Startup Renegades: Recent Episodes
Shauna Armitage
Startup Renegades is a raw conversation with powerhouse founders hosted by Shauna Armitage. Listen to these entrepreneurs as they uncover what the startup journey looks like and share the key strategies that helped them grow their brands. Come back to your business with intentional, actionable steps to take on your own journey to scalable growth.
Ethan Song is forever an optimist and began his journey as the founder and CEO of Frank And Oak, which aimed to reshape the fashion industry by making it more personal and sustainable. Frank And Oak was named Most innovative company in retail by Fast Company and was #1 on the Deloitte Fast50 list.
Today, Ethan is the founder of RareCircles, helping creators and brands create communities in the Web3 economy. His insights into growth strategy, community, and founder mindset are invaluable.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How Ethan went about launching his company
- The actions he took to get his first customers
- Why the business goal is NOT to get millions of customers and what this means for business growth
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director of Berkeley SkyDeck, a global hub for entrepreneurship, and one of the leading accelerators in the world.
She is a serial entrepreneur, civic activist, angel investor, advisor and board member of several startups, as well as and a frequent speaker on startups, accelerators, women in business and consumer neuroscience.
Caroline tells us about her personal journey to the Skydeck program and explains everything founders might need to know about this unique accelerator program.
In this episode, you will hear:
- What is the Skydeck program and who is it for?
- The distinctive benefits Skydeck offers that you simply won’t find in other accelerators
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Krish Ramineni was a former PM at Microsoft and stumbled into entrepreneurship. When focusing on productivity solutions, he and his co-founders decided to just build something that they would use. Fireflies AI was born and the rest is history!
Fireflies AI assistant joins meetings across zoom, Gmeet, Teams, and several other video conferencing platforms to take notes, create searchable transcripts and provide insights into your conversations. In just two years, the company is globally distributed in 10+ countries and has been brought into meetings by more than 70% of the Fortune 500s today.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How to identify the right moment to stick with a new startup
- How a single thesis around productivity led to something more
- How the company used product-led growth levers to expand quickly
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Marshall started his career in 2015 in the event space and had an affinity for pedal-to-the-metal organizations, guerilla marketing tactics, and doing things others won’t.
After dropping out of university in 2017, Marshall started working with startups and small businesses, and focused on growth, particularly in sales. After some success growing an existing business by running it like a new startup, he took the leap of faith in 2021 to turn his observations and theories into solutions by joining the founding team at MNTN Co.
Marshall eventually branched off to co-found slø with MNTN Co. founder Kristian Hansen where they put their theories to the test, proving very quick and fruitful pre-seed growth at slø thus far.
In this episode, you will hear:
- The systematic path Marshall took after dropping out of college to launching his own startup
- The ambitious way Marshall found himself the perfect co-founder
- How they tested their original idea and grew a seriously powerful waitlist
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Ron Ross is the founder of Everee, workforce payments technology that makes it easy to pay people instantly. He is a seasoned finance executive with 15 years of experience leading accounting, finance and operations teams at fast-growing companies.
Ron came up with Everee after seeing firsthand the negative impact of waiting two weeks for a paycheck. His daughter had a job making enough to cover her expenses, but she kept running out of money because the timing of her payday and bills didn’t match. Realizing what a huge problem this was for so many Americans, Ron decided to challenge the status quo and created Everee to make faster paydays a reality.
Since founding the company in 2018, Ron has grown the team by 5X and raised Seed and Series A financing rounds totaling $14M in April 2019 and 2020 respectively.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How an artist at heart was inspired by entrepreneurs and economic policy to change the world
- How Ron knew the timing was right for this specific business idea
- How Ron successfully led his team as an introvert
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Alejandra Santos is the founder and CEO of Startup Tandem. She landed in Miami from Honduras at the age of 17 with no support, money, or family. During her first few years in the US, she struggled to keep a roof over her head and food on her table, while at the same time pursuing an education…. But she did it.
Alejandra comes with 14+ years of experience in accounting and finance consulting. She has experience with nonprofits, restaurants, real estate, wealth management, and startups.
In this episode, you will hear:
- The first startup Alejandra joined and what she learned from it
- How knowing the numbers empowers you to make the right decisions as a founder
- Why having a CFO that grows with is essential for new startups
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Shannon Erley has worked in the skincare and beauty industry for years and was personally struggling with adult hormonal acne. It wasn’t until she started working with a licensed esthetician that recommended a good at-home skincare routine was when her skin started to improve.
With so many people getting skincare recommendations elsewhere, she wanted to highlight the importance of estheticians, who have gone to school and trained for over 600+ hours, and have estheticians be at the forefront of making better skincare recommendations. She built Pomp, a technology platform for estheticians to integrate into their businesses to make better recommendations for new and existing clients.
In this episode, you will hear:
- The key lessons Shannon learned from her first startup experience
- The grassroots and creative actions Shannon took to get her very first customers
- The first hires Shannon made and why they were so essential to achieving scale
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Maia's the Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of the Nav.it Money App, the fitness app for finances which provides personalized financial coaching to help people build good habits and live financially well. She's devoted to closing wealth gaps perpetuated by a system not built for the majority of America and believes financial wellbeing is an integral part of creating a healthier and more equitable society.
Maia talks about the importance of getting a Humanities degree in today’s job market and how her obsession with the customer journey led to her success as a founder.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Why a small pool of early adopters could be your startup’s secret weapon
- The exact strategy Maia and her co-founders used to find their early adopters and turn them into brand ambassadors
- How obsession with qualitative marketing research was a key strategy that helped Maia grow her fintech app
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Lindsay Pinchuk started her first company with just a $500 investment, growing it to reach 3MM users per month and generating 7-figures in revenue year over year. Less than a decade later she led her company through its acquisition to a large agency holding company.
Today, Lindsay is Founder + CEO of Lindsay Pinchuk Marketing + Consulting, helping individuals, companies and brands build and monetize their communities for bottom line growth through content, social media, email, partnerships and publicity.
You can also find her behind the mic interviewing some of the most incredible female founders she knows during her twice weekly podcast, Dear FoundHer.
In this episode, you will hear:
- What Lindsay did in the early days of her media business to capture her audience before the days of social media
- The 3 things that Lindsay suggests founders do to build their businesses in today’s environment
- Examples of how a media business like Bump Club and Beyond generates revenue
- How Lindsay knew it was time to move onto her next venture
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Justin Izzo is the research lead at DocSend, the secure document sharing platform that provides founders with the insight they need to succeed throughout their fundraising journey. Justin brings 15 years of research and leadership experience to the role in combination with his passion for educating and empowering startup founders.
On today’s episode, Justin shares his unique insights into what it takes to develop and effective pitch deck.
In this episode, you will hear:
- The slides you haven’t included in your deck, but maybe should have
- The giant change that’s happening in pitch decks in 2022 and what it means for you
- Why you absolutely can’t forget the competition slide
Founders looking to amplify their outreach to VCs can join the DocSend Fundraising Network here: https://www.docsend.com/fundraising-network/
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
An entrepreneur at heart, Stephanie Cartin walked away from her corporate career in 2012 to follow her passion to launch Socialfly, a leading social-first digital and influencer marketing agency based in New York City named to Inc. 5000's fastest growing private companies two years in a row.
In 2018, Stephanie co-founded Entreprenista, a media company and membership community dedicated to helping women grow and scale their businesses, and serves as CEO where she also co-hosts Entreprenista’s Podcast Network shows; Startups in Stilettos and The Entreprenista Podcast.
Stephanie is the co-author of "Like, Love, Follow: The Entreprenista's Guide to Using Social Media To Grow Your Business,” and is a recipient of the SmartCEO Brava Award and a Stevie Award for Women Run Workplace of the Year.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How Stephanie’s skill as a young actress translated into great salesmanship that has served her throughout her career
- How Entreprenista went from a podcast to a strong community to a thriving media business
- Why you might want to consider building your community first
- A pro tip for entrepreneurs looking to get instant credibility on a budget
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
The eldest daughter of two immigrant entrepreneurs, Priyanka Murthy has a talent and passion for the law. She became a Fulbright Scholar, a cum laude Northwestern Law graduate, an editor of the Law Review, and a law clerk to two prolific federal judges. But a side hustle with her parents’ small jewelry wholesale business made her realize that the jewelry industry was outdated and ripe for disruption.
To meet this challenge head on, Priyanka launched Access79 to eliminate the risk of buying fine jewelry online by providing a personal and curated, convenient, digital-meets-high-touch shopping experience. The company later rebranded to become Array.
Today, Priyanka counts Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez, and Rachel Zoe as fans of her jewelry.
In this episode, you will hear:
- The methodical step Priyanka took to test out her try-before-you-buy solution instead of simply selling for revenue
- Priyanka’s unique business model and how she convinced talented designers to work with her in this new way
- Why working at the intersection of a tech company and a luxury brand is different than other types of startups
Take 15% off your first full price order with code ArrayRenegade15
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Originally from Guayaquil, Ecuador, Saskia Sorrosa built a strong career in marketing and moved into what she believed to be her dream role—VP of Marketing for the NBA. When her second child arrived on the scene, Saskia realized that she needed to step back from her corporate career to pursue aligning her business with her values.
That’s when she founded Fresh Bellies, a kid snack brand distributed nationwide by major retailers like Whole Foods. Saskia has grown Fresh Bellies to a national disruptor, winning the the Expo East NEXTY Award for Best New Natural Kid’s Product, pitching to Shark Tank and graduating from the Chobani Incubator.
In this episode, you will hear:
- The micro actions Saskia took to move her business out of the farmer’s market and onto the national stage
- About the importance of being flexible with your business and why Fresh Bellies dropped its first product in the middle of raising a round of capital
- Saskia’s evolving thought process for finding the right channels in which to place her energy and business resources for success
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Joshua March is Co-founder and CEO of SCiFi Foods, a Bay Area food tech company focused on making transformational meat alternatives first by combining plant-based and cultivated meat to make burgers that are drastically closer in taste to the real versions. But his journey began in a completely different industry.
One line in a scifi book sparked his passion and led him to take serious action, and it has been an incredible journey from there!
Josh has two exits to his name. He was previously the CEO and Co-founder of Conversocial, a digital care platform for messaging that integrates with many of the world's leading brands, and he is also the author of Message Me, a book about the future of customer service in the era of social messaging and artificial intelligence.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How Josh blew through his first business loan learning the ropes and what he did to get himself back on track financially
- The key areas Josh and his team focused on to tell a compelling story to investors
- How to identify the biggest risk factors in your startup business
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Before co-founding Truebill (now Rocket Money), Yahya Mokhtarzada and his brothers were always starting companies together. From the traditional lemonade stand to shoveling driveways, their ventures were always evolving. Together, they launched Free Webs—which became Webs.com—and Yahya found himself (and his brothers!) raising Series A when Yahya was graduating college.
