Startup Life Show With Ande Lyons

In 2019 our guest, Karen Bussen, a world renown leader in the celebration space, founded Farewelling to redesign how we think about, talk about and plan for an essential part of our human journey. Farewelling has helped thousands of families navigate the loss of a loved one with memorial websites, virtual events, and a whole suite of tools and resources to create a truly personal tribute to someone special.During our delicious conversation, Karen shares an abundance of founder gems to help you maximize the joy and minimize the heartache from your founder journey.To learn more about Farewelling, please visit: https://www.myfarewelling.com/.Please connect with Karen and Farewelling on these social platforms:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/farewelling/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-bussen-a295b3a/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myfarewelling/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myfarewelling/Twitter: https://twitter.com/myfarewelling00:00 - meet Karen Bussen10:00 - Karen's Andelicious Adv

From in-person meetings, to speaking from the stage, to Zoom calls: your unique brand will be amplified when you have an authentic, signature style. Our guest, Solita Roberts, is the creator of Style to Impact, an image consulting platform. She teaches women entrepreneurs and professionals how to ditch the boring corporate uniform and adopt a more self-expressive wardrobe that empowers them, influences others, and has a bigger impact on their career or business.Through one-on-one and group image coaching, Solita works with you to align your style personality with your industry, career and business goals and turn your image into your best marketing tool, that empowers you, influences others, and takes you to the next level without compromising your femininity or individuality.Download Solita's eBook The 5 Secret Formulas here: https://www.styletoimpact.com/ebook To work with Solita and learn more about Style to Impact, visit: https://styletoimpact.com/ Follow and engage with Solita via:LinkedIn: https://www.li

How does a bootstrapped founder find funding without giving up a significant chunk of equity? Through founder-friendly non-dilutive debt capital!Our guest, Charlie Feng, is a seasoned founder, an operator angel investor and Co-Founder of Clearco, a fintech startup that provides founders and entrepreneurs with a suite of performance financing products and services tailor-made for founders in all stages of their journey.A pay-as-you-grow pioneer and the world’s largest ecommerce investor, Clearco’s mission is to remove the barriers between brilliant ideas, and brilliant businesses.Clearco has invested $2+ billion into 5,000+ companies using data science to identify high-growth funding. This data-driven approach takes the bias out of decision making and helps Clearco fund 8x more female founders than traditional VCs across 6 countries.Before Clearco, Charlie founded two other companies, and has scaled pre-Seed to Series C and beyond. Charlie also angel invests in ecommerce, fintech, saas, AI/ML, and a number of

How can a founder create an effective PR campaign when they’re bootstrapped, time strapped, and don’t have connections?Our guest, Alyson Campbell, is the CEO & Founder of Heart & Soul PR, Inc., and she’s ready to help you gain the media attention you need to soar in 2022!With her 15 years of experience in PR/marketing in New York City and Los Angeles, Alyson has served a range of leading consumer brand clients including Mercedes-Benz, British Airways, Hewlett-Packard, the Timberland Company and more in various large, medium, and boutique PR agency settingsIn 2015, Alyson founded Heart & Soul PR to provide opportunities for emerging brands to develop and grow their business. She understands that growth hacking and social media campaigns are terrific strategies for reaching your customer segment and building your sales funnel. But a good PR strategy will do all that and help with investors, build backlinks to your website, increase brand awareness and credibility, and create a favorable image for yo

When we show up as founders, we’re bringing our joyful purpose to the world. Which also means we’re solving big hairy problems and trying to navigate the harrowing roller coaster ride of startup life... all while protecting our joyful purpose and vision.Seasoned fab female founder, Mia Voss, joins me for the 2nd Annual Andelicious Startup Life LIVE Holiday Celebration! She's a cheerleader for the things she loves and a voice for things that need attention, and we dive into hot topics:* toxic positivity* bro culture* managing uncertainty* social justice and more!Mia’s joyful purpose can be seen in multiple ways: as a super-opinionated lifestyle blogger, a mouthy activist, a trusted brand ambassador, a commercial real estate inspector, and the host of the popular podcast Sh!t We Don’t Talk About. (Listen here: https://miavoss.live/podcast/)We also share a special year-in-review + bring-in-the-new exercise to help recap 2021 and prepare you to soar in 2022.To learn more about Mia visit: https://miavoss.liveConne

