Today's guests are the amazing Steve O’Dell and Robbie Page, the founders of Tenzo Tea. These two guys wanted to make a massive impact on the world through a product that really makes a difference in people’s lives.
In this interview we cover a wide range of topics from:
If you'd like to catch the NEW LinkedIn Edition of the show, head over to my profile here: Luke Bayard.
Follow Tenzo on Social:
Mark Kithcart is the Vice President of Marketing, Sales, Client Management and Contracts at AVRS a software service for the automotive industry. Post graduation from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mark worked as a mechanical engineer, but he trained himself in the late hours of the night to be a professional marketer.
In this interview we discussed topics like:
Contact Mark:
Email: MarkKithcart@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Mark Kithcart
Articles Mentioned: The Complete Guide to Understanding Equity Compensation at Tech Companies
In 2005, Sandy Grigsby founded Brio Five, a creative studio specializing in branding, photography, web, and graphic design. She is most well known for her work as an Empowerment & Brand Photographer with over 15 years of industry experience working with high power CEOs to celebrities.
Sandy's talent lies in her ability to evoke and capture images that demonstrate a woman’s true essence and power.
Her in-depth knowledge of web design, coupled with her vast experience as a model, actress, and spokesmodel allow her to fully understand the branding needs of her clients.
Website: www.BrioFive.com
Instagram: @BrioFive or @SandyInFocus
LinkedIn: Sandy Grigsby
Erik Huberman is the Founder & CEO of Hawke Media, a full-service outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA that launched in 2014 and has been valued at $60 million. In just 3 years, Hawke Media has grown from 7 to over 120 employees and has serviced 400+ brands.
Prior to Hawke Media, Erik founded, grew and sold Swag of the Month and grew Ellie.com’s sales to $1 million in four months. Erik is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including Forbes “30Under30”, Inc Magazine’s “Top 25 Marketing Influencers”, Influencive's "Top Influencive Influencers of 2017". Erik is a regular contributor to major media publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Business Insider, and is proud to have and recently joined XPRIZE as their key marketing advisor.
Some Questions I Ask Erik:
Connect with Erik:
Twitter: @ErikHuberman
Instagram: @ErikHuberman
Nicole Behnam and Mariella Rudi are founders of the media company Beyond The Interview, where they curate a collection of interviews, essays, and social news. As two women who left full-time careers as successful journalists to pursue entrepreneurship, their story is one of taking creative control of their work and embracing a new age of personal, digital journalism.
In this show, Nicole and Mariella talk about their adventure in leaving their careers to pursue entrepreneurship, the importance of having a co-founder, writing authentically but still following a successful formula, and how to monetize a growing audience on any platform. They also discuss in general the media’s trend towards personal, vulnerable, and emotional news, and how young entrepreneurs can tap into these subjects to create a viral hits.
Some Questions I Ask Nicole and Mariella:
Some Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Get in Touch with Nicole and Mariella:
Sean Allen is the CEO and Co-Founder of WizeFi, a personal finance platform that helps you make the most of your money and helps you make more money so you can live your ideal lifestyle. With 20+ years experience in the financial advising industry, Sean is bringing a tool once reserved for professional financial planners to the masses.
In this show, Sean explains how important behavior change is to achieving your desired financial goals, and how WizeFi illustrates how each decision you make can impact your current and future net worth. Through his platform, he believes that anyone, no matter their income, can learn to spend their money in a way that makes them more money, which in turn lead them to their best financial future. Sean also speaks to his journey back into startups after decades in the professional industry and gives advice to new entrepreneurs, young and old, on how to structure a business to eventually become passive income.
Some Questions I Ask Sean:
Some Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Get in Touch with Sean:
Josh Haynam is the co-founder of Interact, a platform and software serviced based out of San Francisco. Interact creates quizzes (“like the ones that you see on Facebook”) and assessments for clients wanting to reach potential customers whose interests may align with those of their company’s.
After cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit at the start of high school, Josh had to switch gears and buckle down for college, where he met the person who would later become his co-founder. When he and his co-founder launched Interact in 2014, Josh began building quizzes for clients and brainstorming new, innovative ideas for a wide range of different companies. In addition to that role, he’s branched into the public relations arena and also creates continuous, original blog content for Interact.
Some Questions I Ask Josh:
Some Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Get in Touch with Josh:
Ladan Davia is the CEO & Founder of Beeya, a company she founded in January of 2015. Beeya is a platform that automatically matches employers and employees using a unique algorithm while generating an automatic matching score from your data. The platform combines the elements of online job searching, social networking, and professional work concepts to create a cohesive solution for the user.
Before founding Beeya, Ladan was the founder and president of Accelerate Test Prep for two years, and prior to that worked in broadcast media. Driven by a passion for philanthropy and education, she made the switch from working in the entertainment industry to the tech sector where she’s able to utilize both her drive for helping others and skill in technological entrepreneurship.
Some Questions I Ask Ladan:
Some Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Get In Touch With Ladan:
Andrew Healy and Alex French are the Co-Founders of Bizzy Coffee, “coffee for people who don’t have time for coffee.” Bizzy Coffee comes in the form of an organic two-ounce cold brew shot and can be found in a multitude of grocery stores, as well as on Amazon.
