog, una de las empresas de logística y tecnología más importantes de Latinoamérica. Pero su camino hasta ahí ha sido todo menos lineal: quiso ser futbolista profesional, lavó platos en Suiza, trabajó en hoteles de lujo alrededor del mundo, organizó fiestas en París, administró la vida de un multimillonario ruso, vendió pollos y perdió cientos de miles de dólares antes de encontrar el negocio que cambiaría su vida. En esta conversación hablamos de síndrome del impostor, de aprender a leer a las personas, de foco y de las oportunidades que pueden convertirse en distracciones; de lo que significa empezar de cero a los 30, de perder, pedir ayuda y doblar el fierro cuando las cosas no salen como esperabas. También hablamos de dinero, generosidad, incomodidad y de por qué, después de construir una empresa enorme sin levantar capital, Janan sigue preguntándose qué significa realmente tener éxito.Por favor ayúdame y sigue Cracks Podcast en YouTube aquí."Hay que sufrir para construir excelencia. La excelencia viene cuando uno no toma shortcuts."-  Janan KnustComparte esta frase en TwitterEste episodio es presentado por LegaLario la empresa de tecnología legal que ayuda a reducir costos y tiempos de gestión hasta un 80% Hospital Angeles Health System que cuenta con  el programa de cirugía robótica más robusto en el sector privado en México.Qué puedes aprender hoyCómo encontrar tu porqué antes de que el dinero decida por ti.Cómo convertir la generosidad en el motor de tu empresa sin que sea caridad ni marketing.Cómo construir un moat que ningún competidor con dinero infinito te pueda copiar.Cómo recuperar la confianza de un socio al que le debes mucho dinero sin perder la relación.Cómo vivir con síndrome del impostor sin que te frene ni te infle.*Este episodio es presentado por LegaLario.Si llevas tiempo escuchando Cracks, ya conoces a LegaLario. La plataforma que ayuda a tu empresa a firmar contratos, validar identidades y manejar documentos.Siguen haciendo eso, pero mejor.Hoy automatiza todo el proceso: onboarding, compliance, validación de identidad, gestión documental, extracción de datos, cotejos y validaciones con AI y firma electrónica, y ahora con agentes de inteligencia artificial integrados directo a tu operación que puedan interactuar de forma segura con más de 150 microservicios alrededor de documentos, validaciones, compliance e identidad digital.Para que tu empresa no solo sea más digital — sino más inteligente.Cientos de empresas en México ya están ahorrando hasta un 80% en tiempos de gestión. La pregunta es cuándo vas a ser tú.Entra aquí y empieza hoy.*Este episodio es presentado por Hospital Angeles Health SystemLos avances en cirugía robótica permiten intervenciones con menos sangrado, menos dolor, cicatrices más pequeñas y una recuperación más rápida.Hospital Angeles Health System tiene el programa de cirugía robótica más robusto en el sector privado en México. Cuenta con 13 robots DaVinci, el más avanzado del mundo y con el mayor número de médicos certificados en cirugía robótica ya que tiene el único centro de capacitación de cirugía robótica en el país.Este es el futuro de la cirugía. Si quieres conocer más sobre el programa de cirugía robótica de Hospital Angeles Health System y ver el directorio de doctores visita cracks.la/angelesDime qué piensas del episodio. Ve el episodio en Youtube

Dr. Jenn Simmons talks with Dr. Robin Berzin about her path from an unexpected pre-med background to conventional medical training, then into functional medicine and entrepreneurship. The conversation covers the roots of Robin's interest in prevention, her early exposure to health and nutrition, and how she built Parsley Health into a national, insurance-covered practice.In this episode, they discuss why functional medicine can work alongside conventional care, how to think about root causes instead of symptom suppression alone, and what it takes to scale a health care company without losing clinical rigor. Robin also shares the realities of fundraising, leadership, and protecting her own health while building a company and raising three kids.Key topicsDr. Robin Berzin's origin story, from international relations and economics to medicineHow a college thesis on hormone-treated beef helped shape her interest in public health, nutrition, and cancer riskWhy she did not initially see herself as a science person, and how she later reframed medicine as pattern recognition and synthesisThe role of her father's internal medicine background, and why she still did not assume medicine was her pathHow yoga, meditation, organic food, and personal health experiences deepened her interest in prevention and whole-person careWhat functional medicine means in practice: using the same medical tools, but focusing on root causes, personalization, and preventionWhy Robin saw a need to standardize and scale functional medicine through Parsley HealthThe tension between conventional medicine and alternative medicine, and why she rejects all-or-nothing thinkingExamples of root-cause thinking, including recurrent UTIs, migraines, autoimmune disease, infertility, and chronic fatigueThe challenge of building trust with insurers through outcomes data, cost savings, and reduced utilizationWhat it took to raise capital as a female founder with no MBA and no prior business backgroundHow leadership changed as Parsley grew from a small team to a 120-person companyThe importance of listening to patients, not just investors or skeptics, when making company decisionsHow Robin maintains her own health with sleep, supplements, meditation, food choices, exercise, and self-monitoringHer hope that evidence-based functional medicine becomes part of standard primary careTimestamps00:00 - Why Dr. Robin Berzin stands out in functional medicine 01:22 - The unexpected path from undergrad to medicine 02:26 - A thesis on hormone-treated beef and public health 04:35 - Early exposure to cancer prevention and health research 06:12 - Having a doctor father, but not seeing medicine as an obvious path 07:01 - Why medicine is more about synthesis than equations 09:22 - Strengths that matter in clinical practice 10:56 - From conventional med school to a functional medicine career 12:40 - What functional medicine actually means 14:14 - Yoga, food, and becoming more aware of health 16:18 - Research, ADHD trials, and early clues about her own ADHD 18:12 - Early exposure to Mark Hyman and Dr. Oz 20:31 - Why Parsley Health was built to fix access and consistency problems 21:24 - Real outcomes from functional medicine care 22:33 - Why medicine should use both conventional and functional tools 23:47 - Root-cause care for UTIs and migraines 25:09 - Functional medicine versus paint-by-numbers primary care 26:04 - Making functional medicine accessible through a national platform 27:24 - The courage required to build a company while practicing medicine 28:29 - Trial, error, and the first steps as a founder 31:20 - Bootstrapping the first version of Parsley 33:28 - Building a patient base and hiring the first team 34:32 - Raising a first round as a female founder 36:11 - The fear and pressure of taking investor money 37:30 - Learning fundraising with help from other women in venture 38:26 - Why fundraising never really ends 39:23 - How investor relationships changed as Parsley grew 41:28 - Why medicine did not prepare her for executive leadership 42:16 - The hardest lessons in hiring and management 44:15 - When investor priorities pushed the company off course 46:17 - Choosing company survival while staying true to the mission 47:45 - Parsley's broader mission and why health care costs are unsustainable 49:34 - Why functional medicine should become standard primary care 50:01 - Using outcomes data to win over insurers 52:25 - Why people assumed Parsley was only for the “worried well” 53:29 - How the medical community has responded over time 54:20 - The rise of longevity medicine and ongoing skepticism 56:52 - Dark nights of the soul during fundraising and board conflict 59:51 - How Robin protects her own mental and physical health 62:52 - Sleep, data, and the reality of life as a busy founder 64:03 - Travel routines, intermittent fasting, and skincare 65:53 - What she hopes medicine will look like when her career is done 68:17 - Why impact is fastest when you stay in your lane 70:18 - Food dyes, public health priorities, and respecting different missions 73:16 - Curiosity, skepticism, and keeping the lamps lit 74:24 - What Parsley Health offers now and how to work with the teamConnect with Dr Robin Berzin & Parsley Health:Website: https://www.parsleyhealth.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinberzinmd/To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-callTo get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuideConnect with Dr. Jenn:Website:  https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmonsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

