Explore every episode of the podcast What Fuels You

Howard Behar's career in business spans over 50 years, all in consumer-oriented businesses covering several industries. He retired from Starbucks Coffee after 21 years where he led both the domestic business, as President of North America, and was the founding President of Starbucks International. During his tenure, he participated in the growth of the company from 28 stores to over 15,000 spanning five continents. He served on the Starbucks Board of Directors for 12 years before retiring.

Howard is currently a Trustee for the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation and is on the advisory board of Anthos Capital. He is committed to the development and education of our future leaders and has been a longtime advocate of the Servant Leadership Model. He has also authored two books on leadership titled It's Not About the Coffee and The Magic Cup.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Elizabeth Wako is president and CEO of Swedish Health Services, where she oversees an organization with more than 1,500 licensed patient beds, 48,000 annual inpatient admissions and $3.4 billion in revenue. 

Dr. Wako has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare field. Before stepping into her current role, she worked as a registered nurse in behavioral health and held several key executive positions at Swedish.

She received her medical degree from the University of Utah and returned to the University of Washington to complete a medical residency in anesthesia, a fellowship in perioperative medicine, and finally, her MBA.

Dr. Wako lives in Seattle with her husband and four children.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a condensed version of Shauna Swerland’s 2019 interview with Dan Levitan, the co-founder of the venture capital firm Maveron. 

Dan started the firm with Howard Schultz in 1998 after helping the Starbucks team accomplish its IPO. Under Dan’s guidance, Maveron focused on “creating a cauldron of consumer passion” by forming partnerships with non-normal entrepreneurs. These partnerships have included brands like Allbirds, Ebay, Lovevery, and Zulily.

To learn more about Maveron and the team behind their consumer-focused culture, visit maveron.com.

