Forward Obsessed

Melissa Cash isn’t just reshaping children’s screen time—she’s redefining the future of learning and creativity. In this deeply insightful episode, Melissa, the co-founder and CEO of Pok Pok, shares how her own childhood learning struggles inspired a lifelong pursuit to create playful, purposeful, and non-addictive digital experiences for kids. From her early days at Disney designing for one of th...

What happens when your dream startup fails, you lose everything—including other people’s money—and you still choose to build again? In this episode of Forward Obsessed, host Pete Sena sits down with Katelyn Bourgoin, the founder of Why We Buy and Unignorable, to talk about her incredible journey—from PR school to startup bankruptcy to becoming one of the internet’s most trusted voices on buyer psy...

What if your voice could replace your keyboard—and be smarter than Siri ever dreamed of? Meet Tanay Kothari, the CEO and co-founder of Wispr Flow, a voice-first AI company redefining how we interact with technology. From teaching himself to code at age nine to building and selling a company fresh out of Stanford, Tanay’s journey is a masterclass in entrepreneurial obsession, resilience, and produc...

What does it take to scale a business from a $20,000 launch to over $100 million in revenue? In this episode of Forward Obsessed, entrepreneur Sean Busch takes us through his incredible journey—from a small-town kid flipping car parts in high school to founding and selling the household cleaning brand Puracy. Along the way, Sean shares how he leveraged Amazon’s early days, built a direct-to-consum...

Mike Lloyd’s entrepreneurial story began with a simple childhood side hustle—burning CDs for friends in his small Michigan hometown. That spark of ingenuity set him on a journey from studying at MIT and Harvard to launching and scaling companies that reshaped industries. In this episode of Forward Obsessed, Mike delves into the pivotal moments that defined his path, sharing the highs and lows of h...

In this episode of Forward Obsessed, we sit down with Anthony Ng Monica, a visionary entrepreneur whose journey from humble beginnings to leading an internationally recognized e-commerce technology company is nothing short of inspiring. Anthony shares his early entrepreneurial ventures, from pirating software to funding his education by cold-calling businesses. He candidly discusses the lessons le...

As we approach the summer, the Forward Obsessed podcast is taking a brief but much needed break from creating new entrepreneurial content for you, our incredible listeners. We're grateful for the remarkable guests who have made season three a success, and we have some amazing stuff coming down the pipeline. During this hiatus, we invite you to stay engaged with us: visit our YouTube channel, subsc...

Sam Parr, the founder of The Hustle and the host of the My First Million podcast, shares his entrepreneurial journey from his humble beginnings in St. Louis, Missouri, to building and selling successful companies. Parr's early hustles, including selling whiskey online and running a hot dog stand, laid the foundation for his future endeavors. Despite a setback with Airbnb, Parr persevered and start...

Ben Lamson is the Head Of Revenue at Paperspace, a GPU cloud and software stack for machine learning and artificial intelligence developers, which was recently acquired by Digital Ocean. Previously, he was the co-founder and CEO of WeDidIt, a crowdfunding platform for nonprofits that was acquired by a private equity firm. Lamson's entrepreneurial journey began in his early twenties, inspired by hi...

Aaron Lyles is the Founder and CEO of CommonAlly, a company that builds two-sided marketplaces to connect organizations with hard-to-reach communities in a way that empowers people and gives them agency over their data. Aaron's entrepreneurial journey began at a young age when he started a snowboarding magazine in high school despite challenges with ADHD. This experience taught him the value of pa...

Kat Hantas is the co-founder of 21 Seeds, an infused tequila brand that was acquired by Diageo for $160 Million after just three years in business, being the largest exit ever by a female-founded spirits brand. Previously, Kat had a 15-year career in the film industry, working at Creative Artists Agency and as an independent producer developing horror and music-driven films.   In this interview, K...

Peter Thum is the Co-Founder and CEO of Muse, an AI-powered website builder and collaboration platform. He was previously the Founder of Ethos Water, which he successfully sold to Starbucks in 2005. Thum has also founded Fonderie 47, a company that transforms AK-47 assault rifles from African war zones into high-end jewelry and accessories, and Liberty United, which employs a similar model to redu...

