Just Go Grind

Written version: https://www.justgogrind.com/p/iman-abuzeid

More about the Just Go Grind newsletter:

• Learn the tactics, strategies, and stories of world-class founders. I spend 20+ hours each week researching founders like Sam Altman, Melanie Perkins, and Patrick Collison, sharing the best insights with you every Sunday.
• Subscribe to the Just Go Grind newsletter: https://www.justgogrind.com/subscribe

Upgrade to Just Go Grind premium and get:

• 4 founder deep dives each month
• Audio editions of the newsletter in a private podcast feed
• Access to a founder community and weekly office hours
• 1 on 1 calls with Justin, Founder of Just Go Grind
• Upgrade to premium: https://www.justgogrind.com/upgrade 

Written version: https://www.justgogrind.com/p/ryan-petersen

More about the Just Go Grind newsletter:

• Learn the tactics, strategies, and stories of world-class founders. I spend 20+ hours each week researching founders like Sam Altman, Melanie Perkins, and Patrick Collison, sharing the best insights with you every Sunday.
• Subscribe to the Just Go Grind newsletter: https://www.justgogrind.com/subscribe

Upgrade to Just Go Grind premium and get:

• 4 founder deep dives each month
• Audio editions of the newsletter in a private podcast feed
• Access to a founder community and weekly office hours
• 1 on 1 calls with Justin, Founder of Just Go Grind
• Upgrade to premium: https://www.justgogrind.com/upgrade 

Written version: https://www.justgogrind.com/p/ooshma-garg

More about the Just Go Grind newsletter:

• Learn the tactics, strategies, and stories of world-class founders. I spend 20+ hours each week researching founders like Sam Altman, Melanie Perkins, and Patrick Collison, sharing the best insights with you every Sunday.
• Subscribe to the Just Go Grind newsletter: https://www.justgogrind.com/subscribe

Upgrade to Just Go Grind premium and get:

• 4 founder deep dives each month
• Audio editions of the newsletter in a private podcast feed
• Access to a founder community and weekly office hours
• 1 on 1 calls with Justin, Founder of Just Go Grind
• Upgrade to premium: https://www.justgogrind.com/upgrade 

Written version of Tope Awotona's Unwavering Determination: How He Built Calendly Into a $3B company: https://www.justgogrind.com/p/tope-awotona

More about the Just Go Grind newsletter:

• Learn the tactics, strategies, and stories of world-class founders. I spend 20+ hours each week researching founders like Sam Altman, Melanie Perkins, and Patrick Collison, sharing the best insights with you every Sunday.
• Subscribe to the Just Go Grind newsletter: https://www.justgogrind.com/subscribe

Upgrade to Just Go Grind premium and get:

• 4 founder deep dives each month
• Audio editions of the newsletter in a private podcast feed
• Access to a founder community and weekly office hours
• 1 on 1 calls with Justin, Founder of Just Go Grind
• Upgrade to premium: https://www.justgogrind.com/upgrade 

Written version of Melanie Perkins: Building a $26B Design Empire: https://www.justgogrind.com/p/melanie-perkins

More about the Just Go Grind newsletter:

• Learn the tactics, strategies, and stories of world-class founders. I spend 20+ hours each week researching founders like Sam Altman, Melanie Perkins, and Patrick Collison, sharing the best insights with you every Sunday.
• Subscribe to the Just Go Grind newsletter: https://www.justgogrind.com/subscribe

Upgrade to Just Go Grind premium and get:

• 4 founder deep dives each month
• Audio editions of the newsletter in a private podcast feed
• Access to a founder community and weekly office hours
• 1 on 1 calls with Justin, Founder of Just Go Grind
• Upgrade to premium: https://www.justgogrind.com/upgrade 

Written version of The Unrelenting Ambition of Sam Altman: https://www.justgogrind.com/p/sam-altman 

More about the Just Go Grind newsletter:

