David Hayford is the Founder of Tether Tug, a unique interactive dog toy company. The Tether Tug people are dog fanatics who passionately create interactive and interchangeable products to improve the overall well-being of dogs through physical exercise and mental stimulation. Tether Tug’s mission is to help make it easy for pet owners to keep their dogs playing and having fun while helping to improve behavior and promote the loving bond between pets and people. Remember, dogs unite us! In This ...
Sep 05, 2022•21 min•Ep. 189
Joe Moriarty previously worked in technology investing in Austin, San Francisco, and New York prior to creating Modern Mammals. He has experience with both fundraising and buying other businesses, and spends time helping other founders now as well. He's from a town near Rochester NY, studied economics at the University of Chicago and did his MBA at Harvard Business School. In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:00] Intro [01:10] Where the idea Modern Mammals came from [02:19] Why there are no sham...
Aug 29, 2022•20 min•Ep. 188
Kyle is the founder and CEO of Win Brands Group, an omnichannel retail platform that buys and builds category-defining brands. Win’s enviable stable of brands includes Homesick (scented candles and home fragrance), QALO (silicone wedding rings and accessories), Gravity (the original weighted blanket), and Love Your Melon (mission-driven outerwear). Kyle has spent over a decade honing the art of consumer-focused venture capital and brand building, raising millions of dollars, and building busines...
Aug 25, 2022•29 min
Mike Beckham is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Simple Modern, a leading producer of premium drinkware and lifestyle products. Founded in 2015 and based in Oklahoma, Simple Modern currently generates a nine-figure annual revenue and is committed to generosity, donating at least 10% of annual profits to nonprofit organizations. Under Mike’s leadership, the company has grown into a category leader for Amazon, Target, and Sam’s Club. In addition, Simple Modern will be launching in Walmart...
Aug 22, 2022•35 min•Ep. 187
R.T. Custer is a Serial Entrepreneur specializing in story-based marketing for consumer product companies. He started Vortic Watch Company with his friend Tyler in college and grew it to a nationally recognized 7 figure luxury brand that’s now expanding into an 8,000 sq ft facility in downtown Fort Collins. In 2020 R.T. spun off the expert team of marketers helping with Vortic to create a marketing agency that soon after joined forces with fellow agency entrepreneur and friend, Jim Carter, resul...
Aug 18, 2022•30 min
From selling handmade leather belts and wallets out the back of his Chevy Station Wagon to becoming one of the top businesses for handmade leather hats, it’s safe to say Gary Watrous (our founder) doesn’t mess around. He’s been perfecting his expertise for nearly 50 years and with the help of his son Garth, his daughter-in-law Hannah, his wife Merry-Lee, and several other family members who have been integrated into the business, he has been able to take American Hat Makers to new heights. Today...
Aug 15, 2022•31 min•Ep. 186
Shai Eisenman is the founder and CEO of Bubble Skincare. As the first skincare brand created for young skin, Bubble sets a new skincare standard while truly listening to what its customers want and need. Today, the Bubble line consists of seven products that work together to create a complete routine from face cleansers to face masks. It’s available on hellobubble.com, in 3,800 Walmart stores nationwide and on Walmart.com. Prior to starting Bubble in 2018, Eisenman started her B.A. at 15, and be...
Aug 08, 2022•19 min•Ep. 185
Arguably the most sought-after authority in men’s grooming, Vaughn did not find success by accident. The son of a barber, his interest in hair piqued at an early age, and he gave his first haircut as a teenager in 1976. Vaughn’s client list includes some of the most well-known names in the world—Bruce Springsteen, Richard Gere, Daniel Day Lewis, Tom Brady, President Bill Clinton, Jeff Gordon, Ashton Kutcher and Al Pacino—as well as everyday guys who do anything but fade into the background. In T...
Aug 01, 2022•25 min•Ep. 184
Dave Rodenbaugh is the founder of Recapture.io, an abandoned cart and SMS/email marketing service for WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, Easy Digital Downloads, Restrict Content Pro and more. Founded in 2015, Recapture has processed over 1.9 billion in gross merchant volume (GMV) and recovered over $190,000,000 for stores worldwide. Email is Dave's middle name. Dave is also the co-host of the RogueStartups podcast and the WP Minute Ecommerce show. He now works exclusively on ecommerce a...
Jul 28, 2022•25 min
Wylie Robinson is the founder and CEO of Rumpl, a company that's on a mission to introduce the world to better blankets. Robinson started as a designer (architecture degree) and worked in many creative fields including graphic design, architecture, branding, illustration, music. Robinson is also a former professional mountain biker and avid surfer, skier, climber. In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:00] Intro [01:27] Why blankets? [02:28] How Wylie thought of the idea of blankets [04:37] Pivoti...
