Finding Founders

Linda has experienced a lot. She’s traveled the world as an army brat, played piano and sung in Led Zeppelin's tour bus, explored drugs as an “X rated hippie”, and worked to understand her Latin American, Chicano, and Indigenous roots through her art. Through these various paintings, sculpture, and ceramic work Linda embraces her brownness and the world has taken notice. Her work has been shown globally in major galleries and museums, as well as Chicano and Latino spaces. Today, her artwork focuses on encouraging discussion surrounding how class, culture, and the color of our skin intersect, notably in her, “Make ‘Em All Mexican” pieces. But let’s look at where this all started and dive into Linda’s roots. Let's look back to where her family's story began, with her grandparents meeting while working on the railroads.

Laser eye surgery, a seemingly inconsequential, almost routine surgery, that in an instant turned into a nightmare. Sumit Ajwani, who had built a career creating films as head of production for a global ad agency in Canada, discovered he could no longer see. He was a wunderkind. His career was moving fast. He had just been appointed head of the ad agency at 23 years old. But this wouldn’t be the end of his story. Sumit would ultimately create a producer-led collaborative network called ‘Makers’ that would get involved with projects from giving bikes to kids in Ghana, building a Lego City inside a children’s hospital, and working with Habitat for Humanity. To date ‘Makers’ has 11,000 producers around the world in 173 countries. But the building of this collaborative future between creatives started actually before Sumit was born. It started with his father mailing a ring across an ocean over 40 years ago…

Jordan had a dream that he thought would take a lifetime, but as he invested all of his energy into making that dream a reality – that reality came more quickly than expected. The crazy thing is… this was just the beginning. Today, Jorden stands at upwards of 345K followers on Instagram, 1M subscribers on YouTube, and a whopping 3M followers on Tiktok – which he firmly believes “anyone can do.” With 8 years worth of traveling, content creation, and friend making in his pocket, Jorden has learned how to leverage the internet to make his passions and interests a career! But before Jorden was a content creator, before he was a world traveler, before he had even set foot outside his home country… we need to take it back to the early days of the internet, and Jorden's love for graphic design.

Kyukei Goto was saddled with massive responsibility from birth. He was the first born son to his father of 50, meaning Goto would have to carry the weight of a tradition going back 28 generations. He comes from a lineage that has perfected the art of Kamakura Buri which is a method of carving wood and then coating lacquer to make sculptures, plates, tea sets, cutlery and other household items. But this sentence belies the spiritual and technical intricacies of this art form. Facing the death of his father, Goto dove deeper into his artistry and craft as a way to understand his father, his ancestors, but also as a way to understand and explore his own identity as an artist. He now owns the Kamakura Carving Gallery in Japan, selling pieces and hosting workshops to continue the Kamakura tradition. From his bamboo art to his popular exhibition in the Tokyo Art Museum, Goto strives for perfection in his work, and he’s not alone in the practice. With 28 generations to make proud, Goto shares with us the story of ho

As a photographer David’s eyes are his livelihood. His vision was everything, but somehow David shrugs it off, he takes it stoically, he has this lack of concern for any roadblocks. I mean David has always believed that he would achieve great things. I think that’s why after traveling around the world to 13 countries at 18, he decided to try and make it as a commercial photographer. He started taking classes at New York’s Parsons School of design, and subsequently tried to make it in the biz, but just faced rejection after rejection. However, obstacles are no match for David… he’d eventually strike out on his own as an artist selling his art to Elton John at one of his first shows. Now he has ten published photobooks, sells his artwork all over the world, and it’s a coveted thing to own a “Drebin”. THis interview is wide ranging and we’ll start with a little steaminess…

10,000 subscribers overnight and soaring to 50 thousand a few days later, Rachel Southard was shocked to learn that her Youtube video documenting her first week of medical school was gaining attention so quickly. Growing up, Rachel wanted to try everything and after pushing through feelings of doubt in her early school years and seeing the incredible work doctors do, she began her journey to med school. Wanting to document her experience, Rachel starting vlogging and recording her many weeks of hard work in medical school. Not afraid to show the good and the bad, Rachel created a community founded on emotional vulnerabilty and her authenticity. Rachel did not always know that she wanted a career in medicine, instead growing up feeling that she was behind the other kids in her neighborhood.

With 10,000 Chapters, 13 million referrals, and 21 billion dollars in business… just in the last 12 months, it’s safe to say that Ivan Misner has had world wide impact. Ivan jumped from law school, to a government job, to a fateful unrenewed manufacturing contract that would transform a small consulting network into a global organization. BNI now has different chapters spanning the globe, all working to develop meaningful business relationships through referrals and networking. Now a successful author, blogger, speaker and businessman, Ivan shares his whirlwind of a journey that started simply… it started with his mother’s gift, a paperweight with the word, “diplomacy” in thick black letters on the top….

