The Founder's Forge Podcast

Today Owen talks to Priyanka Juneja, founder of Hera. Hera is an online platform empowering female travelers find safe ways to visit awesome places all over the world. Owen and Priyanka dive into competition analysis, user-base growth, and MVP development, plus Priyanka shares some terrific tips and lessons on self-care and solo entrepreneurship. Take a listen!

This week Owen interviews Brian Fife of Local Links (formerly EasyAlfred). Brian is a lifelong entrepreneur and founder, and his latest endeavor is a B2B2C business in the travel industry. It's a great episode about the challenges of pivoting and growing a business in the height of the pandemic.

This week Owen interviews Zave Smith, co-founder and CEO of xBound.

xBound is creating an easy-to-use platform that connects late-career and semi-retirees to companies and non-profits that can benefit from the wisdom of an experienced workforce.

Find Zave on LinkedIn at: linkedin.com/in/zavesmith/

Want to come on the show? Fill out a questionnaire, and learn more on our Medium page, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, and of course on Axon Pages. We hope to see you enter the forge soon!

This week Owen and Marcus kick of season 3 of the Founder's Forge by interviewing Chris Wink, co-founder of Technical.ly.

Technical.ly is a Philadelphia-based, independent, tech-news organization focusing on reporting on work, economies in change, and how local companies fit into those changes. In addition to running a newsroom, Technical.ly also provides a job board for entrepreneurs, company builders, professionals, and more. It's a fascinating conversation about the intersection of entrepreneurship, technology and journalism in the modern era. 

Find a Technical.ly newsletter that fits your interests at: technical.ly/subscribe.

Want to come on the show? Fill out a questionnaire, and learn more on our Medium page, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, and of course on Axon Pages. We hope to see you enter the forge soon!

This week Owen interviews Robert and Choi, founders of Bob's Containers - the traditional-sounding shipping container ecommerce and homebuilding company that's anything but traditional.

Learn how Bob faked his way into a successful bid on a shipping container contract before delivering successfully, which turned into disrupting the entire industry. It's a classic case of building a B2B2C business by inserting an ecommerce marketplace between consumers and an existing old-school industry full of cowboys. It's one of the best stories we have ever heard, full of entertaining and educational moments alike.

Interested in buying a shipping container or building a container home? Bob has got you covered - check out their website.

Follow Bob's on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube!

How I Built This with Guy Raz.

Want to come on the show? Fill out a questionnaire, and learn more on our Medium page, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, and of course on Axon Pages. We hope to see you enter the forge soon!

Marcus interview Eric Meyers-Tayne about his online pro fighter fitness platform. Learn about Eric's journey from dissatisfied corporate lackey to motivated entrepreneur, combining his love for MMA and UFC and his insights about the future of digital fitness to create FighterFitnessClub - a platform that lets real MMA fighters create and share their workouts with a mass audience. Did you know that most MMA fighters are just regular folks like us? Only a few are rich and famous, meaning that there is as much of an opportunity on their site of the market as there is on the consumer side. From humble beginnings recording workout sessions over Google Meet, Eric hopes to build a dominant platform in a competitive - but extremely lucrative - space.

Check out FighterFitnessClub for free on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and on the web.

Go find Eric's own podcast The Mavens Havens, a sort of sister show to our own where Eric interviews early-stage entrepreneurs about their journeys. Check out Eric's Interview with Marcus on The Mavens Havens on Apple Podcasts.

Want to come on the show? Fill out a questionnaire, and learn more on our Medium page, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, and of course on Axon Pages. We hope to see you enter the forge soon!

This week Marcus and Adam interview Rachel Cox about Airapy, a concierge marketplace service for matching clients with experienced therapists. It is actually quite difficult to find a therapist who fits your needs - especially if you're a business owner - a need that Airapy meets with a convergence of smart technology and industry expertise.

Learn how Rachel and her team learned about the industry and it's problems, built an minimum viable product, launched into the jaws of the Covid-19 pandemic, and then pivoted through the crisis into success. Lots of good startup learnings in here, check it out.

Check out Airapy at https://airapy.io/, and email Rachel directly at [email protected].

Also check out our episode on burnout with Deena Shelton.

Shoutout to technical.ly in Philly!

Want to come on the show? Fill out a questionnaire, and learn more on our Medium page, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, and of course on Axon Pages. We hope to see you enter the forge soon!

This week Owen and Adam interview Michael Costantini, founder of This is Opportunity. TIO is dedicated to breaking through barriers in the job market and providing a way for underprivileged, homeless, or otherwise limited-opportunity individuals to create a resume (often using video and other unorthodox approaches) and then matching them to jobs. Michael is an interesting guest with an inspiring product in a market that very much needs entrepreneurs like him.

Check out Philly Startup Leaders and Seed Spot.

The Mom Test.

Crossing the Chasm.

Extreme Ownership.

Find This Is Opportunity on their website, on Twitter, and on LinkedIn. You can also email Michael directly at [email protected].

Want to come on the show? Fill out a questionnaire, and learn more on our Medium page, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, and of course on Axon Pages. We hope to see you enter the forge soon!

Programming note: Audio quality is a little bit lower and there's some background noise on this one. Owen was on the road and we had less recordings to work with than normal. We'll be back to normal quality next week.

We're back after a short break to round out the season, and this week Marcus interviewed Chris Kaspar, serial entrepreneur and founder of Techless. Techless is building top-tier phones for people that want or need a modern smartphone that only does the basics by design - an enormous underserved market segment. Learn how Chris steered his company down the rocky path of perfecting a hardware product with a tiny but flexible team, and how he plans to use his learnings to reach far more people than he ever thought possible. The nuggets of wisdom come fast and furious in this excellent interview with an excellent guest.

Techless's website.

Follow Techless on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Want to come on the show? Fill out a questionnaire, and learn more on our Medium page, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, and of course on Axon Pages. We hope to see you enter the forge soon!

Owen interviews Sam LeFebre, an advertising expert and hobbyist cyclist who has created a gear bag that surpasses all other options on the market. Sam is a great example of how to successfully plan, test, and build a product business while never quitting your day job. Sam's advertising experience allowed him to build a large following online, which he successfully leveraged into a Kickstarter, which is live right now.

Go check out the Kickstarter, and the RIDE.PARC website.

Follow Parc on Instagram, and reach out to Sam directly at [email protected].

Also go check out Astronomic and see what they can do to help you achieve your next steps in your business!

Want to come on the show? Fill out a questionnaire, and learn more on our Medium page, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, and of course on Axon Pages. We hope to see you enter the forge soon!