Jul 25, 2022•21 min•Ep. 183
John Sheldon, Chief Marketing Officer, SmileDirectClub John Sheldon is the Chief Marketing Officer at SmileDirectClub. In this role, he focuses on delivering the best possible experience to customers in order to continue growing SmileDirectClub and reach more people searching for affordable access to a straighter and more confident smile. As the Chief Marketing Officer, John oversees all digital media, paid media, creative development, social media, communication tactics, and experiential initia...
Jul 18, 2022•25 min•Ep. 182
Michael Epstein has been in ecommerce for over 20 years, starting an online retailer and existing in 2013 to private equity. He has served as a private equity operating partner and CMO for numerous 8 & 9 figure PE-owned Ecom brands. He is currently co-founder & co-CEO of PostPilot, a direct mail automation platform built for ecommerce and direct to consumer brands. In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:00] Intro [01:23] The elevator pitch for PostPilot [02:56] Being the “Klaviyo for Y” [0...
Jul 14, 2022•20 min
Nate Axvig grew up in frigid North Dakota and moved to sunny Colorado after graduating from law school. He practiced as a litigator for 16 years before moving to Oslo, Norway with his wife Leslie (also a litigator) and their two kids- Luke and Bekah. While living in Norway and pursuing an advanced degree in Communications and Technology Law, Nate and Leslie discovered the world class quality of Scandinavian clothing. That planted a seed which sprouted into aktivstyle.com, their business that bri...
Jul 11, 2022•23 min•Ep. 181
Megan Grassel is the Founder/CEO of Yellowberry. Armed with her own hand-drawn sketch and the savings from her summer jobs, Megan Grassell set out to make her younger sister, along with tween girls everywhere, an age-appropriate bra. In 2013, at age 17, she founded Yellowberry. With funding from a successful Kickstarter campaign, Megan created colorful, comfortable and supportive bras for young girls along with a promise to help them feel more confident about wearing bras for the first time. Tod...
Jul 04, 2022•34 min•Ep. 180
Prior to the NxTSTOP Brendan spent his career working in enterprise technology with Accenture and then VMware. In 2015 he founded his first startup Fathomd to bring interactive business games into MBA coursework. In 2020 Brendan launched NxTSTOP to outfit world explorers with functional sustainable travel apparel and scaled it to a multimillion dollar business in just one year. He is a graduate of Stanford and received his MBA from MIT Sloan. In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:00] Intro [01:17...
Jun 27, 2022•39 min•Ep. 179
Gilmar Arellano, who co-founded HAY! Straws and serves as its CEO, pursued the plastic straw alternative due to his unconditional love for nature. “I wanted to protect the environment from the horrors of plastic waste,” he says, “and my experience in hospitality led me to identify one of the most egregious culprits: straws made from oil-based plastic.” Hand- selecting straw from small farms, cutting it, washing it, and packaging it in eco-friendly boxes revealed a natural solution to a dire mode...
Jun 20, 2022•29 min•Ep. 178
Noah’s love of hot sauce began well before he founded HEATONIST. In fact, he’s loved spicy food for as long as he can remember. Growing up, Noah’s family joked that he got his love of spicy food from his mom’s mom. The family lived in Austin, Texas in the 50s and legend tells about a time his grandmother went to buy a garland of dried chilis for cooking. The grocer tried to talk her out of it, saying they were too hot for her, but she told him she knew what she was doing. He said if she ate one ...
Jun 13, 2022•27 min•Ep. 177
Kerrigan Behrens is the co-founder and co-CEO of consumer wellness brand Sagely Naturals. Most recently, Kerrigan guided her team through an acquisition by HempFusion, expanded the brands ingestible offerings with gummies, and launched a non-CBD infused product collection in Target under the Sagely Naturals umbrella. She and the brand have been featured in publications such as Forbes, Fortune, Glossy, Coveteur, Vogue, and Green Entrepreneur. Kerrigan has been at the helm of the brand since it la...
Jun 06, 2022•31 min•Ep. 176
Adam Baker had a vision a few years ago. He wanted to fill an empty space in the dog toy market and make toys that were tough, innovative, and do it in a way that was safe for dogs and the planet. It took some twists and turns to succeed but now, SodaPup is turning out toys that are FDA compliant, all made in the USA. Baker is not only Head Dog in SodaPup, he’s the toy designer, social media and marketing manager (that means he sits in bed at 11:30 at night and posts to Instagram), janitor (occa...
May 30, 2022•34 min•Ep. 175
On this podcast, we talk about the “price spiraling” trap and how to avoid it, how capital can actually be a detriment to problem solving, why you should just focus on getting your product into people’s hands first, and so much more! To learn more, visit: http://honestecommerce.co Resources: Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube Connect with Matthew linkedin.com/in/matthewberk Share the joy of small-batch, locally-roasted beans with coffee lovers around the country beanbox.com Read The Lean S...
