Starting It Up

Christian Chasmer is the founder of Elevate Advisors, a consulting program that empowers entrepreneurs to increase profitability, reduce stress, and scale their business to 7 figures and beyond. Starting in college, Christian built a franchise from $0 to $1.2 million in annual revenue. He then co-founded the real estate development company CC Solutions and grew it to $6 million in revenue in under 2 years. He’s also the author of the best-selling book, Lose the Limits. Christian credits his ability to accomplish all of this to his use of effective systems. We dive into what some of those systems are and how we can utilize them, how and why Christian plans to overhaul the education system with his new program, ElevateNext, how to get involved in real estate investing, and much more!  

David Liebowitz is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and founding team member at Everipedia, a decentralized encyclopedia that’s building the largest knowledge base on the internet. David got his foot in the door by volunteering to help out during Everipdia’s very early stages. Fast forward a few years, Everipedia has raised $30M+ and since joining full-time in 2016, David has been at the forefront of recent developments at the nexus of technology, media, and culture. We discuss topics like what the future of decentralization looks like, how Everipedia is changing the encyclopedia landscape, how to discover and take advantage of great opportunities, and more!

Charles Nick is a serial entrepreneur that’s passionate about three things: Aviation, Entrepreneurship, and Coffee. He’s the Co-Founder and President of Third Wave Water, the Founder & CEO of The Wright Cup, and the Founder & Manager of Douvalis Labs. Charles mainly spends his time focusing on Third Wave Water which creates mineralization capsules for your water to create richer flavors for your coffee. Third Wave has run a successful Kickstarter campaign, appeared on Shark Tank where they got a deal with Barbara Corcoran, and has won numerous awards throughout coffee competitions all over the world. We focus on topics like how to become more creative and innovative, what the future of drinks like coffee, tea, and craft beer looks like, and more!

Nathan Latka is a SaaS entrepreneur, author, investor, podcaster, reality TV star, and so much more. At nineteen, he founded a software company, Heyo, with $119 in his bank account. Five years later, it was valued at $10.5 million. Although he passed up on a larger acquisition, Nathan sold the business and launched The Top Entrepreneurs podcast, which has more than 10 million downloads and is one of the fastest growing business podcasts in the world. Nathan’s most recent endeavor, his book: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital is all about how to become a part of the New Rich. It’s like the 2019 version of the Four Hour Work Week and focuses around four key rules: 1. Don’t focus on one thing 2. Copy your competitors 3. Goals are keeping you broke 4. Sell pickaxes to gold miners. Nathan is a master at self-promotion, negotiation, asking questions, and shows you how to get better at each of these things step-by-step. Whether you’ve ever wanted to go into real estate investing, start/buy a software company, launch and scale a podcast, or generate passive income somehow, this book is your guide for doing that in 2019 and we break it all down on this episode.

Michael Martocci is the Founder and CEO of SwagUp. SwagUp focuses on creating high-quality swag packs for employee welcoming, client gifting, event attendees, and more. Although just under two years old, they’ve done over $3M worth of sales in 2018 and are on track to break $10M in 2019. SwagUp works with some of the biggest brands in the world including SalesForce, WeWork, and Samsung. So how did Michael, a college dropout who originally thought he would to go into finance, manage to create this business? Well, he’s had a passion for entrepreneurship since he was a little kid; with all the years of selling random things around his house, and his love for starting new businesses, Michael knew that he was destined to create something big. That drive and the need to be resourceful led Michael to drop out of school, collaborate with Ex-NFL player and workout guru, Steve Weatherford, connect with titans like Gary Vaynerchuck and Richard Branson, and build SwagUp from the ground-up. If you’ve ever thought about starting something, listen to this episode and do exactly what Michael did: just start and figure everything else out along the way.

Michael Martocci is the Founder and CEO of SwagUp. SwagUp focuses on creating high-quality swag packs for employee welcoming, client gifting, event attendees, and more. Although just under two years old, they’ve done over $3M worth of sales in 2018 and are on track to break $10M in 2019. SwagUp works with some of the biggest brands in the world including SalesForce, WeWork, and Samsung. So how did Michael, a college dropout who originally thought he would to go into finance, manage to create this business? Well, he’s had a passion for entrepreneurship since he was a little kid; with all the years of selling random things around his house, and his love for starting new businesses, Michael knew that he was destined to create something big. That drive and the need to be resourceful led Michael to drop out of school, collaborate with Ex-NFL player and workout guru, Steve Weatherford, connect with titans like Gary Vaynerchuck and Richard Branson, and eventually build SwagUp from the ground-up. If you’ve ever thought about starting something, listen to this episode and do exactly what Michael did: just start and figure everything else out along the way. Hope you guys enjoy and be on the lookout for part two.

Regina Ye is the founder and CEO of Zirui, a secure, sleek, and simple case to make your personal care routines portable and accessible wherever you go. Regina came up with this idea while on a trip -- she experienced what so many of us have at one point -- her liquids spilling all over the inside of her bags. Regina set out to fix this issue by creating a functional AND stylish product that people will actually want to use and show off. Although her background is in software engineering, she was resourceful and learned how to move into the physical products space. Some of the topics we talk about are how to go from the ideation stage to building a prototype, how to identify and partner with reliable manufacturers overseas, how to run a successful Kickstarter campaign, and what mistakes to avoid when building a consumer product-based business.

Dylan Sanglay is a 19-year old entrepreneur who’s been obsessed with selling since he was a little kid. Dylan takes the word “hustle” to a new meaning. He runs multiple online and physical retail businesses, gives talks at local schools and events, raises money for and donates parts of his profits to the homeless in his community, all while studying in his first-year at UNLV. I had a really great time talking to Dylan about how to get started on a business, how to utilize social platforms to spread your message and much more.

David Segura is a veteran when it comes to the startup world although he hadn’t originally planned for that to be the case. David began his career in a corporate consulting role but quickly realized that it wasn't the right path for him. He found that he couldn’t excel in the rigid hierarchies of the corporate ladder and decided to jump into the startup scene. David briefly worked at two startups, soon understanding that to achieve what he wanted in life, he had to venture off and put his destiny into his own hands. He founded and was the CEO of Giant Media, a leading advertising/media company at the time, eventually selling it to AdKnowledge after six years. David’s exit was a success and with the money and experience he gained, he jumped head-first into the Angel investing world, as many other former founders do. He’s invested in 40 companies so far like Everipedia, Mogul, and PerfectPrice and we learn about what type of traits/characteristics David looks for in a company and a founder when making those types of investments. Most recently, David joined Carbon, a price stable cryptocurrency as its Chief Operating Officer and we talk about the blockchain economy and what the future of Cryptocurrencies, stable coins, and other blockchain based companies looks like.

Mark Metry is a 21-year old whose mission is to help others live a life of mental and emotional freedom. Mark’s been an entrepreneur his entire life. He started the world’s number one Minecraft server when he was 15 years old, eventually selling it for more money than he knew what to do with. He then launched VU Dream, a virtual reality marketing agency and currently hosts Humans 2.0, a podcast where he interviews Billionaires, New York Times Bestselling Authors and Legendary World-Class human beings. Mark’s story is a fascinating one - at one point he was so anxious that he couldn't even look people in the eye. Mark has completely changed own life for the better and now spends his time helping others become the best possible versions of themselves.