What had started as a fun business idea between college friends had spiraled out of control. Saddled with international shipping costs, low student funds, and no way to market their product, Olivier and Rick hit a logistical wall before they fully began. Luckily, that wasn’t the only idea these two twenty year olds had in their pocket. Now, Olivier Momma is the young cofounder of Ekster, the groundbreaking company behind the most successful smart wallet in the world. Generating 25 million dollars in 2021 and nearly 40 million this year, Olivier’s place on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 seems like a no brainer. But before he was sewing together prototypes in Hong Kong or launching a kickstarter campaign, Olivier cultivated his adventurous spirit in his unusual childhood. With his father’s job sending the family around the globe every couple of years, Olivier’s cosmopolitan outlook grew as he adapted to each new country he called home.

Utter silence. Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz felt the pulse of his racing heart, the countdown from ground control, and the sense that he’s been here before. I mean he’s prepared his whole life for this moment, the moment of lifting off into space. He’s been preparing since he was a kid, from sitting in a cardboard spaceship all the way to launching into space more times than any human in history. But how did he get here? Well Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz is a record breaking NASA astronaut, with 7 flights into space, and the CEO of the AdAstra Rocket Company. He’s managed to move to a new country, learn a new language, graduate at the top of his class, and persistently chase his dream all the way to space. Now, we launch ourselves back to a time, when space travel was only a dream.

After trying every avenue of corporate life, Michela stood at a crossroads. She could either stay at her steady job and work her way up the corporate ladder, or finally dive full-force into the social media world. Now, we know that Michela Allocca, also known by the handle of Break Your Budget, made the right decision. With over 700,000 followers on Tiktok and 125k instagram followers, a book deal, and a podcast, Michela’s affinity for budgeting has brought her far away from the cubicle and into the eyes of millions of viewers. Yet, to get to this point, Michela first had to learn how to treat her hobbies as serious commitments, and understand how to value her needs before her work environment’s demands. And even further back, her story began with a digital piggy bank and a few cold pitchers of lemonade.

 A few inches down and he would have been dead in the front seat of his mom’s Mitsubishi. Yet as Raul weaved in and out of traffic towards his future, untouched and laughing, it seemed like it was just another day in 1990s Los Angeles. Flash forward to the present and Raul Baltazar is still in LA, now an established painter and performance artist working to understand the experiences of Mestizo and Mesoamerican Indigenous communities. With exhibitions held in LA, Mexico, Taiwan, Vienna, and Australia, Baltazar’s exploration of post colonialism and trauma responses has earned him international acclaim over the past decade. But before he ever went to art school or joined a drag show at the navy, Raul first found his love for art in his hometown. Whether he was going to school or merely walking with his friends, El Sereno’s Chicano murals stood out from every wall, telling a story of past resistance…

You just heard from Heather Smith as she describes the moment where her exhibit built a bridge between past and present. In a heartbreaking instant, she realized that her invention, Storyfile, could really work. But what is Storyfile? This company specializes in conversational video and preserving individual memories, posing fascinating hypotheticals for the future of education. Like…what if we could talk to a younger version of ourselves? What if high schoolers could talk face to face with a former president or revolutionary leader? This time travel might not be so far away due to Heather Smith’s 2017 launch with the USC Shoah Foundation and Institute of Creative Technologies. But Heather’s journey wasn’t always grounded in the past. Before she built a bridge between history and modern day AI, Heather worked at her family’s jewelry store, making connections the old fashioned way…

It’s not every day Barbara Corcoran slides into your dms, but for Caleb Simpson this was suddenly the new normal. Now, if this name is sounding familiar at all, it’s because you’ve probably met Caleb before….on your For You page. Known for his casual house tours and the signature question “how much do you pay for rent,” Caleb has amassed over 7.1 million followers on TikTok and 2 million YouTube subscribers in the past few years. Traveling from house to house in New York to LA, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, he isn’t afraid to test out a stranger’s bed or play with your pets, or listen to a soundcloud music sample. But while these videos seemed to go viral in an instant, Caleb’s journey to filmmaking was anything but easy. From finding odd jobs on craigslist to sleeping behind a curtain in someone’s living room, Caleb had to build his skillset from the ground up while learning how to survive in NYC. And before tik tok was even invented, before Caleb first picked up a camera, his journey started in the unlikeliest of p

