Happy New Year! This week, Learning Life is talking innovation for moms with Mamava co-founder Sascha Mayer. A certified B corp, Mamava was founded in 2013 by Mayer and Christine Dodson, now COO. Mamava has over 2000 lactation pods across the country, providing mothers privacy and security while breastfeeding or pumping, as well as digital resources, community, and advocacy. Sascha began her career as a staffer for then-congressman Bernie Sanders after graduating from UVM. Moving on to working f...
Jan 06, 2022•31 min•Season 9Ep. 155
This week Jon gets down with Jason Levinthal, who founded LINE in his parents' garage back in 1995 and is known for creating some of the first twin tip skis. After selling LINE to K2 sports, Jason was longing to get back into the industry, with the lessons he learned about scaling and the new prospects of online selling. In 2013, he founded J Skis with a direct-to-consumer business model with limited edition runs and a community focus. On top of all that, Jason medaled in the first-ever Winter X...
Dec 16, 2021•31 min•Season 9Ep. 154
This week Jon sits down with Cyrus Schenck, CEO of Renoun and co-founder of Mission V Sports. If you're a skier or snowboarder in Vermont, you've surely seen Renoun skis all over your favorite mountain, but many people don't really know what makes these skis so special. A graduate of Champlain Valley Union High School, Cyrus went on to learn about material sciences in college. There, he got the idea to put a non-newtonian substance, a material that changes properties under stress and strains, in...
Dec 09, 2021•31 min•Season 9Ep. 153
This week Jon sits down with Vermont’s favorite weatherman, Tom Messner. After 31 years at NBC5 serving Northern New York and Vermont as Chief Meteorologist, Tom is retiring from our televisions and moving on to a new chapter as a media consultant, early stage investor and advocate for the Vermont entrepreneurial community. Messner may be leaving TV, but he’s invested right here in Burlington. Between the beautiful state and the people of the community, Tom says Vermont is the perfect place to b...
Dec 02, 2021•26 min•Season 9Ep. 152
This week Jon sits down with Ryan Nakleh, founder and CEO of Local Maverick, a sales and marketing platform that makes it easier to discover, shop, and support local businesses. Listen to the story as Ryan got a local business off the ground during the pandemic, and how he aims to bring the Amazon buying experience to communities and help them buy local. Learn more at https://www.localmaverickus.com/
Nov 24, 2021•28 min•Season 9Ep. 151
This week Jon sits down with Sophia Rabe, founder and CEO of Olive and Milo Social. Olive and Milo is a digital marketing agency that focuses on social media, offering services such as consulting, strategy, management, and measurement. Rabe grew up in the Mad River Valley and is a Champlain College alumni, choosing to set up her business right here in Burlington. Rabe chose Vermont over big city life after trying out a year in New York, finding the smaller towns less isolating and a better work ...
Nov 18, 2021•25 min•Season 9Ep. 150
This week Jon sits down with Barry Finette, founder of ThinkMD. ThinkMD is an innovative healthcare and technology company, seeking solutions to expand quality healthcare coverage across the globe. Barry is also a professor in pediatrics, microbiology, and molecular genetics at the University of Vermont. ThinkMD aims to put physician-based decision logic into the hands of anyone, so areas underserved by physicians can be aided by technology. The technology is distributed by government and NGO pa...
Nov 11, 2021•23 min•Season 9Ep. 149
This week we have a UVM student entrepreneur with a firey new idea - all natural fire starters that are sustainably sourced and safe for the environment. Meet Adam Liszewski, CEO and founder of Stokes Firestarters. After making fire starters as holiday gifts as a child with egg cartons and dryer lint, Adam has moved on to production models using food-grade paraffin and recycled sawdust from East Thetford Vermont. Stokes are now available in stores across the northeast and beyond, and on Amazon! ...
Nov 05, 2021•23 min•Season 9Ep. 148
This week we are excited to have Mieko Ozeki and Bethany Andrews-Nichols, the co-founders of Vermont Womenprenuers, an organization driving the mission of helping women entrepreneurs build their businesses in the Green Mountain State. In addition to helping other women start up their businesses, the duo are small business owners of their own. Mieko owns and runs Radiance Studios, a website, digital marketing, and event production business. Bethany is the owner of Beenanza graphic design, and lic...
Oct 27, 2021•28 min•Season 9Ep. 147
This week we have Scott Finn, President and CEO of VPR and Vermont PBS. With the recent merger of Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS, Scott is now leading the green mountain state’s largest media organization with a reach of over a million people each month and the goal of expanding to a broader and more diverse audience. Modern public media is more than just TV and Radio. Scott is looking to democratize media, with outreach through Youtube, podcasts, and more online content with shows like “B...