• Learn the tactics, strategies, and stories of world-class founders. I spend 20+ hours each week researching founders like Sam Altman, Melanie Perkins, and Patrick Collison, sharing the best insights with you every Sunday.
• Subscribe to the Just Go Grind newsletter: https://www.justgogrind.com/subscribe

Upgrade to Just Go Grind premium and get:

• 4 founder deep dives each month
• Audio editions of the newsletter in a private podcast feed
• Access to a founder community and weekly office hours
• 1 on 1 calls with Justin, Founder of Just Go Grind
• Upgrade to premium: https://www.justgogrind.com/upgrade 

Julien Smith is currently the Co-founder and CEO of Practice, a world class tool to help coaches build their businesses entirely on their own. He has started many companies, including Breather, for which he raised $150M and got to Series D before handing it to a hired CEO.

As a coach, he takes on a few select first time CEOs who he coaches on finding customers, building a team, running a business, and raising venture financing. He has coached founders who have been funded by the world's best venture firms, including A16Z, General Catalyst, Craft Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, and more.

Julien is also a New York Times bestselling author of business and marketing books. He and his co-author were among the first to write books about social media and how to use it for business purposes, and many of the best practices you see in the field were put on paper by them first.

The first book, Trust Agents, was written with Chris Brogan, and became instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, winning awards including Amazon and 800 CEO-READ's best books of the year. They also collaborated on another book, The Impact Equation, published in 2012. His second book, The Flinch, edited by Seth Godin, has remained one of the top downloaded and highlighted books on Kindle since the day it was published.

Website: Practice LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/juliensmith/ Twitter: @julien Second Time Founders podcast

• The background behind Julien's company Practice
• Why Julien decided to start Practice after his success starting Breather
• How Julien runs and structures his practice coaching founders
• How founders can build better businesses
• Julien's tips for fundraising
• Driving emotion in fundraising pitches
• Identifying true value when building your cap table
• Julien's big vision for growing Practice and what he's doing differently from his first company
• How the Second Time Founders podcast was born

Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com

Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Candace Nelson is a serial entrepreneur, NYT and WSJ bestselling author, WSJ contributor, angel investor, TV personality, executive producer, and mom. She started her career working in investment banking and the internet start-up scene before completely shifting gears to follow her passion and attend pastry school. In 2005, she opened the doors to Sprinkles, the world's first cupcake bakery. Despite early naysayers, their 600-square-foot bakery in Beverly Hills disrupted the legacy bakery industry and ignited a worldwide cupcake phenomenon! In 2012 Sprinkles introduced its Cupcake ATM, a cutting-edge contactless cupcake delivery system. Later that year they sold Sprinkles to PE firm KarpReilly. Today, Sprinkles has sold over 200 million cupcakes, has over 20 stores, 30 Cupcake ATMs, and 1000 employees.

In 2017, Candace co-founded Pizzana, a fast-growing chain of award-winning Neo-Neapolitan pizzerias, leading the "third wave" of pizza in the US. Pizzana cemented Los Angeles as a pizza destination and revolutionized pizza takeout with its innovative heat and slice at-home method. Pizzana also ships its frozen pizza nationwide. In 2021 she co-created and executive produced Best in Dough, a Hulu show starring Pizzana Executive Chef Daniele Uditi, which began streaming in the Fall of 2022.

Today, through her company, CN2 Ventures, a family office, and venture studio, she has backed a diverse portfolio of startups in the specialty food, retail, health, wellness, and early childhood spaces with a focus on female and underrepresented founders.

Candace is also the executive producer and star in Netflix's Sugar Rush and Food Network's Cupcake Wars. Her book, Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe For Turning Your Passion Into Profit was published by HarperCollins Leadership in November 2022.

