School for Startups Radio

November 18, 2025 – 10x Inc 5000 Stuart Draper and Environment Advocates Susan B. Inches

Stuart Draper – On a mission to create 1000+ millionaires  
There’s got to be a better way… Aha moments that a lot of founders haveled to this idea of creating an up to date textbook and a simulation that wouldgive students a hands on learning experience.
Stuart Draper is the host of Startups with Stu, a podcast designed for aspiring entrepreneurs to learn what it takes to launch their startup to the moon. Before age 40, Stu’s businesses that he started had been on the Inc 5000 list a total of 10x. He is the founder of Stukent.com, an edtech company that has now helped over 1,000,000 educators and students in over 80 countries. Stukent is a 7x Inc. 5000 honoree in Inc. Magazine. Prior to that, he successfully bootstrapped GetFoundFirst.com (acquired December 2015), and it was on the Inc 5000 list 3x. He is the co-author of Digital Marketing Essentials, the bestselling text in higher education of its kind. He has experience doing digital marketing for companies that range from mom and pop shops to Fortune 500 companies. Stu’s work has taken him all over the globe to speak to audiences ranging from ten to north of 1500 people about entrepreneurship and digital marketing.Susan B. Inches – Author of Advocating for the Environment: How to Gather Your Power and Take Action
People love their place… they’re going to do anything to protect it.
Susan B. Inches, author of Advocating for the Environment: How to Gather Your Power and Take Action, since childhood, has envisioned a world that is compassionate, inclusive and environmentally aware. This vision guided her throughout her schooling and a 25-year career in public policy. As Deputy Director of the Maine State Planning Office she managed a portfolio of environmental policy issues on behalf of the Governor. Prior to this Sue worked with the fishing industries as a Director at the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Signature policy issues she’s worked on include fisheries, land use planning, smart growth, building and energy codes, renewable energy, energy efficiency, working waterfront access, community finance, and rural broadband. In 2018, Sue developed a unique college course on environmental advocacy, which she now teaches at Colby and Bates colleges. Few schools offer courses in advocacy skills, and students are eager to learn them. Demand for her course led her to write this book. Sue now works as a speaker, educator, and advocate with a focus on the environment and climate change. She helps people find their power, and provides them with the tools and guidance to address current environmental issues. Sue is currently working as a board member of Defend Our Health, and on the steering committee member of the Pine Tree Coalition, which seeks to establish the citizen rights to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment in the Maine Constitution. She also serves on the policy committee of Our Power, a coalition seeking to establish a consumer owned utility in Maine. She holds a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, and MBA from the University of New Hampshire.

November 17, 2025 – Affiliate Marketing Dustin Howes and Harnessing Power Melissa Fors Shackelford

Dustin Howes – Affiliate Management Expert, Founder of Coalition Marketing and Performance Marketing Manager
Affiliate programs are built to be a slow burn… if you’re doing everything right… you can safely expect to have a 20% boost in revenue coming from this channel.
Dustin Howes is a seasoned affiliate marketing expert with more than 15 years of experience helping companies build successful performance partnerships. He has held key roles across the industry, including positions in fraud prevention at Commission Junction, compliance at Impact Radius, business development at The Search Monitor, and performance marketing management at WP Engine. As the founder of Coalition Marketing, Dustin focuses on affiliate manager training and partner recruitment, supported by his custom tool Affistash. His approach is shaped by a unique background that includes military life during his childhood and competing as a professional poker player, giving him a strategic and disciplined perspective on business. Dustin lives in Placerville, California with his wife and two children and enjoys hiking, pickleball, WordPress tinkering, and cheering for the San Francisco Giants.Melissa Fors Shackelford – Author of Harnessing Purpose: A Marketer’s Guide to Inspiring Connection 
If you really think it through when you’re at the early stages with your company, you really think about what are we doing, what do we stand for, and how are we going to do more than sell products and services, then you know what your North Star is.
Melissa Fors Shackelford is a distinguished marketing strategist, advisor and author whose mission is to help purpose-driven leaders and organizations clarify their voice, connect meaningfully with their audiences and grow with integrity. With more than 20 years of experience working at the intersection of healthcare, brand strategy and mission-focused marketing, she has led national campaigns, guided high-growth startups and supported Fortune 100 brands in building connection and trust in complex systems. She is the author of the Amazon #1 bestselling book Harnessing Purpose: A Marketer’s Guide to Inspiring Connection, in which she draws on over 25 years of executive marketing experience to show how aligning personal and organizational purpose can transform brands, teams and outcomes. Melissa holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of St. Thomas and a BA from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, their spirited Shih Tzu and three step-daughters, and she continues to study Japanese, a passion born from her time living abroad.