He left after a few years to serve as Vice President of Business Development at Nanigans where he helped grow the company from less than $1 million to over $20 million in run rate.
After getting the gang back together, the team of brothers couldn’t find a million dollar idea—so they started with a small one. The pain point was huge for people and momentum grew quickly. In late 2021, Truebill was bought by Rocket Companies for $1.275 billion. Yahya continues to serve as the CRO at Truebill, which is now called Rocket Money.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How Yahya and his brothers started Truebill with a very small, specific pain point that he didn’t believe had potential to be a big business
- The PR strategy Yahya used to do PR in-house and grow users from 3,000 to 30,000
- Why you need PR in the early stages of your startup, but should focus your energy on the channels you can control in later stages
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Joe Keeley’s love for hockey led him into entrepreneurship in one of the most unique ways you’ve ever heard! Today, Keeley is the CEO and Co-founder of JustiFi Technologies, a venture backed fintech business providing payments and fintech infrastructure and strategy for vertical SaaS platforms.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How Joe accidentally started a very successful small business and the powerful moment when a recruiter moved Joe away from a career in corporate and on his path of entrepreneurship
- What Joe did to reorient himself after successfully exiting his first company
- Why you MUST do things that don’t scale before you can begin to scale your startup
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Doug Ludlow grew up in Modesto, an agricultural town in Central California. Despite Modesto city’s proximity to Silicon Valley, the city is almost entirely cut off from the technology industry, which is the economic engine of the 21st century. He helped start MainStreet in part to bring back good jobs and upward mobility to the people living in his hometown.
Before MainStreet, Doug split his time between entrepreneurship (founding The Happy Home Company, Hipster, and madKast) and leadership roles at top technology companies, including Google and AOL.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How Doug kicked started his entrepreneurial journey with a textbook import business
- All about Doug’s experience in the founding class of Techstars
- Why “moments of delight” was key to Mainstreet’s growth strategy and the fun, unique ways that Doug and his team implemented it
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Lisha Bell is cofounder of BLXVC, an angel syndicate of moms funding Black and Brown founders. She is also the co-founder of the Women of Color Capital Collective, a women of color led group ensuring equitable distribution of capital for women of color. She is the host of the Sisters with Ventures Podcast that aims to tell the stories of women in VC. Bell is also the deal flow lead for Pipeline Angels.
She has over 20 years of demonstrated technology innovation focused on digital money movement solutions and is currently at PayPal Ventures where she leads the Economic Opportunity Fund, the 100M investment into emerging fund managers.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Why VC wouldn’t let Lisha in and what she did about it
- What founders should know about the shift in current valuations
- Where we can go from here and what marginalized founders can do to get the funding they deserve
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Dominic Kalms is CEO of a new venture backed Fintech company B Generous, which is revolutionizing how people donate to nonprofits through the advent of the first ever philanthropic credit product. B Generous is backed by some of the top VCs, Banks, and institutional investors in the US and was just accepted into the highly selective Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program.
He has raised over $120M in venture and philanthropic capital during his career and has been featured in an array of media publications where he discusses philanthropy and impact.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How a would-be actor made it to Wall Street, and eventually made his way to the Senate Finance Committee
- How a clear vision and personal credibility helped Dominic successfully raise two rounds of capital
- How Dominic created the first ever philanthropic credit product
- Why curated outreach on LinkedIn has been Dominic’s favorite strategy for growth
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Samantha Citro Alexander is the Co-Founder of bitewell, a food health company on a mission to improve your health through food. She came onboard as co-founder after a LOT of conversations with the original founder and after asking herself, “Do I believe in the product that we’re building and the problem that we’re solving?”
The answer was yes, and now bitewell is working to change the way we eat.
Prior to co-founding bitewell, Samantha worked at The Estée Lauder Companies as the Chief of Staff to Jane Lauder and as the Director of Integrated Marketing, where she co-created Jefacon, a women’s empowerment and leadership summit celebrating the Beauty of Being a Boss.
In this episode, you will hear:
How Sam’s acting training gave her a strong marketing skill set
- What Sam did to learn how to make every new customer a customer for life
- How Sam met her co-founder and why she decided to join the company full time
- What bitewell looked like in the idea stage and how the founders pivoted
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Military life often requires wearing lots of hats, and that’s especially true for Monica Fullerton, founder of Spouse-ly. Named a Trailblazer in Tech by Military Spouse Magazine, Forbes Next 1000 List, and recently named on the MIGHTY 25 list as one of the most influential leaders supporting the military community, Fullerton is an ambitious entrepreneur, twin mom, and Air Force spouse.
In an effort to provide highly-transient military families, as well as those that have previously served, a space to market their products and services regardless of their duty station, Monica came up with an idea to emphasize learning and income-generating opportunities for the creators, service providers, and entrepreneurs within the military family.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Why Monica’s dream to become the next Oprah is what drove her to tap into the power of communication and use it successfully to grow Spouse-ly
- About the inspiring moment when Monica realized that there needed to be a platform to harness the skill and expertise of passionate military spouses
- How being “closed-minded” kept Spouse-ly from growing in the beginning and what Monica did to change her mindset and successfully move forward
- Why the art of storytelling is so important
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Co-founders of Caire Beauty Celeste Lee and Lorrie King were both grade-school entrepreneurs. Both are graduates of The Wharton School. Both started in finance.
Both knew they were onto something ‘important’ when their friends were constantly asking for skincare recommendations because their long-time moisturizers and regimens were not ‘doing’ it.
After meeting with scientists to truly understand how and why skin aging changes after 40 and again at the onset of actual menopause, they realized there was an opportunity to really educate and empower modern women by empowering their skin with science-backed, clean formulated, hormone-responsive skincare solutions.
In other words, skincare for grownups.
In this episode, you will hear Lorrie share:
- About the VERY practical college major that set Lorrie up for success
- Lorrie’s unusual path into beauty and skincare
- What you need to know about accelerators and how to decide if one is right for your startup journey
- Lorrie and Celeste’s biggest regret as founders
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Named Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay Military Spouse of the Year 2019 and MCAS Miramar Military Spouse of the Year 2022, Michelle Penczak is a virtual assistant by trade and a military spouse by love. Her husband Sean is a pilot in the Marine Corps, and through multiple relocations and deployments, Michelle built a vibrant, thriving independent virtual assistant business for herself.
This grew into the business that is Squared Away today.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How Michelle turned her thriving freelance business into a scalable startup company
- Why she never planned on being a CEO
- The way Squared Away reverse engineered their affiliate program
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Cara Oppenheimer and Cary Telander Fortin are creative social entrepreneurs who founded goodbuy, a first-of-its-kind online shopping tool that connects consumers with small businesses that align with their values, and does so in a simple and streamlined way.
These two powerhouse mamas bonded over new babies and breastfeeding. When Cara had a big idea about how and what she could do to give consumers easy opportunities to shop small instead of at mega retailers, she texted Cary in the early hours of the morning and goodbuy was born.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How these co-founders focused on a product-cultural moment fit instead of a particular niche
- The nitty gritty of building strong messaging and organic growth to grow a large waitlist
- What combination of strategies on Instagram have been essential to getting the goodbuy message out
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Lynn Power spent much of her 30 year career running and transforming agency brands. She recently left the big agency world to launch MASAMI, a premium clean haircare brand which launched in February 2020.
In this episode, Lynn shares the small steps she has taken to move her brand forward through the pandemic and beyond. She shares the importance of taking control by taking action each and every day.
20% off with code RENEGADE at lovemasami.com
In this episode, you will hear:
- Why being a receptionist is a great way to start in your career or in a new industry
- One of the biggest differences between working in corporate and working in startup
- How Lynn grew their email list from 2,500 to over 30,000 leads
- Why strategic partnerships were the biggest growth tool for MASAMI (And the important things you need to consider before launching partnerships for your business.)
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Swarnali Mitra is currently an early-stage investor at Anthemis Group where she invests in female founded and co-founded companies at the pre-seed/seed stages. Her background spans across engineering, product, public policy and capital markets and she is most interested in solving the hard problems of fintech.
She talks about the importance of funding female founders (and how we can do it!) as well as the key things you should consider highlighting as a founder pitching for funding before building traction. (Spoiler: Swarnali LOVES founders who are able to articulate the potential for long-term sustainability.)
In this episode, you will hear more about:
- Swarnali’s path from engineering to venture capital
- What we can do as an industry to see the 2% of venture capital dollars going to women increase
- Why we can be optimistic about the current landscape for startup funding
- The core qualities that an early-stage founder should be focused on
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
After developing Hashimoto’s and guttate psoriasis, Elaine Morrison went on a health journey to find the answers to put her autoimmune illnesses into remission. She radically changed her diet to reverse her symptoms of fatigue, weight gain, hair loss and dry skin. Supplementing with collagen was a game changer, and in 2015, she launched a collagen water with no previous experience in the beverage industry.
She learned a lot from the collagen water and re-launched with a powder collagen under her own name a few years later. Elaine Wellness is now growing grassroots-style and Elaine is sharing exactly how she’s doing it.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Why Elaine decided not to move forward with her collagen water business
- The steps Elaine took to master her marketing funnel
- How Elaine Wellness is growing from the activation of brand advocates
- The strategy Elaine used to find partnerships that actually convert
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Robin Doyle, the founder of Beautyologie—a fair trade and ethically-sourced online marketplace for conscious consumers who want beauty products that make a difference, not just on the surface of their skin, but in the world we live in— decided on a humanities major in college because she learned that it meant she wouldn’t have to take math classes. That journalism degree led her to work at a teen magazine, which gave her the opportunity to interview celebrities like Britney Spears. She moved into a position as a fashion editor.
Today, Robin has 25+ years of experience in the beauty industry as a writer and publicist and is a passionate advocate for beauty brands that use the industry as a vehicle for social change.
In this episode, you will hear more about:
- How Robin’s early career in journalism led her into the PR industry
- The first steps Robin took to validate her business idea
- What you need to know if you’re trying to generate PR on a budget
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Olivia Hipkins is the Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of Gaia Global Ventures as well as the Founder of Green Atlas Consulting. Through this work, she works with investors and target investment companies across venture capital and private equity to integrate sustainability in capital allocation decisions, empowering investment professionals to see sustainability as an opportunity for positive impact and returns.
Olivia’s big goals to change the world led her into finance, but she quickly learned that she was not meant to work within such a fixed structure. She launched her fund to focus on the “unsexy”, yet essential sectors that truly make an impact on our communities.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Why going into finance was Olivia’s path to change the world
- What you need to know about startup flexibility and how Olivia is redrawing lines around funding startups in the earliest stages
- Why the “underloved” startups might be the most important ones to fund and grow
- The 3 big things that Olivia is looking for from founders
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Jess Hershfield is the founder and CEO of Just Enough Wines, a premium canned wine brand based out of San Francisco. They focus on high-quality wine, in the convenience of a can. After working at Google, Uber, and Lime, Jess had a fantastic resume but just wasn’t passionate about her work. She decided to leave to solve a problem that she cared about.
