On this episode of the Apex CEO Podcast, I interview Dr. Anita Sengupta—Founder & CEO of Hydroplane, aerospace engineer, commercial pilot, and USC professor—to unpack what it really takes for a high-level technical professional to make the leap into entrepreneurship.

Anita's career spans the kind of world-class environments most people only dream about—NASA, cutting-edge aerospace programs, and academic research. But building a deep-tech startup is a different game. In this conversation, she breaks down the hard shift from "well-resourced institutions" to starting from zero: earning trust without a famous logo, turning technical credibility into business credibility, and building momentum when timelines are long and the stakes are high.

We talk about what she underestimated, what she had to unlearn, and the few early decisions that mattered most in the first year—especially when your product has to work in the real world, not just on paper.

If you're a senior engineer, operator, scientist, or technical leader who's felt the pull toward building your own company, this episode is for you.

And at the end, Anita shares her single biggest insight for making the transition—one principle that cuts through the noise and keeps founders focused on what actually works.

Javier Lozano – Founder of Bolder Media Co., fractional CMO designing predictable growth systems for B2B founders.

In this episode, we look at small business turnaround through the eyes of a fractional CMO/CRO.

I bring Javier into the kind of company I see all the time: doing $5–10M in revenue, good product, but flat growth, weak pipeline, and a marketing "mix" that's really just random acts of advertising.

We talk about:

• How he spots a real growth story in a stalled business by talking to the team, digging into the numbers, and seeing if the market still cares.
• Turning random marketing into a real growth system—so every dollar has a clear job and you know what's actually working.
• His first 90 days playbook when he steps into a messy $6–7M company: what he checks first, what he kills, and what he builds.
• The simple weekly scorecard he uses so founders stop guessing and can see in black and white if demand gen is actually driving revenue.
• What works beyond paid ads for companies without recurring revenue—brand, content, and organic moves that still move the needle.
• When a fractional CMO/CRO beats a full-time hire in a cash-tight business that's already heavy on ops.

We wrap with a concrete success story and how to think about bringing in this kind of help in your own small business turnaround.

If you're sitting on a solid product but flat sales, this one will hit home.

Stacy Flynn, CEO and co-founder of Evrnu, is doing something most founders only talk about: turning cotton garment waste into high-performance, fully recyclable fibers—and building a real business around it.

Evrnu has raised about $35M in capital- How?

In this episode, we dig into the real story behind that headline number.

Stacy walks us through:

How she convinced the very first investors to back a textile-to-textile recycling idea long before there was a plant or revenue. Evrnu's business model—what they actually sell, who pays, and how garment waste turns into a product brand partners can use at scale. Why cost parity matters as much as impact: how they think about getting recycled fibers to compete with traditional textiles on both performance and price. The painful middle phase where interest was high but checks were slow, and what finally turned warm conversations into signed term sheets and a nearly complete capital stack. What it really takes to design and fund commercial facilities for a new material, not just a lab demo. Her honest advice to founders with big, capital-hungry ideas who are still at zero revenue.

If you're a founder or CEO trying to raise money, build something physical, or survive the "this might not make it" phase, Stacy's story is a masterclass in endurance, investor communication, and capital discipline.

On this episode I'm joined by Adam and Amanda Kroener, married co-founders of Carbliss Cocktails—a low-carb, full-flavor RTD cocktail brand that's grown into a 9-figure business.

Adam came out of the cheese industry as a Director of Manufacturing. Amanda stepped in as CFO and now leads the data and IT side of the business. Together, they've turned Carbliss into a serious national player in a brutal, crowded category.

We cover:

• The key decisions in the first 24 months that bent the growth curve.
• How they handled manufacturing issues and tight cash when both inventory and dollars were constrained.
• Their go-to-market engine today: field teams, personal brand, and chain authorizations.
• What it's really like to be married co-founders with three kids—and how they handle big disagreements.
• The 3 things that actually move cases off shelves.
• The most overrated worries under $5M, and the boring work that really drives growth.

If you're building or investing in a consumer brand, this is a real look at going from local idea to 9-figure beverage business—while keeping your marriage and family in the picture.

Most budgets fail before the year even starts. Not because the team didn't work hard—but because the assumptions were never real. In this episode, I walk through the eight critical areas where mid-market companies blow their budgets, and the exact process I use when coaching CEOs, CFOs, and ownership teams through 2026 planning.

This isn't theory. These are real-world lessons pulled straight from reviewing company budgets this year—where revenue forecasts are overly optimistic, margins are padded, promo calendars are ignored, and SG&A stays untouched while the company continues losing money.

You'll learn how to build a budget that your team can actually deliver, your investors can trust, and your cash flow can survive.

1. Why contribution margin—not revenue—should drive the entire budget How factory pricing, freight, duties, fees, warehousing, and returns must be rebuilt from the ground up every year.

2. The biggest leak in most budgets: unrealistic gross margin assumptions Why ignoring discounts, promos, and channel fees sets the company up for a miss.

3. The "shrink to fit" mindset for companies with declining sales How to right-size SG&A, negotiate every cost, and build a budget that hits break-even—before thinking about growth.

4. Inventory mistakes that destroy working capital Why over-optimistic inventory turns break forecasts, and how to sanity-check turns using real-world constraints.

5. SKU rationalization as a margin weapon How plotting SKUs by turn and margin can instantly improve profitability and simplify operations.

6. The three budget mistakes that kill companies – Building to revenue instead of contribution – Recycling last year's landed costs – Making optimistic assumptions the business has never hit

7. The SG&A review almost every finance team misses Insurance creep, freight contracts, return policies, ERP/IT waste, audits, cyber policies—how to pressure-test all of it.

8. Why your 2026 budget must include a plan to win A sales hunter, a real product roadmap, and clear ROI-driven investments—not just cuts.

