The Startup Junkies Podcast

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies ! On this episode, hosts Jeff Amerine and Caleb Talley sit down with Farzad Rashidi, the lead innovator at Respona, an all-in-one link-building outreach platform built for B2B, SaaS, and agencies to increase organic traffic from Google. As the former director of marketing at Visme, Farzad helped the company gain over fourteen million use...

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies ! On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Davis McEntire sit down with Greg Shepard, founder and CEO of BOSS Capital Partners, a boutique investment firm focused on Series Seed through Series B technology businesses. Greg also founded BOSS Startup Science, a school for entrepreneurs. Greg is a twenty-year startup veteran a...

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies ! On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Davis McEntire sit down with Will Trapp, founder and CEO of Gratavid, a tool for collecting and sending personalized videos. Before Gratavid, Will became a recognized expert in web development and design systems as the director of technology at Saatchi & Saatchi X. Throughout t...

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies ! On this episode, hosts Davis McEntire, Jeff Amerine, and Victoria Dickerson sit down with brothers Adam and Kfir Alfia, founders of Real Time Feedback, a two-way customer communication platform that allows customers to communicate directly with management in real time through technology. Adam and Kfir’s entrepreneurship experience span...

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies !   On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley and Davis McEntire sit down with Sandra Hodzic, the director of strategic innovation and design for the Government of New Brunswick. Sandra has over ten years experience in corporate innovation and has a deep understanding of how to identify breakthrough ideas and take solutions to market. Througho...

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies !   On this episode, hosts Matthew Ward, Jeff Amerine, and Grace Gill sit down with Deric Cahill, the founder of Wicked BOLD, a company specializing in producing small-batch, vegan chocolate. Wicked BOLD’s chocolate is handmade in Texas using only three ingredients—one of which is organic and ethically sourced cacao from Belize. Througho...

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies !   On this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Davis McEntire sit down with Andrea Harding, the founder of Zipgig, an all-in-one booking platform and online marketplace for independent performance venues to book gigs with musicians and bands instantly. Andrea is a passionate entrepreneur driven to improve...

Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies ! On this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, Davis McEntire, and Victoria Dickerson sit down with Orson Weems, the executive director and co-founder of The Music Education Initiative, a diverse-led nonprofit that exists to engage, educate, and elevate the next generation of professionals in the business of music and en...

Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies !   On this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Caleb Talley, Matthew Ward, and Davis McEntire sit down with Joe Payne, co-founder and CEO of Society of the Hourglass, as well as a serial entrepreneur who also founded Moxy Ox. After working for RevUnit for six years, Joe felt like he needed something different. So, after kicking around ideas for a...

Summary: In this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Caleb Talley and Jeff Amerine talked with Stacy Taniguchi, a retired professor and a current senior consultant and managing partner at Beta Experiences. Beta Experiences is an innovative consulting venture backed by research and psychology, where clients are led to discover what their core values are so they can design a life of thriving. While h...

Summary: In this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Grace Gill talked with David Baker and Eric Hinson, CEO and COO and co-founders of Parable, a company that preserves family legacies through the creation of documentaries. After starting their careers in different fields, David and Eric both felt that they were not contributing meaningfully to the world. Nearly thr...

Summary: In this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Grace Gill talked with Jordan Franklin, the CEO at Stratice, a human capital management firm. Though she originally planned to attend medical school, Jordan instead spent time working at a staffing agency and worked her way up to the number one salesperson. Eventually, Jordan decided to do her own thing and started...

Summary: In this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Caleb Talley, Davis McEntire, and Grace Gill were joined by Joe Garafalo, the COO and co-founder of Mosaic, a technology company building its first strategic finance platform. Joe has a background in finance with a varied career history, but he has found his true passion in developing Mosaic in order to help companies do their jobs more efficient...

Summary: On this episode of the Startup Junkies podcast, hosts Jeff Amerine and Caleb Talley talked with Alyona Mysko, the CEO and Founder of Fuel Finance. Alyona has worked in finance for years and is an expert in financial planning and risk management. She started Fuel Finance about three years ago with the goal of making finance cool, efficient, and easy for founders. Throughout the episode, Je...

