Paparelli Podcast

Karim Abouelnaga, founder and CEO of Practice Makes Perfect in NYC. He is a successful social entrepreneur, author, and speaker. He grew up poor in the inner city of New York to immigrant parents with little education. 

After his dad died when he was fifteen years old, a mentor came into his life that raised his expectations. Then he attended Cornell on a full scholarship and decided to pay it forward. 

Practice Makes Perfect's mission is to narrow the achievement gap in education for the inner city poor. Karim went right back to his roots and is making a difference in kids' lives and for our nation. 

Take the time to listen and see how his is impacting the poor, but also you and me. 

His book, The Purpose-Driven Social Entrepreneur, is a must read for anyone being called by God to make a difference in this world. 

He helps his readers prepare for this journey by understanding their purpose and equips them with the right mindset. He then takes the entrepreneur on each step necessary to create a high-impact organization.

Terry Brown is the Country Director of Leader Impact for Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ). He is born and raised in Arkansas, and has been serving in the Czech Republic for the last 25 years.

He is a true missionary. 

He is a true entrepreneur. 

The parallels between these two vocations are striking. 

Committing your life to serve others
Motivated by the positive impact on people’s lives
Creating new products and services
Cracking a new market in the US and overseas
Networking and fundraising
Gaining support and sell-thru

And the list goes on. 

There are so many valuable lessons to learn from Terry, his experiences and his stories. You will be an even better entrepreneur by listening to this interview and taking good notes you can share with your team.

Robin Gregg was an experienced FinTech executive when she was asked to be CEO of MyLumper. Today she is an experienced FinTec entrepreneur and CEO of RoadSync. 

She told me, “This was the hardest challenge I ever had in my life.” 

This is a great story of a woman with no family business background becoming a business person. She was her high school’s valedictorian, who received a full scholarship to Washington and Lee University. 

Her search for the right career led her into an economic consultancy, Harvard Business School, a huge credit card company, a financial processing startup founded by Steve Case, a transportation based financial processor, to her current destination as CEO of RoadSync. 

So many lessons learned in each of her challenges as a wife, mother, business leader, and entrepreneur. It is a life well lived that resulted in wisdom.

Blake Patton is the VC, and Dan Ciprari is the entrepreneur and CEO. Two different jobs, two different responsibilities, and yet they have one mission. That mission is to build a valuable company for themselves, their employees, and their investors.

There are good times and challenging times on the way to building a startup. Most discussions focus on the exit. These two men are looking to exit one day. But that day hasn’t come yet. In the meantime, they must find ways to contribute their shared experiences and personalities to make this business go big. 

I had a chance to interview these two great men on their relationship. We were at the Angel Lounge at the ATDC, and the attendees were all active angel investors. 

I am publishing this interview because I thought you might want to listen in. Building a business is hard. Relationships are even harder.

Bryan Wish is the Founder and CEO of BW Missions. He turns experts into thought leaders. He developed a proven process that creates content which builds communities that creates content. BW Missions has launched many successful first act entrepreneurs and CEO’s into thought leaders by creating a firm brand foundation they can build on.

But getting to BW Missions was a ten-year life journey. Bryan experienced family challenges at a very young age that shaped his life vision. He entered college ready to build his career from the first day of classes. His journey is filled with hard work, self-reflection, course corrections, and people who helped him all along the way. 

Bryan is a successful entrepreneur because he is relational, curious, and focused. There is a lot to be learned from Bryan on how to build the life of your dreams.

The last VC round was $100 million at a $1 Billion dollar valuation. All based on continued hockey stick growth in a vibrant, new, and ever-increasing market.

How do you build the management to hit these goals?

This is the question Rob and I aim to answer. Rob Forman is the Co-Founder, President & Chief Strategy Officer at SalesLoft.

Our discussion is wide-ranging and informative. Our topics include:

- Building your first management team
- What should be included in a leadership training program (and who should lead it)
- Top hiring versus promoting from within
- Growing and staying ahead as the founder
- Designing and redesigning the leadership team necessary to hit your growth goals

Lots of ideas, wisdom, and insights to help you succeed in building your million-dollar or even billion-dollar startup.

He started a business at 19 while still at the University of Alabama. He quit school and went all in. 

Simple idea. 

Instant traction. 

Multiple pivots. 

Lots of learning. 

And forty years later the business was sold. 

Marty Tighe is an authentic entrepreneur who shares his greatest secret of success. He loves people and respects people. 

Listen to how Marty created a great business, built a great life, touched thousands, and left a legacy few match in their lifetime.

Chip Patterson built AmeriPark starting with one parking lot at one restaurant in Buckhead, Atlanta. He was going to Georgia State and took a job parking cars because it paid better than pumping gas. Thirty-years later he sold his nation-wide car parking business to a private equity firm. 

Chip’s story is the American dream. He shares his secret of success which, like all secrets, is amazingly simple. Do this one thing and you will succeed and succeed bigger and better than you ever thought possible. But it was his servant’s heart and love for the homeless that makes Chip’s story so special. 

Take the time to listen to Chip shares his overnight, twenty-nine-year success story. A story filled with business tips and the importance of asking for help when you run out of answers.

Jim Porter has a 50-year tech executive management career. His focus is people. In particular, great performers who are also great leaders who are capable of building great companies. 

In this episode, we drill down into what corporate execs look for in their acquisition strategy focused on small to mid-sized companies.  

You’ll learn the two “must haves” your company must have to be interesting to a corporate buyer. If you're missing either one, they’ll walk.

Jim acquired my company back in 1981. He identified back then as an up-and-coming leader. I always wondered how he knew. In our conversation, he shares his secrets.

Lots of wisdom embedded in some terrific stories of the tech industry.

Dave Moeller is a successful serial entrepreneur. An inventor at heart, Dave assigns a high value to the intellectual property he creates. His last deal was sold to a multi-billion dollar company. The sale provided a 10x return to his investors. During his earn-out, he created a new company by working nights and weekends on an integrated hardware-software idea for consumers.

Dave raised money from angels on both of these deals. We talk about how to raise money as a first-time entrepreneur. This includes getting the right angel, and the terms to expect. But the second go-around was quite different. He’s proven now. And he has some great intellectual property. 

In this episode, you’ll learn how to raise money from angels, but also what value to expect from angels. Dave is the real deal and he shares his experience, no holds barred.