Growth Capital Podcast

🧱 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 84 🧱 Does every startup need to become a billion-dollar unicorn? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Ethan Mayers, Venture Partner at Fairbridge, to challenge one of the biggest assumptions in entrepreneurship—that venture capital is the only path to building a successful company. Drawing on his experience as a founde...

🥩 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 83 🥩 What if the future of meat isn't replacing it, but making it better? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Paul Shapiro, Co-founder & CEO of The Better Meat Co., a food technology company pioneering the use of mycelium to create healthier, more sustainable, and more affordable meat products. After spending years as...

⚕️ Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 82 ⚕️ What happens when you build a healthcare company with AI at its core from day one? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Samuel Searcy, Co-founder and CEO of ClinTrial Research, a rapidly growing network of clinical trial sites helping pharmaceutical companies bring new therapies to market. Before building ClinTrial Res...

✍️ Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 81 ✍️ What if the biggest revenue problem in your business isn't winning customers—it's getting paid? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Marty Ringlein, Co-founder & CEO of Agree.com and General Partner at Adventure Fund, to discuss how AI is transforming the entire contract-to-cash process. Marty shares his journey fr...

👮 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 80 👮 What happens when artificial intelligence, biometric data, and human performance come together to support the people who run toward danger? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Sean Bair, Co-founder & CEO of SWORN.ai, to discuss how technology is helping police officers, firefighters, and other first responders bet...

♟️ Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 79 ♟️ What separates businesses that survive from businesses that scale? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with John Smalley, Founder & Managing Partner of J Smalley Group, a multi-company holding group built around a disciplined investment and operating framework focused on long-term growth. From scaling businesses a...

🌱 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 78 🌱 What if the future of startup funding isn’t about chasing unicorns, but building stronger local economies? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Jeffrey Kaplan, Director of Venture Asheville and CEO of Optimist Ventures, to discuss how venture philanthropy is creating a new capital model for underserved founders and reg...

🐾 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 77 🐾 What happens when a founder combines marketplace thinking, AI, and a mission-driven problem worth solving? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Chloe Fabiani, Founder & CEO of Paaw, the platform building the operating system for modern pet ownership. After launching Paaw in France and expanding into the U.S.,...

🛠️ Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 76 🛠️ What if the best way to evaluate a founder isn’t a pitch deck, but working side by side with them? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Mike Ma, Founder & Managing Partner of Sidecut Ventures, to unpack a radically different approach to early-stage investing—one built on execution, coachability, and real-world perf...

🩺 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 75 🩺 What if one of the biggest opportunities in healthcare isn’t innovation—but fixing what’s already broken? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Dean Margolis, Co-Founder & CEO of Red Sky Health, to unpack a massive inefficiency hiding in plain sight: healthcare claim denials. With billions of dollars lost each year...

🎬 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 74 🎬 What happens after a successful exit? For many founders, it’s not retirement—it’s reinvention. In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Jason Kiesel, Co-founder & CEO of Packed House Pictures, to explore what comes after building, scaling, and exiting a company—twice. Jason shares how he went from GovTech entrepreneur...

🏠 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 73 🏠 What if the future of property management isn’t better software, but software that actually runs your business? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Shahar Goldboim, Co-Founder & CEO of Boom, to unpack how short-term rental businesses are evolving from fragmented, manual operations into fully integrated, AI-dr...

🤝 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 72 🤝 In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Joseph Dalton, Founder & Managing Partner of Arsenal Enterprise Capital, to unpack one of the most misunderstood dynamics in private equity: investing in relationship-driven businesses. From navigating founder transitions to sourcing proprietary deal flow, Joseph shares how his...

🧠 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 71 🧠 In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Erica Olsen, Co-founder & CEO of Madison AI, to unpack what it really takes to reinvent a business from consulting to SaaS at exactly the right moment. Erica shares how a simple shift, listening to what customers actually wanted, led to a completely new company, a $1M ARR milest...

⚠️ Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 70 ⚠️ What does it really take to scale a service business—without outside capital, without a “breakout moment,” and without shortcuts? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Cameron Magee, Founder & Owner of avad3 Event Production, to unpack the realities of building a national business from a college dorm room. From surv...

🍽️ Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 69 🍽️ What happens when a personal health challenge exposes a massive market opportunity? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Dylan McDonnell, Founder & CEO of Foodini, a dietary intelligence platform helping restaurants communicate clearly with customers who have food allergies or dietary restrictions. After livin...

🚗 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 68 🚗 What happens when cars no longer sit idle in driveways, but instead operate like a software platform? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Ezra Goldman, Co-Founder & CEO of Upshift, to explore how autonomous vehicles, AI-powered dispatch systems, and subscription-based access could reshape the entire mobility...

🤖 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 67 🤖 AI is moving fast. Most companies are moving faster — without governance. In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Allen Martinez, Founder & Chief AI Architect of Noble Digital, to unpack what most operators are getting wrong about AI implementation. While everyone is racing to add new AI tools, Allen makes a comp...

💼 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 66 💼 In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Brandon Wolfe, Co-Founder & Partner at Jordan Partners, a private equity firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina, focused on software and tech-enabled services businesses in the lower middle market. Brandon’s path to private equity wasn’t traditional. He grew up in a small to...

🏠 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 65 🏠 Energy adoption isn’t failing because of technology. It’s failing because of complexity. In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Arshia Jahangiri, Founder & CEO of Solenery, a platform simplifying clean energy upgrades for residential and commercial property owners across North America. Arshia shares his entrepre...

🔗 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 64 🔗 Why do some startups hold together under pressure, while others break at the first sign of scale? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Andrew Ackerman, Executive Director, REACH Labs, at Second Century Ventures, to unpack how investors really evaluate early-stage companies—and why startups behave more like chains...

🌍 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 63 🌍 Remote work unlocked flexibility and global talent—but it also created a massive compliance gap that most companies and professionals aren’t prepared for. In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Maxwell Nee, Co-Founder of Flamingo, to unpack the overlooked tax, residency, and regulatory risks hiding inside today’s bo...

🧠 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 62 🧠 What does it really take to build and invest in companies that operate at the intersection of government and commercial markets? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Bryan Mabry, Partner at New North Ventures, to unpack how investors evaluate dual-use businesses, why government revenue alone rarely produces ventur...

🛡️ Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 61 🛡️ What happens when a real-world cybersecurity incident becomes the spark for a category-defining startup? In this episode of Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Mario Soave, Founder & CEO of CleverFi, to unpack how a personal cybersecurity crisis in an Airbnb led to a fundamentally different way of thinking about Wi-Fi, access contr...

🧑‍💻 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 60 🧑‍💻   What if the biggest barrier to building a tech company is already gone? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Joel Walker, Founder & CEO of Hotline, to unpack how non-technical founders can now go from idea to working product—before hiring engineers or raising significant capital.   Joel shares how he u...