Every episode.
20 interviews with business owners, newest first. Written guides for founders are in Articles.
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Melissa Banko: The Reality of Building a Business and Raising a Family
Melissa Banko started Banko Design in a spare bedroom in 2014 and built it into a multi-brand organization serving senior living, multifamily, and private club clients across the country. But along the way, she learned that bigger isn't always better.
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From Selling Ice to Building a 140-Person Pet Care Business | Scott Burnley
Scott Burnley went from delivering bags of ice and working in sales to quitting his job, becoming a dog trainer, and helping build Pet Station Country Club into three locations with around 140 employees.
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How Four Veterans Built Four Branches Bourbon | Rick Franco & Mike Trott
Rick Franco and Mike Trott, co-founders of Four Branches Bourbon. Four Branches didn’t start as a business. It started as an honor barrel created by four veterans who wanted to remember friends they lost and give back to the military community.
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Dave Moorman: Building an MSP, Scaling Through M&A & Exiting Twice
Dave Moorman, who spent more than 30 years in the IT and MSP world building, scaling, acquiring, and selling businesses. Dave shares how he went from working at 10 years old and discovering computers through a heavy metal band to building DynaSis for 26 years.
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Davies Hood of Induron Protective Coatings: Building an 80-Year Family Business
Davies Hood, President of Induron Protective Coatings, a third-generation family business founded in Birmingham in 1947. Davies shares how he went from working difficult summer jobs in the plant to becoming a regional salesperson, company president, and eventually owner.
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Concentrate AI: The LLM Gateway for Fast-Growing Teams
Ari Jacoby, Co-Founder & CEO of Concentrate AI, and Zach Moskow, Founding GTM & Ops at Concentrate AI. Concentrate recently launched out of stealth after raising $5.1 million and is building an LLM gateway that gives teams one API to access leading AI models, manage token spend, improve reliability, and add security and compliance controls as they scale AI products.
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In The Making Of: Nishank Gite
Nishank Gite, Co-Founder & CTO of Nirvana Robotics, to explore Nishank’s journey from physics and AI research into building a robotics company. The conversation covers Nishank’s background in collider physics, machine learning, neural networks, and robotics, along with the realities of building a hard-tech startup.
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The Making Of Alex Dixon: From Goldman Sachs to CEO of Resorts World Las Vegas
Alex Dixon, former CEO of Resorts World Las Vegas and former executive at MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment. Alex shares his journey from growing up in Las Vegas as a third-generation casino employee to working at Goldman Sachs in New York and London, where he advised on major deals including Disney’s acquisition of Pixar and multi-billion dollar financings.
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The Making Of David Sauers: Building Royal Restrooms Into a Nationwide Franchise
David Sauers, co-founder of Royal Restrooms, one of the first luxury portable restroom companies in the country. David shares his journey growing up in Savannah, Georgia, working odd jobs as a kid, pursuing professional golf, getting into banking, and eventually building a nationwide franchise business after a frustrating experience at a local festival sparked an idea.
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In The Making Of: Jesse Choe
Jesse Choe, CEO and Co-Founder of Bidflow. He breaks down his journey from early startup experiments to raising $1M at 19, dropping out of college, and getting into Y Combinator. Jesse shares how his path started with building “fake startups” in high school, learning through failure, and eventually realizing the importance of customer validation and solving real problems.
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The Making Of Shane Crocker: From Family Business to Multi-Industry Operator
Shane Crocker shares his journey from growing up in a family business to building and operating across healthcare, oilfield services, and franchising. He breaks down how he approaches scaling in niche markets, making strategic decisions, and navigating private equity involvement from an operator’s perspective.
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The Making Of Dave "Laundromat Millionaire" Menz
Dave “Laundromat Millionaire” Menz didn’t start with much. He grew up in poverty in Flint, Michigan, wearing hand-me-down clothes and learning early that if he wanted something, he had to go get it. After spending 17 years in a stable corporate job, Dave found himself stuck, comfortable but unfulfilled. Instead of coasting, he made a bet on himself.
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The Making Of Lou Mongello: From Lawyer to Disney Entrepreneur
Lou Mongello shares how he went from practicing law to building a career around his passion for Disney. He talks about the early influences that shaped his entrepreneurial mindset, the challenge of balancing family and work, and why focusing on community became the foundation of his success.
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In The Making Of: Niilo Pirttijärvi
Niilo Pirttijärvi, the co-founder & CEO of Inven, to talk about how AI is changing the way private equity firms find and analyze deals. We talked about how sourcing has traditionally worked in private equity and why Niilo believed there was an opportunity to rethink it using AI.
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The Making of Kris Carlson: From Sales to Seafood
Kris Carlson, President and COO of The Fish Guys. Kris shares his journey from growing up in Champaign, Illinois, to building a career in sales at Reuters, and ultimately leading a growing food distribution company. He discusses how sports, Greek life, and teamwork shaped his leadership, and the lessons he learned navigating challenges early in his career.
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In The Making Of: Ian Hicks
This is a new style for my podcast. Join my conversation with my good friend, Ian Hicks. Ian works at King Industrial in Atlanta as a broker. Ian came and visited me in NYC in December. In this episode, we share candid stories about life in New York City, building businesses, navigating friendships across distances, and the realities of entrepreneurship.
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The Making of Robbie Ferman: From Brokerage to Building Sollevare Group
Robbie Ferman, co-founder and managing partner of Sollevare Group, shares his journey from corporate real estate to entrepreneurship. He discusses the importance of building relationships, the challenges of navigating the New York real estate market, and the significance of discipline and mentorship in achieving success.
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The Making of Doug Taylor: Taylor's Candy
Doug Taylor, known as the Candyman, who shares his journey of building Taylor's Candy from a small family-run operation into a successful candy distribution and manufacturing business. Doug discusses his upbringing, early jobs, and the transition into the candy industry, highlighting the importance of hard work, family dynamics, and adapting to market changes.
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The Making of Adam Stevenson: From Flipping Burgers to Building Businesses
Adam Stevenson shares his inspiring journey from a low-income upbringing in Detroit to becoming a successful entrepreneur. He discusses his early experiences flipping burgers, starting a landscaping business, and navigating college life while balancing sports and side hustles. The birth of Grassroots Records, a music label he co-founded, highlights his passion for music and community.
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The Making of Mammoth Holdings with Gary Dennis
Gary Dennis, co-founder and former CEO of Mammoth Holdings, to unpack how a kid from Macon, Georgia ended up building one of the leading car wash platforms in the country. Gary walks through his path from humble beginnings, with a dad who was a maintenance mechanic and a mom who was a secretary, to Georgia Tech, an MBA from Vanderbilt, and an early career in equity research and investment banking.