High school students need a more connected and collaborative way to study and explore their futures together.Our guest, Tán Ho, is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Fiveable, a social learning company that seeks to democratize learning and empower high school students through educational content, community, and collaboration.Fiveable has carved out a large presence in the edtech space with its platform that connects students and teachers for virtual after-school help sessions via live streaming. Since 2018, the startup has provided more than 7 million high school students with Advancement Placement (AP) test prep and support.This September Fiveable raised $10 million in a Series A funding round, which was used to provide new academic content for its online community of students.With his role spanning design, growth marketing, product development, and student success, Tán has helped Fiveable grow into a startup that supports millions of students across the globe. When he’s not staying up late conte

Participatory art and story-sharing projects have a unique ability to uplift and connect anonymous strangers in a moment of shared humanity. And what can be more important right now, when loneliness and anxiety are on the rise and wellbeing and empathy are on the decline?Our guest, Amy Giddon, is the Chief Connection Officer and Co-Founder of the Daily Haloha app.A seasoned leader providing businesses with the clarity and alignment they need to grow, serve customers, engage partners and fulfill employees, Amy has developed and implemented innovative growth strategies for organizations large and small. Troubled by pervasive division and disconnection, she launched her startup Daily Haloha to increase empathy and address social wellbeing head-on. Her vision is a world of true belonging: where everyone feels at home in their skin and at home in the world. To learn more about Daily Haloha and download the FREE app, click here: https://dailyhaloha.com/Please connect and follow Amy and Daily Haloha on social media

An entrepreneur can have a brilliant idea that solves a real problem, but are they prepared to launch, brand and build a business?Enter incubators and accelerators – an ideal opportunity for newly minted founders to get the business acumen they need to succeed. Our guest, Ivy Syovata, is an ecosystem builder and a serial entrepreneur. She is passionate about entrepreneurship, especially the development of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem in Africa. Ivy is the CEO of the Incubator Nest Hub, based out of Nairobi, Kenya. The Incubator Nest Hub supports companies by helping them survive and scale during the startup period. While enhancing the local ecosystem, Ivy also serves as a board member at Drop Access Energy and The Association of Startup and SMEs Enablers of Kenya (ASSEK). She chairs the All-Nairobi Chapter for Business Network for Women Entrepreneurs, and she generously provides support for startups everywhere she glows.To learn more about the Incubator Nest Hub, please visit: https://incubat

When you read tech articles and social posts – it appears raising a round is the only way to grow a business.What would happen if you repurposed all the time and effort spent on raising capital and focused it on bootstrapping your startup? Our guest, Naveen Prasad, understands the value of bootstrapping a startup before you begin raising capital.He’s the Founder & Managing Partner of Group Agilis (Agilis Advisors and Agilis Capital), where he manages a mandated portfolio in excess of $4 billion. The firm is operational in 10+ markets, and Naveen spearheads the leadership team for deal sourcing, fund placements, M&A and fundraising transactions. Originally from India, and now settled in Berlin, Germany, Naveen has built ventures from scratch, and is also an active early-stage investor, mentoring startups in venture programs such as EIT, Cocoon & StartupbootcampPrior to Agilis, Naveen had co-founded Fintech & eCommerce ventures Blackbill and MinRP and held leadership positions in Lendico (Rocket

The race for recruiting top talent is fierce and highly competitive. Our guest, Darrian Mikell, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Qualifi, a SaaS platform that powers the fastest phone interview experience in the world and helps recruiting teams hire great candidates faster than ever before.Qualifi’s frictionless screening platform saves both recruiters and candidates time while maintaining a human touch. The best candidates are off the market in 10 days and typical phone interviews have been shown to add 6-8 days to an already long hiring process. Qualifi can reduce the process to one day, helping recruiters scale effectively and win talent with speed.Darrian is a serial entrepreneur and business leader out of the Indianapolis, Indiana area. His passion is bringing people together to build products and services that positively impact the world we live in.To learn more about Qualifi, visit: https://www.qualifi.hr/Connect with Darrian and Qualifi on social media here:LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/quali

