Startup Renegades

Ethan Song is forever an optimist and began his journey as the founder and CEO of Frank And Oak, which aimed to reshape the fashion industry by making it more personal and sustainable. Frank And Oak was named Most innovative company in retail by Fast Company and was #1 on the Deloitte Fast50 list.

Today, Ethan is the founder of RareCircles, helping creators and brands create communities in the Web3 economy. His insights into growth strategy, community, and founder mindset are invaluable.

In this episode, you will hear:

• How Ethan went about launching his company
• The actions he took to get his first customers
• Why the business goal is NOT to get millions of customers and what this means for business growth

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director of Berkeley SkyDeck, a global hub for entrepreneurship, and one of the leading accelerators in the world. 

She is a serial entrepreneur, civic activist, angel investor, advisor and board member of several startups, as well as and a frequent speaker on startups, accelerators, women in business and consumer neuroscience. 

Caroline tells us about her personal journey to the Skydeck program and explains everything founders might need to know about this unique accelerator program.

In this episode, you will hear:

• What is the Skydeck program and who is it for?
• The distinctive benefits Skydeck offers that you simply won’t find in other accelerators

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Krish Ramineni was a former PM at Microsoft and stumbled into entrepreneurship. When focusing on productivity solutions, he and his co-founders decided to just build something that they would use. Fireflies AI was born and the rest is history!

Fireflies AI assistant joins meetings across zoom, Gmeet, Teams, and several other video conferencing platforms to take notes, create searchable transcripts and provide insights into your conversations. In just two years, the company is globally distributed in 10+ countries and has been brought into meetings by more than 70% of the Fortune 500s today. 

In this episode, you will hear:

• How to identify the right moment to stick with a new startup
• How a single thesis around productivity led to something more
• How the company used product-led growth levers to expand quickly

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Marshall started his career in 2015 in the event space and had an affinity for pedal-to-the-metal organizations, guerilla marketing tactics, and doing things others won’t.

After dropping out of university in 2017, Marshall started working with startups and small businesses, and focused on growth, particularly in sales. After some success growing an existing business by running it like a new startup, he took the leap of faith in 2021 to turn his observations and theories into solutions by joining the founding team at MNTN Co.

Marshall eventually branched off to co-found slø with MNTN Co. founder Kristian Hansen where they put their theories to the test, proving very quick and fruitful pre-seed growth at slø thus far.

In this episode, you will hear:

• The systematic path Marshall took after dropping out of college to launching his own startup
• The ambitious way Marshall found himself the perfect co-founder
• How they tested their original idea and grew a seriously powerful waitlist

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Ron Ross is the founder of Everee, workforce payments technology that makes it easy to pay people instantly. He is a seasoned finance executive with 15 years of experience leading accounting, finance and operations teams at fast-growing companies. 

Ron came up with Everee after seeing firsthand the negative impact of waiting two weeks for a paycheck. His daughter had a job making enough to cover her expenses, but she kept running out of money because the timing of her payday and bills didn’t match. Realizing what a huge problem this was for so many Americans, Ron decided to challenge the status quo and created Everee to make faster paydays a reality. 

Since founding the company in 2018, Ron has grown the team by 5X and raised Seed and Series A financing rounds totaling $14M in April 2019 and 2020 respectively.

In this episode, you will hear:

• How an artist at heart was inspired by entrepreneurs and economic policy to change the world
• How Ron knew the timing was right for this specific business idea
• How Ron successfully led his team as an introvert

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Alejandra Santos is the founder and CEO of Startup Tandem. She landed in Miami from Honduras at the age of 17 with no support, money, or family. During her first few years in the US, she struggled to keep a roof over her head and food on her table, while at the same time pursuing an education…. But she did it.

Alejandra comes with 14+ years of experience in accounting and finance consulting. She has experience with nonprofits, restaurants, real estate, wealth management, and startups. 

In this episode, you will hear:

• The first startup Alejandra joined and what she learned from it
• How knowing the numbers empowers you to make the right decisions as a founder
• Why having a CFO that grows with is essential for new startups

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Shannon Erley has worked in the skincare and beauty industry for years and was personally struggling with adult hormonal acne. It wasn’t until she started working with a licensed esthetician that recommended a good at-home skincare routine was when her skin started to improve.

With so many people getting skincare recommendations elsewhere, she wanted to highlight the importance of estheticians, who have gone to school and trained for over 600+ hours, and have estheticians be at the forefront of making better skincare recommendations. She built Pomp, a technology platform for estheticians to integrate into their businesses to make better recommendations for new and existing clients.

In this episode, you will hear:

• The key lessons Shannon learned from her first startup experience
• The grassroots and creative actions Shannon took to get her very first customers
• The first hires Shannon made and why they were so essential to achieving scale

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Maia's the Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of the Nav.it Money App, the fitness app for finances which provides personalized financial coaching to help people build good habits and live financially well. She's devoted to closing wealth gaps perpetuated by a system not built for the majority of America and believes financial wellbeing is an integral part of creating a healthier and more equitable society. 

Maia talks about the importance of getting a Humanities degree in today’s job market and how her obsession with the customer journey led to her success as a founder.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Why a small pool of early adopters could be your startup’s secret weapon
• The exact strategy Maia and her co-founders used to find their early adopters and turn them into brand ambassadors
• How obsession with qualitative marketing research was a key strategy that helped Maia grow her fintech app

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Lindsay Pinchuk started her first company with just a $500 investment, growing it to reach 3MM users per month and generating 7-figures in revenue year over year. Less than a decade later she led her company through its acquisition to a large agency holding company.

Today, Lindsay is Founder + CEO of Lindsay Pinchuk Marketing + Consulting, helping individuals, companies and brands build and monetize their communities for bottom line growth through content, social media, email, partnerships and publicity.

You can also find her behind the mic interviewing some of the most incredible female founders she knows during her twice weekly podcast, Dear FoundHer.

In this episode, you will hear:

• What Lindsay did in the early days of her media business to capture her audience before the days of social media
• The 3 things that Lindsay suggests founders do to build their businesses in today’s environment
• Examples of how a media business like Bump Club and Beyond generates revenue 
• How Lindsay knew it was time to move onto her next venture

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com