Along the way she found an amazing co-founder and dealt with the challenges that came with breaking into an unfamiliar industry dominated by men.
In just a few short years, Jess has accomplished a lot, and in this episode, you will hear:
- Why her first startup failed and what she learned from it
- All about their specific micro-influencer strategy and why it’s more effective than what you’ve tried in the past
- How they managed to execute win-win partnerships and how it helped them get exposure
Don’t forget! You can get 15% off Just Enough Wines when you use code Renegade15 at checkout.
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Sheera’s business idea is completely unique and it’s morphed and grown over the years. She shares the ups and downs, the testing and pivots, and everything in between that has gotten Zygo to the place it’s at today. Zygo is now the first ever tool that swimmers use to stream audio and live communication underwater. It’s not only used to listen to music, but also for swimming teachers to use it as walkie talkie for their students. The company has raised a total of $5 million to date and has sold over 15,000 units.
In this episode, you will hear more about:
- The first moment Sheera realized that she could be a Renegade
- How Sheera used flyers (organic marketing!) and Classpass (digital marketing!) to sell out the very first group swim classes for Zygo
- How they discovered that their original business model wasn’t scalable—and the steps Sheera and her co-founder took to take it from small business to startup
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Jennifer Gligoric is the Founder of Entrepods, a cutting-edge show asking the top entrepreneurial experts "So now what?" when it comes to their business and life. She's also a certified business coach and fractional consultant specializing in business crisis intervention & remote workplaces.
For the past decade, she's been helping companies build the solid foundations they need to repair, strengthen & abundantly grow their businesses by harnessing the power of technology in virtual workplaces using the principles of Ethical Entrepreneurship.
In this episode, you will hear more about:
- The powerful moment in Jennifer’s life that made her realize how powerful a life of service could be
- How being so deeply involved in the sales process enabled Jennifer to learn the key factors every business needs fixed in order to scale
- Why sloppy HR is probably what’s keeping you from scaling
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Justin Clegg has been profiled by VentureBeat, Deseret News and Entrepreneur.com and is a frequent public speaker. Justin has studied, lived and operated in a variety of international locations including Singapore, China, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mozambique and New Delhi and is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, French and conversational Hindi—which has led to his global perspective.
He co-founded three Silicon Valley startups and today we’ll talk about AllSet, a conversational texting platform for home service businesses that automates personalized SMS conversations to increase tips, reviews, referrals and more.
In this episode, you will hear more about:
- Why Justin’s feeling of being an outsider gave him the compassion, empathy, and desire to launch a career in tech
- The reason Justin lost sleep obsessing over another startup’s concept and how it inspired him to start a brand new company
- How connecting directly with customers led Justin and his team to completely scrap their app—and how that pivot was a game changer in their business
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Henley Vazquez is a self-proclaimed hotel junkie driven by match-making the perfect property to each traveler's unique style. Once upon a time, Henley founded and led Passported, a boutique travel agency with a focus on making family travel both accessible and enjoyable.
But the pandemic changed everything.
After rethinking how things needed to be done in the travel industry, she co-founded Fora, a new startup that empowers anyone to transform their passion for travel into meaningful revenue through flexible and fun work.
Henley fulling admits that building a startup is a team sport and explains why “being the dumbest person in the room” is actually a CEO superpower.
In this episode, you will hear more about:
- Why Henley found herself hiding in the back of a coffee shop after her small business failed…. And how being “found out” was exactly the inspiration she needed
- How Fora used the network effect to explode their waitlist to over 17,000 people
- How Henley determined that raising venture capital was the right thing to do to grow Fora
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Ahmed Elsamadisi is the Founder and CTO at Narrator.ai, a data modeling platform that allows data teams to answer any and all data questions within minutes. He is a passionate and driven entrepreneur who began to obsess over how humans and robots make decisions…. Which led him to launch this amazing company which is solving big problems for businesses today.
Before Narrator, Ahmed joined WeWork as the first hire on their data team. In just four years since the founding of Narrator, Ahmed graduated from startup accelerator Y Combinator and was named a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2021.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Why finding the right team is critical to your success
- How you can gain funding for your startup by selling “the dream”
- The key difference between building different or building better and how it affects your approach to growing a startup (and funding it!)
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
In this episode, FounderSuite CEO Nathan Beckord discusses how his inside knowledge of the fundraising process was eye-opening and led to a huge discovery—running a sloppy fundraising process could keep your startup from raising. That’s when he came up with the idea for FounderSuite—a venture-backed company that makes the leading “funding stack” (investor database, CRM, pitch deck hosting, and Investor Update tools) for startups raising capital. Since launching in 2016, users have raised over $3 Bln in seed and venture capital.
Prior to starting Foundersuite, Nathan spent ten years working with over 150 startups as interim CFO, Business Developer, and Advisor. Nathan has an MBA in Entrepreneurship, a BSC in Finance, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Making smart pivots in your business based on what your customer really needs
- How you can get ahead by being will to experiment with unique marketing strategies
- Why going with your gut is really what will build your business
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Courtney Boyd Meyers is an entrepreneur, environmentalist, and writer. But, there came a point when she couldn't “sit back and watch the world burn”. Lucky for the world, she co-founded AKUA, a Brooklyn-based company creating plant-based foods from locally sourced and regeneratively ocean-farmed kelp—and home of “the world’s first Kelp Burger”.
She began her career as a journalist at Forbes Magazine and The Next Web and has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. On Startup Renegades, she shares her amazing journey into this new food category
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Why having an omnichannel growth approach is essential to the rapid development of your business
- How a small group of dedicated customers can help entrepreneurs scale faster
- Why PR (done right!) is a game-changer for your brand
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Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Lauren Wang launched The Flex Co. in 2016 with the dream of transforming the lives of people with periods. Today, Flex is the top-selling sustainable period care brand in the country, sold in over 25,000 retail locations and online. Flex is the only company in the world to offer both disposable and reusable menstrual discs, in addition to menstrual cups—providing users with the most comfortable period week of their lives.
Lauren joined the Startup Renegades podcast to share how listening to her gut—and knowing when to listen to other people—was crucial for scaling her brand.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How making a checklist of the things you DON’T know is a strategic growth strategy
- Why some of the best business decisions are unconventional choices
- How to grow your business by being a good listener and by being totally obsessed with your customer
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Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Goodmylk Co. founder Brooke Harris is on a mission to “keep it real” with organic, truly nutritional plant mylks made from the good stuff, and nothing else. No chemicals, no binders, no fillers and above all—no compromises. Goodmylk Co. plant mylks are available in over 100 California coffee shops and grocery stores, including Blue Bottle, Erewhon, and Gelsons. And due to popular demand, they’re now available to order directly at goodmylk.co.
In this episode, Brooke discusses her passion for food and wellness and how it led to discovering a career fit for her. She shares how she builds relationships with brands and handles partnerships in order to grow her business in the direction she wants.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Scaling through social media and brand partnerships with companies you trust
- Saying yes(!) to all opportunities that come your way
- Problem solving through understanding logistics and accessibility to your customers
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Felicia Curcuru always knew she would be an entrepreneur. She was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. She was later the first employee, Head of User Experience and Director of Business Development at FundersClub, a leading online venture capital firm.
But when she was first introduced to the world of child welfare when her sister adopted two children many years ago, she found the thing she knew she could build a strong business upon.
Through her experiences as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster youth in San Francisco, she saw a lot of opportunity for technology to improve the outcomes of families and children in the foster care and adoption world.
And that’s when Binti was born.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How creating her own “grad school” experiences gave Felicia incredibly valuable opportunities in the startup space
- The unique way Felicia came up with her own business idea by identifying the problems she cared most about
- The reason the first version of her company failed and the touch choices she made to pivot successfully
- Why confidence may be the most important part of your pitch
- Felicia’s #1 growth strategy for scaling a business that relies on government contracts
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Eliza Blank is the Founder & CEO at The Sill, a digitally native direct-to-consumer houseplant brand on a mission to modernize the garden center experience. The Sill has 9 retail stores in the United States and recently opened stores in Boston, Chicago, and Park Slope in Brooklyn.
Prior to launching The Sill, Eliza served as a Brand Strategist at Wolff Olins, one of the leading brand agencies in the world, as well as a Brand Manager at Living Proof.
In this episode, Eliza shares how she grew up surrounded by plants and how moving to the concrete jungle of NYC changed all that. She discusses how her business changed from Eliza packing up plants to deliver within her neighborhood to a full e-commerce operation that ships across the United States.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How you can become a product expert
- The importance of adapting both your physical and digital spaces to be accessible channels to your customers.
- Why understanding your customer on a deep, personal level is a game changer for your business
Use code StartupRenegades10 for 10% your purchases at The Sill
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Sashee Chandran, founder and CEO of Tea Drops, worked as a Business Analyst for Fortune 100 brands such as eBay. She always loved to drink tea, but found that she just didn’t have the time to go through the whole process and created her own solution to this problem. Before long she had requests for her product and filed her own patent.
Today, Tea Drops has been featured in Forbes, GMA, and Oprah Magazine leading Sashee to be placed on Inc.’s Female Founders 100 list.
In this episode, Sashee discusses how she developed such an innovative product idea and the marketing territory that comes along with it. She explains the startup founder learning curve and how you can make adjustments in your pitching and the best strategies to gain investors.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How anyone can (and should!) file a patent
- Why pitch competitions might just be your smartest fundraising strategy
- Why trade shows can be an absolute game changer in a startup’s early stage
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Stefanie Diaz, the host of She Conquers Capital, is an elite capital raise strategist. Her experience working with companies such as Hustle Fund and Zane Ventures Fund led her to her passion of bridging the funding gap of underrepresented groups. Stefanie launched The Women Only Experience (WOE) to support female founders in their business. This led Stefanie to launching a coaching program centered around uplifting women; these combined actions led Stefanie to being named an “Atlanta Startup Wonder Woman”.
In this episode, Stefanie discusses the importance of having a seat on both sides of the table. She talks about frequently being the only woman in the room and needing to navigate a male dominated industry. Stefanie shares the importance of finding what makes you unique and the path to impactful pitching for your business.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How to take to carve out time for your networking journey
- How founders grow and gain credibility and resiliency
- How to pitch like a thought leader
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Stacy Tuschl is the founder of the Foot Traffic Formula. she started her own business in her parents’ backyard at the age of 18 and turned it into a multimillion dollar business.