November 14, 2025 – Yes, More & Co Brett Rounsaville and Rethinking Economic Growth Dan Varroney

Brett Rounsaville – Founder & CEO of Yes, More & Co.
99.9% of people are genuinely good when you want on one, it like just renewed my faith and humanity to the nth degree.
Brett Rounsaville is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Yes, More & Co., a modern-commerce brand that brings high-quality, globally sourced products directly to consumers via mobile drop-experiences. Under his leadership, Yes, More & Co. has re-imagined the retail experience by combining surprise, simplicity and delight—delivering curated products with one text, one “YES” and one purchase step. Prior to founding Yes, More & Co., Brett built his career at the intersection of design, user experience and storytelling, most notably working as a theme-park designer and experience architect for Disney and other immersive environments. His diverse background in game-design thinking and behavioral strategy now shapes how his retail business crafts “impulse buy” moments into memorable micro-experiences. Brett is also a strategic investor and advisor at Zero Shot Fund, where he supports early-stage founders focused on innovation and culture-driven business models. Fueled by a lifelong curiosity and a personal (and public) commitment to pushing boundaries, Brett has taken unconventional paths from designing destination experiences to launching a mobile-first commerce brand. He holds a B.A. from University of California, Davis Dan Varroney – Author of Rethinking Economic Growth: How Small Businesses Can Help Consistently Grow the Economy 
What I learned was it was small businesses, the fact that there are33 million of them, the fact that they they are the economy.They’re not a piece of the economy.
Dan Varroney is the President and CEO of Potomac Core, a strategic consulting firm that specializes in association transformation and industry focused strategic partnerships. He has built a successful career as an association executive, leading organizations with diverse focus, from manufacturing to high tech to finance and advocacy. His deep understanding of policy and regulatory influence on industries has shaped his approach to industry strategic partnerships. Through his own executive experience—and over a decade advising association clients—Dan has applied his data-driven strategic process to the industry and market challenges of trade associations and the domestic and multinational companies they represent. A prolific blog author, he launched and facilitates a group for leading association CEOs with a focus on industry strategic partnerships. His unique strategic planning methodology has surfaced the key elements of successful strategic partnerships in multiple industries. He is also a sought-after expert on economic performance with appearances and articles on Mornings With Maria, (workforce, industry strategic partnerships, and building strategic partnerships in the energy industry), Fox Business, FOX News, LIVE NOW FOX, CNBC, NBC Bay Area, Fox 5 DC, FOX 26 Houston, MarketWatch, Fortune and Forbes. Dan was a keynote speaker at the Leading Entrepreneurs of the World Conference on Strategic Partnership Strategies with Dan Varroney—small business and economic policy expert, keynote speaker, and founder and CEO of Potomac Core. Dan has built a successful career as an association executive, leading organizations spanning manufacturing, high tech, finance, and advocacy. With over a decade of experience advising association clients, his deep understanding of policy and regulatory influence on industries has shaped his approach to industry strategic partnerships.

