Founders' Forum

Seven companies, one shutdown, and a lesson she wouldn’t trade. Mary McCorvey says building is a compulsion, and failure is part of the deal. In this episode of Founders Forum, Marc Bernstein talks with Mary McCorvey, a media producer, author and Army veteran. She shares her path from Armed Services Radio at 18 to novelist, playwright, software co-founder and event producer. She also explains why...

What do you do when your company wants to relocate you to Dallas and you’d rather build your own firm? Neil Cooper bet on himself, and it grew into one of the fastest growing law firms in the Philadelphia region. In this episode of Founders’ Forum, Marc Bernstein and guest co-host Mary McCorvey talk with Neil Cooper, founding partner of Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld. Neil shares how a family of ret...

Moving across the country for a few weeks sounds temporary. For Gabriel Luber, it became a new home, a new marriage-and-business partnership, and a company built on giving. Gabriel Luber, co-founder and Chief Generosity Officer of Lancaster Gift Box, joins Marc Bernstein to share his founder story. He and his wife, Diana, launched a local grocery delivery service in 2020, then pivoted to corporate...

What do you do with a lifetime of treasured things when your kids don’t want them? Hilary Jay has built a career helping people answer that question with heart. Marc Bernstein sits down with Hilary Jay, founder of Department of Better LLC, award-winning journalist, designer, and author. She built a multimillion-dollar jewelry company by age 26, wrote for top design magazines, and now helps older a...

What if your greatest success isn’t what you build, but who you help along the way? Jay Gohel (CEO) and Preeti Gohel (CFO) of Aesthetic Dental Associates return to Founders’ Forum to share the story behind Thrive 360, their new venture to mentor dentists and entrepreneurs. They talk about how COVID gave them a deeper purpose, why they involve their kids in the mission, and how they want to leave a...

What does it take to turn a 400-square-foot backyard wood shop into a 125-employee, nationally recognized cabinetry powerhouse, and then walk away from it? Joe Trave has an answer, and it's not what you'd expect. In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Joe Trave, founder and CEO of Village Handcrafted Cabinetry in Lansdale, PA. Joe shares how he built his b...

Ever wondered why a magic trick can hold your attention more than your own to-do list? Business strategist and keynote speaker Tyler Jensen joins Founders' Forum to explain what magic, focus, and top performance have in common, and why distraction might be costing you more than you think. In this episode, Marc Bernstein and co-host Steve Berardi sit down with Tyler, KSL's 2025 Business C...

A signed term sheet, a fax machine mix-up, and a lost job. That was the day Gary Pudles' entrepreneurial journey really began. Gary Pudles, president and CEO of AnswerNet, joins Marc Bernstein on Founders' Forum to share how he went from a young lawyer to the founder of a company with 1,200+ employees across 42 states and five Canadian provinces. He talks about buying a small Allentown a...

Phillip Gonzales didn't set out to become a growth strategist. He started out running a mall cart selling personalized kids' music CDs. That first job taught him a lesson that would shape his entire career: the power of systems. In this episode of Founders Forum, Marc Bernstein and co-host Susan Egan sit down with Phillip Gonzales, founder and CEO of Adriel Partners Growth Agency, to tal...

What happens when a love of golf turns into a niche nobody else was serving? For Larry Hirsh, it built a business that's touched over 3,500 golf properties across the globe. In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Larry Hirsh, CRE, MAI, SGA, president of Golf Property Analysts and founder of the Society of Golf Appraisers. Larry shares how a childhood spent on g...

Dr. Kryn McClain never planned to become an entrepreneur. She was working in mental health when she returned from maternity leave to find her position had been eliminated. That setback pushed her to launch Paragon Behavioral Health Services, a company she built around one core belief: take care of your employees, and they'll take care of your clients. In this episode, Marc Bernstein sits down...

From potato fields in Wisconsin to nature art that shapes Florida's development plans, Shelly Castle's story proves that vision and grit can turn any beginning into a legacy. On this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc sits down with nature artist Shelly Castle, MFA, alongside co-host Dr. Jennifer Languell of Trifecta Construction Solutions. A fourth-generation entrepreneur who grew up...