If you're building your 2026 budget right now, this episode will save you from another year of surprises—and give you the framework to build a budget that actually works.

Your company's been losing money for two or three years. Forecasts keep promising a rebound that never comes. Sales are flat or down, SG&A is bloated, and leadership is too close to the problem to see the real issues.

In this episode, I walk through the exact turnaround framework I use when stepping into a struggling mid-market company. These aren't theories. These are real wins pulled straight from the trenches—where outside eyes can find 5% in SG&A savings on day one and unlock a path back to break-even.

We'll break down the practical work: renegotiating everything from freight contracts to ERP licenses, tightening product margins, doing real SKU rationalization, fixing bloated insurance and software stacks, and rebuilding a lean org that can move fast.

Most importantly, we'll cover the hard but unavoidable truth: You can't forecast your way out of a loss. You have to operate your way out.

• Why fresh eyes can unlock instant SG&A savings

• How marketing becomes a hidden drain when attribution is unclear

• Where companies overspend without realizing it (insurance, ERP, freight, audits)

• How to evaluate product costs and negotiate meaningful reductions

• Why SKU rationalization can lift gross margins quickly

• How contribution margin leaks—returns, allowances, promos—quietly kill profit

• Why most forecasts are built on hopium, not reality

• The 90-day roadmap to stop the bleeding and rebuild the future

• How to right-size teams without losing the brand's magic

• Why a hunter in sales is non-negotiable for a real turnaround

This is the playbook for owners, CEOs, and PE operators who need clarity fast—and can't afford another year of losses.

Most turnarounds don't start with marketing fixes or strategy sessions. They start with a calculator.

A few months ago, I stepped into a mid-market consumer products brand doing under $10M a year. From the outside, it looked healthy -- loyal customers, strong reviews, recognizable product. Under the hood, it was bleeding $70,000 every month.

The core issue wasn't mysterious. Payroll alone was sitting at roughly 25% of revenue. At their gross margins, breakeven wasn't possible. SG&A had quietly swallowed the P&L.

This episode breaks down the real math behind why product companies get stuck, why good brands drift into multi-year margin problems, and what it actually takes to bring them back.

• The setup: A strong D2C + dealer brand that looks fine on the surface but can't win the math • The denial loop: "We can't cut managers," "We need everyone for Q1," "Next year sales will grow" • The math problem: Why 25% payroll doesn't work with 45% gross margins • The rule of thumb: – Payroll should live around 10–15% of revenue – Total SG&A needs to stay ≤25% of revenue • The turnaround plan: – $500k+ in payroll cuts, not $250k – Right-sizing roles, spans of control, CS and warehouse – Cutting low-ROI contractors and software creep – Cleaning up SG&A leaks beyond payroll • The real fix: Designing a right-sized org that can actually produce margin • How to avoid this problem entirely: – Stay lean on the way up – Track revenue per employee – Rebuild your SG&A budget from scratch every year

In almost every turnaround I lead, half the margin recovery comes straight out of SG&A -- and payroll is the biggest lever. The earlier you see the warning signs, the fewer tough calls you'll have to make later.

If you're running a physical product brand and payroll is over 20% of revenue, you don't have a marketing problem. You have a math problem. And the sooner you address it, the sooner the business starts working again.

What if you could hire a VP of Sales—without the full-time salary?

In this episode, I sat down with Richard Few, Founder of Sales Geek, to talk about how founders scale past $10M using fractional sales leadership. Richard launched Sales Geek in 2017 and built a global sales consultancy—bootstrapped, with $6M in revenue, 15 core staff, and 70+ franchisees worldwide.

We unpack how fractional VPs help early-stage businesses fix what's really blocking growth: no sales systems, unclear messaging, and poor hiring. If you're a CEO still doing sales yourself—or you've hired reps without a real strategy—this episode is your wake-up call.

• How fractional sales leadership actually works

• Why most startups stall before hiring a real VP of Sales

• The 3 biggest sales mistakes holding back growth under $10M

• How to fix bad data, unclear messaging, and weak KPIs

• Why culture, accountability, and fractional support go hand-in-hand

What would it take to turn your craft into a real business?

In this unique episode, Luke coaches Kevin, the founder of Summit Effects, live on how to transform his woodworking passion into a scalable product brand. Kevin's been running his custom woodshop since 2001, with deep craftsmanship and a strong social media presence—but it hasn't translated into growth.

Luke guides Kevin through a strategic pivot: building a product line that's shippable, high-margin, and tells a story. Together, they explore new hero products (like custom sushi boards and accessories), walk through positioning tactics, and unpack an influencer strategy to gain early traction.

If you're a creative founder wondering how to monetize your art—this is the blueprint.

• How to niche down without losing your creativity

• How to find repeatable, shippable, high-margin products

• Why positioning > broad branding for artists

• Influencer seeding strategy for handcrafted goods

• How to structure a creative business for scale

How do billion-dollar brands decide what products to launch—and which to kill?

Daniel T. Siegel, President of Lifetime Brands, has spent over 30 years in the housewares industry and helped steer the portfolio past $1B in sales. In this episode, Dan joins Luke Peters to break down the exact filters, signals, and frameworks he uses to guide product innovation at scale.

You'll learn:

• Why channel fit and margin path matter more than market size slides

• The two data points that actually predict sell-through

• How to define a "kill rule" that stops losers before tooling

• When to build, license, or partner—and how to decide

• The difference between TAM vs achievable share (and how to back into the latter)

Dan also shares the L1–L4 innovation framework, the 3 gates that new products must pass, and how Lifetime applies discipline to R&D spend without killing creativity.

If you're a founder, CPO, or product leader betting next quarter's cash on a new product launch—this is the episode you can't afford to skip.