November 13, 2025 – ChatGPT Search Kevin Roy and Headamentals Rhett Power

Kevin Roy – CEO/Co-Founder of GreenBananaSEO
I don’t think SEO is dead… Most of our clients have seen about an 80% –I’m sorry, a 20% drop in organic traffic, but we have seen a significantuptick in people going to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Perplexity…and they’re getting that information right in the LLM search result.”
Kevin Roy is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of the digital marketing and search-engine optimization agency GreenBananaSEO, based in Beverly, Massachusetts. Under his leadership the firm has grown into a recognized industry leader serving 1000+ clients across 30+ verticals and has been listed on the Inc. 5000 three years in a row.  Kevin built his career around driving profitable growth, new market entry and innovative digital-marketing services for technology, finance, manufacturing, non-profit and defense clients. Early in his career he was working in web and startup marketing, where he leveraged his technical and strategic skills to transition into SEO, SEM and full-scale digital advertising. One of Kevin’s signature contributions to the market was pioneering the “pay-for-performance” SEO model, where clients only pay when defined ranking goals are achieved—shifting risk away from the client and demonstrating the agency’s confidence in its methods. At GreenBananaSEO, Kevin drives a culture of results, transparency and innovation. His agency offers a full arsenal of digital services, SEO, answer-engine optimization (AEO), Google Ads, geo-fencing, programmatic display and web-development, ensuring clients are equipped for the evolving landscape of search and AI-powered discovery. Kevin is committed to advancing the profession of digital marketing, frequently appearing as a guest on podcasts and industry panels exploring topics such as AI in marketing, the 80/20 rule (Pareto principle) in SEO, and the changing nature of search in the era of large-language models. Based in the greater Boston area, Kevin holds the view that success in digital marketing is less about chasing the latest tactic and more about building partnerships, clear value propositions and measurable outcomes. He remains focused on helping ambitious clients scale smarter, faster and more sustainably.Rhett Power – Best-Selling Author of The Entrepreneur’s Book of Actions: Essential Daily Exercises and Habits for Becoming Wealthier, Smarter, and More Successful, Speaker and Executive Coach
Leadership sports in your head, that every entrepreneur you know facesdoubt, fear, imposter syndrome, and head of mentals teaches leaders howto manage the conversation in their own heads before it manages them,because your mindset sets the tone for your team and your business.
Rhett Power co-founded Wild Creations, now Funology, in 2007 and quickly built the startup toy company into the 2010 Fastest Growing Business in South Carolina. Wild Creations was awarded a Blue Ribbon Top 75 US Company by the US Chamber of Commerce and named as one of Inc. Magazine’s 500 Fastest Growing US Companies two years in a row. He and his team have won over 40 national awards for their innovative toys. He was a finalist for Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2011 and was nominated again in 2012. He was recently named as one of the world’s top 100 business bloggers in 2015. A member of the United States Department of State’s International Speakers Program, he travels the globe speaking about entrepreneurship, leadership, and management alongside the likes of Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, AOL Founder Steve Case, and President Barack Obama. He has written for the Huffington Post, Time, and The Wall Street Journal and is a regular columnist for Inc., Success Magazine, and Business Insider. Prior to founding Wild Creations, Rhett worked as an economic and small business development consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), serving 7 years in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia. Prior to that he was Director of National Service Programs for Habitat for Humanity, which included being Habitat’s chief liaison with The White House, Congress, and the Corporation for National Service. He now has a rapidly growing coaching and consulting practice. He served in the US Peace Corps and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. His second book on entrepreneurship will be published in early 2017 by McGraw Hill. Rhett Power is a recognized thought leader in entrepreneurship and executive accountability, known for his dynamic coaching, keynote speaking, and media presence. He serves as the founder of Power Coaching & Consulting, and is co-host of the series Best Seller Live (formerly Best Seller TV), where he interviews nonfiction authors and business thinkers. On top of his media work, Rhett is a regular contributor to outlets like Inc. Magazine and Thrive Global, writing on leadership, performance, and culture. He frequently speaks on major global platforms – for example, he delivered a keynote at the World Economic Forum’s Greek House Davos and hosted the Webit Foundation’s Global Pitch competition. At SXSW 2023, he spotlighted issues like employee disengagement, ambiguous managerial roles, and culture transformation – anchored in his principle that accountability is the true catalyst for growth. Rhett’s work emphasizes that many organizational problems start with leadership decisions and personal accountability. He approaches his coaching without gimmicks – no hot-coals, no wellness-cult theatrics – just real leadership work, action, and measurable impact. He has been recognized as the #1 Thought Leader on Entrepreneurship, a Top 100 Executive Coach, and a Top 30 Global Guru in both startups and management. Through Power Coaching & Consulting, he helps executives and companies build accountability-driven cultures that scale and sustain long-term success.

