Marked

Benoy Thanjan has developed over 100MW of solar projects, including the largest solar project in Manhattan, and has run Reneu Energy for 14 years without raising a dollar of outside capital. He also hosts the Solar Maverick Podcast. Benoy and Vin cover what homeowners need to know before going solar: why residential solar is still the wild, wild West, how to vet an installer, owning vs. leasing, and how some homeowners are selling stored battery power back to the grid. Then Benoy opens up about building a business that was profitable from year one, and why he still wonders if it'll last.

Takeaways:

• Electricity prices that stayed flat for about 15 years are now rising 5 to 10% a year in many places.
• Residential solar has almost no barriers to entry, which is why bad installers and scams are common.
• Don't put panels on a roof that's more than about five years old without having it checked first.
• Ask a local roofer who they trust. Roofers work alongside solar installers and know who does good work.
• Get two or three quotes, ask for local references, and check that the panels, inverters, and racking are tier one.
• If you lease or sign a PPA, the buyer of your home has to take it over. Owning the system makes it an asset.
• Never raising outside capital forced Reneu Energy to stay creative, and profitable.

Quotes:

"When you talk about residential customers getting solar, honestly, it's like the wild, wild West." (25:03) "They should not get solar unless the roof is five years or less." (29:49) "I've never raised outside capital, meaning, like, I have 100% equity in the business." (34:59)

Links: reneuenergy.com · solarmaverickpodcast.com · Benoy Thanjan on LinkedIn

MARKED with Vin Infante: weekly conversations with the builders of society. What the journey left on them, and the mark they're leaving on the world. Hosted by Vin Infante.

In college, Rei Vardi tried renting out his car to cover the payments. Within weeks it had been scratched, dented, smoked in, and used in a bank robbery. Eight years later he's the founder and CEO of Eon, an automated car-sharing platform with several thousand cars nationwide, a 15-person team, and no ad spend, ever. Rei and Vin talk about building slowly on purpose, why ads can become a black hole, the $5-a-day way to test them, and why businesses built on physical assets may outlast software in the AI era.

Takeaways:

• Sharing a car without a system makes you "the world's tiniest car rental company," with all the problems and none of the resources.
• An asset that sits idle 95% of the time can be turned from a liability into an income stream, if the process is safe and hands-off.
• Ship early. If you're happy with your first release, you waited too long.
• But don't chase growth with negative unit economics. Unhealthy growth is as dangerous as no growth.
• Ads aren't the enemy, but without your numbers dialed in, they're a black hole. Test with as little as five dollars a day.
• As code gets cheaper, businesses built on physical assets and human relationships become harder to replace.
• Go to the gym, for your business. Pushing through physically builds mental clarity and an identity of someone who pushes through.

Quotes:

"By week three, someone robbed a bank with the car." (4:02) "If you're waiting until you're happy with your first release, you waited too long." (21:48) "Unhealthy growth is just as dangerous for your company as no growth." (24:19)

Links: eonrides.com · Rei Vardi on LinkedIn

MARKED with Vin Infante: weekly conversations with the builders of society. What the journey left on them, and the mark they're leaving on the world. Hosted by Vin Infante.

At 14, with no money and no team, Miguel Guerrero built a game server to 5 million users. Now he's the founder and CEO of Otis AI, which runs paid advertising end to end for small and medium businesses, and a 30 Under 30 honoree in marketing and advertising. Miguel and Vin break down the myth that ads only work at $20K a month, the foundation every small business needs before spending a dollar, and what he learned building with no advisors and no playbook.

Takeaways:

Big budgets aren't the barrier they used to be. With AI optimization, you can start generating results on a much smaller budget.

For small businesses, the bigger cost is often the service layer, not the ads: retainers and management fees that can dwarf a $1,000 budget.

Before you spend, build the foundation: understand your product-market fit and set up tracking so every dollar points at an outcome.

Know your cost per qualified lead. Many businesses don't, and it's the starting point for everything else.

Grow organically first, then use advertising once something has momentum. That's how his teenage project reached millions.

Learning the hard way works, but finding the right advisors early is the more efficient path.

Health and relationships are the foundation. Without them, you won't have the endurance a startup demands.

Quotes:

"It requires a much smaller budget to start generating results and conversions." (6:19) "If your budget is only $1,000, you know, many agencies might charge you a 3000 a month retainer, a 5000 a month retainer, plus percentage of ad spend fees." (28:43) "If you're not healthy, then, there's not much to build for." (43:22)

Links: meetotis.com · Instagram @otis.ai

MARKED with Vin Infante: weekly conversations with the builders of society. What the journey left on them, and the mark they're leaving on the world. Hosted by Vin Infante.

