Creator Lab - interviews with entrepreneurs and startup founders

Erika Alexander is an actress, writer & co-founder of  Color Farm Media . She's well known for her role as the iconic character  Maxine Shaw, Attorney-at-Law  in the 90s sitcom  Living Single.  She was a regular as  Cousin Pam  in  The Cosby Show  & appeared in the Oscar-winning film  Get Out (2017). Full show notes & timestamps: https://www.creatorlab.fm/erika-alexander-actress-get-out-cosby-show...

    I visited Ben Van Leeuwen at his Brooklyn-based ice cream factory!  They have a truly remarkable story, starting from a single ice cream truck 10yrs ago, to building an epic brand with a cult following.     They've since grown to a $20mil business, going from 15 stores to 25 in the next few months after taking investment for the first time. They've also grown their wholesale business where the...

Edgardo embodies the word creator.  He's a writer at Marvel Entertainment, Editor-in-Chief at Darryl Makes Comics working with the legendary hip-hop icon: DMC from RUN DMC, Art Director & founder at Somos Arte production studio, and the creator of La Borinqueña, an original comic book character that has grown into a cultural phenomenon and a nationally recognized symbol of Puerto Rican patriotism,...

Julien Smith is the co-founder & CEO of Breather. They provide an on-demand network of private meeting rooms designed for work, meetings and focus. They've raised over $80m to date and are on a strong trajectory of growth. Before that, Julien was a best selling author, speaker & podcaster. In this conversation, Julien and Bilal discuss how he thinks about pattern detection, how he used these frame...

WHO IS GARY? Just out of college, Gary grew his family wine business from a $4M to a $45M business in five years. Now, he runs VaynerMedia, one of the world's hottest digital agencies with more than 800 employees and $100m in annual revenue. Along the way, Gary became a prolific investor. He's investing in companies like Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Venmo. He's a 4x NY Times best-selling...

  Jos White is a serial entrepreneur and investor at Notion Capital. In this interview, he shares his life story from growing up in England, to getting expelled from school, starting businesses with his brother & how they managed to sell 3 different companies for more than $800 million.  5 THINGS TO LISTEN OUT FOR:   (1) Growing up in England – going to the same school as Richard Branson and getti...

This is a new format where I bring experts from different fields to have a roundtable discussion on a particular topic. Today we speak about the state of transatlantic tech and what you should be thinking about if you're looking to expand internationally. Note that this was recorded late Dec 2016 just before President Trump came into office. MY 3 GUESTS: (1) Daniel Glazer – partner at Silicon Vall...

  Daymond John is a rare force of nature. He's a true serial entrepreneur involved with more than 80 businesses & investments. He founded FUBU, the lifestyle fashion brand that has brought in more than $6 billion in sales. He's a regular on the Emmy award winning show "Shark Tank" and has published three books including the NY Times best seller: The Power of Broke . He was named by President Obama...

  Sushi Nakazawa stunned the restaurant world when they were awarded a notoriously difficult 4 star review in The New York Times by legendary food critic Pete Wells.   But what really goes into creating such a world class restaurant?    We get to hear directly from Alessandro (Alex) Borgognone, co-founder of Sushi Nakazawa, famous for its all star chef, Daisuke Nakazawa, who was the protege of Jir...

THE WEED BUSINESS: Analysts are calling it the country's "fastest-growing industry" and Arthur Frommer (godfather of the travel industry who founded the Frommer's guide) said "get ready for the era of marijuana tourism".   In the US, 8 states have legalized its recreational use and more than half of all US states permit it for medical purposes. In Dec, The New York Stock Exchange listed its first...

In many ways, Avinash is the king of "the side hustle": Speaker & Advisor -  An established speaker who has consulted for some of the world's largest brands Entrepreneur -  Recently sold the education company he co-founded for a reported $10M Writer -  A thought leader in the world of analytics who wrote the best selling book: "Web Analytics: An Hour A Day" as well as building a large following on...

Fereshteh Forough is the founder & CEO of Code to Inspire, an award winning organization that is empowering Afghan girls by teaching them how to code. Fereshteh was a TED speaker on digital literacy & communication without borders in 2013. Code To Inspire was awarded a Google Rise Award for their work & she was recently featured in a "change is made with code" campaign linked on the Google homepag...

Daire Hickey was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2016 for his incredible work in helping Web Summit grow from 200 attendees 6years ago, to 50,000 attendees in Lisbon this year. They are on course to achieve double digit millions in revenue ($XXm) and have had everyone from Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca & Eva Longoria attend their events.    5 things to listen out for:    (1) Starting...

Ever wondered where that barely-used bar of soap went after your last hotel visit? Erin Zaikis goes into her incredible journey in founding Sundara: a nonprofit organization that partners with slum women in India, Myanmar & Uganda to recycle soap & provide hygiene education to the communities that need it the most. 5 things to listen out for: (1) How a trip to rural Thailand inspired her to take a...

  What does it take to get to 5 billion views? Cenk Uygur goes into his story and explains what it took to build the number one news channel online: 'The Young Turks'. 5 things to listen out for:     (1) Coming to America - Cenk talks about growing up in Istanbul and his 'coming to America moment'     (2) How he got started in media after sending 400 tapes to radio stations     (3) Starting 'The Y...

Nico Perez and the Mixcloud team have managed to get to 17M monthly visitors with zero outside investment. We talk about how they bootstrapped their way to a unique and profitable business. Listen out for when they lived in a 60k square foot warehouse. We go deep in this conversation, so 5 things to listen out for: 1) Living in a warehouse and having no internet connection – many people say they "...

After 10yrs as a New York party promoter, Scott Harrison went on an epic journey that turned his life around. We talk about how he built charity: water, one of the most impactful and innovative non-profits around. We discuss: – Water Problem & Non-Profit World  – the global water problem that impacts 1 in 10 people and its disproportionate impact on women, education & disease – What changed him – ...

I speak to Brian Wong, the CEO & Founder of Kiip on what he learned from building his company, being one of the youngest people in history to raise venture capital and we get a preview of his new book: 'The Cheat Code' Stay connected: https://www.creatorlab.fm/subscribe https://www.facebook.com/creatorlabfm https://www.instagram.com/creatorlabfm https://www.twitter.com/creatorlabfm https://www.sna...