Finding Founders

Today we’re traveling to Germany to talk to Patrick Nathen, co-founder of the German aviation company Lilium. The company has won numerous awards and raised hundreds of millions in investment for an idea that at first seemed laughably unimaginable: flying taxis. While this may seem more in line with the fantasies told to WWII vets and the imaginary world envisioned on the Jetsons, Patrick and his team have proved that these innovations are closer than you’d think. Oh also, Elon Musk is a fan, but we’ll get to that later. You may be thinking that those are some pretty ego-boosting accomplishments; well, think again. Patrick is one of the most humble down to Earth guys we’ve ever had on this show. But don’t let his mild mannered demeanor fool you though; he’s got a rebellious streak to him. It all started from his humble beginnings, growing up in Dusseldorf, Germany. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show we talk to Dylan Jacob, founder of Brumate, a unique drinkware company to insulate alcoholic beverages. Dylan has brought in more than 50 million dollars and won Ernst & Young’s 2019 Entrepreneur of the year award. Initially, I thought,  “How does a glorified beer koozie rack in tens of millions of dollars?” But in talking to Dylan I soon found a driven individual that is passionate about solving problems, has an incredible attention to detail, and a laser focus. Ever since middle school, Dylan has been a hustler, finding his niche in selling weed, phone parts, and even flipping cars. What sets Dylan apart is his disregard for following other people’s expectations. We can trace this all back to a childhood marked by frugality. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show we talk to Sam Bakhtiar, doctor, author, podcaster, and bodybuilder extraordinaire. Sam is the founder of The Camp Transformation Center, which now has over 100 locations nationwide. The Camp is a radically different kind of gym; it pieces together components that catalyze weight loss and fitness goals, from community support and group training  to health and nutrition. He’s dedicated his entire life to the art of bodybuilding, working his muscles in the gym and his mind in the time outside of it. Healthy living is clearly something that’s vital to Sam; in fact, he couldn’t even sit still long enough to record this interview. Instead, we talked to him from his treadmill. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy Greene is no stranger to hard work. Growing up with an alcoholic single mom, Jeremey fought for himself for as long as he can remember. But it wasn’t until he discovered music that Jeremey found something to devote all of this hard-working energy to. Over time, he would soar to incredible heights of success, all to come crashing back down. His ego would follow these waves, as a flashy facade hid the lonely boy desperate to find some connection. These days, Jeremey heads Mojichat, a company that allows its users to create and share personalized, augmented reality avatars. And while this venture has brought him to his newest height of triumph, Jeremey has come to learn that there is more to success than the number of 0’s in your bank account. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show we are doing something a little meta. I’m a podcaster who interviews entrepreneurs, and today I’m interviewing Casey Adams. I met Casey at an entrepreneurial run club in West Hollywood, shoutout to Grand AC, and learned that he’s an entrepreneurial podcaster who interviews entrepreneurs. Yes the interviewer has become the interviewee. The audio quality will be a bit different this episode as Casey will soon explain. We decided to proceed with the interview sans-mic, but Casey Adams doesn’t just tell other people’s stories, he has quite an origin story of his own. Growing up in a small town, Casey had humble beginnings. In fact he was an aspiring football player before becoming the social media savvy entrepreneur he is today. Facing a life changing injury, Casey was left with a gaping hole in his life. With hours of free time on his hands, cooped up in his room amidst the already suffocatingly small town of Chesterfield, Casey had an ample time to reassess his life. And he did. From an unknown small town football player, Casey became a prominent social media tycoon, garnering followers and supporters with his undeniable charm and charisma. Casey is only 19, so going to the beginning of his life doesn’t take us too far back in time. So, let’s start in Chesterfield Virginia. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is part 2 of the story of Chris Do, founder and CEO of The Futur. It may seem presumptive of Chris to name himself CEO of your future. But for so many, Chris may have at least some claim to the title. The Futur is an online education platform, dedicated to the mission of teaching one billion people how to be successful in a career they love. All too often, we segment professionals into those that utilize the right brain or use left brain. Artists and business people mix like oil and water, right? Well, that’s not the case for Chris. Chris sits at the nexus of the right and left brain. He employs his creativity, but also his ability to lead and organize. His ability to embody both sides of his brain shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. He has spent his whole life at the schism between ideologies, struggling to find a place where he fit in. He suffocated under the weight of the identities that forced upon him. His family fled war torn Vietnam to America and at school, he was the Vietnamese emigre who would never quite fit in. At home, he was a failure; he didn’t adhere to one of three professions deemed suitable by the immigrant model of success: a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. He would never quite fit in. But through years of inner turmoil, he learned to be comfortable forging his own path. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is part 1 of the story of Chris Do, founder and CEO of The Futur. It may seem presumptive of Chris to name himself CEO of your future. But for so many, Chris may have at least some claim to the title. The Futur is an online education platform, dedicated to the mission of teaching one billion people how to be successful in a career they love. All too often, we segment professionals into those that utilize the right brain or use left brain. Artists and business people mix like oil and water, right? Well, that’s not the case for Chris. Chris sits at the nexus of the right and left brain. He employs his creativity, but also his ability to lead and organize. His ability to embody both sides of his brain shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. He has spent his whole life at the schism between ideologies, struggling to find a place where he fit in. He suffocated under the weight of the identities that forced upon him. His family fled war torn Vietnam to America and at school, he was the Vietnamese emigre who would never quite fit in. At home, he was a failure; he didn’t adhere to one of three professions deemed suitable by the immigrant model of success: a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. He would never quite fit in. But through years of inner turmoil, he learned to be comfortable forging his own path. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re talking to Ben Taft, co-founder of Mira Labs, a smartphone powered augmented reality company. But before your mind starts to wander to a Black Mirror-esque dystopia, let me extrapolate. Mira builds cost-effective technology solutions to improve everyday business functions. This technology is helping businesses right now overcome distance and circumstance.  Workers that deal with complex engine assembly or navigate the depths of hazardous mine shafts, now can have remote experts directly interact with whatever the worker sees.. all completely hands free. Mira’s incredible success came from humble beginnings, it actually came from a fishbowl… but we’ll get to that later. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So this episode is different from what we usually put out. It’s a live virtual summit on the Secrets of TikTok. It won’t have voiceover, music, or sound effects like our other episodes… but it should be pretty informative. Also if you are new here, I’d recommend listening to our recent episodes on Mac Davis and Immortality... some crazy stories in there!  Anyway, we spent a few months prepping for this event and we gathered together a highly qualified group panelists to speak to our audience. The event was a hit! We had almost 500 people RSVP and almost 300 people attend. I’ve been getting email after email and message after message asking if I’d post the full audio… so here it is. But before we get into it, let me break down our panelists. Here are the time codes and summaries for each panelist’s sections. @ [0;01;51] We’re starting with Nick and Jason who founded Popl. They launched their business with TikTok and gained over 1.5M+ followers in two months and grew their monthly revenue from 0 to over 60k! @ [0;32;21] Then we’ll move to Brian Freeman. Brian is the CEO & Founder of Heartbeat, the #1 TikTok Influencer Marketplace. He’s also a contributing writer at Forbes, Inc., MarketWatch, Entrepreneur, and numerous others. @ [1;01;40] Next we’ll talk to Marcel Salapa. Marcel is TikTok Lead at Movers+Shakers, a TikTok creative agency responsible for the #1 TikTok campaign in the world. With this campaign, they generated over 5 billion views and 3 million user generated videos. @ [1;32;35] Our final panelist is Dare. Dare (a.k.a Captaindare) is a versatile TikTok creator whose ingenious comedy skits skyrocketed him to success with over 800,000 followers and over 20 million likes. He recently had the honor of presenting the first ever Black History Summit for TikTok. Without further ado, here is the summit, and we’ll hear from Nick and Jason of Popl first. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re talking to Jinny Oh, founder of WANDR, spelled W-A-N-D-R, a product strategy and user interface design firm. Post Corona, working remotely is the norm for many of us, but Jinny was doing it before it was cool and a public health necessity. Bitten by the travel bug in her teenage years, she dreamt of traveling the world while doing what she loved. She’s achieved that dream, and while the firm is supposedly based in Los Angeles (according to its google address), her employees work all over the world and WANDR’s headquarters land wherever the next flight takes Jinny. When trapped in any pocket of the world for too long, Jinny starts to get antsy. Luckily for us, Coronavirus canceled all her travel plans which appeared to give Jinny enough time between trips to sit down with me and talk about WANDR. When I met with Jinny she had temporarily set her bags down at her apartment in Los Angeles and was doing UX design with her team from around the world. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/finding-founders/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices