Erika Alexander is an actress, writer & co-founder of Color Farm Media. She’s well known for her role as the iconic character Maxine Shaw, Attorney-at-Law in the 90s sitcom Living Single. She was a regular as Cousin Pam in The Cosby Show & appeared in the Oscar-winning film Get Out (2017).
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Full show notes & timestamps:
https://www.creatorlab.fm/erika-alexander-actress-get-out-cosby-show/
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Time Stamps:
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Julien Smith is the co-founder & CEO of Breather. They provide an on-demand network of private meeting rooms designed for work, meetings and focus. They’ve raised over $80m to date and are on a strong trajectory of growth. Before that, Julien was a best selling author, speaker & podcaster. In this conversation, Julien and Bilal discuss how he thinks about pattern detection, how he used these frameworks to develop the idea for Breather & how you can apply this to your own work.
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Full show notes & timestamps:
https://www.creatorlab.fm/julien-smith-breather-detecting-patterns/
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Time Stamps:
WHO IS GARY?
Just out of college, Gary grew his family wine business from a $4M to a $45M business in five years. Now, he runs VaynerMedia, one of the world’s hottest digital agencies with more than 800 employees and $100m in annual revenue. Along the way, Gary became a prolific investor. He’s investing in companies like Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Venmo.
He’s a 4x NY Times best-selling author & recently starred in Apple’s original series: “Planet of the Apps”, with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba and will.i.am.
FIVE THINGS TO LISTEN OUT FOR:
(1) Childhood stories – before the lemonade stands, what Gary was like as a kid
(2) Luck – believing in luck, but wanting to eliminate excuses
(3) What matters most – if this was his last Thursday, how would he spend his last week?
(4) Depression – Gary discusses a recent suicide and why he thinks the culture of entrepreneurship being cool isn’t necessarily helping
(5) Legacy – how his view of legacy has changed over the last 10yrs
TIME STAMPS:
-Gary shares some childhood stories [1m36s]
-Before the lemonade stands [4m19s]
-Trading attention [5m27s]
-Thoughts on luck and eliminating excuses [6m9s]
-“I take no credit for my success” [8m46s]
-If this was his last week to live, what would Gary spend his time doing? [12m4s]
-A reoccurring nightmare as a child [15m52s]
-Entrepreneurial depression + suicide [17m27s]
-Navigating self-doubt vs self-awareness to know you’re not doing the right thing [20m54s]
-How Gary’s view of legacy has changed over the last 10 years [22m46s]
-Building a business that lives on without you [25m56s]
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Connect with Bilal:
https://www.instagram.com/bzaidi212
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Jos White is a serial entrepreneur and investor at Notion Capital. In this interview, he shares his life story from growing up in England, to getting expelled from school, starting businesses with his brother & how they managed to sell 3 different companies for more than $800 million.
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This is a new format where I bring experts from different fields to have a roundtable discussion on a particular topic. Today we speak about the state of transatlantic tech and what you should be thinking about if you’re looking to expand internationally. Note that this was recorded late Dec 2016 just before President Trump came into office.
MY 3 GUESTS:
(1) Daniel Glazer – partner at Silicon Valley-headquartered law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he leads the New York office’s Technology Transactions practice. He also helps lead WSGR’s US Expansion practice, advising UK and other non-US technology companies on US expansion
(2) Pru Ashby – head of North America at London & Partners who are the official promotional company for London. She works on attracting and advising US companies to set up and grow in London
(3) Alliott Cole – director at Octopus Ventures, one of Europe’s largest venture capital teams. Some of their investments include: Secret Escapes, yPlan, Zoopla, Swiftkey (sold for $250M to Microsoft) & Lovefilm (sold to Amazon for $200M)
(1) Similarities and differences between US and UK/European markets
(2) Startup ecosystem post-brexit
(3) Future outlook under a Trump presidency
(4) How do you structure an expansion into US or Europe
(5) What companies have done this well?
TIME STAMPS
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He was named by President Obama as a “Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship” and travelled with him on his historic trips to Cuba & Kenya.
