Founders Talk: Startups, CEOs, Leadership

Adam talks with Kevin Delaney, the founder of Charity Hack - a simple concept that takes 5 amazing charities and the most talented people you can find to create innovative fundraising campaigns for those charities.

Adam talks with Tim Smith, the creator of The East Wing, Tim Likes to Teach, Lustra and more. Tim is a master of the art of design and UX and loves hacking on front-end web codes.

Adam talks with Drew Strojny the founder of The Theme Foundry and Memberful. Drew is back again to talk about his latest product, Memberful - a membership as a service site that lets you create a membership in minutes and start selling monthly or yearly subscriptions.

Adam talks with Dalton Caldwell the Founder of App.net. Since we barely scratched the surface of the planned conversation around what he's doing with App.net in part 1, Dalton agreed to come back on the show for a part 2 to discuss the back story of App.net!

Adam talks with Robert Sha, the founder of CAPSULE and the maker of Minimalist - a super slim wallet for minimalists popularized by its successful project on Kickstarter.

Adam talks with Daniel Genser and Jamie Smyth, the makers of TypeEngine, to talk about their "beautifully simple" solution to publishing a magazine to Newsstand and the future and democratization of digital publishing.

Adam Stacoviak talks with Dalton Caldwell the Founder of App.net after Founders Talk #42.

Adam talks with Dalton Caldwell the Founder of App.net. This is a hefty part 1, mainly focusing on the road traveled by Dalton to get to App.net. We barely scratched the surface of the planned conversation around what he's doing with App.net. We end this call by teeing up the topic of discussion for part 2.

Garrett Dimon the Founder of Sifter and writer of Starting + Sustaining joins Adam to share his history with becoming a founder and the wisdom he's gained by bloodying his knuckles over the years with lessons learned.

Sam Soffes the Founder of Nothing Magical and NOW the VP of Engineering at Seesaw joins Adam Stacoviak to share some of the most recent details and changes for him in the finale part 3 show. Core take away? **Embrace risk.** _Stay focused._

Adam and guest Sam Soffes the Founder of Nothing Magical and the maker of Cheddar after Founders Talk #39.

Sam Soffes the Founder of Nothing Magical and the maker of Cheddar joins Adam Stacoviak to share more details about the rise of Cheddar, its revenue, metrics, numbers and more. Sam shares lessons learned, his dreams as well as his thoughts on those who build with only the hope of winning what he calls "the acquisition lottery" as their goal - plus so much more.

Sam Soffes the Founder of Nothing Magical and the maker of Cheddar joins Adam Stacoviak to share all the details of his wild ride as an indie software developer and designer. Sam has worked at Hipstamatic, built YouTube ripoffs, gotten offers from some of the most respected names in the business (some accepted and some turned down) all to circle back around to start Nothing Magical and build his own products. He shares the highs, the lows and all the things he's learned along the way - plus so much more. And, check out "After Dark" for a short extended chat with Sam.

Adam and guest Sarah Hatter the founder of CoSupport after Founders Talk #37.

Sarah Hatter the Founder of CoSupport, joins Adam for part 2 of 2 to go back in time and dig deep into her history, we learn about "the early days" and how she got started, her passions for TV and her podcast TVBFF, the early days of blogging and "dramaville", what inspires her, being a crafts-person, how she learned that "you don't have to do anything you don't want to do", how TM meditation changed her life, as well as the challenges she's faced as a female founder - plus so much more.

Adam and guest Sarah Hatter the founder of CoSupport after Founders Talk #36.

Sarah Hatter the Founder of CoSupport, joins Adam for part 1 of 2 to share her passion for great customer support for web products, being a woman in a man filled industry, her thoughts and history with potentially selling her company and getting aqui-hired, how Allan and Steven of LessEverything have become partners in CoSupport - plus so much more.

Adam Stacoviak and guest Steve Espinosa after Founders Talk #35.

