In 2004, two former Paypal engineers, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russ Simmons, were spit-balling new internet ideas. Out of their brainstorm came a site where you would email your friends asking for local business recommendations. The launch was a flop, but they discovered that people seemed to enjoy writing reviews not just for friends, but for the general publi ... 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
Mar 9
Bobo’s: Beryl Stafford. A Single Mom Turns a Baking Project into a $100M Business
Bobo’s: Beryl Stafford. A Single Mom Turns a Baking Project into a $100M BusinessAt 40, Beryl Stafford’s life cracked open. Her marriage ended, she hadn’t worked in years, and she had two daughters to raise. She needed income—fast. So she did the only thing that felt real: she ba ... Show More
58m 48s
Aug 2018
How to make the star employees you need, w/Marissa Mayer
<p>Can't find the star employees you need? Then make them. That's what Marissa Mayer did when she founded the Associate Product Manager program in the early days of Google — one of the company's crown jewels. She mentored a team of young, hungry, talented employees in the ways of ... Show More
41m 13s
Sep 2020
I've Tried Everything, But Have No Real Growth. What Do I Do?
On this week's AskPat coaching call, I talk with Jason McCarthy, founder of a site called DigiNo.org. He gets 80,000 visitors a month, but it doesn't translate into revenue. Why is this? Where is this traffic coming from? What do these visitors want, and where is the disconnect t ... Show More
25m 19s
Jun 2024
You could start a company this weekend, w/Noah Kagan
<p>Entrepreneur Noah Kagan wants everyone to feel empowered to start a business. That’s the core message of his new book, Million Dollar Weekend. He’s founded multiple companies worth at least a million dollars, including AppSumo. That’s his software marketplace worth more than $ ... Show More
32m 23s
Aug 2021
372: Biotech Billionaire Anne Wojcicki, Cofounder and CEO of 23andMe
You’ve heard data has the power to make or break a business. Nobody knows this more than Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of biotech giant 23andMe. After 15 years of leveraging data to build a game-changing company, Wojcicki made headlines this summer when she became the latest self-mad ... Show More
53m 20s