She is also the host of the Foot Traffic Formula podcast that has over 1 million downloads and is frequently in the top 30 marketing podcasts on iTunes.
In this episode, Stacy discusses starting a business from the ground up and creating a successful scalable business. She tells the incredible story of starting up not one, but two businesses, and how that experience illuminated her love for marketing. Through this passion, she helps others grow their businesses. Stacy believes that every business needs to find their “one thing” and must find the customers who will say “I need this!”
In this episode, Stacy gives great advice on how to:
- Identify the one product that will take your business to the next level
- Focus on daily sales to figure out what activities are actually working so you can scale
- Embrace trial and error, make mistakes, and move forward in your business with confidence
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Jaleh Bisharat, co-founder and CEO of NakedPoppy, has built some of Silicon Valley’s most vibrant brands from the ground up. After serving as VP Marketing at Amazon.com in the late 1990’s, she held board seats or c-suite marketing roles at OpenTable, Upwork, Eventbrite, Skillshare, and Wealthfront. Very few people out there can build a business like Jaleh.
In this episode, Jaleh discusses what she learned as a child when her family lost everything and how it gave her the mindset she needed to succeed later in life. Jaleh shares how defining NakedPoppy’s moat and moving slower to get it right was actually the best strategy of all.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- The career power you hold when you have a positive attitude and positive energy
- How to go from the riskiest hire to the biggest power player in a business
- How focusing on your people can be your best growth strategy
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Jesse Draper is a mother of 3 boys and founding partner of Halogen Ventures focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams. Draper, the first solo female GP in Los Angeles is also a 4th generation venture capitalist. She is a fierce advocate for investing in women and the opportunity for using technology and innovation to solve some of the biggest issues facing women and families today.
Jesse’s original career was actress—first on a Nickelodeon show before adding several other projects to her resume. After a bad casting experience, she decided not to continue in the industry. Then, from her parents’ garage, Jesse launched the Emmy nominated series, The Valley Girl Show where she interviewed industry powerhouses like Sheryl Sandberg and Elon Musk.
She launched Halogen Ventures to help founders build their networks, get brand exposure, hire great talent, raise follow-on rounds and find their path to acquisition or IPO.
In this episode, you will hear:
- The defining moment that changed Jesse’s career trajectory
- How one simple business idea helped Jesse build an amazing and powerful network
- Jesse’s best tips for pitching potential investors
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Jessica Hoskin is the co-founder of HIKI, a new line of everyday sweat products made for ANY body. Hiki is a brand with products created together to show that when people are seen, heard, and invited into the process the results are far better than “normal”.
In this episode, Jessica shares her (several!) startup stories and explains how she got the opportunity to join an established brand as co-founder. Jessica goes into detail on those first challenges and tells us how she overcame them through creativity and a willingness to fail.
In this episode, Jessica gives great advice on how:
- To conduct effective market research and make your target audience feel valued as part of the building process
- To build an advisory board to make influencer marketing more effective
- Her experience in grassroots marketing has helped to build a successful company
Use START30 for 30% off your entire order on https://myhiki.com.
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Start with community. Such simple advice! But the road to build Mighty Networks wasn’t a simple one, as CEO and founder Gina Bianchini will tell you.
Before Mighty Networks, Gina was the first entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz. She was also the CEO and co-founder of Ning, a pioneering global platform for creating niche social networks she started with Marc Andreessen in 2004.
Under her leadership, Ning grew to ~100 million active users across 300,000 social networks led by brands and creators across subcultures, professional networks, entertainment, politics, and education.
The company was sold for $150M in 2011.
On this episode of Startup Renegades, Gina talks about all the companies, skills, and connections she built on her journey to launching the premiere SaaS platform for creators and brands to start and grow businesses. (Powered by community of course!)
Gina has a wealth of business-building knowledge and shares:
- How Gina's life experiences have led her to unique opportunities as an entrepreneur
- How her passion for community culture drives Mighty Network’s success
- Her biggest takeaways for launching a successful business in today’s ecosystem
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Ever wonder how you’re going to create, launch, and scale your fashion brand? The incredible Shannon Lohr can show you the way.
Shannon is the founder of Factory45, the online business school trusted by over 500 fashion entrepreneurs since 2014. Over the years she's worked with aspiring designers, all over the globe, to launch or grow their brands in a way that’s better for people and the planet. Shannon got her start in 2010 when she co-founded {r}evolution apparel, a sustainable clothing brand for female travelers and minimalists that was featured by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.com.
In this episode of Startup Renegades, Shannon shares her journey into fashion and the key takeaways she had from building a community and launching a Kickstarter campaign that raised 3 times the initial goal.
Shannon’s #1 tip for entrepreneurs? Build an audience before you have anything to sell.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How her love of travel and desire “not to get a real job” put her on the path to entrepreneurship
- The importance of be willing to have real conversations and elicit real feedback from customers
- All about her new business, Factory45 and why it’s the go-to program for aspiring fashion entrepreneurs
- Understanding the CEO mindset as an evolution of a person, not a title
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com
Marian Leitner is founder and CEO of Archer Roose Wines, one of the leading canned wine companies in the US. Marian is on a mission to democratize fine wine by making the wine industry more inclusive and leveraging format to fit the lifestyles of modern consumers.
Marian's wines can be found in James Beard Award Winning restaurants, grocery stores, and on JetBlue flights. Marian has been named one of the top 10 entrepreneurs by Boston Harbor angels. And she recently welcomed Elizabeth Banks as creative director for the brand.
Startup Renegades’ listeners can get 25% off your first order with coupon code Leitner25
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How a family with no vineyard or history in the wine industry built a thriving canned wine business
- How Marian Leitner and her husband David re-envisioned how we view wine
- The importance of understanding your customer and making her feel seen
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegades at www.startuprenegades.com
Arjun Rai is a NYC-based entrepreneur who is on a mission to support small businesses with the power of visualized data science and artificial intelligence for digital marketing at HelloWoofy.com. A firm believer that every SMB should have an unfair advantage to compete against unlimited marketing budgets. He has raised from professional investors and personally invested nearly $500,000 in pre-seed VC funding as well as obtained corporate partners (including Fortune 500 companies, such as Microsoft and Google) resulting in over $135,000 in strategic resources.
Arjun is a highly focused and mission-driven entrepreneur and he shared many insights on how a software business can find their place in the sun and scale off of their first successes.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How launching with App Sumo gave Hello Woofy their big start
- The strategy Arjun used to maximize his successful partnership with App Sumo
- A peek inside the Hello Woofy funnel
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegades at www.startuprenegades.com
Have you ever met a founder or heard their story and thought, “Oh, damn, they are changing the world!” That’s how you’ll feel after listening to Riana Lynn, founder of Journey foods. This is a food tech company that supports cutting edge product management and data services for food businesses. She's a biologist turned serial entrepreneur and has developed high-growth, nationally recognized technology, and food businesses. Her accomplishments have been featured on CNBC, Forbes, USA Today, wired TechCrunch entrepreneur, magazine, food tank and more.
In this episode, Riana talks about:
- How Journey Foods uses data to drive innovation
- How Riana built a network strong enough to build her brand newsletters
- Her secret strategy for nurturing interns and doing awesome at social media at the same time
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegades at www.startuprenegades.com
Aimy Steadman is a Co-Founder and COO at Future/Proof, creators of BeatBox Beverages, the World's Tastiest Portable Party Punch™. Future/Proof was recently awarded one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 Fast-Growing Privately Owned Companies in America.
This powerhouse is also a founding Board Member and 2021 Board President of the emerging CPG group Naturally Austin. She brought an amazing personal story and a wealth of experience and knowledge of running and growing a brand to this Startup Renegades episode.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- What it’s like to build a CPG brand aside college and a job
- All about being on Shark Tank
- The frustrating problem Beatbox is overcoming to scale
- Some really smart Tik Tok insights and strategy for brands
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegades at www.startuprenegades.com
Sarah Duesk a female entrepreneur who in 2018 sold her glamping company, Under Canvas, a camping experience provider for over $100 million. Sarah's growth strategy is unlike any we’ve shared on Startup Renegades before, and her business acumen is on point.
After learning that women entrepreneurs receive only 2% of all available funding each year in the US, Sarah became a partner at Enygma Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on investing in women led businesses in southern Africa. They have now invested 10s of millions of dollars in over 20 companies. Sarah believes passionately in empowering women to reach their full potential and enabling them to grow in their leadership.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Why you MUST find out if there’s pent up demand if you want your business to be successful
- The unique non-marketing strategy that enabled Under Canvas to massively scale
- What Sarah looks for in the founders and companies she invests in
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegades at www.startuprenegades.com
Meg Delagrange is a creative entrepreneur who has built a thriving career as an artist and as a business owner. She's well known as the co-founder of Urban Southern, the hand-crafted leather handbag company with Amish roots. Meg’s work has been published and featured on Fox Business, WordPress TV, the Magnolia journal, USA Today, Women Magazine and Getty Images.
In this episode, Meg discusses how her background shaped who she is today and shares not just her wins, but her “fails” along the way.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Why every business owner/marketer should be building a StoryBrand
- Why Meg left a thriving marketing career to co-found a leather bag company
- The strategies Meg used to grow the company’s email list more than 700%
- How Meg exploded Urban Southern’s sales through email marketing
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegades at www.startuprenegades.com
Allegra Brantly is on a mission to lead 1 million women to 1 million in net worth as the founder and CEO of Factora, an online course and community that educates and empowers women to build real wealth together. She's a serial entrepreneur, and her story is going to inspire you.
In this episode, Allegra walks us through her entire journey from the very beginnings of her career, to how she made some small transitions and realized that making a lot of money didn't mean that she had a lot of money. And what she's learned, she's been able to transform into this really empowering company that is changing the game and helping women grow their wealth.
Allegra has a wealth of business-building knowledge and shares:
- Why she left a successful digital marketing career at the age of 24
- Some big life lessons from running her first business
- How customer success is the key to brand growth
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegades at www.startuprenegades.com
Zack Lister is one of the co-founders of Bodega brands, a serial entrepreneur in his own right with over 13 years of operational experience across various industries, including beverage technology and entertainment.
In 2014, Zack founded Well Juicery, which is now Canada's largest and most widely distributed cold pressed juice brand, with distribution in over 1500 stores across Canada and the US. He has also co-founded axiom technologies, which is a cannabis bioscience company focused on the development of fast acting cannabis consumption methods for food and beverage products.