November 12, 2025 – How To Founder Anthony Franco and Debbi Dachinger

Anthony Franco – Co-Host of How to Founder Podcast
You can’t expect AI to operate like code. With AI, it’s more about telling the system what not to do – that’s what guardrails are.
Anthony Franco is a serial entrepreneur, operator, and strategist who has launched, scaled, and sold six companies and now dedicates his time to helping other founders do the same. As co-host of the How to Founder podcast, he brings an unfiltered, experience-driven perspective to the realities of entrepreneurship, sharing both the wins and the war stories that come with building and exiting businesses. Known for his straightforward and practical approach, Anthony dives deep into the real challenges founders face growth struggles, leadership pivots, and the emotional toll of startup life offering advice that comes from doing, not just talking. Whether he’s discussing strategy with guests or reflecting on lessons learned from his own ventures, Anthony’s focus remains the same: giving entrepreneurs the tools, clarity, and confidence to build something that truly works.Debbi Dachinger – Radio Host, On Air Talent, Media Personality and International Bestselling Author
Conversely, if I charge $33 and I get 50 people or 100 people, it’sactually wonderful money for me showing up. It’s very easy for themto pay so it works both ways, whether it’s a high number, and maybethere’s less people, or there’s a low number, and there’s a lot morepeople, just a little entrepreneur secret that we can use now and thento get more people in to know us, like us, trust us, and really respectour work and continue working with us.
Debbi Dachinger is a dynamic media personality known for her work as a radio host, on-air talent, media visibility strategist, and international bestselling author. With a career built at the intersection of broadcasting, entrepreneurship, and authorship, she brings a bold, motivational energy to every project she undertakes. As the host of the syndicated talk radio show Dare to Dream, which airs on dozens of stations and across multiple platforms, Debbi elevates conversations about success, mindset, and media influence. Her work centers on helping individuals sharpen their message, position themselves authentically in the public sphere, and leverage media appearances to build visibility. In addition to her broadcasting credentials, Debbi is the author of several international bestselling books and serves as a coach, consultant, and keynote speaker. She works with authors, entrepreneurs, and media professionals to craft powerful narratives, host compelling shows, and launch books that reach bestseller status globally. Her services include guiding clients through media training (such as “how to be interviewed” and “how to host your own show”) and executing full-service book launch campaigns. Debbi’s unique background also incorporates elements of intuition and alternative media – she’s been featured in documentary film work and speaks on topics ranging from media mastery to shamanism and extraterrestrial research. Recognized for her achievements in broadcasting and media, she has received multiple awards and honors including industry-recognition for her lifetime achievement in broadcasting.  Whether she’s interviewing celebrities on the red carpet, leading a panel of experts, or sharing behind-the-scenes wisdom with aspiring authors and hosts, Debbi Dachinger stands out for blending sharp media strategy with high-energy inspiration—and for helping others turn their visibility into real results.

