Built a $34M Company on One Lesson From Her Dad at 7 | Ep. 401 with Kate Monroe

Daniel and Guest Host Nadja interview Craig Hamilton-Parker about how he developed his psychic practice, how he distinguishes intuition from opinion, and why he believes prediction is about probability, not destiny. Craig shares a bold call on the Los Angeles mayor race, then zooms out to discuss broader global tensions and what he sees as an approaching “pressure window” in the coming years. They also explore AI, consciousness, and Craig’s belief that periods of instability can trigger deeper questions about meaning and identity. Key Discussion Points Craig explains his background and how his work evolved from early experiences into public-facing predictions, plus the responsibility that comes with making specific calls.  He shares his prediction that Spencer Pratt will be the next LA mayor, and the conversation examines why “off-script” authenticity can outperform traditional political playbooks.  Craig outlines how he thinks about major world events as shifting probability paths, emphasizing that timing can be difficult and outcomes can change with collective decisions.  They discuss current geopolitical flashpoints and Craig’s view of a heightened risk period that could peak around 2028, while still leaving room for de-escalation and course correction.  On AI, Craig takes a tool-based view, arguing that it can amplify or destabilize humanity depending on how people use it, and he believes human meaning-making still matters most. Takeaways Predictions, in Craig’s view, are probability maps, not fate, and the most constructive stance is preparation without fatalism.  People respond emotionally during uncertainty, which is why authentic, unpolished voices can rise fast in politics and media.  If you consume prediction content, keep discernment: treat it as one input, not a replacement for decision-making and personal responsibility.  AI may accelerate output and misinformation at the same time, making verification, calm thinking, and trusted relationships even more valuable. Closing Thoughts This episode is less about “believing or not believing” and more about how humans seek certainty in chaotic times. Craig Hamilton-Parker leaves listeners with a challenge: stay curious, stay grounded, and don’t outsource your agency to fear—whether it comes from news cycles, algorithms, or predictions. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kate Monroe went from Marine Corps veteran to 8-figure CEO, actress, mother, and one of the most relentless entrepreneurs you'll ever hear from. But the lesson that shaped her life did not come from business school. It came from her dad when she was 7 years old. In this episode of Founder's Story, Daniel Robbins sits down with Kate Monroe to talk about how she scaled her company from $750,000 to nearly $34 million in sales in just three years, why she believes success starts with a decision, and how one childhood lesson taught her to handle pressure, problems, and pain without letting them ruin everything else. Kate shares the difference between being a "makeup bag person" and a "toolbox person," a simple mindset shift that helped her compartmentalize challenges, build a veteran-owned company, run for Congress, step into film, and launch Studio Mint. This is a conversation about grit, discipline, ambition, and what it really takes to keep going when most people would quit. In this episode, we cover: The lesson Kate learned from her dad at 7 years old How she scaled from $750K to nearly $34M in sales Why "decided" became one of the most important words in her life How she writes a full book in just 14 hours Why being the face of your brand can change everything The mindset behind outworking the competition Her move into acting, movies, vertical shorts, and Studio Mint Why she believes social media has made people more disconnected The difference between starting something and actually finishing it Follow Kate Monroe: Instagram / Socials: @KateMonroeCEO Website: KateMonroeCEO.com Subscribe to Founder's Story for more conversations with founders, creators, leaders, and entrepreneurs building extraordinary lives. Episode Sponsors: Take Cheers Restore after your last drink or before going to bed and wake up feeling at least 50% better — or your money back. For a limited time our listeners are getting 20% off their entire order at CheersHealth.com/FOUNDERS. #Cheers #ad Go to Schedule35.co and use code FOUNDERS for 15% off your first order. That's Schedule35.co, code FOUNDERS, for 15% off. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel and Eric Ries explore the collision of Lean Startup thinking with the AI era, why “anyone with a credit card” can now access world class tools, and why that democratization also creates brutal competition. Eric argues fatalism about AI is dangerous because we still have agency, but only if we build civic infrastructure and accountability. The conversation then pivots into Incorruptible, where Eric documents a 200 year pattern: mission driven companies discover a better way to build, then still get ruined at the peak of success through bureaucracy, extraction, and misaligned incentives. Key Discussion Points Eric says AI is an extension of macro trends he’s written about for decades: access to the means of production is now cheap and global, which makes entrepreneurship more open than ever.  