You just heard from Jimmy Edgerton about a crucial time in his entrepreneurship career, a moment when it seemed like his new startup was going down in roasted chickpea flames. Luckily, these hard times didn’t last forever, since today I’m presenting a special episode, a podcast swap with seasoned entrepreneurs and business consultants Jimmy Edgerton and Julie Meyer from AugMentors. Before they taught us to navigate the nuances of networking, Jimmy and Julie learned these lessons firsthand through running their own successful businesses. Julie found her start in writing her book Eat Well Shanghai and now works as the co-ceo of nutrition company Eat Well Global. Meanwhile, Jimmy worked in real estate until a fateful beer garden meeting launched his business career running Watusee Foods. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s hop in a time machine to the start of Julie’s story and see how these lives intersected 

Some say circumstance is everything. Yeva Hyusyan would disagree with that statement. Born and raised in Soviet era Armenia, Yeva prioritized education and her interest in STEM. After paving her own way in the technology field working for big names like USAID and Microsoft, she decided it was time to start her own educational coding business with an associate. In 2014, SoloLearn was born and works to bridge the skills gap for students and professionals interested in or pursuing jobs that require coding fluency. Against all odds, Yeva Hyusyan has become a successful technology entrepreneur, creating the most popular, digestible technology education application across Apple and Google platforms that impacts not only the life and education of users, but also their financial futures. 

Kobe Earthquake 1995. At 5:46 in the morning, the city was struck by a 6.9 magnitude earthquake, leaving 6,000 casualties and 45,000 others homeless. Nobu Okada was only just out of college when he witnessed this scene of devastation and decided to turn his life towards a path of action and purpose. But what career would he turn to next? Now, we know Nobu as the founder of Astroscale, a company working towards a goal of long term spaceflight safety by targeting space debris in Earth’s orbit. His company has received multiple awards, earning the title of TIME100’s Most Influential Companies, Forbes JAPAN’s “Start-up of the Year” in 2019, and the Grand Prix (pree) for UNESCO’s 2020 Innovation Forum. Despite this incredible growth over the past decade, Nobu’s path did not always lay outside the stratosphere, as his career began in government finance, IT consulting, and business startups. Before we reach for the stars with today’s guest, let's trace his story back to where it began, the innocent days of science m

Rick Sanchez found himself at the center of a hot crime story…and not in the way he’d like. After rising to the top of Miami’s news networks, he had suddenly lost his job, audience, and reputation overnight. This might have been the end of any other reporter’s career, but Rick was not about to give up— not after how much work it took to get here. Twenty years later, we know Rick Sanchez as the first Latino newscaster to be on a nationally broadcasted show and the founder of Agua Media, a podcast group dedicated to telling the many untold stories of Latinos in America. To get to this point, Rick had to make mistakes, as he learned to separate his public and private life and restructured his relationship to fame. Before we jump ahead, let’s go back to the beginning of Rick’s story, growing up in Cuba during the rise of Fidel Castro…

Stuck inside during the pandemic, Monica Mannion casually posted a tik tok. The posting isn’t very unique, hundreds of thousands of others posted videos, but Monica’s had something special. After making one tres leches cake and recording some VO, Monica unexpectedly found herself with thirty million views, thousands of followers, and a dedicated fanbase waiting for her next video. This might seem like an overnight success, but Monica honed her cooking skills over many years and many countries. From Argentina and South Africa to England and China, she has traveled all over the globe, starting culinary clubs and forming communities wherever she went. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. Monica’s passion started long before she boarded her first flight, in a home dominated by the heavy scent of roasted chilis and warm broth.

In the span of a few weeks, Marina’s thriving study abroad program seemed to collapse alongside the Russian ruble. With the travel market disappearing overnight amidst the country’s political conflict, it seems like this might be the end of Linguatrip. But don’t tune out just yet. While this setback may have stopped another influencer, Marina Mogilko (Moh-gill-koh) is now a prominent entrepreneur and content creator with more than 9 million subscribers across her 3 YouTube channels. As founder of one of the first Russian-owned startups in Silicon Valley, Marina’s videos provide a unique perspective on business, investment opportunities, and her immigrant journey. But before she found success at home and abroad, Marina was just a kid who loved linguistics. Growing up in the isolation of post Soviet Russia, she knew that learning English was her key to a better future…

Disheartened by the 37 rejection letters in his back pocket, Daniel was shocked when a hasty bar-pitch landed him with a $40,000 publishing deal. After all, he was still relatively unknown…and his children’s story was odd to say the least. What kind of kid would want to read a faux (FOE) gothic novel about three orphans with a bloodthirsty relative out for their inheritance”? If this plot is sounding familiar…you may have heard of Daniel Handler before—or should we say…Lemony Snicket. Despite Daniel’s slow start in the publishing industry, he has since sold over 70 million copies of his books and become a household name. His literary work has also spawned countless film and tv spin offs, most recently the 2017 award-winning Netflix show “A Series of Unfortunate Events” starring Neil Patrick Harris. But before Count Olaf ever entered the picture, before he spent months writing in a dusty college basement, Daniel started like many other writers do: with a book in his hand.