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Every episode
Founder's Story
30 episodes
He Dropped Out in 8th Grade and Built a Viral Street Interview Empire | Ep. 432 with Shanes Ginsberg CEO of Street Poller
Ep 432 · Aug 13, 2026 · 22 min
Daniel opens by asking Shane about one of the most surprising parts of his story: dropping out of school after eighth grade. Shane explains that the decision was shaped less by one teacher and more by his upbringing. His father was teaching people how to sell on Amazon as early as 2003, and Shane grew up attending business conferences, sitting in rooms with entrepreneurs, cash, and major speakers, then having to return to algebra class. That contrast made him feel that many of the skills that ma…
Mark Pincus Took Zynga Public Then Named “Worst CEO” in 12 Months Before a $12.7 Billion Acquisition | Ep. 431 with Mark Pincus Founder of Zynga
Ep 431 · Aug 10, 2026 · 45 min
Daniel opens by sharing that Zynga was one of the most influential stocks he ever purchased, then takes Mark back to childhood to understand what shaped him. Mark shares two early influences: his lifelong love of games and a painful falling out with his father that pushed him to become independent earlier than expected. That tension eventually became part of the fuel behind his ambition, his desire for freedom, and his belief that money could give him the ability to choose his own path. The conv…
The FUBU Founder Got Rejected By 27 Banks. Then His Mom Bet the House. | Ep. 430 with Daymond John Founder of FUBU
Ep 429 · Aug 7, 2026 · 43 min
Daniel and Kate begin the episode by reconnecting with Daymond through two surprising touchpoints: Clubhouse and the Inc. 5000 event in Palm Springs, where Daymond once shared the story of his mother mortgaging her home to help FUBU survive. That story becomes the foundation for a much deeper conversation about risk, branding, cash flow, and what founders misunderstand about money. Daymond explains why the FUBU medallion is the object from his journey he would keep forever, why the brand’s logo…
Everyone Said Detroit Was Dead. He Bet Everything It Wasn't. | Ep. 429 with Larry Brinker Jr.
Ep 430 · Aug 5, 2026 · 8 min
Daniel opens the episode by framing Detroit as a city that has been counted out again and again. Once the symbol of municipal collapse and economic decline, Detroit is also described as the beating heart of Black entrepreneurship in America. Larry Brinker Jr.’s story sits at the center of that transformation. The episode follows Daniel and Larry through the buildings, neighborhoods, and cultural landmarks that tell Detroit’s story. Larry explains how his father started the company in 1989 as a c…
He Built An $8M Sports Empire With $100 And Zero Funding | Ep. 428 with Suryansh Tibarewal Co-Founder of EssentiallySports
Ep 428 · Aug 3, 2026 · 24 min
Daniel opens by framing Suryansh’s story as a rare bootstrapped media journey: three college kids in India, roughly $100 for a domain, and a vision that eventually became a major American sports brand. Suryansh explains that the company did not begin with a polished business plan or a venture-backed strategy. It started with fandom, the internet, and the belief that the web could transcend borders. The episode follows how EssentiallySports grew from fan communities, Reddit, Facebook pages, and h…
The CEO Betting AI Will Never Replace This | Ep. 427 with Vera Quinn CEO of Cydcor
Ep 427 · Jul 31, 2026 · 31 min
Daniel opens by asking Vera Quinn, President and CEO of Cydcor, about one of the biggest questions in business right now: will AI replace human sales teams? Vera says Cydcor’s bet is that it will not—at least not for complex decisions where people want trust, context, and a real human conversation. She points to the Apple Store as proof that even when everything can be done digitally, people still line up to talk to smart people who can explain products and services in a personal way. The episod…
The AI Warning Nobody In Silicon Valley Wants You To Hear | Ep. 426 with Jamarri J. Founder of Klyno AI
Ep 426 · Jul 29, 2026 · 21 min
Daniel opens by asking Jamarri J., founder of Klyno AI, why he started an AI company when so many people are jumping into the space for hype or money. Jamarri explains that his motivation came from frustration: too many AI tools were just wrappers, charging users monthly fees without solving the deeper problem of fragmented tools, lost context, and weak memory. That frustration led him to build Klyno AI, a system designed to bring different AI models, agents, and workflows into one adaptable wor…
After Exiting for Billions He Gave $50 Million to His Employees | Tom Sosnoff
Ep 425 · Jul 27, 2026 · 34 min
