From Start-Up to Grown-Up
One of the top startup coaches in the world, Alisa Cohn, talks to founders, creators, advisors, investors and builders of all kinds about their insights and experiences in growing from Start-up to Grown-up.
Episodes
104 episodes
#103 Patrick Lee— Rotten Tomatoes founder: the secrets to building an enduring business.Building Rotten Tomatoes, Managing Fame, and Staying True to Your Mission
Patrick Lee is best known as the co-founder and founding CEO of Rotten Tomatoes, the groundbreaking review platform that reshaped how audiences connect with movies and television. What started as a side project born out of his love for film bec...
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Episode 103
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1:16:58
#102 Robert Glazer — Serial Entrepreneur on the Most Important Tool for Success
Robert Glazer is the founder of Acceleration Partners, a serial entrepreneur, bestselling author, and a leading voice on how values shape leadership. In this episode, Bob shares why stepping down from the company he built triggered a surprising...
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Episode 102
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1:07:21
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#101 Nick Huber — Building Wealth in “Boring” Businesses
Nick Huber is an entrepreneur and real estate investor who resides in Athens, Georgia, with his wife and three children. He owns Somewhere.com, Bolt Storage, RE Cost Seg, and several other businesses. His real estate portfolio currently include...
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Episode 101
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1:10:30
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#100 Arvind Jain, Founder of Glean — From Technical Leader to First-Time CEO, the Business Case for Culture and Selling as a Founder’s Superpower
Arvind Jain is the founder and CEO of Glean, the Work AI platform that connects to all your company’s data so you can find, create, and automate anything. In this episode, Arvind shares his journey as a second-time founder and first-time CEO, r...
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Episode 100
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53:28
#99 Naveen Verma — From Princeton Professor to Venture-Backed CEO, Fundraising Without a Network, and Leading Firmly and Empathetically
Naveen Verma is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton and the co-founder and CEO of EnCharge AI, a startup building radically energy-efficient computers for artificial intelligence. In this episode, Naveen shares how h...
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Episode 99
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1:07:51
#98 3-time founder Craig Walker — From Selling Door-to-Door to 3-time founder; Building Google Voice; and the Real Trade-offs of Entrepreneurship
Craig Walker is the founder and CEO of Dialpad, a business communications platform powered by AI. A former M&A lawyer turned serial entrepreneur, Craig previously co-founded GrandCentral (acquired by Google and relaunched as Google Voice) a...
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Episode 98
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1:02:09
#97 Brad Feld, Founder of Techstars - Lessons from Techstars, why you should have “random” meetings, and the value of the “Give First” mentality.
Brad Feld has spent over 40 years building companies, mentoring founders, and investing in the startup ecosystem. He’s the co-founder of Techstars, a prolific venture capitalist, and the author of nine books. In this episode, Brad o...
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Episode 97
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1:08:01
#96: David Heinemeier Hansson, Co-Owner of 37signals— Creating with first principles, acting with courage, and working in a world with no managers (Repost)
David is the creator of Ruby on Rails, Co-Owner of 37signals, best-selling author, Le Mans class-winning racing driver, antitrust advocate, investor in Danish startups, frequent podcast guest, and family man.He writes regularly on
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Episode 96
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1:20:28
#95: From Startup to Grown-Up: Bob Young, co-founder of Red Hat - The origin of Open Source; the key to life and startup success, and how failure can fuel you.
Bob Young co-founded Red Hat, the first company to build a successful business around open source software, and helped shape the modern internet in the process. In this episode, Bob shares the story of how Red Hat went from a CD in a Ziploc bag...
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Episode 95
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1:15:47
#94: From Startup to Grown-Up: Jonathan Wolf, co-founder and CEO of ZOE - The growth of a founder, the most important leadership skills, and how to raise 7 million euros in 3 weeks.
Jonathan Wolf is the co-founder and CEO of ZOE, the science-based nutrition company using data to transform how people eat. In this candid conversation, he joins Alisa to explore what it takes to build a mission-driven company, how to lead with...
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Episode 94
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1:15:37
#93: From Startup to Grown-Up: Kass and Mike Lazerow, Serial founders; co-founders of Buddy Media (sold to Salesforce for $750M) - How to survive a failed acquisition, stay married to your co-founder, and enjoy the journey of entrepreneurship.
Kass and Mike Lazerow are serial entrepreneurs, seasoned investors, and co-authors of the upcoming book Shoveling Sh!t: A Love Story About the Entrepreneur’s Messy Path to Success. They join Alisa to share an unfiltered look at what it...
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Episode 93
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1:28:55
#92: From Startup to Grown-up: David Ko, CEO of Calm — from gaming to mental health, tools to combat burnout, and the rituals you can use in your own meetings
David Ko is the CEO and board member of Calm, the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and mindfulness. A former healthcare executive and tech operator, David previously served as COO of Zynga, held senior roles at Yahoo!, and founded a healthtech com...