In this episode of Startup Renegades, Zack talks about launching Bodega Brands and the specific challenges that Zack and his team went through in getting their first SKU—Sip Hecho—out into the world.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Why authenticity is essential for growth for all businesses today
- Zack’s specific strategy for getting “sips to lips”
- Why failing is simply not an option
Enter SIPHECHO at checkout for 15% off (shop.siphecho.com)
Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegades at www.startuprenegades.com
Wow, the end of the year already?! What a year it’s been! Shauna’s here to reflect on the past season (and the past 47 incredible episodes) and give you her biggest takeaways from the season and from the stories of a plethora of amazing guests. Most importantly, Shauna’s giving you some actionable advice—based on our guests biggest wins—to help move you and your business in the new year.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Shauna’s favorite moments of the season
- How business were able to thrive through the pandemic
- Shauna’s four biggest tips you should remember moving into the new year
Listen to this episode and more from our amazing guests at www.startuprenegades.com
Christie Marchese is the founder and CEO of Kinema, a new social cinema platform that is building a world-wide network of screening hosts, filmmakers and filmgoers. Under her leadership, the company’s ultimate goal is to expand access to engaging film and effectively eliminate theater deserts. Marchese has over 15 years experience developing grassroots marketing and social action campaigns for films to help drive lasting change.
Christie let’s us in on why evolution seems to be a recurring theme in her career, how COVID-19 may have actually helped Kinema grow, and the importance of growing your network and connections for the growth of your business.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Kinema’s business model and how customer acquisition so key for them
- How having a connection with your investors can really change how they invest
- Understanding that while you may have a plan, it’s important to stay flexible
Listen to this episode and more at www.startuprenegades.com
Lawrence Cisneros is the co-founder and CEO of DRNXMYTH, a venture-backed cocktail innovation company. DRNXMYTH creates perfect craft cocktails with the world’s best bartenders and bottles them fresh with their proprietary technology. Lawrence has closed financing from angel investors and foreign venture capitalists, formed complex joint ventures and partnerships, and developed new products in the highly-regulated industry of distilled spirits. He received his B.A. from SDSU, and J.D. from USC where he then became a licensed attorney in the State of California.
Lawrence shares how he went from wanting to be a lawyer to being an entrepreneur, the importance of capitalizing on a trend, and the importance of creating an enjoyable customer experience. Lawrence also goes into how important user generated content can be for scaling a business and how DRNXMYTH tapped into this powerful marketing tool.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Sampling groups of people to determine where and how to sell a product
- Perks of setting up an e-commerce site at the beginning of a pandemic
- Finding strategic partnerships in unlikely places
To listen to this episode and more, visit www.startuprenegades.com
Lauren Washington is the co-founder and CEO of Fundr, a platform that automates and removes bias from seed investing by creating portfolios of AI-vetted startups. This is Lauren’s third venture in the startup world, her others including Black Women Talk Tech, the largest membership organization and only conference for black women founders, and KeepUp, an automated social listening platform.
Lauren’s companies have won multiple awards including 43North and the Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership Award. She has been featured in The New York Times, TechCrunch, Elle, Inc and Black Enterprise and has been listed as a top entrepreneur in CIO Magazine, Essence Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine and the ForbesNEXT1000 list.
Lauren discusses her journey in the startup world including how important it is to feel validation when attempting something new, how the funding gap is contributing to the wealth gap, and how difficult it is to face doubt and criticism in the startup world as a woman of color.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How Lauren went from teaching to marketing to getting her first startup moving
- The importance of understanding when the odds are against you and how to work around them
- Lauren’s strategies for customer acquisition
Listen to this episode and more at www.startuprenegades.com
Lauren is a Pitch Strategist and Founder of VC Worthy Business. Lauren helps female entrepreneurs develop an attention grabbing pitch that investors can't ignore. After spending six years as Director of Operations/Fund Administrator for one of the nation's largest Angel Groups, Golden Seeds Lauren had worked with over 100 female founders.
Now Lauren is taking what she knows from being on the investor side to help support female entrepreneurs looking for investor capital.
In this episode, Lauren shares all the things you didn’t know about how to stand out in the investors’ inbox, what it was like getting thrown into the startup world, and why women need more help to get funding.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Why you can’t start a business and just expect customers to just find you
- The importance of owning the pitching process and understanding how the power lies with you as the founder
- Lauren’s insider tips for pitching your business and how to keep the attention of your potential investors
Listen to the full episode here.
Sara Ku is the Founder & CEO of Kaya Essentials, a lifestyle, beauty, and home brand that works directly with Artisans and Farmers in the Philippines, creating meaningful opportunities and providing a sustainable livelihood with fair trade wages.
After working for a non-profit in the Philippines in her early 20’s, Sara discovered the social business model and wanted to bring that recognition and impact, starting with Filipino Coconut Skincare. She developed Kaya Essentials’ first product in her home kitchen, with a unique citrus aroma only found in the Philippines—calamansi.
After selling in farmers markets and pop ups, she took her side hustle and went full time in 2017.
In this episode, Sara dives into how a summer internship in college changed her life for the better, trying to keep up with the market demand before you’re prepared to, and how partnering with a subscription box company affected her growth. She also mentions the importance of tracking how customers are finding you and your brand to ensure you’re not putting money into strategies that aren’t working.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How moving around a lot through childhood taught Sara to embrace being out of her comfort zone
- How Sara followed a similar business model to TOMS and made it work for her unique brand
- How to make working with subscription boxes a viable growth strategy
Listen to the full episode here.
Jeff Solomon is currently growing Markup Hero, a screenshot & annotation SaaS tool, but this is not his first startup venture… By a long shot. He’s had many successful startups and one that failed miserably.
Jeff is a 6x founder and has been in the startup scene for most of his career. He has done just about every role from CEO to Chief Janitor, Head of Product to Marketing Lead. Two of his most notable companies are Velocify, which saw an exit in 2017, and the Amplify Startup Accelerator which has had 5 funds, $50MM raised, 10x exits to date.
In this episode, Jeff discusses strategies for keyword research and how to do outreach to ensure you’re making the most of your content while also driving traffic. He also talks about learning how many founders are too many, using your skills to help others who are in similar positions, plus his growth strategy for his newest endeavor, Markup Hero.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Understanding the difference between B2B, B2C and B2B2C companies
- How to differentiate yourself from other businesses
- The importance of content marketing for startup growth
Listen to the full episode here.
Lynsie is the founder of two tech companies. One was acquired. The other, not so much. She's also one of the General Partners of The Fund Midwest, a seed-stage venture fund. Before tech, she worked in the entertainment industry, doing stints at The Rosie O'Donnell Show and as a Music Publicist in Los Angeles.
In this episode, Lynsie openly discusses the trials and tribulations that she’s endured throughout her career, and her journey will truly inspire you. Lynsie speaks on how making a move to San Francisco helped her rediscover herself, how you can have a ton of business ideas but they won’t all land, and the importance of segmenting both your audience and your market.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How being an avid cyclist helped Lynsie spark her second tech company and creating her own niche
- Wireframes and why you need them as a startup
- The growth strategy that led to this one-woman team to scale her app to 60,000 users
Listen to the full episode here.
Alyssa Kuchta is a Jewelry Entrepreneur and Author of the upcoming book, “Follow your Bliss”, with Quarto Publishing. She is the founder of f.y.b jewelry, a Brooklyn-based company with a mission to inspire and empower women and girls to “follow their bliss” through inspirational jewelry and a positive female community.
Alyssa started f.y.b in 2011 when she was a senior in college. Under her leadership, f.y.b has grown to encompass a network of nationwide retail partners, hundreds of brand ambassadors, and a thriving mentorship program. Her work has been featured in international publications including: Elle, Glamour, Nylon, Huffington Post, and more. Her first book, “Follow Your Bliss” , which comes out October 2021, features a curation of timeless wisdom and intimate stories of grit, adversity, and triumph from 60 trailblazing women spanning U.S. Olympians, CEOs, Grammy Award-Winning Musicians, Actresses, Musicians, Artists and more.
Alyssa discusses the doubt she faced with a business idea that was all about creativity, how her “mid-college crisis” flipped a switch for her, the importance of networking in college, plus how going wholesale changed her jewelry business. She also goes into the importance of getting to know your customers away from a screen and just how much that can help your business scale.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How some people may not see your vision at first and the importance of staying true to yourself
- The importance of treating your passion as if it’s a business
- Creating a community of small businesses
Listen to the full episode here.
Dr. Silvia Mah is a contributor to Forbes and host of the globally recognized podcast “She Invests.” Mah is a native of Caracas, Venezuela, who evolved from a scientist doing research in the rainforest of Guyana to an investor and advocate leading a powerful campaign dedicated to funding startups of underrepresented individuals.
Mah has 50 companies in her portfolio, most of them spearheaded by at least one female or person of color.
She is a social impact focused investor who co-founded gender lens investment firm, Ad Astra Ventures, business accelerator, Stella Labs, and the Annual Women’s Venture Summit.
One common theme throughout the episode is Dr. Mah’s love for uplifting women entrepreneurs, including what she’s doing to make sure women entrepreneurs are in a better place in the future.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How women entrepreneurs fit into the industry and what Dr. Silvia Mah is doing to help them
- How to show a product to market fit BEFORE you have traction
- The importance of women investing in women, plus how and why they are more likely to do so
Listen to the full episode here.
Sina is the founder of Wing—a new company revolutionizing the way we do in-person networking—and host of the leading UK Entrepreneurship podcast, “The Millennial Entrepreneur”. The pod has featured the likes of Forbes 30 under 30 winners, TEDx Speakers and Dragon's Den Entrepreneurs. He is the co-founder of Wing, a startup with the aim to bring in-person networking into the 21st century with their contactless business card which has received orders from across the globe.
Sina discusses his personal entrepreneurial start as a college student, having an incredible business idea that just couldn’t cut it and how he saw an opportunity to make an innovative change for in-person networking amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Launching a business amidst a global pandemic
- How to acquire new customers and where
- The best way to do your market research
Listen to the full episode here.
In just 5 years, Dre Baldwin went from his high school team's bench to a 9-year professional basketball career. At the same time, Dre built a content publishing empire. Blogging since 2005 and publishing videos to YouTube starting in 2006, Dre has published over 8,000 videos with his content being viewed over 73 million times. Dre's daily Work On Your Game Podcast has over 3 million listeners. Dre has given 4 TEDxTalks and authored 29 books.
Dre began his business all while being a pro-basketball player overseas, beginning with posting YouTube videos. Throughout this episode, Dre goes into the importance of being immersed in your industry in order to learn, how he figured out what add-on products would help take his business to the next level, the importance of the “Know, Like, and Trust Factor” when building an audience, and how different it is to create and build a business now than it was in years before.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Why it’s important to set up automations in your business
- The importance of increasing your product suite to increase your customer lifetime value
- Three strategies for bringing people into your world to build an audience
Listen to the full episode here.
