The Catching Fire Podcast

In this engaging conversation, Bryan Karas speaks with John Gargiulo, founder of Airpost, about his journey from Airbnb to launching a successful AI video editing company. They discuss the evolution of video marketing, the challenges faced by direct-to-consumer brands, and the role of AI in enhancing video production quality. John shares insights on the importance of balancing performance and bran...

Waymo’s Ori Herschmann joins Bryan Karas to share his journey as a growth marketer behind some of the world’s most well-known brands. Ori unpacks what modern growth marketing really looks like by highlighting the role of creative, AI, personalization, and product-market fit. If you care about building sustainable growth, Ori Herschmann’s insights are essential. Welcome to the Catching Fire Podcast...

Your website gets traffic but your brand isn’t seeing revenue.  SEO expert Eli Schwartz reveals why most SEO strategies fail at making money and shares the product-led approach that transformed companies like Zillow into billion-dollar machines.  Discover on this Catching Fire episode why branded searches convert like crazy, which technical tactics still matter, and how to build search strategies...

Here’s a fiery discussion with the final boss of marketing that you must face, Scott Robertson.  Scott is a Fractional CMO who has over 30 years experience in marketing, and has gone on to start his own PR & marketing agency RobertsonComm. He has also published his own magnum opus called - “Just Stop It:Your Survival Guide to Marketing Myths, Mistakes and Misgivings.” In this week’s Catching F...

Before “PPC” was even a term, Fred Vallaeys was helping Google build it. Now, he is on a mission to help marketers make sense of the monster it’s become. Fred unpacks his journey from those early Google days to founding Optmyzr, revealing how marketing transformed from the simplicity of goto.com to our current maze of touchpoints. He mentions five essential roles modern marketers must embody, from...

Jessica Postiglione couldn't find a fiber supplement that actually worked. So she made one. This chat reveals how Bonny grew from personal frustration to thriving brand by tackling an uncomfortable topic with humor and brutal honesty.  Jessica spills the real secrets behind successful DTC brands while exposing why most fail miserably. You'll get practical strategies for finding your firs...

If you still trust your blended CAC, you might be burning cash. In this episode of Catching Fire, Bryan Karas sits down with Austin Harrison, CEO of Northbeam—our Partner of the Month and a quiet force behind some of the fastest-scaling brands in the game. They get real about what’s broken in attribution, why creative is more than just an accessory to your brand, and how media mix modeling might b...

In this episode, Bryan sits down with serial entrepreneur Chris Tolles, co-founder of Transparency Analytics and advisor at Common Crawl, to talk about what really drives innovation, from the explosion of private credit to the invisible data powering AI. Chris shares wild stories from the trenches: selling a startup to Netscape in 6 weeks, building a $50M media company, and opening a sports bar be...

Karthik Kalyanaraman built his company on blockchain, only to see the market vanish beneath him. With the world moving on, the pressure was real. Sleepless nights, silence on Discord, and raw uncertainty forced him and his team to reinvent everything from scratch.  In this episode, Karthik shares the gritty truth behind the creation of LangTrace and what it takes to keep moving when quitting feels...

What’s the difference between a $20 bottle of vodka and a $50 one? Nothing—except the story you’ve been told. In this episode, Bryan Karas sits down with award-winning creative director Christopher Donovan (Apple, Nike, HBO) for a conversation that throws out the marketing rulebook and replaces it with something more impactful: performance branding. Inside: Why brand is just another word for trust...

When referrals dry up and your calendar's still full, it’s time for a new kind of growth.  In this episode of Catching Fire, fractional CMO and two-time CEO Maria Trysla shares her playbook for moving from founder-led to founder-inspired sales.  With stories from her time at Sprint, SaaS startups, and private equity-backed companies, Maria breaks down how to scale revenue without scaling stre...

Have you ever wondered how global brands like NASDAQ build massive followings online or what makes certain startups unforgettable? Join us for an insightful conversation on this week’s Catching Fire podcast, where we welcome Josh Matchiz, Partner at Redpoint Ventures and former Chief Digital Officer at NASDAQ. Josh dives deep into his journey of transforming NASDAQ’s digital presence, explaining h...

