Scott and Missy Tannen knew nothing about bed linens when they dreamed up the idea of launching a bedding company, but that didn’t stop them from setting ambitious goals: super soft sheets, 100% organic cotton, and a supply chain that was traceable from end to end. Thanks to an article in the Wall Street Journal and a $2 million advertising bet on The Howard ... Show More
Mar 16
Scrub Daddy: Aaron Krause. How a Failed Experiment Became a Billion-Dollar Sponge
Aaron Krause did not set out to reinvent the kitchen sponge. He was a car detailer, building buffing pads and the machines that made them. To clean his greasy hands, he made a makeshift hand scrubber out of extra-rough foam, and it worked so well he decided to sell it. But nobody ... Show More
1h 29m
Jan 2025
Mike Maples on 100-Baggers, David Swensen & the AI Revolution | #568
Today’s guest is Mike Maples Jr. a partner at Floodgate, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm that’s invested in companies like Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, Okta. He’s also the author of Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future. In today’s episode, Mike shares h ... Show More
1h 10m
May 2025
Undoing a $5 Billion Acquisition and Building a Durable Standalone Plaid (with Plaid CEO Zach Perret)
We sit down with Zach Perret, CEO of Plaid, to discuss the remarkable journey of Plaid and the broader fintech landscape over the past several years. Zach takes us blow-by-blow through journey of almost getting acquired by Visa, the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic… ... Show More
1h 1m
Oct 2025
From €4 Million, to Zero, to €12 Million
Despite skepticism from her US investors, Ivona Butcher bought (and tripled) a business in her native Czech Republic.Topics in Ivona’s interview:Doing business in a post-Soviet cultureDetermination to acquire in the Czech RepublicBuying a business as a married coupleGetting into ... Show More
1h 35m
Mar 2024
🎂🇮🇳 “Plus-one (Billion)” — The company behind India’s epic wedding. Apple’s $2B Spotify penalty. Caitlin Clark’s basketball payday.
CEOs of Meta, Disney, and Microsoft attended the wedding of Asia’s richest family: The Ambani’s — Behind it all is Reliance Industries, India’s biggest company.Apple was just fined $2B by the European Union for anti-competitive drama with Spotify — The shocker? The App Store in q ... Show More
23m 35s