Singapore is home to fewer than six million people, yet it leads the ASEAN region in venture capital investment and has been home to 10 unicorns.Our guest, Prantik Mazumdar, is a Singapore-based entrepreneur, investor and mentor, and he’s sharing his startup stories along with an insider’s view of the Singapore startup ecosystem.After pursuing a major in Computer Engineering and a minor in Technopreneurship from the National University of Singapore, Prantik kick-started his career with the Singapore government (Enterprise Singapore) to drive international trade promotion for the island state.He began his entrepreneurial journey with Happy Marketer in 2011, where he spent a decade building and scaling one of the top independent digital marketing services firms in the region that served brands like Standard Chartered Bank, Great Eastern Life, Royal Brunei Airlines, Starbucks, Ping An, Grab, Shopee, GoJek, Kimberly Clark, PropertyGuru, and PegiPegi.In February 2019, Prantik had a successful exit when Happy Marke

Raising businesses and babies at the same time, especially during a pandemic, requires tremendous courage, resiliency, tenacity, and commitment!Our guest, Jeannette Abayie, founder of three business and mother to five children, exemplifies all the ingredients needed to juggle the demands of both worlds.This remarkable skillset was not created overnight, and it has not been an easy journey.With a bachelor’s degree in Biological Science and a prepharmacy education on pause, Jeannette needed flexibility in her life while raising her babies.Like many women with children, she chose entrepreneurship to meet the needs of motherhood and the role of primary income generator for the family.Jeannette turned to her passion for serving women and children, and built three businesses: Oohs N Coos (a nonprofit for women and children), The Bow Hub (a children’s hair accessory business), and Jeanne Ette Millinery (a hat making company for women). She also found time to co-author two children’s books: a children’s coloring book

The current tea market is boring, stiff and whitewashed.Our guest, Shanae Jones, founder of Ivy’s Tea Co., believes the holistic health beverage industry should reflect all cultures, all people. Not just those who are blond or do yoga.Ivy's Tea Co. is a pop culture and Hip-Hop inspired holistic brand that provides herbal tea and herb-infused sweeteners for the culture. The teas and honeys are small batched and handmade with ingredients that are locally-sourced whenever possible.Ivy’s Tea Co. focuses on bringing minorities to the holistic health industry, especially those who reflect the holistic health traditions currently underrepresented in the industry. With diversity and inclusion at its core, it proudly supports African-American, Latinx, and the LGBTQIA community.Buy From a Black Woman - visit Ivy's Tea Co. here and use code ANDE at checkout for 15% off: https://www.ivystea.com/Follow Shanae and Ivy's Tea here:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivysteaco/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanaedidg

Imagine having a place to easily organize and store all your travel dreams, plans and adventures.Our guest searched for such a platform, and when she couldn’t find one, she created it! Jacqueline Hampton is the founder of Portico, your ultimate travel organizer that helps you save, plan, and share amazing adventures, all in one place.Portico was born by fusing together aspects of Jacqueline’s professional and personal life: merging her knowledge from being CEO of Springpad (a personal organizer with over 5M registered users) with her strategy and business development skills and love of travel.Jacqueline’s career has spanned IT consulting to media investment banking to corporate development to tech. She spent many years running Corporate Development for Time Inc., acquiring and investing in businesses for People, InStyle, and Sports Illustrated, among other brands, and helping establish their presence in Mexico through Grupo Expansíon. Outside of work, Jacqueline has visited 35 countries and circled the globe

Good conversations are taking place around reducing bias and increasing diversity in tech hires.But real change happens when infrastructure is implemented and executed within an organization.Our guest, Everett Harper, is an experienced Infrastructuralist, and has the studies and results to show how tech companies can positively change hiring practices.Everett is co-founder of Truss where, for 10 years, they’ve been helping startups scale and large enterprises and public agencies transform from legacy to modern systems. Truss made its name by helping to save Healthcare.gov, and since then they’ve worked with massive health data systems, major transportation and logistics systems, and several companies with data science specializations. Everett's expertise is in customer development, a technique that combines customer behavior with ethnography to inform product and business development.He has an MBA and M.Ed in design and technology from Stanford, and a BSEE in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Duke. E