November 11, 2025 - Superbold Fred Joyal and Wealth Strategist LaVaisha Davis

Fred Joyal – Co-Founder of 800-Dentist and Author of  Superbold: From Under-Confident to Charismatic in 90 Days
Bold people realize that the unexpected happens when you step out ofyour comfort zone, so they start to expect the unexpected.
Fred Joyal is an entrepreneur, speaker, busin ess advisor, and #1 Amazon Bestselling author. He co-founded the most successful dentist referral service in the country, 1-800-DENTIST, which, in his 30 years as CEO, generated over $1 billion in revenue. Along with this achievement, he has also been awarded the Conrad Hilton Distinguished Entrepreneur Award by Loyola Marymount University. He has written two bestselling books for his industry, and also written and appeared in over 200 television and radio commercials. Fred started as an extremely shy person, too timid even to make a phone call, and transformed himself into someone who has done stand-up and improv comedy, spoken to audiences of 5,000 or more, met dozens of celebrities, and, just by being bold, found love, joy, passion, and success. He has an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Rhode Island, perhaps because of his generous donations. He once beat Sir Richard Branson in chess and was also a question on Jeopardy! He is an avid cyclist, a below-average tennis player, and an even worse golfer.LaVaisha Davis – Wealth Strategist & Managing Partner of Ell Wess Advisors
Two things can be true. You can be chasing your dream, but you alsohave to prioritize the ones you love, and what better way to do that thanto remember what you’re doing it for and put that on the board everyday and work backwards to fulfill it.
LaVaisha Davis is a seasoned wealth strategist and Managing Partner of Ell Wess Advisors, where she helps high-income earners and entrepreneurs convert their income into enduring, multi-generational wealth. Based on her own entrepreneurial journey, LaVaisha understands the complexities of building wealth rather than inheriting it. After growing up in Dayton, Ohio, as the youngest of four children and witnessing her mother’s hard work to support the family, she developed a deep determination to create a different financial future. She attended The Ohio State University before stepping away during her junior year to build several businesses with her husband, gaining firsthand experience in both the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship. Those experiences exposed a major gap in traditional wealth management—advice that often overlooks first-generation wealth creators. To address that need, LaVaisha founded Ell Wess Advisors, a firm designed to bring the structure and benefits of a family office to clients who are still in the process of building wealth. Through Ell Wess Advisors, LaVaisha guides clients in streamlining and centralizing their financial strategies, sealing “wealth leaks” through tax optimization and asset protection, and adopting the mindset and systems of ultra-high-net-worth families. She collaborates closely with accountants, attorneys, and other advisors to ensure her clients’ financial plans are cohesive and aligned with their long-term goals. Her philosophy is simple yet powerful: true wealth isn’t just about what you earn, but how effectively you direct your income to secure your future and create a lasting legacy. As a wife and mother of four daughters, LaVaisha’s work is deeply personal, she’s not just advising on wealth; she’s living her own mission to build and preserve it. Her passion lies in helping others stop leaving money on the table, stop feeling fragmented in their financial lives, and start thinking like a family office, long before they’ve “arrived.”

November 10, 2025 – Manny Skevofilax and Medical Businesses Dr. Barbara Hales

Manny Skevofilax – Principal at PORTAL CFO Consulting
I want people to feel that it’s not hopeless when a downturn hits. There are ways. Here is exactly how you should behave. You don’t need to go down into your hole if a downturn hits – here’s the actions you can take.
Manny Skevofilax is a consultant, speaker, and author that helps business owners maximize profits and overcome growth challenges. An expert in strategic planning, financial statement analysis, business operations, and organizational development, he’s been achieving extraordinary outcomes for his clients since 2003. A Baltimore, Maryland native, Manny earned a Bachelor of Science in Business and a Master of Science in Finance from the Merrick School of Business at The University of Baltimore. Prior to starting his career as a consultant, Manny’s background includes formal bank credit training and service as a Vice President with Comerica Bank, a U.S.-based commercial lending institution. He has corporate lending experience in the U.S. and continental European markets, with specialties in commercial business finance, real estate finance, and large corporate syndicated lending for mergers and acquisitions. Manny grew up in the restaurant business and made a career change to corporate banking at age 29. When he’s not helping business owners, Manny can be found exploring the ancient ruins on the island of Karpathos where his parents were born.
Dr. Barbara Hales – Medical Professional, Medical Speaker and Health Information Author
It’s not a question of whether they are a better doctor. It’s a question of how they’re marketing themselves. Because if they are a better marketer and their website is better and their social media is better, then people see them as better, whether they’re better or not.
Dr. Barbara Hales is a physician-turned-business consultant, best-selling author and keynote speaker who specializes in helping healthcare professionals build authoritative brands and grow their practices. Having begun her career as a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist, she successfully grew her own clinic from an empty office to more than 10,000 active patients, gaining direct hands-on experience of what works and what doesn’t in medical practice growth. Leveraging this background, she founded and leads the consultancy and content-marketing agency The Medical Strategist, where she helps physicians and other health professionals enhance their visibility online, improve SEO rankings, strengthen brand positioning and attract more of the patients they want. As an author, Dr. Hales is a four-time best-selling author and has been inducted into the National Academy of Best‑Selling Authors™, recognized for her contributions to business and marketing literature targeted at medical professionals. Her speaking engagements span national and international audiences; she brings a unique combination of clinical credibility and marketing acumen to her presentations, helping audiences translate complex medical practice issues into powerful stories and effective growth strategies. With a clear focus on content strategy, Dr. Hales emphasizes that for healthcare providers today, visibility + authority = growth. She helps clients craft compelling, audience-focused messaging and leverage digital platforms to scale their impact.

