Startup Ignition Podcast

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards sit down with 4x founder Jeron Paul. Jeron shares the incredible journey of his latest company, Spiff, from a simple idea to replace commission spreadsheets to a stunning $419 million acquisition by Salesforce. He discusses his entire entrepreneurial path, including his early ventures in venture capital, founding the ca...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards dive into the most popular part of their boot camp: the war stories. They share real-world, personal experiences to illustrate fundamental startup principles. The episode kicks off with a rapid-fire icebreaker, translating common venture capital terminology into plain English. From there, they tackle the critical mistak...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards are joined by Ben, the founder and CEO of BK Marketing. Ben shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey, from his early days in door-to-door alarm sales to revolutionizing the pest control industry. He details the creation of his unique business model, which focuses on building elite, outsourced sales teams for pest c...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards sit down with Jeff Burningham, a seasoned entrepreneur, prolific investor, and now, author. Jeff shares insights from his incredible journey, from launching his first tech company in college and co-founding the multi-billion dollar real estate firm Peak Capital Partners, to shaping Utah's tech scene with Peak Ventures (...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards sit down with Case Lawrence, the visionary founder behind Circus Trix, now known as Sky Zone. Case shares his incredible journey from being a Silicon Valley lawyer for tech pioneers like Elon Musk to facing near-bankruptcy during the Great Recession. He recounts the serendipitous moment he discovered a trampoline park,...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, we are joined by Kurt Workman, the co-founder of Owlet. Kurt shares the deeply personal story that inspired the creation of the Owlet Smart Sock, a device that has now been used by 1 in 10 babies born in the US. He takes us through the entire journey, from a $50 student prototype to building a $100 million revenue company. Kurt opens up about the im...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards dedicate the entire show to answering pressing questions from their founder community. They kick things off with a fun "Startup Generational Side-by-Side" game comparing business tools from the 80s/90s to today, before diving into the core questions. The duo offers practical advice and battle-tested insights on a wide r...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, we sit down with Dustin Robins, the CEO of Corporate Traditions, a company that has scaled to tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Dustin shares his incredible journey from being unexpectedly laid off from Adobe to starting a service-based video company, and the pivotal moment at a Startup Ignition boot camp that changed his entire perspec...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards dive deep into the venture ecosystem, contrasting two prominent startup philosophies: the "Unicorn" versus the "Elephant." They argue that the post-ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Period) era calls for a shift away from the "growth at all costs" unicorn mentality. Instead, they champion the "elephant" approach, which prioritiz...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, we're joined by the legendary Garrett Gee for a surprise interview! Garrett, the co-founder of Scan and father of The Bucket List Family, shares his incredible journey from being a college student who didn't know what "entrepreneur" meant to selling his app to Snapchat for $54 million. He unpacks the entire wild ride: the lightning-fast negotiation...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, we're joined by Adam Edmunds, the CEO of the $4B real estate tech powerhouse, Entrata. Adam shares his incredible journey from a student entrepreneur who didn't know what a cap table was to a seasoned operator leading multi-billion dollar companies. He dives deep into the "secret sauce" behind Podium's explosive growth from $1M to $100M ARR in just...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, John and Tyler Richards are joined by Phil Kirkeiner, the CEO of Baton ( https://www.batonleads.com/ ), a rapidly growing referral platform for the home services industry. Phil, a former student of John's, shares his incredible journey from being a music major and accountant to a successful entrepreneur. We dive deep into the origin story of Baton,...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards sit down with Scott Johnson, the visionary founder behind Workfront (acquired by Adobe for $1.5 billion) and his current venture, Motivosity. Scott shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey, from bootstrapping Workfront (formerly @task) for over six years to navigating the dot-com bust and the 2008 financial crisis....

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler sit down with Andrew Smith, the managing partner of Savory Fund and a serial entrepreneur defined as a true "problem hunter." Andrew shares his incredible journey, starting in the tech world during the dot-com boom with a revolutionary streaming media company. He details the highs of a near-IPO and the crushing lows of the bubbl...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards dive deep into the world of pre-seed due diligence. They outline the critical checklist they use as venture capitalists to evaluate early-stage companies, providing invaluable insights for founders preparing to fundraise. The discussion covers essential legal and financial structures, including the importance of a C-cor...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler are joined by seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and mentor Travis Cook. They dive into Travis's journey, starting with his early days as a Java developer in 1996, co-founding Solution Stream, a pioneering custom software development shop that significantly impacted Utah's tech scene. The conversation explores his experiences as C...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts Tyler and John Richards sit down with Utah startup legend, Craig Earnshaw. Craig shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey, from his early days as a programmer to founding, selling, rebuying, and re-selling his software company, LifeLK Corporation, including a dramatic experience during the dot-com bust with GE and ChannelPoint. He discuss...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, we're joined by the remarkable Brian Beutler, CEO and founder of Alianza, and Utah Business CEO of the Year 2025. Brian takes us on an incredible two-decade journey of building Alianza, a leading cloud communications platform. From its early days as a VOIP disruptor born out of a BYU business plan competition to navigating multiple near-death experi...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, we sit down with Evan Teshima, founder and former CEO of ForeUP, a massive bootstrapped success story in the golf tech SaaS space. Evan shares his incredible journey from meeting John in a BYU classroom, enduring 5-7 rapid pivots during an accelerator program, navigating a near-death convertible note crisis resolved by a $400,000 chess game and desp...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards sit down with Eric Smith, a true pioneer and legend in the smart home industry. Currently the CTO of Savvy IQ following a recent merger with Oliver IQ, Eric shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey, starting from building home automation systems as a teenager. He recounts co-founding the iconic Control4, taking it...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, John and Tyler dive deep into the critical early stages of building a startup. They kick things off with a fun "Startup Snap Associations" icebreaker, revealing John's gut reactions to key industry terms like "pitch deck," "burn rate," "aqua hire," and "FOMO." Tyler shares his experience speaking at a developer meetup, which highlighted a common nee...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John Richards and Tyler Richards sit down with Bryan Christiansen, the founder and CEO of Limble CMMS. Brian shares his incredible journey from a self-taught developer playing EverQuest to building a major SaaS company. He details his first startup failure, the power of deep customer validation (talking to 200+ potential users!), bootstrapping...

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, Jared Ward and Brendon Beebe, founders of Luminous, share their journey building a modern e-commerce ERP. They discuss the value of technical co-founders, iterative development, and lessons from early mistakes like premature scaling. Jared’s shift from supply chain to CEO and Brendon’s tech leadership highlight the power of complementary skills. The...

This episode of the Startup Ignition podcast focuses on the current state of the venture capital market, drawing heavily from reports by Silicon Valley Bank (the "Silicon Valley Bank’s State Of The Markets 2025 Report") and PitchBook (the "Pitchbook’s 2024 Annual US VC Valuations Report"). Tyler and John Richards discuss the dominant role of AI in attracting VC funding, noting it as the "oasis in...

In this episode, we're joined by Jason Peterson, a seasoned entrepreneur, technologist, and innovator, best known for his successful exit with XOLogic, a leading software provider for the lighting, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing industries, which he sold in 2021. Currently, Jason is involved with Noggin, a company focused on process automation for small businesses, and also dedicates his time to h...