Marked

Jack Benson is 27 and has already bootstrapped four companies: landscaping, water damage restoration, construction, and now Rose Talent Solutions, which places Latin American talent with US, Canadian and British businesses. He and Vin dig into the question every founder doing it all alone eventually faces: when do you stop doing it yourself? Jack covers when to hire, how to let the numbers make th...

Benoy Thanjan has developed over 100MW of solar projects, including the largest solar project in Manhattan, and has run Reneu Energy for 14 years without raising a dollar of outside capital. He also hosts the Solar Maverick Podcast. Benoy and Vin cover what homeowners need to know before going solar: why residential solar is still the wild, wild West, how to vet an installer, owning vs. leasing, a...

In college, Rei Vardi tried renting out his car to cover the payments. Within weeks it had been scratched, dented, smoked in, and used in a bank robbery. Eight years later he's the founder and CEO of Eon, an automated car-sharing platform with several thousand cars nationwide, a 15-person team, and no ad spend, ever. Rei and Vin talk about building slowly on purpose, why ads can become a black...

At 14, with no money and no team, Miguel Guerrero built a game server to 5 million users. Now he's the founder and CEO of Otis AI, which runs paid advertising end to end for small and medium businesses, and a 30 Under 30 honoree in marketing and advertising. Miguel and Vin break down the myth that ads only work at $20K a month, the foundation every small business needs before spending a dollar...

Chris Kong spent a decade building sales and partnerships teams at venture-backed startups, taking companies from seed to Series D. Now he's the founder of WEL, a New York-made daily hydration brand. In his first six weeks he landed partnerships with major boutique fitness brands, and he did it by showing up in person, not by sending cold emails. Chris and Vin cover founder-led sales, sampling...

Takeaways: - Even industry insiders get quietly overcharged by their own banks. Doug found out the hard way as a retail client at his own institution. - A tokenized commodity only works if the value is computer-determined, not a person's subjective opinion. That's the actual innovation behind Diamond Standard. - Growing too fast without enough runway is its own kind of failure. Doug's...

Sachin Latti spent two decades in law enforcement looking, from the outside, like a guy who had it together. On the inside, he was going through a divorce, suicidal, and standing in an empty customs hall at the Vancouver airport when the thought hit him: he didn't want to die without trying more. He'd never run more than a 5K. Five years later, he'd run over 21,000km, raised over $300,...

Jamie Weeks built and sold a national fitness franchise, then built and sold a national cold plunge brand, then hit the lowest point of his life. Sixty days later, he started climbing out, and nine months after that, he was speaking at Harvard Business School. This episode is about what actually happens between the exit and the next chapter, and why he now invests in founders the way a music produ...

Tom is a clinical hypnotherapist with 25 years in psychology, specializing in self-sabotage, imposter syndrome and crippling self-doubt. His own life flipped in a single moment at a rave in Goa. He's walking evidence that change happens in an instant.60% of founders are depressed within six months of a seven- eight- or nine-figure exit. Tom Fortis Mayor has spent 25 years figuring out why: a p...

Meet William Stern — a founder who sold a townhome at 22, took the proceeds, and built Cardiff into America's largest privately held small business lender — co-owned and operated by four childhood friends for 22 years. Cardiff has deployed over $12 billion in capital to Main Street businesses across the country, was voted America's favorite small business lender two years in a row, and is now usin...

Meet Amanda Soukoulis — a former CPA and private equity professional turned functional medicine and nutrition practitioner, who went from being a Penn State dancer and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader finalist at peak performance, to a sudden and unexplained health crash that left her with brain fog, fatigue, and answers that Western medicine couldn't provide. She rebuilt herself from the inside out...

Meet Julia Kappler — a fourth-generation entrepreneur from Germany who moved to the United States at 19 with no job, no network, and one mission: to expand her family's 70-year-old medical design legacy into the US market. She is now the founder and leader of Kappler North America — a global architecture and interior design firm that transforms medical and dental practices from the ground up —...

Meet Joe Zapiain — a self-taught automation expert who went from living in his car working as a McLaren technician in Miami, to getting laid off two weeks before his daughter was born, to building SmartClick Systems — an AI automation and Clickup implementation company that has generated tens of millions of dollars in new revenue for clients across industries. He held over 32 jobs across 9 states,...