Andrew and Rhen are back to launch a new series on the six stages of building a development office. Their framework breaks down fundraising growth into six phases, and it gives development professionals a way to pinpoint exactly where their organization stands - and what it takes to reach the next level.This week, Andrew and Rhen chat about stage 1, the Creation (or Bootstrapping) Phase, and they're speaking specifically to organizations just getting started in fundraising. They dig into what these organizations need to nail down before they can even think about building a sustainable program. At this stage, it's all about data collection and calendars. Andrew flags the activities you can safely ignore for now, and he introduces Petrus's BOAT program as a practical next step for organizations at this level.Next week, we move from the survival mode of stage 1 into the systems and repetition of stage 2. Throughout this series, Andrew and Rhen will help you see exactly where your fundraising program is headed, and they'll highlight what it takes to get there at each step along the way.  

Tamara Laine — Emmy-winning investigative journalist turned fintech founder — joins Jeff Mains to unpack how she built Empower, the first policy-bound agentic infrastructure for lending. Tamara explains how she pivoted from chasing a "better credit score" to building an orchestration layer that helps banks underwrite the new economy (gig workers, creators, non-traditional borrowers) responsibly. The conversation covers why storytelling and grit from her journalism career still drive her as a founder, why tool overload is quietly killing SaaS stacks, how she built an all-star team while bootstrapped, why EQ and critical thinking matter more than ever in the AI era, and what it really takes to build in a highly regulated, high-stakes industry.Key Takeaways4:47 — The through-line of her career: curiosity and a compulsion to solve hard problems.5:32 — What journalism taught her: storytelling, grit, and reframing failure as a tool, not an ending.8:50 — Realizing gig-worker lending was "a data and orchestration problem," not a missing product.9:52 — Why Empower exists: better tools AND better orchestration, not just another scoring model.19:17 — 30 disconnected AI tools don't equal good decisions — orchestration is the differentiator.21:19 — Why she won't outsource her CRM or accounting to a DIY Claude/OpenAI build — maintenance and security are the hidden cost.24:01 — Bootstrapping forced revenue-first thinking, shifting focus from "what's cool" to "what customers will pay for."25:04 — The pivot story: customers rejected "another score," which led directly to the agentic orchestration layer.29:45 — How she recruited her Chief Product Officer through an AI networking bot called Boardy.33:53 — The founder question almost nobody asks: "Is my AI inheriting my team's blind spots and bias?"37:27 — Scaling across the US, UK, EU, Africa, and Brazil simultaneously with a lean team.40:11 — Why EQ, not technical skill, will be the top hiring priority of the next two years.42:35 — The AI-legal-review story that ended with "I'm getting a lawyer."44:48 — Her coffee-shop advice to founders in the "unglamorous middle": get buttoned up legally, now.Tweetable Quotes"In order to get people's attention, you have to be able to tell a good story." — Tamara Laine"Failure is not the end. Failure is... an arrow in your journey." — Tamara Laine"Having a lot of tools does not solve a problem. How do you use those tools?" — Tamara Laine"We don't want another score." — the customer feedback that changed Empower's entire direction"If you don't have a strong network, it's very hard to get anything done." — Tamara Laine"AI is only as good as the people who are leveraging it to be able to think critically about what gaps the AI has." — Tamara Laine"If your customer tells you that they don't want another tool, believe them. Don't just pitch harder. Listen harder." — Jeff MainsSaaS Leadership LessonsRevenue-first beats idea-first. Constraints from bootstrapping forced Tamara's team to build for what customers would pay for, not what founders thought was cool.Orchestration is the real moat. A pile of point solutions doesn't create value — the layer that connects and interprets them does.Diversity isn't optional in AI products. Teams that build in a bubble bake bias into the product; diverse teams catch what homogenous ones miss.EQ is becoming the top hire criterion. As AI handles more execution, the ability to read people, think critically, and lead becomes the scarce skill.Don't build what someone already does best. Avoid DIY-ing your CRM, accounting, or infrastructure on general AI tools — focus your team on your core differentiator.Trust your network over a resume. In an age where anyone can spin up a prototype, warm introductions and demonstrated track record matter more than claims.Guest Resourceshttps://mpwr.moneyhttps://linkedin.com/in/tamaralainehttps://instagram.com/tamaramlainehttps://x.com/tamaramlaineEpisode SponsorThe Futureproof Series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfkXKUPZ5xuOqMPR7_gzGybncTtavyR1NThe Captain's KeysSmall Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel'Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/https://jeffmains.com/books/SaaS Fuel ResourcesWebsite - https://championleadership.com/Jeff Mains on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkmains/Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffkmainsFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/thesaasguy/Instagram - https://instagram.com/jeffkmains

