Marina has been living zero-waste for the past six years and loves sharing her enthusiasm for waste reduction with anyone willing to learn.

Her company, Waste Free Earth, uses an interdisciplinary yet balanced approach to creating a fully sustainable model for their clients through the implementation of three essential frameworks:

She also creates sustainability-focused content for brands through writing blog posts, creating social media posts, cultivating mindful engagements on websites and being a spokesperson for certain brands that align with her values.

In her free time, you can find her in the mountains, volunteering, or making waste-free dinners with friends.

You can follow Marina at:

IG: @sustainabilitybosslady

Podcast points:

✔️ How did her sustainable movement company start?

✔️ When did Marina go from a volunteer to realizing that this is a valid business that she wants to grow?

✔️ The importance of client relationships in growing your business.

✔️ Building a business, and the importance of scaling and pricing your services.

✔️ Pivoting your business during the pandemic and managing client expectations.

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Maia Bittner is a  serial entrepreneur, investor, and social media influencer. She's been a cofounder at RocksBox, a subscription Jewelry company, and Pinch, a financial services app (which was later acquired by Chime). She's also an advisor to Parcel B, an investment fund supporting startups founded by students and alumni at her alma mater, Olin College.

She’s been featured in the Wall St Journal, Huffington Post, Forbes, TechCrunch, CheddarTV, Crunchbase, Lifehacker, and more. She’s also been featured on a bunch of great podcasts, including Chicks Who Give a Hoot, Crazy Wisdom, and Bank On It.

At RocksBox, Maia and her co-founder Meaghan Rose were able to raise ~$15m, despite the challenges of raising capital in San Francisco as a pair of female co-founders targeting women customers.

Later, at Pinch, she raised a pre-seed round of close to $1m with her cofounder, Michael Ducker.

You can follow Maia on Twitter at @maiab.

Some of the things we talk about on the podcast are:

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Jason Levinthal, or JLev as you may know him, is a professional skier turned serial entrepreneur. He’s the guy who founded LINE Skis, Full Tilt Boots, and now J Skis.

He’s been featured in FreeSkier Magazine, Powder Magazine, BombSnow, New Schoolers, and more. He was named a top 40 under 40 professional in the sporting goods industry by Sporting Goods Business Magazine in 2010.

Jason was a bronze medalist in the 1998 X Games, gave a TED talk in 2015, and has sold over half a million pairs of skis.

You can find him on social media @jasonlevinthal, follow J skis @j_skis, and grab a pair of limited edition sticks at jskis.com.

Check out more episodes of the Young Founders Podcast and be sure to subscribe on the podcasting platform of your choice.

Zeke is the co-founder and CEO of Pure Investments, a cryptocurrency investment community and content publishing company based in Burlington, VT.

Zeke was a sophomore at Champlain College when he founded Pure Investments, which attracted 10,000 users within their first year in business.

He and his co-founder Miles placed third in the 2018 LaunchVT Collegiate pitch competition and have built a team of analysts and content creators in the crypto niche and have been able to monetize their audience through paid memberships for premium content.

Some of the things Nate, Zeke and I talked about on this episode of the Young Founders Podcast:

We wrapped up the podcast with a testimonial for Pure Investments:

You can learn more about Zeke's business at pureinvestments.com or click here for more episodes of the Young Founders Podcast.

Chas is a cofounder and the CEO of Sap! Beverages. He founded the company alongside his cousin Nikita. Sap! has been featured in USA Today,  Country Living, Food & Wine Magazine, and many more.

Their products were featured in Whole Foods' Top Trends for 2018 and the pair made an appearance on NBC's Shark Tank with famed investors Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavek, Barbara Corcoran, Rohan Ohza, and Lori Griener.

They ultimately turned down an offer from Herjavek for 30% of their company, valuing the business at close to $2m.

Some of the things we discuss with Chas on this episode of the podcast:

You can find Sap! products online at SapVT.com and follow along on their journey on social media @DrinkSap.

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Georgia Grace, along with her co-founders Bianca Gonzalez and Charlotte Massey, recently launched SheFly Apparel.

SheFly is a layerable line of pants that allows women to comfortably, safely, and easily relieve themselves in the outdoors, without exposing skin to the elements or to other people. Their mission is to promote inclusivity, accessibility, and women’s empowerment in the outdoors through innovative product design.

I’ll also add that I’m really impressed with the sustainability aspect that’s been infused into the brand, and I’ll let Georgia Grace speak to that later.

Georgia Grace and her team have appeared in several business pitch competitions, including the Vermont Road Pitch and Peak Pitch, both hosted by Fresh Tracks Capital. They’ve been able to generate a BUNCH of press locally here in Vermont, recently being featured on Fox Local 44 and Think Vermont and in Seven Days and the Vermont Business Magazine. On the national level, SheFly has been recognized by Boston Inno and featured on several other podcasts.

Their crowdfunding campaign on iFundWomen far exceeded their fundraising goal, having raised over $20k from 200 individual backers.

You can find their products online at sheflyapparel.com, or follow them on social media at @SheFlyApparel

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Nik Ingersoll joins us on this episode of the Young Founders Podcast as we discussed his experience building the Barnana brand.

Barnana is a healthy, organic snack product found across the US in popular chains like Healthy Living, Whole Foods, and even Starbucks. Barnana has been featured in a ton of publications like Clean Eating, Good Housekeeping, The Vegetarian Times, Womens Running, Popsugar, and more.

Nik himself was recognized by Forbes as a top 30 under 30 entrepreneur.

Some of our conversation includes:

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In our inaugural episode of the Young Founders Podcast, we've got Pete Silverman on.

Pete is the co-founder and CEO of Majorwise, an ed tech platform connecting students to job and internship opportunities.

In their own words, Majorwise "focuses on simplifying the job search process, connecting students with the gig economy, and helping students gain more knowledge and experience to succeed in their field."

In 2017, Pete's startup became the first student-run business to win the LaunchVT pitch competition, the oldest and largest business pitch contest in the state.

We discussed:

We closed out the podcast with a quote from Pete's co-founder Max Robbins:

Listen to more episodes of the Young Founders Podcast or check out our other podcast series.