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Episode 92
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52:06
#91: From Startup to Grown-up: Mike Seckler, CEO of Justworks — how to run a great board process, how to avoid self-inflicted wounds, and the value of taking big risks early in your career
Mike Seckler is a two-time entrepreneur and tech startup founder who led a company through the dot-com boom and bust, and now leads the charge as CEO of Justworks, the HR tech company focused on uplifting small businesses. In this conversation,...
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Episode 91
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1:21:58
#90: From Startup to Grown-Up: Jeff Byers, Co-founder and CEO of Momentous — Transitioning from NFL player to CEO, managing cultural clashes during a merger, and navigating the high-pressure world of growth-stage leadership
Jeff Byers is the co-founder and CEO of Momentous, a high-performance wellness company delivering science-backed products used by elite athletes, military operators, and high-performers worldwide. A former NFL player and two-time USC football c...
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Episode 90
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1:11:40
#89: From Startup to Grown-Up: Kevin Evers, author of There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift — unpacking Taylor Swift’s rise to the top; when to take big risks; and how to build a rabid fan base
Kevin Evers is a Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review, where he shapes groundbreaking research and develops award-winning and bestselling books on high performance, creativity, innovation, marketing, and digital disruption. He’s also writte...
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Season 1
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Episode 89
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54:46
#88: From Startup to Grown-Up: Eddie Kim, Co-founder and CTO of Gusto - Wearing different “hats” as a leader; learning to get his hands off the keyboard and enable others instead; and how to build a growth mindset
Eddie Kim is the CTO and cofounder of Gusto, which serves 400,000+ small and medium-sized businesses nationwide by helping them onboard, pay, insure, engage, and provide benefits for their teams, in one integrated, friendly, and easy-to-use pla...
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Episode 88
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43:08
#87: How Daniel Yanisse Scaled Checkr to $700M+ and Overcame the Post-Hypergrowth Crisis
In this episode of From Start-Up to Grown-Up, host Alisa Cohn sits down with Daniel Yanisse, co-founder and CEO of Checkr, to discuss the exhilarating rise and the challenges of sust...
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Episode 87
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42:11
#86: Peter Attia, MD, Founder of Early Medical — improving your lifespan and healthspan, the centenarian decathlon, and the process of making major life changes (Repost)
Peter Attia, MD, is the founder of Early Medical, a medical practice that applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of lengthening their lifespan and simultaneously improving their healthspan. He is the host of The Drive,...
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44:29
#85: Isabelle Freidheim, Founder of Athena Capital — The benefits of being an only child, creating opportunities for women in finance, and unlocking hidden talent
Isabelle Freidheim is the founder and managing partner of Athena Capital. She is the youngest chairman of a publicly traded company in the U.S. In her role as managing partner of Athena Capital, Freidheim oversees the company's strategic direct...
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1:09:33
#84: Ethan Evans, Executive Mentor and Former Amazon VP — Managerial myths debunked, how to create a safety net for your career, and why everyone should write online
During his 15+ years at Amazon, Ethan Evans helped invent Prime Video, Amazon Video, Amazon Appstore, Merch by Amazon, Prime Gaming (formerly Twitch Prime), and Twitch Commerce. He led global teams of over 800 and holds more than 70 patents. Et...
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51:06
#83: Chip Conley, Founder at Modern Elder Academy — Using regret as fuel; how and why founders need to shift their identities; how to manage people older than you; and his favorite interview question (Repost)
Chip is the founder of the Modern Elder Academy (MEA), where a new roadmap for midlife is offered at a beautiful oceanfront campus in Baja California Sur, Mexico, and forthcoming campuses in Santa Fe, NM. His five books have made him a leading ...
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1:14:32
#82, Gary Vaynerchuk, Serial Entrepreneur and Chairman of VaynerX — The importance of kind candor, how to get over your insecurity, and why you need to embrace social media (Repost)
Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as "GaryVee," is a serial entrepreneur, the Chairman of VaynerX, and 5x New York Times Best Selling Author. He is a leading global mind on ...
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30:27
#81: Colin Bryar, Co-Author of "Working Backwards;" former Chief of Staff to Jeff Bezos — How Amazon built its processes, the birth of the 6-page memo, and how to instill psychological safety in a competitive culture
Colin Bryar is a business advisor and technology leader whose career has focused on optimizing business strategy, technology, and operations. He is a former top-level executive at Amazon, where he spent more than 12 years – much of it in the ea...
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1:22:24
#80: David Heinemeier Hansson, Co-Owner of 37signals— Creating with first principles, acting with courage, and working in a world with no managers
David is the creator of Ruby on Rails, Co-Owner of 37signals, best-selling author, Le Mans class-winning racing driver, antitrust advocate, investor in Danish startups, frequent podcast guest, and family man.He writes regularly on
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1:20:28
#79, Shegun Otulana, Founder and CEO of Harmony Venture Labs—From Nigeria to unicorn founder; bootstrapping a profitable business; learning to embrace feedback
Shegun Otulana is a seasoned entrepreneur, advisor, mentor and investor. Drawing from his experience as a bootstrapped startup founder who found incredible success, his mission is to empower the next generation of builders by sharing his lesson...
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1:11:14
