For Pura Vida co-founders Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman, a chance meeting with two Native jewelry artisans on a beach in Costa Rica sparked an idea that would forever change their lives. They're now running a rapidly growing brand that not only inspires tremendous customer loyalty, but also promotes products that give back in a big way. Pura Vida (which means “pure life” in Spanish) has grown rapidly since its inception, but this isn’t the brand’s most appealing aspect. Customers also love the ...
Jul 19, 2018•46 min
I’m excited to share a very special interview with you today! Mitchell Harper has been my long-time mentor and coach and a driving force behind Foundr’s success. I’m thrilled to share his story with you so you can glean some entrepreneurial gold from his experience. Harper started his entrepreneurial journey as a software developer, building games as early as 12 years old. He built his first businesses in his teens and sold his first company around the time he graduated high school. Partnering w...
Jul 11, 2018•58 min
Lynda Weinman sold her 20-year company Lynda.com to LinkedIn for $1.5 billion. What is she doing now? She is reinventing herself and enjoying her new role as a champion of independent film. Weinman is no stranger to the concept of reinvention. In fact, it's that very spirit of constant evolution that led her to become a trailblazer in the online education space, and to ultimately make a massive exit. Her journey started with a career in animation and special effects, of all things, and even incl...
Jul 05, 2018•53 min
A health crisis that landed Munjal Shah in the ER turned out to be the catalyst for his next mission: making the world a healthier place. On the day Munjal Shah started running a 10K race back in 2010, he was on top of the world. Just the day before, he had sold his company to Google, marking his second successful exit. Then the chest pains started. Shah wound up in the ER, and while it didn’t end up being a heart attack, the incident was a sobering reminder that his own father had had one while...
Jun 28, 2018•1 hr 1 min
In business, in life, and even behind the wheel of his actual race car, Mike Dillard goes from zero to 60 in the blink of an eye. In stark contrast to his calm voice and introverted nature, Dillard is a pioneer willing to crash through boundaries and challenge common wisdom. He just prefers to do it through the written word, rather than grand speeches or face-to-face encounters. The core principle driving Dillard’s pedal-to-the-metal attitude? He deeply believes in the power of one person to cha...
Jun 21, 2018•1 hr
Dmitry Dragilev has a typical entrepreneurial story, but maybe a little more extreme. Bored in his dead-end, corporate job, he was fearful of ending up like his older, unsatisfied peers. One day, Dragilev read in a magazine about what was going on in Silicon Valley, and up and quit. He sold everything he owned, hopped in his car, and made his way to California. Equipped only with a knowledge of coding and a drive to succeed, Dragilev had made a decision that changed the rest of his life. Key Tak...
Jun 14, 2018•50 min
To Sabri Suby, business is a jungle and only the strong survive. To be successful, you need to dominate the digital landscape and crush the competition into a fine powder. That fierce attitude has served Suby, and his clients, very well over the years. Suby is the founder of King Kong , the fastest-growing digital marketing agency in Australia. Last year, King Kong raked in $7 million in revenue from its digital marketing campaigns, over $200 million in sales for its clients, and this year, is a...
May 30, 2018•1 hr 4 min
I refuse to lose.” It's the mantra that has guided Foundr CEO Nathan Chan through the highs and lows of becoming an entrepreneur. It helped him resist the naysayers, and confront deep insecurities and self-doubt, to build the business he fell in love with right away. That sense of determination and drive continues to fuel Foundr’s big goal of impacting tens of millions of entrepreneurs around the globe with world-class resources and training. In this inspiring interview, Nathan gets up close and...
May 23, 2018•1 hr 16 min
As a lifelong, accomplished dancer, Payal Kadakia never thought she would become an entrepreneur. But it was that very love of dance that compelled her to help others pursue or rekindle their own passions. Driven by a strong desire to create something with potential to change people's lives, Kadakia created ClassPass , a platform that helps fitness and dance enthusiasts find and book classes in 8,500 studios in 50 cities around the world. Kadakia has appeared on prominent lists such as Fortune ’...
May 16, 2018•40 min
In today’s podcast, we are shining the spotlight on one of our successful Instagram Domination students, Zach Benson. This driven entrepreneur is in the trenches daily doing what it takes to make his startup dreams (and travel dreams) a reality. And he’s done a great job. We couldn’t be prouder! Benson was a former professional breakdancer who suffered an injury that ended his dance career. Looking for a “plan B,” he turned to Instagram and joined the Instagram Domination course to learn how to ...
