The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve
This all began with an idea. How can we empower others looking to launch a venture or start something new? The answer? By telling our stories, and those of co-founders and executives - breaking down what propelled them to success and how they braved adversity and uncertainty. We are Jake Zapata and Tom Hittinger - two lifelong best friends who have taken two vastly different approaches to putting our ideas into practice.
13. Aakash Shah - CEO @ Wyndly, Fixing Allergies Permanently, Being In Y-Combinator & If It's Worth It
Aakash Shah is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wyndly and is fixing allergies permanently. Listen to Aakash talk about how Wyndly is fixing allergies once and for all and his experience in the Y-Combinator W21 cohort. Aakash's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mraakashshah/ Wyndly Website: https://www.wyndly.com/ Y-Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
Apr 18, 2023
57 min
12. Meggie Williams - CEO @ Skiptown, The HUGE Hidden Opportunity in Pet Care, Disrupting the Pet Services Industry
Meggie Williams is the Founder and CEO of Skiptown, the first-of-its-kind, tech-infused, dog park, bar, and dog care facility. Meggie and her team believe that the pet services industry is ready to be disrupted and are leading the charge expanding to multiple locations across major cities in the US following $27M raised in their latest round of funding. Listen to Meggie as she tells her story founding Skiptown, the hidden opportunity in pet care, and how Skiptown is capitalizing on it right now! Meggie's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meggie-williams/ Skiptown website: https://skiptown.io/ Fundraising Article: https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2022/12/pet-services-startup-skiptown-raises-27m.html?page=all
Mar 14, 2023
46 min
11. Oliver Guerrero - CEO SCP Labs, Working with Elon at SpaceX, Taking his company public
Oliver Guerrero is the CoFounder and CEO of SCP Labs and is changing the way we get treated at the doctor's office.    Oliver's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-guerrero/  SCP Labs Website: https://www.scplab.com/   Oliver's Previous Startup (NASDAQ: FHLT)  https://exceleradce.com/ Crew Dragon Project SpaceX : https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/dragon/ 
Feb 28, 2023
55 min
10. Alex Piasecki - CoFounder & COO of Seal the Seasons, Building the 5th Largest Frozen Fruit Brand, How to Sell Into Grocery Stores
Alex Piasecki is the co-founder & COO of Seal the Seasons, a frozen fruit brand putting a farmers market in your freezer. Alex & his cofounder, Patrick, started Seal the Seasons as college students at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and have grown the company to be the 5th largest frozen fruit brand doing over $10M+ in annual revenue. You can find Seal The Season's products in over 5,000 grocery stores across the country, like Wegmans, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods, Costco, The Fresh Market, and others.  Seal The Season's website: https://sealtheseasons.com/ Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-alex-piasecki-a7690532/
Dec 6, 2022
46 min
9. Zach Boyette - CoFounder of Galactic Fed, building a fully remote company as a digital nomad
Zach Boyette is the CoFounder and Managing Partner of Galactic Fed, an award winning growth marketing agency with 160 employees. Before co-founding Galactic Fed in 2018, Zach worked as a Growth Manager & Head of Paid Media & Growth Labs at various companies like Google and Toptal. To learn more about Zach's company, Galactic Fed, visit their website: https://www.galacticfed.com/
Nov 15, 2022
49 min
8. Tara Zedayko - CEO of Dig Labs, Creating AI for visual experiences
Tara Zedayko is the CEO & CoFounder of Dig Labs, which started with a mission to make our pets healthier.    Tara is a scientist-turned-GM-turned-entrepreneur who uniquely made her company self-sufficient without any outside investment since Nov 2020.   Listen to Tara discuss everything from networking through achievement to pivoting your business through difficult times.    Dig Labs website: https://getdiglabs.com/ Tara's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zedayko/ Tara's Twitter: https://twitter.com/taracz
Nov 1, 2022
43 min
7. Marcus Viereckl - Building tech for the worlds largest fund to being CTO of Alias Intelligence
Marcus Viereckl is the CoFounder and CTO of Alias Intelligence, leading background investigations and due diligence company disrupting the background check industry using technology. Before co-founding Alias, Marcus was an Assistant Vice President at Blackstone. To learn more about Marcus' company Alias Intelligence visit their website: https://www.aliasintelligence.com/
Sep 27, 2022
46 min
6. Imran Ahmad - COO & CFO of Health iPASS, How to scale a company to exit
Imran Ahmad tells us what it's like to go from successful investor to successful operator. His skill set is rare, and this episode is full of gems you can incorporate into your business.
Sep 6, 2022
49 min
5. Teddy Fitzgibbons - CoFounder & CEO of StreetFair, How to build a marketplace
Teddy is the CoFounder & CEO of StreetFair, the home services marketplace for neighborhoods.  Hear from Teddy as he breaks down how to build a marketplace and launch a startup without building any software.      Check out StreetFair: https://www.streetfair.com/
Aug 30, 2022
46 min
4. Brian Elliott, From West Point to CoFounder, how to raise venture capital, going from 0-1
Brian is the CoFounder of Wove, the company building the world's best engagement ring shopping experience.    Hear from Brian as he breaks down how to raise millions of dollars and build a network using email and Airtable.    This episode is sponsored by Wove.  Get your custom replica ring designed and shipped to you in 7 days.   Click the link to start designing: (https://bit.ly/3Q0vjIr)   Timestamps:  :44 - Intro to Brian Elliot, CoFounder of Wove  8:55 - Wild stories at West Point  13:45 - How Brian handles stress in high-stress environments  15:54 - Circle of influence  20:28 - Gen Z   21:05 - Army becoming a more progressive institution   22:53 - How he started Wove  27:47 - The Day to day going 0-1  31:26 - Diversity at Wove  33:43 - Being a contrarian and correct   35:09 - Convincing VCs to give you money  40:21 - Getting vetted & getting told no 100 times  44:20 - The step-by-step process to raise VC  48:11 - Leveraging networks & being a super connector  54:26 - Operating with empathy  58:07 - Being at the bottom of the Bell Curve  1:01:46 - Brian’s advice to young entrepreneurs
Aug 23, 2022
1 hr 5 min
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