Jon Mest is a data scientist turned entrepreneur, CEO of both ChatRank and Just Reach Out, and a builder focused on helping companies get discovered in an AI-first world. After early roles in Wall Street and data analytics, Jon learned how enterprises buy, how to turn customer problems into products, and why bootstrapping can create more ownership and long-term flexibility. Today, he helps brands improve their visibility across AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI while earning the third-party credibility that drives both rankings and revenue. On this episode we talk about: How Jon went from umpiring youth baseball games to Wall Street, enterprise data, sales, and entrepreneurship The sales lessons hidden inside customer data—and why the best product does not always win the deal Why Jon prefers bootstrapping businesses instead of relying on venture capital How ChatRank helps businesses understand and improve their visibility in AI-driven search results Why AI referrals can convert at a higher rate than traditional website traffic The growing connection between digital PR, external brand mentions, trust, and AI search visibility How businesses can become clearer and more authentic rather than trying to “hack” AI platforms Top 3 Takeaways Solve the customer's real problem—not the problem you assume they have. Even a product that can save a company millions will not sell if it creates political risk, conflicts with company culture, or fails to make the buyer look good internally. Bootstrapping creates pressure to build a sustainable business from day one. When revenue, customer retention, and product quality directly determine whether the company survives, founders often develop sharper sales discipline and retain more ownership at exit. AI search rewards clarity, proof, and brand credibility. Rather than hunting for temporary loopholes, businesses should clearly communicate what they do best, publish useful supporting content, and earn credible third-party mentions that validate their positioning. Notable Quotes “Are you solving a real pain of theirs? Are you giving them something they don't have that they actually need?” “When you're selling something, you have to be realistic and thoughtful about what is the other person on the other side of the room thinking in that moment and how are you going to make their life better.” “You can't cheat the system here… What you can do is be really intentional about your brand.” Connect with Jon Mest: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jonathanmest ChatRank: chatrank.ai Just Reach Out: justreachout.io A Word from Our Sponsors: - The most successful business owners don't do it all themselves — they delegate. Upwork lets you build a team of highly skilled specialists for every function your business needs, so you can focus on what you do best and let experts handle the rest. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free! - Go to Leesa.com for 30% OFF select mattresses (through September 13, 2026) PLUS get an extra $50 off with promo code TMM, exclusive for my listeners Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#1066 What does it really take to grow a product business when every sale depends on inventory, cash flow, and relationships you can't afford to lose? In Part 2 of this two-part episode, host Britlyn Williams continues her conversation with Peter Andrews, founder of Culture Wine Co., to dig into the operational side of building and scaling his South African wine business. Peter explains why wholesale requires volume, how he manages three-month import lead times while growing more than 100% year over year, and why filling an entire shipping container can dramatically reduce his per-bottle import costs. He also shares why he chose loans over venture capital, how paying his winemakers upfront helped establish trust, and why clean data and streamlined systems have been priorities from day one. Plus, Peter reveals how he's building AI agents to handle prospecting and account follow-up, why Culture Wine Co. is intentionally focused on slow, sustainable growth, and the one thing he believes entrepreneurs need if they want to stick with a business for the long haul: deep, lasting passion for what they're building! What we discuss with Peter: + Finding your customers + Scaling through wholesale + Managing inventory and imports + Growing 100% year over year + Bootstrapping with business loans + Building trust with suppliers + Prioritizing clean data and systems + Using AI to automate prospecting + Choosing sustainable, organic growth + Building around genuine passion Thank you, Peter! Check out Culture Wine Co. at ⁠CultureWineCo.com⁠. Follow Peter on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠LinkedIn⁠. Get your FREE 5 Minute Business Plan at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/Sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#1065 What if the biggest opportunity in a crowded industry is hiding in a category most people are overlooking? In Part 1 of this two-part episode, host Britlyn Williams sits down with Peter Andrews, founder of Culture Wine Co., to unpack how a trip to South Africa reignited his passion for wine and inspired him to build a business around the country's new generation of winemakers. Peter shares how he returned home, wrote a business plan in two months, traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to meet with 50 winemakers, and launched Culture Wine Co. with nine producers — despite having no established customer base. He also explains what it means to build an entirely new category, how old-school cold calling and face-to-face relationships helped him grow from zero to more than 200 accounts, and why focusing on trust, collaboration, and an underserved story has helped him build an 80% wholesale reorder rate while bootstrapping the company to profitability! What we discuss with Peter: + Discovering South African wine + Finding an underserved category + Meeting 50 winemakers + Launching with nine producers + Building a category from scratch + Cold calling and relationship-building + Growing to 200+ accounts + Creating an 80% reorder rate + Bootstrapping to profitability + Expanding wholesale and DTC Thank you, Peter! Check out Culture Wine Co. at CultureWineCo.com. Follow Peter on Instagram and LinkedIn. Get your FREE 5 Minute Business Plan at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/Sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Benedicte and Ola tie the knot. Benedikt and Jane will be going on the Smart Bear Live podcast.Benedicte and Ola had a beautiful ceremony in their neighborhood two weeks ago. She also came back from a quick trip to London to go to a festival with her childhood friend. On the work front, Benedicte did a major lift on Whee!'s communication channels.Benedikt just came back from vacation and implemented OAuth2 CIMD in between calls. He also shared that he and Jane will be on Jason Cohen's Smart Bear Live podcast, hoping to get fresh perspectives on the business.