Elizabeth Galbut is a venture capitalist, designer, professor, and philanthropist. She is Managing Partner of SoGal Ventures, the first female-led millennial venture capital firm, which invests in diverse founding teams in the US and Asia. With over 90 investments to date, she is actively seeking to back exceptional startups revolutionizing how the next generations live, work, and stay healthy. Elizabeth has been recognized as Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women, Forbes 30 Under 30, JPMorgan’s Diversity Champion, and NYC’s 33 Under 33 top innovators.
This is a very special episode with a slightly different format than usual! Shauna and Elizabeth take a deep dive on the investor side of the startup scene where Elizabeth shares many actionable tips for founders who are looking to get venture capital to scale their brands.
Elizabeth openly discusses the perspective of investors, which is a side that a lot of us are not able to see or hear. She goes into detail about the realization of how difficult it is for startups to get funding (especially women) is what led her to be an investor and the research behind female-led startups overall performing better. Elizabeth even takes a moment to talk about how without capital being invested in startups, it’s hard for businesses to truly get anywhere.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How female founded startups are being funded compared to their male counterparts
- How you can invest in yourself when nobody else has yet
- What to look for when investing in a company or team
- Why becoming an angel investor might be the next step in your future!
Check out the full episode here.
Brooke Markevicius is the Founder & CEO of Allobee, an all-encompassing business solution for small businesses and startups. As a female technical founder she has a unique approach in supporting businesses and believes businesses should be able to sustainably grow on their own terms.
Throughout her work, Brooke has been able to utilize her experience in the tech world and her skills in order to build a unique platform to support the 43% of women leaving the workforce when they have kids and other women that are being forced out of the workforce due to the pandemic. Along with this, she’s also been able to support the 75% of micro-businesses in the United States and small business owners that are trying to thrive and stay alive.
In this episode, Brooke shares how her personal experience helped her to identify a big problem that wasn’t being addressed for working mothers. She shares the journey from ideation to funding and everything in between.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Creating a space for women and mothers in the workforce
- The importance of raising capital in order to help your targeted audience
- Taking big risks and the decision-making process behind it
Listen to the full episode here.
Dana is the CEO and Co-Founder of Upfront, the first site dedicated to pricing transparency in daycares. She is the former Chief of Staff at VirtualHealth, a growth-stage health tech company that was named Deloitte’s 39th Fastest Growing Company, and spent years in various advertising agencies in NYC. Dana graduated with her MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and BS from Boston University and currently lives in NYC with her husband and son.
Dana has been able to pivot her business from the wedding industry to daycares after seeing for herself how vague the daycare industry truly is.
Dana Levin-Robinson shares her invaluable experience discussing the importance of pricing transparency and the effect it can have on an industry. She offers some great actionable advice on how to connect with investors and raise funds for your startup. Listen in to hear Dana discuss how her education worked against her when trying to get a job in the “real world” and how to overcome inevitable rejections to take your business to the next level.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How to develop a startup idea from your own personal experiences
- The effect that pricing transparency can have on an industry
- How to make your business work when moving from one industry to another
Listen to the full episode here.
Sara is the founder and CEO of Vin Social, a fast-growing company pioneering the virtual hospitality space through the lens of craft wine & spirits. Sara is also a Certified Sommelier & Certified Specialist of Wine with nearly a decade of experience in multiple facets of the wine industry. She has a deep-rooted mission to effect real change in making the industry more inclusive, accessible, and diverse.
Since July of 2020, Vin Social has been able to bring in more than $750K in revenue from top, well-known clients and is one of the first movers in the fast-growing virtual events industry.
Sara’s Vin Social is so innovative in how it takes something so well-known and intimidating as wine tasting and is able to bring it to more people in a way that is more inclusive, fun, and modern. This episode focuses on taking chances with your future, disruption in an industry predominantly owned by men, understanding other peoples’ successes, and much more.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Taking a chance to figure out what you really want to do
- How a little disruption in the market can create really big changes
- Tips for scaling a digital experience brand
Listen to the full episode here.
In 2015, Ted Iobst and Christy MacGregor found out they were expecting twins. But as they searched for the right baby gear, the duo felt defeated and overwhelmed from options at the big box stores.
In 2018, Ted officially launched Colugo, an affordable high quality brand, developing easy to use strollers and carriers with features parents actually need. Today, Colugo operates as a parent-owned, parent-run brand that prioritizes moms, dads and babies, as they offer a complete line of first year essentials for a new generation of parents.
They describe their approach as “innovation through simplification” and share how they grew their business over the first three years creating a better product through customer feedback.
Check out this episode for golden nuggets of wisdom about:
- Using social platforms to create community
- Managing entrepreneurship with your partner
- Breaking into an industry with big, established players
Listen to the full episode here.
Elizabeth is the founder of Chasing Paper, a company innovating the home space through wall coverings, flooring and art prints. Chasing Paper was born in New York, but has its roots in Elizabeth and her brother and co-founder, Mike’s, upbringing in the Heartland. The idea for Chasing Paper came from a need Elizabeth saw for removable wallpaper in office spaces, and it blossomed into a backdrop for first apartments and fresh starts. Chasing Paper started with Elizabeth’s ties to her family’s printing business and has grown into a company that works with artists to curate collections of one-of-a-kind patterns you can’t find anywhere else. Elizabeth takes us through how she transformed an older industry like wallpaper into something new that can resonate with a younger generation. Elizabeth explains how millennials like her are all about the “why” of a business as opposed to just the “what.”
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Transforming tired business concepts into a something new and exciting
- How your initial customers can shape your brand
- How the millennial generation is changing the way people make purchases
- Taking risks and following your instincts
Listen to the full episode here.
Aisha Addo thrives on working to make the world a better place for women. Although she’s a graduate in Business Administration-Accounting, her true passion and dedication lie in ensuring girls around the world are provided with the guidance and resources that help them identify their true purpose and calling to reach their full potential.
Aisha founded Power To Girls Foundation, a non-profit organization to offer young girls the mentors and role models that were absent during her own youth. As a facilitator and director of Power To Girls, she uses her personal experiences and knowledge to create safe and engaging spaces for the girls she works with.
She is the recipient of the Young Black and Gifted Award for Community Service and was also named a Black Diversity Group Role Model and One of 100 Black Women to Watch in Canada and among the 150 Black Women making history in Toronto. My Power App, a social connection platform created to connect girls to mentors and each other while enhancing their personal development is Aisha’s latest initiative in continuing to create safe spaces for girls and women.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Aisha’s strategies for growing membership and monetizing her work
- Using customer experience to build your brand
- Using partnerships to gain access and reach
Listen to the full episode here.
Lindsay Scherr Burgess is the Founder and Moss Boss of Green Wallscapes, a company that brings spaces to life with no-hassle preserved moss, walls, logos, lettering and art. She has done over 250 projects in over 35 states and Canada in the last year and employs a team of 5 female artists in her West Palm Beach studio. Her company’s work has been called “a lavish expression of botanical joy” and has been featured in Architectural Digest, Veranda Magazine, Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach Daily News, and more. Green Wallscapes was selected to participate in the prestigious Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse.
Lindsay’s background is diverse, she has worked in organic produce, construction, commercial real estate, and book publishing in a sales and marketing role. She loves to travel, speaks fluent Italian, and can be found painting, doing yoga, and jet-skiing on the weekends. She graduated from Northwestern University, and lives in Grandview Heights with her entrepreneurial husband, Jon.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Turning an idea you see online into a business
- Meeting your customers where they are online
- Balancing your desires for the business with customer demand
- Building a long term marketing strategy
- Keeping things simple to find success
Listen to the full episode here.
Emily is the co-founder and CEO of The Hummingbirds. In 2018, she realized most of the decisions she was making in her own local community, Des Moines, Iowa were based on what her coworkers, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances were sharing on Facebook and Instagram. From new taco trucks to unique events hosted downtown, it was posts on social media from people she trusted that impacted her decisions.
She brought together 20 of her closest friends and asked if they'd be willing to amplify different experiences in Des Moines on social media at the same time and from there, The Hummingbirds was born.
Emily has built a community of hundreds of everyday local voices, influencers, bloggers, and content creators who try a new brand and share it on social media. After 100 partnerships, they're expanding to new cities, as they introduce a new spin on influencer marketing in local markets.
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- How our habits are influenced by our friends on social media
- Using word of mouth and personal relationships to build brand awareness
- Learning how to explain your brand to build buy-in
Listen to the full episode here.
Katya Libin is the CEO and co-founder of HeyMama, a private online community of entrepreneurial and working moms. Building on a background in partnerships and tech, Libin conceived of HeyMama based on the need for support and community she felt in her own life as a working mother.
Alongside her ever-expanding HeyMama HQ team, Libin has since grown the business to reach over 3,200 members, located in 11 cities (and counting).
As a voice for the experiences, challenges, and needs of working and entrepreneurial moms, Libin has been published in TODAY.com, SheKnows, and Thrive Global, and has been featured in Woman’s Day, Parents, Forbes, Inc., and more. Recently, she was named one of the Center for Women & Wealth’s 20 Most Inspiring Women to Watch Out For and as a Forbes Next 1000 recipient.
Her biggest role is that of mom to her daughter, in whom she tries to instill the relentless work ethic and unflappable belief that anything is possible that she got from her own parents.
In this episode, Katya gets real about noticing a lack of representation for moms in business. She talks about building a community of moms, connecting virtually and in-person, and making personal connections to build a brand. Katya gives great advice on adapting social media strategies based on the times and remaining adaptable to help your business grow. Listen to this honest conversation with Katya as she talks about recognizing opportunities and creating space for others.
Hear the full episode and grab your special offer here: https://www.startuprenegades.com/episodes/building-a-startup-by-connecting-community-katya-libin-hey-mama
Check out this episode to hear more about:
- Using Instagram to growth hack community growth
- Adapting marketing strategies to current events
- Working with a co-founder who is also your best friend
Davina Kaonohi is the CEO and co-founder, Element Apothec, a company focused on making better CBD products from time-tested artisinal formulations that have found new life as they partner with integrative practitioners to infuse new products with high-quality organic CBD and bring them to the masses. As a strategic leader and brand creator, Davina is passionate about challenging the norm and making a difference with every company she has worked with. With Element Apothec, Davina brings to the table vast experience in team building, business strategy and operational management and a mission to create good in the world.
Check out this episode to gain valuable insight from Davina on:
- Finding the right manufacturer for your products and how helpful user testimonials can be in the process
- The benefits of utilizing a waitlist to build brand awareness before launching your business
- How to successfully crowdfund and the large role marketing has on the success of your campaign
Tune in to hear some specific, actionable advice from Davina based on her own startup journey to help you scale your own business. Listen to Davina's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Courtney Brockmeyer is the founder & CEO of Sydney Paige Inc. and its 501(c)(3) non-profit arm, the Sydney Paige Foundation. She founded the company in 2013 as a buy one, give one benefit corporation that sells backpacks and school supplies where for every product sold, a matching product is donated to a child in need. In addition to traditional consumer sales, the company focuses on building partnerships with businesses in order to donate in higher volumes while engaging employees in community giving.