November 7, 2025 – Deal Maker Media Influencer Joshua Wilson and Greatest Hits Barefoot Mike Houlihan

Joshua Wilson – Podcast Host, Executive Producer & Institutional Investor
Never underestimate your strengths, because I think God creates us uniquely, each one of us, and I think that the strengths, if we focus in on our strengths, I think we could do a lot more than if we were to try to spend our life trying to sure up our weaknesses.
Joshua Wilson is a Podcast Host, Executive Producer, and Institutional Investor who brings clarity and connection to the world of capital markets. As host of The Investor Relations Podcast, Joshua draws on his background as a registered investment banking representative (Series 79 & 63) and licensed real-estate broker to bring a relational, strategic lens to the intricate worlds of SPACs, IPOs, M&A and private placements. With over 20 podcast and YouTube brands launched—several ranking in the top 3–10 % globally in their verticals—Joshua has built his reputation as a connector among founders, family offices and investment platforms. His mission: spotlight the people and deals reshaping capital markets, and help listeners sharpen their investor-relations, compliance and growth strategies. Whether you’re an IR professional navigating a road-show, a corporate executive preparing for a capital raise, or a registered advisor seeking actionable insights, Joshua’s work bridges storytelling and strategy to empower decision-makers in the fast-moving financial ecosystem.Michael Houlihan – Co-Founder of Barefoot Wine, New York Times Best-Selling Author, Business Strategist
It wasn’t that we were so brilliant, because we made a lot of mistakes. So what we did right we had to synthesize out of everything that we did.
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.

November 6, 2025 – Fire Yourself Bronson Hill and Tech Confidential Denise Gosnell

Bronson Hill – CEO/Founder of Bronson Equity & Author of Fire Yourself: Replace Your Working Income with Passive Income in 3 Years or Less 
If you can’t 10x your current strategy, like, if you can’t go from three rental houses to 30 houses, you’re not actually doing using a scalable strategy.
Bronson Hill, Founder and CEO of Bronson Equity – a firm dedicated to helping high-earning entrepreneurs move beyond simply “saving money” and instead build predictable, passive wealth through alternative investments. Bronson began his career in medical-device sales, working with surgeons and healthcare practices. Although financially successful, he realised that his income was tethered to his time and he yearned for true freedom. In 2006 he purchased his first rental home, earning about $400/month in cash flow after refinancing and the experience sparked his interest in real estate. His next move came when a family member, already active in multifamily real-estate syndications, challenged him to “do multifamily” instead of accumulating dozens of single houses. That shift in mindset led Bronson to launch a local meetup in the Los Angeles area and ultimately craft the model he uses today: forming investor networks, vetting operators, and giving busy entrepreneurs access to institutional-quality deals. Under Bronson’s leadership, Bronson Equity has raised tens of millions in alternative-investment capital, serves more than 300 business-owner investors (each with $2 M+ net worth), and controls a growing real-estate portfolio valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. He knows firsthand the frustration of being treated like “just another client” by traditional wealth managers and built his company to treat investors as partners, giving them peer-feedback, education, and deal access tailored to entrepreneurs. On top of running the firm, Bronson hosts the podcast Mailbox Money Show, where he interviews thought-leaders and investment professionals to explore lesser-known asset classes, tax-efficient structures, and strategies for building passive income streams. Beyond business, Bronson is a passionate traveller (over 48 countries visited), a singer-songwriter (over 100 songs composed), a fitness enthusiast and an advocate for ending modern-day human trafficking through his work with the Dressember Foundation. His guiding belief: building wealth isn’t just about accumulating money, but creating freedom so people can fulfil their purpose.Denise Gosnell – Co-Author of Tech Confidential: The Insider’s Playbook for Daring Entrepreneurs
Burnout is one of the most common things that you’re going to experience in the Silicon Valley. It’s almost, it’s regretfully, just like a badge of honor. I don’t know how we change that, but I would love to change that.
Denise Koessler Gosnell, Ph.D., is a seasoned technology executive, author, and educator whose mission is to guide daring entrepreneurs through the unfiltered realities of the tech world. Her latest book, Tech Confidential: The Insider’s Playbook for Daring Entrepreneurs, co-written with Kathryn Erickson, draws on decades of professional experience to deliver battle-tested insights on leadership, product strategy, graph analytics, and the human side of innovation. Dr. Gosnell earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science as a National Science Foundation Fellow at University of Tennessee, where she pioneered the concept of “social fingerprinting” by applying graph algorithms to social media behavior. Her career has spanned leadership roles including chief data officer and global graph practice lead at major technology companies, where she built scalable data platforms, patented innovations, and championed teams to deliver complex machine-learning and currently based in Charleston, South Carolina, Dr. Gosnell now leads her own AI-education venture and uses her platform to help tech professionals survive and thrive with integrity and impact. Through speaking engagements, mentoring, and writing, she offers a candid, deeply human view of what it takes to succeed in tech without losing yourself.

