The Founders Live Podcast

Nick Hughes is joined by Rebekah Bastian of Seattle who is the CEO and cofounder of OwnTrail. OwnTrail is reimagining and scaling mentorship to serve all women. Nick and Rebekah start off this conversation with Rebekah talking about her experience pitching at Founders Live and tips for other founders thinking about pitching at a future Founders Live event. They then dive into her vision of OwnTrai...

Nick Hughes is joined by Alison Bell, a strategy advisor from Phoenix, Arizona. Alison works with startups and companies to figure out their unique strategy and their Why. Nick and Alison jump into a fun and engaging conversation that starts with her 5 things she learned from her dad on how to uniquely live and be independent, which has influenced her path into entrepreneurship. They then dive int...

Nick Hughes is joined by Valentine Shoti of Harare, Zimbabwe who is the Founder of Organut Manufactures. Valentine is also known as Mai Dovi (which translated means Ms Peanut Butter) in her native city of Harare. They are manufacturing Organut butter which is herbal and flavored with 40 varieties formulated to enhance nutrition normally brought by ordinary butter with aid of naturally nutritious p...

Nick Hughes is joined by Shadrach White, CEO and founder of cloudPWR from Tacoma Washington. cloudPWR - ON A MISSION TO SIMPLIFY COMPLEX PROBLEMS AND HELP ORGANIZATIONS ADOPT CLOUD BASED SOLUTIONS. They help public agencies make the shift towards better software and processes and works to bridge gaps between systems and deliver results you can measure. Nick and Shadrach jump into a great conversat...

Nick Hughes is joined by Amanda Doamaral of Milwaukee Wisconsin, founder and CEO of Fiveable. Fiveable is a social learning network where students and teachers create and curate content while building community. Nick and Amanda jump into the conversation of how Amanda got started with teaching online and using videos, which led to her discovering how they could scale it to many more students. They...

Nick Hughes is joined by John Fanning CEO of Zelgor Games from Boston MA. Zelgor is a mobile game company building an army of aliens to take over the world. Nick and John take a deep dive into what that means, who are these Aliens and should we be scared of them, and what it takes to build a truly great brand in today's world. They also get into what the pandemic has brought to the media, gam...

Nick Hughes is joined by Qingqing (QQ) Han and Huina Mao of Wissee who are both from Seattle. Wissee powers your investment with reliable data analytics. First, Nick talks with QQ and Huina about their Founders Live Seattle experience and the tips they have around preparing and pitching at the event. Then, they jump into how the two met and developed a data analytics engine to power investments in...

Nick Hughes is joined by Shelly Bell, Founder of Black Girl Ventures from Washington DC. Black Girl Ventures is Creating Access to Capital for Black/Brown Women Founders and Entrepreneurs. Nick dives deep with Shelly around the challenges underrepresented entrepreneurs are facing, specifically around ethnic and gender issues. The main point Shelly brings to light is how we must first look at socia...

Nick Hughes is joined by Stephani Lucas who is co-founder and CFO, and Bradford Scott Walton who is co-founder and CEO of Spiritual Masochist, both are from Austin Texas. They are building an incredible transformative brand that focuses on stylishly tangible evidence of all the shit you’ve been through, resources for new ways to bring the pain (of growth) or interviews with people who know how to...

We interviewed Johnathan Buell, who is passionate about activating & empowering people and businesses to drive Social Impact through community and technology initiatives, and who has previously worked with Founders Live to guide us in deploying our social impact initiatives. The lead discussion focuses on what social impact really means, how to approach it as a founding team, why it's imp...

Nick Hughes is joined by Farouk Daher, co-founder CEO of Bizzy.co in Boston Massachusetts, who is building the goto marketplace for services by creating a centralized platform for freelancers to run their business, offer their services, and grow using tools and resources. Nick and Farouk quickly get into how they both were sitting in Boston at the time of the recording, and how Farouk got started...

We were joined by Mel Blatt, Founder and CEO of indipop, where she led a talk on The Most Affordable Health Care Options For Entrepreneurs to help shed some light on health memberships vs. traditional health insurance.  Each year the number of people leaving their job to go out on their own increases. In many cases that means leaving behind health insurance. Currently there are over 57 million fre...