We discuss what he’s learned from all those years, how he thinks about new business ideas, applying the “power of broke” to test out customer needs, focusing on the best opportunities, his role as a leader in the current political climate & his latest venture, a co-working space in NYC called Blueprint + Co.
All show notes and other episodes available at:
https://www.creatorlab.fm
All show notes and other episodes available at:
https://www.creatorlab.fm
All show notes and other episodes available at:
https://www.creatorlab.fm
All show notes and other episodes available at:
https://www.creatorlab.fm
Ever wondered where that barely-used bar of soap went after your last hotel visit?
Erin Zaikis goes into her incredible journey in founding Sundara: a nonprofit organization that partners with slum women in India, Myanmar & Uganda to recycle soap & provide hygiene education to the communities that need it the most.
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5 things to listen out for:
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(1) How a trip to rural Thailand inspired her to take action and start a soap company
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(2) Making bars of soap in her Manhattan apartment and why she transitioned from a social business to a non-profit
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(3) Why soap is often overlooked and why it is so powerful in preventing disease, empowering women and saving lives
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(4) The steps she took to fundraise, spread the word and build her nonprofit
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(5) Personal: what inspires her, what success means to her, what her plans are for the future, what makes a happy life, books that have helped her through the process and more
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I hope you enjoy the conversation - please share this with your friends and help spread the word!
Nico Perez and the Mixcloud team have managed to get to 17M monthly visitors with zero outside investment. We talk about how they bootstrapped their way to a unique and profitable business. Listen out for when they lived in a 60k square foot warehouse.
We go deep in this conversation, so 5 things to listen out for:
1) Living in a warehouse and having no internet connection – many people say they “had no money” when they started, but Mixcloud really had to live that mantra when they failed to raise any investment. We go into how they paid their rent every month with limited income after Nico quit his job to go full time.
2) Getting rejected by Y Combinator and other investors – how they turned that into positive momentum and became revenue generating early on.
3) How he found a technical co-founder – in today’s digital world, a common question that comes up time and time again is “how do I find someone to help me build this” – we go into how Nico approached this problem with a “skill share”.
4) How they got the head of growth at Facebook to be on their advisory board – Building a great team isn’t just about the employees and founders of an organization. There are mentors, board members and in many cases: “advisory boards”. Nico tells us how they organically made relationships to convince smart people to be a part of their advisory board.
5) Other Topics – We had a free-flowing discussion with a few other topics we touched on: getting more women on their advisory board, artificial intelligence, building an MVP (minimum viable product), splitting up equity amongst co-founders, benefits of having 3 co-founders, books that have impacted him & what success means to him
After 10yrs as a New York party promoter, Scott Harrison went on an epic journey that turned his life around. We talk about how he built charity: water, one of the most impactful and innovative non-profits around.
We discuss:
–Water Problem & Non-Profit World – the global water problem that impacts 1 in 10 people and its disproportionate impact on women, education & disease
–What changed him – what changed him to start charity: water, from a life of bottles and models as a New York party promoter, to completely changing his life around 180
–Convincing top entrepreneurs to back him – how he got people like Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Sean Parker (Facebook), Chris Sacca (famous investor) and Daniel Ek (Spotify) to back charity: water
–Birthday campaigns – how the famous birthday campaigns started & what is next for them with “The Spring”
–Private sector – what he’s learned from the private sector and the role technology plays in their org, eg. how they use virtual reality for story telling
–Social businesses – what he thinks of socially conscious businesses like Warby Parker & TOMS Shoes and if he thinks the term non-profit need a rebranding
–Personal – why he could drive a $70k volvo but not a $25k mercedes, always flying coach/economy class and the pressure to be frugal while running a non-profit,
–Success – what success means to him and common traits amongst successful people he knows
-Books that have impacted him
I speak to Brian Wong, the CEO & Founder of Kiip on what he learned from building his company, being one of the youngest people in history to raise venture capital and we get a preview of his new book: 'The Cheat Code'