In this recap episode, Dan explains the importance of investing in consumers and relationships, the significance of seeing the opportunity, and how to elevate your aspirations.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jessica is the CEO and Founder of LegUp, a venture-backed Seattle-based organization that connects families to available childcare, and helps small business childcare providers grow. Prior to LegUp, Jessica spent over 10 years in operations, HR, and consulting at various companies, including Common Engine and The Riveter. She also serves as an advisor at Ethel’s Club, the first social club and digital space for people of color, and Female Founders Alliance, a startup community dedicated to accelerating the success of highly scalable companies founded by women and non-binary individuals. Alongside these roles, Jessica is a Vice Chair of the King County Democrats. She previously sat on the Board of the Seattle Children’s Theatre and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Seattle Hub where she helped organize and lead several initiatives, including raising money for those affected by wildfires. Jessica currently lives in Seattle with her husband and two children. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rachel Marshall is the Co-founder and owner of Rachel’s Ginger Beer. After a five-year post-collegiate stint living in the Bavarian Alps, Rachel returned home to Seattle and couldn’t find the kind of ginger beer she’d fallen in love with abroad—bold, acidic, fresh, and not overly sweet. So she got to work perfecting her recipe to share with others. In 2011 Rachel and her partner Adam Peters, founded Rachel’s Ginger Beer. Working in a borrowed kitchen space, they created a beverage meant to play nicely with your favorite spirit—from vodka to tequila to bourbon—but serve you just as well the morning after. The company’s workspace has since turned into a 10,000-square-foot production plant in SoDo, with 6 different locations, and a roster of flavors, parlaying 40 combined years of hospitality experience into their true passion.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Bagga is an entrepreneur, financial technology innovator and barter exchange pioneer based in the Seattle area. He is the co-founder, CEO and president of BizX, a network of businesses that trade with each other without spending any cash. Founded after the 9/11 attacks, BizX helps businesses connect and forge new, and potentially long-lasting relationships where they can support one another – particularly during times of crisis. Prior to founding BizX, Bagga launched the Barter Business Exchange, which facilitated more than $60 million in trading volume per year and involved more than 4,000 member companies, including high-profile brands such as Rogers Communication, Revlon, and Kodak. He also served as the COO of UBarter, a consumer-focused online barter platform. Bagga has been recognized with various awards, including Puget Sound Business Journal’s ’40 Under 40’, the “Exceptional Leadership Award” from the Young Presidents’ Organization, and various honors from the International Reciprocal Trade Association. He currently lives in the Seattle, Washington, area with his family.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick Hughes is the CEO of Founders Live and a successful American entrepreneur with business achievements in social media, digital payments, and e-commerce. He excels at interpersonal leadership, communication, business and product development. In addition to creating the global startup marketplace Founders Live, Nick stays busy as an advisor to numerous startups and occasionally takes positions in sales or biz dev roles if needed. Previously, he founded the mobile payment startup Seconds as well as helping start Coinme, a company built around expanding bitcoin and digital transactions into the physical realm via Bitcoin ATM’s. As a sought-after adviser, entrepreneurial speaker and writer with guest appearances on popular technology and media outlets, Nick enjoys helping others discover their unique entrepreneurial path and is on a mission to elevate entrepreneurial equality around the world.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dave Parker is a 5 time founder and has been a part of 11 transactions, as a founder, operator, board member, and advisor. Dave is the managing partner of DKParker where he helps founders scale their companies for growth and exit. His 20+ year career has highlighted his ability to innovate new ideas and scale products and companies in the US and Internationally. Dave recently published Trajectory: Startup – Ideation to Product / Market Fit where he continues to help early-stage founders in the process of creating a new startup. For the last 15 years, he has held executive positions in software development, enterprise IT and professional services, software distribution, and hardware companies. Today he serves on the board of directors for many west coast companies.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scott Svenson is the CEO and Co-Founder of MOD Pizza, a fast-casual restaurant chain that offers artisan-style pizzas and salads, with nearly 500 locations across America. At its heart, MOD is a platform for doing good, and is rooted in the idea that if they take care of their employees, they’ll take care of the customers, and the business will take care of itself. Prior to founding MOD, Scott and his wife Ally, founded and sold two successful businesses while they lived in the U.K. – Seattle Coffee Company and Carluccio’s. While in the U.K., Scott served as the President of Starbucks Europe, before returning to his hometown of Seattle to raise his four boys.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rob Eleveld is the CEO of Ekata Inc., where he leads the charge in Ekata’s continued growth and global expansion. He previously was the CEO of Whitepages, Inc. and has served as the CEO of other Seattle tech firms, including Optify and Vykor. He started his business career in enterprise software sales at Onyx Software Corp. and has grown from there. Rob is a proud veteran as an officer in the United States Navy, where he served aboard a fast attack nuclear submarine. He has a BA in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and an MSE and MBA from Stanford University.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maria Colacurcio is CEO of Syndio, an analytics platform that ensures workplace fairness in every stage of employment and aims to eliminate pay disparity. She is responsible for the company’s vision, strategy, building talent within the organization, and developing organizational excellence to deliver the highest levels of business value to its customers. Most importantly, she is passionate about issues surrounding equal pay, employee wellness and equity at work. Prior to joining Syndio, Maria co-founded Smartsheet.com, worked in technology and communications at Microsoft, Starbucks, and a variety of tech startups. She has a proven track record of building successful companies, with strong core values that are dedicated to its people and customers. In addition, Maria is also a mom to seven kiddos and makes sure to talk about family finances at the dinner table.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kurt Beecher Dammeier is a fourth generation Puget Sound native entrepreneur, leader on the Seattle food scene, and the CEO and Founder of Sugar Mountain. Through his company, Sugar Mountain, Kurt is the owner and chef of a number of creative food brands and restaurants, from the award-winning Beecher’s Handmade Cheese to The Butcher’s Table, a swanky steakhouse that features Mishima Reserve, his luxury Wagyu beef brand. With each operation, Kurt’s goal is to demonstrate how quality ingredients make for delicious meals, without added food colorings, flavor enhancers, or preservatives. Kurt has always felt passionately about authentic, full-flavored foods, free of artificial additives. Beyond the retail world, Kurt is effecting change in people’s eating habits through The Beecher’s Foundation (501c3), founded in 2004. Through education and community engagement, the Foundation inspires people to eat real food and vote with every food dollar.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nishant Singh is the CEO and Founder of Peach. He started the company in 2014 with a focus that daily lunch should be amazing for working professionals. Today, Peach is operational in the entire United States and deliver thousands of lunchboxes from local restaurants to offices each day. 

Nishant Singh has experienced the startup thrills, from raising the largest seed round in the Pacific Northwest in 2014, to taking hard steps of restructuring the business to weather changing market conditions. 7 years down the line and Nishant’s entrepreneurial spirit is fueling his ambitions to take the company to IPO.