Offline-Stores, TikTok Shop, KI-Content und Community-Building: Der E-Commerce fordert D2C-Marken immer wieder neu heraus. In dieser Folge spricht Karo mit Alisa Jahnke, Mitgründerin und CEO der Schmuckmarke Purelei, über den Weg von der ersten 500-Euro-Investition zu einem E-Commerce-Unternehmen mit knapp 70 Millionen Euro Jahresumsatz. Wie hat Purelei den Wandel von reinem Social-Media-Marketing hin zu eigenen Offline-Stores in München, Köln und Palma gemeistert? Welche Rolle spielen die eigene App und das etablierte Subscription-Modell für die langfristige Kundenbindung? Und warum sorgte die erste Live-Shopping-Session auf TikTok Shop bei Purelei für Ernüchterung? Alisa teilt außerdem ihre praktischen Erfahrungen mit KI in der Content-Produktion, verrät die Internationalisierungspläne für die kommenden Jahre und erklärt, warum der direkte Kontakt zur Community und ein strategischer Markenaufbau für Purelei unverzichtbar bleiben. Das Gespräch im Überblick: (1:30) 10 Jahre Purelei: Von 500 Euro zu 70 Mio. Umsatz (9:58) Vom Social-Media-Marketing zum eigenen Offline-Store (18:46) App, Loyalty-Programm & Subscription-Modell (28:57) Ernüchterung beim TikTok Live-Shopping (31:36) KI-Einsatz in der Content-Produktion (36:53) Internationalisierung & Zukunftspläne This podcast uses ad tracking. Learn more via Spotify Ad Analytics terms of service and Podstars privacy policy.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Cayla O'Connell Davis, co-founder and CEO of Subset, the organic cotton underwear brand rethinking what goes into your most-worn layer.Cayla bootstrapped Subset in one of the toughest categories to fund, buying inventory five to six months ahead and launching with just four styles. One of them, the high-rise brief, got written up by Vogue and became a cult favorite that carried the brand out of the gate.She gets into the scrappy, human side of growth: a first-of-its-kind program that takes back and recycles your old underwear, handing out free undies on the streets of New York, Galentine's Day roses with a buyback card, and why she markets an unseen product more like a perfume brand. Along the way she shares hard-won lessons on doing the unscalable things on purpose, and protecting time to stay creative several years in.Tune in for an honest look at building a mission-driven brand through organic cotton, grassroots marketing, and a refusal to grow the easy way!For 20% off Subset, use code READRECEIPT. Chapters:00:00 - Cold open00:36 - What Subset is01:00 - The family-run factory in India03:00 - Bootstrapping an expensive category04:24 - Launching with four styles and the Vogue high-rise brief07:26 - The first 16,000-unit order09:02 - Would she launch with PR today?10:40 - The take-back recycling program13:35 - Recycling as acquisition, then Trashie and SuperCircle16:40 - What's driving new growth now17:30 - Giving away underwear on the streets of New York18:00 - Cotton vs synthetics: the health case22:06 - The "ask me about my underwear" sign28:32 - Galentine's roses and being a fun brand31:30 - World-building for a product you can't see33:33 - Getting flagged as adult content in paid ads34:56 - New-media marketing: just be yourself39:14 - Protecting time to stay creative42:34 - Close

Join the only networking community for women business owners 40+ now through September 3rd with the code SUMMER and save $200 Rachel Berliner built Amy's Kitchen for nearly 40 years without taking on a single outside investor. No outside investors, just a loan against her car, $2,000 from her mother, and a $10,000 bank loan. That is bootstrapping in its truest form, and it turned into a company whose products are sold in 57,000 stores today.On this episode of Dear FoundHer, host Lindsay Pinchuk talks with Rachel Berliner, co-founder of Amy's Kitchen, about what real founder stories look like once the funding rounds are stripped away. Rachel explains the decision-making behind her very first product and why she chose the best ingredients over the cheapest ones, even when it meant slower profit for the company.Rachel also walks through scaling responsibly, from the moment Publix came on board to the years spent building new plants and working with farmers to expand organic production enough to keep up with Amy's growth. She shares how the company approached sustainable business growth without ever taking on outside investors, and why her advice speaks directly to women business owners building at any stage of their journey.Press play to hear how a bootstrapping mindset turned a kitchen experiment into a private company still owned by her family, and the advice Rachel has for any founder who refuses to give up.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Community update and today's guest introduction03:58 Pregnant, bedridden, and craving real food12:30 First trade show and instant customer demand13:07 Losing their production partner and taking production in-house14:18 Bootstrapping the pot pie machine themselves17:55 The Publix meeting that changed everything22:20 Building new plants and scaling with farmers28:03 Letting go and building a leadership team34:10 57,000 stores and Walmart entry37:11 Advice for women founders just starting outConnect with Rachel Berliner:Follow Amy's Kitchen on Instagram Subscribe to The FoundHer Files Follow Dear FoundHer on Instagram Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the point of AI wasn't to make more, but to work less?This is the thing everyone said AI should do that nobody's actually doing. All the capitalists want to use AI to make more money, not work less.In this episode of Small Effort (Season 4, Episode 15), Sean and Andrew dig into the team that used AI to move to a four-day week instead of squeezing out more, and the WordCamp pivot it mirrors: Andrew walking away from SEO autopilot to build content you're actually proud to publish. They cover why platform risk still burns big companies, the four pillars of content that survive after the AI tricks stop working, and why "what stays stable" beats every AEO hack.Links:Andrew's Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/MetaMonster: https://metamonster.ai/Slackletter: https://slackletter.com/Sean's Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/Margins: http://margins.so/Sean's website: https://seanqsun.com/For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/Transcript:00:00.95SeanHello.00:02.69AndrewHello, my friends.00:04.02SeanHow you doing? How was WordCamp?00:04.96AndrewGood. WordCamp was... Fucking awesome. um interesting like This is my first WordCamp ever. WordCamp is definitely in decline.00:14.91Seanah00:17.37AndrewAt least Recamp US is in decline.00:17.52SeanOh. uh-oh00:19.76AndrewDone. ah00:21.27Seanis there Is there other WordCamp? Is that like WordCamp Belgium?00:23.90AndrewThey're all over the world.00:24.30Seanor00:25.14AndrewThere's like WordCamp Europe, my... uh my one of my new friends that i made at the conference is going to word camp manila next week Um... It's ah yeah, they have them all over the world. And I think they're.00:38.38AndrewThey're still bigger. They're actually now bigger overseas than they are in in the US. which is interesting00:45.15SeanThat's it.00:45.09Andrewum we00:46.87SeanSense.00:47.60AndrewYeah.00:47.49SeanIsh. Maybe.00:48.39AndrewYeah.00:48.20SeanI don't know.00:48.90Andrewissue. Um,00:49.85SeanYeah.00:50.63AndrewI think. we're from the the cheesemade that i got from people who our repeat attendees is that WordCamp US has been in decline since something happened two years ago. What what might have happened two years ago? I can't remember.01:06.94AndrewAmen. any Any big drama in the in the WordPress space? that you can remember?01:13.39SeanNo. I block that out.01:15.00Andrewfifty01:15.04SeanFrom my memory. Um, Yeah, there was a, you know, there's... For some reason, a lot of people who are on WordPress. Um, complaining about something.01:25.31SeanAnd it brought us a lot of Webflow customers. so01:27.59AndrewHell yeah. Let's go.01:29.99SeanUm, uh,01:33.65SeanYeah. i'm I'm kind of curious. like like The shockwave that must have been across. I didn't realize there were so many word camps. So I wonder if like...01:45.34SeanWhat happens in all those WordCamps, all the same, like... throughout that entire year that feels01:51.35Andrewno I know.01:51.62SeanYou know?01:52.74Andrewum I mean, I got a little bit from my my friends who've been going for years. Okay.01:57.64Seanahha01:58.98AndrewUh, But. Yeah, like WordCamp US used to be like 2 ,000 to 2 ,500 people. They also they scheduled it in Phoenix in August this year, which I think. a lot of people were like i think that's part of the reason it's not doing well although At the same time, in the back of my head, I was like Black Hat and Def Conner in August every year and fuck tons of people go.02:18.45AndrewUm.02:19.80SeanYeah.02:20.06AndrewSo I don't know that that really impacted it. But yeah, this year was like. I think. one of my friends saw the registered attendee list, and it was 900 people. down from like 2 ,500 a few years ago.02:33.16SeanOh shit. God damn.02:34.28AndrewYeah.02:35.81SeanUm.02:36.57AndrewNot a great sign.02:37.93Seanfor For those not in. the web space. Um, Um,02:46.43AndrewHe's...02:46.39SeanThe... Do you want to, I don't know.02:48.63AndrewI got, I got.02:48.83SeanYou're the expert now, so.02:50.72AndrewSo I got, I'm not an expert, but. All right. So one of the... original co-creators co-founders of wordpress um I got.03:01.61AndrewI got yelled at by a friend, not yelled at, but like I got chastised by a friend for calling him the founder of WordPress. Someone was like. More like the forker of WordPress. um03:10.74SeanHell yeah.03:14.01AndrewUm, Uh, Matt. Mullenweg? Is that his name? um Uh... Anyway. WordPress mat. um a couple years ago went Like, got really... pissy at at a Word can.03:30.22Andrewduring a keynote. Um, at WP Engine, who's like one of the largest WordPress hosts. and a competitor so like it's all complicated because like WordPress is WordPress is...03:45.18Andrewa free open source tool. that is owned by a nonprofit. um and the WordPress trademark is owned by a nonprofit. Matt also owns... automatic which is a for-profit business that offer that owns wordpress .com a for-profit WordPress hosting service um and a bunch of other WordPress tools including WooCommerce and Pressable and some others.04:08.67AndrewUm, and Um, Automatic. has a like perpetual license from WordPress .org, the nonprofit, to use the WordPress trademark.04:20.96AndrewUm, And a couple years ago, he got mad at WP Engine, who's one of their biggest competitors, um who basically built their entire reputation on...04:32.11AndrewHey, your product kind of sucks. We're going to do it better and charge more for it. And people loved them for years and years. Um, I think some people have started to leave WP Engine. I don't know.04:43.08Andrewwhat the state of the things is right now. But like for years and years, people loved WP Engine because they were just like rock solid. Awesome support. And like they charged a premium for it.04:53.56SeanAnd WP Engine also owns... um the custom field the advanced custom fields plugin All right.05:00.36AndrewYes, they own a couple of like very successful WordPress plugins as well. And that got all pissy that they were like, using WP in their name. um that they even though like everyone in the wordpress community uses wp in their name Um,05:16.26AndrewThey were using WP in their name, and he was like, you're not contributing enough to open source. You're not contributing enough to WordPress .org. and05:24.72SeanOpen source. Oh, so the name. What I what i call my wallet.05:28.52AndrewYes.05:29.19Sean...

