School for Startups Radio

September 16, 2025 – Coaster Force Scott Schaffer

Scott Schaffer – Founder of Upstop Media and Videographer of Coaster Force
Constant content that people are interested and engaged with, I wouldsay is the best way to put it… The more consistent you are, and the moreYouTube recognizes that, the more YouTube pushes your content, andthen the more viewers you get, the more subscribers you get, and themore money you end up making.
Scott owns Upstop Media, which is a video production company that specializes in the amusement/theme park industry. His clients include RMC, Zamperla, Ride Entertainment, SNL, HGTV, the Travel Channel, IAAPA, Holiday World and Fun Spot America. He joined CoasterForce in 2018 as Content Creator, but has been working with East Coast(er) General since they first met at Silver Dollar City’s Outlaw Run media days in 2013. Specializing in on-ride videography, it’s no wonder that Jerry asked Scott to help him with filming for CoasterForce, an offer which Scott gladly accepted. In addition to our common roller coaster hobby, Scott is also an executive bourbon steward with an impressive collection of the American whiskey.

September 15, 2025 - AI Sales Role Playing Kelvin Johnson and Likeable Dave Kerpin

Kelvin Johnson – CEO of Brevity and Author of The Sales Trap Prevention Playbook
In essence, a lot of people believe that practice makes perfect. We don’t believe that. At Brevity, we believe perfect practice makes perfect.
Kelvin Johnson is a leader and sales expert who founded Brevity. He is CEO and can speak about many topics such as leadership and his philosophy about starting a successful company. Brevity, a Twin Cities-based company backed by seven institutional investors, uses Al-Driven Role Play platform helping sales teams improve revenue performance.Dave Kerpen – Serial Entrepreneur – Cofounder and coCEO of Apprentice – Chairman of Likeable.com – New York Times Best-Selling Author of The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want
One of the things that has helped me be as successful as I have… iscreating an advisory board for yourself. Anyone can create an advisoryboard for anything, it’s just a matter of figuring out who you haveconnected with over the years that can be helpful to you, giving thema call, asking them for help… and tapping into their incredible resources,intelligence and network.
Dave Kerpen is a serial entrepreneur and New York Times Best Selling Author. He is the cofounder and coCEO of Apprentice, a platform that connects entrepreneurs with bright, hard working college students; the Chairman of Likeable Local, a social media software company serving thousands of small businesses, and the chairman and cofounder of Likeable Media, an award-winning social media and content marketing agency for big brands. Likeable Media is the only 3-time WOMMY Award winner for excellence from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and one of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the US according to INC Magazine for 4 consecutive years. Dave has been featured on the Today Show, CNBC’s “On the Money”, BBC, ABC World News Tonight, the CBS Early Show, the New York Times, and countless blogs. He has also keynoted at dozens of conferences across the globe including Singapore, Athens, Dubai, San Francisco, Cologne, Toronto, Bangkok, and Mexico City. He is also the New York Times bestselling writer of Likeable Social Media, Likeable Business, and Likeable Leadership. His newest book, The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want, is out now.

September 12, 2025 - Venture for Canada Scott Stirrett and Network Star Graham Hancock

