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Stairway to CEO
Stairway to CEO episodes
- From Fashion to Beauty CEO with April Uchitel, the CEO of Violet Grey
Welcome to episode 8 of the Stairway to CEO podcast, I’m your host Lee Greene and in this episode, I sat down with April Uchitel, the recently appointed CEO of Violet Grey. Violet Grey is a luxury beauty brand and online retailer known for its expert curation of industry-approved beauty products. April shares with us her impressive career journey, from climbing the corporate fashion ladder at DVF where she helped build the brand from a $6M company to a $300M company to diving into the startup world working as Chief Brand Officer for Spring. April talks with us about what she’s learned along the way, how building relationships have been essential to her success and what it’s like to now be called CEO for the first time.
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
- How an early penchant for shopping at Contempo Casuals sparked a lifelong passion for fashion.
- Why she credits studying Sociology and Psychology in college with helping her to be successful in sales.
- The tools she used to manifest her dream job at DVF.
- What NOT to do and why you should never burn bridges.
- Her take on the nuances of successful scalability.
- The value of a Shared Economy approach.
- Why she knew it was time to pivot and leave fashion for tech.
- Why she considered naming Spring’s first blog post “Fuck the Department Store.”
- The critical importance of company culture.
- Why “good enough” is a bad thing.
- What the toughest challenges she faces as a CEO are.
- Her best advice for others aspiring to a CEO title.
Quotes:
“It took me a while to learn how important it is to champion yourself.”
“There is a fine line between overselling yourself and not having the goods to deliver.”
“My heart and soul and purpose were in disrupting the industry.”
“I think we, especially as women, feel like we can’t do it unless we are a thousand percent qualified, whereas men say: I can do one of these things, I can do the whole thing.”
“You have to really believe in and love what you do.”
“The leader sets the tone.”
“Sometimes we’re paving the road while we’re driving.”
“Get ready, fasten your seatbelt, and suck up as much information as you can.”
To Find Out More:
https://www.violetgrey.com
1 hr 16 min - Marketing Magic with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media
Today, on the Stairway to CEO podcast, I’m hanging out with Erik Huberman, the Founder & CEO of Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service marketing agency based here in Santa Monica, California. Since launching 4 years ago, Erik has been named one of Inc Magazine’s “Top 25 Marketing Influencers” and was on Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2016. In this episode, Erik shares with us his entrepreneurial journey from selling beanie babies at 8 years old to building Hawke Media into an award-winning marketing agency valued at over 75 million. As always, if you like what you hear, subscribe to the show and leave us a review -I hope you enjoy this episode!
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
How his dad challenged him and helped him to avoid the pitfalls of being a “spoiled rich kid” by encouraging him to get a job at just 8 years old.
How selling Beanie Babies sparked a lifelong passion for business.
Why he believes that sales is not about selling.
How the market crash of 2008 steered him away from pursuing his father’s real-estate legacy and why he chose to become an entrepreneur instead.
How he doubled his income by starting consulting work with major brands
The realization that all companies, big and small, suffer from the same problem with finding good marketing talent and how that inspired him to start Hawke Media.
Why he believes there are 3 pillars of successful marketing and what they are.
Why you should never trust a company who guarantees ROI.
How to train your managers to be leaders and why you should take it seriously.
Why money is not his only barometer of success.
Why clarity of vision is the most important thing of all.
Quotes:
“If you can’t sell Rubik’s Cubes, don’t start a Rubik’s Cube company.”
“You can’t take any of it personally. Things happen –– it’s okay.”
“Sustainably do something you love every day. I say sustainably because you need to make a living, you need to make money, whatever that means to you, but you gotta just enjoy it. Life’s too short. It’s not just about money. There are plenty of rich people who are miserable –– that to me is not success.”
“Just get shit done. What are you actually doing? Don’t get caught up it the buzzwords and the hype and all the talk. Just go to work. Get something done.”
“If you have to raise money to get your product to market, you have the wrong team, or you’re the wrong person.”