Outside of his dreams of taking Peach public one day, Nishant enjoys cooking and traveling with his wife. During the pandemic, they have road tripped nearly 10,000 miles across the United States including a recent honeymoon through the Mojave desert.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this condensed version of Shauna Swerland's conversation with Chad Robins from 2019, you'll hear the origin story of Adaptive Biotechnologies, the corporate culture Chad is building there, and what Chad sees as the most important tasks of a CEO.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen is a bestselling author, award-winning journalist, functional practitioner and founder of Vibrant Blue Oils, where she has combined her training in nutritional therapy and aromatherapy to create unique proprietary blends of organic and wild-crafted essential oils. She has helped over 70,000 clients heal from brain related challenges, including anxiety, insomnia, and autoimmunity.

Her website, vibrantblueoils.com, is visited by over 500,000 natural health seekers every year, and she has rapidly become a top resource for essential oils education on the Internet today. Her first book “Healing with Essential Oils” is available on Amazon.com. Her new book “Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal the Body was released today, March 16, 2021.

Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve - Boost the Brain Book

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Howell is co-founder and CEO of Dolly, a Seattle based tech company, that was created in 2015 to re-imagine the moving and delivery experience by putting the customer in control. Dolly has grown into the leading on-demand, final-mile delivery provider for big and bulky goods trusted by national retailers like The Container Store, Best Buy, Crate & Barrel, and many more. Mike’s passion for the customer experience and using data to uncover and act on business insights that solve problems has been the cornerstone of his entrepreneurial success.
Prior to Dolly, Michael was a co-founder at Wetpaint, a media and social publishing company, that was acquired by Viggle. Previous to that Mike was a management consultant at Lake Partners Strategy Consultants where he specialized in analytics-driven strategic consulting. He holds a B.Sc. in Economics with honors from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He lives in Seattle with his wife and three kids.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andrew is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rainway, leading the way in building a best-in-class game streaming technology. Rainway’s mission is to unleash the future of computing, collaboration, productivity, and development by using real-time interactive streaming to change the way that desktop software is built and distributed. Andrew is an experienced software engineer, a 2018 Thiel Fellowship alumni, and has been featured on Forbes 30 Under 30! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eric is Founder and CEO of SoundCommerce, a data platform that equips consumer brands with advanced technology, enabling world-class shopper experiences that drive profitable growth. Eric is a serial entrepreneur with SoundCommerce being his sixth startup! He is a driven growth-stage internet/software executive with a proven record in consumer-direct and retail commerce, SaaS, cloud integration, digital currencies and digital advertising. As founder and CEO, Eric grew and led companies to shareholder liquidity including cash exits to Amazon.com, and Liberty Interactive. Eric’s twenty years’ hands-on contributions range from day-one founder to public offerings and board directorships and more. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leigh is CEO of Whitepages, a provider of online directory services, helping individuals and small businesses contact, vet and verify people in their worlds. Before Whitepages, Leigh led marketing and growth at ReachNow, the U.S. mobility services division at BMW Group, served as Chief Marketing Officer for legal marketplace Avvo, and as Senior Vice President & GM of the Call Analytics division at Marchex. Leigh is a graduate of the University of Washington, and is also co-owner and winemaker at Welcome Road Winery in Seattle.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michel is the Co-Founder and CEO of usermind, responsible for company vision, strategic direction, planning and execution. Usermind, the leader in Experience Orchestration (XO), is changing the way enterprises use what they know about customers to actively shape experiences in real time. Michel’s enterprise software career spans almost 20 years with roles in sales, products, strategic marketing and general management. Before founding usermind, Michel was VP of Products at Apptio, where she drove product strategy, defined the category and discipline of Technology Business Management and helped grow the company from 30 to almost 400 employees. She also spent almost 8 years at Mercury Interactive learning how to build world class products like LoadRunner and QualityCenter which made customer’s lives better. She aspires to do the same at usermind.