Erin is an exemplary leader and always has great advice to offer to business owners. In particular she has not only created a very unique business model, but has successfully acquired two other companies into her startup in which she demonstrates the importance of collaboration with your competitors. In today's episode we explore Erin's startup story from when she backpacked around the world to founding a startup through motherhood. Erin's advice is very real, telling it like it is on early challenges such as nearly going broke, fundraising, becoming friends with her competitors, and eventually making a friendly acquisition to keep the industry moving.

If you liked this episode, then you may like

-Podcast episode “From Side Gigs to an Empire with Afifa Siddiqui” another strong female founder

-Podcast episode "Jenny Leung & Bellanove: Female Entrepreneur Defies Odds" another strong female founder in the maternity space

During these COVID-19 times we circle back to an interview we did in 2018 with then Ruckus Wireless President, Dan Rabinovitsj, to get his take on M&A change management because we thought it had some good takeaways on leading during uncertain times. Dan Rabinovitsj is now the VP of Facebook. Ruckus Wireless at the time was undergoing several M&A transactions at once. Dan was leading through that time of change and uncertainty and has brought to LAUNCH! listeners his learnings and best practices from his experience. As industries pivot and change in COVID-19 times while still amidst the digital revolution, many companies will find themselves in a similar situation. Dan's story is a testament to how strong a company can be when their survival is at stake. It is those that come out ahead of the change that will find success in this new era.

When you combine education and technology, you get Elena Agaragimova from Dubai. She is changing the way people learn. Having grown up in the traditional education system like most of us, she saw its flaws in transferring into a career. She has made it her life’s mission to scale learning so that people can have the skills they need to advance into fulfilling careers. She has worked in talent development around the world, and shares her takeaways with LAUNCH! on what reskilling for the future looks like. In addition to discussing the business and future of education in the workplace, she also reveals to us how she overcame the challenges in building an AI application as managing partner of Bessern as well as what it's like to start a company in Dubai.

Afifa Siddiqui is a rare breed of entrepreneur being a minority woman and self-funded. In this episode, we explore her success and failures as a serial entrepreneur, starting from her side gigs to what we see as her empire. We explore the challenges she went through starting and managing each of her businesses as well as her transitions between each one. Afifa truly understands what it is to build an empire as each business fits with the next, helping to grow each other. Her businesses Cronos, CareerLeaf, and Canadian Payroll Services all lie in the talent management industry. Tackling the industry from 3 different perspectives makes Afifa quite the expert in talent management, therefore we also take the opportunity to pick her brain on everything talent management.

If you liked this episode, then you may like podcast episode, "Jenny Leung & Bellanove: Female Entrepreneur Defies Odds" which also talks about leading as a minority female entrepreneur.

In this episode, we talk with Jerry Abiog, cofounder and CMO of Standard Insights which provides growth marketing with AI as a service. His firm was born from lessons learned from past failures. He comes onto the LAUNCH podcast to talk about a phoenix that has arisen from the ashes. Because the AI market is projected to grow to almost $400 billion by 2025, we wanted to explore AI with someone who has had a hand on driving it forward. In this episode, we hope to give our listeners a better of sense of AI as the future and how to go about integrating it into one’s business. 

If you liked this episode, then you may like reading our article on LAUNCH!, “What is This AI Thing” where we explore what artificial intelligence really is and provide a tool on how to apply it to your business

Sean Biscelia, serial founder and chief executive officer, shares his business playbook that he has perfected over his career to help executives and entrepreneurs lead successful businesses.

Learn the 5 basic tenets of his playbook. Learn why do successful entrepreneurs fail? How do you create repeatable success? How do you lead disruption? How can you quickly learn an industry? How do you select the right talent for your team?Should you hire culture over domain expertise or domain expertise over culture? How do you avoid over-competition in your salesforce that could negatively affect the customer experience? How do you go about getting everyone to communicate a consistent message? How do you measure that?

Striving leaders who are looking to get their startup going or move up the ranks in their organization struggle with frustrations such as rejection, failure, and getting stuck. It’s important that they stay empowered so they can continue to positively lead and impact this world with their contributions. In this podcast episode, Rebecca Bennett and Dr. Mark Leonard help to find ways for professionals to move past failure and plateaus through productivity tools, mindset changes, and character tweaks. Learn more at www.LaunchItSpot.com

As an entrepreneur not only do you have to understand your customer, your industry, and how you can competitively fit into the picture, but you also must understand investors and what they are looking for. Many entrepreneurs throw themselves into researching how to build out their idea and raising money becomes an afterthought. We want you to be a successful entrepreneur and therefore will show you what it’s like to be in the shoes of an investor. We want you to start thinking about it now so that by the time you are ready to raise capital, you are stepping into the investor world with your best foot forward.

Marcia Dawood is a general partner of MindShift Capital, a global investment firm that focuses on supporting female entrepreneurs particularly in technology, health, & education. She is also a board member of the Angel Capital Association. In this episode, she shares with LAUNCH! valuable insights about being on the other side of the table from the entrepreneurs. Learn about capital investing in entrepreneurs, what it's like being an investor, what VCs and angels are looking for in a business, what are some of the current issues and challenges in the investor world, and how the landscape is opening up for women.

Our guest on this episode is a startup aficionado.

He is currently the co-founder and chief growth officer of Siëo, which helps entrepreneurs launch, manage and grow their businesses through service and software-based solutions. Siëo’s mission is to inspire independence, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Kyle Herron lives that mission by teaching startup knowledge to underserved high school communities in Southern California and was the Winner of 2017 Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics Award.

As with any true entrepreneur, they go through a series of failures before finding a breakthrough success. On this episode, Kyle shares with us how he figured out he was going to set himself on this path of entrepreneurship and how his failures have led him to be successful.

This is a continutation of Part I episode:

Our guests on this episode are two LA journalists who explore social issues, even those that we get uncomfortable talking about. As you, our aspiring and rising leaders, it is you who has the burden to bear to break down these social barriers and address these topics, rather than ignore them, as so many of us do. It is those of us who have a platform, that other’s look up to, that can make a difference in how we view these issues as well as what we choose to do about them. So let’s get comfortable with getting uncomfortable as we listen to our guests and gain insights into how to be a leader in the hard to lead areas of life.

Visit and Subscribe to www.LaunchItSpot.com for more great leadership and entrepreneurial insights.