Daniel opens by asking why someone with nearly $2 billion in exits is not sitting on a beach sipping drinks. Tom Sosnoff, founder of thinkorswim, tastytrade, and LossDog’s answer is simple: building is what turns him on. From there, the conversation becomes a raw and funny look into the psychology of a builder who says he has no hobbies, no Netflix account, and has never ordered anything on Amazon. Tom shares the “no high fives” rule he and his partner Scott live by, why they never build compani…
$100M Revenue Profitably with No Outside Funding. Other AI Companies Are Burning Cash | Raj Toleti
Ep 424 · Jul 24, 2026 · 27 min
Daniel opens by discussing the growing shortage of nurses and physicians across the United States and asks whether AI can realistically solve the problem. Raj Toleti, Chairman and CEO of Andor Health, explains that the shortage is already here and argues that automation is the only scalable path to democratizing healthcare, particularly for rural communities where clinicians are scarce. Rather than replacing doctors, Raj believes AI should eliminate administrative work, surface critical patient…
The Cybersecurity Expert Warning That AI Agents Could Leak Everything | Ep. 423 with Lee Rossey CTO and Co-Founder of SimSpace
Ep 423 · Jul 22, 2026 · 30 min
Daniel and Lee Rossey, CTO and Co-Founder of SimSpace, open with the explosion of AI agent companies and the growing comfort people have with giving these systems access to business tools, financial data, credit cards, and personal information. Lee warns that the benefits are real, but so are the risks: every company eventually faces compromise, and users should assume that any sensitive data they feed into these tools could someday get exposed. From there, the conversation moves into agent-to-a…
Everyone Is Asking The Wrong Question About AI | Ep. 422 with Rana Gujral CEO of Behavioral Signals
Ep 422 · Jul 20, 2026 · 33 min
Daniel and Rana Gujral, CEO of Behavioral Signals, begin with the biggest misconception in AI: that the real debate is about capability. Rana argues that the more important question is not whether AI can write, reason, analyze, or outperform humans on benchmarks, but whether it is strengthening human instinct or quietly replacing it. From there, the conversation explores why enterprise AI often fails when companies use it as a headcount-reduction shortcut, why workers resist tools they fear will…
Intern at 19. $750M in Property Sales by 26 | Lukas Kerrebijn
Ep 421 · Jul 18, 2026 · 28 min
Daniel and Lukas Kerrebijn, co-founder of RD Dubai, RD Vastgoed, and RD Advisory, trace the journey from a teenage intern questioning what real estate agents actually did, to building a platform connecting property sellers with investors, to expanding into Dubai when Dutch regulations made the local market harder for investors. Lukas explains how his first deal in the Netherlands revealed demand from investors, why Dubai became the next major opportunity, and how the RD Dubai brand evolved beyon…
He Got 30 Investor Rejections, Then Built a $12.7 billion Defense AI Company | Ep. 420 with Brandon Tseng President and Co-Founder of Shield AI
Ep 420 · Jul 15, 2026 · 28 min
Daniel and Brandon Tseng, President and Co-founder of Shield AI, begin with the earliest days of Shield AI, when defense tech was not yet a major category and investors were not convinced autonomous military systems could become a massive market. Brandon explains how his confidence came from two places: a mother who believed he could do anything and the Navy SEAL teams, where Hell Week and combat gave him a level of self-assurance that carried into entrepreneurship. The conversation moves throug…
Ex-Uber AI Safety Lead: Your Home Is Already Exposed. Almost Nobody Knows It | Ep. 419 with John Lunsford Founder of Tethral
Ep 419 · Jul 13, 2026 · 34 min
Daniel and John Lunsford, founder of Tethral, open with the hype around AI agents, but quickly move past the usual conversation about agents buying things online or talking to other agents. John argues that the real issue may be agents communicating with the devices already inside our homes: refrigerators, doors, lights, cars, smart locks, and everyday connected systems. He explains how the combination of AI agents and insecure consumer devices could create new risks, from harmless mistakes to c…
Bitcoin Creator Revealed: They Say They Found Satoshi | Ep. 418 with Tyler Maroney and Tucker Tooley
Ep 418 · Jul 11, 2026 · 27 min
Daniel joins Tyler and Tucker to go deep into the mystery surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. What began as Tucker's curiosity during COVID turned into a multi-year investigation spanning hundreds of interviews, financial insiders, coders, cypherpunks, family members, and people who worked directly alongside the film's leading suspects. The investigation ultimately points to Hal Finney and Len Sassaman as the two people the filmmakers believe were behind Satoshi. A…
