Startup Life Show With Ande Lyons

Over 4 million businesses were launched last year – a 24% increase from the year before and the biggest increase on record.However, many of these newly minted founders struggled with the transition from being an employee to being an entrepreneur.Our guest, Tina Wells, is an entrepreneur, business strategist, advisor, best-selling author, and the founder of RLVNT Media, a multimedia content venture serving entrepreneurs, tweens and culturists with authentic representation.Tina dove into entrepreneurship at the tender age of 16 when she founded Buzz Marketing Group. For over two decades she built and led the brand with clients like Dell, The Oprah Winfrey Network, Kroger, Apple, P+G, Johnson & Johnson, and American Eagle.She connected these large brands with her network of 30,000 buzzSpotters® and 7,000 “momSpotters,” all influential millennials and passionate end-consumers.Throughout her entrepreneurial journey, Tina has always been committed to helping other entrepreneurs succeed. She’s been recognized by

Studies show women use their wealth to make positive change for their families, their communities, and the world at a much higher rate than men. How can female founders use their businesses, not just for income, but to build generation wealth, so they can increase their impact?Our guest, Erin Austin is a consultant and attorney who combines her 25+ years practicing law – including roles as COO and general counsel at IP-driven companies – to help female founders build wealth by identifying, protecting and maximizing their intellectual assets.A graduate of Harvard Law School, Erin’s roles as general counsel, head of business affairs, and COO at large and small companies, including Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM, Teaching Strategies, and M3 USA Corp, prepared her to educate service-based firms -- especially women and POC-owned -- to identify and protect the untapped value in their businesses.DISCLAIMER: This recorded conversation is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Transmission of the conve

Did you know Black college graduates have a lower homeownership rate than white people who dropped out of high school?Ruby "SunShine" Taylor, M.S.W is an advocate for closing the racial wealth gap to make our world more financially equitable.She’s the CEO and Founder of Financial Joy School, a virtual educational platform that provides access to financial education and investment tools to Black and Brown youth and their families. Ruby is a double HBCU alumna (Howard University and Virginia Union University), and she harnesses the power of financial knowledge to bring connections, application, and education to establish generational wealth for black families. A traumatic brain injury survivor, Ruby is a disabled Black, queer woman, wife, mother, daughter, aunt, sister and friend who is driven to make our world more equal, joyful, and just. She is a motivational speaker and consultant for financial brands, including Wells Fargo, and has been featured in several leading publications, including The Motl

Are you leaving money on the table? There are growth and revenue opportunities you may be missing by not pursuing government and commercial contracts.Our guest, serial entrepreneur Linda Chatmon, is a Federal Acquisitions Expert and Business Growth Strategist with nearly 25 years of experience helping businesses succeed in the federal market.As the CEO of Contracts and Grants, LLC, Ms. Chatmon heads a team that is responsible for more than $13.2 billion in government contract negotiations and awards.The Founder of Contracts & Capital in Sports and Entertainment, Linda connects high-profile athletes, celebrities, and entertainers to lucrative opportunities in the federal and commercial contracting space.She’s also the Creator of the Fast-Track Academy, an immersive, real-world training program that teaches strategies successful government contractors use to find and win government contracts.Linda’s book, The Road to Government Contracts, is a concise playbook that offers readers 10 actionable strategies th

That which gets measured, gets improved. Especially when you’re in the roofing business!Our guest, Abraham Ventura, is Founder and CEO of Pitch Gauge, the most powerful and popular roofing software for business.In 2008, after Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana, a friend of Abraham’s who owned a roofing company asked him to help aid the recovery process. Abraham quickly realized how difficult and dangerous the job could be and searched for software solutions that calculated roof angles to better prepare and protect roofers.When he couldn’t find what he was looking for, he created Pitch Gauge, a roofing property inspection software that calculates the total size and slope of any roof. It’s used by over 100,000 roofers a month and is the #1 downloaded roofing app. Through the software, professionals can personalize roof reports, schedule any necessary meetings, personalize material orders and take pictures of the project. This roofing software constantly syncs the data from a roofing site to all devices so that the