To Find Out More:
https://hawkemedia.com
55 min - Entrepreneurship as Art with Katie Johnson, Co-Founder and CEO of Carbon38
Welcome to Episode 6 of the Stairway to CEO podcast, I’m your host Lee Greene and today I spoke with Katie Johnson, the Co-Founder & CEO of Carbon38. Carbon38 is a luxury activewear brand and online retailer featuring a curated selection of activewear designers. Katie shares her story about how she went from working as a professional broadway dancer to building Carbon38 into a hundred million dollar company that sells activewear from over 250 brands and employs nearly 100 people. She talks about how she learned to bring out her inner alpha while working as a fitness instructor, how moments of crying in the shower can lead to pushing through boundaries she never thought she could, and how a vision setting workshop in LA helped her create her 5 year vision for the future, which has already begun to unfold.
In This Episode You'll Hear About:
- How a very young Katie leveraged seasonal Cherry Blossom tourism in her native Washington DC to create a flourishing lemonade-stand business.
- How she learned to out-alpha a room full of alpha women.
- How working a room is like performance art.
- Something unexpected that Katie has in common with Sheryl Sandberg
- Why getting very specific about your vision for the future is essential.
- The importance of having soul and spirit as a brand.
- Why going IPO is not her metric for success.
- How Katie sees her position as a CEO as a means to a greater end and why she’s in it for the long haul.
- How she raised capital and created a partnership with Foot Locker.
- Why you shouldn’t listen to naysayers and doomsdayers.
To Find Out More:
https://www.carbon38.com
Quotes:
“I think being an artist and being an entrepreneur are exactly the same thing.”
“I put my needle on that record (vision of future success), and I’ve been playing that record in the back of my head and it’s infiltrated all of my decisions since then.”
“I’ve never been allowed in my upbringing, or in my own character, to feel hopeless. I’m an off-the-charts optimist and there’s always a solution.”
“It’s not final until you’re dead, and even then there are negotiations.”
“The bigger I can be, the bigger Carbon can be, the more opportunity we can create, the more ability we have to shape, and that is such a gift and an opportunity.”
“Anything is possible, you’ve just gotta be smart, be scrappy and get your head in the game.”
“Ignorance is such a gift when you’re trying to start something.”
“Have fun. If you’re not having fun, pivot ...you only have one life.”
1 hr 4 min - Grit, Moxie, and a Good Idea with Courtney Reum, Co-Founder of M13 and Veev Spirits
Welcome to the fifth episode of Stairway to CEO! In this episode, I interviewed Courtney Reum, the Co-Founder of M13, a consumer product-focused, brand development, and venture capital firm based in Los Angeles. Along with angel investing and building an impressive portfolio packed with top startups including Pinterest, Lyft, Ring, SpaceX, and Thrive Market, just to name a few, he also Co-Founded Veev Spirits with his brother Carter and is a best-selling author of the book “Shortcut Your Startup." Courtney shares how he went from working at Goldman Sachs to building Veev Spirits from a 2-person startup to one of the fastest growing independent liquor brands in the US which was acquired in 2016. He talks with us about his biggest failures, what he learned from it, what it was like to get his company acquired and how he thinks about managing burnout.
In This Episode You'll Hear About:
How skipping class senior year actually lead him to pursue an Ivy League education at Columbia University in New York City.
How he sharpened his selling chops pushing Lingonberry pancakes at IHOP.
How life is all about options and how important it is to keep yours open.
How he ended up moonlighting as a card-carrying food critic and founding Zagat’s first internship program.
How a fateful injury ended his dreams of being a pro-athlete, but spurred his journey into finance and on to become a successful entrepreneur.
How Kevin Plank from Under Armour helped him decide to become a founder.
How he came up with the name for Veev, why he decided to start a spirits company, and the challenges he faced branding a “healthier” alcohol.
The unusual approach he used to raise capital for Veev.
The biggest challenges they faced and the importance of focus as a founder.
Some of the most useful tips from his best-selling book: Shortcut Your Startup.
His exit strategy from Veev and his advice on strategies for getting your company acquired. (Hint: pre-court your buyers).
Re-inventing the wheel — the creation of his investment firm and platform M13.
His take on founder burnout and how to keep employee morale high.
His biggest takeaway and his number ONE piece of advice for new startups!
