Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast

Brandon Metcalf is the Founder and CEO of Place Technology, a Salesforce-powered software that streamlines managing customer subscriptions, billing, financial data, and business analytics for B2B SaaS companies. With a deep understanding of the Salesforce ecosystem, Brandon has developed innovative products that solve critical business challenges for SaaS companies.  In addition to Place Technolog...

Kimberly Wiefling is a Founding Member and Global Consultant at Silicon Valley Alliances, where she transforms managers into leaders and groups of people into teams. Known for her unique style, Kimberly's superpower is bringing people with diverse backgrounds and cultures together, connecting them across borders, boundaries, and barriers of every kind, to achieve what seems impossible but which no...

Craig Swanson is a longtime entrepreneur, Consultant at Emerald, and Partner at KaisaFit, an online fitness platform. He is the Chair of the Seattle EO Accelerator program and EO Seattle and loves helping creators, educators, and entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses around their dreams. Craig is a former Partner at The Wedding School, an online education program for wedding photographers. He...

Renzo Luján is the Managing Director at First Republic Bank, where he leads a team of private bankers that provide customized banking solutions to clients. He started his career in banking with Washington Mutual and later moved to Citibank, where he honed his skills and gained valuable experience. With almost two decades in the banking industry, Renzo's passion for banking and his commitment to de...

Shamit Khemka is the Founder and CEO of SynapseIndia, a premier IT outsourcing company based in India. Focusing on open-source frameworks and e-commerce, SynapseIndia provides software development and custom web mobile applications, primarily working with customers in the USA, UK, Australia, and Canada. Over the last 23-plus years, the company has delivered over 10,000 projects for clients such as...

Phillip Baltazar is the Founder and Private Banker of Reiden Group, a firm that offers short-term financing for real estate investors and wholesalers. He is also the Executive Advisor at Culture Index, a strategic advisory firm working exclusively with visionary entrepreneurs, business leaders, and management to scale and transform organizations using applied analytics.  Phillip is a business advi...

Craig Swanson is the Co-founder of CreativeLive, the world-leading live and online classroom for creative entrepreneurs. Getting his start delivering newspapers, Craig is a natural-born entrepreneur that loves the challenge of growing an online business from low six-figures to breaking $1M and building the team and systems to a scale far beyond. Craig is also a board member and the Accelerator Cha...

Pramod Dabir is the Co-founder, CEO, and Partner at West Agile Labs, a premier web and mobile design and development company. Some of its notable clients include Samsung, Johnson & Johnson, and the Ritz Carlton. Pramod also manages Open Door Partners, an investment fund that's helping democratize private investing. With over a decade of experience in the industry, Pramod is able to do what he love...

Longtime entrepreneur Charles (Chuck) Bender is the CEO of Attentus Technologies, a leading IT service provider in Bellevue and Seattle. He has a strong background in managed services and the internet industry, with expertise in business planning, operations management, and sales.  Chuck is a dedicated member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and currently serves as the regional chair for th...

Longtime entrepreneur Charles (Chuck) Bender is the CEO of Attentus Technologies, a leading IT service provider in Bellevue and Seattle. He has a strong background in managed services and the internet industry, with expertise in business planning, operations management, and sales.  Chuck is a dedicated member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and currently serves as the regional chair for th...

Former gymnast Jennifer Atkinson is the co-CEO of Destira, a women-run and family-owned gymnastics apparel company specializing in leotards for young girls and empowering young female gymnasts across the United States. Jennifer gained several years of retail, social media, and e-commerce experience, climbing the corporate ladder at Gap. Before joining Destira as its co-CEO, she worked in marketing...

Kiersten Firquain is the Chef and Founder of Legit Provisions. The innovative eatery is a farm-to-table micro market in Napa Valley, California. In addition to her culinary talents, Kiersten, or Chef K as she's popularly known, is a serial entrepreneur. Before establishing Legit Provisions, she founded Get Happy Catering, the Happy Food Company, InHome Bistro, and Bistro Kids. Chef K attended the...

