The Founder Hour

Alexa von Tobel is the founder of LearnVest, a personal finance company that made financial planning affordable and accessible for everyone, which was acquired by Northwestern Mutual in 2015 for $375 million.

She’s now the founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the next wave of tech entrepreneurs.

In this episode, we chat with Alexa about her early life and college days, dropping out of Harvard Business School to launch LearnVest in the middle of a recession, what has helped her become a better leader of people, her thoughts on the current venture capital climate and what she’s most excited about as far as the future goes, and much more.

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Josh Luber is the founder of StockX, the world's first online consumer “Stock Market of Things” for high-demand, limited-edition products featuring a live marketplace where participants anonymously buy and sell limited-edition consumer products such as sneakers, watches, clothing, handbags, and trading cards.

In this episode, we talk about everything from Josh’s formative years and how going to law school helped him become a better problem solver, the various business ventures he’s had throughout his life, how the industry for sneakers and trading cards has evolved over the last 30 years, the insane story of how he met Dan Gilbert (owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and founder of Quicken Loans) who he ultimately co-founded StockX with out of pure serendipity, why building a stock market model makes so much sense for the business, why certain sneakers and trading cards resell for thousands or millions of dollars, building a $1 billion company in just 3 years, why he stepped down as CEO in 2019, and what he envisions the future of the company as well as e-commerce and new product launches, in general, to look like.

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Blake Mycoskie is the founder of TOMS, a for-profit company that designs and markets shoes, as well as eyewear, coffee, apparel, and handbags, that he founded in 2006 after a trip to Argentina. He recently launched his new company, Madefor, a simple 10-month program that harnesses the proven power of neuroscience to elevate your mental and physical baselines while cultivating a mindset that allows you to achieve everything you are truly made for.

In this episode, we talk about everything from his upbringing and being a top tennis player in the country well on his way to going pro, how an Achilles injury in college completely changed the trajectory of his life, traveling around the world as a contestant on The Amazing Race and almost winning the $1 million prize, the valuable lessons he’s learned from his successes and failures, the trip to Argentina that sparked the idea for TOMS, why he walked away from the business after 8 years when the company was doing $500M in sales, the toxic side of the public acclaim he had received throughout his career and why he ultimately started Madefor.

If you’re interested in giving Madefor a try, we have a unique discount code for our listeners - go to www.getmadefor.com and use the code “FOUNDERHOUR” for 20% off!

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Jim McKelvey is the co-founder of Square, a financial technology company powering millions of small businesses that he launched in 2009 with Jack Dorsey, who’s also the founder and CEO of Twitter. The company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015 and is currently worth about $53 billion.

Jim is also the author of “The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time,” where he breaks down what it truly means to be an entrepreneur and build a world-changing business. It’s one of our personal favorite books that we’ve read in a very long time and we wanted to dive deep into some of the concepts and stories Jim shares in the book, so we definitely recommend picking up a copy if you enjoy this conversation.

We talked about everything from Jim’s personal story and how being an outcast at a young age helped him as an entrepreneur, how he got into glass blowing and eventually opened up his own studio which he still runs today, hiring Jack Dorsey as an intern at his first company and how their relationship has evolved, how losing a sale at his studio gave him the idea for Square, the evolution of the word “entrepreneur” and what it truly means, experience vs. naïveté when it comes to innovation, how he literally built the Square reader and went against Apple’s rule and regulations, the meeting with Steve Jobs that never happened, how they went up against Amazon and won, managing fear and staying motivated, and what his definition of success is.

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Bedros Keuilian is the founder and CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp, one of the nation’s fastest-growing franchises, as well as a best-selling author, speaker, consultant, and investor in startups.

In this episode, we spoke with Bedros about his early days and immigrating to the United States at 6 years old, what influenced his path to entrepreneurship, the valuable lessons he learned from his mentors growing up, the worst and best deal he ever made, what inspired the idea for Fit Body Boot Camp, why he decided to franchise the business, and how they got to over 800 locations worldwide in just 10 years.

Bedros also shares how he’s been able to build a world-class team, the few books that changed his life and made him a better leader, what his insanely regimented daily schedule looks like, know what your “zone of genius” is, and how people can ultimately be better following the Covid-19 crisis and everything that’s going on in the world right now.

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Trevor Milton is the founder and executive chairman of Nikola Corporation. Founded in 2014, Nikola is an energy technology company that designs and manufactures hydrogen-electric semi-trucks, pickup trucks, and more. In June 2020, the company debuted on the Nasdaq and is worth over $20 billion. They are expected to fully reveal the Nikola Badger, the company’s first pick-up truck built with hydrogen fuel-cell technology, at their highly-anticipated event, Nikola World, in December 2020.

