“Ten, Eighty, Ten.” That’s how Gary Vaynerchuk scales billion-dollar ambitions. In his words, “I open and close. The middle is the problem.” It’s one of many frameworks he’s developed over a lifetime of bu…
Garrett Paul went from feeling professionally adrift to co-founding a fast-growing accounting firm with childhood friend and CPA, Matt Jones. While Matt leads on the technical front, Garrett drives client relationships, business development, and str…
In the pantheon of Silicon Valley origin stories, few are as personal—and quietly revolutionary—as that of Drew Houston. The Dropbox co-founder and CEO didn’t set out to create a billion-dollar company. He just wanted to avoid forg…
“If You Don’t Know Who You Are, Mastery Will Be Misery.” For decades, Robert Greene — author of The 48 Laws of Power, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature — has been the modern-day Machiavelli for entrepreneurs, c…
“Operating out of fear is always losing.” — Julie Wainwright In her recent interview on the Success Story Podcast, Julie Wainwright opened up with striking honesty about public failure, personal collapse, and what it really to…
“Your tone is how the prospect interprets your intention behind everything you say.” — Jeremy Miner If you’ve ever been ghosted by a prospect, dropped from a sales process, or treated like a commodity despite offering so…
"If you take everything from me, I still have the motivation to start over again and build something." — Diplo When you think of Diplo, you probably think of the Grammy-winning DJ who’s headlined global festivals, broken genre boundarie…
When you hear Neil Patel — digital marketing entrepreneur and co-founder of NP Digital — talk about building companies, one theme keeps coming back: focus beats diversification. In a recent interview on the Success Story Podcast, Patel …
After being laid off, Tomas Franc chose not to job hunt—he chose to build. With a background in SaaS and a long-standing passion for fixing knowledge gaps in fast-moving teams, Tomas launched NextKS: an AI-powered Slack-native platform that tu…
“The future belongs to those who can steal attention.” – Codie Sanchez In a world where AI is eating jobs, algorithms change weekly, and competition for eyeballs is relentless, Codie Sanchez has quietly (and then loudly) built…
After trading the grind of underpaid academia for the thrill of entrepreneurship, Kristin Clark found her calling by helping others share their stories. As the founder of Elite Content Creation, a boutique ghostwriting and hybrid publishing agency, …
When Daniela Amodei left OpenAI with six colleagues including her brother, Dario, to co-found Anthropic, they were chasing a mission: put safety and human values at the center of generative AI. Three years later, Anthropic’s Claude is used by…
After years of working under someone else's banner, Angel Ortiz made a bold leap during a business presentation—unveiling ZITRO Construction Services LLC to a room full of peers. What followed was a journey fueled by deep family inspiration, u…
When Neal Mohan first walked into YouTube’s New York offices as its CEO, he brought with him a career that had already shaped much of the platform’s monetization backbone. But in his candid conversation with Colin and Samir, Mohan reveal…
In an interview for First Block, Notion’s founder-focused series, Michael Truell — co-founder and CEO of AnySphere — retraced Cursor’s unlikely path to becoming one of the fastest-growing AI developer tools in the world.…
“People don’t want to eat broccoli. But if you hide the broccoli in sugar, they’ll eat it.” That’s how Ivan Zhao, co-founder and CEO of Notion, explains the early pivot that saved the company. In a rare, deeply person…
In 2020, Hala Taha’s podcast wasn’t yet making money. By 2024, Young and Profiting is projected to generate over $1 million in podcast revenue alone. But that’s just the surface. Behind the mic, Taha has quie…
“People think there’s a magic sauce. Honestly, it’s the person. It’s the entrepreneur. It’s the idea. It’s the passion. It’s the grit.” — Allison Ellsworth, Founder of Poppi Allison Ellsworth d…
“If it takes me 100 companies until I’m 90 years old, I will start the next company.” That’s not bravado. That’s the quiet resolve of Raj Gokal — co-founder of Solana — whose journey through failure, founde…
“Rich people stay rich by acting like they’re poor. Poor people stay poor by acting like they’re rich.” — Nicole Lapin Nicole Lapin isn’t your typical money expert. She’s a former CNN anchor turned best-se…
After being laid off shortly after maternity leave, Cody Gillund transformed uncertainty into clarity—and clarity into a business. As the founder of Grounded Growth Studio, she partners with early- and growth-stage tech leaders to realign mark…
When Sara Blakely sat cross-legged on her apartment floor in Atlanta after being told, “Business is war,” she made a decision that would define her billion-dollar trajectory: “I’m not going to war. I’m going to do …
Brittney Hannah didn’t just learn AI—she transformed how others engage with it. Through her company, The Sainth, she’s helping mission-driven teams move from curiosity to confident implementation, bridging the gap between strategy,…
“I was more stressed than ever and completely miserable.” This wasn’t Mark Manson in 2008, broke and unemployed. This was Manson after writing four books, landing TV deals, a feature film, and selling 20 million copies worldwide &…