Startup to Storefront

The eyes are the second most complex organ in the body, beaten only by the brain. Thus, it's no surprise that eye care - specifically daily contact lenses - are expensive. In this, Waldo recognized an opportunity to disrupt the eye care industry. Waldo helps consumers "refocus" by: Saving them money by removing the added distribution costs and Adding B-12 to reduce dryness by up to 30% In short, t...

The best part about making cookies is eating the raw dough off the mixers. High risk, high reward. This can make you seriously ill. Between the flour and eggs, salmonella is a real threat. Sweet Loren's, the #1 natural cookie dough company in the United States, has created the solution we all needed. They make gluten-free, dairy-free, plant-based, and nut-free cookie dough. It comes in pre-cut por...

Stowed was founded on a vision. A vision for a more beautiful living space filled with modern, sophisticated, and luxurious furniture that stands the test of time. Founded in 2017, Stowed harnessed the power of Instagram to build a loyal following. Through a beautifully curated aesthetic on their social media pages, it becomes easy for a customer to see how Stowed's collection can transform their...

Between all the Mexican restaurants, food trucks, and street vendors, Los Angeles is the place to be when it comes to getting authentic, mouth-watering tacos. Thus, winning the award for the best tacos in LA is quite the feat. Villas Tacos did the unthinkable. They were crowned as the best tacos in LA, two years in a row. These back-to-back champions serve their tacos on hand-made blue, corn torti...

It's no secret that America's food supply has been compromised. 52% of produce is wasted. For food to survive the current supply chain, it has to be processed and then sprayed with chemicals. Not everyone has a green thumb, and if you live in a city, it can be hard to find the space to have your own personal garden. From Farmstand to the table, Lettuce Grow makes growing your own groceries easy. T...

I am willing to bet you don't drink smoothies because they are too much of a hassle. You have to purchase multiple bags of frozen fruit from the grocery store, portion it out, blend it all together, and then pour it all into a separate cup that I suspect is not built for travel. It's just too complicated. With 80 years of family fruit expertise, LiveMore Organics has created the world's first 100%...

Picture this, you're looking to launch a Shopify store for your new product. You sign onto Shopify to set things up, only to realize you have a huge problem you have 0 photos. That's where Soona comes in. Instead of having to do it yourself, Soona takes the stress away. You ship your products to their studio, you join a remote video call, and you only have to buy the assets you like. Photos, video...

Carla Esparza is a two-time UFC Women's Strawweight Champion and became the current title holder when she defeated Rose Namjunas . Typically a fighter's career only lasts a couple of years, and when they have a huge win, they have to stretch the money until their next fight. The pay is not consistent, and after one fight, their career could be completely over. Competitors in the UFC are also requi...

Alpha'a is the Squarespace of blockchain. Right now, If you want to utilize the blockchain, you would need to hire a development team to do the coding for the project. It takes time, money, and resources to just find the right dev team, and you haven't even started coding. Manuela Seve , the founder of Alpha'a, is on a mission to remove the friction, and make this process much, much easier. In the...

Welcome to Mother Nature's Farmacy. Today's guest is Shizu Okusa, the founder of Apothékary . Backed by 5,000 years of science, Apothékary provides Natural Alternatives To Synthetic Skincare And Drugs. The goal is to stay Healthy So You Don't Have To Get Healthy. Apothékary is at the forefront of the rising adaptogen market, and what's interesting is it's really trailing behind the CBD market. So...

You don't have to look hard to find a national brand that started from a single-family-owned restaurant. There's In-N-Out: started by the Snyder family, McDonald's: started by the McDonald brothers, and Chick-fil-A: started by the Cathy family. While we're on the topic, go ahead and add Xiao Chi Jie into the mix (or XCJ for short). But unlike the previous three brands that spread primarily through...

When it comes to the art world, you have artists, dealers, and collectors. Dealers have been around almost as long as humans have been selling art, linking buyers and artists together all over the globe. The relationship between an artist and a dealer was originally based on commerce but eventually evolved into one that included sincere advocacy and patronage. The art dealers of today are often ju...