Lindsey Andrews is the founder of Minibar, an on-demand alcohol delivery service that was acquired by Reserve Bar in 2021. Andrews is now the Founder and CEO of Revido, an app designed to revolutionize the way we review and recommend products and services.    Andrews' entrepreneurial journey began when she and her co-founder recognized the need for a convenient alcohol delivery service during thei...

Jason Kirby is the Founder of Thunder. VC, an AI-powered investment bank that helps startups navigate the fundraising process. Previously, he was the Co-Founder and President of Liquid Sky, a cloud gaming company acquired by Walmart in 2018, and the President and COO of Generation Esports, an esports platform for schools that raised $11 million in funding.   Throughout the interview, Kirby shares...

Jess Lynch is currently the Cofounder and Founding Partner at Raiz Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm using data and community to reimagine startup investing. She was previously the Cofounder and CEO of Wishroute, a scalable behavior change platform that was acquired in 2022.   Throughout her journey, Jess has demonstrated remarkable resilience and leadership. This includes overcoming ch...

Adi Eckhouse Barzilai is the Co-Founder and CEO of RealFace, a facial recognition software company that was acquired by Apple Inc. She was previously in brand management at Procter & Gamble. As founder of RealFace, Adi helped pioneer mobile facial recognition capabilities that later became integral to Apple’s FaceID unlock feature. RealFace provided the core IP and engineering talent behind ma...

Alex Dubin is the Founder and CEO of BettorOff, a sports betting platform designed to bring transparency and integrity to bettors through blockchain technology. After a few early career twists and turns, Alex Dubin leveraged a chance meeting in a poker game to pivot into sports betting just as daily fantasy sports (DFS) was taking off. He helped set up an investment fund that delivered over 70% re...

Beverly Parenti is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and cofounder of The Last Mile, a nonprofit providing technology training to incarcerated individuals. She has founded and cofounded several other successful companies, including First Virtual Holdings, one of the first online payment systems, which went public in the 1990s.   In the interview, Parenti stresses the importance of grit, resilience,...

This year, we had 25 incredible interviews. 25 deep dives into the rollercoaster experience of building a company -  taking an aha moment, nurturing it into a tangible idea for a business, building a team, getting funding, growing, failing, pivoting, growing again, failing again, exploding, and then - who knows. Every story is different - and yet, our team has been able to tease out some of the th...

Ben Kartzman is the COO of Mediaocean, a multi-billion dollar ad tech company. He was previously the CEO and co-founder of SpongeCell, an ad tech startup that was acquired by FlashTalking. Kartzman has successfully navigated multiple acquisitions and integrations throughout his career in ad tech. In this interview, Kartzman outlines his journey from college soccer player to serial entrepreneur. He...

Andre Swanston is the former CEO and Co-Founder of Tru Optik, a data and analytics company focused on connected TV (CTV) and streaming media. Tru Optik was acquired by TransUnion for over $100 million when Andre was under 40 years old. Andre has an incredible backstory, growing up in the Bronx as the son of immigrants from St. Kitts and Nevis. He attended a prestigious boarding school on scholarsh...

Jared James is an entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and author who was previously the #1 ranked realtor in the country. He has built numerous successful companies across industries like real estate, marketing, technology, and business coaching, and is an accomplished public speaker.    In this wide-ranging conversation, Jared shares insights from his journey starting with formative childhood experi...

Arun Nijhawan is the co-founder and CEO of Menda Health, a startup using therapy to provide drug and surgery-free treatment for chronic pain. He was previously co-founder of FillMyFork, a startup focused on healthy eating that was acquired by FoodSmart. Nijhawan studied astrophysics in college before moving to Silicon Valley to participate in the prestigious Alchemist accelerator program run by bi...

Alan Lazowski is the founder and CEO of LAZ Parking, the largest privately held parking company in the United States. Alan has grown LAZ Parking from being a valet parking attendant to running over 3,600 locations and 1.5 million parking spaces across 41 states. The company manages over $2 billion in annual revenue.  The interview focuses heavily on stories from Alan's family background. Alan's pa...

Wiley Cerilli is a serial entrepreneur and founder of companies like Seamless Web, SinglePlatform, and Good Uncle. He was previously the VP and General Manager of Constant Contact after they acquired his company SinglePlatform for $100 million. Throughout his career, Cerilli has experienced immense personal and professional growth, including overcoming the tragic loss of his father at a young age....