To Find Out More:
https://www.m13.co/
Quotes:
"Life's just about options and so the more options you have the better it'll probably turn out."
“I was not the person who always knew what he wanted to do.”
"If you're starting a company and you think you might want to sell it, make every decision from the beginning with that in mind.”
“Always balance getting in the trenches with analysis paralysis.”
"You're doing things you've never done before. You either have this incredible gut or really good people around you because being asked to do things that you've never done every day is really tricky.”
“Do what you do best and outsource the rest.”
“Being an entrepreneur is like being a hopeless romantic — it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”
46 min - Breaking Through Barriers with Brian Garrett, the Co-Founder of Crosscut Ventures
Welcome to the fourth episode of the Stairway to CEO podcast! In this episode, I interviewed Brian Garrett, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Crosscut Ventures, a top VC fund in LA where he's been investing in startups for over 10 years. Brian shares his story—from a family tragedy that happened at age 13 to a recent healing experience that helped him break through the barriers that have been holding him back. In this episode, Brian talks about the importance of being vulnerable, the characteristics he looks for in founders to invest in, his take on the founder-investor relationship, and why he now believes in the saying “Let the game come to you.”
In This Episode You'll Hear About:
- How a tragic life event at a young age shaped him into the hard working person he is
- His Dad’s interesting background and how his dad made a life for himself after separating himself from his two alcoholic parents
- What triggered his quarter life crisis and what he did about it
- How he met his Co-Founder Rick Smith and how Crosscut Ventures came about
- His experience with fundraising the first fund for Crosscut Ventures
- The worst pitch he ever received from an entrepreneur and why
- His perspective on the process of raising capital from investors as a founder
- Why he thinks being vulnerable is important and what characteristics he looks for most in successful founders
- A recent trip he took and what he learned from an incredible healing experience
- What components are beyond the control of even the most hardworking founders
- Why following your passion is the most important thing to consider when building a business
To Find Out More: http://www.crosscut.vc/
Quotes:
- "Use the criticism as a way to sharpen your pitch or your angle but don't take offence to it because we're no more qualified to do this than anyone else out there."
- "Pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will."
- "You can't force circumstances to your favor, but there are some things you can do to get a slight advantage."
- "Not everybody needs to be part of a startup that scales from 0 to x in 18 months. There are many great businesses that are built overtime and you just have to let what the market gives you. You have to take advantage of it as it comes and just be smart."
- "You gotta let the game come to you."
58 min - From High School Dropout to CEO with Sahil Jain, Co-Founder and CEO of AdStage
Welcome to the third episode of the Stairway to CEO podcast! In this episode, I interviewed Sahil Jain, the young and brilliant Co-Founder and CEO of AdStage. AdStage is an advertising technology company that allows businesses to better understand and consolidate all of the data from their online ad spend across multiple networks in one place. Sahil shares his journey from dropping out of high school to work for Yahoo! at age 17 to building his own company and the many invaluable lessons and insights he learned along the way.
In this Episode You'll Hear About:
- How and why Sahil dropped out of high school
- How he landed a job at Yahoo! full-time at age 17
- His experience working for AOL at age 19 and why he got fired
- The valuable lessons he learned from his first startup
- What prompted Sahil to launch AdStage
- Why he’s not a big fan of outsourcing
- How his emotions impact his business and how he stays consistent and patient.
- His process for hiring the right people and how he gauges if the applicant is the right fit
- Why his company hosts hackathons
- His experience in raising capital for his business and tips on pitching
- Why he thinks staying naive is an important part of success
- His perspective on the future of digital media & advertising
- His advice for aspiring founders or anyone looking to start a business
To Find Out More:
https://www.adstage.io
Quotes:
- "It's really important who you start a company with and it's really important to pick your founders properly and people who you get along with philosophically as well as just in general."
- "My co-founder and I often remind ourselves that if we're having a really bad day, we can't bring it in with us to the office."
- "Hiring is your most important job as a founder and as a leader."
- "Getting someone excited (about your business) can be done in many many different ways."
- When it comes to fundraising: "I think the most important thing is authenticity."