Is your marketing still stuck in the Mad Men era? In this episode of Catching Fire, we sit down with Gary Stein, founding partner & Chief Strategy Officer at 61Hawk, to talk about how startup founders and growth marketers can stop gambling with million-dollar launches—and start building smart, iterative campaigns that actually work. Gary spent decades inside traditional ad agencies before laun...

Why do some startups win, while others stall?  For Michael Rangel, Founder of Novo–the answer is clear: stay close to your customer and focus on real problems. In this episode of Catching Fire, Michael shares how he built Novo, a business banking platform now trusted by over 200,000 small businesses. What you’ll take away: 🔥Why hiring full-time leaders too early will slow you down 🔥How part-time...

How do you take a small, mission-driven food brand and land deals with giants like Ben & Jerry’s, JetBlue, and DoubleTree? In this episode of Catching Fire, we sit down with Marlo Giudice, a powerhouse entrepreneur and VP, Sales at Partake Foods from a startup idea to a national brand. Marlo shares the realities of launching a consumer product through her own personal experience, navigating th...

On this episode of Catching Fire, we sit down with Jess Kamada - Managing Partner of Swizzle Ventures, who recently closed a $6.6 million fund focused on advancing women's health and wealth. With 15+ years in growth marketing and experience working with 12 unicorn companies, Jess shares her journey from agency founder to VC, revealing the "Efficient Growth Framework" that guides her...

In this raw and revealing conversation, discover how dark comedy became a powerful tool for a veteran's mental health, why authenticity trumps production value, and what it takes to build a community-driven business from scratch. Whether you're an entrepreneur, creator, or someone fascinated by the power of niche storytelling, this episode offers invaluable insights on turning pain into...

In this week’s episode, former Meta executive Sakshi Chadha pulls back the curtain on Silicon Valley's most controversial moments. From managing Facebook's 2020 election integrity team to witnessing the platform's dramatic shift under recent political pressures, Sakshi shares unprecedented insights into how social media giants really operate. Join host Bryan and Sakshi as they dive...

What happens when you treat talent as partners, focus on creative agility, and refuse to cut corners in production? You get Blitz Creative. After transitioning from entertainment to branding, founder Jared Blitz built his sports-focused content studio around these principles, crafting high-impact branded content while keeping production lean, talent-first, and storytelling-driven. In this episode,...

Peter Jonas has had a fascinating journey through the tech world. A former executive at Facebook, Uber, and Compass, he went from launching Facebook’s mobile app install product to co-founding his own company, Thirdwave, which gives developers and businesses deep insight into user behavior with blockchain data.  In this episode, you'll discover: Why Web3 wallet IDs have the potential to revol...

There’s no bigger buzzword than “data-driven.” Tap In Digital co-founder Kirk Nielson actually earns the description – and he’s making one big bet based on data: The importance of investing in brand marketing. Kirk is in the business of solving one problem for clients: where to spend their next dollar for maximum impact. In this episode of Catching Fire, which is a precursor to an exciting service...

Are click-based attribution models holding your marketing strategy back?  In this special solo episode, Bryan introduces a new Playbook Media service called performance branding: a game-changing approach that shifts marketing dollars from traditional low-funnel spending to educating consumers earlier in the buying cycle. The end result? Higher conversion rates and better customer loyalty. Discover...

As a single mom, business owner, and cancer survivor, Chelsea Jones knows what it means to be resilient. At Chelsea & Rachel Co., her UX design and Shopify development agency, she inspires her team to design creative, eye-catching websites. And as an e-commerce expert, she knows how to use those designs to drive tactical results for clients. Most importantly, she does it all with an abundance...

As the founder of Successive Technologies, teacher-turned-entrepreneur Mark Bavisotto acts as a trusted tech concierge for business leaders. As the Chairman of education tech venture EduTrust, he works on another passion project: the intersection of teaching and AI. From tech to teaching to self-improvement in general, Mark has no shortage of insights to share. Discover: Why higher education is br...

Personal branding is Owen Sammarone’s personal brand. From his early career in college basketball, to a stint in finance, to launching a six-figure business from his laptop, Owen has picked up plenty of priceless insights on how to drive engagement and stay authentic. These days, as the founder and CEO of Unleash the Knowledge, he helps founders, consultants, and executives attract their dream cli...