He challenges the assumption that making one step faster makes the whole process easier, because entrepreneurship is adversarial and competitors and incumbents get the same acceleration.  Eric explains why he’s skeptical of fully unsupervised agents for mission critical work: reliability breaks down as tasks encounter out of distribution scenarios, so humans-in-the-loop matter.  He introduces Incorruptible and the idea that governance is a design problem, not a vibes problem, describing companies being “surgically deboned” as they grow and optimize for extraction over value.  Eric breaks the “double mystery”: if mission driven capitalism is more profitable, why do companies still get ruined, yet a few outliers like Patagonia and Costco resist the pattern.  He argues it’s “always too early until it’s too late” to protect mission, and recommends structural moves like writing purpose into the corporate charter and designing boards and protections early.  They discuss alternative liquidity and longevity structures beyond a classic exit, including foundations, ESOPs, employee ownership trusts, and purpose trusts, citing examples like Eileen Fisher and Patagonia.  Eric reframes the word “exit” as part of the problem and shares research suggesting many founders regret selling one year later, questioning what success is for if it destroys what mattered. Takeaways AI makes building easier, but it also makes everyone faster, so the advantage comes from judgment, focus, and designing systems that can outlearn competition.  If you want to protect mission, you have to encode it structurally, not just culturally, because the gap between stated purpose and actual incentives will eventually swallow the company.  “Exit” is not the only path to liquidity, and founders can design for longevity with structures like ESOPs, purpose trusts, and foundation ownership.  Agentic AI is powerful when humans stay the driver, but dangerous when accountability is impossible and reliability becomes probabilistic.  The earlier you build protections, the easier they are, because governance becomes exponentially harder to change once scale and incentives lock in. Closing Thoughts Eric Ries helped define how modern startups ship products, but this episode shows he’s now focused on something deeper: how great companies survive success without betraying their purpose. In an AI era where building is cheap and truth is noisy, the real edge becomes institutional design, clarity of mission, and the courage to structure a business that outlives you without losing its soul. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Robbins interviews Chuck Knueve about watching his son suffer for decades while the healthcare system searched for answers. Chuck breaks down why Cushing’s disease is so difficult to diagnose, what he believes is broken in the process, and how earlier testing could prevent irreversible harm. He also shares why he wrote the book during COVID, how he learned to write at 73 by joining writing guilds, and why he structured the story through his son’s point of view to show what families live with at home, not just what doctors see in clinics. Key Discussion Points Chuck explains that diagnosis often takes years because Cushing’s hides behind common symptoms, and his son’s case took over twenty years.  He argues the issue is not one person, but the diagnostic process and guidelines, especially testing not happening soon enough.  Chuck shares the early red flags he wishes had triggered action sooner, including the “buffalo hump,” “moon face,” and abdominal stretch marks appearing together.  He emphasizes the importance of finding an endocrinologist who specializes in Cushing’s disease, ideally at a university or teaching hospital.  Chuck describes the moment he committed to writing the book, a family Zoom call during COVID where his siblings challenged him to start.  He explains why he added jingles: not to be cute, but to create memory triggers that help people recognize the pattern months or years later. Takeaways Rare diseases can hide in plain sight, and persistent multi-symptom patterns deserve early testing, not years of waiting.  Parents and patients often have to advocate harder than they think, including pushing for specialist care when the path stalls.  Even when the disease is corrected, delayed diagnosis can mean permanent damage, which is why time is the real enemy.  Writing can become advocacy, and Chuck’s goal is simple: make the next family’s journey shorter than his son’s. Closing Thoughts This episode is a reminder that medical systems can miss what families live with every day, and that a single story can change awareness faster than a guideline update. Chuck Knueve turned decades of pain into a practical tool for earlier recognition and better outcomes. If you suspect something is off and you keep hearing “wait and see,” this conversation will push you to ask better questions and keep going. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Robbins interviews Shawn Zhang, CTO and co-founder of Sanas, about the future of education, AI, and communication, and how a single unfair workplace experience turned into a generational company. Shawn explains why the real value of college is people, not lectures, and why the best startups start with real pain, not cool tech. He tells the origin story of Sanas, how they navigated public criticism about “erasing” identity, and why the company’s mission is the opposite: to help people be understood and evaluated on their talent, not their accent. Key Discussion Points Shawn explains why COVID “broke” the college experience, and why the real value of Stanford was the people and the intellectual Disneyland effect, not the homework. He shares how he and his co-founders stopped chasing “cool solutions” and instead focused on finding a real problem that people felt deeply enough to pay to solve. The Sanas origin story comes from a friend in Nicaragua whose call center customers complained about his accent, hurting his performance scores, pay, and mental health. Shawn describes the backlash period when Sanas was accused of “whitewashing voices,” and why messages from immigrants who felt held back reinforced the mission. Daniel reads Sanas growth stats, $121M raised and $62M revenue in two years, and Shawn shares how gratitude and determination rise with momentum, not ease. Shawn talks about the founder skill of exposing unknown unknowns by being vulnerable with mentors and peers, because the internet rarely reveals what you’re doing wrong. They discuss Gen Z ambition, purpose-driven work, and the danger of social media’s highlight reels creating disillusionment for young builders. Shawn explains why Silicon Valley matters less for fundraising and more for density of honest conversations with builders who help you see blind spots. He uses rock climbing to describe scaling: early mistakes are painless, but as you climb higher the fall gets real, and pressure becomes part of the thrill. On AI and engineering, Shawn argues AI will empower builders, but taste, reliability, and craftsmanship matter more, and junior plus senior engineers should work closer together, not be replaced. Takeaways A great startup starts with real pain, not a clever demo, because pain creates urgency, willingness to pay, and long-term demand. If your product sits in a moral debate, listen closest to the people living the problem, not the people reacting to headlines. The fastest way to grow is to surface unknown unknowns early through mentors, peers, and real-world conversations, not public posturing. AI will not eliminate engineers, it will raise the bar for quality, and the differentiator becomes taste, systems, and production reliability. Social media can distort reality for founders, so staying grounded in real relationships and honest feedback loops is a competitive advantage. Closing Thoughts Shawn Zhang’s story is a reminder that inclusion is not a slogan, it is a product decision that changes someone’s daily life. Sanas exists because one person’s accent was treated like a flaw instead of a story, and Shawn turned that into a platform built to bridge understanding. In an AI era, this episode argues something unexpected: the more technology grows, the more human connection, empathy, and real communication become the ultimate edge. Proton VPN is offering our listeners 70% off a two year plan when you go to ProtonVPN.com/FOUNDER Download Cash App Today: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/hlevbsx1 #CashAppPod As a Cash App partner, I may earn a commission when you sign up for a Cash App account. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Bitcoin services provided by Block, Inc. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures. Go to Schedule35.co and use code FOUNDERS for 15% off your first order. That's Schedule35.co, code FOUNDERS, for 15% off. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Robbins interviews Daniel Lubetzky on what shaped his obsession with bridging divides and building mission driven brands. Daniel explains how his father’s Holocaust survival created a survival instinct that later became entrepreneurship, and how early failures taught him the reps he needed before KIND. They dive into the psychology of founders, separating self worth from the pursuit of excellence, and the hidden ingredient behind KIND’s rise: a product people loved and a culture with ownership, transparency, and no politics. Key Discussion Points Daniel Lubetzky explains why he believes kindness itself has not changed, but social media anonymity has weakened eye to eye human connection and made dehumanization easier. He shares how he approaches Shark Tank with empathy first, letting founders pitch uninterrupted, then asking tough questions, because trying is