The Founders Live Podcast

Nick Hughes is joined by Wentao Xiao, cofounder and CEO of Cactivate and who joins us today from Boston, MA. CACTIVATE is a result-driven AI system to automatically manage and optimize Facebook and Instagram ads for maximum return at the lowest cost. You can Supercharge your online store's Facebook ads for $99/month! Nick and Wentao quickly get into a fun conversation all around entrepreneurs...

Nick Hughes is joined by Kordel France, the CEO and Engineer of Seekar Technologies from Dallas, Texas. Seekar Technologies is a technology startup that builds artificial intelligence products for a variety of industries. Kordel founded Seekar on four principles: to make AI mobile, ethical, explainable, and dynamic. He is working towards setting a standard for AI, in being explainable and mobile,...

Nick Hughes is joined by Craig Clickner & Carrie Bohlig, side hustle experts and entrepreneurs from Madison, Wisconsin. The willingness to embrace the adventure that is side hustling has revolutionized the way they live, allowing them to step away from their traditional careers and become full time parents and entrepreneurs. Nick, Craig and Carrie start off their conversation asking about entr...

Nick Hughes is joined by Ryan Staley, founder and CEO of WhaleBoss and host of the Scale Up Show Podcast from Chicago, IL. Ryan has built his entire career by delivering results in the corporate world, but now is building a business based impact. Ryan has coached and mentored Sales Executives to 2-4x their income while working 10-15 hours less a week, created an enterprise team from scratch to rea...

Nick Hughes is joined by Sara Shokouhi, founder of b. WEAR from Los Angeles, CA. bWEAR is breathable and soft af underwear made from sustainable bamboo focused on prioritizing your sexual health as ⁣seen in Buzzfeed, AskMen, Athlesiure. Nick and Sara enjoy a very touching and important conversation around what Sara says is humanizing the uncomfortable. We hear about how she decided to start a comp...

Nick Hughes is joined by Simon Muzariri, Founder and CEO of Omorfo Tech Labs from Harare, Zimbabwe and Founders Live Prime Time Africa finalist! Omorfo Tech Labs is a company that focus on design, manufacturing and distribution of digital technologies. Nick and Simon have a really enjoyable conversation about his journey and lessons learned along the way. They first talk about Harare, Zimbabwe and...

Nick Hughes is joined by Rachit Dayal, Founder of Happy Marketer / Chief Marketing Officer APAC at Merkle from Singapore. Nick and Rachit jump into a really engaging conversation around entrepreneurship, empathy, business, and what to expect during an exit or acquisition! They start by discussing entrepreneurship and why did he choose it. Then Nick asks: Marketing and growth - how did you consiste...

Nick Hughes is joined by Pawel Paczuski, who is the CEO of Upmedic from Warsaw, Poland. Upmedic provides an intelligent system of reports created for medical clinicians. Nick and Pawel start the conversation by learning how Pawel got started working with computers in Kindergarten as a youngster.  We then hear how he got started in entrepreneurship and creating his own company. Nick inquires about...

Nick Hughes is joined by a good friend Julia Freeland who is an author, change strategist and coach from Seattle, WA. Julia is a passionate educator and change coach, who has spent most of her life working to help people break through limiting beliefs and seemingly impenetrable barriers to become better versions of themselves. Her fascination with change started as she emerged from university equi...

Nick Hughes is joined by Alex Salinsky, founder of En Blazes,  who also serves as a fractional COO joining us from Medellin, Colombia. Alex says: y ou are a founder of a Technology organization ready to scale. I help leaders install the right systems, routines, and people - Ask him today! Nick and Alex jump into a very entertaining and educational conversation all around scaling your startup. They...

Nick Hughes is joined by Jeff Pugel, Founder at Ignition from Cleveland, Ohio. Jeff says: EVERYTHING You Know About Marketing Your Small Business Is WRONG! He's here to fix it. Nick and Jeff jump into a really fascinating conversation around marketing, messaging and getting your communications aligned with your target market. They start with hearing about his journey into entrepreneurship and...

Nick Hughes is joined by Rosalinda Mendoza ,CEO and cofounder of Mocel from Seattle and Mexico. Mocel crafts artisanal spirits that inspire connection and deliver to your home to create a shared tasting experience. Nick and Rosalinda start their conversation learning how both of them grew up in the same town of Yakima in Washington state. We then get into Why Mezcal, why Mexico and what the vision...

