Immad Akhund is the founder and CEO of Mercury, a company that makes banking for startups easy. As a kid interested in programming for fun, he wouldn’t have guessed that he would end up here, and as he mentioned in our conversation, he tried more than once to start a company. Many entrepreneurs will understand the statement, “This is all a big experiment until it’s not.” He discussed his previous startup ventures and the lessons he learned from failures. Immad also talked about the founding stor...
Apr 10, 2024•51 min•Season 2Ep. 10
We love Ayurveda at The Founders' Roundtable, so when we had the opportunity to talk to Michelle Ranavat, founder & CEO of Ranavat, we took it. Michelle is the brilliant mind behind Ranavat, a brand synonymous with luxurious and holistic skincare inspired by Indian traditions. The company is not only bringing ancient science to the modern world through its skin and hair care products but is also focused on making an impact with each purchase. In this episode, we asked Michelle about her expe...
Nov 15, 2023•49 min
Samir Lakhani is a true changemaker. He's the driving force behind Eco-Soap Bank, an innovative non-profit that's revolutionizing hygiene, sustainability, and social impact. With his dedication and entrepreneurial spirit, Samir is changing lives one soap bar at a time. Eco-Soap Bank goes beyond recycling soap; it's about empowering vulnerable communities. Samir shares insights into how access to hygiene can break the cycle of poverty and make a lasting difference in the lives of those in need. T...
Oct 26, 2023•53 min
Today, Ashley Rouse, founder & CEO of Trade St. Jam Company, sits down with us for a vulnerable conversation on the high highs and low lows of entrepreneurship. Ashley is a former chef-turned-founder who created spoonable jams using her culinary expertise that customers absolutely love (us included). TFR is about bringing authentic conversations back into the founder world, and Ashley helped us do precisely this. When her business took a huge financial hit, she began opening up to her Instag...
Oct 12, 2023•52 min
After a brief hiatus, we're back with more episodes for our second season. Our guest is Nadya Okamoto, a social entrepreneur who has been an advocate for menstrual equity since she was in high school. Years ago, she launched her non-profit organization, Period. Nadya is a force to be reckoned with because she didn't just stop there. She's also the founder of August, a menstrual hygiene brand leveraging the power of Gen-Z marketing to create an impact. Nadya's relentless commitment to this cause ...
Sep 22, 2023•28 min
Saffron is a powerhouse ingredient that is loaded with antioxidants, and its many benefits for our skin and our overall health are still being realized. Anne Nguyen Oliver, our guest and the founder and CEO of House of M Beauty, has experienced the beneficial properties of saffron firsthand. Her brand is dedicated to empowering women through its transformative saffron-based skincare products. During our conversation, Anne shared with us how perseverance carried her over seemingly insurmountable ...
Jul 19, 2023•1 hr 8 min
This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to incorporate more mindfulness into their lives. We had the pleasure of interviewing Danielle Cuccio, a celebrity yoga instructor and the founder & CEO of Cuccio Somatology. In this episode, Danielle shares her journey of building a successful brand in the wellness industry and provides invaluable tips for other founders looking to do the same. For those unfamiliar with Cuccio Somatology, it's a brand that specializes in creating products to ...
Jul 01, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In this episode, we sat down with April, the founder of Detroit-based bakery Good Cakes and Bakes. We discussed April's journey and the impact of her business on the community. The conversation also explores the challenges April faced, such as opening a bakery during Detroit's bankruptcy, juggling a full-time job, and being a mother. They touch on the importance of perseverance, building a supportive community, and the lessons learned along the way. April shares her insights on leadership, polic...
Jun 16, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In this thought-provoking discussion with Bruce Friedrich, we delve into the future of sustainable and delicious food options that are revolutionizing the way we consume. As a society, we must rethink animal agriculture as it exists today due to its enormous impact on our environment, human health, and animals. As the founder of the Good Food Institute, a renowned non-profit organization dedicated to promoting plant-based and cultivated meat alternatives, Bruce possesses a wealth of knowledge an...
May 26, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In the first episode of season 2, Isha and Dominique sit down with Akash Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Ayurvedic-inspired haircare brand Fable & Mane. Akash also runs his podcast, Founded Beauty, which focuses on sharing how the world’s biggest beauty brands got to where they are. He and his sister are actively working to further their conservation work through their foundation, The Fable Fund. You may recognize this brand from the episode we filmed in season 1 with his sister and co-founder,...
May 10, 2023•53 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Ries is a company born from Megan Graham's own experiences with traveling. As she began to rise up the ranks at Vogue and Condé Nast, the amount of travel she was doing began to increase as well. Along with this came the experience of attempting to take her self-care routine along for the ride, but failing to feel like her best self when traditional plastic toiletry containers did not do the job to hold her products together. In addition to the impact work that she was doing outside of her job, ...
Sep 02, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Being in the restaurant industry has not been easy over the past few years, and it has taken pivoting and catering to customers using innovative strategies for some to save their businesses. Many restauranteurs took their businesses online and attempted to double down on creating more efficient ordering systems. However, many are still stuck without easy-to-use technology to help them thrive. Nabeel Alamgir is an entrepreneur attempting to empower restaurants with his company, Lunchbox, which en...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Our guest for this episode has been a mentor and professor to both of us, and she has played a big role in shaping us into the founders that we are today. Marijo Upshaw is a movement leader in the social impact space, and she has worked tirelessly for over 30 years to launch and lead programs, scale her family business, and guide the next generation of impact leaders at Wayne State University School of Social Work and School of Business. Today, she’s sharing with us her story from the very begin...
