#137 $5M UCLA Startup is Revolutionizing Delivery w/ Rob Dong, CMO of Duffl

I haven't released a podcast in nearly a month, and in this episode I offer a comprehensive status update, discussing why I paused production on the podcast and why I'm going full-time on TikTok and how I've done 1.7M views in the past 28 days. Get ready for Our Future to become a household name!

In #151 futurists learn from Everett Kohl, the 22-year-old founder of Dbillia, a platform that provides digital memorabilia & collectables for influencers and the emerging creator economy. The platforms allows artists and influencers to create a limited edition "Dbilia" for their new album, video, merch, project or even one of yourself. Fans can keep Dbilias in their collection, trade them with other users or resell them on our marketplace. Dbillia is like a hybrid between Patreon, Discord, and traditional NFT marketplaces, and sits squarely in the middle of the emerging creator economy and hot trends underlying fandom, blockchain, and alternative investments. In this podcast, Everett discusses the "why" behind NFT's, how he first started thinking about them way back in 2017, the challenges in building his company, and his advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs. Connect with Everett on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/everett-kohl/ Apply for Michael's upcoming podcast course on July 9-11: https://learntogether.world/how-to-build-podcast/https://learntogether.world/how-to-build-podcast/ Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: https://www.ourfuturehq.com/ Purchase Our Future Merch: http://bit.ly/ourfuturemerch Follow us on IG: http://bit.ly/ourfutureig Follow us on TikTok: http://bit.ly/ourfuturetiktok

In #150, Michael Sikand sits down with Charles Huang, co-founder of Red Octane, the company behind the legendary Guitar Hero franchise. Starting the company alongside his brother Kai in the early 2000’s, the gaming startup began by designing hardware for music and dancing games like “Dance Dance Revolution” and “In The Groove”. Soon however, the brothers realized a massive opportunity in delivering music games to an American audience (they were primarily popular in Asia) that were deeply rooted in culture. Despite having to re-mortgage their houses to make it work, the brothers launched Guitar Hero in November 2005. The game was an instant success and within a year of launching the game, Red Octane was acquired for $100M by Activision. Guitar Hero went on to be the second-ever game to reach $1B in sales, being the world’s best-selling game in both 2007 and 2008. In this episode, Charles shares lessons, stories, and insights from an entrepreneurial journey building a product that rocked the world. He also explains why Guitar Hero faded away from its massive success and provides career advice to young entrepreneurs. This is a must listen! You Can Now Watch Interviews on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3hAS9IE Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: http://bit.ly/ourfuturenewsletter Purchase Our Future Merch: http://bit.ly/ourfuturemerch Attend Our Weekly Entrepreneurship Events: http://bit.ly/ourfuturecommunity Follow us on IG: http://bit.ly/ourfutureig Follow us on TikTok: http://bit.ly/ourfuturetiktok

In #149, Michael Sikand interviews Calix Huang, a 16-year-old entrepreneur, high school student, and engineer who has built and sold two startups in the edtech space! His most recent startup, Hours, was a virtual study tool that allowed students to join rooms and do school work together in real-time, setting timers for different work sprints and exchanging messages. Through a crazy user acquisition strategy, Calix grew the platform to over 20k users from high schools and universities around the world, and in 2021, Hours was acquired by venture-backed edtech company Fiveable, where he currently serves as a lead of product. In this podcast, Calix inspires you with his startup story, from idea to sale, and will help you think about building your own exciting product that people will love. No matter what you want to build, this interview will fuel your ambition, so don't miss it. Connect with Calix on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calix-huang/ You Can Now Watch Interviews on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3hAS9IE Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: http://bit.ly/ourfuturenewsletter Purchase Our Future Merch: http://bit.ly/ourfuturemerch Attend Our Weekly Entrepreneurship Events: http://bit.ly/ourfuturecommunity Follow us on IG: http://bit.ly/ourfutureig Follow us on TikTok: http://bit.ly/ourfuturetiktok