Nick Hughes is joined by Ed Vincent, Founder and CEO of FestivalPass from Austin, Texas. FestivalPass - We know you miss live events, but they are back! Start earning credits now to use toward future live entertainment. They offer a flat rate, monthly subscription live event marketplace that allows members credits to access festivals and experiences. Nick and Ed jump into a fun and exploratory con...

Nick Hughes is joined by Richard Brion, Founder and CEO of Revolution Agriculture (RevoAg) from Seattle, WA. They are All Produce Local Everywhere - Produce shouldn't have to travel thousands of miles or be controlled by large, monopolistic farms. It should come right from our own communities, and you can be a part of it! Nick and Richard have a very interesting conversation that starts with...

Nick Hughes is joined by Cam Kashani, Sacred Queen Embodiment Guide and inspirational speaker from Los Angeles CA. Cam works with individual clients, is building out new products for her offerings, as well as hosts her own Podcast - The Cam Kashani Show. Nick and Cam have a very deep and insightful conversation starting with her own powerful journey into entrepreneurship and then the take a leap i...

Nick Hughes is joined by Surbhi Rathore who is the CEO and cofounder of symbl.ai from Seattle WA. Symbl.ai natively integrates conversation intelligence into your voice or video applications without building machine learning models. Nick and Surbhi jump into a fun conversation that starts with Surbhi's early days and how she entered into the technology industry and discovering her desire to b...

Nick Hughes is joined by Erin McCune, cofounder and CEO of Easeenet from Portland Oregon and recent winner of Founders Live Portland. Easeenet effortlessly organizes and preserves your digital estate, making your online life easy to see for you today, and your family tomorrow. Nick and Erin start the conversation around her journey and why she choose entrepreneurship. Then they cover how she disco...

Nick Hughes is joined by Artin Nazarian, Author and executive in LA who recently released the book Side Venture: The playbook to leverage your corporate job, pursue a side venture, and find happiness and fulfillment. Nick and Artin have a very interesting and engaging conversation around how to launch the side venture or hustle you have always dreamed of through simple hacks, tests and steps. They...

Nick Hughes is joined by John Naughton who is the CEO of GoContractor from Brisbane, Australia. GoContractor is built to help construction general contractors move their worker onboarding and subcontractor safety management online. Nick and John jump into a fun conversation that covers a variety of different topics including how he ended up downunder and what he loves about Australia, how he disco...

Nick Hughes is joined by Hrish Lotlikar, Co-Founder & CEO of SuperWorld who joins us from Europe but the company is from San Francisco. SuperWorld is a virtual world where users can buy, sell, collect, and curate over 64 billion unique plots of virtual land. The SuperWorld virtual real estate platform is mapped over the entire surface of the globe, allowing users to purchase — literally — any...

Nick Hughes is joined by Diana Muturia, Founder and CEO of Clyn from Phoenix, AZ and recent winner of the Founders Live - Emerging Black Founders event. Clyn is a mobile applications that connect homes to home service providers and vice versa. Clyn is here to optimize the cleaning industry. For far too long, consumers have been overpaying and cleaners have been treated as second class citizens. He...

Nick Hughes is joined by David Berkowitz, founder of Serial Marketers from New York City. Serial Marketers is an inclusive community based in Slack, the 2,500+ Serial Marketers members share job opportunities, get recommendations for who to work with and what technologies to use, post event invites, showcase their latest projects, and support each other in countless ways. Nick and David have an am...

Nick Hughes is joined by Stephanie M. Hutchins, founder of Serotinous Life, and author of the book Transformation after Trauma . Stephanie's mission is to help clients start living their life on purpose by breaking the chains of yesterday that keep holding them back from a life that is meaningful to them. To stop going through the motions of day-to-day life, wishing for Friday to come, for th...

Nick Hughes is joined by Debbie Garcia who is the founder and CEO of Virsitour from Nashville, Tennessee. Virsitour is an online platform for event planners to venue source virtually utilizing virtual site tours. It is the only marketplace for meeting and event planners to source hotels and venues virtually.  You can tour, add to list and send RFP’s all in one visit. Nick and Debbie jump into a fu...

Nick Hughes is joined by cofoudners Kesha Rodgers and Sara So of The Ally League from Seattle WA. The Ally League's mission is to combat racism by helping allies move from empathy for those affected by racism to action to dismantle it. Our initial goal is to make an impact on our community by supporting and amplifying Black-owned businesses. We bring great products from Black entrepreneurs to...