Hitting The Mark

Brad Manning is one of the Co-Founders, or Co-Brothers as he puts it, of Two Blind Brothers, a mission-based company whose name is telling at least one important part of this brand’s story.   Two Blind Brothers is a NYC-based clothing line that focuses on luxury casual wear. Both founders are affected with a form of macular degeneration and pledge 100% of their profits to medical research to cure...

Patrick Lee was Co-Founder and founding CEO of Rotten Tomatoes, the movie rating system we all came to know so well and that I always saw as a kind of anti-brand.   To kick off 2021, we are talking about how Patrick transitioned from running a design firm, like so many of my listeners, to running Rotten Tomatoes 23 years ago. Needless to say, the brand is still going strong and we discuss how the...

Bernd Roggendorf is known as the Co-Founder of Ableton, the tremendously popular software that helps millions of musicians unleash their creative potential. But today we are talking about EIDU, the social enterprise Bernd founded 5 years ago to improve education standards for the 800 million children who live on $2 or less per day.   We are chatting about how he took his entire family around the w...

Jeanne David and Vasa Martinez, the Founder and the CMO of Outer Aisle, respectively, are joining me to look behind the curtains of how the Outer Aisle brand was crafted; a brand Jeanne founded in her 50s that invented the cauliflower carb-swap category by offering gluten-free, nutrient-dense, low-carb Cauliflower Pizza Crusts and Sandwich Thins/Wraps.   Jeanne's innovation combined with Vasa’s kn...

Cole Orobetz founded Alpha Foods five years ago and is currently the CEO and CFO of the healthy frozen meal brand that can be found in over 9,000 stores across North America and Asia, where their plant-based Alpha Chicken Nuggets are available at KFC (which is quite an endorsement!).   Cole and I talk about how a blizzard and a vegan bagel dog got him into the business, why he had to re-name his b...

If you launch a t-shirt brand in this day and age and you find a way to stand out, you bet I’ll have you on my show. And that is exactly what Dan Demsky did by co-founding a Merino wool clothing brand that is high-performance yet stylish.   Dan was running a Creative Agency but sought to pivot into offering an eCommerce product that allows for scaling instead. That was the goal, then the journey o...

Muhammad Saigol and Erik Rauterkus of July launched an appliance in 12 months from idea to market through razor-sharp focus.   We dive into how the brand made 'summer' their DNA, how transparency with the customer is key, and why The Wall Street Journal called July ‘summer’s unlikeliest status symbol.’   We further look into the brand architecture of a startup that has big plans to become the next...

Anna Sheffield launched Bing Bang in 2001, and her eponymous fine jewelry brand followed in 2009. Since then, some fine folks you may have heard of like Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Helen Mirren, and Charlize Theron came to appreciate her work.   Today we go deep into how Anna created a cult-like following with a brand that was almost created by accident and how creating the...

Shannon McLay built a gym to work out your finances: Monthly memberships, trainers, the whole nine yards. You are matched with a BFF - your best Financial Friend – the call to action on the site says ‘Let’s crush some goals’ and trainers welcome you by saying ‘You are about to get financially naked with me.’   It’s the Financial Gym, and it all started with the name. Shannon built this brand on ex...

Just in time for 'back to school' (albeit a strange and unusual one for most kids and their parents this year), I had the chance to talk with the Co-Founder of Kidfresh, a brand of healthy frozen meals for kids. Matt Cohen was appalled when he saw what kids in the U.S. were eating so he set out on a journey to change it by hiding all the healthy stuff in the type of meals kids actually crave.    T...

Steve Schulze built Nekter Juice Bar into a franchise of over 160 locations nationwide with sales north of $100M a year. As regular listeners of this show will know, I am always thrilled to feature franchise success stories, because when it comes to franchises, branding is the holy grail while adding a layer of complexity to the creation and duplication of the brand.   Steve and I dive into the po...

One of the immense pleasures I get out of hosting this show is to be in the company of amazing entrepreneurs, one smarter than the other. Phil Libin is definitely on the top of that list. Phil, of course, is the Co-founder and former CEO of Evernote who just launched another one of his many companies and brands he helped shape over the past decades. And this one is very, very intriguing. Also, bec...

