Hitting The Mark

Kate Torgersen is in the niche business of facilitating the overnight shipping of breast milk for business traveling mums, or "Mom Badassery" as she calls it. Kate's story of mom-led innovation and entrepreneurship has been covered in outlets such as the Today Show, TIME, Forbes, People, NPR, and Fortune.   Her brand Milk Stork is direct, bold and loved by moms, businesses and the press alike and...

In November of 2017, Erica Feucht, pregnant with her first child, started a natural vodka-and whiskey-based (!) deodorant line together with her husband Jason. The product is named Pit Liquor and I fell in love with the quirkiness of the founders and their soon-to-be brand.   This is one of the few episodes where I feature a company that is so young that it is hard to call it a brand yet, but I ca...

To kick off 2020 I have an entrepreneur on Hitting The Mark who knows a thing or two about how to build a brand. From co-founding fantasy sports unicorn startup Fanduel to being left with nothing after their company's $465M acquisition.   Today we will dive into Lesley Eccles' brand experiences while chatting about her new startup Relish. It is a fascinating story with - as you may imagine - plent...

Jeni Britton Bauer is the James Beard Award-Winning pioneer of the artisan ice cream movement. That is right, if you had small-batch ice cream as a culinary experience lately you have her to thank for. Jeni built Jeni’s into a cult brand with dedicated followers and hundreds, if not thousands, of copy cats. To finish this year off having her on this show is truly an early Christmas gift for myself...

You may know my next guest from the Capital One credit card ads that she is featured in, or you may be a customer and tribe-member who loves her brand as much as you love her products. Christina Stembel is the widely admired founder and CEO of the quickly growing Farmgirl Flowers brand, an integrity-driven direct to consumer flower shop that is changing an archaic industry by infusing heart and so...

Jordann Windschauer-Amatea is the third consecutive 'mom entrepreneur' on this show who successfully conquered the food business. And she is another amazing inspiration to anyone who wants to move a passion into a business and subsequently into a brand with heart and soul. Jordann founded Base Culture as a bakery catering to the healthy, pure, and primal lifestyle that can be summed up as the Pale...

Junea Rocha, co-founded Brazi Bites. Since our last episode, we know it takes no culinary background to create a food product that sells like hotcakes, or in Junea's case, like hot cheese bread. I had such a great time hearing her story, from being a civic engineer to running her brand with her husband. Killing it on Shark Tank, making Inc's fasting growing private company list in the U.S. for the...

There are 782 minutes of combined insights and inspiring journeys we had to edit down to arrive at this 32-minute special, which hones in on 5 key areas: Brands challenging the norm The importance of people – Your tribe and your culture Investors' viewpoints on brand thinking Brand DNA - your brand in one word And to finish it off, not-to-be-missed brand advice from these successful entrepreneurs...

Fabian sits down with Raquel Tavares, the founder and CEO of Fourth & Heart, an artisanal food brand based in Los Angeles, set on a mission to modernize ancient pantry food staples – starting with a line of grass-fed, flavored, pure spreadable butters known as 'ghee.'   A fascinating story on how to make it in the food business while coming from a marketing background, how to utilize branding to i...

Fabian talks with Scott Harrison, the founder of charity: water, one of the most trusted and admired non-profits in the world.   Solving the water crisis one donation and one well at a time, Scott and his team created a brand that breaks the stereotypes of what a charity is and how a charity acts. He re-branded 'charity' while creating a beloved brand of his own.   Charity: water is a champion in...

Fabian sits down with Till Janczukowicz, the founder of Berlin-based IDAGIO, which is often described as being the Spotify for classical music.   As the future of music listening is streaming and streaming services aren't designed for classical music, Till is on a mission that is much bigger than his product: to save classical music from extinction in the digital age.   This fascinating conversati...

In this 20th episode of Hitting The Mark, Fabian talks with the first founder of a 'new green economy' brand to make it on this show, Clement Kwan of bespoke lifestyle cannabis brand Beboe.   Clement comes from the world of high-end fashion. He helped reposition the Diesel brand for America, moved to Milan to take the license back for D&G (Dolce & Gabbana), and later became the president of Net-a-...

  If you think of a roofing company, you think of small businesses that have a hard time staying in business. Lots of competition in a tough service environment with high employee turnover rates and low customer retention. One thing you would not think of is branding. Fabian sits down with Charles Antis, a founder who has been at it for 30 years. His is not a new brand, nor one that is shockingly...