In #148, futurists learn from Sheridan Clayborne, a 21-year-old entrepreneurial sensation and the co-founder of Lendtable, a YC backed fintech startup tackling the retirement savings crisis that's raised over $6M from investors like Josh Richards, Bryce Hall, and SoftBank. The mission of Lendtable is simple: make everyone a millionaire, regardless of income level. They do this by giving no-interest loans to employees across America to help them take FULL advantage of their 401(k) match (or ESPP pools). In exchange, they take a small (5-10%) cut of the match. Some background on Sheridan: he was the youngest person to get into Northwestern at age 15, started his first million-dollar company when he was was 17, has worked at Dropbx and Goldman Sachs, and has done over $10mil in sales across his startups. I think Lendtable is the next unicorn and it's obvious that Sheridan is extremely passionate about the massive problem they're solving: people are not taking advantage of free money! Lendtable is a genius idea and an awesome interview, don't miss this crazy Gen Z founder story. Connect with Sherdian on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheridan-clayborne-77723a119/ You Can Now Watch Interviews on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3hAS9IE Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: http://bit.ly/ourfuturenewsletter Purchase Our Future Merch: http://bit.ly/ourfuturemerch Attend Our Weekly Entrepreneurship Events: http://bit.ly/ourfuturecommunity Follow us on IG: http://bit.ly/ourfutureig Follow us on TikTok: http://bit.ly/ourfuturetiktok

In #147 futurists tune into a conversation with high school students and soon to be graduates Sims Wilson and Daniel Greenberg, the co-founders of ViralLEDS, a startup they founded in 2020 which produces and sells an array of in-home lighting products through social media. After Sims posted a TikTok showing how he made LED light strips for his bedroom and it went viral, he and Daniel decided to turn a hobby they learned in their AP Computer Science into a business that to date has cleared more than $500,000 in revenue, with almost 100% of their sales coming through TikTok! It's insane to see entrepreneurs building businesses out of the immense reach afforded by TikTok's platform, and Daniel and Sims share an awesome story about how they scaled and optimized the company, how Addison Rae discovered and reposted their product, how they both got into Ivy league schools (Sims is going to Cornell and Daniel is going to Brown), and their career advice to young entrepreneurs. Go buy some ViralLEDS: https://viralleds.com/ You Can Now Watch Interviews on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3hAS9IE Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: http://bit.ly/ourfuturenewsletter Purchase Our Future Merch: http://bit.ly/ourfuturemerch Attend Our Weekly Entrepreneurship Events: http://bit.ly/ourfuturecommunity Follow us on IG: http://bit.ly/ourfutureig Follow us on TikTok: http://bit.ly/ourfuturetiktok

In #146, futurists learn from Matthias Metternich, Co-Founder & CEO of Art of Sport, a CPG skincare brand he co-founded alongside the late Kobe Bryant and Brian Lee in 2018. Art of Sport produces a range of daily essentials from body wash to deodorant to soap optimized for the lifestyles of athletes and has consistently ranked as the fastest growing men's skincare brand in the country since it was founded. In just three years, Matthias and the team have scaled Art of Sport from 0 to 15,000 retail locations and have partnered with some of the world's biggest and best athletes including: James Harden, Juju Smith-Schuster, Javi Bayez, Sage Erickson, and Ken Roczen. In this podcast, Matthias breaks down the company's vision to be the "Nike of Skincare", his learnings as a business builder (this is his 5th business), how he convinced Kobe Bryant to help start the company, the truth about working with influencers, and his career advice to the young and hungry. Don't miss this one! You Can Now Watch These Interviews on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3hAS9IE Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: http://bit.ly/ourfuturenewsletter Purchase Our Future Merch: http://bit.ly/ourfuturemerch Attend Our Weekly Entrepreneurship Events: http://bit.ly/ourfuturecommunity Follow us on IG: http://bit.ly/ourfutureig Follow us on TikTok: http://bit.ly/ourfuturetiktok