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Forest is Founder and CEO of Voodle, a short video app for business teams to capture, share and discover important business moments as they happen where they work – home, office, or on the road. Forest is a serial entrepreneur with a 30 year passion for innovation in video platforms. Previously founder and CEO of hospitality marketing SaaS provider buuteeq, and visual effects software tools innovator Puffin Designs. He was a founding partner of China based UX design and development studio for OTT video applications Redsafi, and the founder CEO of Pixvana which spent 4 years developing a VR video platform before pivoting to create Voodle!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Liz is co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Fresh Chalk, a social network aiming to give you a faster and more efficient way to find trusted recommendations. The site allows users to search through local service providers (like plumbers or vets) and products (like electronics or beauty products) to see which have been recommended by their friends. Prior to Fresh Chalk, Liz was with LiquidPlanner for 11 years, starting as the company's marketing contractor and working her way up to COO and ultimately to CEO in 2012. Liz is an entrepreneurial leader who got ground-level marketing and product management experience at tech giants (Amazon, Google, Sony) before making her way into the startup world. She is an active member of the Seattle startup and technology community and is passionate about mentoring and advocating for diversity in technology and leadership. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scott is the CEO of Attunely Inc. A proven, compliant, and trustworthy machine learning platform that makes the recovery of receivables easy, seamless, and profitable. Attunely has earned recognition as one of the Best Places to work in Seattle, #29 of 50 Best Paying Companies, and #7 of 50 Best Small Companies to work for. Scott brings over 30 years of technology executive management experience in both domestic and international markets. Scott’s career spans decades of technology innovation with US WEST, Starbucks, startup Vendaria, aQuantive, and Microsoft.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aaron is a globally recognized systems entrepreneur who has used the science of purpose to change the way we work and serve. He is the CEO and Founder of Imperative, a venture-backed startup that is reconnecting us as human beings in the workplace through peer coaching. Widely known for his thought leadership, he is the author of The Purpose Economy (2014) and a regular advisor and thought partner for many global brands. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emily Pesce is CEO of Joon, whose mission is to make mental healthcare and well-being broadly accessible and effective for 13-24 year olds. Emily has over twenty years of experience across healthcare, e-commerce, grocery, supply chain, technology, mobile, and cloud computing. She has led product, marketing, design, technology, forecasting and replenishment teams, among others. Her primary operating experiences were at Amazon (AmazonFresh, Kindle, Gaming, AWS) and Nerdy (Product). Emily has also been an investor, providing early stage capital, sometimes the first money in, to over 30 companies (Working Lab Capital, Pesce Family Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners). 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shelly is the co-founder & CMO of X4Impact and Giving Tech Labs. Their vision is to inspire entrepreneurs worldwide to drive positive impact and change. Shelly has 20+ years of award-winning experience leading digital media campaigns for tech startups and Fortune 500 companies, including NBCUniversal, Comcast, Giving Compass and VidaNyx, where she serves on the Board of Directors. As a strong believer in the power of good intentions, Shelly is a passionate cheerleader for making personal connections, creating strategy and having a vision for the greater good! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jason is a serial entrepreneur, and retail consumer goods expert, obsessed with bringing amazing products to market. He has close to 20 years’ experience delivering impactful and beautiful products to the world’s largest retail chains. Jason is currently the CEO of two consumer good businesses; Ubio Labs which is a market leader in mobile accessories and FLTR which is a medical supply company formed to address the acute shortage of PPE during the COVID crisis.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam is CEO of Brightloom, where he and his team are building the first ever high-performance, retention marketing solution for consumer brands. A long-time technology innovator, Adam is passionate about helping brands build meaningful and long lasting customer relationships. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Darvish is the Founder and Medical Director of Holistique Medical Center and Holistique IV Lounge in Bellevue, WA. Dr. Darvish is an internationally-sought out board-certified Anti-aging and Regenerative Medicine lecturer, writer and clinical physician who consults and trains medical doctors as well as patients from all over the globe. Using the wisdom of the body’s own healing capacity, as a holistically-minded physician, she integrates the science of Western Medicine with the wisdom of Eastern medicine to transform lives from within while slowing the aging process through optimizing the regeneration and wellbeing of the body, mind and soul

