CEO Campfire Chat

Everyone wants a viral marketing campaign, but creating one is far easier said than done. Daniel Stone and Lou Montemayor, co-founders of Bandolier Media, have developed a reputation for possessing the kind of creativity, humor, and heart that results in the creation of content that demands attention. They share their approach in this episode.

Billy Libby, CEO of Upper90, believes founders should hold the greatest portion of equity in their companies. But with the current VC model, many lose valuable equity in early rounds in exchange for necessary growth capital. Hear from Billy about the innovative model he's developed to help startups delay their series A round and retain a greater portion of equity.

Professional services firms are essentially run on the premise of selling access to your team's time and expertise. So when it comes time to scale, how do you do it without loading everyone down with endless work? Tom Barry, Managing Partner of GHJ Advisors, shares the four levers his team relies on to fuel growth.

The consumer packaged goods space is notoriously difficult to break into. But Colin Darretta and the team at Innovation Department have formulated a repeatable process for starting, launching, and growing CPG wellness brands. With three CPG companies already in their expanding portfolio, Colin shares their recipe for success.

Sharon Love, President and CEO of Community Brands, manages dozens of brands and a team of thousands spanning the globe. That's a lot of complexity, but Sharon finds that focusing on basic tenets—like listening to employees, creating commonsense sales incentives, and letting each brand lean into their unique superpowers—keeps things surprisingly simple.

Many organizations claim to support innovation, but what happens when a fledgling company begins to grow within an enterprise business? Terry Jones, founder of both Travelocity and Kayak, shares the difference between his experience with intrapreneurship at Travelocity— the organization began within American Airlines—and more traditional entrepreneurship with Kayak.

David Kinsley became president of the family business, The Kinsley Group, 12 years ago. In that time, he's grown the organization six and a half times over. He shares how having a company culture focused on compassion and empathy—for customers, employees, and the planet—has driven this success.

Bryan Clayton was already a landscaping pro when he decided to found GreenPal to solve a problem he saw in the industry. He shares how listening closely to customers enabled him to build a blossoming platform that connects lawn care providers with homeowners across the US.

David Friend is a serial entrepreneur who's successfully launched and sold five companies. He now runs his sixth, Wasabi, a hot cloud storage business looking to take on Amazon and Google. David shares how he goes about building a trusted brand that's well-positioned to challenge household names.

Nancy Ham, CEO of WebPT, is no stranger to disruption. The physical therapy industry, which her organization serves, has seen tremendous change over the last decade. COVID added yet another wave of rapid shifts. Through it all, Nancy has developed a method for remaining agile and fostering innovation.