May 09, 2018•37 min
At 24 years of age Noah Kagan got tired of being fired. After getting the boot from Facebook and other companies, Kagan decided to create his own job and live life by his own rules. Those rules included posting taco-loving blogs, shooting over-the-top YouTube vids and creating Sumo , an eight-figure global company that empowers business owners to grow their brands using cool, geeky software tools. Kagan likes to make business exciting and embraces the madness of entrepreneurial life. But aside f...
May 02, 2018•1 hr 3 min
Dan Siroker has always believed in the power of data and experimentation. A former project manager at Google and director of analytics under President Barack Obama, Siroker believes that experimentation should be one of the highest-order cultural values of an organization. To that end, Siroker co-founded Optimizely , a globally adopted software tool that enables businesses to experiment and fine-tune their businesses based on data. From product development to front-end conversions, Siroker belie...
Apr 25, 2018•34 min
Growing up as a fanatical skateboarder first in Ohio and then moving to California as a teen to pursue skating professionally, many of his friends and fellow skateboarders were older than him and running their own businesses. From a very young age, he was steeped in skateboarding’s DIY culture, always on the lookout for the next frontier in the sport, or scrappy new brand to emerge from the scene. From skate shops to clothing companies, Dyrdek was exposed to a variety of entrepreneurial ventures...
Apr 18, 2018•44 min
Former firefighter Steve McLeod turned his passion for helping people into a nationwide business, scaling his Fire and Safety Australia company to eight figures in 10 years. In addition to running a profitable company, McLeod also empowers entrepreneurs by teaching them how to become more courageous and run goal-focused businesses that never give up. According to McLeod, it takes courage to protect and serve, especially when danger could be present at every turn. But it takes another kind of cou...
Apr 11, 2018•55 min
Gary Muller’s company is thriving. His Mill House Inn in East Hampton, New York has been in business for 20 years and recognized by Travel + Leisure and the Travel Channel, highly rated by Zagat, and featured in other prominent publications. His properties have welcomed celebrities and prominent people from all over the world. If you ask Muller the secret to his success, he'll likely tell you that his family is largely responsible. "Family" is how Muller describes his employees at the inn, and h...
Apr 04, 2018•52 min
Welcome back to our “Best of Foundr” podcast series! To celebrate Foundr’s 5th birthday, we put together a series of special edition podcast episodes that feature the best snippets from our most popular episodes. We pulled out the gems from each of your favorite interviews and compiled them into a three-week series of pure content gold. This week we are focusing on hustle, motivation, mindset, and getting things done! In this episode, we have one of my heroes and the king of hustle, Gary Vee. We...
Mar 28, 2018•1 hr 36 min
Welcome to our special “Best of Foundr” edition of the podcast! To celebrate Foundr’s 5th birthday, we put together a series of special edition podcast episodes that feature the best snippets from our most popular episodes. We pulled out the gems from each of your favorite interviews and compiled them into a three-week series of pure content gold. This is the second week of our three-part series. Last week, we heard from four successful entrepreneurs on how to build an epic online presence . Thi...
Mar 21, 2018•1 hr 28 min
Welcome to our special “Best of Foundr” edition of the podcast! To celebrate Foundr’s 5th birthday, we put together a series of special edition podcast episodes that feature the best snippets from our most popular episodes. We pulled out the gems from each of your favorite interviews and compiled them into a three-week series of pure content gold. This week we are focusing on how to create an online presence with content marketing and Instagram. We are featuring some serious advice from our conv...
Mar 14, 2018•1 hr 15 min
Welcome to Foundr's fifth birthday celebration! Over the past five years, we’ve been blessed to interact with an awesome community of passionate entrepreneurs who are making it happen and turning their dreams into reality. We want to honor these inspiring entrepreneurs in our community by sharing their stories and highlighting their successes. In today's special episode, we talk with Austin Peterson, a rising entrepreneur who is working in the trenches daily to build his vintage truck restoratio...
