Carl is one of the brightest engineers there is and he's been building a game-changer of a product that's going to reflect just how talented he is. Carl & his team are representing the good 'ol US of A in the launch of the new Formula One Electric Air Race! It's going to be the world's first electric air race and Carl's team is the only team compet…

Angel investor, startup mentor, and now founder himself - Paul Yacoubian has done basically everything in the startup world at this point. After gaining access to a powerful AI (artificial intelligence) software, GPT-3, Paul and his Co-founder Chris decided they wanted to do something powerful with it. They set out to make the world's greatest copy…

Yash Santani & Puneet Chadha are the founders of aevus.ai and they are absolutely changing the world. They are both Johns Hopkins grads who are actively trying to improve the lives of diabetics around the world. "We are building an AI-powered prescription guidance platform for treating Type-2 diabetes - Precision Rx. All it does is give a doctor a …

Martin Lien has one of the coolest startup stories out there. His story begins in Norway, where he was born and raised...and then he ends up attending the University of Oklahoma (just a bit of a culture shock, no?). After college he found himself working at a company and noticed a problem. The solution to this problem would end up becoming Respond …

Greg Hallman is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet and he's also an extremely successful entrepreneur. A few years ago, he wanted to get into the OKC Thunder Startup accelerator, Stitch Crew, (the same accelerator Farhaj & I have done) but he didn't have a company. He went through his list of company ideas and Ocupath was born. After a lot of …

Jordan Walker has been successful in the startup world for a while now. Yac started with an idea and a very successful ProductHunt campaign. After getting thousands of companies on their waitlist, Jordan and his team knew they were onto something big. Yac is voice messaging for teams and, personally, I’m a huge fan. You can only text so much to you…

Vincent Dorrian never expected to be the co-founder of a company that exited for $350 Million. When his business partner approached him with the idea for EcoAtm in the early 2000's, the future success was something he could have only dreamed of. EcoAtm is a company that provides a kiosk that allows you to exchange your old cell phones for cash. Ove…

Garrett Scott and his co-founder gave his company the name Pipedream because what they're trying to accomplish sounds just like that...like a dream. Their goal within the next several years is to take advantage of the tunnel systems in cities to deliver goods, supplies, etc. to homes through underground tubes. I'll let Garrett's website blurb expla…

I first heard about Adelle while watching Shark Tank years ago. Despite the bright spotlight of being on national television (and having millionaires yell at you), she remained composed and very well-spoken. They even landed a deal with Mark Cuban! Now, years later, their company is growing even faster than they were before and they also just raise…

Russ Wilde and his business partner started working on a simple sports blog years ago...they never could have imagined what it would become. Most people write a few posts and then quit. Only a few can stick around creating quality content for years and years until they finally find their big break. After multiple funding rounds, countless staff hir…

Nathan Butorac is a true entrepreneur down to his core. He started his entrepreneurship journey at just three years old and he hasn't stopped since. After working in several startups, he decided to get one going himself. He's run Better Than a Letter (Parent company) for a few years now and underneath that is his flourishing company, Piñatagrams. I…

This is the 2nd time that Nathan has been interviewed on our Podcast (Episode #31). Nathan started off his entrepreneurship journey by selling things online. It started with re-selling college textbooks and led to selling millions of dollars on Ebay. After that, he ran one of the best Freelancer businesses on the planet, Freeeup.com. The best part?…

This week we had the privilege of interviewing Ara Ghougassian with usefluent.co. His website is beautiful and the product itself is even better. Every language platform on the planet focuses on teaching you a new language by using the same, worn-out methods. With Fluent, you're constantly learning words that you actually care about and want to use…

Brian Leonard was the first employee and Co-founder of a company you’ve definitely heard of…Task Rabbit. He and his Co-founder basically pioneered the ‘task’ or ‘local freelance’ market. By definition, “TaskRabbit is an American online and mobile marketplace that matches freelance labor with local demand, allowing consumers to find immediate help w…

Dr. Eric Cole is one of the "OG's" in Cyber Security. After raising his hand in a CIA meeting 25+ years ago asking the simple question, "How do we know if these systems are defensible", his life was changed forever. Eric was one of the first hackers at the CIA and spent his life figuring out how to make our country's online defenses more defensive.…

Shrevan started off his career as a Sound Engineer in the UK. After going through a tough situation where his years of working as a Sound Engineer were considered 'invalid', he decided to do something about it. That's when he created Work Simplr. "Work Simplr is a virtual co-working platform for students, businesses, and professionals to network an…

Yoann Bohbot is the founder of dots SPACE, a higher-end co-working space that operates in Beverly Hills and Culver City, California (Los Angeles area). Early in his career, he was a critical piece of an IT company whose biggest clients included Honda, Adobe, Nestle, as well as several high profile real estate companies, doctors, lawyers, celebritie…