Scott Stirrett – Founder and CEO of Venture for Canada and Author of The Uncertainty Advantage: Launching Your Career in an Era of Rapid Change
Self compassion is a really important part of navigating uncertainty…adaptability means not setting really rigid plans for yourself, but beingguided by your values and your life mission.
Scott Stirrett’s mission is to help people reach their full potential. As the Founder and CEO of Venture for Canada (VFC), he built a national movement that equips early-career professionals with the skills, networks, and mindset needed to thrive in an uncertain economy. Since launching VFC in 2013, he has helped 10,000 young people launch their careers and raised more than $80 million in funding to expand entrepreneurial opportunities. Scott is also the author of The Uncertainty Advantage, a guide for young professionals navigating today’s unpredictable global economy. Leading figures such as Andrew Yang, Stephen Poloz, Amanda Lang, Eric Ries, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, and Michele Romanow endorse the book, which draws from his experience scaling VFC and emphasizes adaptability, entrepreneurial thinking, and lifelong learning as critical skills for the future of work.Graham Hancock – Author of Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilization
We are a species with amnesia… an advanced civilization existed duringthe Ice Age and was destroyed by a cataclysmic event 12,800 years ago.
Graham Hancock’s multi-million bestseller “Fingerprints of the Gods” remains an astonishing, deeply controversial, wide-ranging investigation of the mysteries of our past and the evidence for Earth’s lost civilization. Twenty years on, Graham returns with the sequel to his seminal work filled with completely new, scientific and archaeological evidence, which has only recently come to light. In the early 1980’s, he was the East Africa correspondent for The Economist, writing about wars, politics, and economics. But in 1983, he made his first visit to Axum in northern Ethiopia, then in the midst of a war zone, and found himself in the presence of an ancient monk outside a little chapel in the grounds of the cathedral of Saint Mary of Zion. The monk told him that the chapel was the sanctuary of the Ark of the Covenant and that he was the guardian of the Ark, the most sacred relic of the Bible, supposedly lost since Old Testament times. What he said seemed ludicrous, but for some reason, it intrigued Graham. In 1992, he published “The Sign and the Seal: A Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant,” his first full-fledged investigation of a historical mystery. In 1995, the publication of “Fingerprints of the Gods” looked specifically into the mysteries of the Great Sphinx of Giza and why many ancient sites in all parts of the globe replicate the patterns of constellations on the ground and are aligned to important celestial events. His new book, “Magicians of the Gods,” presents all the new evidence that has emerged since 1995 for a great lost civilization of prehistoric antiquity and for the global cataclysm that destroyed that civilization almost 13,000 years ago. His TED talk “The War on Consciousness” was deleted from the TED YouTube channel on grounds that TED itself later admitted to be spurious. TED, however, refused to restore the talk to its YouTube channel resulting in dozens of pirate uploads all over the internet that have now registered well over a million views.

September 11, 2025 – Success Mindset Gary MacDermid and Publisher David Hancock

Gary MacDermid – Founder of USA Private Equities and ProGrowth Solutions and Author of Set Your Own Goals-Or Someone Else Will: How to Overcome Self-Limiting Beliefs and Get Things Done
You’re the sum of the five people that you spend the most time with, and sometimes you do have to remove yourself from negativity to position yourself for success.
Gary MacDermid is a highly sought-after motivational speaker, private investor, serial entrepreneur, professional engineer, and retired Naval Officer whose journey from humble beginnings to international success is inspiring audiences around the world. You may recognize Gary from his powerful episode “Set Your Goals, or Someone Else Will” on Season 3 of the Amazon Prime Video series SpeakUp TV. His message of reclaiming your life through intentional goals and financial independence has resonated deeply with aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those rising from underrepresented communities. In March 2025, Gary released his debut book “Set Your Own Goals or Someone Else Will”—a definitive playbook for breaking through mental barriers and engineering the life you truly want—not the one others expect you to live. The book dives deep into how to overcome self-limiting beliefs and get things done, serving as a blueprint for personal transformation and bold action. Gary’s career began when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school. A simple but powerful piece of advice from a Master Chief—to buy a home at every duty station—opened his eyes to the power of passive income. From there, he began acquiring properties across the U.S. and internationally. After earning a scholarship and completing a degree in electrical engineering, Gary was commissioned as a Naval Officer. He went on to lead design and analysis projects for nuclear power plants in the U.S. proving his talent for solving high-stakes, complex problems. Eventually, Gary transitioned full-time into entrepreneurship, building a multi-state real estate portfolio and investing in private companies around the globe. He founded USA Private Equities, a company that acquires and manages real estate and businesses. He is also the co-founder of ProGrowth Solutions, a financial services firm offering accounting, tax strategy, and business advisory services tailored for entrepreneurs. Today, Gary is known as “The Cash Flow Engineer”—teaching others how to create wealth through systems thinking, disciplined investing, and intentional goal setting. Whether on stage or in strategy sessions, Gary is focused on helping people from seasoned business owners to first-time founders build lasting wealth and freedom.David Hancock – Founder of Morgan James Publishing 
The guerrilla entrepreneur realizes that the journey is actually the goal. Heis in control of his enterprise, not the other way around… build balance inyour life — faith, family, food and fun, and then work, and it can all workout really well.
David Hancock is founder of Morgan James, the entrepreneur’s source of great books. NASDAQ recognized him as one of the world’s most prestigious business leaders and he was also named a Finalist by The American Business Awards in the Best Chairman category. David was compared to the business world’s Oscars by the New York Post. He is also the Founder of The Ethan Awards, the only international entrepreneurial author awards for business authors.