Website: Sprinkles LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/candacenelson9/ Twitter: @candacenelson Instagram: @candacenelson/ TikTok: @candacenelson YouTube: https://youtube.com/user/SprinklesCandace Her new book, Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe For Turning Your Passion Into ProfitHer NYT bestselling cookbook, The Sprinkles Baking Book

• Candace's unconventional path to starting Sprinkles and elevating the cupcake
• Her decision to choose a new career path despite other people's expectations
• Identifying the market opportunity for cupcakes
• Getting Sprinkles off the ground and early organic growth
• Early product development
• Bootstrapping and the challenge of finding a retail location
• Launching their first location with no retail experience and how scarcity drove demand
• How they leveraged celebrity marketing
• How they approached growth and expansion, and establishing themselves as market leaders
• Franchising vs owning distribution
• Avoiding founder's syndrome and deciding to sell Sprinkles
• How Candace went on to co-found Pizzana
• Investing through CN2 Ventures and as an angel
• How Candace views brand building
• Brand strategy during expansion
• Candace's most recent book, Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe For Turning Your Passion Into Profit

Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com

Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Dan Schaefer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Native Pet, a pet nutrition company that is redefining pet supplements by harnessing the nutritional power of whole food ingredients to deliver organic, highly effective, & limited ingredient treats, supplements and chews.

Their products utilize whole-food and superfood ingredients to harness the healing powers found in nature to bolster the health and well-being of our pets. When Dan was looking for better nutrition for his Labrador retriever, Louie, he found that brands were really missing the mark. He quickly realized that kibble was base nutrition and if he wanted to customize Louie's diet for his own unique needs, he required a tailored regimen of kibble coupled with supplements. In an effort to make this realization a reality, Dan called on his childhood friend, Pat Barron, who had a similar passion for pets, food systems and entrepreneurship and together, they founded Native Pet in 2017. In March 2022, they closed their $6M Series A funding led by CAVU Venture Partners with participation from Mars' Companion Fund and Selva Ventures.

• How becoming a pet parent led Dan to found Native Pet
• Dan and his co-founder Pat Barron's entrepreneurial experience and graveyard of startup ideas
• Why Native Pet became the right business idea for them to pursue
• Finding market opportunity through product differentiation
• R&D: market research, product testing, and when to leverage experts
• Finding the right co-manufacturing partner for quality, mission-alignment, and growth
• Brand-building while developing innovative product
• Launching on Amazon, how their distribution and marketing tactics have evolved, and going against the grain
• The strategy behind deciding to raise venture capital
• Use of funds through several stages of fundraising
• How they've seen the pet category evolve since their launch 5 years ago
• What's next for Native Pet

Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com

Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Brennan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Patch, the platform for negative emissions and scaling unified climate action. Patch is building the infrastructure for a sustainable economy by enabling gigatonne scale carbon removal. With Patch, companies can embed climate action into their own products, neutralizing the carbon impact of everyday transactions like shipping, travel, and financial services. From an API-integration to direct purchase, Patch is the carbon removal platform for businesses and consumers to seamlessly contribute to trusted removal and reduction projects at any scale.

Prior to founding Patch with co-founder Aaron Grunfeld, Brennan worked in a range of product & engineering roles at Sonder and Shopify. He received a degree in chemical engineering from McGill University.

• What Patch is and how they're helping companies achieve their environmental goals

• Patch's origin story

• Deciding to found Patch with his co-founder Aaron Grunfeld after a collaborating on a challenging project at Sonder

• The early days of Patch and the benefits of starting right at the beginning of the pandemic

• How they tackled the challenge of fundraising

• Using their $1.2M pre-seed raise to build their founding team

• Patch's original platform

• Category creation and their values-centric sales pitch

• Getting approached by Andreessen Horowitz for investment

• Patch's product evolution and the three facets of the problem they're solving

• Leveraging PR to fuel Patch's growth and shifting their strategy

• The logic behind their slow-to-hire approach

• Vetting in the carbon credit marketplace and enabling trust through transparency

• Patch's business model and how it has evolved

• Interesting climate solutions Brennan has seen

• The strategic timing of their rebrand

• What's next for Patch and where to connect with Brennan and his company

Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com

Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212