The Turning Pro Podcast

In our third Q&A episode, we dive into tactical lessons on team delegation (who, not how), mistakes we’ve made in the sales and closing process, running effective offsites with our extended remote teams, and why leads ghost during negotiation stages.

Cael Schwartz runs growth and brand at Mugsy, a fast-growing Shopify brand that is redefining men's clothes for the modern guy. Before joining Mugsy, Cael was the Head of Consumer Brand Strategy at Barstool Sports and the Head of Product & Growth at Birddogs. In this episode, we unpack how Cael prioritizes authenticity in content creation, building in public within the e-commerce community on Twitter, crazy life lessons learned from working at Barstool Sports, and the unpredictable nature of job security in the startup world.

Zach Hamed is the Founder & Co-CEO at Clay, a venture-backed startup that enables folks to manage all of their personal and professional relationships – all from a single dashboard. Since launching officially in 2021, the team has raised over $8M from leading investors to fuel growth.In this episode, we cover how Zach approaches his personal relationship-building in both business and life, the outsized ROI on maintaining connections as careers progress, and how entrepreneurs and founders can improve their ability to identify and foster key relationships.

In our second Q&A episode, we dive deep on how first-time founders can tactically improve their delegation skills (and the biggest mistakes we’ve made), Ben’s time management best practices to boost productivity, and why founders need to spend 80% of their time on their core strengths.

Matt Smolin is the Founder & CEO at Hang, a radically new type of loyalty experience for ecommerce brands around the world. Since launching, Matt has raised more than $10M in funding to fuel loyalty for brands like Bleacher Report, Asics, Qalo, Madhappy, and many more.In this episode, we cover Matt’s tactical advice for finding investors and raising capital, his own ups and downs while hacking on early iterations of Hang, and why he swapped LA for New York City as the future home of his company – and why he’d never go back.

In our first Q&A episode, we dive deep on our biggest learnings (and mistakes) from Season 1 of the podcast, the inside growth stories at Verbatim and Platter, and how we’ve been able to balance high-volume content creation while building our own companies in tandem.

Jack Raines is one of the fastest-growing content creators on LinkedIn and X, with a combined audience of over 100,000 across channels. Based in New York City, Jack recently finished his MBA at Columbia Business School and is a full-time editor and creator at Sherwood Media.In this episode, we dive deep on Jack’s tactical lessons in audience growth, the outsized ROI on consistency and authenticity to break through the noise, and why he thinks Business School is a contrarian bet in 2024.

Zach Pogrob is an athlete, entrepreneur, and creator focused on a single word: obsession. He is one of the fastest-growing creators in the world, with over 2 million followers across platforms. In this episode, we unpack why Zach is doubling down on the obsession brand, why fitness and health are fundamental parts of his journey, tactical recommendations to growing an audience and creative platform, and why New York City is the best place to build a global movement.

Explore the rise of Masa Chips with Seth Goldstein, covering ditching seed oils, raising capital, and rapid growth. Discover the impact of seed oils on the body, transitioning to entrepreneurship, paleo biohacking trends, traits of high performers, and sacrifices on the path to success.

Ronak Trivedi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pietra, one of the fastest-growing companies in the commerce infrastructure space. The platform helps creators and brands connect with suppliers, design products, and set up their e-commerce storefronts. Ronak recently closed a $15M Series A from Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz among others to double down on its growth.In this episode, we cover how the creator economy is rapidly evolving, Pietra’s insanely ambitious 10-year growth plan, and why he decided to raise venture capital for his vision.