Mar 07, 2018•1 hr 2 min
“I’m not crippled with being perfect. I’m crippled with not doing,” Gary Vaynerchuk says, and that about sums up the philosophy that propels him ahead in life and business—avoiding hesitation and seizing the moment at all costs. To many, Vaynerchuck (aka Gary Vee) needs no introduction. He’s a serial entrepreneur, four-time New York Times- bestselling author, venture capitalist, popular podcast host, and sought-after public speaker serving an audience of millions. And he's showing no signs of sl...
Feb 28, 2018•28 min
Key Takeaways - Acumen's trailblazing vision on global poverty eradication - Why it's better to invest in people first, then ideas - The companies Acumen has invested in and the depth of impact they have made - Key advice from Novogratz to anyone interested in pursuing social entrepreneurship
Feb 21, 2018•38 min
Melody McCloskey is the founder of StyleSeat, a San Francisco-based SaaS company that has raised $40 million in funding, powers billions in transactions and is recognized in 82% of American cities. StyleSeat provides tools for beauty professionals, which lets them run their entire business with just one piece of software. If StyleSeat sounds like your typical booming, industry-disrupting tech startup, don't be fooled. McCloskey is dedicated to running her company in very atypical ways, and in to...
Feb 08, 2018•37 min
Unlike most entrepreneurs, Ajit Nawalkha doesn't focus on profit, revenue, sales, or customer surveys to grow his company. He's also been known to abandon some of his products, even when they're highly profitable, if they don't align with his vision. An unconventional approach, to be sure, but his personal development school Mindvalley has more than 3 million students and counting. So what does Nawalkha focus on? His mission is to create life-changing experiences for his customers, and does so b...
Jan 31, 2018•48 min
Key Takeaways Lessons learned from more than 20 years of experience as entrepreneurs The defining action that tripled their conversions and led to the sale of their first company The one marketing strategy that has allowed them to massively scale their business (it has nothing to do with social media or advertising) How to hire trusted C-level executives to take the load off your shoulders as you grow
Jan 24, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Key Takeaways The hard-earned lessons Ries learned that ultimately led to the creation of his renowned book, The Lean Startup , and ushered in a worldwide movement How to hire and assign managers successfully How to create a product your customers will love (Hint: it starts with your product owner) The downfall of many leaders who want innovation and change but do not see it happen in their organ
Jan 18, 2018•37 min
Entrepreneurs find inspiration in all sorts of places. But for Ari Meisel, founder, bestselling author, and productivity expert, desperation was the driving force behind the launch of his successful company, Less Doing . That same desperation led him to breakthroughs in productivity that changed his life. At just 23 years old, Meisel was enjoying a thriving real estate career, but after suffering some major business blows and landing $3 million in debt, the stress overwhelmed him and he was diag...
Jan 11, 2018•58 min
What if you could stumble upon a game-changing idea without spending time and money on validation, industry research, or prototypes? And then grow this idea into the second largest company in your niche? It’s not common, but that's what happened to today’s podcast guest, David Barrett. Barrett is the founder of Expensify , the second largest expense-reporting company in the world. But in its early stages, Barrett knew nothing about the space, nor was he particularly interested in it. In fact, he...
Jan 03, 2018•45 min
Jessica Jackley, co-founder of the game-changing microlending site Kiva, never played the typical role from entrepreneurial stories we're accustomed to hearing. She didn't start a business as a kid, and never dreamed of making millions. Jackley considered entrepreneurship a greedy venture, in fact, and she wanted to be one of the good guys. But things quickly shifted for Jackley while she was in East Africa doing survey work for a nonprofit. Inspired by her work there with microfinancing, Jackle...
Dec 20, 2017•35 min
Welcome to the final installment of our three-part podcast series that’s shining the spotlight on successful entrepreneurs who hail right from our very own Foundr community! These passionate people are in the trenches daily doing what it takes to make their startup dreams a reality. If you haven’t listened to parts one and two, featuring Gamal Codner and Shannon Willougby, you can check them out right here and here . Today, we talk with Brandon Monaghan and Justin Kemperman, superstar entreprene...
Dec 13, 2017•43 min
Welcome to part two of our three-part podcast series that's shining the spotlight on successful entrepreneurs who hail right from our very own Foundr community! These passionate people are in the trenches daily doing what it takes to make their startup dreams a reality. If you haven't listened to part one, featuring Gamal Codner, you can check it out right here . Today, we talk with Shannon Willoughby, a courageous entrepreneur who started from zero and scaled her ecommerce business to $30,000+ ...
Dec 06, 2017•41 min
