The Fire Show

My roots allow me to connect with two entrepreneurial ecosystems, US and Pakistan. It has allowed me to connect with both successful and aspiring entrepreneurs in Pakistan, do workshops when I visit, and also interview the ones that are helping accelerate the growth of startups over there. Today, I'm bringing you one of those facilitators, Nabeel Qadeer. Well, calling him a facilitator would be an understatement. Nabeel is:

• Director of Entrepreneurship at PITB, which is the equivalent of a state ministry. The chairman of that board, Umar Saif, is also a remarkable technologist and visionary, and I've had the pleasure of interviewing him on my previous podcast.
• Head of Plan9, an incubator in Lahore, my hometown. Plan9 sends startups to the US twice a year as part of a partnership with the US State Department and the City of Austin. In fact, this episode was recorded a few days after a cohort of those startups visited their business.
• Anchor / Content producer of Pakistan's first business-reality show, Idea Croron Ka "A Million Dollar Idea", a show watched by 5-7M people. The focus of our episode is the creation and execution of this show.

This episode was recorded in Capital Factory, to which I just won a 6-month membership in a pitch competition at the University of Texas In the middle of the show, we move rooms to avoid the heat pouring down and the creaking of the chairs... so, yeah just letting you know ha. As always, let me know you're listening in by tweeting @fireshowpodcast or @notthatmoby. You can continue this conversation with Nabeel by tweeting him @nabeelaq Ladies, gents, lizard people running the world, enjoy!

For people listening who don't know what SXSW is, it's a 10-day festival about all things tech, film, and music in the middle of March in Austin, TX. That's the simplified answer. More than 70,000 people come down to Austin for this, and the whole city buzzes. You walk down the street, and you can feel it. I'm not kidding. To say that SXSW is a catalyst is an understatement. From President Obama, tech CEOs, film star, music moguls, entrepreneurs, all the way to ordinary folks like me, all come together for a 10-day of non-stop exposure to speakers, product launches, marketing campaigns, concerts. Films are launched during this time, deals are made between companies large and small, and if you thought Austin parties - it's on a whole another level. I sat down with Hugh Forrest, Director of SXSW, to learn about the behind the scenes management of SXSW interactive, the tech part of the festival which has showcased speakers such as President Obama, Peter Thiel, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss, and more. Some gems How thinking long-term when it comes to relationships can pay off The fallacy that the value of attending an event like SXSW is that you'll meet a rich investor by accident How to get feedback from a large number of customers, and how to sustain improvement at scale Making the most of your SXSW experience Where to find Hugh: Twitter: @Hugh_W_Forrest Medium: @hugh_w_forrest If you're coming to SXSW this year, holla. Let's meet. As always, my wonderful friends, enjoy.

This episode I interview Tolly MosLEE, Co-host of the ILYSM Podcast + Todd Nevins, Host of Go Hunt Life Podcast, and Jamal, founder of Big Mouf Media about why podcasts are a big part of the future of consumption, what makes a good podcast, and how to start one. We cover storytelling branding, listener engagement, hoisting, equipment, and promotion. If you'd like to learn more about how to start a podcast, check out thefireshow.com/how-to-start-a-podcast Tolly is the co-host of the ILYSM Podcast, an Austin and culture focused podcast under Austin 360's umbrella. She is also a co-owner of an aerial dance company, as well as a freelance writer. On the Go Hunt Life podcast, Todd explores stories of people that were once living normal lives with normal jobs but pulled the ripcord to reinvent and live a life of purpose and passion breaking world records, traveling the globe and building startups from anywhere.

He's also the Founder of CLICK Placement, an agency dedicated to working with startups and businesses designing and optimizing their paid search marketing campaigns on Google and Amazon. He also has a course on Udemy about podcasting, Podcasting: Zero to Launch on Apple Podcasts in 30 Days, if you're interested in learning about editing, which I don't cover in detail on my post on thefireshow.com Jamal is Founder and CEO of Bigmuff, a platform that engages subscribers with content about business, economics, and current events by using insightful soundbites and content created by podcasters and other AV media outlets. Enjoy.