Chris Kong spent a decade building sales and partnerships teams at venture-backed startups, taking companies from seed to Series D. Now he's the founder of WEL, a New York-made daily hydration brand. In his first six weeks he landed partnerships with major boutique fitness brands, and he did it by showing up in person, not by sending cold emails. Chris and Vin cover founder-led sales, sampling without being salesy, how to collect feedback customers actually answer, and the three times of day your body needs hydration most.

Takeaways:

Don't spend your first big check on sales and marketing hires before you have product-market fit. No amount of spend fixes a product that doesn't work.

If nobody knows your brand, borrow trust. Partner with brands your customers already use.

Show up in person. Chris takes the class, earns the instructor's shout-out, and pitches afterward. It doesn't scale, but it builds real relationships.

Turn sampling into a challenge. A post-class giveaway (most jump squats in 60 seconds wins a tub) made people want to engage.

The second feedback email, sent personally from the founder, gets far more replies than the automated first one.

Ask for feedback within a week. After that, customers forget what the first use felt like.

There's no such thing as a perfect plan. Tell everyone what you're building and start.

Quotes:

"Invest into your product. Invest in your product. Get super close to who you're selling to." (6:00) "Do not wait for more than a week for feedback." (29:03) "Don't wait till you have the perfect business plan, the perfect business partner, the right financials. Just execute." (46:33)

Links:

https://hydratewel.com/

https://www.instagram.com/welhydration/

MARKED with Vin Infante: Bi-Weekly conversations with the builders of society. What the journey left on them, and the mark they're leaving on the world. Hosted by Vin Infante.

Jason and Georgia turned a messy smoothie habit into Drizzy, a squeezable peanut butter that sold out four times in Australian grocery stores before a single paid ad. One viral post later, Target and Sprouts were reaching out to them, not the other way around, and they're now a month from a Times Square billboard launch for their US expansion, built entirely as co-founders and a couple.

**Takeaways:**

- The best product ideas are often the annoying daily problem right in front of you. Drizzy started because peanut butter wouldn't come out of a smoothie blender cleanly.

- Virality doesn't always feel good while you're making it. Georgia's least-favorite videos have repeatedly been her best performers.

- Manufacturing partners can make or break a product. Finding someone willing to fill peanut butter bottles without cross-contamination risk took real searching, "good luck finding your unicorn," they were told.

- Being a couple didn't hurt their fundraise. It made every conversation more careful, because the stakes were personal, not just financial.

- Read every clause in a broker contract before signing. Some brokers charge founders as much as $50K to exit a bad one.

- Sometimes the biggest advantage is not knowing the "rules" of an industry yet. Ignorance of what's supposed to be impossible can be its own kind of edge.

Takeaways:

- Even industry insiders get quietly overcharged by their own banks. Doug found out the hard way as a retail client at his own institution.

- A tokenized commodity only works if the value is computer-determined, not a person's subjective opinion. That's the actual innovation behind Diamond Standard.

- Growing too fast without enough runway is its own kind of failure. Doug's company went from 40 people to 12 after an event nobody saw coming.

- "Come home the same person" is a trading-desk survival skill that works just as well for founders. Doug credits it with 18 years at one of the highest-pressure trading desks in the world.

- Banks aren't the enemy of platforms like Yield FX. They're a customer, because new deposits without acquisition cost is something every bank wants.

- The biggest adoption curve in finance took over 30 years, voice brokers to algorithmic to AI. Doug doesn't think full tokenization takes that long, but he doesn't think it's five years either.

Sachin Latti spent two decades in law enforcement looking, from the outside, like a guy who had it together. On the inside, he was going through a divorce, suicidal, and standing in an empty customs hall at the Vancouver airport when the thought hit him: he didn't want to die without trying more. He'd never run more than a 5K. Five years later, he'd run over 21,000km, raised over $300,000 for veterans and first responders, and became the first South Asian person to run across Canada, 100km a day for 81 days.

Takeaways:

- Discipline transfers. Sachin used the same self-control he'd built in bodybuilding to rebuild his mental health from zero.

- The right mentor doesn't tell you what to do. Sachin's first mentor, a retired special-forces operator, only ever told him what he himself had done.

- Chasing a record and chasing your actual mission can be two different things. Sachin gave up a shot at the fastest crossing of Canada to talk to more people instead.

- 5,000 roadside conversations did more for his mission than the finish line did.

- Ego doesn't disappear when you get healthy. It just stops being in charge.

- The hardest part of an 81-day run wasn't his body. It was five years of training with the pressure of the goal sitting on every single one of them.

- You don't need a "big enough" reason to start. Sachin started with a few 5Ks a week.

Jamie Weeks built and sold a national fitness franchise, then built and sold a national cold plunge brand, then hit the lowest point of his life. Sixty days later, he started climbing out, and nine months after that, he was speaking at Harvard Business School. This episode is about what actually happens between the exit and the next chapter, and why he now invests in founders the way a music producer works with an artist who already has the songs.