November 5, 2025 – Micro Payments Cosmin Ene and Advanced Business Abilities Mike Irving

Cosmin Ene – CEO of Supertab & Co-founder of Cyberhuman.ai
…I realized that the internet was built for discovery, not for commitment…
Cosmin Ene, a Swiss serial entrepreneur who originally came to Europe as an immigrant from Romania. He now splits his time between Zurich and the U.S., somewhere inside what he calls the Bermuda Triangle of New York, San Francisco and Seattle. Before founding Supertab, Cosmin co-founded Deluxe Music Television (think VH1 for Europe) bringing music back to audiences after MTV pivoted to reality shows. Today he’s building payment solutions for both humans and machines, making it as easy for people to buy as it is for AI to transact. He believes especially online, businesses need to radically center around the user. Cosmin is a seasoned entrepreneur who’s built multiple ventures around one core idea: empowering people to access and pay for content on their own terms. After founding LaterPay, one of Europe’s first scalable micropayment platforms, Cosmin is now leading Supertab, a flexible, frictionless payment layer that’s rethinking how creators, publishers and even AI bots monetize content without subscriptions or ads. He has been called the forefather of online micropayments. What makes Cosmin a great fit for your audience is his founder story, bootstrapping innovation in a complex space, learning from global expansion and now applying those insights to launch a lean, user-centric solution in Supertab that truly is one of the first of its kind. He brings a clear-eyed view of what it takes to build resilient, purpose-driven startups in the digital economy.Mike Irving – Founder of Advanced Business Abilities
The people that have a really clear intent to help their prospects solve problems, they tend to make way more money.
Mike Irving is the founder of Advanced Business Abilities, a coaching company designed for established business owners who know they’re capable of more but haven’t yet found a support system that truly meets them where they are. With over two decades of leadership experience, from launching his first business at 21 to managing a national sales force of over 300, Mike understands the highs of entrepreneurial success and the hidden costs that often come with it: burnout, disconnection, and stalled progress. Frustrated by one-size-fits-all coaching programs that glossed over individual nuance, Mike set out to build something different. The result was Advanced Business Abilities: a coaching platform that combines deeply personal insight with practical, strategic execution. One of the unique aspects of ABA’s methodology is the Success Predictor Profile, a proprietary tool backed by 50+ years of scientific research, that helps easily and efficiently identify a person’s strengths, weaknesses, and blindspots and allows ABA to give business owners a custom blueprint for growth, performance, and alignment. Today, Mike works with owners leading teams of 5 or more, who are not just chasing revenue but want to lead with integrity, improve decision-making, and grow without sacrificing their health or values. His approach resonates with founders who are practical, values-driven, and actively investing in their long-term success. Whether he’s coaching in a boardroom or speaking on a podcast, Mike brings a refreshingly honest, grounded voice to the leadership conversation—always focused on helping others do the work that actually works.