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roei is CEO of magniX, an electric propulsion technology company, poised to disrupt the aerospace industry with its advanced electric engines that will enable transportation capabilities and services never possible before. We dig into Roei's leadership style, and learn about how his experiences in the military, corporate finance, and time at the Boeing Company and Bold IQ all brought him to wear he is today.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kirby is a seasoned startup operator and angel investor. He is currently the Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc, a pre-seed stage venture fund investing in marketplace, e-commerce/DTC, and B2B software startups in the Pacific Northwest. He is also a Techstars mentor, passionate Board member, and Board Chair-elect at Special Olympics of Washington, where he helped bring the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games to Seattle. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christy is an intrapreneur, entrepreneur, and strategist. She is currently building her fourth start-up, Artemis Connection, a boutique strategy consulting firm passionate about helping innovative leaders reach their goals. She loves working for forward thinking executives who want results. She has seven years of experience working in corporate strategy, including nearly four years at McKinsey & Co. Before this, Christy was an award winning economics and mathematics teacher. Come join us to learn a little more about how Christy got to where she is today! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony is the Co- Founder and CEO of Possible Finance, a financial technology company fighting to make financial services accessible and fair for all. After graduating from Harvard University, Tony joined a civic technology company, Axon, that pioneered the idea of putting body cameras on police officers. This is also where he would meet his co-founders of Possible. They explored different ideas in how to use technology to serve lower income and minority communities where they came up with the idea that blossomed into what Possible Finance is today!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike currently serves as CEO for Concentric Advisors, a risk management consultancy that specializes in delivering strategic security and intelligence services. Mike retired from the United States Navy after over 38 years of service, finishing his military career as the Director of Strategic Operational Planning at the National Counterterrorism Center, within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.Throughout his career, Mike served in Navy and Joint leadership and command positions at every level. He led disaster relief and humanitarian efforts, the full spectrum of warfare operations, and counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations. He is renowned for his effectiveness in navigating cross-cultural, complex, and international environments, building and promoting lasting partnerships.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Russell has been a Seattle area healthcare and technology entrepreneur for a long time and has a background in corporate finance and private equity.  In 2018-2019, Russell re-architected his life and moved abroad with his family to Costa Rica.  That posed an interesting challenge.  He needed a profession that he could perform from outside the United States while also tapping into his passion of supporting other entrepreneurs to achieve their highest and best use.  Today, Russell is the co-founder of Stride Services, a national bookkeeping and accounting firm serving over 100 high growth companies.   He regularly speaks on boring accounting topics and makes them really fun, interesting, and strategic for entrepreneurs.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kellan Carter is a founding partner of Bellevue-based FUSE where he focuses on early-stage investments in intelligent software in both horizontal and vertical categories. He currently sits on several Boards, including Zuper and Pictory. Previously, Kellan spent seven years at Ignition Partners, a leading early-stage venture capital firm, and two years in investment banking at Mooreland Partners in San Francisco. Kellan also currently sits on the Board of the Bellevue Boys and Girls Club.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chirag is an experienced CEO, strategy executive, consultant, and FinTech/Insure Tech founder. Currently, he is the co-founder of JennyLife, an innovative mobile-first life insurance provider geared towards empowering women and providing straightforward coverage and financial security. Prior to Jenny Life, Chirag worked in investment banking for big names such as Goldman Sachs, and The Federal Reserve Board. He holds a MBA, Strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a masters of public policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in engineering from the University of Maryland. He went on to serve as strategy officer at Asurion, the world’s largest handset insurance provider where he witnessed how rewarding it was to help fix people’s lives through insurance, and never looked back!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt is a seasoned technology executive with more than 30 years of experience building and leading world-class SaaS and consumer companies. Matt has led the growth of companies in the private and public sectors, including Rosetta Stone, RealNetworks, Expedia and many more.  He has had multiple turnaround successes as a public company president as well as a private company CEO. As President of Rosetta Stone, Matt is responsible for driving the transformation and growth for all aspects of the company's Consumer and Enterprise & Education language businesses. Matt has led the company’s evolution from a declining perpetual business to a thriving software subscription business. Matt is also a proud 4th generation Northwestern! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Russ is CEO and Board Member of WineBid, the leading global auction recommerce site for fine and vintage wines. He also serves on the Board of Ooma, a NYSE-listed Voice over IP company for businesses and consumers, and is on the Board and original angel investor of DemandStar Corporation, a B2G marketplace.  He is also an Advisor to the founders at Modus real estate closing, which was recently acquired by Compass. Russ cares deeply about building great cultures with high performance teams, who delight customers with amazing products and services, and it shows! In this episode we discuss his entrepreneurial journey, those who have inspired him along the way, and even his time as a “cowboy poet”.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Wray is a cloud enterprise technology entrepreneur and serial CEO. In 2017, Adam founded AstrumU, an AI company created to translate educational experiences into skills that lead to predictable career outcomes and economic opportunity for every learner. With over $13 million in funding, AstrumU is being used by an initial cohort of colleges and universities across the country including the University of Washington, the University of Kansas, and American University. In this episode we discuss the inspiration behind the idea that launched AstrumU, how they are creating opportunity, and changing the way in which education and industry work together going forward!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Debbie is a Certified Professional Organizer and Productivity Consultant, and the Owner of Simply Placed, founded in 2003. Through her work, Debbie teaches individuals and groups productive habits and organized systems that allow them to maximize their email, time, tasks, workspace, and teams. Debbie’s goal is to help her clients live more productive and rewarding lives, free of the stress and chaos caused by disorder. In this episode we learn about the psychology of behavior change and useful tips and tricks such as “Habit stacking”, and compartmentalization, that might be able to help you too organize your life!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keita is the founder and chief strategist of Success Bully, an elite accountability practice for women with a champion’s mindset who need strategic support to create momentum in their personal and professional lives. In this episode we dive deeper into the inspiration behind Success Bully and Keita’s fascination by human behavior that got her to wear she is today. Keita discusses how she wants people to know that you can transform who you are, and you can transform your life, by just that daily commitment to the goal. You can build that confidence, and get out of your own way and into action, to live the life you deserve, the life you've always wanted!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Wasielewski is the Managing Partner at one of Seattle’s favorite restaurants, Din Tai Fung. In this episode David discusses how he became the first non-family member to operate a franchise by the company. Over the last 10 years David went on to open four Washington locations, one Oregon location, as well as become a proud partner of the Seahawks and Mariners and open units in the stadiums. We learn about the relationships that fuel him such as his family, and his journey from moving to the US at 12, changing industries, and the steps along the way that got him to where he is today.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lee LeFever is the co-founder of Common Craft with his wife, Sachi. They are known for being pioneers of the "explainer video"  movement, starting in 2007. Since then, they’ve built Common Craft into a scalable business without employees, earned over 50 million online views, and worked with many of the world's most respected brands. In this episode, Lee discusses growing up in an entrepreneurial family and how seeing an unmet need in the online community space led to his success. He digs into the key takeaways from his book, The Art of Explanation, and shares details on his new book, Big Enough, which comes out September 15th. Lee’s outlook on the different ways to think about success and how “it doesn’t always have to be about the bottom line” is refreshing and one you’ll want to hear!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