Esti Chazanow is the Co-Founder and Brand Manager of LIV watches, a brand that does not have customers but fans, a brand that is the David going against the Goliath, a brand that is digital-born yet celebrates the retro-physical, a brand that is inexpensive compared to its competitors yet is never seen as cheap.   So many topics that are crucial to understand on a deeper level for any brand market...

Dan Kurzrock was brewing beer as a hobby in college when he realized that only 10% of the ingredients used to make beer actually end up in any pint of beer. All-in-all, we waste 40% of all edible food.   Today Dan runs ReGrained, a mission-driven ingredient platform that leverages technology and culinary science to transform beer waste into food. Dan is a thought-leader in food waste business mode...

Trevor Milton is the founder of Nikola Motor Company, the hybrid truck company that has 6 vehicles in the making, most of which have not seen the light of day yet.   I talked with Trevor only days after he took his company public, ringing the stock exchange bells via video during the pandemic. Trevor is only 38 years old and has a reported net worth of 7.2 billion dollars.   Here he is on Hitting...

I want to borrow a line from the great David Letterman and say 'My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.' He, of course, is the Co-Founder of Happy Socks and has just launched a new brand.   Happy Socks, the immensely iconic and much-loved brand has reached 90 countries and every continent – with concept stores all around the world, from LA to Tokyo, Happy Socks can be found in over 10,000 fashion app...

I hustled to get Lisa Vogl on the show because the idea of starting a brand specializing in hijabs that is catering to the Muslim population and launching it successfully at Macy’s to me was fascinating on many levels.   In fact, Verona Collection is the first modest fashion brand to be launched, featured, and sold in an American department store. Lisa is a young passionate entrepreneur driven by...

In a rare move, we have a Founder and COO duo on the show for a brand tale that includes an aspirational economic migrant story from designing clothes for Barbies, literally, at Mattel, to making a pitch so successful it landed them a quarter-million-dollar deal with investor Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank fame.   Danh and Bob are running LA-based Buttercloth, a brand that is a typical internet-bor...

Tim Dodd is a venture capitalist turned Co-Founder and CEO of Sweet Flower, Southern California's largest and leading independent cannabis retailer. A dispensary that is by and for LA., Sweet Flower leads with a clear brand positioning and a high sense for design in a sea of sameness.   My chat with Tim came at a nerve-wracking time when L.A. was knee-deep in the coronavirus pandemic, but Sweet Fl...

Entrepreneur and unapologetic power dresser Sali Christeson is the founder and CEO of Argent, the venture-backed brand helping women suit up to level the office playing field. Sali launched the specialized D2C fashion brand in 2006 and she is already redefining the workwear category while dressing powerful women from Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris to Amy Poehler and Awkwafina.   Sali is incredi...

From Walmart to Bonobos to running a VC firm that famed investor (and Netscape co-founder) Marc Andreessen invested in that solely funds vice ventures; so any startup others are advised not to invest in (many are even prohibited from investing in) such as gambling, alcohol, sex, cannabis, and nicotine.   Not much more needs to be said about my next guest, Catharine Dockery of Vice Ventures, who co...

  My guest today is Sky Zone's President, Jeff Platt, who has grown the beloved indoor trampoline experience founded by his father into more than 200 franchises across the world.   I recorded my session with Jeff on March 2nd when life was still relatively normal. Fast forward to today, March 20th, where I record this introduction from a makeshift home studio and all of Sky Zone's locations are cl...

Many of you know Stacy Madison as the Founder of Stacy’s Pita Chips, a brand she grew from a food-stand to a $65 million dollar company that she sold to Pepsi.   She is now launching a new brand, the refrigerated BeBOLD bars.   I was beyond thrilled and honored to have Stacy on Hitting The Mark as we were talking about how politics and brands mix, what crucial branding mistakes not to make, how to...

Marc Lewis is one of the top attorneys in California, whose San Francisco-based firm is hired by Fortune 100 companies to resolve a wide variety of complex, high-stakes business disputes.   Even more interestingly, in addition to his complex commercial litigation practice, he is a passionate advocate for victims of sexual abuse and has created a spinoff brand that can be found at the highly descri...

Shelly Sun created a company that assists the elderly with expert, compassionate, and personal home care. Her first location was launched in 2002.   Since then, she grew BrightStar Care into over 340 franchise locations. Ranked number one franchise by Forbes in the investment level, BrightStar Care made it onto the top 10 on the American Express top 50 fastest-growing women-led companies for multi...