A geek of all trades, our guest, Keisha Howard, has been a video game enthusiast since childhood. Growing up "geeky" resulted in her developing interests that were very different from her peers on Chicago's South Side. With a degree in psychology and communications at DePaul University, Keisha acquired an understanding of consumer motivations that ultimately led her to real estate. After a successful decade long career, Keisha's communications background and passion for business innovation led h...
Jul 18, 2019•1 hr 2 min
A former CPA and Forensics Examiner, Jessica Lynch, founder of WishRoute, kept hearing people say “I wish.” I wish I were healthier, I wish I were stronger, I wish I were happier. She realized there was a “wish epidemic,” and when her research showed 92% of Americans fail to follow through with their goals, Jessica knew she had to find a way to help people realize their full potential. Jessica shares: •her first startup story at the age of 10 (Hamsters are involved!) •how her brother’s diagnosis...
Jul 11, 2019•39 min
Vicki O’Neill, founder of KenKay Marketing, will help you sharpen your marketing, sales and strategy management skills, while she shares her own sensational startup journey. Vicki’s passion for helping small and mid-size business leaders achieve success was the driving force to launching her business in 2011. What started out as a ‘side hustle’ to fulfill marketing requests for entrepreneurs and startups, Vicki turned into a full-time strategy and coaching business. That’s what we love about sid...
Jul 08, 2019•35 min
Presentation Coach and Communications Consultant Christina Brennan, helps founders, professionals and companies figure out what they’re trying to say and how to say it well. Through workshops, seminars, and 1:1 coaching, she builds messaging development, storytelling, and public speaking skills which equates to building deeper connections, landing more deals, and overall being a more impactful communicator. Through her diverse background in marketing, advertising, sales, and journalism – ranging...
Jul 02, 2019•36 min
"The odd thing about being a startup founder is it requires probably the broadest set of skills of almost any job out there. You need to know a little bit about marketing, operations, everything. Yet despite the fact that it has this huge requirement for different skill sets, it's one of the very few jobs on the planet that requires absolutely no prior experience. You can't get a job in a restaurant as a waiter unless you waited someplace else. You can't get a job most places unless you have exp...
Jun 25, 2019•46 min
Priyanka Raha is helping families reimagine digital playtime and create Digital Citizens with her startup, PopSmartKids. It all began when her young sons went from sharing their excitement from building legos or artwork masterpieces to becoming lost to the world while they watched something on their screens. There was no longer any shared interaction, and she had a difficult time getting their attention. Sound familiar parents? Priyanka has a deep love of technology and a distinguished career as...
Jun 21, 2019•49 min
“Be an Asker, not a Guesser.” A serial entrepreneur and startup adviser on a mission to change today's perception of millennial consumer behavior, Chino Lex is the founder and CEO of Keyring, the cable bundle of the subscription generation. With savings from his carpet-cleaning job at the young age of 19, he decided to leave college one day after freshmen orientation to start and bootstrap his first company. It published over 180 iOS apps and over 50 reached Apple's Top Charts, amassing over 5 m...
Jun 19, 2019•48 min
Venture Capital, Angel Investors... or bootstrapping... MONEY is oxygen for a startup. But how does a founder decide which oxygen mask is best for their business? I have some Andelicious Advice to help you choose the best funding option… and oxygen… for your startup. When I’m gardening, driving into Boston, or doing household chores, I love tuning into podcasts. The other day I had two back-to-back podcasts that got me thinking about the question – which oxygen does your business need to soar? T...
Jun 13, 2019•11 min
A serial entrepreneur focused on digital marketing and health media, our guest Kenny Kline shares the best startup stories from his wild, roller coaster entrepreneurial rides! Kenny is the founder and Managing Director of JAKK Media, a niche media web company. From soup-to-nuts, JAKK Media does it all: content creation, digital marketing, video production, design, business development, and technical management. Collectively their sites and social profiles reach tens of millions of people each mo...
Jun 06, 2019•38 min
Our guest, Adam Mutschler, is an executive coach, the host of a terrific podcast called The Founder's Mind, he’s a mentor to startup founders through many wonderful organizations, including Backstage Capital, and he’s a new Dad! Adam works with individuals, teams, and organizations to break through the barriers that slow them down and develop strategies, tactics, and practices to scale themselves as they scale their businesses. Adam shares his best advice for dissolving chokeholds on a new busin...
Jun 03, 2019•46 min
Our guest, Ethan Anthony, is the Founder & CEO of CrankChart, a communication platform designed to create alignment between decision makers and data professionals by leveraging behavioral psychology and machine learning/AI as supporting mechanisms. Ethan can be best described as a self-taught man who is a voracious reader, and a highly motivated problem solver. He spent half of his adult life in the Far East, fully immersed in the Asian culture and language. Currently finishing up his gradua...
May 29, 2019•54 min
I met our guest, Eva Adosoglou, at the monthly pitch event I co-host here in Boston – called Founders Live Boston. She was a featured founder at the event, and her ability to passionately, clearly, and concisely share her business model wow’d all of us… and I know she’ll wow you too! Eva is the COO at Ntroduced, where she manages all the technical, operational, PR, marketing and fundraising efforts for this startup. Ntroduced is a job introduction platform using artificial intelligence to direct...
May 24, 2019•33 min
“We should lean on our partners because we want to, not because we have to.” ~ Burju Perez Our guest, Burju Perez, was born in Istanbul, raised in New York City, and now resides in Massachusetts. She is a shoe designer and business owner, who ran a very successful Latin dance company and toured the entire world as a professional dancer, achieving many honors and awards, including “International Best Artist” and “International Best Instructor” in 2007 at the United Kingdom Salsa Congress. While h...
May 21, 2019•55 min
If you love pets, then you are going to LOVE our guest, Artur Sousa, founder of adopets, a platform designed to empower shelters and rescues to save more lives by reducing staff and volunteer's workload. Adopets offers a seamless adoption ecosystem that helps shelter and rescue partners operate more efficiently and focus on what really matters - saving more pets. How wonderful is that? Artur is a social entrepreneur with a mission to support other entrepreneurs in all their endeavors, working cl...
May 17, 2019•39 min
"Manufacturing challenges always come up. One of the things we've had to learn is how to figure out timing, because even though you'll get a time frame from one piece of the manufacturing puzzle, something else comes up that you hadn't anticipated or you did anticipate but then it went completely sideways." Edward Madongorere is the CEO and co-founder of MOON Selfie, the smallest, most elegant mobile lighting solution for folks who want to live life in the best light. A jack of many trades, Ed w...
May 13, 2019•41 min
"In the beginning, you don't want to waste your time trying to raise money of any kind from investors that are not inherently, organically interested in either you or your industry vertical. You are not going to convert those people to you. You want to go out and find the people that are already excited either about you or about the problem space that you're in. It's like starting with a warm audience." ~ Melissa Withers, Managing Partner, RevUp Capital Melissa Withers is an experienced fund man...
Apr 26, 2019•47 min
"Maria, you are one of the most impressive people I’ve ever seen in the carpet here. I’m in!" ~ Lori Greiner, Shark Tank I agree 100% with Lori; in fact, I said those same words while watching Maria Luna, the co-founder of BRAVO, pitch the Sharks. She was so outstanding, I had to hop on Twitter and share my awe and wonder! Click this link to read the Tweet: https://twitter.com/AndeLyons/status/957323290577694720 I was delighted to hear right back from Maria, and we’ve been online friends and fan...
Apr 22, 2019•44 min
“Entrepreneurs have big ideas and big eyes!” I love this quote Diane Najm shares during our delicious conversation. Diane is the founder and CEO of PhotoPad, and she has a sensational and inspirational startup story to share with you! After practicing Social Work for over 20 years, Diane leaped into the entrepreneurial world to launch two tech platforms in the photo and digital content marketing space. She launched her first product - PhotoPad – a consumer photo app on Facebook - in 2010 and the...
Apr 19, 2019•39 min
Our guest, Anne-Fleur Andrle, is the co-founder of Jack and Ferdi, a companion application that helps travelers identify what's most authentic about a destination while offering innovative ways to the user to give back to the local community. This Bleisure App also provides data on opportunities to have a positive impact while on the road (run and walk itineraries, indigenous music, and curated local charities to give back to), while not forgetting the primary reason for the business trip...cond...
Apr 16, 2019•33 min
Please meet Seattle Entrepreneur and Mompreneur Melissa Strawn. She is the founder and CEO of MyPeopleNow.com - a peer-to-peer marketplace for services and directory of freelancers and gig workers. As a busy mom to five active boys, Melissa uses her own site daily and has incorporated many interesting features that aim to make the gig economy accessible to all. Melissa blogs at FromWelfareToMillionaire.org and is on a mission to transform the social services system into one that encourages and s...