1 hr 7 min - Jumping Out of the Conventional with Ariel Kaye, the Founder and CEO of Parachute Home
Ariel Kaye has known from a young age that she wanted to learn, improve and move forward in all aspects of life. Today, she talks with us about her journey in starting Parachute Home, a popular direct consumer brand offering bed and bath linens as well as other home essentials for the modern home. We discuss the challenges and rewards of fundraising, how to build a collaborative environment and ways to tell a story in a big, bold and undeniable way.
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
- Ariel’s unconventional path from working in Advertising to starting her own business.
- How Ariel merged her interest in building a brand with her passion for high-quality home essentials to start Parachute Home.
- What she did to update investors and show progress in order to secure capital.
- How she took feedback and applied it feverishly to better herself and her company.
- Best lessons learned and tips on hiring the right people based on your own core competency.
- Some of the challenges she faced in building her confidence, and ways she encourages camaraderie and bonding within the Parachute culture.
- Why it’s not rare to see employees of Parachute cardio boxing each other.
- What investors need to feel and see, and what Ariel has done to bring out the “crazy” within her own pitch meetings.
- Her recent $30M Series C round, and why fundraising is like a performance.
- How Ariel measures success, and her focus on building a long lasting brand.
- The moments where Ariel felt most defeated, and how she got back on her feet.
- Ariel’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
To Find Out More:
Parachute
Quotes:
- “You have to fake it til you make it.”
- “You are investing in the person so much more than the actual idea”
- “I had to let go of my own insecurity regarding the types of people that would be excited to work here.”
- “When you have a great brand that people are inspired by, it becomes a lot easier to recruit people.”
- “You are your own biggest advocate. You must put the excitement and passion on the table so it can be felt and experienced by others.”
- “Nothing is easy, and that’s what keeps it fun.”
- “Everything takes longer than expected.”
- “I think when you have an idea you really believe in, it’s totally worth following that passion.”
- “You have to get used to things going wrong, and moments that are overwhelming.”
35 min - Following Your Gut with Daina Trout, the Co-Founder & CEO of Health-Ade Kombucha
Title: Following Your Gut with Daina Trout, the Co-Founder & CEO of Health-Ade Kombucha
Description:
Welcome to the first episode of Stairway to CEO! I am your host, Lee Greene. In this week’s episode, we are joined by Daina Trout, Co-Founder and CEO of Health-Ade Kombucha. Daina not only has one of the most successful kombucha drinks on the market, but she is a candid and powerful business owner that tells us all about her journey in building her company from the ground up. You will hear the raw, fermented truth on fear, insecurity, imperfections and why it’s okay to have them while working towards your vision.
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
- Her early experimental days with fermentation and kombucha both as food to enjoy and also to heal.
- The ways the universe lined up to put her in contact with her best friend and co-founder Vanessa.
- What a Kombucha Scoby is, and why you might want to put it on your head.
- How a focused and inspired one hour meeting led to the famous anchor logo and the Health-Ade brand name.
- The feelings of excitement mixed with fear that Daina and her co-founders felt when they all quit their jobs at the same time to work full time on Health-Ade.
- The price that comes with being an entrepreneur and why you should embrace it.
- The glamorous side of owning a business that we see vs what we don’t see behind the curtain.
- Challenges within the fundraising process and tips Daina has about negotiating contracts as a founder.
- What Daina does to keep her 200+ employees in sync and create great company culture.
- Practical advice for things you should know when starting a business venture.
- Her personal journey as a CEO and how Daina gained confidence in who she is both personally and professionally.
To Find Out More:
Health-Ade Kombucha
Quotes:
- “Creative things sometimes best come out from being in a pressure cooker.”
- “All of our friends and family were asking us to please not quit our jobs and start a kombucha company from the farmers market.”
- “It’s not about being fearless. I wasn’t fearless at all.”
- “Starting a business is just constant problem-solving, in every way you can imagine.”
- “The weird thing about confidence is that it’s already there inside you.”
- “I did then what I knew how to do, now that I know better, I do better”
- “Being awesome is wildly inconvenient”
54 min
About Stairway to CEO
From the publisher's feed
Stairway to CEO is a podcast, hosted by entrepreneur Lee Greene, featuring untold stories from inspiring Founders & CEOs about what it takes to start and grow a business.