Bizzy Coffee was created by two people who complement each other well: Alex’s background is in in Finance and Entrepreneurship while Andrew’s is in Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing. After trial and error and some product tweaking, they created something that truly works -- an especially impressive feat in the competitive market that is Food and Beverage.
Some Questions I Ask Andrew and Alex:
Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:
Get In Touch With Bizzy Coffee:
Baird Hall is the Co-Founder of Wavve, a platform based out of Charleston, South Carolina. Having launched in 2016, Wavve helps podcasters, musicians, radio show hosts, and various other content creators easily turn audio clips into social video content -- whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or wherever else.
Wavve – a platform created by two people who met a mere 2 years ago and have successfully grown their company to help a plethora of users since – also provides multiple video templates and cards to help creators add animation and text prior to sharing their final product on social media. Combining audio and visual elements, Wavve introduces an entirely fresh approach for content creation.
Some Questions I Ask Baird:
Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:
Get In Touch With Wavve:
Ryan McLeod became an indie app developer after graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2014 and briefly working as a web developer.
After working on a social music startup for a time that ended up disbanding, Ryan switched gears and started learning iOS. Originally a side project, this knowledge led to the creation of the popular iOS app Blackbox, a game that helps players practice creative thinking by solving puzzles without actually touching their screen.
Some Questions I Ask Ryan:
Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:
Looking to get in touch with Ryan? You can find him here:
Twitter: @Warpling
Instagram: @Warpling
In this episode, we speak with Kyle Rawson, the founder of SyphonSound. Syphon Sound is an audio company that came to fruition in 2011 and specializes in motocross and snowboarding sound technology.
Kyle grew up snowboarding throughout junior high and high school. After 3 business competitions, he finally decided to pursue his idea intermingling these passions while being able to listen to his favorite music with comfort and ease. Some good luck with investors and years of research and development later, Syphon Sound is thriving.
Some Questions I Ask Kyle:
Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:
Check out the Syphon Sound Soundwrap here!
If you're looking to get in touch with Kyle you can find him on Instagram @KyleRaw
In this episode of Cult of Startup, our guest is Brad Gauthier. Brad is the founder of Sitecast, Founded in 2013 and based out of Portland, Oregon, Sitecast.com is a platform of configurable API’s to rapidly build and deploy serverless web projects with ease.
Brad discovered a talent for building websites at the age of 12 when he landed his first client. He pursued that skill to get where he and his company are at today, with a few crucial detours along the way.
Some Questions I Ask Brad:
Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:
Connect With Brad
Today’s guest in this episode of Cult of Startup is Alex Littlewood, the founder, and CEO of Motoroso. Founded in 2013, Motoroso is an online hub for motorsports and automotive enthusiasts alike to plan, build, and share their dream vehicle projects -- from drawing ideas and inspiration through content to locating specific parts, accessories, and service providers.
Motoroso stemmed from Alex’s passion for working on and riding cars and motorcycles. In today’s episode, we get to the root of what the company’s all about and how it got to where it is now as a result of that passion.
Some questions I ask Alex:
Some Things You'll Learn In This Episode:
Today’s guest in this episode of Cult of Startup is Steve Irby. Steve Irby is the founder and president of KICKER, a company he began in 1973 that produces high-performance home and personal audio, car audio, power sports products, and other vehicle-specific solutions.
Steve’s learned a wide variety of lessons when it comes to creating your own company from the ground up, especially when it involves something you love doing. For Steve, it all started with building and constructing speaker systems.
Some Questions I Ask Steve:
Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:
Today’s guest is Raj Singh. Raj is the founder of Tempo AI, a mobile productivity app that was recently acquired by Salesforce.
Raj has had extensive experience in the technology and startup industries. And in this interview, we talked about what it takes to create a startup and the best methods and strategies for working in one, as well how to maneuver their ever-evolving structure in society.
Some Questions I Ask Raj:
Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:
Raj Twitter: @mobileraj
Blog: www.RajSingh.com
Today’s guest is Marcus Noel, who is the founder of Heart of Man which aims to EMPOWER YOUNG PEOPLE TO THINK LIKE CREATORS, NOT STUDENTS. In this interview, we discuss a variety of topics from education reform to why students should walk away from high school with an entrepreneurship toolset in their pocket.
Marcus recommended that we all take Strengths Finder by Gallup.
As always thank you for listening! Please feel free to leave us a review in iTunes.
Today’s guest is Alex Henige, who is the founder of Reduce Reuse Grow, a small compostable packaging company that provides packaging for small coffee shops & food venders. And with each product they serve Reduce Reuse Grow will in turn plant a plant at a local restoration site.
We start by talking about his indirect approach to Kickstarter & how that grew into over 20k in contributions from backers. How a product can evolve by running it through the business model canvas? Why your first idea isn’t always the best idea? How we can impact the environment with every purchase we make? And much much more!
Thank you for listening!
Visit their website at ReduceReuseGrow.org or on Instagram @ReduceReuseGrow
In this episode I sit down with Seth Hiatt, serial board game entrepreneur & founder of Mayday Games.