Summary: On this special edition 300th episode of the Startup Junkies podcast, current hosts Jeff Amerine, Caleb Talley, and Davis McEntire sat down with past hosts of the podcast.  Though each of them has a unique journey, these Startup Junkie members shared about how the podcast has played an integral role in getting them to where they are today. Throughout the episode, the group discussed an ar...

Summary: In this episode of the Startup Junkies podcast, hosts Jeff Amerine and Davis McEntire sat down with Nathan Beckord, the founder and CEO of Foundersuite. Foundersuite is a company that streamlines the process of fundraising and investor relations for startups. After working in investment banking, Nathan had an idea to build software to simplify the fundraising process for startups, and tod...

Summary:  On this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Jeff Amerine and Caleb Talley sat down with Adam Zambanini, President of Residential Products at Trex Company. Trex is an alternative decking company that is one of the greenest companies in the world. Trex has been around for 25 years and recently is expanding into Arkansas. Throughout the episode, Jeff, Caleb, and Adam discussed what it’s like...

Summary: On this episode of Startup Junkies , hosts Jeff Amerine and Caleb Talley talked with William Peng, co-founder and CEO of Northstar. This FinTech company enables employers to offer financial wellness as an employee benefit. William, a former product designer, co-founded the business to provide financial wellness through financial advice for The One Hundred Percent. Throughout the episode,...

On this episode of Startup Junkies, hosts Jeff Amerine, Caleb Talley, and Davis McEntire talked with Rishi Mittal, an entrepreneur who founded Mycelium Networks in Northwest Arkansas which deploys and operates decentralized wireless networks. After teaming up with a friend to mine Bitcoin in 2011, Rishi and his friend had to stop a few months after they started due to the amount of power they were...

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies ! On this episode of Startup Junkies , host Jeff Amerine, Caleb Talley, and Davis McEntire sit down with Josh Stanley, CEO of Cartwheel, a startup studio that creates B2B SaaS companies. Josh is a serial entrepreneur with vast experience in developing startups successfully and sharing his knowledge with others. Throughout the episode, Je...

In this episode of Startup Junkies , Jeff Amerine, Caleb Talley, and Davis McEntire sit down with Vance Reavie, founder and CEO of Junction AI. Vance is a multi-time founder, and he recently completed Fuel, a Northwest Arkansas-based accelerator that helps growth-stage artificial intelligence and machine learning startups become enterprise-ready. Throughout the episode, Jeff, Caleb, Davis, and Van...

Welcome back to the Startup Junkies podcast!  On this episode, hosts Jeff Amerine, Caleb Talley, and Davis McEntire spoke with Phil Shellhammer, director of the Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program at the University of Arkansas, co-founder and CEO of Eksplor Gaming, and President of Wize Computing Academy. Phil and his family moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2009 with plans to leave shortly after....

Hosts Caleb Talley, Matthew Ward, and Jeff Amerine sat down with Jigesh Vora, the founder, and CEO of SwiftGo. Jigesh comes from a family of businessmen, was a professional consultant for one of the Big Four retailers, and has a background in startups. For his third startup, SwiftGo, Jigesh decided to tackle one of the biggest problems with in-store shopping: checkout lines. Throughout the episode...

Summary: Welcome back to the Startup Junkies podcast!   On this special edition episode of the Startup Junkies podcast, host Jeff Amerine was joined first by Erin Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer and CoFounder of Gen Z, and her colleague, Bo Mo. Gen Z is using multiple strategies to transform the bottled water market. Next, Jeff talks with Calvin Smith, serial entrepreneur, businessman, and chair...

Welcome back to the Startup Junkies podcast! Caleb Talley and Davis McEntire were joined by Donna Griffit, a professional storyteller and pitch strategist with a special place in her heart for startups. Donna has had to adapt and adjust many times in her career, whether it was shifting jobs or recessions and pandemics, and she’s picked up immeasurable wisdom for entrepreneurs along the way. Let’s...