already a win and failure is part of the odds. Daniel talks about his ADHD mind, constant idea streams, and why early formative experiences, like magic and language learning, became business skills later. He reveals a deeply personal driver: as a child of a Holocaust survivor, he learned languages and skills as a survival instinct so he would be useful, not expendable. On KIND’s rocket ship, he credits the right product at the right time, a brand that stood for something real, and a culture where everyone acted like an owner with high transparency. Daniel explains the “AND” mindset, most people think in OR, but breakthroughs come from rejecting false tradeoffs and designing for both sides of the equation. He warns that raising kids in comfort can kill the fire to build, and argues we must teach agency and protagonist thinking, not rigid victim or oppressor labels. Daniel shares what scares him most: toxic polarization, dehumanization, and algorithms that profit from division, which is why he champions the Builders movement. He gives a simple Builder framework: curiosity, compassion, creativity, and courage, and defines builders as people who unite rather than divide. He closes with a key founder lesson: separate your self worth from your quest to be great, because the pursuit can be ruthless if it becomes your identity. Takeaways Trying is winning, because each venture increases your odds and builds your skill, even when the first attempts fail. KIND’s success was not only marketing, it was product obsession, relentless hustle, and a culture built on ownership and transparency. If you want to build something new, stop copying existing categories and look for the unsolved problem behind a false OR, then design an AND. Your mindset must protect your mental health: separate self worth from performance so failure becomes feedback, not identity collapse. The most important choice in a polarized world is whether you become a builder or a destroyer, and the builder tools are the four Cs. Closing Thoughts This episode is a masterclass in founder psychology and modern leadership, delivered by someone who built a category defining brand while staying obsessed with humanity. Daniel Lubetzky’s story proves that fear can either consume you or drive you to create safety, purpose, and impact. His final challenge is simple: choose to build, practice the four Cs, and never let your quest for greatness turn into self hatred. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Robbins interviews Brandon Card, the CEO of Terzo AI, about the hidden financial chaos inside enterprise contracts and why AI is the only scalable way to fix it. Brandon explains how Terzo helps companies treat contracts like financial assets, not legal documents, extracting obligations and commitments with 99.9% accuracy through a hybrid model of AI plus trained human review. They also discuss why Terzo started by selling into Fortune 100 instead of SMB, how early customer pain shaped product-market fit, and why Brandon is equally focused on building community and mental health resilience as he is on revenue. Key Discussion Points Brandon explains the origin of the name Terzo, inspired by “third” in Italian and the idea of managing third-party relationships, plus the “Oracle effect” of a timeless name beyond one product. He recounts incorporating the company on March 13, 2020, then watching airports go empty as COVID hit, building on Zoom 18 hours a day through chaos and loss. Brandon describes the pain he lived at Microsoft: customers managing $50B supplier spend with no tools, contracts lost, and manual PowerPoint decks built from screenshots to summarize global agreements. He argues CLM systems were built by lawyers for drafting, not for procurement and finance workflows, leaving a massive gap no one understood until recently. Brandon shares the early breakthrough: realizing contracts are 300–400 pages long and signed by the thousands, making human-only review mathematically impossible. Terzo’s key differentiation is accuracy through humans-in-the-loop, because LLMs can miss financial context across related documents and even turn $1M into $3M in naive extraction. He explains why they started enterprise-first, taking on SOC, GDPR, and security onboarding to win Fortune 100 master service agreements rather than “credit card swipe SaaS.” Brandon shares his view on AI safety: he believes models behave like they have a “mind of their own,” and that even builders struggle to govern or fully control them. The conversation turns to mental health and community, with Brandon advocating in-person connection, events, and digital detox as the antidote to a cyborg-like, always-online world. Takeaways The best startup ideas come from living the problem daily, because real enterprise pain creates urgency, budget, and durable demand. If you are dealing with financial reporting, audits, or compliance, you cannot accept 94% accuracy, which is why human review plus AI QA is the path to trust. Unsexy infrastructure wins long term, because databases and contract systems