HeadLight CEO and Co-founder, George White, joins us to discuss how their technology provides a visual source of truth about infrastructure projects and how the business has evolved since 2005. After recently closing a $25 million funding round, George has some valuable insight on fundraising and choosing the right partners. He also dives into HeadLight's process of defining their operating principles, the liability aspect of the business, and the importance of being a vulnerable leader.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're sharing some of the most insightful clips from past interviews. You'll hear from Jane Park, Matt Oppenheimer, Dan Shapiro, Robi Ganguly, and Sue Suh. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2015, Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments, announced that he would take over a $1 million pay cut and raise the minimum wage for everyone at his company to $70,000. Now five years later, he joins us to discuss cutting his salary again, this time to $0, to keep his company and employees afloat during the COVID-19 crisis. He shares details from their brainstorming session during this difficult time, and the way the Gravity Payments team has come together will truly wow you. Dan also reflects on the publicity he received after his big announcement, the lawsuit that followed, writing his book “Worth It,” growing up in a religious household, and much more.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jay Deutsch, the CEO of BDA, Inc, co-founded the merchandising agency for iconic brands with his best friend by striking a deal with the NFL when he was just 16 years old. BDA now employs over 750 employees and has 34 offices around the globe. On this episode, you'll hear why they’re always challenging the status quo and how he’s been leading with transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic. You'll also find out more about his involvement in Seattle’s new NHL team and what philanthropic causes are near and dear to his heart. Jay's obvious passion for this business 36 years later will leave you feeling inspired and wanting to learn more.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nutpods Founder and CEO and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Madeline Haydon, shares her story from humble beginnings and lessons she learned from her refugee parents immigrating to the US. On this episode, you’ll learn how her Kickstarter campaign provided the assurance that she had a good idea, how the odds were stacked against her when it came to fundraising and what the moment was when she felt like she made it. In five short years, Nutpods has grown to the #3 brand in the plant-based creamer category, the #1 selling brand on Amazon, Amazon 2019 Small Business of the Year and the fastest growing brand of refrigerated plant-based creamers in national retailers – no small feat. In addition to hearing her business advice, Madeline also shares some important guidance on taking care of yourself and teaching kids to find their motivation from within.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.