September 10, 2025 – Film History Alice Lovejoy and Master of Memory Ron Fry

Alice Lovejoy – Professor at University of Minnesota & Author of Author of Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War
We know that our smartphones and computers can’t run without rareearths, without materials that have very violent histories behind them…what Tales of Militant Chemistry shows is that these present-dayhistories are part of a much longer story, one that stretches back to film.
Alice Lovejoy is a media and cultural historian based at the University of Minnesota, known for her scholarly deep dives into film and media history on a global scale. Her forthcoming book, Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War (University of California Press, August 2025), weaves a tense narrative of film stock—photosensitive celluloid—as a material enmeshed in warfare, colonial extraction, and environmental fallout. Spanning Kodak’s Tennessee Eastman plants and uranium enrichment at Oak Ridge, to Agfa’s role in Nazi industrialism, Lovejoy reveals how cinema’s chemical underpinnings shaped modern violence. An award-winning author, her first book, Army Film and the Avant Garde (2015), won the MLA’s Scaglione Prize, and she also co-edited Remapping Cold War Media (2022).Ron Fry –  Founder and President of Career Press and Author of Master Your Memory: From America’s Top Expert on Study Skills
I think that if you’re committed, if you’re passionate, if you pick the right books, if you promote them right, if you show people that this is a book that will actually help them, then I think you can have a successful writing career and a successful publishing career.
Ron Fry is a nationally known proponent for the improvement of public education and an advocate for parents and students, playing an active role in strengthening personal education programs. In addition to being the author of the best-selling How to Study series, which has sold more than 3,000,000 copies to date, Ron has written more than 30 other books in the areas of education and careers. He is the founder and president of Career Press, an internationally known independent publisher of trade nonfiction books.

September 9, 2025 – Flexible Leadership Kevin Eikenberry and Greatest Hit Dorie Clark