In this episode of Supply Chain Connections, Manjot Singh, Founder and CEO of SummitEdge, joins Brian Glick to talk about what it actually looks like to walk away from Amazon and build a supply chain tech company without venture capital. The conversation gets into the real trade-offs of staying bootstrapped, how consulting and product work reinforce each other in surprising ways, and how AI is opening up capabilities that simply weren't on the table a few years ago.Key topics discussed include: How the decision to stay away from venture capital and Sand Hill Road shapes the kind of business and customer relationships you can build The real math behind founder control and equity dilution, and why the bootstrapping vs. VC trade-off isn't always what it looks like What changes when you go from managing programs at Amazon's scale to personally reviewing every software spend at a startup The parallel Manjot draws between good consulting and good product leadership, and why having done both changes how he builds How AI and vibe coding have unlocked a project that would have been completely out of reach three years ago What Manjot sees coming for supply chain ERPs, and why customers might start rethinking how much of their platform they actually needAbout the Guest:Manjot Singh is the Founder and CEO of SummitEdge, built on 18+ years in supply chain and logistics that includes senior roles at FedEx and eight years at Amazon, where he led the launch and scaling of programs including Prime Free Same Day and Amazon Extra Large. He started SummitEdge as a bootstrapped consultancy and has since grown it into a product and services company serving freight forwarding and logistics enterprises. His work is focused on helping supply chain businesses remove the process and administrative friction that holds back real operational change.Connect with ManjotDiscover SummitEdgeConnect with BrianFollow Chain.io on LinkedIn

The Adina Reyter brand was founded on the idea that great jewelry brings happiness and joy. Los Angeles native Adina Reyter grew up immersed in fashion, spending time in the warehouse and showroom of her family's knitwear label and developing an early understanding of the industry. After working in advertising, she followed her passion for fine jewelry and launched her namesake brand from her apartment with a simple circle choker that would become the foundation of the collection. That original design established the brand's signature aesthetic: classic, refined, versatile jewelry that feels effortless rather than overly formal. While the collection has expanded and evolved over the years, every piece maintains the clean, timeless sensibility that made the original necklace so distinctive. Adina Reyter's jewelry is designed to be worn every day, built into a collection over time, and connected to the people, milestones, and moments that make life meaningful. The result is a modern fine jewelry brand that balances understated elegance with a deeply personal philosophy, creating pieces meant to last both stylistically and sentimentally. In this episode, Adina also discusses: Bootstrapping the business from day one while working full-time Her big break, from Demi Moore to Jennifer Aniston The Groovy Collection, the brand's signature collection Launching Adina Reyter's first-ever collector's items How fine jewelry is the apex of art, creativity, meaning, and beauty Why jewelry is the ultimate wearable investment Virtual styling and how to see jewelry on yourself before you buy We hope you enjoy this episode and gain valuable insights into Adina's journey and the growth of Adina Reyter. Don't forget to subscribe to the Glam & Grow podcast for more in-depth conversations with the most incredible brands, founders, and more. Be sure to check out Adina Reyter at www.adinareyter.com and on Instagram at @adinareyter Rated #1 Best Beauty Business Podcast on FeedPost This episode is brought to you by Wavebreak Leading direct-to-consumer brands hire Wavebreak to turn email marketing into a top revenue driver. Most eCommerce brands don't email right... and it costs them. At Wavebreak, our eCommerce email marketing agency helps qualified brands recapture 7+ figures of lost revenue each year. From abandoned cart emails to Black Friday campaigns, our best-in-class team manage the entire process: strategy, design, copywriting, coding, and testing. All aimed at driving growth, profit, brand recognition, and most importantly, ROI. Curious if Wavebreak is right for you? Reach out at Wavebreak.co