become foundational layers that everything else depends on. Starting with Fortune 100 is hard, but once you pass their vendor gatekeeping, you build defensibility and a moat that smaller competitors struggle to cross. AI can support mental health through journaling and low-friction venting, but humans still need real community, nature, and offline connection to stay balanced. Closing Thoughts Brandon Card’s story is a blueprint for enterprise founders: pick a problem that is mathematically impossible to solve manually, build a system that produces trusted data, and commit to the hard path of selling into the biggest customers first. This episode also lands a deeper message: the future is not only about building powerful AI, it is about keeping humans strong enough to live with it. Terzo is building contract intelligence, but Brandon is also building a culture of community, resilience, and long-term thinking. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Robbins interviews Sam Tabar on building conviction early, reinventing repeatedly, and taking theses into the public markets. Sam explains how witnessing the shift from analog to digital in the 1990s trained his pattern recognition, why Bitcoin threatened existing power structures by being “money from the people,” and why Ethereum’s smart contracts can disintermediate banks and even lawyers. The episode also explores AI’s impact on society, the risk of homogenized culture, and why Sam believes the biggest danger is not job loss but surveillance and control. Key Discussion Points Sam shares his origin story, raised by a car-mechanic father and a tarot-card-reader mother, feeling the sting of scarcity early and using it as motivation to create security for loved ones. He explains his “pattern recognition” muscle, seeing the internet transform society and feeling the same cognitive break when he first used ChatGPT. Sam frames Bitcoin as the first true global currency: weightless, borderless, decentralized, and resistant to inflation and state control. He addresses Bitcoin’s early illicit uses by comparing it to the early internet, arguing the tech is not defined by its earliest adopters. Sam describes Ethereum as “Bitcoin 2.0,” where smart contracts are programmable “if-then” agreements that can replace middlemen in payments and contracting. He uses the NFT boom as proof of blockchain scalability, noting that at one point NFT transaction volume exceeded Visa without the system breaking, even if valuations collapsed later. Sam reflects on reinvention, saying you sometimes have to “kill the person you thought you were,” leaving law despite social pressure for stability and following interest into finance and tech. He shares the key AI worry: not job replacement, but governments and surveillance platforms using AI to reduce individual freedom. On the upside, Sam believes AI will remove menial work and free humans to use imagination and creativity, if society protects liberty. Takeaways Growing up around scarcity can create a powerful drive, but the long game is using money as a tool to protect people you love, not as an identity. Bitcoin is a thesis on sovereignty: money that cannot be printed, paused, or controlled like fiat, and that changes everything. Ethereum’s programmable money is about disintermediation: fewer fees, fewer gatekeepers, and faster settlement than legacy rails. The next winners will be infrastructure builders, because AI’s growth is bottlenecked by compute, power, data centers, and the plumbing behind the scenes. The biggest risk of AI is centralization and control, so founders should care about governance and freedom as much as capability. Closing Thoughts Sam Tabar’s story is about conviction under ridicule and the courage to reinvent before the market forces you to. This episode connects three waves—internet, crypto, and AI—through one lens: technology reshapes society when it breaks old power structures and creates new ones. The opportunity is enormous, but Sam’s warning is clear: if we chase efficiency without protecting freedom, we may build the most productive world in history and lose the thing that makes it worth living. Today's Sponsors: Want to start your own creator journey? Click here: www.fanvue.com Shopify, which I have used for over a decade. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at SHOPIFY.com/foundersstory Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Robbins interviews Maury Povich about how a local news journalist became a national TV icon, the real production machine behind Maury, and what it was like competing in the early talk show wars of the 1990s. Maury explains how the show verified stories like a newsroom, how paternity, lie detectors, and out of control teen themes became mainstream, and why the tabloid talk era directly spawned today’s reality TV ecosystem. The conversation widens into modern media, AI deepfakes, grief, money, marriage, and what Maury believes matters most now. Check out the second season of "On Par with Maury Povich", one of the best shows out there! Key Discussion Points