Kevin Eikenberry – Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group
Engagement is not something we do to people. It’s not ping pong tables, it’snot casual Fridays… Engagement is something that someone chooses. Ourjob as leaders is to create an environment where people want to engage.
Kevin Eikenberry is a world-renowned leadership and remote work thought leader, a multiple-time bestselling author, speaker, consultant, trainer, coach, leader, learner, husband and father (not necessarily in that order). Kevin is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a leadership and learning consulting company that has been helping organizations, teams and individuals reach their potential since 1993, and the co-founder of The Remote Leadership Institute, formed in 2014.  Kevin’s specialties include leadership, remote/hybrid work (and leadership), teams and teamwork, organizational culture, facilitating change, organizational learning and more. Kevin’s philosophy in business and in life is that every person and every organization have extraordinary potential. Investments of time, energy, focus and money are required for that potential to be realized. He believes learning is an active, ongoing process, not a passive, one-time event. Learning, work and life should be fun; and, if we are doing it right, work (and learning) is play. Twice he has been named by Inc.com as one of the Top 100 Leadership and Management Experts in the World and 100 Great Leadership Speakers for Your Next Conference. The American Management Association named him a “Leaders to Watch” and he has been twice named as one of the World’s Top 30 Leadership Professionals by Global Gurus. Top Sales World has named him a Top Sales & Marketing Influencer several times, and his blog has been named on many “best of” lists. LeadersHum has named him one of the 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership in 2023. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, small firms, universities, government agencies, and many companies and organizations you know well.  and more, and with leaders from at least 43 countries. He is the developer of the hundreds of learning events, including the From Manager to Remarkable Leader learning experience, the Coaching with Confidence learning experience, and the Remarkable Retreat. He is the co-developer of the Bud to Boss Workshop and The Remote Leadership Certificate Series. All of these and more are offered virtually, as public sessions, customized for organizations around the world. He is a popular instructor on LinkedIn Learning, and has developed eLearning courseware with other partners available on nearly every LMS platform around the world.  His Remarkable Master Class series features at least one new skill being released each month. He is the bestselling author of Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time, a leadership primer designed to help you learn and master the 13 competencies of remarkable leaders; Vantagepoints on Learning and Life, a collection of his email essays on learning from everyday experiences. He is the co-author of From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership (with Guy Harris) and The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership, and The Long-Distance Teammate: Stay Engaged and Connected While Working Anywhere (both with Wayne Turmel). His other books include #LeadershipTweet: 140 Bite Sized Ideas to Help You Become the Leader You Were Born to Be, Your Journey From Bud to Boss (with Guy Harris and Sara Jane Hope). He is also a contributing author to nearly 20 other books.  Kevin also writes Unleashing Your Remarkable Potential, a weekly email publication read worldwide since 2004, to assist organizations and individuals in turning their potential into desired results, as well as weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, Remarkable Results. In addition, his Leadership and Learning Blog is regularly recognized as one of the best leadership blogs in the world. His podcast, The Remarkable Leadership Podcast has hosted hundreds of guests since July 2016, and boasts listeners in over 90 countries. Kevin’s writing has been published in newspapers, magazines, trade journals and websites from around the world, and has been a guest on more than 150 radio shows and podcasts. As a speaker, Kevin gives keynotes, both in-person and virtually for organizations and non-profits on remarkable leadership, life-long learning, developing human potential, teams and teamwork, creativity and more. He has presented to American Dietetic Association, the National Institute of Health, The American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Speaker’s Association (NSA), the International Society for Performance Improvement, the National Association for Experiential Learning, the American Society for Training and Development, the International Society for Performance Improvement, as well as many companies and internal conferences and events. Kevin and his family live in Indianapolis, Indiana. Growing up on a Michigan farm, Kevin says he learned some of his most important leadership lessons working with his father. Kevin earned a B.S. with honors from Purdue University, collects antique John Deere tractors, is an avid reader, and loves his family and his Boilermakers!Dorie Clark – Keynote Speaker, HBR contributor, Marketing Consultant, Business School Professor and Author of Entrepreneurial You: Monetize Your Expertise, Create Multiple Income Streams, and Thrive
Even if you have a great product or service, even if you have a great idea,a lot of those ideas get crowded out and the loudest voice wins. And I don’treally want to live in a world where the loudest voice wins – I want the bestideas to win.
Dorie Clark has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, and was recognized as the #1 Communication Coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. Clark, a consultant and keynote speaker, teaches executive education at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School. Recognized as a “branding expert” by the Associated Press, Fortune, and Inc. magazine, she is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Long Game, Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You, and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of the Year by Inc. magazine and one of the Top 10 Business Books of the Year by Forbes. It was also a Washington Post bestseller. Her books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, Polish, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, and Thai. Clark, whom the New York Times described as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives,” is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review. She consults and speaks for a diverse range of clients, including Google, the World Bank, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, the Ford Foundation, and Yale University. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Clark has also taught for Spain’s IE Business School, HEC-Paris, Babson College, Smith College Executive Education, UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, and more. She has guest lectured at universities including Harvard Business School, the Harvard Kennedy School, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Georgetown, NYU, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the University of Michigan. Her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review Guide to Getting the Right Job and the Harvard Business Review Guide to Networking, and she is quoted frequently in the worldwide media, including NPR, the BBC, and MSNBC. She has been a regular commentator on Canada’s CTV and was named one of Inc. magazine’s “100 Great Leadership Speakers for Your Next Conference.” A former New England Press Association award-winning journalist, Clark directed the environmental documentary film The Work of 1000, and was a producer for a multiple-Grammy-winning jazz album. She is a Broadway investor, as well as a member of BMI’s Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop, widely considered the premier training ground for musical theater lyricists and composers. At age 14, Clark entered Mary Baldwin College’s Program for the Exceptionally Gifted. At 18, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College, and two years later received a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