A phone call from a Netflix producer. A childhood spent training in the Israeli desert. A year living in an industrial Chinese village to master martial arts. These are just pieces of the unconventional path that led Yoav Oren to build Zoog, a platform reconnecting grandparents and grandchildren separated by distance. On this episode, Marc Bernstein and co-host Pete Meyer talk with Yoav, co-founde...

What happens when a former HR professional with zero art background decides to turn a vacant downtown bank space into a 15,000 square foot art gallery? Victoria Abadir did just that, and two years later, Lancaster Art Vault is profitable, thriving, and home to 24 resident artists. In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Victoria Abadir, founder of Lancaster Art Vault...

Paul Spiegel switched majors, took a job he knew nothing about, and turned it into Practical Energy Solutions, a company that worked with over 80 municipalities and eventually caught the eye of an acquirer. On this episode of Founders Forum, Paul joins Marc Bernstein and co-host Justin Tennant to unpack how a chance connection with Walmart pulled him into the energy business, why he had to convinc...

After 25 years building and scaling technology companies, serial entrepreneur Matt Bramson made an unexpected pivot: walking away from data-driven growth to build a platform that gets people to put their phones down. His new venture, Interact, uses QR code scans to spark real, face-to-face conversations at live events, no data collection, no monetization, just human connection. In this episode of...

Michele Sullivan was born four feet tall in a world that didn't expect much from her, and she went on to lead one of the most respected corporate foundations on the planet. In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Michele Sullivan, former President of the Caterpillar Foundation and Director of Social Innovation, at Babcock Ranch. Michele shares how she rose throu...

What does it take to turn a college side hustle into a 90-person company with 38 years of staying power? Peter Barber, co-founder and CEO of Two Dudes Painting Company, joins Marc Bernstein to share exactly that. Peter started painting houses as a Franklin & Marshall College student looking to cover tuition. What began as a way to pay for school turned into a full-time commitment when he and c...

From running a presidential campaign at 28 to building a Philadelphia PR powerhouse, Susan Jacobson has never stopped betting on herself. In this episode of Founders Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Susan Jacobson, CEO of Jacobson Strategic Communications and Praxtera AI Institute, to trace her path from political operative to PR entrepreneur to AI fluency pioneer. Susan opens up about getting...

From an eight-year-old sweeping up scraps in his father's makeshift dental lab to co-leading a five-location practice with his wife and business partner, Jay Gohel's path into dentistry was anything but planned. In this episode, Marc sits down with Dr. Jay Gohel and Preeti Gohel of Aesthetic Dental Associates, husband-and-wife founders who built one of the largest privately owned dental...

From a potluck dinner for Italophiles to a 20,000-person street festival, Tim Austin has turned small-town Lancaster County into a launchpad for big ideas. In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with architect and entrepreneur Tim Austin, founder of Colab XYZ and co-founder of Litalia Fest and the new Lancaster Capital Day. Tim shares his path from studying architecture...

Helen Denise left the Soviet Union with nothing but a suitcase and a knack for sales, and built a company that changed how women understand their own bodies. On this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with the CEO and Founder of Hilin Life Products, Inc. and inventor of KNOWHEN, to talk about ambivalence, risk, and the traumatic health event that launched a movement. After s...

Most surgeons chase technical mastery. Dr. Patrick Roth built a career on something rarer: listening. In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with neurosurgeon Dr. Patrick Roth, co-founder of New Jersey Brain and Spine, to talk about building a specialized medical practice rooted in empathy rather than ego. Pat shares how he went from general neurosurgery to a narrow focu...

 At 47, Justin Tennant is only two years removed from selling the medical supply company he bootstrapped from nothing, and he's already found something he didn't expect: it's harder to walk away from a business than it was to build one.  Justin Tennant grew up in a second-generation steel mill family in Weirton, West Virginia, where he learned that nothing is given, it's earned...

When experts told Judith Creed that her son would never walk, talk, or live independently, she refused to accept that as his future. Instead, she turned one family's challenge into a movement that has transformed hundreds of lives. In this episode of Founders' Forum, Judith Creed shares her remarkable journey from speech-language pathologist and entrepreneur to founding JCHAI, a nonprofi...