The Thread Podcast

Suze Dowling, Co founder and Chief Business Officer of Pattern Brands, joins the show to talk about

• Unlocking direct to consumer businesses and creating a successful multi-brand model.
• The value in developing a brand that resonates with your personal stage of life, and how to define successful brand and buying personas.
• The differences between operating an agency and operating a startup.
• Direct WITH consumer vs. Direct TO Consumer and creating with your customer.
• Suze's evaluation framework for M&A and the brands that Pattern acquires.
• When it does and doesn't make sense for a brand to open up a brick and mortar location.
• The secret sauce to finding an underserved category for DTC disruption.

Terry Rice, Host of Entrepreneur's "Launch Your Business" podcast and author for Entrepreneur Media joins the show to talk about:

• How Terry got on Jason Feifer's radar (Editor in Chief at Entrepreneur Media), and how he turned that interaction into his dream job.
• Terry's process for launching his own consulting practice, finding your zone of genius, and tactics to take your consulting practice from 0 to 1. 
• Going solo and making it as a solopreneur, the "10 questions" framework, and where Terry gets the inspiration for the content he creates for Entrepreneur.
• An awkward afternoon with the Rapper TI.
• Launching the "Launch Your Business" podcast and landing the right guests for your show.
• The two biggest mistakes that Terry sees solopreneurs making and how to fix them.

Miguel McKelvey, Co founder of WeWork, Proto, and Nayah joins the show to talk about

• How Miguel got the inspiration for founding WeWork and how he and Adam approached finding PM fit.
• The cultural challenges WeWork faced in the early days as the company scaled, and creating WeWork's Culture OS (Operating System) to scale culture.
• Founding Proto and building a more inclusive brand of footwear.
• Supporting our elders and building a better community for our aging population with NAYAH.
• Pick up hoops and the venture that Miguel wishes someone would start!

Ann Miura-Ko, Founding Partner at Floodgate joins the show to talk about

• Founding a Venture Capital firm in the midst of a financial crisis.
• How founders should be thinking about their business and communicating to VCs at the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages of company building.
• Why VCs say no and why Floodgate said no to Disco.
• What VCs actually mean when they say they're "investing in the founder, not the idea".
• The company that Ann wishes someone would start.

Jake Gibson, Co Founder of NerdWallet and Founding Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, joins the show to talk about

• Founding NerdWallet, building a public company, and pioneering in the early days of financial services on the internet.
• The right time to replace yourself in order to help your company scale.
• Investing in the future of FinTech, embedded FinTech and rethinking the interface of Financial Services.

Chris Buttenham, CEO and Co Founder of Obie (acquired by Seismic), joins the show to talk about

• How Chris' experience installing security cameras that led to the customer insight behind founding Obie
• Creating and falling into startup categories
• The process Chris took to successfully sell Obie to Lessonly and Seismic. 
• Suggestions on how to grow the aSaaSins podcast

Gretchen Salyer, CEO and Founder of June Care, joins the show to talk about

• The childcare crisis in the US, and parenting and homeschooling in a global pandemic.
• Building a MVP for a better way to child care through community.
• How June Care's service model and product has evolved as they've received customer feedback from Moms on the network.
• The time I almost had my wife accidentally arrested.

Lauren Peate, CEO and Founder of Multitudes, joins the show to talk about

• The future of engineering and how teams use DORA metrics to measure engineering effectiveness.
• The importance of focusing on team outcomes and goals as an engineering leadership team.
• The impact that Generative AI will have on engineering team performance and productivity
• Ethics in AI and how entrepreneurs should respond to build to a higher standard.

Nichole Powell, CEO and Founder of Kinfield, joins the show to talk about

• Nichole's decision to make a professional pivot out of big tech to building clean, sustainable,consumer products for the outdoors.
• Nichole's experience appearing on Shark Tank, swimming with the sharks and receiving four different offers from investors to build Kinfield.
• How Kinfield has approached building product in a way that aligns with its core values and commitment to consumer health and sustainability.
• How Nichole and team have approached product segmentation for their various product lines and Kinfield's positioning strategy in retail.

Joe Pompliano, Co founder and CEO of Huddle Up, joins the show to talk about

• Two Billion social impressions, 25M YouTube views, and the journey to building one of the most successful content platforms for the business of sports.
• How Joe landed podcast guests like Ice Cube, Troy Aikman, Lance Armstrong, and others.
• How Joe evaluates the companies he invests in, and his perspective on working with his brothers and winning as a family.