September 8, 2025 – First Quarter Million Katie Nelson and Cisco’s John Chambers

Katie Nelson  – Founder/CEO of Sales UpRising 
Don’t put yourself so far ahead of ‘I need to be this persona of a CEO, or I need to be a persona of an executive, or a president, or whatever the case is.’ Just be who you are and go hawk your stuff. Go see who the right buyer is for you, figure that out first, and then the rest, you’ll have time, you can afford to spend time on building the rest of it, if you can get the sales piece right.
Katie Nelson is the dynamic Founder & CEO of Sales UpRising, where she’s widely known as “The Sales Catalyst.” She brings a bold, no-nonsense, and refreshingly honest approach to sales coaching with a single-minded goal: to deliver real results, not fluff. With nearly three decades of sales experience, Katie is a three-time business owner who has helped hundreds of small businesses accelerate their revenue trajectories, especially those stuck under the $250K mark, a milestone she considers a proof of concept. Katie’s philosophy is simple: cashflow is oxygen for your business. Without sales, there’s no revenue, and without revenue, there’s no business. She believes that every everyday action—posting on social, chatting, sending a message—is a step toward a sales goal. She excels in teaching sales as authentic, human-centered conversations, helping clients break free from the “five-figure rut” by focusing on relationship-driven, high-impact sales tactics rather than expensive marketing misfires. In addition to coaching, Katie delivers keynote presentations that combine entertainment and strategic insights, and hosts Top 6 mastermind sessions, consulting, and speaking events designed to help business owners boost cash flow and scale sustainably.John Chambers – Former Executive Chairman of Cisco and now the CEO of JC2 Ventures
You shouldn’t be doing a startup if you haven’t got the courage to fail. And you’ve got to realize that it’s not straight up into the right, it is up and down and up and down. And that’s part of the nature of these.
John Chambers is the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures. In his role, Chambers focuses on helping disruptive startups from around the world build and scale, while also promoting the broader development of startup nations and a startup world. He invests in companies across categories and geographies that are leading market transitions, such as ASAPP, Aspire Food Group, Balbix, Bloom Energy, Cloudleaf, Dedrone, IoTium, Lucideus, OpenGov, Pensando, Pindrop, Privoro, Quantum Metric, Rubrik, SparkCognition, Sprinklr, and Uniphore. He serves on the Board of Directors for Bloom Energy, OpenGov, Pindrop, Sprinklr, and Uniphore. Prior to founding JC2 Ventures in January 2018, Chambers served as CEO, Chairman and Executive Chairman at Cisco Systems. During his 25+ years at Cisco, he helped grow the company from $70 million when he joined in 1991, to $1.2 billion when he became CEO in 1995, to $47 billion when he stepped down as CEO in 2015. As Executive Chairman, a position Chambers held until December 2017, he led the Board of Directors and provided counsel to the CEO and leadership team on strategy, digital transformation and strategic partnerships. John also spearheaded the creation and development of Cisco’s country digitization program, where he partnered with government leaders across the world to harness the power of technology to create economic opportunities. Chambers resides in California with his wife of more than 40 years. He enjoys fishing, swimming, and spending time with his two children, as well as his two grandchildren.

September 5, 2025 – Science of Leadership Margaret Moore and Famous Prankster Alan Abel