Founders love to solve problems!While earning his MBA, our guest, Dave Salvant, realized there was a need and a demand for people that wanted to get haircuts, and for small barbershops that needed a tech solution to solve their business needs. Dave solved that problem by launching SQUIRE, an all-in-one platform to power small barbershop businesses and help them maximize profitability while creating an outstanding customer experience.Since its inception in 2015, SQUIRE has acquired over 2000+ partners in over 40 major markets, and across three continents. As a graduate of University at Albany, and a consortium fellow at the University of Wisconsin Business School, Dave's finance background was an integral part of his journey and helped lay the foundation for the strategy and design behind the SQUIRE concept and platform as it exists today. Under his leadership, SQUIRE has made monumental headway in the tech and beauty industry. After Y Combinator, Dave and the team raised over $150 million in venture funding.T

Are you launching a tech startup and wishing you had a step-by-step guide to help you?Our guest, Shirish Nadkarni, has exactly what you need to succeed with his book, From Startup to Exit: An Insider’s Guide to Launching and Scaling Your Tech Business!A serial entrepreneur Shirish Nadkarni came to the U.S. as a teenager with $25 in his pocket. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he worked at Microsoft where he engineered the $400 million acquisition of Hotmail and launched MSN.com, the world’s leading web portal.Striking out on his own in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom, he founded TeamOn Systems, an early pioneer of mobile email that was later acquired by BlackBerry.After a family trip to Spain rife with language barrier snafus, Shirish launched the first social language learning app Livemocha and grew it to over 15 million members in 200 different countries before it was acquired by Rosetta Stone.Get your copy of Shirish's book From Startup to Exit here: https://bit.ly/ShirishNadkarniConne

Have you ever felt like a deer in headlights when an investor asked you a question you had no idea how to answer?Our guest, Renata Merino, knows exactly how you feel, and she’s ready to help you deliver the best responses to investor questions!A 25-year operator, former investment banker, and Chicago Booth MBA merit scholar, Renata is a Latina serial entrepreneur turned investor and venture capitalist. She relishes in helping founders scale and has been featured in the media on women empowerment, diversity in venture, and the power of networking and building community. A single mom of 2 children, you can often find Renata at an early morning 5AM HIIT workout or kicking off her early morning Instagram videos telling her story of overcoming adversity within her life.To learn more about Renata's remarkable work in the world, visit: https://renatamerino.com/To connect with Renata on social, click these links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renatamerinobregstone/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RMB2 Instagram:

Whether you’re standing in line for coffee, or you’re at a Demo Day, or attending a virtual networking event where you’re asked to quickly share your value prop on screen – you need to be quick-pitch ready!Our guest, Donna Griffit, is a Corporate Storyteller who has worked globally for over 17 years with Fortune 500 companies, Start-Ups, and Investors in a wide variety of industries. Donna has the ability to magically spin raw data into compelling stories that captivate audiences and drive results. (AKA: "automagic" ) She knows how to powerfully convey your message so you give investors exactly what they need to hear, which will help you land that coveted meeting. She’s consulted and trained clients in over 30 countries, helping them create, edit and deliver verbal and written presentations, pitches and messages. Through her guidance clients have raised over a billion dollars, and she has an impressive track record helping female founders secure funding.To learn more about Donna, visit her website here: htt

No one plans to become a caregiver. And when they are thrust into this new role, family caregivers often don’t know what they need help with or they fear asking for help because they don’t want to be a burden.Especially when they have no idea if it’s going to be nine days, nine months, or nine years.This leads to deep isolation and loneliness.Our guest, Jessica Kim, is the co-founder/CEO of ianacare – a health tech platform on a mission to encourage, empower, and equip family caregivers with practical tools, resources and communities, so no one does it alone. The platform leverages the powerful combination of technology + caregiver coaches to organize and mobilize all the layers of support. Her passion and dedication stems from being the primary caregiver for her mom who fought a seven-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Jessica is a 3x startup founder, speaker, and caregiving advocate. She was honored as Crain’s Top 40 under 40 and currently serves as a Venture Partner at Praxis Labs, the inaugural Entrepren