Founders Future

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Zach Young, we sit down with Ari Barmapov, co-founder of Foundations. Ari shares his unexpected journey from studying philosophy and aspiring to be a lawyer to falling in love with the art of sales, beginning with retail and eventually specializing in B2B. He delves into the foundational challenges technical founders face when moving from product-market fit to building a scalable, sustainable sales machine.

Ari provides invaluable insights into the critical transition from founder-led sales to hiring a team, emphasizing the importance of having the right systems in place before scaling. He passionately defends cold calling as the most effective form of outreach for immediate feedback and breaks down the nuances of how tonality and inflection are more important than the script itself. The conversation also explores how sales strategies must be tailored to the target market, whether it's a hyper-personalized approach for a small TAM or a more scaled system for a larger audience.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we are joined by Almira Bardai, a former PR agency owner who has transformed her career to focus on guiding women to embrace their feminine energy. Almira takes us through her journey from building a top-tier PR firm to her current work, where she helps women move beyond the "hustle culture" and toxic masculinity that dominate the business world. She delves into the core of her 6-month program, Ascension Sanctuary, explaining how it starts by reconnecting women to their bodies and nervous systems to create a life of joy, ease, and abundance from a place of receiving rather than constant striving.

Almira shares her unique, energy-aligned approach to marketing as a "Projector" in human design, relying on organic thought leadership through Instagram Reels and her podcast rather than traditional ads or sales calls. She opens up about the operational simplicity of her business, her use of automation, and her profound perspective on money as a neutral energy. The conversation also explores her ambitious future goals, which include creating digital products to scale her impact while maintaining her energetic integrity, all driven by a deeper mission to generate wealth for significant philanthropic change.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we sit down with Harish Chauhan, the visionary founder behind PRSPERA. Harish takes us on a profound journey from a pivotal moment of inspiration at age 14 to becoming an engineer who, disillusioned with conventional business advice, invented the "Unifying Philosophy"—a method to distill a company's core DNA into six words or less. He shares the compelling case study of a client who used this very framework to not only survive against a giant like Toyota but to achieve an 11x EBITDA exit, proving that building tangible, monetizable value is the ultimate goal for any entrepreneur.

Harish delves into the critical challenges facing business owners today, revealing why 80% of businesses fail to sell and how the future of company value lies in intangible assets. He outlines his mission to transition from consultancy to a SaaS platform, aiming to build "the next LinkedIn for entrepreneurs" and empower founders to engineer valuable, future-proof companies. This conversation is a masterclass in shifting paradigms, focusing on value creation over mere profit, and building a legacy that transcends a lifetime of work.

n this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we meet Aaron Sharif, who shares his compelling entrepreneurial pivot. Aaron began as a high-performance coach for male executives but discovered a greater market need when his content advising women on what high-value men look for in relationships went viral. He discusses the importance of listening to the market and the courage it takes to shift your entire business model to align with demand.

Aaron details his current venture: coaching ambitious, self-aware women to unlock their full potential and attract their dream partners. He breaks down his business structure, from using social media as a top-of-funnel tool to his newly launched school community and one-on-one coaching. Aaron also opens up about his ambitious future goals, including scaling his community, launching a matchmaking service, and the challenges of maintaining intimacy while growing rapidly.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we sit down with Veronica Deraleau, the CEO and founder of Making Money is Simple. Veronica shares her unique journey from a professional balancing a corporate career in fintech with her life as an opera singer to becoming a financial coach. She opens up about the personal catalyst for her business: graduating with an MBA and six figures of debt, which led her to develop a powerful, forward-looking budgeting strategy that allowed her to become debt-free in just three years.

Veronica details her mindset-driven approach to financial freedom, which she encapsulates in her ARIA model (Awaken, Reframing, Intention, Action). She explains how she helps her ideal clients, "rising professionals" who earn good money but are still living paycheck-to-paycheck, by combining financial education with actionable plans for debt payoff and wealth building. The conversation also covers her goals for scaling her business through group coaching and automated courses, and the challenges of time management as a solo founder.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Milan Kohut, we sit down with Ben Trottier, the visionary founder behind Sales Structures. Ben takes us on a journey from his earliest entrepreneurial ventures at just seven years old—selling golf balls and learning business fundamentals from his father—to his current mission of revolutionizing sales teams with AI. He shares invaluable lessons from scaling multiple seven-figure businesses, the challenges of starting over in a new country, and the resilience required to sleep on a gym floor to make his dreams a reality. This is a powerful story of foundational grit, sales mastery, and the relentless pursuit of growth.