Meet Ryan Lane — a New York City-based entrepreneur who spent 8 years in corporate real estate before quitting his job to go all-in on FTL Bags, a bootstrapped premium bag brand he co-founded with his childhood best friend Zander. Built from scratch with zero outside funding, FTL has grown into one of the most exciting up-and-coming bag brands in the market — carried organically by professional at...

Meet Austin Boyd — a Las Vegas-based entrepreneur who started making and selling custom t-shirts in 10th grade and, 17 years later, has built a 40-person live print shop operation serving Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, and major brands across the nation. He also recently launched a laser med spa and hosts a recurring in-person networking event called Grow & Connect. Stop wai...

Meet Paul Hutchinson — a serial entrepreneur who sold his first company at 29 for $20 million, co-founded Bridge Investment Group which grew to over $50 billion in assets under management, led more than 70 undercover child rescue missions across 15 countries, and is the executive producer and primary investor behind Sound of Freedom — the #1 independent film in the world that went head-to-head wit...

Meet Levi Lomey the Face of Syndicate11, top creator and model community, a South African-born model who walked runways for Dior and Kenzo at Paris Fashion Week, built a growth marketing agency, gave a TED Talk, and is now the founder of Syndicate 11, an invite-only private network connecting the world's top creative talent, models, musicians, athletes, and creators, to each other and to life-chan...

What happens when Dr. John A. King loses his career, his first marriage, and his reputation all at once? In this episode, Shane and Vin sit down with Dr. John A. King, a survivor of extreme childhood trauma and a global leader , to discuss the brutal reality of rebuilding a life from the ground up when the world as you know it collapses. We break down: 1. The Identity Trap: Why building your self-...

In this episode, T-Drew reveals why he’d burn the "Founder" title to the ground if he had to start over from zero today. We sit down with the designer and creative strategist to discuss why the 2026 wealth-building blueprint isn't about owning a startup—it’s about reforming your identity to become a high-level contributor with massive leverage. He explains: ⁃ The "Founder Trap&q...

If credit feels stressful, confusing, or risky, James Jiang breaks down exactly why — and how to flip it. In this episode, I sit down with James Jiang, a credit expert who explains how credit actually works behind the scenes — and how people quietly sabotage themselves without realizing it. No hype, no gimmicks. Just real clarity. In this episode, you’ll learn: 1. Why “playing it safe” with credit...

Most people think gift giving is about being nice. Sara Hardwick Grintz shows why it’s actually a business skill—and why getting it wrong quietly kills ROI. In this episode, we sit down with Sara Hardwick Grintz, President of the RuhlinGroup, to break down what it really means to be a phenomenal gift giver—and how intentional gifting can strengthen relationships, land clients, and create long-term...

Trying to break into film but everything feels pay-to-play? Kevan Ali explains how to win with strategy (even without the “in”). In this episode of the 1% Podcast, we sit down with Kevan Ali — filmmaker + creative ambassador for the New Jersey Film Readiness Program — to talk about what actually gets projects made: relationships, leverage, and building an ecosystem that attracts real productions....

You’re not “lazy”—you’re just missing a system. Kyle Paterson walks through the client engine that makes entrepreneurship real. In this episode, Vin and Shane sit down with Kyle Paterson, a NYC marketing agency owner who works with high net worth clients, to break down what actually moves the needle when you’re transitioning into entrepreneurship and building a real pipeline without relying on luc...

Rene Rodriguez explains why people say yes—but never follow through You’re not bad at communicating. You’re just speaking to the wrong part of the brain. In this episode, I sit down with Rene Rodriguez to break down what actually drives human behavior—and why logic, facts, and pressure quietly backfire when you’re trying to influence people. You’ll learn how to: 1. Get buy-in without pushing or pe...

Dean Kinzer, Why Ancient Coins Are More Powerful Than You Think You’ve probably assumed ancient coins are expensive museum pieces, but the truth is you can own real history for far less than most people realize. In this episode, we sit down with Dean Kinzer, owner of KinzerCoins, to unpack why ancient coins weren’t just money. They were the original mass communication system, a tool for propaganda...