How They Built It: Founding Stories from Category Defining Companies

We explore building the future of vitamins, micronutrients, and data-driven health. We’re joined by Rachel Sanders, Co-Founder & CEO of Rootine. We cover why the vitamin and supplement industry is broken, the ups and downs of being a founder, and advice for women founders. “Feedback's a gift. The worst thing that you can have as a founder is someone ghosting you or not telling you what's wrong or...

We explore building the fastest email client in the world. We’re joined by Vivek Sodera, co-founder of Superhuman. We cover early failures and learnings as a CEO, empathy and the CEO role, and building an amazing team. “I'm a big believer that a startup, at the end of the day, is a series of experiments to unlock some type of learning or user psychology.” – Vivek Sodera EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTE...

We explore building a social platform for stocks. We’re joined by David McDonough, founder and CEO of Commonstock. We cover the future of social investing, making investing accessible to all, and the NFT movement. “The loudest voices in the room are seldom the best investors, the people sharing the best knowledge. Sometimes the people who are the quietest are sharing some of the most interesting i...

We explore lessons in risk, reward, and entrepreneurship. We’re joined by Ryan Boykin, Founder and CEO of REACTIV. We cover building for the long-term, how Atlas Real Estate and REACTIV began, and what makes a person an entrepreneur. “You have to start businesses with an eye towards what they will become, but also an eye towards some of the risk associated with it. And a two-miracle deal requires...

We explore psychedelics and democratizing access to psychedelic therapy with Jack Swain, Head of Clinical Operations at Mindbloom. We cover why Mindbloom is focused on treating depression and anxiety, Mindbloom’s treatment model and clinicians, and the importance of journaling in mental health therapy. “The research around psychedelics is just unreal; the potential of these medicines to completely...

We explore adaptogens and building a better coffee alternative with Lopa van der Mersch, Founder and CEO of Rasa. We cover the concept of energy intelligence, the importance of herb sourcing and trained staff to Rasa’s success, and how branding and product quality breeds customer loyalty.  “Right now my question is, is this something that I and only I can do? And I'm prioritizing even more not jus...

We explore democratizing access to elite investment strategies and the future of public markets with Joe Percoco, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Titan. We cover the frustrations in investing that led Joe to build Titan, investing in crypto, and understanding your company OS and hiring the right people for your tribe. “There's often a binary debate occurring in society, which is about crypto assets—is th...

We explore building the Apple Design Award-winning apps Halide and Spectre with Sebastiaan de With, Co-Founder and designer at Lux. We cover bridging the gap between visual design and product design, growing from one camera app to a photography company, and advice for those interested in creating and selling an app. “We will see the landscape littered with the burnt out husks of people that love t...

We explore building a world class DTC brand and optimizing with data with Alex Iwanchuk, Founder of Feals. We cover data-driven growth vs. intuition, acquiring customers and launching a direct-to-consumer brand, and the importance of a morning routine. “Don't knock it until you try it. What I mean by that is—you never know what's really going to work from an acquisition model, so you have to spend...

We explore building the investment platform of tomorrow from Venture Capital to Web3 and the Metaverse with Ken Nguyen, Founder and CEO of Republic. We cover how investing and ownership has changed in recent years, Social validation as a benefit of investing, and how technology blurs the geographical boundaries of investing. “I think in tech, and in Silicon Valley in particular, people overvalue i...

We explore the past, present, and future of collectibles and fractional ownership with Rob Petrozzo, Founder of Rally. We cover the asset allocation model and investment priorities of the next generation, the process of bringing museum-quality assets to the Rally platform, and handling physical assets in Rally’s retail store and warehouse. “You have no choice now—being a Swiss army knife and being...

We explore building the business bank of the future. We’re joined by Everett Cook, Co-Founder and CEO of Rho. We cover how Rho Business Banking empowers teams to work better with money, what Rho offers that other banks do not, and observations and predictions on the evolving fintech space. “In a lot of ways, people are forgetting the lessons of technology just in general—big companies move slowly,...

We explore building the restaurant of the future and on-demand food. We’re joined by Michael Joseph, Founder and CEO of Scratch Kitchen. We cover current food trends and where they’ll go next, Michael’s two-pronged approach to business success, and the concept of food APIs. “I have two KPIs in how I operate now. Number one, customer delight. There is no business if the customers don't pay. The oth...

We explore real-time optimization in metabolic health. We’re joined by Josh Clemente, Co-founder of Levels. We cover the basics of ketones and ketosis, how real-time data can help people choose the foods and activities that are healthiest for them, and surprising insights from Levels customer data. “The most important things that I do every day are to take walks after my meals and make sure that I...

We explore managing $1.8 billion in wealth, investment philosophy, and teaching kids about money. We’re joined by Brandon Johnson, CEO of JFG Wealth. We cover keys to successful family wealth management, the spectrum of risk and returns, and diversification and recency bias. “Once we have a starting point and a target, we can start to evaluate, do we turn left, do we turn right? How do we measure...

We explore ancestral health and building a $200M real food brand. We’re joined by Mark Sisson, Founder of Primal Kitchen. We cover his switch from focusing on performance to focusing on health, scaling a business from one product to 85, and rules of thumb for healthy living. “I was really interested in achieving good health along with performance, and I sacrificed my health in the name of performa...

We explore when and how to bring on an incredible executive assistant. We’re joined by Casey Putschoegl, Founder & CEO of 33Vincent. We cover the importance of the quality of assistant/executive relationships, the core traits of a great executive assistant, and working with a leadership coach. “I do believe that if you want to level up your leadership skills, if you want to contribute at a higher...

We explore the world’s least sexy $500M business. We’re joined by Carey Smith, Founder of Big Ass Fans. We cover the importance of humor in business, receiving and listening to feedback, and Carey’s investment philosophy with Unorthodox Ventures. “I think in some ways it's trite, but you really do learn an awful lot from failures. And the other thing you get from a failure—or certainly I did—was t...

We explore gaining clarity on your life’s purpose. We’re joined by Pete Richardson, Co-Founder & Master Guide at the Paterson Center. We cover the Paterson LifePlan process, identifying your own talents and drives, and strategies for facing fears. “Talent must be identified and then it must be cultivated. And oftentimes this takes years to cultivate and invest in and grow and bring it to its full...

We explore building the Berkshire Hathaway of outer space. We’re joined by Dylan Taylor, Founder and CEO of Voyager Space Holdings. We cover the evolution of space technology, private space companies vs. the government, and exciting innovations in the space industry. “I’m in the camp that is super passionate about space as a tool for transformation. So what energizes me is getting humans into spac...

We explore lessons from Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and 30+ years in special effects. We’re joined by Howard Berger, Founder of KNB EFX Group. We cover collaborating to achieve a shared vision, the Oscar nomination and celebration experience, and what it’s like working with everyone from Anthony Hopkins to Alan Arkin. “We need to be kind to each other. We need to be considerate and respec...

We explore the commonalities of peak performance. We’re joined by Chris Sparks, Founder and CEO of The Forcing Function. We cover the journey from poker to productivity, the systems-thinking approach to planning, and reflection and pattern recognition. “We're the common denominator in all of our productivity struggles. No tool, no system, no routine is going to change anything until we, ourselves,...