May 23, 2022•40 min•Ep. 174
On this podcast, we talk about the importance of gathering data first before product development, why you shouldn’t plan to scale with an MVP, when should you do D2C only and when should you consider Amazon, and so much more! To learn more, visit: http://honestecommerce.co Resources: Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube Connect with Will linkedin.com/in/will-nitze Plant based protein bars for your brain and body eatiqbar.com Listen to the Y Combinator podcast ycombinator.com/blog/tag/podcast...
May 16, 2022•40 min•Ep. 173
Born in Colombia, raised in Mexico, and college-educated in the United States, Mike Abadi comes from 4 generations of textile industry experts. Abadi began his career as a New York investment banker, before realizing his passion was in entrepreneurship. Various ventures led to his first major success as co-founder of tailored suits brand Arden Reed (now Hive & Colony), before launching D2C bedding brand Sunday Citizen alongside his wife of 6 years, with whom he has 3 children. Since its crea...
May 09, 2022•30 min•Ep. 172
Elie Robinson is the CEO and founder of Under 5'10, a brand that makes clothing for shorter men. His background is in financial operations, and spent over 15 years in the telecommunications & Ecommerce. But like millions of other men in America, he was fed up with clothing manufacturers neglecting to make clothes tailored for shorter men. He founded Under 5’10 in 2017 and has enabled short guys around the world find a place where they can buy perfectly fitting jeans, joggers, shirts, and mor...
May 02, 2022•33 min•Ep. 171
Laurie O’Hara is the Founder and CEO of OLITA, a San Rafael, CA based brand of eco-friendly, healthy sun care. In the market since 2015, Laurie has grown OLITA from its original Beach Be Gone product line, expanding to REEF SAFE mineral sunscreens, soothing SPF lip balms and nourishing After Sun body serums. OLITA’s mission is to create clean products that are safe on skin and safe on the planet. Prior to launching OLITA, Laurie had over 20 years experience in marketing and acquisitions of credi...
Apr 25, 2022•32 min•Ep. 170
Kyle Ewing became a full-time entrepreneur in 2014 when he left the corporate world to build his first company, Guerrilla Tags ID Systems. After a successful exit in 2015, Kyle is now focused on the growth and development of his company, TerraSlate Paper, which manufactures and prints waterproof paper for the US Military, restaurants, and biotech firms around the world. The success of his businesses can be best attributed to a creative marketing approach that nimbly tracks customer needs to fulf...
Apr 18, 2022•35 min•Ep. 169
In Yoni and Neal’s previous lives, they were music industry veterans behind some of the largest festivals in the country. Along the way, they saw the demand for quality cocktails growing, but the careful preparation required to make one made service in high volume environments pretty difficult. They fantasized about creating a world-class cocktail in an easy-to-serve vessel, thinking maybe they could help solve a problem for venues, events, restaurants, bars, airplanes, and regular folks at home...
Apr 11, 2022•31 min•Ep. 168
Paul Orlando has led startup accelerators on three continents. He runs USC’s on-campus Incubator for businesses founded by students, alumni and faculty and is Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, teaching growth hacking and venture initiation. He is a former startup founder and was a winner at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon. His book about unit economics is called Growth Units. In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:51] Intro [01:47] Paul’s journey on USC [05:01] Chase’s interest in the educat...
Apr 04, 2022•33 min•Ep. 167
Joe Spector has been a startup entrepreneur for over 15 years. Prior to Dutch, he was a co-founder of Hims (NYSE: HIMS), one of the fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands in history, which went public in January 2021. As a co-founder, Spector was instrumental in its success of helping millions of people; in fact, he built Hims national telemedicine and doctor network, set up the initial pharmacy supply chain, and launched wholesale partnerships. He holds a BS from the Haas School of Business ...
Mar 28, 2022•32 min•Ep. 166
Nik Hall is a follower of Christ, husband to the best wife, and the co-founder of vitafive, an emerging gummy vitamin brand with high quality ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. The humble beginnings of vitafive were started in founders Garrett Adair and Nik Hall’s 800 square foot house when they were Juniors at TCU. Since the beginning, the goals have been to help consumers find an easier way to be healthy, to be profitable, and to enjoy the life they have been given. While the road hasn’t ...
Mar 21, 2022•30 min•Ep. 165
Dr. Amy Divaraniya is the CEO and Founder of Oova, a women’s health company. She has more than 10 years of experience as a data scientist and has both led and published original research in the areas of personal genomics and biomarker discovery. Her solid understanding of biology and being able to apply complex analyses have led to innovative projects in the healthcare space. In 2017, Dr. Divaraniya chose to pivot her career as a data scientist and devote herself to improving women’s healthcare....
Mar 14, 2022•22 min•Ep. 164