John Grover is the Co-founder and Chief People Officer at Endsight, a 150-person outsourced IT company for small and medium-sized organizations. As the organization's CPO, he recruits and retains the best talent in IT. His duties include talent acquisition, workforce development, performance management, career pathing, succession planning, marketing/branding, organizational design, retention strat...

Ingrid Romero is a longtime business coach, entrepreneur, and performance specialist with Insperity. She spent 18 years as an executive in the fitness industry. Ingrid wants to see people thrive in life and believes the best leaders demonstrate accountability, commitment, and action — which in today's landscape can be challenging. Today, Ingrid's mission is to help business leaders develop the bes...

Dr. Kristin Oja — Founder and CEO — is on a mission to reshape healthcare via her clinic. STAT Wellness. Conceived from a yearning of wanting to change the way people live, the Atlanta and Roswell-based one-stop wellness center staff functional health experts who concentrate on medicine and movement. STAT Wellness strives for clients to leave feeling better than when they walked through the clinic...

Patrick Cheo is the CEO of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group (AKLTG), where he oversees the management of finance, marketing, and operational activities. He helped transform AKLTG over a brisk six-year period from a two-person operation to over 100 staff members. He has been instrumental in developing overseas ventures in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Patrick received the...

Alan Jiang is the Co-founder and CEO of Beam, Asia's fastest-growing micromobility startup focused on solving short-distance transport needs within cities, starting with e-scooter sharing. His team leads the way in the Asia Pacific with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, Thailand, and Malaysia to bring affordable, safe, and sustainable transportation to citizens....

Tal Atid is the Co-founder of Flooret, a direct-to-consumer flooring company based out of San Diego, California, with operations nationwide. Being the son of a construction and flooring company owner, he had early exposure to the flooring business. After graduating from college, Tal worked in his father's business. Four years later, he worked for another flooring company, and his experience there...

Orrin Klopper is the Co-founder and CEO of Netsurit, a company offering managed outsourced IT services and support for organizations in the US and across the globe. Netsurit has offices in New York and New Jersey.  Additionally, Orrin is one of the founding members of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) in South Africa and an active member of the Young Presidents' Association (YPO). Orrin complet...

Rayner Teo is an independent trader, an ex-prop trader, and the Founder of TradingwithRayner. He discovered trading in 2009 when a forex broker came to his school and organized a trading competition. Since then, Rayner has devoured every bit of trading knowledge he could find and learned as much as possible to be a consistently profitable trader. He started TradingwithRayner to journal the things...

James Pang is the Founder and Managing Director of My Drum School. He founded My Drum School in 2007 and now leads a team of 45 employees with four locations and a headquarters in Singapore. James discovered his love for music at an early age by experimenting with various instruments, including the electone organ, classical guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, clarinet, flute, piano, drums, and p...

John Corcoran is a recovering attorney, an author, and a former White House writer and speechwriter to the Governor of California. Throughout his career, John has worked in Hollywood, the heart of Silicon Valley, and has run his boutique law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, catering to small business owners and entrepreneurs.  John has been the host of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast sinc...

Bo Ghirardelli is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sky's the Limit, a rapidly expanding digital platform that connects entrepreneurs with peers, volunteer business mentors, training resources, and funding. Sky's the Limit is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the US serving underrepresented young adult entrepreneurs, with over 40,000 young entrepreneurs and volunteers registered on its website...

Laurie Corona is a business coach and entrepreneur. She is a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization of San Francisco and coaches for the EO Accelerator program. She was the Chief Executive Officer at Greene's Cleaners, a family-owned business that was sold in 2021. Laurie worked as the Vice President and CFO for Lixit Animal Care Products and as a Financial Analyst for Stamper Capital. In 2012,...

Nikole Mackenzie is the Founder and CEO of Momentum Accounting, a 100% US-based remote team of business-savvy accountants and technology experts who help like-minded creative agencies and other professional service companies scale from $1 million to $10 million in annual recurring revenue. Nikole and her team help agency owners save money, increase revenue, stay compliant, save time, and eliminate...