This is a recorded talk over at the TechMap Cofounder Event. A sought after public speaker, Melanie is the founder and CEO of Wellshift, a corporate wellness company, the Founder of WELL, wellness events for the community, and International Potluck. She's an entrepreneur, speaker, and just a joy to know as a person. In her talks, she blends in wellness, science, and plain common sense which is not that common. If you're like to learn more about Melanie, check out melanieweinberger.com, i.e weinberger.com. Links are also available on the website thefireshow.com.

Today, whenever that is for you, I am sitting down with Gordon Daugherty, Managing Director is Cap FAC, Investor, and recovering Startup Executive. Over a 29-year career, Gordon has worked at Startups in Strategy, Operations, Marketing, in multiple countries. Currently, he is on the board of multiple startups, and invests in some as well. he's the Managing Director of Capital Factory and leads the Accelerator program in downtown Austin. In this episode, we go through the common milestones in an entrepreneur's journey, blind spots that come up at different stages, and what to do when you're starting out. I get the chance to ask some questions I wonder about, and hear from entrepreneurs regularly: What does entrepreneurs passion even come from? What are bigger blocks that entrepreneur have? Why would we want a cofounder? How should we start looking for one? What do I need to have as a minimum in order to start convos with investors? And, this one was cool, what is the difference between a product and a company? Because investors invest in companies, not in products. We might be working on something that is a product, but investors want to see the institutes that can sustain that products development,launch, and marketing. Gordon knows a lot more than I ever even ask about. And I do mean, a lot. In fact, to learn even more from Gordon, check his website, shockwaveinnovations.com where has 100s of hours of content around pretty much everything entrepreneurship. If you like tactical content like we talk on this show, and want more, keep listening, but also check out shockwave innovations. Ladies and gents, I hope you enjoy this episode. If you'd like to follow us on the Facebooks, Twitters, and Instagrams, we are @fireshowpodcast. If you like this podcast, leave a review on iTunes. Hope you enjoy this episode.

Melinda Garvey founded Austin Woman Magazine 14 years ago, then ATXMan, and now Daily Dot, a daily podcast about kickass women all over the planet. Melinda has served as Entrepreneur in Residence for McCombs Business School, has won awards by other publication, business association, and entrepreneurship collectives. In this episode, I get the chance to ask her a few questions. We talk about: What made her want to do a magazine? Having never created a business before, what was the constant battle of doubt v. resilience? How did resilience win? Why is she branching off into podcasts? Is her vision for the advancement of women something she had all her life? Why has that been the mission she has dedicated herself to? She was funny, honest, and honestly, made me feel that I'm not the only one who has major ups and down in a day because of what I'm pursuing. Also, shout out to women entrepreneurs. On my podcast, I interviewed quite a few and I think about nuggets from each episode, sometimes multiple, every single week. Also, my mother is an entrepreneur, and I am proud as hell. Ladies and gents, enjoy.

Funding funding funding. When do you need it? How do you get it? Rich friends? Rich uncles? Our network? Where does the damn money come from? And also, what can you start doing right now so that when you do need the injection of cash 1-2-3-4-5 years down the liens, there's people who trust you and are willing to help you get it? Today, I'm sitting down with Bart Bohn, friend, and serial creator of companies as well as incubators, to answer these questions for entrepreneurs.

We can't not work with people, regardless of who we are, or what we do. Corporate job. Entrepreneurship. Hell, we even plan our vacations with people. . And it can be hard, especially in a business. How do we make sure we treat our partners well? How do we make sure people get their shit done? How do we work on something that's a part of us and build it with other people?

never fall in love with your idea, fall in love with the problem. Great entrepreneurs have identified, observed and exploited a problem. How they do it which is your idea is less important. But if you can identify a profitable problem and then figure out a way to actually solve that problem to the right people, that's a million times better than coming up with an idea. Idea as we've all heard or a dime a dozen, nobody cares about ideas, execution is the only thing that matters. But let's say you've identified a problem then it's going to take some research and discussion and really figuring out how people are solving this problem today.