Kim Perell is a nine-time entrepreneur, angel investor in more than 100 companies, and the founder behind a business that grew from a $10,000 loan from her grandmother to a $235 million exit.

In this episode, Kim shares how she built through uncertainty, what she looks for when investing in early-stage founders, and the lessons she learned scaling companies from their first million toward nine-figure and billion-dollar outcomes.

She also breaks down mentorship, founder resilience, building valuable relationships, increasing a company’s attractiveness to buyers, and why focus matters more than diversification in the early years.

Kim closes with her philosophy on family, money, creativity, long-term thinking, and why no one becomes successful alone.

Find Kim Perell here:

Website: https://kimperell.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimperell/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimperell/

Check out Kim’s books: https://kimperell.com/books/

Learn more about Juni: https://drinkjuni.com/

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Eddie Maalouf is the founder and CEO of BAD Marketing, an agency generating roughly $18 million annually, and an entrepreneur behind multiple businesses including Scoville Hot Chicken.

Before building his agency, Eddie became the top sales rep by volume at Lifetime Fitness and later helped generate an additional $1 million in profit for his family’s businesses.

In this episode, Eddie explains the sales systems, marketing strategies, hiring decisions, and organic content playbook that helped him scale from struggling to acquire clients to working with major brands including Yeezy. He also breaks down how he negotiated a restaurant business from a $1 million asking price to a $130,000 deal.

Follow Eddie Maalouf:
Instagram: instagram.com/eddiemaalouf

BAD Marketing: badmarketing.com

Scoville Hot Chicken: scovillechicken.com

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Get the all-in-one business tool millionaires use to run and grow their companies. Start your free 30-day trial 👉: https://www.gohighlevel.com/schoolofhardknocks/?fp_ref=the-school-of-hard-knocks-llc20

Jhalesa Seymour is the founder of Salt.XO, an eight-figure feminine hygiene brand generating more than $20 million annually, with one launch producing $1 million in just 30 minutes.

She started the company in college with only $67 and became the first millionaire in her family by age 25.

In this episode, Jhalesa shares how she created demand, built trust through organic marketing, survived a devastating 20,000-order fulfillment crisis, scaled with paid advertising, and learned to manage people and money through explosive growth.

She also discusses faith, motherhood, competition, building the right circle, and her ambition to turn Salt.XO into a global billion-dollar company.

Find Jhalesa Seymour here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jhalesa.xo/
Salt.XO: https://www.instagram.com/salt.xo/
Website: https://www.saltxo.com/

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Mike Wystrach is the founder of Freshly, the prepared-meal company acquired by Nestlé in 2020 in a deal valued at $1.5 billion. Before Freshly, Mike experienced business failure, lost his home, faced a $1 million judgment, and at 35 had just $15 in his bank account.

In this episode, he explains how he rebuilt his mindset, scaled Freshly to more than 1 million meals per week, navigated fundraising and hypergrowth, and ultimately decided to sell the business. Mike also shares lessons on entrepreneurship, customer obsession, building great teams, wealth, failure, and what he is building today through Petfolk and Cutting Horse.

Find Mike Wystrach here:
Website: https://mikewystrach.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikewystrach/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwystrach/

Check out Mike’s businesses:
Petfolk: https://petfolk.com/
Cutting Horse: https://www.cuttinghorse.com/
Listen to The Advantage: https://mikewystrach.com/podcast/ https://mikewystrach.com/newsletter/

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Try Emergent for free: https://app.emergent.sh/?utm_shift=redirect&via=theschoolofhardknockspodcast

Jamie Salter is the founder and chairman of Authentic Brands Group, the global brand platform behind Reebok, Champion, Forever 21, Quiksilver and partnerships with names like Shaquille O’Neal, David Beckham and Kevin Hart.

In this episode, Jamie breaks down how he went from a childhood paper route and the snowboard business to building one of the largest brand licensing companies in the world.

He shares how Authentic evaluates acquisitions, what gives a struggling brand a “heartbeat,” why global expansion matters, and how licensing can unlock growth without owning every part of the supply chain.

Jamie also talks about working alongside his four sons, partnering with major personal brands, the rise of creator-driven commerce, financial discipline, and why organization has been one of the biggest advantages of his career.

Follow Jamie Salter:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamiejsalter/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-salter-04a08933/

Learn more about Authentic Brands Group:
Website: https://corporate.authentic.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authentic/

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George Heaton is the co-founder of Represent, the British fashion brand that has grown from a bedroom operation into a global business generating roughly $140 million in annual revenue. In this episode, George shares how he and his brother built the company from the ground up, navigated a multimillion-dollar trademark dispute, and scaled from approximately $8M to more than $100M in revenue. He also breaks down product strategy, international expansion, hiring, retail, pricing discipline and the importance of delayed gratification. A practical conversation about building a brand designed to outlive its founders.

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David Royce is an entrepreneur and sales leader who built and sold five pest control companies for more than $1 billion in combined value. Starting as a broke college student in door-to-door sales, he went on to create high-performance sales organizations, scalable operating systems, and recurring-revenue businesses across multiple markets.

In this episode, David explains his RACK sales system, how he survived early cash-flow crises, why training and culture became his competitive advantage, and why “boring” businesses continue to create extraordinary wealth.

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Blake Johnson is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and sold five companies, including a $97 million exit and the sale of Byte for more than $1 billion. After nearly losing his first business during the 2008 financial crisis, he developed a disciplined framework for bootstrapping, scaling and positioning companies for acquisition. In this episode, Blake explains how he evaluates markets, controls customer acquisition costs, builds high-performing teams and creates businesses that strategic buyers and private equity firms want to acquire.

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Dr. Jason Wersland is the inventor of the Theragun and the founder of Therabody, the global wellness company that transformed percussive therapy and recovery.

After a serious motorcycle accident left him in extreme pain, Jason created the first Theragun prototype from a modified power tool and spent years developing the product while facing financial pressure, family doubt and failed business partnerships.

In this episode, he explains how he found the right investor, protected the invention, built an entirely new product category and earned adoption from world-class athletes including Cristiano Ronaldo and Aaron Rodgers.

The conversation explores invention, resilience, brand building, strategic partnerships and why consistency, persistence and delusion are often required to build something revolutionary.

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David Stout is the founder of WebAI, an artificial intelligence company publicly valued at $2.5 billion. After growing up on a Michigan ranch, he launched a web services company in college that generated more than $750,000 annually before leaving school to pursue AI.

In this episode, David explains how a $400 loan, repeated investor rejection, and a relentless focus on on-device intelligence shaped WebAI’s rise. He also discusses AI ownership, data centers, leadership, faith, recruiting elite talent, and the future of specialized artificial intelligence.

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