In this episode, Trevor joins Pat and Posh to share stories about his upbringing and what his childhood was like, how an unexpected encounter with a train engineer when he was 6 years old shaped the trajectory of his life, learning to survive on his own and never to give up, his lifelong fascination with machines and the electric motor, his experience in school and overall thoughts on the American education system, and the difference between instinct and knowledge when it comes to learning.

Trevor also opens up about the successes and failures he’s had throughout his career, what inspired him to start Nikola, how he views entrepreneurship as a game of chess, his true feelings about Elon Musk and Tesla, the early challenges Nikola faced, why he decided to take the company public in the midst of a global pandemic, his long-term vision for the company, what he thinks of $NKLA’s current valuation despite ongoing criticism, and much, much more.

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Chip Wilson is the founder of Lululemon Athletica, the athletic apparel company that pioneered a whole industry in performance clothing, which he launched in 1998.

In this episode, we talk to Chip about his upbringing and younger years as a troubled student in school, how he was able to make $750,000 at 19 years old working on the Alaska pipeline, what motivated him to have his own business by age 30, his advice for entrepreneurs and anyone who wants to enjoy long-term success, his entrepreneurial journey and what sparked the idea for Lululemon, the evolution of women’s clothing since the 1980s and why he thinks Lululemon was successful, his feelings about the term “athleisure,” how Lululemon gained a cult-like following, why he stepped down as CEO in 2005, what he would’ve done differently had he stayed with the company, and much more.

Chip also shares what he feels is the biggest opportunity in the next 5-10 years and what he’s been up to since leaving Lululemon.

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Paolo Pirjanian is the founder and CEO of Embodied, Inc. Founded in 2016, Embodied is an industry-leading robotics and AI company creating state-of-the-art companion robots to revolutionize human-centric care and wellness by enhancing quality of life for individuals and families. They recently developed Moxie, a revolutionary new animate companion for children designed to help promote social, emotional, and cognitive development through play-based learning and captivating content.

In this episode, Paolo shares his incredible story of being smuggled out of Iran during the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s, living as a refugee in Denmark for 15 years and earning his Ph.D. in Robotics, the pressures and challenges he and his family had to deal with as immigrants, falling in love with technology and teaching himself how to code at a young age, where the concept of robotics comes from, starting his first company and selling it to iRobot, being iRobot’s CTO and developing one of the world’s leading technologies for robotic navigation which completely transformed iRobot’s Roomba, the importance of innovating fast, and why he always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

He also shares how the idea for Embodied and Moxie came about, how he and his team stay motivated through uncertainty and complexities, the evolution of robotics throughout his career and what the future of the space looks like.

Stay tuned towards the end as we get a chance to chat with Moxie (available now for pre-order and shipping in late 2020) LIVE on the show to see what it’s all about!

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Vicky Tsai is the founder and Chief Treasure Hunter of Tatcha, a modern skincare brand rooted in timeless Japanese beauty rituals.

In this super candid conversation, Vicky opens up about what she was like growing up and her early personal struggles and insecurities and why she never fit with her surroundings. We chat about how she got her start on Wall Street as a credit derivatives trader after college, how being at Ground Zero during 9/11 changed her life forever, getting her MBA from Harvard, and how a spontaneous trip to Kyoto, Japan while seeking treatment for her acute dermatitis led to her founding Tatcha in 2009.

We also talk about the importance of her dual heritage as an Asian-American woman, the journey to finding meaning and purpose in her life, hitting rock bottom and choosing to follow her heart, Tatcha’s value system and what makes it different from other beauty brands, being over $500,000 in debt and not paying herself a salary for 10 years, why she ultimately decided to sell the company to Unilever in 2019 for a reported $500M, and much more!

Stay tuned towards the end as the tables turn and Vicky asks Pat and Posh a question about the unifying trait amongst the founders who have been guests on the show!

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Glenn Sanford is the founder of eXp Realty, CEO of eXp World Holdings, Inc. and Chief Strategy Officer for VirBELA. After being involved with a number of internet start-ups in the 1990s and early 2000s, including a stint at AOL, Glenn started a highly successful real estate career in 2002. In 2006, his fourth full year in the business, Glenn and his team closed over $60,000,000 in real estate almost entirely from online lead generation and was ranked as one of the top 50 teams nationally with Keller Williams. After the downturn in 2008, he and his team developed the first cloud-based brokerage model that uses a 3D avatar-based online office to collaborate and communicate while abandoning the physical bricks and mortar infrastructure normally associated with real estate brokerage. In the last 9 years, since launching with 25 agents, eXp Realty has grown to nearly 30,000 agents in all 50 states and beyond.

In this episode, we chat with Glenn about his upbringing and how he fell in love with technology at an early age, the various jobs he held before starting eXp Realty, what made him a successful real estate agent and salesperson, what inspired him to become an entrepreneur, his thoughts on the current residential real estate market and where he sees it going post-Covid-19, his experience as a public company CEO, and pioneering the future of real estate as well as virtually-distributed work with VirBELA.

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