Nick Hughes is joined by Roland Ndowa of Bulawayo Zimbabwe, cofounder of AllMart Marketplace, an online shopping  platform that enables users to buy or sell groceries or food and get them right at their doorstep. Nick and Roland start off the conversation talking about Zimbabwe and how they are dealing with the global Covid Pandemic, and then get into a discussion about AllMart Marketplace, and ho...

Nick Hughes is joined by Yohanna E. from Seattle, a Eritrean American international recording artist, who performed during a Founders Live Seattle event in early 2020. As a Seattle based artist, Yohanna E. is making her mark in the music industry by sharing her story and the stories of many through her music. As a first generation Eritrean American, she focuses on using music to inspire and motiva...

Nick Hughes is joined by Ford Baker of Dallas Texas, CEO and founder of Baco Tech. Baco Tech is a revolutionary way of handling your accounting. They provide proactive reporting, optimized bottom lines, and work life balance. Nick and Ford start off the conversation with a deep and touching story of how Ford discovered problems with his health and how his approach to life and business were making...

Nick Hughes is joined by Rita Anthony Parker from NYC, founder of Genesis Home. Rita is a longtime Founders Live member who has recently made the leap into real estate. Nick and Rita have a fun and engaging conversation starting with how she discovered Founders Live years ago, what motivates her to keep coming back each day/week, and how she sees it fitting into the world of entrepreneurship. They...

This Learning Series #2 - Finding An Open Playground is led by Michael Dermer of The Lonely Entrepreneur. We had a group conversation about how to evaluate an ecosystem and find the open spaces to build a new brand around, with the goal to "define" and "own" the mind share and market share. Nick and Michael dive deep into what makes a brand, how you define it, how you claim you...

Nick Hughes is joined by Wesley Maraire, who holds the position of Business Development with Tiritose in Harare Zimbabwe. Tiritose: Experience Zimbabwe - responsible and ethical travel programmes, including tours, educational, volunteer and internship placements offer participants with a unique, immersive, learning experience. Revenue from our programme fees directly helps support the development...

Nick Hughes is joined by Peter Ghiorse of New Jersey, cofounder CEO and GiveTide. They are changing the tide of giving through their program that rounds-up spare change and allows users to donate to any charity with a tap. Nick and Peter jump into a great conversation with first touching on how they connected in 2018 when Nick made a trip to the east coast to launch the New Jersey event. They then...

Nick Hughes is joined by Esteban Varela of Guadalajara Mexico, who is CFO of Linc. Linc is the academic success digital platform for higher educational institutions to provide tutoring and coaching in-person or online with real-time analytics for better decision-making. Nick and Esteban jump into a very engaging conversation around the future of education  - especially after the Covid-19 pandemic...

Nick Hughes is joined by Lori Most from Minneapolis who is founder and CEO Binary Bridge. Their Offline Network Enables and Powers Full Clinics in Any Remote Location around the world. BackpackEMR will instantly share your patient’s data securely from your Registration station to Vitals, Labs, Exam Rooms, and through to Pharmacy with a custom-built, offline, data-sharing network. Nick and Lori hav...

Nick Hughes is joined by Pradnya Desh from Seattle, CEO of Advocat Technologies, CONVERSATION-DRIVEN LEGAL RESEARCH AND DRAFTING FOR ATTORNEYS. Nick and Pradnya have an enlightening conversation starting first with her perspective and experience with Covid-19 in Seattle and beyond. Then they get into her journey as a founder, Advocat Technologies, what she is building and why, and the future of le...

This was recorded as part of our online Founders Live Conversations Series, watch the video here. We interviewed Sharen Eddings of CodewithSharen, a Interactive Text-Based Programming Language STEM E-Learning Solution. "Schools hire us to teach teachers how to code, so teachers can teach their students how to code too." We had a conversation in front of a live virtual audience who submit...

This was recorded as part of our online Founders Live Conversations Series, watch the video here .  We interviewed entrepreneur and investor Dave Parker, who has founded numerous companies, advised and mentored many founders and who also a spent some time as venture partner for Seven Peaks Ventures. Nick Hughes and Dave have an engaging conversation online about the current global situation, what...

Nick Hughes is joined by Joel Carben from Port Townsend, WA of Carben Ventures - Our mission is simple. We are here to help you build and grow the best companies in the world. Nick and his good friend Joel have a great conversation hitting many different topics starting with how they met, how Joel started IdealSeat, the experience building and pivoting the business and ultimately exiting during ea...