The Irresistible Factor

She had the distribution. She had the buyers. She had the product. And she shut it down anyway. This week on The Irresistible Factor, I welcomed back Alison Cayne . A few years ago, she came on the podcast to talk about building Haven's Kitchen. This time, she came back to talk about something founders rarely discuss publicly: How she knew it was time to walk away. What struck me most was tha...

“We’re Not Building for Scale. We’re Building for Disruption.” I’ve interviewed a lot of founders, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say that before. And, it completely changed the way I thought about this conversation with Del Alfonso, founder of Harmony Baby Nutrition. Because most founders talk about scale as the goal: More stores. More distribution. More volume. Del talked about changi...

“Let It Be Easy.” “Let it be easy.” That was one of my favorite moments from my conversation with Yasmin Crystal Santos, founder of Altar Native. Not because building a company is easy. Clearly, it’s not. She’s dealing with: inventory shortages changing manufacturers regulatory hurdles fundraising decisions international expansion And somehow… she still feels calm. Not passive. Not naive. Calm. An...

“If Someone Slams the Front Door in Your Face, Go to the Back Door.” That was one of my favorite lines from my conversation with Kim Hehir, co-founder of Brutus Broth. And honestly? It might be one of the best descriptions of entrepreneurship I’ve heard in a while. Because Brutus Broth didn’t grow into a 20,000-store brand by following the traditional playbook.  They grew because they kept asking....

Sold a Little. Learned a Lot. Most brands try to skip this part. They go straight to scale. More distribution. More spend. More everything. And then wonder why nothing sticks. I interviewed Scott Forsberg and Ed Klein on the podcast this week, the founders behind a chocolate brand called Vine to Bar. On the surface, it’s already a great story:  Upcycled Chardonnay grapes Science-backed benefits Be...

You Don’t Have to Build the Biggest Thing. You Just Have to Build the Right Thing. Most of the conversations I have on this podcast are about growth. Scaling. Raising capital. Winning in crowded categories. This one isn’t. And that’s exactly why I love it. I sat down with Ugo Urberti Foppa, founder of a retreat center in Portugal called Quinta Marugo. On paper, Ugo’s not my typical guest. No big b...

The brands that win in crowded categories aren’t chasing trends. They’re built from something real. In this episode, I sit down with Rudy Aldana (Co-Founder & CEO of PARCH) to break down what’s actually happening in non-alcoholic—and why most brands are missing it. What we get into:     •    Why non-alc isn’t about health—it’s about identity     •    The real reason consumers feel “off” when t...

There are some categories where it feels like the world does not need one more brand. Fitness is one of them, especially Pilates. So when I sat down with Michael Ramsey, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Strong Pilates, I wanted to understand how they’re breaking through in spite of that. This was the line that stayed with me: The problem wasn’t Pilates. It was everything else people still needed.    That’...

Most wearables track one thing at a time: steps, sleep, heart rate. Nanowear is building something entirely new: a single piece of fabric that acts like a full physical exam whenever you wear it. CEO and co-founder Venk Varadan started the company nearly ten years ago with his father, Dr. Vijay Varadan, after discovering a breakthrough textile that can read the body without adhesives or multiple d...

When Arisa Katayama had her daughter in LA during COVID, she did what most first-time moms do: focused on the birth and the baby, not herself. Then the fourth trimester hit. Sleep-deprived, still breastfeeding late into the night, she kept opening a half-empty fridge filled with leftovers and frozen pizza, realizing there was nothing truly nourishing or postpartum-safe for her. That moment became...

Reinventing Practitioner Commerce with Jon Armstrong When tech entrepreneur Jon Armstrong set out to simplify his own supplement routine, he uncovered a much bigger problem: practitioners were losing patients, and profits, to Amazon. His answer was GetHealthy.store , a turnkey e-commerce and marketing platform that gives health and wellness professionals custom storefronts, operational support, an...

After two decades in biotech and a near-fatal heart attack at 43, Gary Seelhorst realized that success without self-awareness isn’t sustainable. He left corporate life to build Prime Peak Executive Coaching , a practice that helps leaders align peak performance with personal well-being. What started as volunteer work guiding veterans through career transitions has become a fast-growing, referral-o...

