Entrepreneurs Exposed

Adam Levinter
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Nov 12, 2022 • 29min

128: Entrepreneurship by acquisition

Sheret Ross is the co-CEO of Car Data, a company that provides an easy and cost-effective way to reimburse employees for using their personal vehicle for work.He also co-founded, Spruce Grove Capital, the search fund he used to source and ultimately acquire the company he's now running. In this EP, we discuss the process of launching a search fund and finding Car Data; the mechanics of search funds vs. venture capital, private and growth equity; we also chat about Sheret's experience hiring talent and working remote, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Oct 24, 2022 • 31min

127: Hardship creates character

Dan Zavorotny is the cofounder, and COO of Nutrisense - a company on a mission to personalize nutrition by leveraging CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) and Machine Learning. In this one, we discuss the early days and origin story of Nutri sense; customer acquisition/ channel marketing, and influencer-driven growth; raising capital and how to make the "No's" feel less important; recruiting talent and what separates a great person from a good person; and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Jul 21, 2022 • 41min

126: Mindset, energy, and selling to Adobe

Alex Packham is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder & CEO of ContentCal that was acquired by Adobe, in late 2021.During his ContentCal journey, he raised over £10m for the company, built the business to 3,000+ customers globally, and grew top line 150% year over year. In this episode, we discuss Alex's experience raising capital from angels vs. VC's; what he's learned about creating the right pitch deck; the sale to Adobe; the importance of mindset and energy, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Jul 5, 2022 • 41min

125: "Paddle" to $1 Billion

Christian Owens is the CEO & founder of Paddle, a payments infrastructure for SaaS business. Prior to Paddle, Christian created his first software business from his bedroom at the age of 14. Having grown the business to $1m in revenue he decided to quit school at 16 to focus on building startups full time. In 2016, Christian was named one of Forbes’ “30 under 30” and a Thiel Fellow by the Thiel Foundation. In early 2022, Paddle raised a Series D which turned the company into one of a very few UK-based unicorns. In this EP, we talk all about Christian's decision to drop out of school; how a looming recession could impact Paddle and SAAS more broadly; the origins of Paddle, and a great war story that came with registering the URL, and much more. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Jun 23, 2022 • 39min

124: Vinyl Me, Please

Matt Fiedler is the co-founder and former CEO of record-of-the-month club Vinyl Me, Please (VMP). Since launching VMP in 2013, Matt successfully took the business from a passion project to a globally recognized brand in more than 40 countries around the world. During his tenure as CEO, VMP was named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list, and was twice listed to the Inc. 5000. While he remains Chairman of VMP, Matt also serves as an advisor to several early stage companies. In this EP, we talk about the early days of VMP, its impressive growth trajectory, leadership lessons learned through COVID, the process of letting go as CEO, Matt's favourite records he can't live without, and more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Jun 16, 2022 • 39min

123: Unremarkable to Extraordinary

Jeremy Ryan Slate is the founder of the Create Your Own Life Podcast, and the CEO of Command Your Brand Media.Jeremy's show was named a top podcast to listen to by INC Magazine in 2019 and has been downloaded more than 3 million times.In this EP, Jeremy and I discuss his success in podcasting; his personal challenges and using adversity as "ambition fuel"; macro trends related to both podcasting and brand building; his upcoming book, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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May 31, 2022 • 43min

EN: Wattpad - "Where Stories Live"

Allen Lau is the CEO and co-founder of Wattpad, the world's social storytelling platform. Wattpad has over 90 million readers; thousands of Wattpad stories have been adapted for major platforms and gone on to become blockbuster movies, Netflix hits, and bestselling books around the world. The company completed its sale to Naver in 2021 in a deal worth over $600 Million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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May 19, 2022 • 37min

122: Lessons from Bezos, and Billion-dollar Start-ups

Dave Selinger has founded and built some hugely successful companies - among them, Redfin, the well known real estate brokerage firm; and RichRelevance, which revolutionized shopping experiences for a number of retailers. On top of his colourful career as a founder, Dave was also an early at Amazon, working directly under Jeff Bezos.In this EP, we discuss Dave's past experiences at Redfin, Rich Relevance, and Amazon; why his experience at Stanford helped shape company culture in start-ups he's founded; why Maslow's hierarchy of needs may be a good foundation in which to build a start up; his latest venture, Deep Sentinel, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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May 11, 2022 • 33min

121: XED Beverages

Zeke Bronfman is the Co-founder and CEO of XED Beverages, a CPG brand builder and incubator with a growing portfolio of both owned brands and joint ventures. Zeke is a fourth-generation entrepreneur in the beverage alcohol industry, and comes to XED backed by a notable advisory board including Strauss Zelnick (former chairman of CBS), Edgar Bronfman Jr. (former CEO of Seagram), among others.In this EP, we dive into the alternative market for better tasting AND better for you alcoholic beverages; the competitive landscape, including how XED's brands stack up against the likes of White Claw, Truly Hard Seltzer, and High Noon..... Challenges around creating an exceptional tasting product, and more.5:40EP Resources: https://www.matthewball.vc/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Apr 27, 2022 • 41min

120: "Stoking" talent, and selling to Fiverr

Shahar Erez is the Co-founder & CEO of Stoke, an on-demand talent platform empowering companies to adopt and scale a hybrid workforce model. In 2021, Stoke was acquired by Fiverr for $110M just 15 months after coming out of stealth mode. In this EP, we dive into the early days of Stoke; trends related to freelance and remote work; the sale to Fiverr; the differences between startup culture in Israel and Silicon Valley and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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