Get every episode + giveaways sent to your inbox: https://www.creatorlab.fm/subscribe/ Let us know what you think on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzaidi https://twitter.com/noahkagan Subscribe to Noah's YouTube channel & Podcast: https://sleek.bio/noah Watch & Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mAnOqgH0OgA Noah Kagan is the founder of AppSumo, an 8-figure business bringing in an estimated $70mil+ in 2021. He was employee #30 at Facebook, #4 at Mint.com and his popular YouTube channel has ov...
Apr 02, 2021•2 hr 34 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast Alex Lieberman is the co-founder & CEO of Morning Brew. They're a leading new media startup with over 2.7mil newsletter subscribers, making them one of the largest daily newsletters around. Alex & his co-founder sold a majority stake in the business to Insider Inc for a reported $75mil in Oct 2020. After listening to this conversation, you'll understand: growing from a newsletter to a full-on media business 3 step audience funnel: rented, owned + monetized hub + spoke model how they got their fi...
Mar 25, 2021•2 hr 52 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast Dru Riley is the founder of Trends.vc, a community + newsletter that helps 35,000 entrepreneurs discover new markets + ideas. Trends makes tens of thousands of dollars/month in subscription revenue + was ranked "Product of The Month" on Product Hunt. In this conversation you'll learn about: – the meta-trends behind what Dru writes about, the things that don't change, after studying the things that do change – democratization, positive-sum networks + fractional ownership – trends he's excited abo...
Mar 18, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast Lexi Lewtan the founder of Centered, where she's building the Masterclass for Mental Health. Previously she ran operations for AngelList's Talent Platform, scaling it from zero to $20m in revenue. She has a deep background in the startup world, previously working at Hired & betaworks. In this conversation you'll learn: lessons in recruiting & the 80/20 of hiring the business model behind AngelList Talent & Hired tools to help you deal with focus, anxiety, depression & work stress the difference ...
Mar 11, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast Jake Gibson is the co-founder of NerdWallet & Founding Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, a $75mil venture fund, investing in the future of Fintech alongside Sheel Mohnot. He's been involved in fintech for over a decade. Prior to NerdWallet, he studied math and quantitative finance at MIT and traded interest rate derivatives at JPMorgan. Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi & @iamjakestream Full video with timestamps on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s-Tcuootl7s In this conversation we di...
Mar 04, 2021•2 hr 37 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast Ana Lorena Fabrega is an EDUpreneur and former teacher known by little ones as Ms. Fab. She's currently the Chief Evangelist of Synthesis School, an innovative online enrichment club started by the director of Elon Musk’s experimental school at Space X. Synthesis helps students build decision-making & problem-solving skills through games. Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi & @anafabrega11 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Fo_CM01BNTQ After listening to this conversation, you'll unde...
Feb 25, 2021•2 hr 34 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast Nick Huber is a real estate entrepreneur, self-storage owner & operator. His commercial real estate portfolio is approaching $30mil in assets (as of 2021) & he's built a name for himself by championing "sweaty startups" aka unsexy businesses. Nick has built a 100k following on Twitter by transparently sharing the lessons learned from his time in business & by simplifying concepts in the real estate game. Let us know what you think of this convo on Twitter: @bzaidi and @sweatystartup Watch and su...
Feb 18, 2021•2 hr 34 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast Anne-Laure Le Cunff is the founder of Ness Labs, a community for knowledge workers to be more productive and creative while taking care of their mental health. She's an ex-Googler and holds a MSc in Neuroscience from King's College London. Her work has been featured in WIRED, Rolling Stone, and more. Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi @anthilemoon In this conversation, you'll learn about: focused vs diffused learning common misconceptions about the brain networked thought + idea sex ...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast Watch the full convo and Q&A on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gSVQHw-da5s This is part 2, the Q&A of the live convo with Jack Butcher from Visualize Value. Listen to the previous episode to hear our live convo on the evolution of the creator economy & unique ways to monetize. Who Is Jack Butcher? Jack is the founder of Visualize Value, a company that builds content, community & courses for building independent income on the internet. His Twitter + Instagram accounts have grown to 400k+ followers in ...
