Mark built Jade Leaf into the #1 matcha brand in America starting from aSacramento white-label deal and 100 pouches at a time. He sold it in 2020 —right before matcha went fully mainstream. In this episode he breaks down howhe got to the top of Amazon, why he doesn't regret selling, why most of thematcha you're being served is low quality, and what he's building next:Mindful Drops, a flavorless liquid L-theanine you add to any drink.

Brennen Bliss, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, taught himself to build websites at 14, charging his mom $3,000 for his first site. By 16 he'd landed a major corporate client, the college football playoffs foundation, by having his mentor pose as the company's owner. But the early success came with a cost: chasing status, he was over $200K in debt by 19. A book (Profit First) and the realization that he had nothing to prove turned things around, taking him from a negative $48K year to real profitability. Today he runs Propellic, a travel marketing agency doing $7M to $10M a year with clients like G Adventures, Tripadvisor, and Viator.The conversation moves from his come up into where travel and marketing are heading: why he thinks top of funnel SEO is dying in the age of AI, what his $250M ad spend dataset reveals about 2026 (the "coiled spring" of pent up demand, the regions winning and losing, the 121 day booking window), the one advertising lever almost nobody uses, and why he's convinced AI won't give us the one click trip. He closes with the best and worst advice he's ever gotten and three hot takes on the future of travel.Connect with Brennen & PropellicWebsite: https://www.propellic.comBrennen's site: https://www.brennenbliss.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennenblissInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brennenlb

Pranisha lost $3,000 on her first business when a manufacturer destroyed her entire first order. Eighteen months later she'd built Poosa - a womenswear brand putting Indian textiles into Western silhouettes - and sold out 500 units in a single week with zero dollars in ad spend.In this episode she breaks down the viral video that drove a 10,000-person waitlist in 48 hours, why getting laid off was the best thing that happened to her, the fuel crisis quietly disrupting her supply chain, and the audience-first philosophy behind everything she's built.

In this episode of the Side Street Podcast, we sit down with Karla, founder of Bubbles & Buttercream which is Austin's most unique cake decorating workshop experience. Karla takes us through her full journey: from baking cakes in a college dorm room, to teaching bilingual Pre-K at a Title One school, to grinding through a corporate edtech sales job that had her traveling 5 days a week with zero sense of community - until she finally took the leap.One fired-up speech from a stranger at a Kendra Scott event, a Selena Quintanilla celebration with 16 people, and a Facebook mommy group later... Bubbles & Buttercream was born.

In this episode, we sit down with Hallie Meland, the woman behind two of Austin's most exciting community brands, to talk about how she turned a simple idea into a movement.Hallie is the founder of ATX Social Chair, Austin's go-to guide for events, nightlife, and things to do, and the co-founder of Coffee & Chill ATX, a biweekly wellness and social experience bringing together coffee, cold plunges, live DJs, and a whole lot of community, hosted at some of Austin's coolest venues.We get into how she built both brands from the ground up, what it really takes to create genuine community in a big city, how she landed brand partnerships and sponsors, and why she believes showing up consistently is the secret ingredient most people skip.

In this episode, we sit down with the team behind Blind 8 - the spontaneous social community taking cities by storm. With 37K followers and chapters popping up in Austin, DC, NYC, Boston, Barcelona, and Honolulu, Blind 8 is on a mission to bring social bravery back to everyday life. We talk about how they build real-world community, what it means to show up as a stranger and leave as a friend, and why the most meaningful moments happen when you say yes to the unexpected.Cheers to Social Bravery. 🥂

Most people wait until they have the budget, the brand deal, the perfect moment.Clayton didn't wait.He's building Stride & Rise — a run club — with $0. No sponsors. No investors. Just a belief that community doesn't need capital to start.In this episode of Side Street, we sat down with Clayton before the breakthrough. He's mid-build, figuring it out in real time, and honest about all of it.We talk about why he started, what it actually takes to pull people together, and the thing most "community builders" get wrong.

Taylor is one year into building her medspa in Austin, Texas. Just the real, messy, early chapters of what it looks like to bet on yourself and figure it out as you go.We talk about how she got here, how she's marketing a brand that's still finding its footing, and the challenges that come with year one of building something from nothing. She's still in it and that's exactly the point.This is Side Street.