About the show
As we hear The Startup Story of some of the most successful companies in the world our focus is singular…
To give you the belief and courage to Start Your Story.
Every successful startup began with a single decision. It’s not about the dream, it’s not about the vision, it’s about having the courage to take that very first step -- to start.
How did UBER grow to $50 billion? How did Spanx become massively successful without one dime of venture capital? The stories are out there. But The Startup Story goes even deeper. What exactly did they do to go from idea to launch? What was that first step and how did they decide to take it?
Each week, hear from the courageous founders behind some of the most successful brands in the world as they share their Startup Story. We’ll unpack the early beginnings, and uncover those first steps that ultimately led them to where they are today.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur who’s in the thick of it and not making much progress, or feeling stuck in the fear of failure, not sure if you have what it takes, this podcast was created for you.
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Episode List
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Nick Justicz, founder of Gazpacho
October 8th, 2019 | Season 1 | 58 mins 7 secs
This week I’d like to introduce you to Nick Justicz, Founder of Gazpacho. No, not the cold soup, a mobile app that “serves up the best of the internet based on your tastes.” The app is what happens if you merge Pandora and Tinder together - swiping action while building up a database of your likes and dislikes, all based on memes. It’s a unique app and incredibly entertaining.
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Marika Meeks, founder of IncredibullStella
October 1st, 2019 | Season 1 | 1 hr 8 mins
I’d like to introduce you to Marika Meeks, founder of IncredibullStella, a nonprofit whose mission is to help rescue dogs (with an affinity towards Pit Bulls) and place them in their forever homes. With a name like IncredibullStella, you may be wondering who Stella is, right? Well, Stella is a Pit Bull that came into Marika’s life when she was recovering from Stage 3 Breast Cancer.
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Nick Alexander, founder of Yoshi
September 24th, 2019 | Season 1 | 1 hr 48 secs
This week’s featured founder is Nick Alexander, co-founder of Yoshi. Yoshi is disrupting an industry that I am sure NONE of you ever thought about disrupting: gas stations and auto maintenance. Did you ever say to yourself, “You know, gas distribution really needs to be revamped?” Well, Nick and his co-founders did and are making significant waves in eight major markets.
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Alina Vandenberghe, founder of Chili Piper & GipsyBot
September 17th, 2019 | Season 1 | 47 mins 50 secs
I’d like you to meet Alina Vandenberghe, co-founder of Chili Piper and Gipsybot. You read that correctly, she has co-founded TWO startups at the same time. Chili Piper is an incredibly powerful sales tool for enterprises. Her second startup, Gipsybot, is a productivity tool to help you prioritize what is important to you, not what others delegate to you.
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Anna Victoria, founder of Fit Body App
September 10th, 2019 | Season 1 | 59 mins 9 secs
This week I would like you to meet featured founder, Anna Victoria. She is the founder of Fit Body App. The health and fitness app launched in January 2018; then in 2019, Apple featured it in their “Apps We Love” section. Since then it has become one of 2019’s best fitness apps. Just because numbers are impressive…when Apple featured the Fit Body App in the “Apps We Love” section it generated over 1 million impressions within 24 hours!
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John Paul Taylor, founder of Real Life Poets
September 3rd, 2019 | Season 1 | 52 mins 8 secs
I’d like you to meet John Paul Taylor, founder of Real Life Poets. Real Life Poets is a nonprofit that leverages the creative process of poetry and spoken word as a means to empower youth, that otherwise might find themselves in prison or on the streets. John Paul started Real Life Poets because writing saved him and he wanted to do the same for youth in situations similar to his.
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Larry Namer, founder of E! Entertainment Television (replay)
August 27th, 2019 | Season 1 | 54 mins 2 secs
This episode marks our 35th episode since we launched in January 2019. When The Startup Story launched we had no audience. Yet, even with not having an audience, Larry Namer, founder of E! Entertainment Television, was gracious enough to share his Startup Story for our launch.
There is a high chance that you have not heard our first few episodes. For that reason, we are going to bring our first two episodes off the shelf to ensure they make your podcast queue. This week is the first of those two episodes. I hope you enjoy this episode as it originally aired on our launch date of January 15, 2019.
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Jason McCann, founder of Varidesk (replay)
August 20th, 2019 | Season 1 | 49 mins 54 secs
This episode marks our 34th episode since we launched in January 2019. When The Startup Story launched we had no audience. Yet, even with not having an audience, Jason McCann, the Founder and CEO of VARIDESK, was gracious enough to share his Startup Story for our launch.