Feb 03, 2021•41 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast Watch the full convo and Q&A on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gSVQHw-da5s Jack Butcher is the founder of Visualize Value, a company that builds content, community & courses for building independent income on the internet. His Twitter + Instagram accounts have grown to 400k+ followers in 2yrs & his business earned $1mil+ in 2020. This was Jack's second appearance on Creator Lab. This time, Jack & Bilal co-hosted a live recording with a virtual audience. To join the next one, sign up at: https://www.c...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast Mikael Cho is the co-founder and CEO of Unsplash. The world's leading image asset platform that boasts 100 million image downloads & 20 billion views per month. Unsplash is used more than Flickr, Getty, and Shutterstock combined. Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi and @mikaelcho Watch the full convo on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vtIGAEKxC0w In this conversation, you'll learn: how Mikael built Unsplash from a series of failed experiments balancing focus with experimentation how to crea...
Jan 27, 2021•2 hr 33 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast Gagan is the co-founder & former President of Udemy, an online education company that's worth more than $2bil. He later co-founded Sprig, a food delivery startup & went on to become the interim head of growth marketing at Lyft. Gagan recently announced a new education startup with Wes Kao. They've raised $4.3mil from investors like First Round Capital, Naval Ravikant & Li Jin. Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi @gaganbiyani Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IifuGS...
Jan 21, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast Andrew Wilkinson is the co-founder of Tiny. He owns 30+ companies, including Dribbble, Metalab, Girlboss & Castro. Collectively, these businesses bring in $100mil+ in annual revenue. Andrew took WeCommerce public the week of this interview, with the most recent market cap hitting $800mil Canadian dollars (Jan 2021) He's a leading expert in buying, starting & growing online businesses. Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi & @awilkinson Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QRIl2aGmzMc In t...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast Polina Marinova Pompliano is the author of The Profile, a newsletter that profiles the world's most successful people. She spent five years at FORTUNE, where she was the author + editor of Term Sheet, an industry-leading newsletter on dealmaking. Polina has interviewed some of the most influential dealmakers in the world, including: Melinda Gates, Steve Case, Chamath Palihapitiya and others. Watch & Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XFIPkG0rbvU Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi...
Jan 07, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast Courtland founded Indie Hackers, one of the leading entrepreneurship communities on the internet. Indie Hackers was acquired by Stripe in 2017. He's a Y Combinator alum & graduated from MIT. This conversation is broken up into two parts. In part one, we discuss: the indiehacker philosophy optimizing for freedom + becoming a time billionaire capitalism + the american dream diversity, race + culture equality of opportunity vs outcome Part Two - Business Idea Framework (starts at 1hr mark): a four-...
Dec 31, 2020•2 hr 39 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast Tim Urban is one of the internet's most popular writers. His blog, Wait But Why, attracts millions of visitors including famous fans like Elon Musk. His talk on procrastination is the #1 TED talk on YouTube with 33mil+ views. Subscribe + Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tl2a6H1E7DU Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi @waitbutwhy FIVE THINGS YOU'LL LEARN: his writing + research process first principles thinking + lessons learned from Elon Musk + Tony Hseih (Zappos) techniques to over...
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast Let me know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi Subscribe + watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jWYhsGaK3Qk Chris Kuenne started Rosetta & grew it to become the largest independent digital agency in the world before selling to Publicis for $575mil. Now he runs Rosemark Capital, investing in companies with revenues of $30–60mil. Chris teaches high-tech entrepreneurship at Princeton University. In this conversation, we discuss: how Chris pre-sold $1mil of contracts before launching his agency four p...
Dec 10, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast Matteo Franceschetti is the founder of Eight Sleep, the sleep fitness company at the forefront of sleep tech. They’ve raised more than $70mil, came out of Y Combinator and are one of the leading companies at the forefront of sleep technology. Time magazine named their product one of the best inventions of 2018 + 2019. Watch + subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vd3wXxYaAxc Let us know what you think on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzaidi https://twitter.com/m_franceschetti In this conversatio...
Dec 02, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast Shaan Puri is an entrepreneur, investor & top 50 podcast host. He was the CEO of Bebo when they sold to Twitch (Amazon) where he's now a senior director of product. He invests in startups + recently raised $2.5mil for his "rolling fund" in 11 days, just from a tweet. Watch + subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6Hoo38Fr07g Let us know what you think on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzaidi https://twitter.com/ShaanVP In this conversation we discuss: solopreneurship vs high growth startups ideas ...
Nov 19, 2020•2 hr 34 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast Steph Smith leads Trends at The Hustle. She’s a serial indie maker, writer + marketer. She’s been a nomad since 2016 & has traveled to 50+ countries while working, learning to code + creating. Watch + subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qQtciVUeOMU Let us know what you think on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzaidi https://twitter.com/stephsmithio What You'll Learn: how to pre-sell + validate your idea economics of self-publishing vs traditional book deals what you can learn from games like che...
Nov 12, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast Mubashar Iqbal aka Mubs is a prolific creator. He was Product Hunt’s “maker of the year” + has built 90+ products including Pod Hunt + Founderpath Watch + subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CHYNoO6jRiY Let us know what you think on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzaidi https://twitter.com/mubashariqbal Five Things You'll Learn: knowing when to take on a new project vs calling it quits why “founder-product-fit” is as important as “product-market-fit" example business ideas + how to validate the...
Nov 05, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast Pomp is a partner + co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital. He hosts a top 10 podcast, has an audience of ~400k followers on Twitter + writes a daily letter to 80,000 investors. Watch + subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/stlcZjTawvs Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi @creatorlabfm @apompliano Five Things You'll Learn: actionable ways to grow a Twitter, YouTube & e-mail audience subscriptions, ads + the future of media monetization “digital art” + emerging trends to invest in the pros...
Oct 29, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Emily Anhalt is a psychologist, co-founder + chief-clinical officer of Coa, a mental fitness platform + community. She’s conducted research with prominent psychologists + entrepreneurs on how leaders can improve their emotional fitness. She's collaborated with companies like Google, Asana, TEDx, NASDAQ, Bloomberg, + True Ventures Watch + Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8n4F_mS79gs Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi @creatorlabfm @dremilyanhalt @joincoa FIVE THINGS YOU'LL L...
Oct 21, 2020•51 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Parr is the founder & CEO of The Hustle, an 8 figure media business. They have 1.5mil people subscribed to their daily email newsletter + are on track to hit 8 figures in revenue with their paid newsletter, trends. Sign up for trends here: https://trends.co/?ref=11694 Five Things You'll Learn: how he’d build an audience differently today starting a paid newsletter business + finding talented writers copywriting + persuading people through the written word incentives + the future of media bei...
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast Jack Butcher is the founder of @VisualizeValue, a Twitter/Instagram account he's grown to 100k+ followers in less than 2yrs. His business brings in $100k+ month with 99% profit margins. Five Things You'll Learn: building an audience from scratch transitioning from selling services (time) to products (value) how to tell better stories leverage, compounding + other ideas that changed his world view naval’s tweetstorm on building wealth Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi @creatorlabfm @...
Oct 08, 2020•2 hr 43 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Who is Josh? Josh Clemente is the founder of Levels. He’s a mechanical engineer, CrossFit L2 trainer + previously leads teams at Hyperloop + SpaceX where he developed life support systems for astronauts going into space. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of optimizing your metabolic health, how software can drive behavior change + the future of health tech. Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3B1RJvlff74 Topics We Discuss what is metabolic health + why is it important? stories ...
Sep 30, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast Subscribe + watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/42U2VfWp2Go Let me know what you think on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzaidi Who is Jim? Jim McKelvey is an entrepreneur, glass-blowing artist + philanthropist. He’s most well known as the co-founder of Square, the financial payments company he started with Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter). Jim also co-founded the non-profit “Launch Code” and he’s an independent Director of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Jim’s book, The Innovation Stack , is availab...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Subscribe + Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JcJIvhXdbt0 Let me know what you think on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzaidi Who Is Kat Cole? Kat is one of the most impressive business leaders in America. Fortune magazine named her on their 40 under 40 list & her story is often cited as an example of the “American Dream”. She worked her way up from being a waitress at Hooters aged 17, to an exec at 26 and a president at 31. Today, she’s the president of a parent company doing $4-5bil in sales in...
Sep 16, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Who Is Ryan? Ryan Begelman co-founded Summit Series, described as “TED meets Burning Man” & “The Davos of Gen Y” by Forbes They’ve become known for hosting incredible events with thousands of leading creators like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos & Jessica Alba. Summit acquired Powder Mountain, America’s largest ski resort after pre-selling the opportunity to their community. Ryan also bought into Bisnow Media, became CEO & sold for a reported $50mil+, all without venture capital. What You’ll Learn P...
Sep 08, 2020•2 hr 43 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast SUMMARY: In this episode, we discuss the world of micro private equity, buying existing companies with little money down & the philosophy of becoming an owner. Ryan has a growing portfolio of 7 products, including fomo.com, a popular SaaS Shopify app. He’s doing 7-figures in revenue, all while living a nomadic life traveling the world, coding on-the-go & making music. SHOW NOTES: https://www.creatorlab.fm/ryan-kulp-fork-equity/ WATCH + SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/yEaKaxRgjlQ WHAT YOU'...
Aug 21, 2020•2 hr 44 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast 