Jun 20, 2022•1 hr 35 min
Amy Peterson is the co-founder and CEO of Rebel Nell, a company dedicated to uplifting women and providing underserved women with a route to self-sufficiency and equitable opportunity. The company uses fallen street art to create sustainable jewelry, all while giving women an equal opportunity to work and renew their lives. Amy started as a lawyer and was the first-ever associate female council for the Detroit Tigers. While she was working for the team as one of the few women in prominent MLB po...
May 23, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 12
For the first time ever, we're joined by two guests on TFR. Raphael Wright and Dazmonique Carr are relentlessly building their food sovereignty movement in Detroit. On the pod, we discussed the many factors that influence a community's relationship with food, from transportation barriers to the lack of access to nutritional literacy. Dazmonique is an old friend who has been building her business, Deeply Rooted Produce, to grow food in Detroit and empower legacy Detroiters to return to home cooki...
May 09, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 11
To Nikita Mehta, self-care means much more than what most people would imagine. The founder and creative director of Fable & Mane, a hair wellness brand, believes that acts of self-love and wellness rituals are the key to unlocking our best selves, as well as influencing the world around us in positive ways. After working in the luxury fragrance industry, she co-founded her company with her younger brother, Akash Mehta. In this episode, she discussed working with a sibling, balancing a perso...
Apr 26, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 10
This episode was all about women's health, a topic that has been politicized for far too long. Roya Pakzad is the founder of Feminade, a company that believes that providing women with root-cause tools and solid data can help them reclaim their lives and their health stories. The current approach to healthcare relies heavily on band-aid solutions and addressing symptoms instead of the core of a condition, and Feminade is part of a larger shift that has gained momentum in recent years to look bey...
Apr 11, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Ashton Keys is a tech founder born and bred in Detroit and is building his company, Athlytic, with his co-founder Jared Eummer. The company is a marketplace that allows colleges athletes the ability to use their name, image, and likeness for endorsement deals. It is also using its platform to empower athletes by giving them tools to increase financial literacy and improve mental health under the immense pressure they face from sports fans. During this episode, Ashton took us all the way back to ...
Mar 28, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Joan Nguyen and her team at Bumo are building the future of family. Bumo, which means 'parent' in Korean, is reinventing what childcare and work will look like in the future. As the world was attempting to cope with the effects of the pandemic, she and her team set out to build a human-first solution that has positively impacted families globally. Joan has been a trailblazer in the education space, growing her previous company MeriEducation, into an Inc 5000 company. In this episode, she shared ...
Mar 14, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In our discussion with Gina Adams, founder and CEO of Wareologie, she detailed the events in her personal life that led her to start building products for those with physical limitations. After watching her stepfather struggle with Parkinson's and working in the apparel and sportswear industries, she realized that existing products were not doing much to empower populations with dexterity challenges. While completing her MBA at Wayne State, she began to build Buttons2Button magnetic adapters, al...
Feb 28, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Amanda Lewan is an entrepreneur and writer based in Michigan. She has spent years being a connector in Detroit's entrepreneurial ecosystem, starting by building her co-working company, Bamboo. Bamboo is more than just an office space, and serves as a support system for entrepreneurs with offices in Detroit and Royal Oak. She and her team have plans to grow into more cities in the Midwest, while keeping inclusivity and community at the forefront of their mission. Human connection has been through...
Feb 14, 2022•50 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Sheu-Jane, aka "the Captain" of Repela, had so much to say about building ventures in a meaningful way. She and her team are on a mission to build eco-friendly anti-fouling coating, which is crucial when it comes to protecting our freshwater resources and environment in general. The episode includes advice on how to be well-prepared when creating stakeholder relationships, ensuring that you stay in love with the problem you are solving, and using every possible opportunity to learn and improve y...
Feb 01, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Rishi Moudgil joins the podcast and discusses how his founder journey began while in school, and how he learned to listen to the communities he was trying to serve in order to build a valuable solution for their problems. He also explains the work he does as the Founding Executive Director of Greenlight Fund Detroit, communicating the importance of balancing heart and dollars when innovating, and defining what social impact really means. CONNECT WITH US: TFR: linktr.ee/thefoundersroundtable Rish...
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 3
TFR co-hosts reunite with their professor, Ed Kim. He talks about how he has stepped into and learned from different roles, persevered through trying times, and fully realized the importance of failing fast when it was time to move on from a venture. CONNECT WITH US: TFR: linktr.ee/thefoundersroundtable Ed Kim - www.repela.co Dominique Golden Isha Naik - www.treeo.co EPISODE-RELATED RESOURCES: Startup-Investor Matching Tool The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to...
Jan 04, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Monica Wheat, managing director of Techstars Equitech (+ founder/investor/so much more), joins TFR as its first guest. She discusses her journey building ventures and driving the Detroit entrepreneurial ecosystem (and beyond) forward, as well as the importance of diversity and inclusion from both the founder and funder perspectives. CONNECT WITH US Monica Wheat - https://www.techstars.com/the-line/eq ... , https://www.venturecatalysts.co | Dominique Golden | Isha Naik - https://www.treeo.co TFR'...
Nov 16, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 1
