Your First Million

Pulling at the thread started in Irma’s episode (#8) of being your authentic self at work—in our case, hella gay—I chat about the decisions I’ve made to be unapologetically me and how that has translated to cold hard cash. Credits Producer and Editor: Anna Eichenauer Senior Producer: Bryan Landers Additional audio mixing and mastering: Alfred ‘Rook‘ Hamilton Additional production: Chacho Valadez E...

Irma Olguin is the CEO and co-founder of Bitwise Industries. She oversees the company’s operations teams, as well as tech-focused training program, Geekwise Academy, and custom software development firm, Shift3 Technologies. In June 2019, Bitwise announced a $27million Series A round of funding, making Irma one of the Latinx startup founders with the largest raises in history. Having trained and i...

Jeff Ullrich is a pioneer in the podcasting world. In 2010, he launched Earwolf, a leading comedy podcast platform that houses the shows of some of your favorite comedians. He later founded Midroll, an advertising platform that monetizes podcasts. This one-stop-shop of companies was acquired in 2015 for more than $50million. Because Jeff was not able to find any investors to believe...

Anna Eichenauer is a writer, composer, actor, director, editor, Youtuber and SEO expert from Bavaria (Germany). She has more than 3 million combined views on her YouTube channels Why Stuff is Great and Queer German Girl. Her music compositions have been featured and licensed on games, podcasts, films and television shows around the world. She is the producer of the Your First Million podcast (this...

Dawn Dickson is the founder and CEO of rollable flats, Flat Out of Heels, and high-IQ vending machine hardware and software company Popcom. In 2019 she became the first Black woman to raise $1mil in a Reg CF (security token) crowdfunding offering. She sits down with Arlan to drop bars about charting your own destiny as a founder. Links: Twitter Medium PopCom Flat Out Of Heels BARS! Podcast Dawn Di...

Brian Grazer is one of the most prolific and well-known producers and writers in Hollywood.  Along with his producing partner of 30+ years Ron Howard, they formed Imagine Entertainment, which (conservatively) has more than 200 producer credits to its name—Splash, Parenthood, Friday Night Lights, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Arrested Development, 24, and Empire to name a few. His movies have g...

Born in Brazil, Roberta Lucca would go on to study computer science before relocating to England. While there, she started companies—some that worked and some that didn’t —and as you’ll see some that may have just been ahead of their time. Her break came when she co-founded Bossa Studios, a massively popular, BAFTA-award winning gaming studio that has now generated millions in revenue and raised m...

Enjoy this bonus episode recorded live by Arlan just for you. Credits Producer: Anna Eichenauer Senior Producer and Editor: Bryan Landers Additional audio mixing and mastering: Alfred ‘Rook‘ Hamilton Additional production: Chacho Valadez Executive producer: Arlan Hamilton Music by Jeff Kaale ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 )

Named one of the most influential investors in the Nordics, Sophia Bendz is a Swedish angel investor and partner at Atomico. As one of the first employees at Spotify, she helped the company go from product idea to millions of customers within just a few years. Sophia has been a champion of founders, investing in more than 30 as an angel investor, and launched the Angel Programme at Atomico. This e...

Description Liz Fong-Jones is a Site Reliability Engineer and former high-ranking Google employee who used her talents as a coder and some strategic planning to take her out of a tumultuous early home life and into the life of a multi-millionaire. Arlan and Liz met up in New York City to speak candidly about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Links: Twitter Website Sponsor This episode i...

Description Amy Griffin grew up in the Texas Panhandle and became an athlete, sports analyst and philanthropist. It was while raising her four young children that she caught the investing bug, and launched her own venture fund, G9 Ventures. In this episode, Arlan visits Amy at her office in New York City, to discuss privilege versus entitlement. Links: Social Studies email sign-up G9 Ventures Spon...

Description Dr. Pamela Jolly has dedicated the past 15 years to helping connect the dots between the storied history of the U.S. and its race relations, and today’s wealth gap. In this interview recorded at Arlan’s home in Los Angeles, Dr. Jolly breaks down the importance of all Americans keeping our past in mind while aiming for wealth legacy. Links: Learn more about Dr. Pamela Jolly on her websi...

Your First Million takes you on a journey to find out how the world’s most successful people finessed their first million…dollars, customers, or downloads. This weekly podcast features Arlan having real, in-depth conversations about topics they normally reserve for friends and family. Is there a trick to becoming a millionaire? What is the common thread that makes someone successful? Tune in and t...