Want to spice up your morning latte? Try adding some mushrooms to it. And not just any mushrooms, but a specific species that only grows on a small percentage of birch trees in cold weather climates. Seems a bit extreme, right? To Brandon Mizrahie it seemed like the perfect idea for a business. Chaga mushrooms are known to have a long list of health benefits, so Brandon set out to find the ideal d...

Eat your own dog food. It's a simple phrase designed to convey the notion that if your product is good enough for your consumers, it's good enough for you too. For Carlos Bryant, founder of Las Maris vegan food truck , his initial menu didn't fit with his diet. Las Maris wasn't always vegan, and when customers would ask how the food tasted, all he could offer were referrals to other people. Let's...

If you were to set out to cut your caloric intake today, odds are pretty high that your mind would immediately go to what food groups you could swap out or substitute. But what about swapping out or replacing the beverages you consume on a daily basis? Lower calorie beverages are certainly nothing new, like diet and zero-calorie options have been staples of everything from Pepsi to Gatorade to Mic...

On Thursday, February 24th, Russian military forces crossed the border into Ukraine and ended a peace that had existed in Europe since World War II. The war in Ukraine has, among many other tragedies, created a massive humanitarian crisis with the millions and millions of Ukrainian citizens that have fled the country in search of safety. For those that have stayed, daily life has been completely u...

Scaling a business and cementing your place in an emerging market is a special kind of struggle. While you're busy building your own brand you've also got to be busy educating consumers about the market's very existence. The appeal of all of this is of course if and when consumer trends shift, any company with a foothold sees massive growth and all the rewards that come with it. One needs to look...

It wasn't very long ago that we as a society were told that a small amount of alcohol—say, a glass of wine with dinner—could be beneficial for our cardiovascular health. But a recent study from the World Heart Federation has turned that notion upside down, saying that any amount of drinking alcohol can contribute to the loss of a healthy life. So what are we to do with this new information? Sure,...

Remember when we were all making sourdough bread to pass the time during lockdown? Our guests today were also cooking something up in their kitchen, but it was much sweeter and designed to be more of a long-term play than a short-term way to occupy their time. Shant Reganyan and Vicken Kejejian were fulfilling a long-time mission to start a business together. And with the coronavirus pandemic upen...

Last week we had a session on Bright Live with DJ EFN of Drink Champs . His career has taken him everywhere from mixtapes and music marketing to podcasting and documentary filmmaking. The best part about Bright Live is the ability to have audience participation in the conversation. They host a variety of sessions on just about any topic you'd be interested in, and it's a great place for curious mi...

You probably don't have to think too hard to recall the early days of the coronavirus lockdowns. When all we wanted was an excuse to get out of our homes, bikes became that excuse. You could head out your front door and get some exercise while maintaining your social distance. It was the perfect pandemic escape. And so it was no big surprise when bike sales skyrocketed. One would think that it wou...

Parents will always want what's best for their children. Many go to great lengths to give their child just the tiniest leg up if that will mean success down the line. Whether that be after-school tutoring, private music lessons, or waking up at 5AM on a Saturday morning to drive your kid to practice, it's not difficult to find examples of parents making their child's development a priority. But wh...

If you were born before a certain point in time, hearing about a Good Humour ice cream truck might conjure up nostalgic memories of a carefree summer. Younger generations might be more familiar with Good Humour products found in the freezer section of grocery stores all over the country. This is the story of how a single ice cream truck grew into a chain with national distribution, but it is not t...

The prevalence of gluten-free food options is no accident. Manufacturers saw that there was a sizable portion of the population who wanted foods that wouldn't wreak havoc on their digestive systems and they responded. To a lesser extent, the same is true for foods catering to the lactose-intolerant among us, but the latter hasn't quite reached the level of the former. There are all sorts of statis...

Our guest today is Stefanie Olson, founder of SheBuilds. What started out as flipping a single house has turned into a career spent renovating, flipping, and building new properties from the ground up. SheBuilds now tackles entire housing developments, most notably for the town of Paradise, California. In 2018, the Camp Fire raged through Paradise, destroying 95% of its structures and killing 85 p...