What I Know - podcast cover

What I Know

Inc. Magazine•cms.megaphone.fm
Business
Technology
News
The greatest businesses weren’t born from moments of genius. They emerged after years of discovery--and often after years of failure. What I Know from Inc. magazine takes you inside the messy, painful, and--every so often--transcendent journey of starting a company. Through candid interviews, Inc. senior writer Christine Lagorio-Chafkin draws out the real grit and true lessons behind innovative companies and remarkable brands.
Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Follow on
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
RSS
YouTube
Overcast
Pocket Casts
Episodes.fm
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

Ryan Breslow of Bolt: Culture Is Everything

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with the founder and CEO of the company that ranked No. 64 the 2021 Inc. 5000, Ryan Breslow. The company is called Bolt, and it is one-click checkout for retailers. Ryan started Bolt in 2014 as an offshoot of his cryptocurrency research at Stanford, and after years of product development and fundraising and slow growth, the company has hit an inflection point and is growing wildly, with over 10 million shoppers on the Bolt network.

Nov 08, 2021•40 min

What I Know BEST: How To Deal With Customer Complaints, Fast

This week, Kara Goldin, the founder and CEO of Hint Water, explains how her ability to put herself in another person’s shoes--even when that person has a completely different set of needs and desires than her--helped her learn to negotiate

Nov 01, 2021•13 min

Hint Water’s Kara Goldin: The Outsider’s Advantage

When Kara Goldin launched her fruit-flavored water company, Hint, in 2005, she’d worked in media and tech--but never in consumer products, much less beverage creation or distribution. But armed with curiosity and verve, when she lacked know-how, she asked the right questions. And perhaps what she didn’t know was the most valuable asset of all--because the immense challenges that would come didn’t seem impossible. Goldin tells host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about her biggest moments of doubt, inc...

Oct 25, 2021•49 min

Michael Dell: A New Way To Think About Risk

One of America’s best-known entrepreneurs, Michael Dell, founded his eponymous company out of a University of Texas dorm room. More than three decades later, he’s led his company through multiple transformations, including taking it private, and taking on $50 billion in debt to complete a major acquisition. Dell Technologies is in a new phase of its life--and Dell explains his leadership philosophies that have shaped it all in his new book, Play Nice But Win. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews...

Oct 11, 2021•36 min

What I Know BEST: How to Sell Anything Face-to-Face

Our new segment, What I Know Best, hones in on a superpower of the founders and thought leaders from our biweekly, longform interviews. This week, Kim Lewis, the CEO and cofounder of CurlMix, explains how to sell anything, when face to face with a potential customer.

Oct 04, 2021•6 min

Kim and Tim Lewis of Curl Mix: Listen to Your Community

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Kim and Tim Lewis, founders of Curl Mix, about their circuitous funding journey and landing at No. 93 on the 2021 Inc. 5000 after attaining more than 4,000 percent growth over the past three years.

Sep 27, 2021•47 min

Eren Bali of Carbon Health: Instinct Versus Data

To celebrate the launch of the 2021 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing private companies, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews the co-founder and chief executive of Carbon Health, the startup aiming to make health-care more accessible and affordable--and which earned the No. 2 spot on the Inc. 5000 list with $45 million in 2020 revenue and an astounding 39,734 percent three-year growth rate.

Aug 17, 2021•55 min

Cate Luzio of Luminary: Own Your Strengths

​​When she had the idea for an organization to elevate women in leadership roles and entrepreneurship, Cate Luzio didn’t even intend to start a company. Three years later, she’s built Luminary, a thousands-strong networking and career-coaching company that’s weathered the pandemic--and taken the opportunity to expand digitally and globally. She tells Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about the challenges she faced, and what she’s learned along the way.

Jul 19, 2021•54 min

Sarah LaFleur: Be The Whole Person

On this episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of womenswear brand M.M. LeFleur.

Jul 06, 2021•56 min

Garry Tan: There is No Normal Path for Starting a Company

Garry Tan is known for his investments in Coinbase and Instacart--but before cofounding and managing his fund, Initialized Capital, he was a partner at Y Combinator, where he advised more than 700 startups. He’d been down that road before--founding two of his own companies. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Tan--now a thought-leader with a popular YouTube channel, about his journey from food-insecurity in the Bay Area to student to founder to investor, and what he’s learned along the way to s...

Jun 21, 2021•40 min

Ryan Petersen: Balancing Order and Disorder

Ryan Petersen founded Flexport in 2013, when he decided to break into and transform part of the global-shipping industry by bringing reliable data and tracking to even the smallest companies. Now he has more than $1 billion in revenue and 2200 employees globally--and the industry is facing an unprecedented challenge in the wake of the pandemic. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Petersen about what he’s learned this year--and through the early chaotic days of scaling his company fast--about fi...

Jun 07, 2021•47 min

Sallie Krawcheck: Look For Things Others Don’t See

On today's episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Sallie Krawcheck. Sallie is the co-founder and CEO of Ellevest, the digital financial advisor that focuses on the money needs of women. She founded it in 2016, after spending decades as an analyst and executive on Wall Street.

May 24, 2021•46 min

Fawn Weaver: Build a Culture of Confidence

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Fawn Weaver, the CEO and founder of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, bestselling author, and serial entrepreneur, about how she built her brand and company after setting out to tell the remarkable story of Nearest Green, the first known African-American master distiller and man who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey.

May 10, 2021•41 min

Melissa Bernstein: Existential Fear and Entrepreneurship

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Melissa Bernstein, the co-founder of $500 million toy company Melissa & Doug and the author of a new book about mental health, LifeLines, about her own journey to building a company while suffering from depression.

Apr 26, 2021•36 min

Obé Fitness: Adapting Under Pressure

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Ashley Mills and Mark Mullett, the founders of Obé Fitness, about how the former adversaries founded their company--and how when the pandemic hit they reacted with creativity, sending the company into a period of wild growth.

Apr 12, 2021•52 min

Matthew Inman and Elan Lee: Invite Everyone to The Party

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Matthew Inman and Elan Lee--founders of Exploding Kittens--about how they founded their company, when to give up on a potentially good idea, and the $1 million dollar meow.

Mar 29, 2021•1 hr 7 min

Courtney Newell: Go Extra

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews the founder of Crowned Marketing and Communications about how she turned $500 in pageant winnings into a thriving company that advises big brands on inclusive marketing. She’s also an expert on Gen Z, who has researched their consumption habits for her book FutureProof: The Blueprint for Building a Brand Gen Z and Millennials Love.

Mar 08, 2021•42 min

Jack Dangermond: Being Interesting is Overrated

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Jack Dangermond, co-founder of ESRI, about starting his business with little over $1000 in personal savings and turning that into a billion dollar, privately held business.

Feb 22, 2021•51 min

Jim Collins: What Makes Great Companies Tick

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Jim Collins--author of best selling books Good to Great and Built To Last--about his three decades of research and writing about the skills and practices that make strong, lasting companies

Jan 25, 2021•53 min

Year In Review

A look back at some of the best moments of the year on What I Know

Jan 04, 2021•31 min

Phil Libin: Find a new way to ski

On today's episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Phil Libin, the serial entrepreneur and investor known for co-founding Evernote, about starting what he's learned since starting his fifth company, Mmhmm. They also delve into the ills of the social-media ecosystem, and why Libin says he'll never touch an indirect-funding model again.

Dec 07, 2020•56 min
← PrevNext →
Hosted on Megaphone by Spotify
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android