Margaret Moore – Executive Coach and Co-Author of  The Science of Leadership: Nine Ways to Expand Your Impact
Conscious leadership is really about setting aside the mental and emotional human stuff… and actually, like in Taoism, it’s called the mountain – you see, you’re still, you’re calm, you’re clear, you move deliberately, you know where to go, you see things clearly.
Margaret Moore/Coach Meg, MBA, is an executive coach, coach trainer, and coaching thought leader. Following 17 years in the biotech industry, in 2000, Margaret founded Wellcoaches Corporation, a center of coaching excellence for health professionals which has trained 16,000 coaches in 50 countries. She is co-founder (2009) and former chair of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital and a course director of the Coaching in Leadership & Healthcare conference co-led by IOC, McLean, and Harvard Medical School from 2008-2024. In 2010 Margaret co-founded the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching, a nonprofit subsidiary of the National Board of Medical Examiners, establishing national coaching standards, coach certification. She is co-leading national healthcare reimbursement pathways for coaching services in medical practices in the US since 2019. Margaret coaches leaders in the healthcare and biotech sectors, applying the science of coaching and leadership. She co-authored 28 peer-reviewed articles and 10 book chapters on coaching, and five books – the peer-reviewed Coaching Psychology Manual published by Wolters Kluwer, Harvard Health books Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life (now Train Your Brain), and Organize Your Emotions, Optimize Your Life, a co-editor and chapter author of the American Medical Association’s Coaching in Medical Education published by Elsevier, and a co-author of a 2025 Berrett Koehler book titled “The Science of Good Leadership: Nine ways to expand your impact.”Alan Abel – Professional Media Prankster
I believe in using, again, the mind is the last frontier of exploration… and I have the satisfaction and the pleasure of taking this idea from scratch and making it happen all with just imagination. And that’s the key to everything.
Alan Abel is a man of many talents. Though he has impressed many with talents such as drum soloing, acting, filmaking, writing, and speaking, he is most famous, or should I say infamous for his pranks. Following the Watergate scandal, Abel hired an actor to pose as Deep Throat before 150 reporters. The actor was offered $100,000 to sell the rights to his story, began quarreling with his purported wife, then fainted and was whisked away in a waiting ambulance. Among his most famous is his S.I.N.A hoax, a fake organization created to convince people that there was an organization whose sole purpose was to clothe animals in the name of modesty. In truth, it was a satirical allegory making a statement on the issue of censorship. As with most of his work, his pranks carry a deeper meaning that, much like their comedic value, can only truly be appreciated from an arms length. For his library (and it’s a good one), check here!

September 4, 2025 – Market Place Safety Jeremy Gottschalk and Signal Wire Sean Heiney

Jeremy H. Gottschalk – Founder & CEO of Market Place Risk and Author of “Bulletproof Your Marketplace: Strategies for Protecting Your Digital Platform“
What happens when you integrate these Gen AI tools like ChatGPT tohelp you communicate faster, or create profiles or message one another?Right then that’s not the user’s not generating that. The platform’s notgenerating that, but the platform integrated that tool that generatedthat. So do you still have this magic protection under CDA 230? Wedon’t know the answer to that.
Jeremy is a distinguished expert in the technology industry with over two decades of experience advising and counseling tech companies, including online marketplaces and digital platforms. His expertise lies at the intersection of risk management, trust & safety, regulatory compliance, and legal strategy. With a unique blend of legal expertise, business acumen, and technological insight, Jeremy is a thought leader and innovator in the marketplace and digital platform ecosystem, dedicated to helping companies navigate a complex and rapidly evolving landscape while driving growth and success. Driven by his passion for technology, Jeremy founded the Marketplace Risk platform (www.marketplacerisk.com), which has become the premier resource for education, networking, and collaboration for marketplaces and digital platforms worldwide. Through global conferences in Austin, London, New York City and San Francisco, cutting-edge virtual content, thought-provoking podcasts, blogs, consulting, and legal services, Marketplace Risk empowers online marketplaces and digital platforms to safeguard their communities, protect their companies, and contribute to a safer internet. As the founding Executive Director of the Marketplace Industry Association, Jeremy is committed to representing, educating, and advocating for the benefit of the marketplace and digital platform ecosystem. He also serves on the board of directors of various tech companies and nonprofits, including the Committee on Sustainability Assessment, which accelerates sustainability in agriculture through mutual partnerships and assessment tools that advance the understanding and management of social, economic, and environmental impacts.
Sean Heiney – Founder and COO at SignalWire
We had literally a million downloads a day of this free software and 20,000 active developers… and that puts us in a very powerful position.
Sean Heiney is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur, and technologist with a proven track record of launching and scaling products from concept (V1.0) to multimillion-dollar ARR and IPO. He brings deep expertise across network security, cybersecurity, telecommunications, enterprise infrastructure, SaaS, open source, cloud platforms, AI, and voice/video communications. Over his career, he has successfully raised $50M+ from top-tier Silicon Valley VCs and driven multiple exits, cementing his reputation as a hands-on leader who bridges technical innovation with customer-focused execution. As Co-Founder and COO of SignalWire, Sean helped build one of the most advanced CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) startups from the ground up. He defined the company’s go-to-market strategy, led marketing, sales, and product management operations, and played a pivotal role in driving substantial year-over-year growth. Under his leadership, SignalWire secured over $42M in funding (Seed through Series B) from elite Silicon Valley investors and expanded rapidly in the competitive cloud communications market. Previously, Sean served as Vice President of Strategy at Barracuda Networks, where he launched five successful products that collectively generated over $200M in ARR. He also played a key role in the company’s IPO messaging and scaled its digital presence to millions of views and engagements. Earlier, as Director of New Products, he established Barracuda’s Ann Arbor R&D center and drove innovation across multiple product lines. Sean is a lifelong innovator. In his early career, he founded and sold a community ISP to Earthlink, built a Bulletin Board System at age 12, created an instant messaging client later acquired by AOL, and launched Periscan, an early SaaS security company sold in 2005. Today, Sean is recognized for his X-factor leadership style, combining strategic vision with executional grit and his ability to craft unique messaging, products, and growth strategies that resonate deeply with customers. He thrives in early-stage and growth-stage environments, building high-performing teams, category-defining products, and differentiated brands in highly competitive markets.

