How Success Happens

Starting a business at any time can be scary but how about dropping out of school to start a business during the greatest recession in the history of the world? To make a move like that can be downright frightening. Alexa Von Tobel literally left Harvard Business School before graduating to pursue her mission to educate everyday Americans on how to manage their own finances.

Jarrod Moses went from being a college intern at Grey Advertising to becoming its youngest president ever. He was a 30-year-old boss of a major publicly traded company, and regularly faced age discrimination because of it. But it didn’t stop him. He went on to found the United Entertainment Group—a joint venture with Hollywood powerhouse Untied Talent Agency, that would produce branded entertainment for General Mills, AT&T, Starbucks, and more of the world’s largest brands.

Jake Schwartz started a company called General Assembly that just sold to the big human resource company Adecco Group for a reported 413 million dollars. After graduating from Yale and thinking he learned all he needed to to succeed in business, Schwartz got smacked in the face with reality. He realized education and the way people were learning was changing. GA started with relevant classes that people were willing to pay for because they were making investments in themselves.

Lesley Eccles is the co-founder and former head of marketing of FanDuel, the billion-dollar fantasy sports company. But despite the company’s success, Lesley and Nigel didn’t get to enjoy the spoils. Their relationship with their investors fell apart, and they left the business in 2017 having made almost no money on the deal and retaining no interest in the business.

Randi Zuckerberg was one of the first employees at Facebook. She contributed on many fronts in those early days of Facebook, and was responsible for creating the Facebook Live tool that today is used by billions of people. But something nagged at her. She would often look around while on meetings and realize she was the only woman there. And she felt called to fix that—not just in Silicon Valley, but everywhere.

How do you deal with the feeling of not being able to make a difference in a changing industry? David Kanbar is a serial entrepreneur who started a mortgage business which he later sold because  he realized he could never make a difference in a business that had become commoditized. He changed industries and eventually founded the brand Skinnygirl Margarita with Bethenny Frankel. Now Kanbar is at it again having just launched King Street Vodka with actress Kate Hudson.

You might know him as the Cake Boss from his hit show on TLC. Buddy Valastro Jr. is no overnight Hollywood success story. His story is one of hard work going back to the time he started working in his father's bakery when he was just 11 years old. When his father passed when he was only 17, Buddy made a promise to himself that he would do everything humanely possible not to fail with the business. He would work harder and longer than everyone else to make sure he was successful.

Amber Venz Box is the founder of rewardStyle a business driving over one billion dollars in retail sales by uniting brands, influencers, and consumers. Despite never having any previous connections, contacts or easy ways into the Fashion industry she ended up becoming one of its most successful entrepreneurs. Amber simply forced her way in through will power and maximizing any and all opportunities.

Caroline Hirsch. Maybe you don't know her name, but you know the people whose careers she launched Chapel, Tracy Morgan, Seinfeld—the list goes on. And she did it at what has become the most famous comedy club in the world, Carolines Comedy Club in New York City’s Time Square. She started it 35 years ago, long before #MeToo, when the business of comedy was dominated by men. The comics were mostly men, and pretty much all the business executives calling the shots were men.

Ruth Zukerman will be the first to tell you that she has faced many struggles with some of her business partners over the years. But Ruth has persevered using lessons from these partnerships and relationships to learn more about herself and in turn grow as a business woman. While she has provided transformative experiences for her students over the years she herself has been transformed by the lessons learned through the ups and downs of partnerships at SoulCycle and Flywheel.

How hard should you push yourself to achieve success? David Burke is one of the biggest names in the culinary world but in getting there he had to put in years worth of 90 hour work weeks and make incredible personal sacrifices. David has changed over the years learning to take better care of himself but we wanted to know if he could have achieved the same success he has if he had always been this way from the beginning.

How do you sell something that people don’t understand? In 2009, when Jenny co-founded the company Rent the Runway, the business transformed the retail industry by making designer clothing rentals a convenient and accessible luxury experience for millions of women. Not many folks envisioned a world in which people would love to rent their clothing. But Jenny did and now she is back at it with her new company Jetblack.

Perpetual pop-up shop Story challenged the retail model when it launched in 2011. But now, since being acquired by Macy's, Story is scaling nationwide--and its founder has even bigger plans for the retail giant.

A chat with Reid Genauer, singer, songwriter and Chief Marketing Officer of Smule, one of the most popular music apps on the planet.

In 2016, Tobias Peggs and Kimbal Musk partnered up to launch Square Roots, a Brooklyn-based urban farm. Farmers grow food in shipping containers by way of controlled microclimates and specialized lighting, aiming to connect communities with fresh, local produce. Before Square Roots, Peggs earned his PhD in AI and led two tech companies to acquisitions by Adobe and Walmart. In this episode, Peggs discusses the future of food and reveals his advice for entrepreneurs looking to sell their startups.