Finding Founders

 Have you ever wished you could capture a memory forever? Heather Maio-Smith and her team have made this reality through thousands of recorded interviews with Holocaust survivors. After working with them to create interactive testimony exhibits, Heather was inspired to develop new technology that not only captures a memory, but allows for the most unlikely of conversations to occur, crossing the boundaries of both time and consequence. Heather’s natural curiosity and love of learning have led her and her team to work with the USC Shoah Foundation and Institute of Creative Technologies and thus, StoryFile launched in 2017 with the goal of bringing this technology to everyone with a device, some good lighting, and a story to tell. Heather has come a long way from growing up in a family-owned business to her own company being named the CES 2023 Innovation Awards Honoree. Likewise, StoryFile has evolved as quickly as technology itself has in the past decade, changing the way we communicate with businesses, future generations, and even our past selves! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Janel Hawkins was just scrolling on Craigslist looking at jobs when she noticed one hiring sand sculptors, no experience necessary. She worked there through college, but as she was going into her senior year, she decided to blow her life up. In one month she cut her lease, left a bad relationship, dropped out of college, quit her job, and moved back home to start her own sand castle sculpting business, Sand Castle University. Today Janel has a team of instructors, 335K subscribers on Youtube, and 871K on TikTok, all watching her as she builds, and destroys, her sand art. But before that, let’s begin with the first sand sculpture that shaped her path. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jamie Goulding has been an entrepreneur & leader since the age of 14. He has led two start-up sales teams to success and been a top salesman wherever his career has taken him, closing more than $2 million in sales. Jamie has now turned his passion for mentoring into a new mentoring platform, BeenThere, which connects mentees with mentors around the world who have already “been there.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Vietnam War put many people in the position to flee Vietnam. Marina Tran-Vu’s parents were one of the millions of people put into the position. Marina’s parents fled to Canada where Marina was born. As a refugee, it was hard to make a living as Marina’s mother worked hard to get their family from a basement to the back of a store to a house in a nice neighborhood in Toronto Canada. Nonetheless, her parents’ hard work paid off as Marina went to study marketing at the University of British Columbia. When Marina’s father got sick due to late stage lung cancer Marina made the choice to move from Canada to Vietnam to be with her family. Marina saw her nephew stepping on trash everywhere they went in Vietnam which led to the idea of EQUO. Now Marina is the CEO of a successful company that offers 100% plastic free straws, utensils, dishwash, and drinkware made of materials like sugarcane, coffee, coconut, and rice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This author holds the title for having written the most shoplifted novel in British publishing history. Meet Irvine Welsh, the author of the critically acclaimed novel “Trainspotting”. Famous for his harrowing depictions of heroin addicts and imbuing them with humanity, it may be no surprise that Welsh had a similar tract in life to his characters with a troubled childhood– one that caused him to move constantly throughout different places, having difficulty feeling permanent security and a sense of belonging wherever he went. But thinking back to his childhood hometown, Welsh dwelled on the high drug usage and HIV rates which left Leith in decline and wrote his first novel as a thoughtful (and sobering) response. The book was an instant success, earning a cult following with those who recognized the harshness as a part of life while incurring mixed reactions from critics who did not. Despite the polarized reviews, Irvine has continued to write with ferocity since his first publication: publishing books, movies, and short story collections such as The Acid House, Filth, Porno, Glue, Skagboys, etc to shed light on the underrepresented side of fictional literature– the one most people are afraid to tell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Start-up millionaire nephew of former ABC chair Ita Buttrose, Andrew Spira has not had an easy life. But between the heavy drug use, childhood PTSD, and brushes with the law, he has managed to build several businesses, including a highly successful small loan business, Pineapple Funding, and a $10 million dollar real estate portfolio. But before diving into his success, let’s look at the mistakes and lessons he’s learned along the way… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Webb is a competitive eater from Australia who has completed over 400 food challenges and consumes as much 10,000 calories a day. As the #1 competitive eater in Australia and #5 in the world, James has learned how to navigate eating large amounts of food while maintaining his health, especially after recovering from Guillain-Barre syndrome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patrick Bertoletti‘s ability to eat large amounts of food took him from an insecure teen to the high-competition circuit of professional eating. He competed in 47 contests in one year at the height of his Major League Eating career, from state fairs to the stage of America’s Got Talent, where he repulsed judge Heidi Klum by consuming 120 eggs. He’s competed against a bear on Nickelodeon, been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world, and has more world records than any other competitive eater, but let's go back to Chicago where he first earned the nickname “Deep Dish.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You just heard Josh Johnson recalling the moment where his worst nightmare came true: after finally stepping away from his safety net, he found himself jobless with the rug yanked out from under him. Now well known for his performances on Conan and Comedy Central, his tours with Trevor Noah, and a 2020 Emmy nomination, Josh has come a long way from his first script writing experience on the Tonight Show. Although this all seemed like a sudden rise to success there’s a lot of history behind these shining moments. Before late night talk shows and award ceremonies, there were years of non stop working. By night, he would tour the comedy circuits of Chicago and New York. And by day, he worked the early bird shifts at Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s. Believe it or not, his double life of growing comedian and grocery bagger continued well into his career. There was no ‘making it’, no easy way to fame. Instead, he remembered that for every one step forward, there was a chance at falling two steps back. This cautious approach to his career, this consistent humility, can be traced all the way back to his childhood in Louisiana…where love and danger seemed to be the only constants of his surroundings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Watching as he racked up tens of thousands of new fans over the course of the day, Sean Sotaridona let out a sigh of relief he didn’t even know he was holding. This success, this new and unexpected online stage, was what he had been looking for all his life. It only took him 16 years to find it. Going by the username SeanDoesMagic, Sean’s masterful magic tricks have garnered more than 21 million followers on TikTok and 5.44 million followers on YouTube. From networking with meme accounts over Instagram dms to performing tricks for Addison Rae and Dixie D’amelio, Sean’s unparalleled tenacity and drive have taken him on a wild journey. However, before his trips to vidcon and tryouts for America’s Got Talent, before Sean was even born, his roots grew far away from the beaches of Los Angeles and Florida…across the Pacific in the Philippines… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices