What To Do Next

Max Kislevitz is the co-founder of Bala, the fitness brand that reimagined workout equipment through thoughtful design. Before launching Bala with his wife, Natalie, Max spent more than a decade in advertising, working with global brands, and applied those lessons to his own business. In this episode of What to Do Next, host David Segal speaks with Max about building Bala from a side project into...

Chris Ruder didn't invent Spikeball. He resurrected it. After discovering that the game had disappeared from store shelves, Chris and a group of friends set out to bring it back as a side project. Eighteen years later, Spikeball has grown into a global brand, a thriving community, and a sport played everywhere from college campuses to ESPN tournaments. In this episode of What to Do Next, host Davi...

Marcus Harvey got fired from his first job out of college for being too disruptive. Instead of looking for another job, he decided to build something of his own. Before launching Portland Gear, Marcus bought the @Portland Instagram account and began building a community around the city he loved. What started as an Instagram page eventually became one of the Pacific Northwest's most recognizabl...

Ryan Beltran moved to China to learn how products get made, immersing himself in the manufacturing world long before he had a clear business idea. That experience became the foundation for Original Grain, the watch brand he co-founded that went on to become one of Kickstarter’s largest fashion campaigns at the time. In this episode of What to Do Next, host David Segal talks with Ryan Beltran about...

Novisa Petrusich, CFO and co-founder of Graymatter, left a high-paying career in finance to help build Graymatter, a plant-based cognitive supplement company offering a natural alternative to traditional stimulants for improved focus and mental clarity. In this episode of What to Do Next , Novisa joins host David Segal to talk about the operational realities of building a modern consumer brand. He...

For eight years, Bear Handlon was running a fast-growing apparel company while serving as an active-duty Navy SEAL, taking supplier calls at 2 a.m. and wiring seven-figure payments between missions. In this episode of What to Do Next , I sit down with Bear, cofounder and CEO of Born Primitive , to talk about what it actually took to build the business in those early years, from going six years wit...

Richard Mumby is the CEO of Wip and a longtime operator in consumer brands and growth strategy. Before founding the company, he worked across investing and consulting, helping businesses scale and build durable demand. In this episode of What to Do Next, Richard joins host David Segal to share how Wip is approaching category creation in a market dominated by incumbents. Rather than launching broad...

Chris Garcin is the co-founder and CEO of Pit Viper, a brand that didn’t start with a traditional plan. It began as a joke, a $500 experiment built on military surplus sunglasses, irreverent graphics, and a willingness to try things most companies wouldn’t. What followed was less a straight path and more a series of bets, mistakes, and adjustments. In this episode of What to Do Next, Chris joins h...

Steven Borrelli launched Cuts Clothing with $50,000, no full-time employees, and a lot of confidence about what it would take to build a brand. In the early days, the team was spread across four different cities, and Borelli even paid himself in credit card points. What he didn’t have yet was a deep understanding of how to run a business. In this episode of What to Do Next, Steven joins host David...

Sana Javeri Kadri decided early that Diaspora Spice Co. would never compromise on spice quality or what it pays farmers. The rest of the business had to adapt around those two constraints. In this episode of What to Do Next , I sit down with Sana Javeri Kadri, Founder and CEO of Diaspora Spice Co., to discuss what it takes to build a profitable company within limits like that. Diaspora pays farm p...

Most people think bootstrapping means working harder or putting your own money into a business. That is part of it, but it misses the deeper question of financial sustainability and self-reliance. In the inaugural episode of What to Do Next , I sit down with Maurice Mosseri, co-founder of Still Here NYC, to talk about what bootstrapping really looks like without outside funding. Maurice and his wi...