How to start and grow a small business without investors. Show Notes Page: https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/r361-tyler-king-without-investors/ Bootstrapping a software business without venture capital or angel investors lets you grow on your own terms, and Tyler King, co-founder of Less Annoying CRM, shares how he built a profitable, sustainable SaaS company by staying disciplined, customer-focused, and true to what he actually wanted from the business. Tyler King, co-founder and CEO of Less Annoying CRM, joins the show to share how he bootstrapped a profitable software company. No venture capital, no angel investors, no exit plan, and no rush. He shares what small business owners can learn from building a company on their own terms. For anyone who assumes a software startup requires millions in funding and a race toward an IPO, Tyler's story is a useful counterpoint. He grew a sustainable, profitable SaaS (Software as a Service) business slowly and deliberately, proving that discipline and patience can be advantages rather than limitations. Tyler didn't grow up dreaming of running a business. He was a programmer at a venture-backed startup when the 2008 downturn hit and nearly everyone was laid off. Everyone except the five cheapest employees, which happened to include him. With the bosses gone, he spent a year unofficially playing co-founder, and discovered he loved entrepreneurship. In 2009 he and his brother Bracken started what became Less Annoying CRM. The idea came from real frustration. Tasked with setting up Salesforce at that old job, Tyler (a computer science graduate) spent a month and couldn't make it work. At the time, roughly half of the CRMs companies paid for went unused. So rather than build something with more features, he set out to build something people could actually use. From there, Henry and Tyler dig into the practical realities of bootstrapping: funding the business from savings and side-job cash flow, why banks won't lend to software companies, and how limited money forces healthy discipline. "How much money did we make this month? That's how much money we can spend," Tyler explains. He shares hard-won lessons on shipping a minimum viable product (MVP) fast (his first version was "minimum, debatable whether it was viable"), using intuition over thin data, and building a company that can survive any one person (what he and his team call the "hit by a bus" test) which is the same discipline as building to sell. They also cover his unusual culture choices: separating raises from performance, giving everyone "20% time," and recruiting almost entirely from a pool of interns. Perhaps most striking is how Less Annoying CRM's biggest differentiator - customer service - happened by accident. Tyler put his own phone number on the contact page, and when it rang, the caller was stunned anyone picked up at all. This episode is hosted by Henry Lopez. The How of Business podcast focuses on helping you start, run, grow and exit your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, small business coaching, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com

 In this episode of Strap On Your Boots, I reflect on how startup fundraising has changed since I first entered the tech world and why I've become far more focused on revenue than raising capital. From growing Instamour to roughly half a million users without solving monetization early enough, to building companies today around paying customers and enterprise contracts, I explore why proving people will actually pay may be the most important validation a founder can get. Fundraising can accelerate a business, but raising money shouldn't be confused with actually making money. 

In this episode of the Fuel Your Drive Podcast, Josh York sits down with Jordan Karcher, founder and CEO of Shop with Eileen, to uncover what it truly takes to build a successful business from the ground up. Jordan shares how he started his first company with limited money, no entrepreneurial background, and no proven playbook. After bootstrapping Grounds & Hounds Coffee Co., growing it for 10 years, and eventually selling the company, he used those hard-earned lessons to build Shop with Eileen—a technology platform helping emerging consumer brands compete and scale in physical retail. Josh and Jordan discuss how to start a business without perfect resources, why entrepreneurs should focus on solving real problems, how financial constraints can create better decisions, and what it takes to handle the constant pressure of entrepreneurship. They also explore founder-led culture, building a team that can scale, staying disciplined during difficult seasons, and why execution will always matter more than having a great idea. If you're an entrepreneur, business owner, startup founder, or aspiring CEO looking for practical business advice and an honest conversation about building a company, this episode is for you. In this episode: * How to start a business with limited money and resources * Why execution matters more than the original idea * Bootstrapping and growing a consumer brand * Handling pressure as an entrepreneur and CEO * Building company culture while scaling * Using constraints as a strategic advantage * Creating systems that allow a business to grow * Knowing when to take the first step * The mindset required for long-term business success Jordan's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanzkarcher Jordan's Business: www.shopwitheileen.com Subscribe to the Fuel Your Drive Podcast for more conversations about entrepreneurship, leadership, business growth, discipline, and building a life driven by purpose. SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJkhidOsUdPNS9gODy9qU Connect with Josh York: Website : https://joshyorkgg.com/ Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/joshyorkgg/ ********* WHO IS JOSH YORK? Josh York is an American entrepreneur and the founder & CEO of GYMGUYZ, a fast growing, fitness franchise. GYMGUYZ is #1 in Home Personal Training, providing convenient, customized and creative workouts at a setting that works best for each client. Headquartered in Plainview, New York, GYMGUYZ operates over 250 franchised locations in 30 states and 3 countries. In 2008, York started GYMGUYZ in the dining room of his parent's home with a laptop, and a vision. The demand for in Home Personal Training was growing, and so was GYMGUYZ. In 2014, York received approval to franchise the GYMGUYZ brand , with the first franchise opening that year in Westchester County, NY and the first international location opened in Canada in 2017. York has said his vision is his guarantee and often can be heard saying “In 15 years we will be the largest fitness brand in the world. The chance of that not happening, you will have a better probability of seeing elephants fly”! York lives on Long Island with his wife Stacy and two young sons and enjoys spending his free time with his family, playing ice hockey or working out. York is the author of the bestselling book, FUEL, WHAT IT TAKES TO SURVIVE AS AN ENTREPRENEUR, selling 8000 copies in 2 months. York is a true entrepreneur driven by passion, no stranger to risk, and a leader who knows the value of building a strong culture with a commitment to being the best. **************