September 3, 2025 – Car Credit Card Jacob Zachs and Barefoot Entrepreneur Michael Houlihan

Jacob Zachs – Founder and CEO of Fasten Rewards
My wife was three months pregnant. I looked at her with our first child, andI said, ‘Hey, I think I want to start a company.’ And she said, ‘You’re crazierthan I thought, but let’s go and let’s do it.
Jacob Zachs brings a wealth of experience from the early-stage tech ecosystem. He played a pivotal role in the growth of Newsela as its 12th employee, helping the company achieve unicorn status. His journey continued as VP of Sales at Metric Collective, where he honed his leadership skills before co-founding AiTA Bio, a medical device company revolutionizing Type 1 diabetes management. As the 2nd employee and VP of Partnerships at Forage, Jacob was instrumental in guiding the company through Y Combinator and securing a $22M Series A. His entrepreneurial vision led to the founding of Fasten in summer 2023.Michael Houlihan – Co-Founder of Barefoot Wine, New York Times Best-Selling Author, Business Strategist
The market really doesn’t care about how great your idea is. What theycare about is… how does yours help me?
Michael Houlihan is a highly sought-after business strategist, keynote speaker, consultant, and corporate trainer. His presentations are often with Bonnie Harvey, his Co-founder of Barefoot (now the #1 wine brand in the world), providing decades of real-world, practical business experience. Using out-of-the-box thinking, pay-for-performance, positive culture, channel distribution management, and “Worthy Cause Marketing,” they help start-ups, entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 corporations increase their sales, profitability and brand equity. For the first time, their secrets to success are available in an exclusive online series. He, along with Bonnie, bootstrapped Barefoot (a novelty wine brand) into a national mega-brand, selling 600,000 cases per year in 50 states and 28 countries. They’ve keynoted at many prestigious conferences, symposiums, universities and forums. He and Bonnie’s articles on business philosophy have been reprinted in TIME, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Entrepreneurs’ Organization and numerous other business magazines and trade journals. He and Bonnie have a new project called Business Audio Theatre. When books are read in this theatre, instead of a narrator reading a business book to you, people get a “full color, audio cinematography” of scenes performed by real Hollywood actors with music, sound effects, and more. The Barefoot Spirit is finally ready to share! A promo code for School for Startups Radio listeners grants 20% off: Startups20 at www.barefootaudiobook.com Or just click here.