Courtney dives into great actionable advice on:
- How motherhood can change your entrepreneurial perspective and the focus of your business
- Gaining large sponsorships and the benefits they can offer small business entrepreneurs
- The difference between entering the retail space versus eCommerce and which is the right path for you
Join Shauna and Courtney as they discuss finding the right path to take for your business and how Google can be an entrepreneur’s best friend.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Trade Street Jam Co. is a minority and woman-certified small-batch jam company founded by Ashley Rouse. Ashley, who's been a chef for almost 15 years, created the name for the company in 2008 while living in an apartment on Trade Street in North Carolina. Now, some 10 years later, Ashley and her Brooklyn-based company create fruit-forward and clean tasting vegan jams that are low in sugar and high in flavor.
In this episode, Ashley gets real about:
- Knowing when to take the leap from side hustle to full time gig with your startup
- The importance of face-to-face interactions with your customers and how to build connections with them
- Mentoring young entrepreneurs to help them learn and grow to start their own business someday as well as inspiring them through representation in the entrepreneurial field
Listen in to this raw and honest conversation with Ashley as she talks about the difficulties startup founders will face along their entrepreneurial journey. Listen to Ashley's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Heide Iravani is the co-founder of Piccolina, a mission-driven kids lifestyle brand dedicated to empowering today’s young children to become tomorrow’s change-makers and problem solvers! From their non-traditionally themed apparel for girls to their Trailblazer series highlighting prolific women in history, every product from Piccolina is designed to inspire. And not just the brand, but the story behind the brand is going to inspire you as well.
In this episode, Heide gives listeners great tips and trick for:
- Setting a test budget for new paid media strategies
- Capitalizing off of organic growth the company has gained to take the marketing strategy to the next level
- Creating profitable running ads without breaking the bank
Tune in to tap into the brilliant business mind of Heide Iravani and hear just how inspiring her entrepreneurial journey really is. Check out Heide's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Lauren Borowick and Ali Borowick Zmishlany are the co-founders of Fatty Sundays and what a journey they have been on together. Their mom, Karen, was the queen of making drool-worthy treats and putting together the ultimate gift packages for any occasion, big or small.
So in 2010, Ali and Lauren had this "aha" moment when they decided that they were going to go into business sharing this favorite sweet and salty treat of theirs with the world. They gave their mom's famous recipe a refresh, created a line of gourmet pretzels in never-been-done-before flavors. And they are a mission to reinvent and modernize the chocolate covered pretzel. (Spoiler alert: They’re totally doing it.)
Now based in a cute (and much bigger!) kitchen in Brooklyn, NY, their family business continues to grow, with a rockstar team that helps them each step of the way!
Listen in to hear how Ali and Lauren scaled from their mother’s kitchen into the successful startup they are today by:
- Perfecting the art of market research by providing samples to anyone who would try their pretzels to gain feedback
- Growing their two-woman team with people who compliment their own skill sets
- Knowing when to pivot and letting go of the emotions holding you back from it
This sassy and savvy pair of sisters dig deep and give great advice on how to find your place in the market and how to handle all the distinct challenges that come with starting a business. Check out Amanda and Sarah's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Priyanka is a strategist, technologist, entrepreneur, speaker, blogger, and mom to 2 boys. She is passionate about raising tech-ready citizens and creating opportunities with technology.
Priyanka founded PopSmartKids with a bold mission of reimagining screentime to inspire the budding creators, writers, and thinkers of tomorrow. Her company has launched PopSmartWrite, a story-writing app that empowers parents and educators to mentor the next generation of authors.
In this episode, you’ll hear Priyanka discuss:
- The importance of seeking advice as a first-time startup founder from others who have been through the process before
- Seeking market validation by really connecting with people in your target market
- Finding keywords from Google trends and utilizing them in your messaging and social media
- Opportunities that can be found through the act of pitching your idea publicly
Join Shauna and Priyanka as they talk about the learning curve every entrepreneur experiences and how to have the best of both worlds when it comes to technology and creativity. Check out Amanda and Sarah's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Alex West Steinman is co-founder and CEO of The Coven, a community and workspace for women and non-binary people. A 2019 Bush Fellow and one of Inc. Magazine's 100 Female Founders, she paves the way for more inclusive workplaces. In addition to her passion for the economic empowerment and advancement of women, she raises tiny humans alongside her husband and enjoys sharing insights with budding entrepreneurs and leaders.
Alex shared her amazing story of how she and her co-founders were inspired by pain points they were experiencing in their own lives and launched The Coven. They quickly realized that the goal they had to make the lives of women and non binary people better was shared by not just them, but the greater community as well. She walks us through the journey from idea straight through to opening the spaces to the incredible impact it has had on their community.
In this episode, Alex gives great advice on how to:
- Conduct effective market research and make your target audience feel like part of the building process
- Utilize your network to further your crowdfunding efforts
- Balance the responsibilities of having multiple co-founders to help your startup reach its fullest potential
Tune in as Alex and Shauna discuss the unique origin story of The Coven and the social impact it has made on it’s community. Check out Marissa's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Amanda Wojtas founded the Eternal Fleur in December 2017 in the heart of New York City. With a love for flowers and a passion for making others happy, Amanda realized she could create something out of both since they go hand-in-hand; flowers make people happy. Recognizing that the fresh floral industry was highly saturated, Amanda shifted her focus towards long-lasting arrangements.
Sarah joined forces with Amanda in January 2021 as Eternal Fleur’s Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer eager to open new verticals, elevate, and operationalize the company as a whole. With a passion for environmental preservation and helping others, Sarah was captivated by Eternal Fleur’s socially conscious vision.
In this episode, Amanda and Sarah give you a “how-to” guide on:
- Finding a co-founder and what to look for in potential business partners
- Utilizing social media influencers properly and converting website traffic into sales
- Keeping current customers happy (retention) while still gaining new customers (acquisition)
Listen in to find out how this powerhouse duo came to be and how they are keeping Eternal Fleur blooming! Check out Amanda and Sarah's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
As a serial entrepreneur, making a difference drives Marissa Goldstein. Rafi Nova is named for her four children Raya, Efi, Noa, and Eyva, and co-founded with her husband, Adam. Its mission is to encourage families to adventure near and far by outfitting them with fair-trade products and accessories. The company launched in early 2020 with backpacks designed to make family travel as easy as possible.
Global travel bans forced the company to pivot within weeks from travel accessories to face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, which helped scale Rafi Nova into a 7-figure business.
Marissa gives great advice on how to:
- Create a product prototype to scale from
- Navigate the risks with funding yourself and how to utilize a crowdfunding campaign
- Leave emotions out of the decision to pivot your original business idea to help your startup scale
Join Marissa and Shauna as they talk about the struggles a startup can face during a global pandemic and how pivoting is essential to finding success. Check out Marissa's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Tanvi V. Abbhi and Dr. Nora Zetsche are the co-founders of Veta Health, a digital health solution that optimizes health outcomes through evidence-based medicine and protocol-based care pathways.
Veta Health was founded out of a shared aim to deliver greater transparency in healthcare. The platform equips patients on their healthcare journeys beyond the four walls of traditional healthcare facilities, giving them the information they need while simultaneously enabling clinicians to deliver more timely and effective care. Both women were selected to Business Insider’s 2018 30 Under 40 in health tech list.
In this episode Tanvi and Nora discuss:
- The difficulties of navigating the healthcare industry and breaking barriers in healthcare tech
- Focusing on your product-market fit and how to find solutions for your customers’ problems without adding to the challenges they face
- Utilizing your network to propel your business forward
Listen in to hear how this dynamic duo is changing the healthcare tech industry for the better and the growth strategies they’ve used to do so. Check out Tanvi and Nora's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Ashmit Patel is the founder of Ahista Tea—a luxury tea brand that specializes in single-batch teas, culturally-inspired blends, and contemporary ceramics. Ahista Tea compiles a collection of bespoke blends and experimental teas each year from India and regions that are historically influenced by Indian culture.
In this episode, Ashmit discusses:
- How your business model can have a higher purpose and create social change in your industry
- Taking investments and how a slower approach to growth can help you stay focused on what the brand truly needs to scale
- The benefits of Instagram and the difference between using the platform to grow both organically and inorganically to push your brand forward
Tune in to gain some actionable advice on growing your brand online while finding inspiration in Ashmit’s story and learn how he is revolutionizing the tea industry. Check out Ashmit's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Sarah Sommers is currently on a mission to close the funding gap for women entrepreneurs as the Co-Founder & VP of Brand Strategy and Partnerships at IFundWomen—the go-to funding marketplace for women-owned businesses and the people who want to fund them. She has spent the last decade developing & executing high-impact solutions for women-led brands through strategic partnerships, integrated marketing campaigns, and original video.
In this episode, Sarah talks in-depth about:
- Being specific with your “why” when crowdfunding and tailoring your message for each individual you reach out to
- Gaining as much data as possible in the early stages of your startup before moving forward with your marketing efforts
- Focusing on what you and your company can bring to the table to create mutually beneficial brand partnerships
Listen in as Shauna and Sarah have a raw conversation about starting up and what is making IFundWomen the powerhouse brand it is today. Check out Sarah's show notes here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Angela Sutherland is the Co-Founder & CEO of Yumi, the company redefining the future of baby food with freshly made, nutritional and science-backed delivered meals. It is now the fastest-growing DTC kids food brand in the country.
When pregnant with her first child, Angela learned that scientists widely consider nutrition in the first 1,000 days to be the most important factor in development. However, as a working mom, she struggled to find options at the grocery store that she felt good about. It became the story Angela and co-founder Evelyn couldn’t stop thinking about.
It was clear that there was an opportunity to build a healthier generation, by creating a new kind of food company.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How to become comfortable with things that are uncomfortable in your startup journey like asking family and friends for money
- Why collecting consumer data and knowing how to utilize it is essential to your ability to scale
- How to find your product-market fit and knowing when it’s time to pivot
Listen in as Shauna and Angela discuss how Angela and Evelyn grew a thriving CPG brand in a saturated market and learn what it takes to become a true Startup Renegade. Check out Angela's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Sofia Yen, MD. is the CEO and co-founder of Pandia Health. It is the only doctor-led and founded, women-led and founded birth control delivery company. She graduated from MIT, UCSF Medical School, and UC Berkeley’s MPH program and has 20+ years of experience in medicine. She is a Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford Medical School and a mother of 2 daughters.
In this episode, Sophia discusses the strict regulations of the medical space and how she has to navigate them from a business perspective. She also talks about how to balance your customer acquisition cost (CAC) with your customer lifetime value (LYV) to save money while gaining new customers.