Hirbod is the CEO and founder of Surfboard, a geo-location app platform that allows you to explore your community. In this episode, we talk about his experience immigrating to America as a young adult who barely knew how to speak English, what got him into the startup scene in college, and the state of diversity in venture capital today. Be sure to…

Dillon Breslin is the CEO of Round2, an AI-powered sporting goods platform connecting youth athletes to affordable gear and equipment. Previously, he spent 6 years doing B2B sales at prominent startups in the NY tech scene. He was inspired to launch Round2 after being snubbed on OfferUp during a trade of Jordan 11's. Be sure to subscribe and tune i…

Farhaj and I want to welcome you to the brand new Building Fires Podcast (originally called WeStrive). For our first episode, we have the incredible Steve Young. Steve is the CEO of AppMasters.com and he is just that...an App MASTER. Steve knows everything there is to know about the app store, ASO, getting featured, and tons of hidden tips/tricks. …

John Tabis has been at the top of the floral industry for quite some time now...but it wasn't always that way. After moving on from his first startup, John started working at Disney (not the worst career move lol) and after several years he decided he wanted to get back into the startup world. John felt like he could take the floral industry by sto…

First off, I want to congratulate Chase on having his first kid 👶Chase started off by being a key part of a business that scaled to 300,000 students. After this accomplishment, he created one of the most successful 'email travel series' lists in existence and he did it all from scratch. This is when he realized that he had become a master email mar…

Erika Lucas is the Co-Founder of the StitchCrew Accelerator program based out of Oklahoma City, OK. Growing up in Mexico with 'bootstrapping' entrepreneurial parents, Erika learned early on what it takes to be successful. After moving to Oklahoma, she realized there were so amazing startups in her area that were leaving for big cities like LA, San …

This week I had the privilege of interviewing Laurent Grill with Luma Launch and I'm excited to tell his story. Laurent has been involved with the startup world for years. When the opportunity to become the Lead Investor at Luma Launch presented itself, he took full advantage. He now runs one of the best early-stage VC's in California out of their …

Pitch Decks, Pitch Decks, Pitch Decks...that's pretty much all I've heard since I entered the entrepreneurial world years ago. How they look, what pages go where, what investors like what...it goes on and on. That's why I wanted to have an episode to pull three unique perspectives from three incredible entrepreneurs/investors. Farhaj Mayan is the f…

Shortly after graduating from Clemson, Harold realized he wanted to rewrite the ticketing space. He was upset that so many home fan tickets were sold to opposing teams, so many fake tickets were being sold, and he was just frustrated with the ticketing industry as a whole. After years of work, bandwagonfanclub.com is now flourishing and Harold hims…

Daron Roberts has an incredible story. He went from being the Student Body President at the University of Texas (which at the time had over 50,000 students and was the biggest school in the country), to applying to Harvard Law 4 times before finally getting in, to finally getting his law degree...only to go coach at the NFL. Sounds crazy right? But…

Martin Rowinski is the CEO of boardsi.com (Pronounced Board-Z) which is a platform that connects top-level executives with startups looking to fill out their advisory board. Martin has spent years in the tech industry advising countless companies and founding a few of his own. Over the course of the podcast, we cover his early life, his experience …

Vadi Efe was the co-founder and COO of Dekatlon Buzz which was based out of Istanbul, Turkey. After years of working in the media and tech industry, he decided to create his own media empire. After close to 7 years of working with some of the biggest companies in the world, they finally had an offer they couldn't refuse. Over the course of this pod…

This week we have Charlotte Hodgson and basically everything she touches turns to Gold. She grew up with loving parents who she later found out were addicted to hard drugs. At an early age, she was responsible for taking care of her siblings, eventually joined the army, got her Masters in Education, and eventually joined a Charter School. When she …

Stephen George has been an entrepreneur his entire life. In his early 20's, he was one of the Co-Founders of the company Groupon and managed hundreds of employees at the age of 21. After Groupon's multi-billion dollar IPO, he decided to leave the company and traveled around the world for several years. After 3+ years of traveling, he returned to th…

Kevon Cheung grew up in Hong Kong and at just 15 years old he flew by himself to Boston so he could attend school. He ended up staying in the US for 8 years before heading back to China to pursue entrepreneurship. Kevon has been involved with countless companies over the years. He helped launch/grow First Code Academy (a coding academy that has hel…

Cory Levy (@Cory on Instagram) is the founder of First Text, Internapalooza, After School, and is involved in countless additional projects. In his younger days, Cory was smart enough to start his career out by interning at incredible companies like Techstars. This is one of the best ways to enter into the tech/startup world and learn as much as yo…