Ben delves into the core of Sales Structures, explaining how his company helps small to medium-sized businesses maximize their sales potential by integrating AI to automate monotonous tasks and provide real-time coaching and reporting. He discusses the critical importance of building a solid service over rapid scaling, the current industry challenge of finding skilled AI personnel, and his philosophy of "going slow to go fast." The conversation concludes with Ben's key advice to his younger self: to focus deeply on one thing and master it, a lesson in consistency that has shaped his current path and ambitious future goals.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Zach Young, we sit down with DKeith Wilson, the founder and Senior Consultant behind Ytechnology. DKeith shares his incredible journey from a tech-focused newcomer who quickly realized he needed real-world business experience to the seasoned strategist he is today. With over 20 years of experience in corporate America, he founded Ytechnology to bring that invaluable expertise to small and mid-sized businesses, helping them bridge the gap between having a company and building a scalable, data-driven enterprise.

DKeith dives deep into his unique, relationship-first approach to business growth. He explains his "build, optimize, grow" framework and why he prioritizes in-person coffee meetings and cold calling over purely digital marketing to connect with busy business owners. He also discusses the common technological gaps he sees, like the reliance on spreadsheets instead of CRMs, and his mission to cut through the noise of online "shovel salesmanship" by providing genuine, actionable strategies to help local businesses thrive.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we meet Eric Zajac, MBA, the founder behind EZ Livin' Coaching. Eric shares his fascinating journey from a 25-year career in Information Technology to building a part-time coaching passion. He reveals how his own experience with chronic pain and his desire to help his daughter led him to become certified in hypnotherapy and mindset coaching. Eric delves into his unique "resistance breakthrough" methodology, which blends these two disciplines to help high-performing entrepreneurs bridge the gap between their current reality and their desired future by understanding the powerful connection between the mind and body.

Eric provides a compelling look into the mechanics of the subconscious mind, explaining the difference between the "primal state" of stress and overwhelm and the "powerful state" of creativity and expansion where true transformation occurs. He discusses his tailored approach to working one-on-one with clients, his plans to grow his practice into a full-time venture in the future, and the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship. The conversation is a deep dive into how we can overcome internal resistance to design a more authentic and fulfilling life.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we meet Kerry Pierson, a life coach and entrepreneur with a passion for empowering people. Kerry shares her journey from a television presenter in New Zealand to a corporate director in the UK, and how her lifelong passion for coaching led her to found "Coaching Your Life," a practice dedicated to helping individuals who feel lost to overcome self-doubt and move forward with confidence. She also delves into her new venture, "Pearlman Pearson," a corporate coaching business she co-founded to help startups and SMEs develop their leaders and teams.

Kerry opens up about the distinct challenges of running both a personal and corporate coaching business. She discusses the profound impact of providing a safe, non-judgmental space for her private clients and the rewarding yet difficult task of proving the ROI of coaching to business leaders who often see it as a "nice-to-have." She also shares her practical strategies for growth, which currently rely heavily on word-of-mouth and LinkedIn, and her future ambitions to scale by bringing in specialized mentors and investing in digital marketing.

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we meet Ksenia Belova, the visionary behind Ksenia Belova Photography. Ksenia shares her journey from a corporate marketing career to becoming a transformational personal branding photographer. She reveals how a pivotal move to Australia led her to follow her intuition and start her business from scratch, ultimately finding her niche in helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs, particularly women, uncover their authentic selves through a powerful photoshoot experience.

Ksenia delves into her unique methodology, which blends visual storytelling with deep coaching to help clients overcome the fear of being seen and judged. She explains that her process is not just about taking photos, but about creating a transformative exploration of self that allows her clients' true personalities to shine through. The conversation also covers the challenges and joys of building a business that is intrinsically linked to her personal brand, her strategies for attracting ideal clients organically, and her future vision of expanding her impact through public speaking and education.