Steve Espinosa, the Founder of AppStack, joins Adam to tell his story of hustling his way to the top, gaining the trust and friendship of Jason Calacanis, Dave McClure, Eric Schmidt and the awesome team behind Google Ventures, what it means to focus and much more. This is a jam packed episode with tons of energy and lots to learn from Steve. Also, check out "After Dark" for an extended chat with Steve.

Adam Stacoviak and guest Jon Crawford of Storenvy after Founders Talk #34.

Jon Crawford, the Founder of Storenvy joins Adam to talk about how everything began for Storenvy, his road from Kansas to Austin, TX to SF, how he got kicked out of Y Combinator the same week he was accepted then raised $1.5M for Storenvy, and how he's living the startup dream! Also, listen to After Founders Talk #34 for an extended chat with Jon.

Adam Stacoviak, Nate Peretic & Jay Fanelli after Founders Talk #33.

Nate Peretic & Jay Fanelli, the Founders of Full Stop and United Pixelworkers join Adam to talk about plotting and planning to leave old jobs, being outspoken and opinionated, having a core set of principles and not deviating from them, reaching out to people they admired (regardless of popularity) and their side project that has turned into something that could eclipse their entire client revenue in 2012\. Also, check out After Dark for an extended chat with Nate and Jay.

Nathan Ryan, the Co-founder of Proxart joins Adam to talk about what to do when you're bored in Santa Clarita, team development, keeping everyone motivated and on track, and his globalized local focus on art and how artists relate to, react to, and change their environment.

Kyle Bragger, the Founder of Forrst joins Adam to talk about how everything got started for him, how he met Gary Vaynerchuk - which ultimately led Gary and his brother Aj to provide the initial angel funding that helped Kyle work full-time on Forrst. Kyle also shares lots of knowledge on product design, his focus on community and what it means to say no and focus. Be sure to also stay tuned to his great advice at the end of the show.

Peter Cooper, the Founder of Cooper Press joins Adam to talk about all the stops along the way on his path to where he is today. Peter shares an immense amount of knowledge on tech publishing, what he's learned about marketing, email newsletters done right, setting and accomplishing goals, as well as some very good advice at the very end.

Francisco Dao, the Founder of 50 Kings (an invitation-only, private community of thinkers and doers) joins Adam to talk about the importance of building relationships, doing only what interests you, entrepreneurship, all sorts of "insider" knowledge around the tech event planning space and more. If you've been dying to get invited or referred to 50 Kings, this show will give you all you need to know.

Andrew Wilkinson, the Founder of MetaLab (an interface design studio) joins Adam to talk about how he started as a one-man band and learned to delegate to succeed. Andrew started MetaLab in 2006 and quickly built the company into a multi-million dollar interface design and products company with over 30 employees. Andrew shares his thoughts on happiness, some crucial advice from his father, Steve Jobs, good design, developing products, leading a team to success and even a teaser to something super secret.

Ryan Carson, the Founder of Carsonified and Treehouse, joins Adam to talk about all the details of starting his new venture, Treehouse.

Bryan Zmijewski (Shme-yes-key), Founder and Chief Instigator of ZURB, joins Adam to talk about his path to starting ZURB, what sharing code and design patterns has done for their business, product, culture and team development, and what it takes to make awesome stuff on the web.

Dan Martell, Co-Founder of Flowtown, joins Adam to talk about his road to success with Flowtown, getting acquired, how he met his Co-Founder Ethan Bloch on Twitter, angel investing and being an advisor, giving back to charity and customer development and how to get traction. Dan also shared something super secret (a new project) ... as well as much, much more.

The founders of Dribbble, Rich Thornett and Dan Cederholm, join Adam to talk about how Dribbble came to be, the 3rd edition of Bullet Proof Web Design, product development, new and existing features of Dribbble as well as focusing on revenue producing features ... and much, much more.