Maury explains that being recognized for “you are the father” is a badge of honor, because it means the show became part of culture and people truly watched. He shares how his producing teams operated like a newsroom, checking stories and vetting guests, and says in 31 years they were never faked on air. Maury describes the early days when his show and Jerry Springer started tame, then shifted after Rikki Lake proved a younger audience could be captured, forcing everyone to evolve. He says the 1990s talk show era sparked modern reality TV, connecting the thread to Housewives, Kardashians, and today’s cable reality landscape. Maury reacts to AI misinformation, including a viral deepfake featuring his show that was so convincing his sister called to ask if it was real. He opens up about his marriage to Connie Chung, saying she is funnier than people expect, and shares their rule: take work seriously, never take yourselves seriously. Maury reflects on comedians as truth tellers, comparing different comedic styles and explaining why his podcast guests increasingly include comics. He shares why Montana is his reset, valuing silence, space, and solitude, and why golf reveals every morsel of a person’s character in 18 holes. Maury discusses money insecurity and why he takes Social Security proudly because he remembers paying into it when he had almost nothing. He tells the story of his brother David, the lifelong hero dynamic between them, and why his father’s generation never taught them how to grieve. Maury reveals the surreal moment the New York Times began drafting his obituary years in advance and refused to show it to him. For his unlimited possibility moment, Maury credits Rupert Murdoch bringing him to New York to host A Current Affair, which launched everything that followed. If sleep, stress, or recovery is something you’re struggling with, check out Magnesium Breakthrough by BIOptimizers. It genuinely changed my life. You can get it at https://shorturl.at/BXudB. Use code FOUNDERS to get 15%! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Robbins sits down with John Witchel, co founder and CEO of King Energy, to explore the economics behind today’s energy headlines and why solar plus storage is already the most practical answer for most businesses. John shares why the real bottleneck was never technology, it was incentives and deal structure, especially in multi tenant commercial buildings where landlords pass energy costs to tenants. John explains how King Energy rents roofs, installs solar, and sells discounted electricity to tenants, creating a win for landlords, tenants, and the platform. Key Discussion Points John argues solar and batteries are already here as the solution, because cost per megawatt hour is now cheaper than fossil fuel generation and avoids global supply chain shocks. He explains why solar became “boring,” subsidies mattered less as costs fell, and adoption shifted from political to mainstream economic logic. John shares the founding insight for King Energy: the split incentive problem in multi tenant buildings prevents anyone from installing solar, even when rooftops are perfect sites. King Energy’s model is simple: rent the roof from the landlord, then sell electricity to tenants at about ten percent below retail with no capex or operational burden for them. He explains go to market: do not sell climate change, sell rent to landlords and savings to tenants, using their language and solving their job. John discusses why 25 year contracts are normal for real estate owners, and why credibility comes from financial backing, $45M in venture capital and $350M in project capital. He shares the biggest growth tailwind: energy bills rising 7–9% year over year, making solar the fastest practical relief for small businesses and corporations. John reflects on entrepreneurship whiplash, how wars, crashes, and rate hikes hit companies even when the business is executing well, and why those external shocks are exhausting. Takeaways The best startup ideas live in big markets and can be explained in one sentence, if it takes five minutes to explain, keep refining the product. Solar did not need better tech, it needed a model that aligns incentives for landlords and tenants. Great go to market is empathy: speak the customer’s language and make their decision easy, rent for landlords, savings for tenants. Energy inflation is a forcing function, and solar plus storage is the only scalable solution available now, not ten years from now. Longevity in entrepreneurship comes from tolerance for external shocks and the ability to keep building through cycles. Closing Thoughts John Witchel makes a simple case: the energy answer is not theoretical, it is already deployable on rooftops across America. King Energy is a lesson in incentive design, speak to what people actually care about, remove friction, and let economics do the persuasion. If you want a founder story about solving a national problem without selling politics, this episode is a blueprint. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.