Young, idealistic Hayashi Tadataka, daimyo of Jozai, bootstraps and crowdfunds an army while staying one step ahead of the Kyoto government's forces. And in Edo, Tokugawa Iesato inherits the mantle of Tokugawa headship.Script and sources available at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://riverside-wings.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riversidewings on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or buy ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠some merch at Fourthwall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Music is Fuuin Jinja and Yotsume Ryokan, from 「MOMIZizm MUSiC（もみじば）｜フリーBGM 」) and Hall of the Mountain King by Kevin MacLeod http://incompetech.com (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 | Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/hall-of-the-mountain-king | Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/2RDX5sVEfs4 )

Join the Millionaire University AI Mastermind at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/AI #1052 Former corporate lawyer turned creative entrepreneur, Shinah Chang shares the real (and refreshingly honest) journey of building a business that actually feels aligned. In this episode hosted by Kirsten Tyrrel, Shinah breaks down how she went from a risk-averse, straight-line “traditional success” path to bootstrapping a calligraphy brand — first through custom client work (weddings, luxury events, brand activations), then by shifting into teaching and scalable online courses. Shinah talks about the mindset shift from hobbyist to business owner, how to market a premium creative service, why you don't need to be “years ahead” to teach, and what it looked like to scale to nearly $1M in revenue during the pandemic — only to step back, reset, and rebuild a leaner business with more freedom. If you've ever wondered whether entrepreneurship will really make you happier — or just bring your old patterns with you — this conversation is for you! (Original Air Date - 12/24/25) What we discuss with Shinah: + Corporate lawyer burnout + Leaving with no plan + Discovering calligraphy as an outlet + Bootstrapping creative income + Crooked Calligraphy niche + Landing premium clients + Networking over viral marketing + Teaching before feeling “ready” + Scaling with online courses + Redefining success and alignment Thank you, Shinah! Check out Crooked Calligraphy at ⁠CrookedCalligraphy.com⁠. Get the free ⁠Calligraphy Workshop⁠. Follow Shinah on ⁠Instagram⁠. Watch the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠video podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ of this episode! Get your FREE 5 Minute Business Plan at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/Sponsors Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us Fan MailWe trace how Hebrew goes from a “museum language” to a living vernacular by treating language as a coordination good with huge network effects and real transaction costs. We follow Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's strategy for lowering those costs, then watch the Technion language fight prove Hebrew can carry science, not just prayer. • Hebrew's revival as a rare case of full language reboot at scale • Jewish linguistic diversity and why German, French, Russian, Polish, and Yiddish create coordination barriers • Spoken language as a network effect and why “no one wants to go first” • Inframarginality and Ben-Yehuda providing a public good as a private mission • Hebrew as a neutral focal point that no faction fully “owns” • Building missing vocabulary through roots, grammar, and standardization bodies • Bootstrapping with a native-speaking child as proof of concept • Newspapers as distribution channels that reduce divergence in word choice • Backlash from religious authorities and the real enforcement costs of change • The 1913 Technikum decision and the Technion language war over German vs Hebrew • A listener extension connecting Rawls, insurance, and the veil of ignorance • Book recommendation on American founding ideals and proclaiming libertyIf you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at taitc.email@gmail.com !You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz 

Send us Fan MailMany founders try to build a large audience before asking anyone to pay, but Clara Ma built Ask a Chief of Staff around the opposite premise: prove the value first and let committed customers shape what comes next. She explains how charging from day one, staying bootstrapped, hiring for leverage, and protecting her time helped her build a profitable 500+ member community while keeping the business in service of her life rather than the other way around. SHOW NOTESStrategic FocusAt the center of this conversation is a question every founder eventually faces: are you building a business that depends on more of you, or one that creates enough value and leverage to grow beyond you? Clara's experience shows how pricing, delegation, disciplined hiring, and a clear operating model can shape both profitability and founder freedom.Key Takeaways Why charging for a community from day one can strengthen perceived value, attract more committed members, and create a healthier participation culture.  How Clara used recruiting revenue to validate demand, then expanded into a paid community rather than overbuilding the business before customers asked for more.  Why hiring an executive assistant in month three created more strategic capacity, and how she now evaluates whether a problem needs automation, a contractor, or a long term team member.  What a Chief of Staff actually does, how the role differs from a COO, and why the best hire is often the person who complements the leader rather than simply matches a title. GUEST CONTACT & CONNECTClara Ma is the founder and CEO of Ask a Chief of Staff, a bootstrapped community and recruiting platform serving Chiefs of Staff and the executives who hire them. She previously served as a Chief of Staff at Hugging Face during its Series A and was named to the Inc. Magazine 2026 Female Founders 500.Website: askachiefofstaff.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/clarama/ Substack: askachiefofstaff.substack.com YouTube: youtube.com/@askachiefofstaffJoin the proveHER community and read the companion Blogcast for more conversations and practical insights for women building and leading businesses.---Subscribe and ReviewIf you loved this episode, drop us a review, share it with a badass woman in your life, and subscribe to Badass Women in Business wherever you get your podcasts.Stay badass. Stay bold. Build it your way.Keep up with more content from Aggie and Cristy here:Facebook: Empowered Women Leaders  Instagram: @badass_women_in_businessLinkedIn: ProveHer - Badass Women in BusinessWebsite: Badasswomeninbusinesspodcast.comAthena: athenaac.com

NEOM founder Nicola Elliott built a global wellness brand organized entirely around four core wellbeing needs: Sleep, De-stress, Energy and Mood Boost. Starting with a single candle and a £15,000 bet, the company used essential oils to create a global business. Nicola shares how centering customer emotions shaped NEOM's product line, retail strategy, and expansion into the US. For more on NEOM, in show notes, click here. Subscribe and watch Shopify Masters on YouTube!Sign up for your FREE Shopify Trial here.