Vitaly Friedman, Founder of Smashing Magazine, joins Adam to talk about the beginnings of Smashing Magazine, taking chances, not being copyable, experimenting to find what works, supporting the community, developing content, paying writers, developing publishing principles and philosophies and also shares a bit about what's next on the horizon for him and his team.

Drew Strojny joins Adam to talk about his path in life, playing in the NFL, marrying your business partner, web design and pursuing the unknown, developing digital products and themes for WordPress and the 5by5 logo.

Mark Jardine and Paul Haddad join Adam to talk about Tapbots, their side project turned business, designing and developing mobile applications on iOS, establishing and building trust and much more.

Drew Wilson joins Adam again for part 2, to talk about his latest venture Advise.me, Valio Con, his ad network Yoggrt (sold) and some future products.

Drew Wilson joins Adam for part 1 to talk about his journey as an entrepreneur, the lows, the highs and the in-betweens. Drew talks with Adam about digital projects, how to chase your dreams and more.

Matt Mickiewicz, Co-Founder of SitePoint, 99 Designs, and Flippa talks with Adam about becoming an entrepreneur at a young age, building marketplaces, finding talented people, and using community development and a forum as the spring board for 99 Designs and Flippa.

Niel Robertson, Founder and CEO of Trada, talks about crowd-sourcing, crowd mechanics, leveraging "the stealth mode", raising 52 million dollars, community engagement, as well as thoughts on whether or not crowd-sourcing commoditizes freelance expertise.

Avner Ronen talks about his vision of the "Future of TV," the role Boxee plays in today's internet video/audio content on the big screen, the backlash of "big media" against Boxee and how they've changed their tune and much more.

Noah Kagan, Founder of App Sumo talks with Adam about his journey to success. Send an email to [email protected] for more details about something special for 5by5 listeners.

Adam talks with Bill Boebel, VP Strategy/Corp Dev at Rackspace and Founder of Webmail.us about staying the course, keeping the team motivated during turbulent "cash strapped" times, getting acquired by Rackspace and staying on to continue building the company post-acquisition.

Adam talks with Chris Nagele, Founder of Wildbit about his 11 year journey of building Wildbit and ultimately some awesome web products like Beanstalk, Postmark, and Newsberry.

Adam talks with Eric Kuhn, Founder of Founders Card about the ups and downs of building an online business during the era of the "dot com" bubble, managing hyper growth, getting listed and de-listed on the NASDAQ and building an exclusive benefits program, coined as "The Amex Black Card for the Entrepreneur", exclusively aimed at Entrepreneurs and Founders. If you want an invite, get in touch with Adam.

Adam talks with Rick Perreault, Co-Founder & CEO of Unbounce about entrepreneurship and solving your own pain, sticking to an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) launch strategy, becoming an authority by blogging/marketing before you launch, listening to customers and knowing when to take funding.

Adam talks with Ryan Holmes, Founder of Hootsuite entrepreneurship, establishing and leveraging their relationship with Twitter, from "free" to "freemium" with a plan, and growing to well over 1 Million users in 2 years.

Adam talks with Maciej Ceglowski, Founder of Pinboard about turning this side project into the next Delicious, handling a massive in-flux of Delicious users when they announced its "sunset", keeping the technology and architecture simple and more.

Adam talks with Alex Hillman, Co-Founder of Indy Hall and co-conspirator/creator of many things, about all things Coworking, people helping people, how to hustle, get unstuck and more. Alex also mentions something "super secret" that's sure to please. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Adam talks with Henk Rogers, Founder of The Tetris Company, Blue Planet Software and Blue Planet Foundation about the beginnings of and the evolution of Tetris, over-coming brick walls, social and mobile gaming, never giving up, changing the world, getting the planet off carbon-based fuels, ending war, creating a backup of Earth and the power of love!

Adam talks with Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs, Founders of Slash7 about product development, profiting from Open Source, the key to happiness, living a Unicorn-Free lifestyle and how Amy and Thomas met and ultimately fell in love.