Oct 14, 2021•28 min•Season 9Ep. 146
This week we have Matt Murray, founder and CEO of Widewail. A Vermont native and Navy veteran, Matt has worked through numerous tech and automotive companies before starting his company to help businesses with their online reputation. Widewail provides a suite of management tools for online product and service reviews, helping businesses invite their customers to review and engage with reviewers. Learn more at https://www.widewail.com/
Sep 30, 2021•24 min•Season 9Ep. 145
This week’s entrepreneur story goes back more than 100 years! We are excited to have Sarah Morris, a fifth generation host and concierge at Basin Harbor, the historic 700-acre resort in Vergennes, Vermont. Basin Harbor began as a working farm back in the 1800s, and in the 1920s, Sarah’s great-grandfather was inspired by the tourism boom in Miami and began to build out cottages on the beautiful Lake Champlain waterfront. Today, the resort features over 77 cottages, dining, golf, and tons of marit...
Sep 22, 2021•35 min•Season 9Ep. 144
This week we have Peter Miller, owner of Mini Golf on the Go and a student at the Stiller School of Business at Champlain College. Peter is another great Vermont entrepreneur story with a miniature twist - his company designs and rents mini golf courses at any event, indoor and outdoor, complete with clubs and balls. Peter puts his Vermont-grown woodworking skills to the test building each hole of a course on a unique 2-by-8 foot board that's easy for his team to transport and setup anywhere. Le...
Sep 16, 2021•21 min•Season 9Ep. 143
This week we have Ryan McDevitt, co-founder and CEO of Benchmark Space Systems. Based right here in Burlington at HULA Lakeside, Ryan is looking to go from Vermont to space with micro-satellites that will change space systems as we know it. After working at Pratt and Whitney as a jet engineer, Ryan returned to Vermont with his wife and he began working on propulsion systems at UVM. With a spark grant from the university, Ryan began to build out Benchmark. Listen to Ryan's vision of the future wh...
Sep 08, 2021•24 min•Season 9Ep. 142
This week we have Dawn and Sarah Lancaster, mother and daughter co-founders of Pure Energy Apothecary, focused on healthy and accessible skincare and home fragrance products. A graduate of Champlain College, Dawn is acting CEO and owner, while Sarah is a current student at Champlain and a fellow at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, headed up by our previous guest Dr. Kylie King. After the passing of Dawn's mother, the Lancasters were inspired to find healthier solutions to the skin...
Aug 31, 2021•27 min•Season 9Ep. 141
This week we have Benny Boas, CEO of Burlington Code Academy and Upright Education. Benny began teaching coding and software development with online courses and bootcamps through BCA right here in Vermont. Now, he's going national. Upright Education partners with colleges and universities to prepare adults for software-based work with rapid re-skilling courses, teaching a wide range of skills from Javascript to UX/UI design. Learn more at https://www.uprighted.com/
Aug 24, 2021•31 min•Season 9Ep. 140
This week we are excited to have Dr. Kylie King, Academic Director of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Assistant Professor of entrepreneurship and analytics at Champlain College. Jon and Kylie sit down to discuss the connection between Champlain College and the Burlington community, fostering entrepreneurship in students and young adults, and looking ahead to Champlain in 2030. Learn more at https://www.champlain.edu/centers-of-experience/center-for-innovation-and-entrepreneu...
Aug 11, 2021•25 min•Season 9Ep. 139
"That is a big rallying cry for us–– how do we engage more entities, businesses, and people in seeing how, and feeling clear about how they can give to the environment broadly defined to drive positive change." This week we have Kate Williams, CEO of 1% for the Planet. 1% for the Planet is a global network of businesses, individuals and nonprofit organizations tackling our planet's most pressing environmental issues, headquartered right here in Burlington VT. 1% operates through memberships, whe...
Aug 04, 2021•28 min•Season 9Ep. 138
This week we have Vermont entrepreneurial success story, Rich Tarrant. Tarrant founded what would become IDX Systems Corporation back in 1969, later acquired by GE Healthcare. His latest company is Marathon Health, based right off the Winooski Circle. Tarrant sits down with Jon to discuss his basketball career at St. Mikes, and how it led to being a pioneer in healthcare technology. Tarrant also talks about the function of health insurance in modern healthcare and his educational philanthropy. L...
Jul 28, 2021•28 min•Season 9Ep. 137
This week we have Vermont serial entrepreneur Sas Stewart. You may know Sas as the co-founder of Stonecutter Spirits and creator of the sought-after popup Adventure Dinner events. Sas sits down with Jon to discuss making things special - from food and drink to experiences for customers and employees alike. Sas has been running Adventure Dinners since 2014, providing a bespoke experience of locally-sourced food and wine, and one-of-a-kind surprise adventures around the beautiful state of Vermont,...