Originally Seth ran a successful online business selling through eBay; however, that all ended suddenly when eBay shifted away from a single listing fee to taking a percentage of each sale.
Overnight Seth had to make a choice between going back to his previous career as an accountant or to rework his business model.
Follow us through our conversation as we discuss his journey & discover tangible takeaways you can apply directly to your startup.
Today’s guest is Boman Farrer, the co-founder of LunoWear, a stylish watch brand made from bamboo that nearly raised half a million through crowdfunding. Even when they had to switch funding platforms after raising 400k!
In this interview we discuss the following topics:
You all are the greatest! Thank you for listening & enjoy!
Today’s guest is Tod Nelson, the 8th hire of Amazon and now the Executive Director of the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (cie.calpoly.edu).
In this interview we talk about what the early days of Amazon were like. In addition we address topics that range from PR stunts to unorthodox hiring practices to Jeff Bezos leadership style on down to what you learn from packaging someones books.
If that isn’t enough, we dig deep into the following questions:
Thank you for listening! Keep in touch with me @CultOfStartup on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat & Twitter.
Information can tell a story, but without structure, that story remains incomplete.
Today’s guest, Nick Grant, is completing that story with eye dropping designs created by his agency Killer Infographics.
Nick’s business evolved from serval fledgling ideas that earned their wings, but never really took flight. In the interview he talks about your first business idea not always being your best, nor your last.
We also discuss the struggles a startup must face in growing, including things like office space that fits your team, but has sufficient wiggle room for new hires to properly invoicing clients to make sure they are paying on time.
We also dive into the different types of freedom created because you've built a business and how his family influenced him to do the same.
I hope you all enjoy this interview as much as I did. Thank you for listening & enjoy!
Looking for more information about Cult of Startup? Follow us on social media at CultOfStartup on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
Our guest today is Cameron Manwaring and in this interview we discuss how hustling & being present for opportunities completely changed his life.
We start by talking about his early days in entrepreneurship. Where he started his own window washing business to avoid working at a taco joint & how he broke the all time record for a class assignment to have $1,500 in revenue before the end of the semester.
We then get into the meat of our conversation, where Cameron started working with Devin Super Tramp, a YouTube celebrity who at that point in time had around 30,000 followers. Devin invited Cameron to be his manager & together produced over 70 videos and today Devin’s following has grown to over 4 million.
From this Cameron started a company that consulted on creating viral videos on YouTube called Shareability. To date they have worked with brands like Turkish Airlines, Poo-Pourri & Cricket Wireless and not to mention celebrities like Kobe Bryant & Ronaldo.
Additionally, Cameron was selected as a Forbes 30 under 30 in 2015.
If you are looking to find the right reasons to go into YouTube for your business, this is the interview for you!
In today’s podcast, we have with us, special guest Austin Craig. Austin got his start in YouTube by acting in a video for the brand Orabrush, which makes a special tongue cleaner that rids your mouth of bad breath. From this one YouTube video Austin has had opportunities to work with numerous brands and has helped them sell millions worth in product. We conclude the interview talking about his production company & how it has been recently hired by Brigham Young University to produce a series all about creatives.
We cover the following topics:
Watch Austin’s first big video with Orabrush here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFeb6YBftHE or watch when him and his wife decided to live the first 3 months of their married life entirely on bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbH8Bfnki5l9fveNrxdMw6w
Feel free to reach out to Austin on Facebook www.facebook.com/austinmichaelcraig or at his website www.austinmcraig.com
For updates on show times and future guests connect with me on Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat all at the handle of CultOfStartup.
This episode is brought to you by Audible, which is a service I have used for years because I am not the fastest reader. In the time it usually takes an average person to complete a book, I take about twice as long. This is why I prefer to listen and digest great reads through audio.
And I have a book recommendation for you! One of the most eye opening audiobooks I’ve listened to is “The 22 immutable laws of marketing” by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Which left a huge impression on how I perceive marketing and what startups can do to avoid falling into the trap of a “me too product” along with a variety rules any business should be aware of.
All you have to do to get your free audiobook… and free 30 day trial is go to audibletrial.com/cultofstartup and you can choose from their selection of over 180,000 titles that range from books to magazines, you name it. Go to Audible and snag yourself a book! YOU LIVE!
Today’s guest is Chris Kelsey, a high school dropout who left school with only six months left to go during his senior year. Now almost 2 years later his company Appsitude.com is set to gross over 4.8 million in revenue for 2016.
His business has built 100 plus mobile applications amounting to over 50 million total downloads. They have grown from a small team to now nearly 50 employees located around the world. Can you believe he's still a teenager?
We go over some topics that a lot of young entrepreneurs come to terms with such as:
We also talk a lot about of how the world and our inner ego will set limits on what we can achieve and ways to dismiss those thoughts and roll forward with where we wish to be.
I hope you all enjoy this journey I went on with Chris, it’s one hell of a ride.
We all love links and here the ones to find Chris on the inter-webs! Email Chris@appsitude.com or Instagram @itsapptime
YOU LIVE!