Listen in to hear about the trials and tribulations Sophia went through with using advertising and also turning customer engagement into conversions. Check out Sophia's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Kelly Lyndgaard is the Founder and CEO of Unshattered—a 501c3 social enterprise whose mission is to end the addiction relapse cycle by employing women in recovery to help them build a path toward economic independence and sustained sobriety. The success of Unshattered has been lauded as far as the White House who recognized Unshattered for their creative and effective work in fighting the opioid crisis.
In this episode, Kelly talks about how Unshattered started as a fundraiser that grew to become not only a successful business but an inspiring company that helps women recovering from addiction. She discusses the importance of word-of-mouth advertising and how sharing the Unshattered story on social media helped customers connect with the brand in a meaningful way.
Listen in to this encouraging story of how a business with purpose can successfully grow and help those in need.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Yaa Birago is a tech entrepreneur, Co-founder and CEO of FemmeBnB Inc., the first social networking vacation and short-term rental platform that allows women to rent their spaces to other women in hopes of maximizing safety, peace of mind, and comfort. Yaa started the company to provide safe space and peace of mind for women travelers after she had a terrifying experience as a solo traveler in Rome.
In this episode, Yaa discusses the importance of market validation to help find what your customers really need so you can provide better solutions to them. She also talks about the utilization of a waitlist to acquire customers and gain interest before a launch. She’ll share the importance of having a strong story for your startup in order to get press for your growing business.
Join Shauna as she sits down with Yaa to find out how FemmeBnB came to be and the strategies she used to launch a successful travel-based startup during a global pandemic. Check out Yaa's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Want to know what “the thing” is that’s helped so many startup companies take off? Or how to know when it’s time to take your company in a new direction?
In this episode, Nick Dennis, the Founder and CEO of fitDEGREE and self-proclaimed “accidental entrepreneur,” sits down with Shauna to discuss the challenges of being a CEO of a 2 person team, his “aha” moment, and how advertising helped with fitDEGREE’s scalability.
Nick talks about what it was like to do the work of what would normally be done by a team in a larger business all by himself when fitDEGREE was just starting out. He also talks about the original direction fitDEGREE was designed to take, when he figured out his original idea wasn’t going to pan out as he’d hoped, and how he was able to shift the focus of his company to make it into the successful startup it is today! He also talks about the effects COVID-19 had on not only his company but his clients as well and how he was able to navigate these trying times to save his clients and keep fitDEGREE moving forward.
Whether you’re a brand new entrepreneur looking to get your idea off the ground, or a startup that’s lost its momentum and doesn’t know where to go from here, Nick will walk you through his journey and tell you just what made him a Startup Renegade! Check out Nick's episode here.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
When Women's Collective Box founder Rashelle Whiteharris became a mother to her first child Charlie, she decided that it was time to become her own boss. She saw first-hand how women, their ideas, and their products flourished within communities that valued their voices and empowered them to succeed. This experience inspired her to find new ways to harness the limitless power of women supporting each other's dreams.
The Women's Collective Box delivers a collection of items from exclusively women-run companies that represent the thoughtfulness, resolve, and artistry that set women apart. Each box brings the treasure hunt of conscious shopping to your front door, telling the story of the incredible women behind every product.
In this episode, Rashelle and Shauna discuss how to turn your connections on Instagram into conversions for your business by finding people who want to engage with the community you’re starting. This is also what helped her subscription boxes become so successful in such a short amount of time. She focused on building a community and creating genuine relationships which then turned into loyal customers who want to support her and the community she created. Rashelle also talks about the importance of knowing your numbers to help your startup grow at the steady pace it needs to.
Tune in to learn how Rashelle was able to scale Women’s Collective Box into the extremely successful startup it is today in just over a year, and learn how she did it without paying a cent in paid advertisements.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Erin Erenberg, the now mother of three, followed her desire for work-life balance when she founded Totum, a community-powered platform to help women feel supported in motherhood. Totum, which originally launched as a mother’s support cookie has grown and evolved into the space of workplace support and the advancement of working mothers.
Totum provides products like a mother's support lactation cookie featured in Goop, an Insider Guide to postpartum wellness, a nursing-accessible, cause-supporting tee that became an instant favorite of women like Kate Hudson and Meena Harris, and community events like the monthly “Totum Talks” series that brings experts into the homes of women looking for help, connection and a place to grow.
In this episode, Erin talks about the difficulties of being both a mother and entrepreneur and how she found the balance between them. She also discusses the importance of networking not only to help your business scale and turn a profit but to connect with your consumers as well and find out what they are lacking and how you can provide a service to help with it.
Join Shauna and Erin on this deep dive into motherhood and the impact networking can have on the scale of your startup!
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Beginning in 2008, Rana Lustyan started perfecting recipes, finding the best suppliers, refining manufacturing, and building a product and brand she is truly passionate about. Seven months pregnant with her daughter Riley, Rana launched Edoughble in November 2013, quickly securing a cult following amongst dessert enthusiasts.
In this episode, Rana discusses the power of word-of-mouth advertising and the best way to invoke emotions in the consumer to create a connection with your brand. She also discusses the struggles of entering the CPG business and how eCommerce helped her company thrive, especially amid the pandemic.
Tune in to hear Shauna and Rana discuss the “chicken or the egg” of scaling your company and how to grow your business through word-of-mouth marketing!
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Dini Klein is a food host, recipe developer, former private chef, mom of three, and founder of Prep and Rally.
In this episode, Dini discusses the importance of authenticity when scaling your business through Instagram and how the platform is a great tool to gain feedback from your followers. She also talks with Shauna about the difference between pivoting your business versus expanding it and knowing which is more beneficial to you.
Join Shauna, Dini, (and Solomon!) as Dini shares how she was able to take her personal brand and market it into the highly successful, profitable business it is today through feedback, partnerships, and authenticity.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
We are joined by the sophisticatedly sassy Annie P. Ruggles, founder of The Non-Sleazy Sales Academy, who has helped hundreds of people and their endeavors through deep connections, lasting impressions, and friendlier transactions.
For almost a decade, Annie has harnessed her Hulk-like disdain for hard-sales, tacky self-promotion, and overly competitive sleazeballs as inspiration to help people find better ways to grow their small businesses. As the founder of The Non-Sleazy Sales Academy, she's guided hundreds of people toward making deeper connections, lasting impressions, and friendlier, more lucrative transactions and conversations.
In this episode, Annie and Shauna address the “startup mindset” and the importance of being coachable while also knowing when to stick to your guns when it comes to non-negotiables for your company. Do you listen to your advisors or your clients more? And what is the difference between a small business mindset versus a startup mindset? Annie talks about the importance of scaling your business slow and steadily to avoid crashing and burning. She also tells a story of a company that was on the show Shark Tank who was put in an interesting dilemma, accept the offer on the table that they came in hoping for and compromise on what makes them special, or leave with nothing but keep what they believe is the heart and soul of their business.
Listen in as they share stories, laughs, and actionable advice on topics such as navigating feedback, when to know it’s time to pivot your company, how to scale your business without overdoing it, and how to “blow the roof off this thing!”
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Ehime is the Founder of Sweetkiwi, a frozen dessert company. As an immigrant, she had a lot of unhealthy eating habits, then a health scare led her to a greater understanding of the power of food. She changed her eating habits and delved into learning more about different ingredients that support our bodies’ healthy development. Sweetkiwi was born from this labor of love.
She has led partnerships with many exciting brands such as Moet & Chandon, Pepsi, Guinness, and Baileys, to mention a few. In 2018, Ehime moved to the DC area and was accepted into the Union Kitchen food accelerator and launched her delicious Whipped Greek Yogurt, which can be found in Whole Foods Market and several other grocery stores.
In this episode, you’ll learn about the importance of always saying yes to new opportunities and how essential brand partnerships can be in scaling your success. Ehime gives helpful advice on how to find these brand partnerships, the best way she’s found to connect with future partners, and how not to be afraid to ask you exactly what you want.
Join Shauna as she sits down with Ehime and discusses the importance of a “yes” mentality, how to find new doors to open for your business through strategic brand partnerships, and the importance of being persistent.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Laura Wood is an activist and founder of LottoLove, the first-ever scratch-off card with a social mission. LottoLove brings charitable giving to everyday gifting. It has been featured on the Today Show and Ellen Degeneres and included in national publications such as Woman’s Day, Real Simple, and RedBook.
Through her work with LottoLove, she is making a positive impact on people’s lives by providing a better way to gift that empowers people in need and inspires communities to do good in a fun and exciting way.
In Laura’s episode, we heard about how doing good in the world can be a viable, profitable business! Laura speaks about taking some scary first steps to get her idea validated and the “lucky” opportunities that came her way in the early days of the business.
She shares how strategic partnerships can help your company flourish, but how word-of-mouth may also be the best marketing tool at your disposal.
Laura loves giving back, and this time, she’s giving back to you through thoughtful, actionable advice to help your business succeed! You can find LottoLove on IG @LottoLove.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Jessica Rhodes is the leading expert on how to leverage podcast guesting for increased brand awareness, more leads, and higher profits. She created the podcast booking industry in 2013 when she founded Interview Connections, the first and leading agency of its kind.
Along with her business partner, Margy Feldhuhn, Jessica has quickly scaled Interview Connections to over $2M in annual revenue, and their team of in house Booking Agents are the podcast powerhouses behind many successful entrepreneurs and businesses including Ali Brown, Perry Marshall, Aweber, USA Financial and more.
In this episode, you’ll learn about how Jessica took a virtual assistant business and scaled it into a highly profitable brand. She’ll teach you the importance of knowing your strengths and weaknesses and finding someone to help balance those weaknesses. Jessica talks about how visibility and strategy are the two most important ways to grow your business as well as the importance of close relationships and networking versus vanity numbers such as Instagram followers.
Listen is as Jessica takes you along her crazy journey to scale her startup into the success it is today!
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.
Carina Glover is the founder of HerHeadquarters, an app connecting women entrepreneurs to powerful brand partnerships with women-owned businesses. The app makes it easy for women entrepreneurs to discover and secure mutually beneficial partnerships for their business by introducing them to various projects, events, and campaigns to collaborate on.
In this episode, you will hear about Carina’s early experiences in entrepreneurship and the hard lessons she learned about partnership in business that inspired her to bring HerHeadquarters into existence. The story of how she used the power of partnerships with other women to grow her brand will give you plenty of inspiration for using brand partnerships in your own business!
Tune in to hear about Carina’s incredible journey and perseverance and learn about the multiple “ingredients” to her recipe for success.
Connect with your host on Instagram @shauna.armitage and visit www.startuprenegades.com/become-a-renegade to join the free Renegades Community.