**Takeaways**

- The seven-minute rule: he decided to invest in a founder before knowing the raise amount, based on the founder's vision alone

- "There's no replacement for a founder's vision" — the single thing he says separates founders who get funded from those who don't

- Mistakes aren't the risk, hiding them is — his stated goal is sharing his own mistakes so other founders don't repeat them

- Give your top people real ownership, not just the instruction to "act like an owner"

- Scaling one location well isn't scaling; scaling means proving the model across 5+ markets before it's real

- Private equity that's never operated a business can't understand what it's like to be a founder — that gap is where Founders Row's model comes from

**Quotes**

- "There's no replacement for a founder's vision." (8:08)

- "It is a very, very lonely mountain when you are climbing that mountain and every decision is on you." (28:52)

- "For 60 days, I was the most depressed I've ever been. I could not find my journey." (56:05)

**Links:** https://www.instagram.com/foundersrow.co/https://www.instagram.com/jamieweeksatl/

Weekly conversations with the builders of society: entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders. What the journey left on them, and the mark they're leaving on the world. Hosted by Vin Infante.

Tom is a clinical hypnotherapist with 25 years in psychology, specializing in self-sabotage, imposter syndrome and crippling self-doubt. His own life flipped in a single moment at a rave in Goa. He's walking evidence that change happens in an instant.60% of founders are depressed within six months of a seven- eight- or nine-figure exit. Tom Fortis Mayor has spent 25 years figuring out why: a part of you doesn't want to feel good, and it's been running the show since childhood.In this episode:- The one-question test that reveals whether you self-sabotage (it involves compliments)- Why self-sabotage is not a self-esteem issue, and why that difference changes the entire fix- The step traditional therapy skips, and the exact order real change has to happen in- The 17-hour dance that ended with a holy man, a cup of tea, and a completely different life- Why the 5 AM ice-bath routine might be a symptom, not a solutionChapters0:00 The part of you that wants to fail1:02 Welcome to MARKED1:43 25 years, one obsession4:19 Lost at 278:48 The holy man at sunrise10:59 "I was there to pay for his tea"14:34 Therapists never study contentment20:48 Why we really self-sabotage23:44 The compliment test26:10 Perfect parents, marked kids30:38 The millionaire's hidden habit31:53 Why founders crash after the exit33:20 The step therapy skips44:24 Is therapy doing more harm?49:44 The two marksTom's book: Don't F*ck Up Your Life https://thefreedom.co/bookTom's site: https://thefreedom.co/Vin Infante is a mental performance coach for entrepreneurs and founders. 16 years in mental health. Licensed psychotherapist. Former FDNY firefighter.https://www.vincentinfante.lifeNew episodes weekly. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.#MarkedPodcast #VinInfante #Entrepreneurship #FounderStories #MentalPerformance #Mindset #BusinessPodcast #SelfSabotage #Hypnotherapy

Meet William Stern — a founder who sold a townhome at 22, took the proceeds, and built Cardiff into America's largest privately held small business lender — co-owned and operated by four childhood friends for 22 years. Cardiff has deployed over $12 billion in capital to Main Street businesses across the country, was voted America's favorite small business lender two years in a row, and is now using AI to give any small business owner instant access to funding that banks have always denied them.

Four childhood friends. 22 years. $12 billion deployed. And they're just getting started.

He breaks down:

1. Why four co-founders with egos can actually work — if you get this one thing right

2. Why he would never take money or advice from someone he wouldn't put on his board

3. How Cardiff is using AI to democratize small business lending before banks even wake up

4. Why time is the only currency that matters — and how success finally taught him that

5.The real reason most businesses rot from the inside — and the book that changed everything

Follow Will:

🌐 cardiff.co

🌐 williamstern.me

🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/williamstern

Timecodes:

00:00 Intro

01:00 Cardiff — America's Favorite Small Business Lender

02:45 Four Childhood Friends, One Company, 22 Years

05:00 The Entourage Model of Business

07:00 How to Eliminate Ego in a Partnership

10:00 Why Cardiff Hired a Business Coach — and What Changed

14:00 The Trillion Dollar Coach Story — Apple vs Google

18:00 Cardiff's Mission — Democratizing Capital for Main Street

21:00 Why Will Never Takes Money From People He Wouldn't Put on His Board

24:00 $2.5 Billion Last Year — Where Cardiff Is Headed

26:00 Why AI Is Changing Business Lending Before Banks React

29:00 The Don Quixote Lesson Every Entrepreneur Needs to Hear

32:00 Leadership & Self-Deception — The Book That Changed His Business

36:00 From Chasing Materialism to Buying Back Time

40:00 Why Time Is the Most Valuable Currency You Have

44:00 The Stakeholder Philosophy That Powers Cardiff

48:00 What Being 1% Means to Will

52:00 How to Get Funded Through Cardiff

01:04:00 How to Connect With Will

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