Fabian talks with Stephen Sokoler, the founder and CEO of Journey Meditation. Stephen runs a company on a mission: to help all people live happier, healthier, less stressed lives. Founded in 2015, Journey is building the world's largest, most supportive meditation community both online and off. TechCrunch coined it 'the Peloton of meditation.' Journey also operates corporate programs with organiza...

In this episode, Fabian talks with Mike Cessario who founded Liquid Death, the first irreverent bottled water brand that can compete with the cool factor of unhealthy brands from beer to energy drinks. Inspired by the death metal and punk rock culture, Liquid Death takes an extreme approach to branding and marketing, in stark contrast to aspirational health and wellness brands.   Launching into th...

Fabian sits down with creative extraordinaire Michael Lastoria, who, after selling his New-York-based agency to beauty powerhouse Shiseido in 2017, is now Co-Founder of the counter culture pizza brand '&pizza,' which has 36 locations in the U.S. and is rapidly growing based on its inherent brand thinking and employee-first commitment.   When your employees and customers alike start tattooing your...

Fabian talks with Devon Townsend who co-founded Cameo, a platform that lets you book personalized video shoutouts from your favorite celebrities. Devon is 28, received 15.8 million in funding, and runs a 60+ employee company that both Howard Stern and Ellen love, and Snoop Dogg fully embodies. As you may imagine, Devon knows a thing or two about creating a brand that people will love, and he is sh...

Fabian chats with Sam Mazzeo who runs a law office in San Diego together with his partner that they built into a brand that goes against the grain. His firm's brand is built on boldness in an industry that is known for blandness. Wilkmazz's client area is subtly titled 'Lawyer's Shit.' Sam talks about the pros and cons of creating a bold brand and why one needs to keep re-branding over and over ag...

Fabian talks with Chris Kerr, Chief Investment Officer at New Crop Capital, as we go Beyond Meat (yes, that was a brand hint). This show was recorded on May 3rd, 2019, which happens to have been the day after Beyond Meat's stunning and widely publicized IPO. This marked a first for a brand making meat-like products from plants. Chris has been involved with Beyond Meat from the very beginning and w...

Fabian is on the line with Ben Kneppers in São Paulo for what must be one of the most inspiring episodes to date. Ben is a co-founder of Bureo, an emerging B Corp focused on creating innovative solutions to ocean plastic pollution. The company is now collaborating with brands such as Trek, Humanscale and Jenga. We talk about how to create real, sustainable change, learn about forming a B Corp, how...

In this episode, Fabian is joined by Mark Wallace, Co-Founder of Parlor, a custom ski brand from New England that is taking the art of customization and personalization to new heights. We learn how Parlor skis are "customized for you, by you and with you, each one as individual as you are."   Fabian talks with Mark Wallace for whom skiing has always been the driving force in his life. It took him...

Fabian talks with Frank Demmler, who Inc Magazine dubbed Pittsburgh's 'startup whisperer.' We discuss how branding can set the direction for a B2B brand and how vintage inspired clothing brand Modcloth used crowdsourcing on many innovative levels to turn into a brand that was worth between $51 million to $75 million to Walmart.   In this episode, we talk with Frank Demmler, who can take credit for...

On this episode, Fabian talks with 26-year old Dutch identical twins Raissa and Joyce de Haas, who have built Double Dutch, a London-based brand of award-winning premium mixers that sold well over 10 million bottles to date. We dive into the story from idea to shelf while building a beloved brand along the way.   Talking with the de Haas twin sisters about their brand of premium mixers: How they m...

Fabian sits down with Colin Szopa, Founder of Plankk Studio, an on-demand streaming service that lets fitness enthusiasts sweat it out with on the go workouts alongside their favorite fitness influencers. We talk about the art of app naming, how to work with influencers and what branding means to Colin.   In this episode, we dive into influencer marketing with Colin Szopa, who created a brand for...

Fabian talks branding with Eddie Geller who founded Tinybeans, an all in one app that provides a safe and loving space for parents to document their child's lives. We dive into the importance and power of naming and how to get it right from the get-go.   In this episode, we break new ground with Eddie Geller, a startup founder who is well beyond his brand's IPO. His app has accumulated a staggerin...