Founder@50

In this episode Jeremy Toeman sits down with David Cohn a lifelong storyteller who went from a philosophy and rhetoric student at UC Berkeley to shaping the future of news through product thinking and platform design. Today they discuss :

• How a Wired internship and a Craigslist blog gig sparked a 20 year friendship with Jeremy and a career in digital media.

• Why David pivoted from traditional journalism into product innovation before product was even a term in newsrooms.

• The story behind Spot Us the pre Kickstarter platform that crowdfunded journalism and how it earned David a 350 thousand dollar grant from the Knight Foundation.

• How David turned editorial instincts into product vision from Circa’s modular news app to viral video models at AJ+ and now generative AI solutions in local news with AdvanceLocal.

• His unique “career as albums” metaphor and how each chapter from freelance hustle to experimental newsroom builder reflects a remix of technology and storytelling.

You will also hear how Digg and Netscape shaped his early web literacy how being a top contributor taught him about online communities and why David believes the CMS is still the most important editor in modern journalism.

In this episode Jeremy Toeman sits down with Barbara Basbanes Richter, and they discuss how she…

• Turned a Smith and Tufts French degree and a decade of public school teaching into a ghostwriting career

• Leveraged her family’s book legacy to launch DIY Book an affordable do it yourself writing platform

• Learned to write client voices by mining her own process and creating scaffolded storytelling prompts

• Pivoted again to cofound Hello Hans a playful AI driven platform helping kids write share and publish with confidence

You’ll also hear how joining the Element46 accelerator in Westchester County helped Barbara expand her network refine her pitch and blend her passion for teaching with her vision for tech based storytelling.

David Arnett’s career proves that the best job description is the one you write yourself. A Wharton grad who taught tennis and chess before digitizing the world’s first TV ad archive he spent 16 years inventing his own roles in market research and product management. His chess champion mindset became his secret weapon for breaking down startup problems. In early 2020 a weekly virtual poker game sparked his next pivot: Chuck, a sport fan community & engagement app built to let friends talk sports one-on-one instead of shouting into the stadium. David’s story offers practical takeaways on embracing uncertainty leaning into your unique talents and making the leap from corporate ladder to founder life.

In this episode, Jeremy Toeman talks with his former boss Mark Larkin, who began as an unpaid CNET intern at age 27 and rose through 15–20 different roles to become president of CNET’s portfolio under CBS. Mark lays out the exact behaviors that got him noticed early (showing up before anyone else, volunteering for extra tasks) and how he translated producer skills into leadership by learning to speak the languages of editorial, engineering, and product. He explains why he said yes to a coast-to-coast stretch running CBS News Digital (living on airplanes for three years), how he managed each promotion (from segment producer to SVP/GM of CNET), and why he ultimately chose to sell CNET back when CBS divested non-core brands. Along the way, he offers real talk on imposter syndrome, balancing “the grind” with work-life health, and what it means to leave a legacy for future teams.

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn a low-level internship into a multi-decade career or how to build cross-functional empathy in a fast-moving digital media environment, Mark’s journey is full of practical takeaways.

In this episode Jeremy Toeman sits down with Mark Ely.

Mark Ely’s journey from answering support calls to founding a consumer streaming startup shows that endurance outlasts perfect plans. Over two decades at Sonic Solutions he moved into leadership by mastering the technology product and strategy then applied those lessons to SimpleTV’s hardware and software pivots. Along the way he discovered that true innovation starts with loving the work not just chasing funding and that mentoring via Score.org keeps the spark alive for both mentor and mentee. This conversation offers practical takeaways on building skills patiently, knowing when to scale and why giving back is part of every founder’s toolkit.

Mark shares how he:

* Climbed the ladder at Sonic Solutions over 19 years from tech support to president of strategy

* Used early business school lessons to speak the language of investors and run global product teams

* Founded SimpleTV in his 40s to stream free broadcast television to any device and the pivots that followed

* Learned why you must love what you build and how to decide when to raise money or stay scrappy

* Mentors small business owners through Score.org and why giving back keeps curiosity alive

Tune in for honest stories about career persistence the joy of deep technical curiosity and what it really takes to turn a sideline hobby into a startup.

And if you’re playing the drinking game at home, this week’s word is “tinkering”.

In this episode, Jeremy Toeman sits down with John Biggs whose career spans from hand-coding HTML at Carnegie Mellon to writing over 11,000 posts for TechCrunch, to founding startups and hosting the Keep Going podcast. John explains how he learned to pivot from tech journalism into building products of his own, why he believes in testing ideas quickly (even if they fail), and how he turned countless “side experiments” into actionable lessons. You’ll hear:

* How early web tools at CMU taught him to build fast and fail fast

* The story behind launching CrunchGear at TechCrunch and scaling into a separate gadget site

* What prompted him to leave full-time journalism to become a startup founder

* Why he launched Keep Going, and how recording hundreds of founder interviews reshaped his view of “success”

No hype here, just honest talk about learning through failure, leaning into your network, and staying curious in a world where everything changes overnight.

In this episode, Jeremy Toeman sits down with “serial marketer” David Berkowitz: From Teaching to Marketing Entrepreneur. David shares how he went from teaching aspirations to building and selling multiple marketing communities and agencies. You’ll hear how he:

* Tested community ideas on a shoestring budget and how he recruited 100 members overnight with under $100, one LinkedIn post, and a Google Form

* Applied an “MVP first” mindset to career pivots, writing the resume he wanted five years out and reverse-engineering his steps

* Embraced a “controlled fall” approach to uncertainty, leaning into small bets instead of overplanning

* Spun AI Marketers Guild into its own brand and why positioning matters when you scale

Tune in for a candid look at a journey that proves you don’t need a perfect plan to become a marketing entrepreneur, just a willingness to test, learn, and iterate.

In this episode, Jeremy Toeman chats with Jaime Schwarz a former ad-school nomad turned startup founder who now spearheads MRKD.dj, a platform that embeds authentication into digital assets. Jaime shares how a Colgate psych degree led to copywriting gigs at agencies, and his visions of being a well-paid creative director. He discusses the pivotal moment when he launched a political agency on the side, pivoted into the startup world, and filed one of the first NFT patents laying the groundwork for Markd’s brand-therapy approach. Jaime also opens up about his ADHD diagnosis at 45 and how embracing that “restless creativity” became essential to navigating pivots and building systems that scale.

You’ll hear practical perspectives on:

* Why small-scale experiments matter more than ever, even in a “polished” era

* The experiences in pivoting from agency life into founding startups

* Building a brand-therapy practice that aligns team, consumer, and product fit

* Leveraging an ADHD-driven mindset to stay both creative and productive

No hype here just grounded stories about testing fast, adapting quickly, and designing systems that let your creativity thrive.

After 30 years of building startups, teams, and products, entrepreneur and media exec Jeremy Toeman is taking time to reflect — and to ask the questions that don’t get answered in pitch decks or exit press releases.

Found(er)@50 is a podcast for anyone rethinking life, work, or identity — from 20-somethings starting out to 50-somethings starting over.

Through candid conversations with founders, creators, and builders from all walks of life, Jeremy draws on decades of experience — including time at places like WarnerMedia, Etsy, and CBS — to uncover the lessons, mistakes, and moments of reinvention that shape how we build meaningful lives.

Because after years in the game, what really matters is clarity, growth, and doing work that actually lasts.

Still building. Still questioning. Always learning.