Forrest has been an entrepreneur his entire life. He started working on his own business when he was just a kid and now he's only 23 and has run multiple companies. He' has a great understanding of what it takes to grow a business and his current business, Marketli, is growing rapidly in the eCommerce world. He sold his first company just after his…

Maeve Garigan is an extremely successful entrepreneur who holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Her company, Roper, is Leading the development and commercialization of high-value technology for smart and sustainable beef production. In other words, they've created a high-tech ear-chip for cattle that allows ranchers to…

Smriti & Jacques Zaneveld are two of the most brilliant minds that I've ever had the privilege of speaking to, let alone interviewing. Combined, they have about 40 awards, degrees, masters, PhD's, etc. and they have brought their powers together for the greater good. They currently run Lazarus 3D which is a 3D printing company that creates body par…

For the past 10+ years Heather Pink has worked in the world Sports and now she's moved on to create her own company. Heather spent years as a reporter and editor for Fox Sports & Time Warner until she was hired by the NFL. Heather quickly rose the ranks and became a producer for NFL Fantasy Live and was put in charge of social media for the NFL Fan…

Brian Hoang is a master of VR and AR technology....so much so that in college he founded the Society for VR and the Society for AR. During his college career he also got started on his first VR company and the rest is history. Since then, Brian has worked at multiple VC firms (soaking up all the information he needed for fundraising), created a new…

Neil Thanedar graduated from college and immediately got to work. His company, Labdoor, is arguably the best company on the planet when it comes to independent research of the supplement industry. I actually purchased a pre-workout off of their website before recording this interview (and if you can get a broke startup-founder like me to spend $40+…

The storyline for the company that was created by Chris Meade and his friends almost sounds made up. They wrote out a list of company ideas and the final thing they didn't erase was '4-way Volleyball'. They quit their jobs, moved away from home, and years later they have millions in sales. Sounds like a fantasy company, right? Well, Chris and his t…

This week I interviewed Farhaj Mayan, CEO & Founder at Kanna (hirekanna.com), and their company helps people find gigs/jobs in the Cannabis industry. Farhaj is one of those stop-at-nothing-to-succeed entrepreneurs and he actually fell on this new company by accident. He previously was running a mobile app for barbers called Fade, already was thinki…

Andrew Blume & Trevor Hudson are two amazing entrepreneurs that are transforming the ag-tech industry. Trevor is a software engineer who grew up in Asia and speaks fluent Mandarin. Andrew has amassed 10,000 ag-tech hours and has worked in the ag-tech industry with companies like Microsoft, Philips, Ikea, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, South…

For our 50th episode, I'm flipping things around and actually posting an interview of myself getting interviewed by Axel York (episode 49). Throughout the episode, I speak about my journey to get WeStrive to where it is today, all the hurdles I've had to go through, the different lessons I've learned along the way, and so much more. Be sure to chec…

Axel has been ambitious and adventurous all his life so it makes that when his boss brought up expanding into Asia, he was the first one to raise his hand to volunteer. Moving a business, getting office space, hiring employees, and growing a company may be one of the most difficult things a human being can do...now imagine doing that all in the Phi…

Nick Ordoñez was introduced to me by a previous interviewee, Brodi Nicholas (episode #35), since Nick's company does a lot of work with Brodi's Cancer charity, campaignoaat.org. Nick runs an amazing travel/lifestyle backpacking company called Jetcet that he started several years ago. His passion for travel and hard work are what forged his company …

Adam Ayers is a legend in the tech world. He's lead tech teams all over the world and this week he sat down with WeStrive to tell his story. From an early age, Adam was obsessed with technology and that obsession led him into the entrepreneurship world. He went from building websites in his early teens, to starting Entrepreneurs@ASU while attending…

Adam Ayers is a legend in the tech world. He's lead tech teams all over the world and this week he sat down with WeStrive to tell his story. From an early age, Adam was obsessed with technology and that obsession led him into the entrepreneurship world. He went from building websites in his early teens, to starting Entrepreneurs@ASU while attending…

Alex is actually the former Co-Founder of David Levich's (Episode #1) earlier company before SunStaches. David introduced me to Alex and told me that Alex is not only one of the best guys he knows, but he's also a wizard with SEO...so, of course, I wanted to get him on the podcast. After years of helping grow the company (now called Sunstaches), Al…

After founding/selling multiple companies, Christopher Grey decided to get into Angel investing. Now, he has one of the best angel rates there is with only 3 out of 40 of his investments failing. Typically, around 50-90% of Angel investments end up failing so his rate of only 7.5% is insane. Throughout the episode, we cover his company CapLinked, w…