Economist turned founder Mette Dyhrberg didn’t plan to enter healthcare; she just wanted her life back. After collecting six autoimmune diagnoses in her twenties, she started tracking everything she was doing, eating, and feeling for months and months. She then used that data to uncover the cause of her symptoms and reverse them within 16 months, something that the medical community was not able t...

Radiologist turned founder, Dr. Cristin Dickerson, didn’t plan to run a company, she just wanted to do her job. But after seeing hospital acquisitions triple imaging prices and claims processes fail patients and doctors alike, Dr. Cristin looked to an unlikely category to find a solution. She built Green Imaging: a “Travelocity-style” marketplace that buys unused scanner time, bundles the entire e...

“It was very hard to accept, but I had to face the reality that our business was never going to give us the return we deserved. That was a mature set of decisions, to give up on dreams and accept defeat,” she says. As you can see, Kelly Spillane has lived both sides of the CPG journey. She started in Ireland as a founder, building a jam and marmalade company with her sister and even landing on sup...

What began with Matt’s own martial arts injury grew into a business model that now includes international instructor training, wellness retreats, and tailored protocols for everyone from elite athletes to entrepreneurs. His story is both exciting and inspiring.  But building Cold Club hasn’t been easy. Matt has had to navigate the realities of entrepreneurship, scaling globally, wearing every hat,...

For Emily Stein, the path from Stanford scientist to startup founder wasn’t straightforward. What began with a deeply personal motivation, preventing her grandmother from losing more teeth after a stroke, has turned into building Primal Health, an international company tackling one of healthcare’s most overlooked problems: oral health. Emily has led Primal Health through the challenges of launchin...

If you’re trying to sell ideas, products, and technology in the Healthcare industry, this podcast is for you. For Brendan McAdams, sales in healthcare isn’t about pushing products, it’s about creating real fit, listening deeply, and helping founders build businesses that last. As the founder of Kiinetics, Brendan has worked with health tech startups and entrepreneurs to navigate one of the toughes...

After nearly burning out at her high-pressure job, Aisha Chottani knew something had to change. She swapped caffeine for meditation, cut sugar from her diet, and started paying attention to how she felt. The results were transformative, and they sparked the idea for Drink Moment . Launched in 2020, Moment is a functional beverage brand inspired by the feeling you get after meditating. With no caff...

When Roger Ford heard the word “move” during a late-night meditation, he didn’t expect it to uproot his life. But within weeks, he and his wife had sold their healing center in the UK, bought a home in California online, and launched a brand-new chapter. That leap of faith became Healing in America, a nonprofit dedicated to making energy healing more accessible and more credible within the U.S. he...

Lisa Boduch is taking it head-on, with a career that began in the salon and evolved into national leadership roles. She understands both sides of the beauty industry. Now serving as VP of Sales and Education at Alfaparf Milano, Lisa is applying decades of experience to drive growth for a professional Italian brand that’s stayed intentionally boutique. Her approach? Clear identity, disciplined stor...

“PX stands for patient experience,” says Shareef Mahdavi, founder of the PX Movement. “My mission is to change the way that patients experience going to the doctor.” With PX90, he’s applying his decades of experience in healthcare and customer service to help practices rethink their environments, retrain their teams, and rebuild trust, starting with a 90-day, exercise-themed program that includes...

“You should always be heading toward something you’re proud of,” he says. “Something that feels like a meaningful contribution.” That’s why, after a career negotiating some of the biggest deals in the travel industry, Lou Zameryka decided to build something with a much deeper impact.  That mindset led Lou and his co-founder, Andrew, to the much-discussed notion of healthspan . Instead of asking ho...

Dr. Brian Levine wears two hats: founder of Nodal and founding partner at CCRM New York . His career began with a passion for genetics, but over time, it grew into something bigger, helping families. “I’d have to say, it’s been one of my greatest achievements, having the opportunity to work here and provide care to patients,” he shares. At Nodal, Levine set out to challenge an industry that was bu...

After struggling to lose weight and finding existing fitness apps confusing or ineffective, Peter Conroy, former investment banker and now healthcare advocate, decided to build his own solution. That decision led to The Difference App , a predictive, AI-powered tool that helps users track weight with greater accuracy and personalization. Conroy’s approach centers around TrueBurn™ , a proprietary a...