Apr 10, 2019•34 min
Hold onto your seats folks – you’re about to take a roller coaster ride with these two startup co-founders! Our guests, Rajia Abdelaziz and Ray Hamilton, are the founders of invisaWear, a safety jewelry company that creates smart jewelry and accessories with advanced safety technology, allowing users to instantly alert friends, family, and police during an emergency. Rajia and Ray didn’t set out to start a tech company. They met in their sophomore year in an engineering lab at UMass Lowell and b...
Apr 08, 2019•1 hr 3 min
Do you have a dream business you'd like to launch but don't know where to start? Our guest, Nichelle McCall Browne, shares her best launch and growth strategies for the Solopreneur and Online Entrepreneur. Nichelle is a Startup Strategist, Venture-backed Tech Entrepreneur and Money Milestones Maven. She is the founder of Bold Startups, which provides courses and results-based coaching to help consultants, online and tech entrepreneurs hit six figures and secure funding, so they can be full-time,...
Apr 03, 2019•34 min
How do you keep a dynamic startup team engaged, empowered and retained? Our guest, Aaron Levy, shares the best advice to keep turnover low under the stressful conditions of startup life! Aaron is the Founder and CEO of Raise The Bar, a firm focused on helping companies address the problem of millennial turnover. Aaron is an ICF Associate Certified Coach, a Thrive Global contributor, an 1871 mentor, the Co-Director of Startup Grind Chicago and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. He has educat...
Mar 29, 2019•38 min
Is podcast marketing right for your business? How much does it cost, and is it hard to get started? Our guest, Shannon Hernandez (also knows as The Shan Man) is a 19 year radio veteran with 18 of his years spent with Arizona rock station, 98 KUPD. He's had the opportunity to interview some of the biggest names in the rock industry like Ivan Mood of Five Finger Death Punch, Phil Labonte of All That Remains… to Ben Anderson of Nothing More, David Ellefson of Megadeth and many more. Shannon's bigge...
Mar 21, 2019•46 min
Why would a hard working Pediatrician launch a business? On this episode of the Startup Life Show Dr. April Inness shares the life-changing moment that compelled her to create eekMD! This health tech startup is a series of experiential and immersive learning programs for elementary school age children that teaches them how to advocate for their own health and communicate with health care providers. The healthcare setting is often intimidating and scary, and children need tools to effectively com...
Mar 18, 2019•35 min
Music has always been our guest’s passion. Dalton Dellsperger, founder of the TownWave app, was an independent hip-hop artist, performing across the country and consistently putting out content, when he realized there was a problem. There were zero platforms willing to help independent musicians succeed. Sure, you can upload your music to big platforms, but NO ONE provided a way for musicians to get their music in front of listeners that are near them and who they should be interacting with and ...
Mar 11, 2019•32 min
Our guest, seasoned Tech Startup Founder and Angel Investor Igor Belagorundsky, is all about startups. As his bio on Angel.co reads: Founder of startups. Developer for startups. Adviser for startups. Investor in startups. Excited about startups. I love it! I first met Igor at a local monthly startup pitch event called Startupalooza. He’s a judge for this event, and I had to dial up my smarty pants decoder ring to tap into his brilliant ability to quickly zoom in on a startup’s business model and...
Mar 05, 2019•39 min
Did you know 90% of our senior population wants to age at home? Our guest, Meetcaregivers Founder Florence Furaha, has made the process easier, safer and 50% more affordable than traditional services - and she doesn't have a tech background! With years of experience as a caregiver, and after earning her MBA at Babson College, Florence saw a problem in the caregiver space and founded Meetcaregivers, a Massachusetts based platform using online and video technology to help families safely find and ...
Feb 27, 2019•26 min
How does an architect become a fashion designer and create a fashion brand business? Our guest, Cecile Thieulin, shares her deep insights for launching a fashion brand, even when you've never stepped foot into the fashion industry. From fundraising to design decisions to manufacturing options - Cecile brings strategies and tactics for building a fashion brand. Her startup stories and advice will also resonate with business owners across all industries and with those who are dreaming of launching...
Feb 24, 2019•39 min
Are you thinking about hitting the streets and serving up some tasty treats? It's an excellent decision given the food truck industry has a huge 7.9% annual growth rate for the past 5 years, has a low start-up cost of approximately $50,000 to $100,000, with expected annual revenue of $250,000 to $500,000! Bob Cuesta, Founder of the Empanada Dada Cuban Food Truck, shares his best advice to help you launch, brand and build a successful food truck business. In May of 2017 Bob left Corporate America...
Feb 20, 2019•35 min
