Founders and Empanadas

Will Allred didn’t set out to build the world’s best email coach. He was trying to sell a psychology-based marketing platform. Then COVID hit, their customers stopped paying, and they had 45 days of runway left. What happened next? A quick pivot, a squeal of excitement from their first user, and the start of what became Lavender , now used in over 30,000 inboxes and one of the most beloved brands...

Tom Coburn co-founded Jebbit in a college dorm room, scaled it over 13 years, raised $90M, and eventually sold the company to BlueConic. Today, he’s the CEO of Waking Up — one of the most popular meditation apps in the world. In this episode, we talk about what it means to train your mind like you train your body, and how that shift has changed the way Tom leads, builds, and navigates uncertainty....

Everyone thinks AI is coming to take over customer support. But Chyngyz Dzhumanazarov thinks it’s coming to expose your lack of systems. In this episode, the Kodif CEO breaks down what most founders get wrong about implementing AI, why early-stage focus can be dangerous, and how support teams should be preparing for the future—not just with better tools, but with better workflows. We also go deep...

In this episode of Founders & Empanadas , Joshua Eidelman sits down with Dr. Osama Hashmi , dermatologist and co-founder of Impiricus , a next-gen healthtech platform transforming how pharma companies engage with physicians. They go deep into what it really takes to build a globally distributed, high-compliance healthcare company, and why the future of clinical work won’t look like the past. T...

In this episode of Founders & Empanadas , Joshua Eidelman sits down with Omer Bloch , founder of Remote Latinos , to talk about the real (and often uncomfortable) truths behind global hiring, building remote teams, and what most founders get dead wrong about culture. Omer has helped 700+ companies hire remote talent from Latin America, the Philippines, Egypt, and beyond. And in this conversati...

This week on Founders & Empanadas , Joshua Eidelman sits down with Patrick Gilligan , founder of Somethings , a behavioral health platform connecting teens with young adult peer mentors who’ve been through it themselves. Patrick opens up about the emotional cost of working in youth mental health, why peer support often resonates more than traditional therapy, and how founders can stop gripping...

The future doesn’t belong to the loudest idea. It belongs to the teams that can execute in the messiest industries. In this episode of Founders & Empanadas , Joshua sits down with Adam Bailey, Co-Founder and CTO of Topanga.io , to explore what it really takes to scale technology that solves real-world operational problems—starting with food waste. Adam shares how Topanga pivoted from food deli...

Is in-game advertising the future of media? Can Hearthstone be a mental health tool? Why do most founders fail with overseas talent? In this episode of Founders & Empanadas, I sit down with Max Albert—founder of Adrenaline Interactive and former eSports athlete turned venture-backed gaming CEO—for a fast-moving conversation on the real future of gaming, monetization models that aren’t predator...

Most leaders talk about innovation. Mark Johnson actually builds for it. In this episode of Founders & Empanadas, I sit down with Mark Johnson, Co-Founder of Michigan Software Labs, to unpack what innovation really looks like inside high-stakes teams, enterprise orgs, and day-to-day life. We cover: Why the best innovation comes from crisis, not comfort What NASA’s Apollo 13 mission can teach y...

What do you do when you’re hogtied at gunpoint in a Brazilian penthouse? Or broke in Sri Lanka trying to make a business work from scratch? For Evan Cassidy, those weren’t hypotheticals—they were chapter one. In this raw and revealing episode of Founders & Empanadas, Joshua Eidelman sits down with Evan to unpack the wild, global journey that eventually led him to build Booming Brands, a white-...

Is your customer support team seen as a cost center—or a strategic growth engine? In this episode of Founders & Empanadas, Joshua Eidelman sits down with Susana De Sousa, CX advisor and former leader at Airbnb and Loom, to challenge the outdated thinking around support. They dive deep into how support teams can drive expansion revenue, reduce churn, and directly contribute to product and reten...

Starting a company means embracing a strange, often uncomfortable reality: status limbo. One day, you’re managing a team, earning a solid paycheck, and working in a nice office. The next, you’re back to zero—no salary, no brand recognition, no credibility beyond your own conviction. It’s the most disorienting transition in a founder’s journey, and if you don’t learn to sit with it, it can lead to...