There is a high chance that you have not heard our first few episodes. For that reason, we are going to bring our first two episodes off the shelf to ensure they make your podcast queue. This week is the first of those two episodes. I hope you enjoy this episode as it originally aired on our launch date of January 15, 2019. Today’s startup story comes from Jason McCann, founder and CEO of Varidesk. While Varidesk is a global company today, Jason's story is not one where you assume everything he has ever done has been a success. Today he shares his early beginnings from selling beach chairs all the way to the burst of the dot.com bubble and later, how Varidesk came to be.
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Founders Depression
August 13th, 2019 | Season 1 | 13 mins 2 secs
This week instead of featuring a founder’s story, we are going to focus on part of a story that many founders go through — founder depression. Yes, founders can get depressed, very much so, and yet not too many talk openly about it.
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Brian Burke, founder of Sell Your Mac
August 6th, 2019 | Season 1 | 49 mins 48 secs
Brian Burke is the founder of SellYourMac.com, a website that helps you to sell your Apple products in a way that ensures you receive top dollar. Brian recently received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year nomination. Ernst & Young is one of the largest firms in the world and since Brian’s firm was nominated, I definitely wanted to invite him to unpack his story on this podcast.
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Michael Littig, co-founder of the Zuckerberg Institute
July 30th, 2019 | Season 1 | 1 hr 3 mins
Meet Michael Littig, Co-founder of the Zuckerberg Institute. And yes, the Institute is kind of associated with the infamous “Facebook Zuckerberg,” it’s actually co-founded by Mark’s sister, Randi. Their mission is to establish a community of entrepreneurs that encourage and inspire other entrepreneurs as they build their business or start their next venture. Sound familiar? It should because that's what I am hoping to build with this podcast, too.
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Danielle Salinas, founder of Maison de Papillon
July 23rd, 2019 | Season 1 | 57 mins 54 secs
I’d like you to meet Danielle Salinas, Co-founder of Maison de Papillon. Maison de Papillon is Danielle’s 2nd venture and it started when she lost her sleep mask during her trip at the London Olympics. Yes, you read that correctly and that is what I love about The Startup Story. Our businesses are birthed out of a need in our lives, yet pivot as we learn more about where the opportunities really lie.
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James Fratzke, co-founder of Fratzke Media
July 16th, 2019 | Season 1 | 52 mins 39 secs
Our guest today is James Fratzke, co-founder of Fratzke Media. Fratzke Media is a digital marketing consultancy based in Southern California. What piqued my interest in Fratzke Media was that James and his brother are identical twins. That said…it was not long into our conversation that I realized James’s startup story is much deeper than the fact that his co-founder is his twin.
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Paige Robinson, founder of Will Reed
July 9th, 2019 | Season 1 | 54 mins 14 secs
This week’s featured founder is Paige Robinson, founder of Will Reed. Will Reed is a recruiting firm that partners with innovative tech companies and VC-backed startups to scale sales organizations and actualize growth strategies. In other words, they hire the best people to help the best people find the best jobs. It became very apparent that her startup story was going to shake up many preset ideas within our entrepreneurial audience and even within me.
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Josh Stine, founder of Seat Insiders
July 2nd, 2019 | Season 1 | 1 hr 6 mins
Our guest this week is Josh Stine, CEO and co-founder of Seat Insiders. Seat Insiders is a concierge ticketing firm that makes ticket buying for sporting events, theater, or concerts unbelievably easy and cost-effective. Josh’s story was compelling because when you think of ticketing you immediately think of Ticketmaster and StubHub. And one has to wonder why you would want to take on those monsters of industry? But that’s the interesting part, Josh isn’t taking them on, he is filling a gap that those companies cannot address, the human aspect of ticketing.
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Catherine Stiles, founder of Barbecue Wife
June 25th, 2019 | Season 1 | 51 mins 55 secs
Our guest this week is Catherine Stiles, founder of Barbecue Wife. Barbecue Wife is a cocktail mixer brand that began as a platform to tell the unique stories of some amazing women within the barbeque industry. Barbecue Wife has grown to be a well-recognized cocktail mixer within the state of Texas. After researching the barbecue industry and the beverage industry, I became incredibly intrigued by Catherine’s story and knew it would make for a great episode!