Tech Employees Are Being Robbed Of Billions | Ep. 417 with Oren Barzilai CEO & Founder of Equitybee
Ep 417 · Jul 9, 2026 · 28 min
Daniel and Oren Barzilai, Co-founder and CEO of Equitybee, dive into a problem hiding inside the startup economy: employees can spend years helping build valuable companies, receive stock options as part of their compensation, and still walk away with nothing because they cannot afford to exercise those options. Oren explains how his experience building Tapingo and watching employees miss out after its acquisition by Grubhub planted the seed for Equitybee. The conversation covers how startup equ…
I Was Worth $5 Million at 23. Eight Months Later I Was Negative $1 Million | Ep. 416 with Leo Pareja CEO of eXp Realty
Ep 416 · Jul 6, 2026 · 41 min
Daniel and Leo Pareja, CEO of eXp Realty, unpack what happens when someone finally reaches the goal they have obsessed over for years—and discovers it does not feel the way they expected. Leo shares how becoming the number one Keller Williams agent at twenty-eight left him depressed and confused because nothing inside him changed. From there, the conversation moves through his financial collapse during the 2008 crisis, the mentors who reshaped his identity, and the systems that helped him rebuil…
Do You Need To Live In Silicon Valley To Start a Tech Company | Ep. 415 with Moe Seye Founder and CEO of 1099Workers
Ep 415 · Jul 4, 2026 · 35 min
Daniel and Moe Seye explore how work is being rewritten by AI, layoffs, remote work, and a new generation that does not want the same corporate path their parents wanted. Moe explains why Silicon Valley still feels like a place living in the future, and why being around impossible-thinking founders can reshape what someone believes they can build. The conversation moves into Moe’s own journey from Coca-Cola employee to founder, why leaving a secure job felt like a leap of faith, and how his comp…
Free Trading Isn't What You Think It Is (Wall Street CEO Explains)
Ep 414 · Jul 1, 2026 · 22 min
Daniel and Daniel Schlaepfer dive into the evolution of trading from human-driven Wall Street desks to today’s app-based, AI-assisted, off-exchange market structure. Daniel explains how he accidentally entered the trading world through a free subway newspaper ad after law school didn’t go as planned, then later rebuilt a new firm after the original company collapsed under regulatory failures. The conversation explores why “free trading” is not really free, how retail orders are routed away from…
This F1 Driver Got Cut, So He Built an AI Company | Ep. 413 with Jack Doohan Co-founder and CEO of Meuze
Ep 413 · Jun 29, 2026 · 32 min
Daniel and Jack start inside the mind of a Formula 1 driver, unpacking how perception changes at extreme speed, why Monaco feels faster than wider tracks, and how drivers train their bodies to survive brutal heat and stress. The conversation then shifts into Jack’s entrepreneurial chapter, sparked by the uncertainty of being sidelined from Formula 1 after only six races. Rather than sit still and wait for racing politics to resolve, Jack leaned into business, relationships, and AI, building Meuz…
He had a 9-Figure Exit (Then Almost Lost It All) | Ep. 412 with Steve Salis CEO of Catalogue.co
Ep 412 · Jun 26, 2026 · 33 min
Daniel and Steve Salis dive into what it really takes to build restaurants at scale, from creating a brand people love to delivering hospitality every single day. Steve explains how restaurants become cultural beacons inside communities, why &pizza was built to recreate the feeling of a local mom-and-pop pizza shop, and how he turned a simple observation inside a Qdoba into a scalable fast-casual pizza concept. The conversation also goes deeper into risk, COVID, personal sacrifice, underdog ment…
$5B Real Estate Mogul Reveals The Price of Success | Ep. 411 with Mauricio Umansky Founder and CEO of The Agency
Ep 411 · Jun 24, 2026 · 36 min
Daniel and Mauricio Umansky trace his journey from growing up in Mexico City, delivering pizzas at 16, and becoming one of the most successful luxury real estate figures in the world. Mauricio reflects on selling the Playboy Mansion, the fascination with luxury real estate, and why success eventually becomes less about money and more about making chess moves that shift an industry. The conversation then turns deeper as Mauricio shares the sacrifices of fame, the loss of privacy, his complicated…
He Made Millions Every Year, Then Went $800K Into Debt: Adam Hagaman on the Trap of Success | Ep. 410 Founder of Content Cash Flow
Ep 410 · Jun 22, 2026 · 34 min
Daniel and Adam Hagaman dive into the painful early chapters of Adam’s life, including growing up without a father, trying drugs in sixth grade, selling drugs, dropping out of school, and going to jail every year from 18 to 25. Adam explains how a party invitation led him to meet his future wife, the daughter of a pastor, and how that relationship introduced him to faith after years of darkness. The conversation moves from redemption to entrepreneurship, covering door-to-door sales, building bus…
The Supplement Industry Is Broken and Ritual Is Rebuilding Trust From Scratch | Ep. 409 with Kat Schneider Founder & CEO of Ritual
Ep 409 · Jun 17, 2026 · 29 min
Daniel and Kat explore the origin story behind Ritual, starting with Kat being four months pregnant and unable to find a prenatal vitamin she trusted. Kat explains how women’s health has been underfunded, understudied, and underestimated, and how that gap became the foundation for a brand built on transparency, science, and trust. The conversation covers venture funding, building while raising three children, the power of starting narrow, the problem with copycat supplements, and why Ritual has…
Ex Meta Executive Reveals Why Your AI Bill Is About To Explode | Ep. 408 with Cylton Collymore Founder of Sirsi
Ep 408 · Jun 15, 2026 · 41 min
Daniel and Cylton Collymore dive into one of the biggest questions facing founders right now: what happens when AI becomes essential, but the cost and control of that AI sits in someone else’s cloud. Cylton explains why he believes LLMs are still “book smart, not street smart,” why giving AI agents full access to your computer is like handing your bank account to someone on a second date, and why the future may shift toward local or on-prem AI systems. The conversation also turns personal as Cyl…
He Became CEO With Zero Pharmacy Experience. Here's How | Kris Fishman
Ep 407 · Jun 12, 2026 · 23 min
One in 8 Americans is now on a GLP-1 medication. That is roughly 35 million people, and it created one of the fastest-growing markets in the country almost overnight. The CEO at the center of this episode captured that wave from a company most people have never heard of, and he did it after walking into the industry with zero experience. Thirteen years later, he runs the whole thing. Kris Fishman is the CEO and President of Wells Pharmacy Network, one of the largest independent compounding pharm…
Bootstrap or Raise VC? Here's the Math From a $150M Founder | Ep. 406 with Tal Lev-Ami Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Cloudinary
Ep 406 · Jun 10, 2026 · 29 min
Daniel and Tal trace Tal’s origin story from writing code in elementary school to building Cloudinary with two co founders over decades of friendship. Tal explains why bootstrapping forced discipline and protected culture, how Cloudinary grew product led before “PLG” was a label, and what it means for employees when option value rises without constant dilution from new funding rounds. The conversation then pivots into the AI era, where Tal is actively experimenting with AI assisted coding system…
The Career Rule That Took Him From Bagger to 3-Time CIO | Ep. 405 with Harrison Allen Lewis Founding Partner at Jacob Meadow Associates
Ep 405 · Jun 8, 2026 · 36 min
Daniel and Harrison Allen Lewis break down why the best leadership lessons often come from terrible management, and why clarity beats charisma in modern organizations. Harrison explains his operating model for transformation: define the outcome, anchor a strategy to that outcome, then build a plan that the business can own. They also explore career leverage, mentorship, fear as a signal, and why great CIO work is less about tools and more about aligning people, incentives, and accountability. Ke…
Anastasia Soare Built a $3 Billion Empire. Started With No English. No Money. | Ep. 404
Ep 404 · Jun 2, 2026 · 42 min
Daniel and Anastasia Soare start with Romania, identity, and the immigrant experience, then trace her journey from arriving in the US in 1989 to building one of the most globally recognized beauty brands in the world. Anastasia explains how she went from an esthetician job to renting one room and one chair in Beverly Hills, betting on an overlooked idea: eyebrows. She shares why curiosity and mastery mattered more than “manifesting,” how trust built her celebrity relationships, and why she sees…
Spencer Pratt Wins LA Mayor and Other Shocking Predictions From Famous Psychic | Ep. 403 with Craig Hamilton-Parker
Ep 403 · May 28, 2026 · 40 min
Daniel and Guest Host Nadja interview Craig Hamilton-Parker about how he developed his psychic practice, how he distinguishes intuition from opinion, and why he believes prediction is about probability, not destiny. Craig shares a bold call on the Los Angeles mayor race, then zooms out to discuss broader global tensions and what he sees as an approaching “pressure window” in the coming years. They also explore AI, consciousness, and Craig’s belief that periods of instability can trigger deeper q…
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