Hidden Foundations

From fleeing the Gulf War to building technology that helps workers call for help, Yasmine Mustafa's story reveals how childhood shapes leadership. On Hidden Foundations, Kendall Schoenrock sits down with the founder of ROAR to explore her family's escape from Kuwait, years spent undocumented in the United States, and the difficult home environment that shaped her sense of safety. Yasmine...

What can dogs teach us about resilience, leadership, and the bonds that shape us? On Hidden Foundations, Kendall Schoenrock sits down with Dr. Cindy Otto, founding executive director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center and professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Otto traces her love of animals to a childhood surrounded by beagles and to parents who modeled per...

How did two siblings who never imagined working together build Jomboy into a growing sports media business? In this episode of Hidden Foundations, host Kendall Schoenrock sits down with Jomboy CEO Courtney Hirsch to explore the family dynamics behind the company she runs with her brother Jimmy. Courtney shares how their parents helped start the conversation about working together, why Yankees game...

Financial uncertainty at home helped shape entertainment attorney David Fritz's drive to build something different. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Fritz of Boyarsky Fritz traces the connection between his childhood, early entrepreneurship, and a career helping recording artists negotiate consequential business decisions. Fritz recalls working with his father on a direct-mail watch camp...

What happens when childhood scarcity, family illness, and responsibility become the foundation for entrepreneurship? Marcia O’Connor shares how growing up in Delco, watching her sister battle Ewing’s sarcoma, and seeing her parents budget every dollar shaped the way she leads, builds, and protects her team today. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Marcia explains why her son asking, “Mom, can...

How do immigrant ambition, financial pressure, and failure shape an entrepreneur’s operating system? Momin Sheikh shares how his family’s move to the U.S., early exposure to real estate, and a near-bankruptcy experience forged the way he approaches business, risk, relationships, and resilience. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Momin opens up about losing half his clients overnight, maxing ou...

How can one mentor change the trajectory of a kid’s life? For Tyler Hines, basketball mentorship began with his own experience of losing his identity after his parents divorced. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Tyler shares how anger, bad grades, sibling pressure, and one teacher’s decision to invest in him helped redirect his life. He traces that foundation through college basketball, playi...

What does a commercial banker learn when a loan goes wrong? For Greg Carlisle, one real estate deal involving 65 families changed the way he saw banking, risk, and responsibility. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall is joined by Greg Carlisle, a TD Bank leader in New Jersey, to explore the human side of business loans, commercial banking, financial literacy, and leadership. Greg breaks...

What turns a 16-year-old facing life or the death penalty into a community leader fighting to keep kids alive? Edwin Desamour’s story shows how prison, fatherhood, purpose, and The Lighthouse became the foundation for a life of service. Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes conversations about murder, incarceration, suicide, depression, gun violence, childhood trauma, death, and expl...

What shapes an entrepreneur who refuses to sacrifice integrity? For Ed O’Brien, it started with childhood money pressure, a complicated father-son relationship, family secrets, and early lessons in responsibility. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall talks with Ed O’Brien to trace the family system behind his leadership style. Ed grew up in a large Irish-Italian Catholic family in New Je...

In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall is joined by Matthew Rehrig, a gym owner, father, and Type 1 diabetic, to unpack the pressure behind building a business while managing a relentless health condition. Matt shares how 2015 changed everything: a new baby, a new house, a young marriage, a risky gym investment, and the stress that surrounded his early years as an entrepreneur. Six months...

In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall is joined by Ari Simmons, a world champion epee fencer, coach, and Olympic hopeful, to explore what elite sports really build inside a person. Ari shares how he went from being kicked out of fencing class for goofing off to becoming first in the U.S. and winning a world championship in the 17-and-under category.  The conversation moves through obsessi...

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes conversations about sexual violence, forced marriage, honor violence, prostitution, deportation proceedings, depression, war, family trauma, and difficult cultural practices. Amjad Pervez’s path to New York real estate started far from Manhattan. He grew up in a lower-middle-class military family in Pakistan, became a third-generation army man, s...

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes conversations about childhood loss, Alzheimer’s, physical discipline, career instability, and difficult family memories. Jeff Pelaccio’s foundation was shaped early by loss, loyalty, and the need to keep moving. His mother died the day before his fifth birthday. His father, a union welder, developed early-onset Alzheimer’s when Jeff was still a k...

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes conversations about drug dealing, addiction, recovery, family illness, and difficult life choices. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Victor Raymond-Tabaac, a Philadelphia-based serial entrepreneur, to unpack the early experiences that shaped his risk tolerance, work ethic, and drive to build. Victor shares how his firs...

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes conversations about addiction, recovery, suicide, family pressure, and difficult personal patterns. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with William “Bill” Brandmeyer, founder of ShareWaves, to explore how youth sports, family business, recovery, faith, and honest parenting shape a person’s capacity for life. Bill shares why...

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes conversations about racism, slavery, desegregation, death threats, and difficult parts of American history. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Shawn Edwards, Kansas City journalist, film critic, producer, and executive producer of the Celebration of Black Cinema and Television, to explore how childhood warmth, family hi...

In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Peter Groverman, founder of Grovara, to explore the long entrepreneurial road behind building a global B3B trading platform. Peter shares how early exposure to his father’s box factory, flea market negotiations, family business, Villanova Law, Haiti relief work, and early platform technology shaped the way he sees opportunity, value, an...

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes sensitive conversations about alcoholism, suicide threats, family instability, and difficult parent-child dynamics. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Alexandra Bojarski-Stauffer, architect, triathlete, and founder of Emerald Hive Design, to explore how childhood responsibility, financial instability, and emotional surv...

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes sensitive conversations about childhood adversity, trauma, addiction, abuse, faith, business stress, and difficult family experiences. In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Doug Taylor of Taylor Chip to explore the family, faith, pressure, and grit behind building a cookie company from scratch. Doug shares how he and his w...

In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Suchit Bachalli to explore how family, education, entrepreneurship, and early sales experience shaped the way he leads today. Suchit shares how he built Unilog brick by brick with his father, what boarding school in India taught him about independence, and how selling software on the streets of Mumbai became the foundation for his belie...

In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Sara Faubion Stipkovits to explore how childhood chaos, hard work, and early responsibility shaped the way she reads people, negotiates conflict, and parents today. Sara shares how growing up with a prison guard mother, an unpredictable home environment, and the role of oldest-child caretaker trained her to de-escalate, stay calm under...

In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Barrett Widell and Christina Boschetti of Widell and Boschetti to explore how two very different childhoods, careers, and creative paths became one business partnership. What started as a chance meeting at a Philadelphia park turned into a design firm built on trust, risk, resilience, and a shared instinct to keep moving forward. Barret...

In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall Schoenrock sits down with Dr. Kavin Mistry, a board-certified neuroradiologist, to explore the hidden connection between childhood, longevity, health, and legacy. Dr. Kavin shares how growing up across India, Africa, and the United States shaped his view of resilience, adaptability, and human potential. The conversation moves from AI in medicine and b...

In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall Schoenrock sits down with Candice Shum of Culligan Water in Kansas City to explore what it means to inherit, lead, and grow a third-generation family business. Candice shares how her grandfather built the company, how her mother fought her way into leadership in a male-dominated industry, and how those early lessons shaped Candice’s own approach to gr...