RSVP and Join us for the Dear FoundHer... Virtual Open House and Networking event on August 20th! Bootstrapping a beauty brand to eight figures before bringing on outside investors sounds impossible until you hear the two financial tools that made it work.Elina Wang, co-founder and CEO of ESW Beauty, joins Lindsay Pinchuk on Dear FoundHer to break down exactly how she built a skincare brand now sold in more than 19,000 retail locations across North America, including Target, Walgreens, Whole Foods, and CVS. Factoring and PO financing kept her cash moving while retailers paid on their own terms, and those two tools became the real financial turning points behind the brand.Elina shares the bad hires that slowed her down, the late shipments from overseas suppliers that forced her to rethink timelines, and the moment she overbought inventory out of fear and what that did to her cash flow.Elina shares her decision-making behind scaling a business while bootstrapping the business, including why she waited years before spending on D2C marketing and what made Whole Foods her first true anchor retailer. Managing rapid growth meant learning these lessons in real time, not reading about them first.Press play to hear Elina's three actionable tips for any founder trying to grow without a safety net.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Elina Wang's K-Beauty Family Business Roots03:47 Launching ESW Beauty From Scratch05:13 Landing Kohl's and Her First Retail Win06:58 Building Community Before Chasing Sales09:53 Finding the White Space in Skincare14:19 Target, Whole Foods, and Anchor Retailers16:14 Bootstrapping With Factoring and PO Financing19:36 Bad Hires, Late Shipments, and Cash Flow20:39 Turning Personal Brand Into Business Growth29:34 Three Tips for Founders Starting OutConnect with Elina Wang:Follow Elina on InstagramFollow ESW Beauty on InstagramSubscribe to The FoundHer Files Follow Dear FoundHer on Instagram Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join the Millionaire University AI Mastermind at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/AI⁠ #1036 Want a business that turns fresh asphalt into a “blank canvas” — and pays well for satisfying, repeatable work? In this episode, host Kirsten Tyrrel talks with Cinco Winston, founder of Trueline Striping in Central Texas, about how he left a stable construction career, skipped the franchise route, and bootstrapped his own parking lot striping company to cash flow within two months. He shares how he trained with an out-of-state pro, bought only the essentials to get started, and strategically targeted customers who actually value curb appeal and recurring maintenance. Cinco breaks down startup costs, pricing, profit margins, seasonality, and why he's still running lean while planning for future growth. If you've ever wondered how “unsexy” service businesses quietly generate great income and freedom, this conversation will open your eyes! (Original Air Date - 12/8/25) What we discuss with Cinco: + Leaving construction to start striping + Choosing independent over franchise + Training with an out-of-state striping company + Bootstrapping equipment and startup costs + Hitting cash flow within two months + Discounting early jobs to gain clients + Targeting customers who value curb appeal + Door knocking and in-person sales + Managing seasonality and recurring clients + Profit margins, salary, and plans to scale Thank you, Cinco! Check out Trueline Striping at ⁠TruelineStripingTX.com⁠. Follow Cinco on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠LinkedIn⁠. Watch the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠video podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ of this episode! Get your FREE 5 Minute Business Plan at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/Sponsors Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ethan Glenn never set out to launch a clothing label. Every Other Thursday began as an Instagram archive of vintage aesthetics until a single self-made hat sparked massive demand. By skipping wholesale margins and keeping operations lean, Glenn scaled the company drop by drop into a thriving apparel business with a New York retail footprint. For more on Every Other Thursday, in show notes, click here. Subscribe and watch Shopify Masters on YouTube!Sign up for your FREE Shopify Trial here.

Will is joined this week by personal finance expert, speaker, business leader Jesse Mecham, founder of You Need A Budget (or YNAB if you are very busy and important). In this episode, to celebrate the release of his new book ‘Never Worry About Money Again', Jesse dives into how YNAB came to be, from spreadsheet to the interface it is today, the trials and tribulations the business went through over the years, before going into depth about why people are so scared of money. — Mentioned in the episode: Jesse's brand new book, 'Never Worry About Money Again' out now! Visit the YNAB website Jason Fried's ‘Getting Real' Richard A. Lanham's ‘Revising Prose' Eugene Schwartz's ‘Breakthrough Advertising' Donald A. Norman's ‘The Design of Everyday Things' Clayton Christiansen's ‘Jobs to be Done' Framework Our guest for this episode has been Jesse Mecham. If you'd like to get in touch with Jesse, or to keep up to date with his work, you can visit his website. Your host for this episode has been Will Larry, you can find and connect with Will over on LinkedIn. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Missy Tannen spent five years teaching third grade and a decade as a stay-at-home mom before she ever thought about starting a company. But when she couldn't find bedding that was high-quality, ethically sourced, and traceable, she and her husband Scott started Boll & Branch out of pure frustration. On this episode of She Pivots, Missy talks about betting the family's life savings on an idea, borrowing against their own house even while sales were taking off, and what it took to scale from a garage operation to a 200-person company without losing what made it different in the first place. She's brutally honest about the mess behind the milestones (a full batch of ivory sheets that came out green!) and about running a family business—that’s now worth over $250 million—with her husband while raising their kids. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome to She Pivots 01:32 From Teacher to Entrepreneur: Missy Tannen 09:23 Stay-at-home-mom 13:04 The Birth of Boll & Branch 26:15 The Wall Street Journal Breakthrough 33:54 Growing the Business and Family Involvement 39:24 Building a Sustainable Supply Chain 41:25 The Power of Community 42:32 The Tariff Challenge 45:54 Reflecting on Missy's Journey 47:09 Production Credits Check out Boll & Branch at www.bollandbranch.com Be sure to subscribe so you never miss a pivot story, leave us a rating (it really helps!), and share this episode with a woman in your life who you think needs a little inspiration. She Pivots is a podcast created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight influential women voices, share stories of bold career moves, and inspire women with interviews about career reinvention and how personal pivots can redefine professional success. Join our Substack community! Subscribe here for exclusive content and to connect with other pivoters: shepivots.substack.com Learn more about the inspiring women in our pivoter community by following us on instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast, and check out our website shepivotspod.com for resources and updates. She Pivots is proud to be an iheart podcast.Support the show: https://www.shepivotsthepodcast.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A meaningful life is not built by choosing perfectly. It is built by learning how to choose, revise, and continue. In this AMA, Sam examines the hidden forces that shape our decisions: fear of failure, the need to appear competent, resistance to unfamiliar ideas, and the pressure to follow paths that already look successful. The episode then asks a larger question: what is worth doing with the limited attention and time we have? The answer is not simply the most profitable idea or the most impressive opportunity. It may be the project that expands your skills, fits the life you want, and gives you a reason to keep showing up. From podcast differentiation and creative businesses to community-building and entrepreneurial uncertainty, this is a conversation about turning vague ambition into deliberate action. Separate genuine opportunity from ego-driven novelty. Start with a reversible commitment whenever possible. Build the network your future work will need.Listen for the idea that changes how you think about your next commitment. SPONSORS