In this episode, Joshua Eidelman sits down with marketing powerhouse Melissa Rosenthal to discuss her journey from media disruptor at BuzzFeed to B2B marketing innovator at ClickUp. Melissa shares candid insights on applying B2C strategies to B2B marketing, building high-performing teams during hypergrowth, and her philosophy on brand building. She opens up about the emotional challenges of workin...

There's something special about sharing empanadas and diving into deep conversations about life, learning, and entrepreneurship with family. Last week, I had the joy of sitting down with Dr. Dawn Eidelman—who happens to be my mother—for an episode of Founders and Empanadas. As we talked about her incredible journey from academia to global education innovator, I couldn't help but reflect on...

In this special Q&A episode, Joshua Eidelman, founder of NeoWork, answers listener questions about entrepreneurship, building global teams, and driving operational excellence across cultures. TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Introduction 1:57 How immigrant parents shape entrepreneurial resilience 4:33 Driving performance with overseas teams in non-confrontational cultures 7:15 Essential Tagalog terms for manag...

As the host of Founders and Empanadas, I've had the privilege of sitting down with many entrepreneurs to explore the intersection of business and life's major milestones. My recent conversation with Devon O'Rourke, founder of Fluvio, was particularly enlightening. We dove into how becoming a new parent will change your life— but maybe not as much as you might think. Over spicy mystery-...

From Soviet refugee to successful entrepreneur: Gene Eidelman joined his son on Founders and Empanadas to share his journey from arriving in America with $400 to building a $35M sustainable housing venture. In this episode, we explore: The unique advantages of the immigrant founder mindset How starting with nothing shapes business strategy Building Azure Printed Homes and revolutionizing sustainab...

On this episode of Founders and Empanadas, I sat down with Aaron Schwartz, co-founder of Orita.ai, to discuss the often-overlooked pitfalls of fundraising. He shared counterintuitive insights that challenged my understanding of the fundraising process, and offered tips that can help anyone raise capital more quickly.

In the latest episode of Founders and Empanadas, Jessica Bell van der Wal, founder of Frame, shares her journey from healthcare executive to entrepreneur and family-building advocate. Over empanadas, Jessica reveals the deeply personal and professional moments that inspired her to create a company focused on making fertility and family planning more accessible and less stigmatized. Jessica's path...

Building a startup is often likened to a marathon, not a sprint. For Monji Dolon, founder of Measured, the journey has been deeply intertwined with personal health—physical, mental, and emotional. His experiences as a first-generation immigrant, a startup founder, and someone who transformed his health paint a compelling picture of resilience and innovation.

Success stories in tech and business often sound the same. Hustle harder, sleep less, squeeze more into every minute. Alison Campbell lived that story for twenty years, climbing through the ranks at Workhuman, Wayfair, and Morgan Stanley. But she noticed something most people don't talk about: the same playbook that launches careers often ends up breaking the people running them. As the founder of...

In this episode of Founders & Empanadas, Joshua Eidelman was joined by Brett Doyle, Founder & CEO of Mosaic Solutions. Brett's been leading Mosaic in the Philippines, helping businesses in the food, beverage, and retail sectors get smarter with data to boost their profits. From optimizing inventory to managing entire restaurant operations, Mosaic’s platform has become a key player in South...

Dante DiCicco ’s family has been running Italian spots in Central California since 1956. So when he saw how outdated processes were making life harder for small restaurant owners like his family, he knew there had to be a better way. Enter Zitti : a platform leveling the playing field for smaller restaurants, enabling them to operate with big-chain efficiency. In this Founders & Empanadas epis...

On this episode of Founders & Empanadas, I sat down with my cousin, Steven Eidelman . We both grew up with entrepreneurial fathers who emigrated from the former Soviet Union, and their journeys had a huge impact on how we approach our own work as second-generation founders. Steven is the co-founder of Modern Animal and previously started Whistle. Together, we reflect on what we’ve learned from...

Samantha Rose joined me this week on Founders and Empanadas to talk about the role failure has played in shaping her businesses including GIR , Mvnifest , and Endless Commerce. Whether it was product recalls (faulty tongs), software pivots, or figuring out how to build a remote team in Colombia, her career has been defined by learning from missteps, and finding ways to laugh even when things are t...