In this episode, Iann Karamali traces an unlikely path: from helping his family get Monarch Liquor off the ground during undergrad to consulting at Deloitte to exploring the future of AI through entrepreneurship. He gets into what early reps as a small business owner taught him about operating a business, why growing up inside an entrepreneurial family gives you an instinct for opportunity that's hard to replicate in a classroom, and what it looks like to run something as a fresh college graduate. He also talks about what his time in consulting added to the way he thinks about business, how he used Kellogg as a launch pad rather than a safety net, and his candid take on where AI is headed and what it means for small business owners trying to keep up.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Ian Karamali

00:29 Background and the One-Year MBA Program

04:02 Growing Up First-Gen and the Optionality Trap

08:25 Navigating the Prestige Treadmill

12:11 Founding Monarch Liquor in East Austin

16:04 Betting on Delivery and Surviving COVID

21:22 What Entrepreneurship Actually Teaches You

27:44 Joining Deloitte and Early Client Lessons

35:22 Becoming an AI Lead at the Firm

37:22 Why Kellogg, Why Now

42:15 Entrepreneurship at Kellogg and the Levy AI Track 50:23 Being a Dad in Business School

58:51 The Future of AI: Two Frameworks

01:05:51 Lightning Round