Are you building a tech startup without having a tech background or prior tech experience?Our guest, Nelly Yusupova, is a CTO with over 18 years’ experience leading companies to technical excellence. A start-up tech advisor, outsourced CTO, and the creator of TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs, Nelly is on a mission to help entrepreneurs minimize technology mistakes.Through her online masterclass TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs, she provides the roadmap to successfully manage technology teams and projects, without being technical or knowing how to code.Just recently included in Fast Company’s, “League of Extraordinary Women,” Nelly has been at the forefront of the women’s online movement since 1999 and is a Wall Street Journal’s “Woman on the IT Fast Track.”Nelly is a speaker and presenter for many organizations and major industry events including: Women’s Enterprise Center, NY Entrepreneurs Business Network, Small Business Summit, BlogHer, Social Media Jungle, Mom 2.0, BlogWorld, and has been featured in INC Magazine,

Buckle up Founders!MarTech Founder + Marketing Agency Founder + Music Director serving 20 million Listeners + Sirius On-Air Host + Award-Winning Radio Producer = a delicious, jaw-dropping conversation you don’t want to miss!Our guest, serial entrepreneur Kate Bradley Chernis, has decades of experience in multi-media marketing and a track record of outstanding results delivered for large and small brands.Her strong founder/market fit and results-driven background helped Kate raise $3 million for her current business, LatelyAI, a marketing software platform using artificial intelligence to automatically transform longform content like blogs, podcasts and videos into dozens of "smart" social posts yielding the highest engagement from a targeted audience.It’s the ability to take traditional methodologies and revolutionize them with cutting-edge technology that fuels Kate’s success. As a former marketing agency owner, Kate initially created the idea for Lately out of spreadsheets for then-client, Walmart

What happens when a Greek yogurt product founder has two beloved pets with digestive track challenges?He creates a probiotic-based pet food company!Basel Nassar is the two-legged creator of Boss Nation Brands Inc., a line of innovative pet products that promote gut health through probiotic and prebiotic nutrition. Nassar’s best friends and loyal followers, a 170 pound Rhodesian Ridgeback dog and an 11 pound Siamese Lynx cat, were his inspiration for founding Boss Nation Brands Inc. with the Boss Dog® Brand and Boss Cat® brand pillars. The company, founded in late 2018, has grown leaps and bounds since inception. Nassar is proud to say that when you stand in the center of a pet store you will be able to see his products in every segment of the pet store.Nassar graduated from Central Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and a minor in Economics. His first job out of college was in an investment and operational role at KFC, where he took sales from 285th nationally to 1

Loneliness and isolation were on the rise before the pandemic and now it’s become an epidemic.Our guest, Julie Schechter, and her co-founder Monika Shah created an easy way to share the love, perfect for any occasion or just because, in the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee.Their ecommerce platform, Small Packages, is a curated care package company that sends major love in just 5 minutes. It offers pre-curated care packages based on different occasions, from break-ups to new babies. Each box type comes in three different price points, so you can choose one that fits your budget.A Harvard Law graduate, Julie soon discovered practicing law was not for her, and she pivoted a few years after graduating into entrepreneurship.00:00 - meet Julie Schechter!07:05 - why Julie left practicing law09:00 - what Julie learned from her first business fitBallet15:20 - the idea that launched Small Packages24:00 - building an ecommerce site without a background in ecommerce or technology!25:10 - meet HerDomain: https://www.

Woo Hoo! It’s the 100th Episode of the Startup Life LIVE Show!To help us celebrate this meaningful milestone is Jenny Lefcourt, the extraordinary entrepreneur, operator, board member, advisor, and investor.Jenny has been in tech for over 25 years, and she’s currently a General Partner at Freestyle, a San Francisco-based early-stage VC firm whose investments include Airtable, Intercom, Patreon, BetterUp, Snapdocs, Digit, and many others. Jenny is also a founding member and Board Member of All Raise, a non-profit dedicated to increasing diversity in tech.Prior to Freestyle, Jenny co-founded WeddingChannel.com (acquired by The Knot) and Bella Pictures (acquired by CPI). She also has angel invested and/or advised companies such as Discord, MainStreetHub, and Minted.Jenny received a B.S.E from The Wharton School and attended Stanford Graduate School of Business, before dropping out after her first year to co-found WeddingChannel.comYou will love this delicious conversation filled with Jenny’s sensational startup s

Is it possible to run a profitable law firm without sacrificing the legal team’s work-life balance?Our guest, Hannah Genton, Founding Partner of CGL LLP, says unequivocally: YES.Hannah knew that pursuing partner at a traditional law firm would be an uphill battle, especially as a Mother. In 2017 Hannah and her founding partner Noem Cohen launched CGL, LLP - a fully distributed law firm focused on disrupting the legal industry by providing top-quality legal services combined with true work-life balance for attorneys. The firm has doubled revenue every year and has clearly demonstrated it is possible to achieve lofty business and revenue goals without creating attorney burnout.Sure, there were plenty of chances to forego their mission for money. But they chose to fiercely protect their attorneys and say no to certain clients.Hannah shares all the obstacles and challenges they overcame to stay true to their mission while building a profitable practice.00:00 - Meet Hannah08:45 - origin startup story23:00 - what i

What happens when you’re a serial tech entrepreneur trying to design a custom ring for yourself and find the experience to be outdated and daunting?You solve that problem by disrupting the jewelry industry with a new business – Gemist - the first mobile app that allows users to design rings and try them on before they buy!Our guest, Madeline Fraser, is a serial entrepreneur and big thinker who loves creating consumer facing technology that solves a big problem. Over the past five years she has created and grown multiple start-ups. Raising millions in funding for ideas she believes will make our world so much easier.Today Madeline is the Founder & CEO of Gemist, a custom jewelry brand that gives you the power to design your own jewelry, offering a 100% customizable experience with options for the cut, setting, metal, stone, color, style, band, and size. Through its unique “Try-On” feature, the brand will send Gemist rings straight to your home at no cost so you can be sure the fit, look, feel, and experien

Did you know each year the US and Canadian governments provide billions in R&D Tax Credits to fund businesses?The application process is cumbersome, prone to expensive audits, and it can take as long as 16 months to receive the funds.Our guest, Lloyed Lobo is the Co-Founder of Boast.AI, a fintech platform fueling innovation through automating access to R&D tax credits.Boast.AI has helped thousands of companies streamline the R&D tax credit application process, so they can get more money faster, for less time and risk.Armed with $123M in funding, Boast.ai is on a mission to enable innovators to change the world through non-dilutive capital.Lloyed also runs Traction, Boast.AI's community of +100k innovators that brings leaders from the fastest growing companies like Shopify, Twilio, LinkedIn, GitHub, Cloudflare, and many more to share learnings on building, growing, and scaling companies via weekly webinars, regular meetups, and conferences.From the beginning of our delicious conversation to th

Creating a telehealth platform connecting LGBTQ+ patients with inclusive clinicians is a big, hairy, audacious goal requiring a uniquely qualified founder to execute and implement this vision.Meet Justin Ayars, a self-proclaimed recovering healthcare trial lawyer turned serial entrepreneur. His newest endeavor is elevating the LGBTQ+ Community through inclusive healthcare.Since 2009 Justin has been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, opening an inclusive coffee shop and selling it in 2011, then opening an inclusive bar and restaurant, which he sold in 2014 to focus on his next business, QMedia, a regional LGBTQ+ multimedia/marketing company.Along the way Justin became involved with the local and national LGBT Chamber of Commerce (https://www.nglcc.org), which added to the skillset and knowledgebase he would need for his future business, equalityMD.By mid-2019, Q Media had evolved its operations into Equality Rewards, a software/data analytics company. As their new technology debuted, the pandemic hit and th

When faced with the day-to-day responsibilities of building a startup, even the most experienced business leader can lose sight of the company’s mission. Over time, the founder can become too focused on surviving instead of inspiring.Our guest, Jennifer Foxworthy, is a retired U.S. Navy veteran who served her country proudly for 21 years.Today, Jennifer travels the country as a powerful keynote speaker using her voice to help others finds theirs.As the Founder and CEO of Inspirationally Speaking, LLC, and the Founder and CEO of Unstoppable You Ministries, Inc., Jennifer embodies the Navy core values of “Honor, Courage, and Commitment” to help leaders stay focused, intentional and thriving.A domestic violence advocate and author of “Tomorrow My Sunshine Will Come: Memoirs of Women Who Survived Domestic Violence”, Jennifer uses real talk and humor to help remove internal and external barriers that prevent founders from fully stepping into their leadership authority.Jennifer shared many golden nuggets to help ke

When you write, publish and sell a book, you become not just an author, you become an Authorpreneur!Like an entrepreneur, an author is selling a product, marketing themselves as a very specific brand, they’re data driven, constantly strategizing and becoming risk tolerant.Our multi-talented guest, Lisa Caprelli, is a speaker, songwriter, producer and a best-selling author.In 2018, after decades in marketing, branding, podcasting and publishing, Lisa decided to create a children’s brand. Beginning with a 7-book series called Unicorn Jazz ™, Lisa went on to produce and direct “Unicorn Jazz Presents The Thing I Do,” a kids show on Amazon TV created at the onset of the pandemic to share happiness for children and educators.Described as a modern day "Sesame Street meets Mickey Mouse Club,'' kids can send to the show their own video content, music, talent and more! Lisa dives deep into authorpreneurship - publishing, product development + distribution, tactics for launching an Amazon TV Show and mor

Do you know where your eCommerce metrics are?The most successful eCommerce businesses make decisions based on metrics. They know the state of their store’s performance at all times and which levers to push to grow.There are thousands of metrics you can track, but only a few of them directly represent the state of your business and can be turned into actionable insights that help you grow.Our guest, Raj Sheth is a serial SaaS entrepreneur. After two failed eCommerce startups, Raj founded Recruiterbox in 2011 and exited to private equity after growing it to 3000 customers and $4MM in ARR.Today Raj runs FlyData, a company he acquired in 2020, helping fast-growing eCommerce companies centralize their data for analysis. Raj’s ultimate goal with FlyData is to make it easy for eCommerce companies to pull their data into one place, and have insights on what is working, even without a large engineering or data team.He shares the best startup

You don’t have to build your new business in the dark.Our guest, Cynthia Del’Aria, a twice-exited tech startup entrepreneur, has created Precursa - a predictive technology platform that helps founders more accurately assess the viability and future success of their new ventures.A tech-startup ninja, Cynthia’s passion is helping people with new ideas for a business or a technology solution fail fast so that they can save their precious time and hard-earned money for the idea that has the best shot at making it big.Over the past 10 years, she’s saved close to $10M, and decades of time, for entrepreneurs all over the world!By applying the predictive technology of AI and Machine Learning to the process of vetting and validating new startup ideas, you can move at your own pace and have confidence that your idea has been tested and data proven – before you spend time and money on a launch.Cynthia’s startup gems will add tremendous value to your founder journey. She started her first company at 15, sold it to a majo

Can you learn how to be a successful entrepreneur, whether it runs in your gene pool or not?For over 10 years, our guest, Areen Shahbari, has been helping founders adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, instill a creative and innovative culture, and launch, manage and grow successful, scalable, and sustainable ventures.Areen is the Founder and CEO of Shahbari Training & Consultancy and Cactus International, and she’s a faculty member at Harvard University Extension School and Harvard Professional Development Programs. She also speaks at local and international conferences and has led training programs in the United States, Chile, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Turkey, Mexico, Bahrain, and Qatar. Prior to her teaching and entrepreneurial career, Areen worked for ten years in the media industry as a journalist, a TV programming director, and a TV host of six TV shows, where she interviewed hundreds of experts on topics ranging from politics, law, psychology, gender, diversity and inclusion, and business. She is fl

Are you considering launching a business in the cannabis industry?Our guest, Jennifer Beck, is a seasoned entrepreneur with deep experience in the legal cannabis and hemp market. Her prior technology company, Cannabase, was founded in 2013 as the first and largest online wholesale marketplace connecting the legal cannabis market. During her time with Cannabase, she served for 2 years as the Vice Chair of the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of Commerce and was involved with advocacy for responsible legalization. After selling Cannabase in 2016 to Helix Technologies (where Cannabase was rolled into leading cannabis seed-to-sale tracker BioTrackTHC), Jennifer co-founded Jihi with a mission to help high performing people sleep better, recover faster, and rejuvenate from the inside out. Jihi’s proprietary, clean and highly functional CBD skin and body care was founded on the idea of "Self-Centered Wellness" - coming within to find our authenticity, our joy and our power - and compassion for ourselves and the e