Jul 20, 2021•23 min•Season 9Ep. 136
"So the goal with peak flow is to figure out how to coach humans in multiple breathwork modalities and to become aware of how you can change your breathing and change your life moment. By moment, it's the most fundamentalist, the most elemental thing we do is to breathe." In this live episode, we have Vermont serial entrepreneur, Professor, and friend of the show Dr. Rob Williams. Whether you know him from the Yak it to Me Burger stand, teaching at University of Vermont and Champlain College, or...
Jul 13, 2021•31 min•Season 9Ep. 135
"I guess I've always had a sense of wanting to involve everybody into the brewery from the very beginning. I was kind of well-known in the early days, when I was out on the floor working right next to everybody and if anyone asked, "why are we doing this?" they learned to maybe not ask those kinds of questions because they'd get about a half hour a conversation with me explaining that particular ingredient or that particular temperature on the mash profile for the beer." What makes Switchback Br...
Jul 06, 2021•29 min•Season 9Ep. 134
This week we have special guests David Bradbury and Sam Roach-Gerber, fellow podcast hosts and President/Vice-President of VCET, the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies. VCET offers programs, capital, and business mentoring for Vermont entrepreneurs. Through VCET, David and Sam co-host the Start Here podcast, showcasing business success stories across the state and the Vermont Startup Collective, a community of entrepreneurs to help start conversations and build better businesses together. ...
Jun 22, 2021•29 min•Season 9Ep. 133
Based in Burlington Vermont, Ben Krueger is the founder and CEO of Cashflow Podcasting, where he helps industry advocates reach more people, change more lives and move entire industries forward. Having collaborated on hundreds of podcasts since 2012, he has developed 8 Podcast Principles that when applied, lead to highly effective business podcasts. Built on these principles, they've developed a proven system for leaders to host their own world-class podcast in a fraction of the time. In this ep...
Jun 16, 2021•30 min•Season 9Ep. 132
This week we rewind to congratulate good friend of the show, James Lawrence, on completing a journey he started 100 days ago - The Conquer 100. That’s a full distance triathlon every day since March 1st… Yes, we’re talking a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on the bike followed by a marathon. Every day. For 100 days. Congratulations to you, James! Back in September, James joined Jon on the podcast to talk about how he accomplishes these world record feats, the value of teamwork and his family and how ea...
Jun 08, 2021•22 min•Season 9Ep. 132
"For Localvore, we're a technology company that focuses on really connecting local consumers and regional consumers to businesses that are creating a more sustainable agricultural economy sourcing locally and making an impact." Dan White knows what it means to go local. He likes to think of Localvore as the "Patagonia of tech," dedicated to sustainable practice and reinvestment in community. What better way to do that then with food? And where better than Burlington Vermont? White chose Burlingt...
Jun 01, 2021•27 min•Season 9Ep. 131
"I'm very bullish on Vermont, in general, because I think the quality of life here is absolutely incredible. And I think as people start to prioritize that, and, you know, keep their business and their personal life and kind of hold it to the same high expectations, I think we'll see a lot more people moving here and a lot more interesting things happening." Jackson Latka is a Vermont entrepreneur with a family-first photo app: Notabli. Built right in Burlington, Notabli is a scrapbook for paren...
May 25, 2021•29 min•Season 9Ep. 130
"We definitely leverage Burlington and our values here in order to build a national brand. " Michael Ly has been a Vermonter for 10 years, and an entrepreneur his whole life. Ly is the CEO of Reconciled, the cloud-based virtual bookkeeping and CFO advisory service. He has previously worked as a controller, consultant, and CFO. On top of all that, he's the co-founder of Humnly on-demand HR. Listen to Michael Ly's story on building his businesses, remote work. and scaling up in a small city like B...
May 18, 2021•26 min•Season 9Ep. 129
Russ Scully’s wife Roxanne might say that her husband’s favorite word is “Yes.” After all, he’s always looking for the next great story. Growing up in New Jersey, Russ knew a typical metropolitan area wasn’t for him. So after years of living and surfing in California, he and Roxanne settled in Vermont. Once here, the Scully’s started to realize just how much can happen in the Green Mountain State. From windsurfing and paddleboarding on Lake Champlain to create a lifestyle brand and one of the hi...
May 11, 2021•54 min•Season 9Ep. 128
What do you get when you combine innovation strategy, creative facilitation, human-centered design, and improv comedy? A modern creative consultancy that helps to transform organizations guided by an inventive and ardent leader. Coonoor Behal is the founder and CEO of Mindhatch, where they help companies create the conditions for innovation and for employees to thrive. By utilizing a unique combination of design thinking, innovation, facilitation, organizational improv, and diversity and inclusi...
May 04, 2021•29 min•Season 8Ep. 127
