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:
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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:
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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.