In #145, futurists learn from Kenan Saleh, co-founder of Halo Cars (acq. Lyft) and Head of Product at Lyft Media. As a 19 year-old at UPenn, Kenan and his co-founders set out to create a digitally connected, rooftop display for rideshare drivers to capture a massive outdoor advertising opportunity and provide drivers with supplemental income. Within 7 months of launching the product, the company was acquired by Lyft and became the basis for what is now the rideshare giant's advertising division–which Kenan now leads. Kenan shared some amazing insights about entrepreneurship, his love for "The Social Network" movie, how he found his first supplier in China, the story of the Lyft acquisition, and why we will see more and more of advertising-subsidized-transportation in the future. This one is epic don't miss it! Follow Kenan on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenansaleh/ You Can Now Watch Interviews on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3hAS9IE Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: http://bit.ly/ourfuturenewsletter Purchase Our Future Merch: http://bit.ly/ourfuturemerch Attend Our Weekly Entrepreneurship Events: http://bit.ly/ourfuturecommunity Follow us on IG: http://bit.ly/ourfutureig Follow us on TikTok: http://bit.ly/ourfuturetiktok

In #144 futurists tune into an EPIC podcast diving deep into the film industry with Hollywood legend, producer, and entrepreneur Jon Glickman, who is making his second appearance on Our Future since first coming on the show last summer. Glickman is the former President of MGM Studios, where he guided a bankrupt company into a thriving studio amd oversaw production on Eon’s Skyfall and Spectre, the two highest grossing installments of the James Bond franchise, as well as the forthcoming No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s final outing in the series. Other notable highlights of his tenure include overseeing the production of the Rocky spinoff Creed, and the sequel Creed 2, starring Sylvester Stallone and Michael B Jordan, as well as the 2019 animated hit recreation of The Addams Family. Notably, during Glickman’s term at MGM, he was ahead of the industry’s diversity hiring initiatives, with 24% of his slate featuring female filmmakers and 27% featuring directors of color, far exceeding the industry average. Jon is now the Founder & CEO of Glickmania, where he is on a quest to build out a formidable library of IP in the entertainment world through myriad forms of content. He describes his current company as a next generation incubator focussing on established and emerging storytellers across all platforms – including franchise films, television, music, podcasts, comics and new media – in order to make high quality productions while creating an IP rights library. DO not miss this episode–it's full of gleaming takeaways like when Jon convinced Joe Roth to give him an internship in an elevator when he was at USC Film School. He talks everything from nearly getting blown up on the set of James Bond to how young people can break into entertainment. Follow Jon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/glickmania?lang=en Check out Glickmania: https://glickmania.com/#about Get 50% off Verb Energy's caffeinated energy bars, which have just 90 calories and pack the same punch as a cup of coffee, coming in delicious flavors like Vanilla Latte, Double Chocolate, and Peppermint Mocha. You, the Our Future listener, can get 16 Verb energy bars for just $12 by purchasing through our unique link here: https://www.verbenergy.com/ourfuture Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2htIc3-njRI5BKTJ2QqNfA Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: https://www.ourfuturehq.com/ Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ourfuturehq/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ourfuturehq

In #143, futurists learn from Henrik Werdelin, Co-Founder of BarkBox (now referred to as BARK), the $1.6 billion dog subscription service company that recently announced its plans to go public via SPAC with Northern Star Acquisition (STIC). In the past pandemic year, people have spent over $99B on their pets, a trend that has powered BARK to historic heights, with over 1.7M paying subscribers and FY2020 revenues of nearly $400M. The company maintains several monthly dog product shipments, ranging from toys and treats to food and even health/wellness products, all of which contribute to a 60% gross margin. BARK is a fascinating business and there is so much to learn from Henrik on this podcast–he discusses everything from how breaking the law at MTV resulted in him getting a promotion to how he and his co-founder met on a cruise while sharing the same bed. Henrik dives into why young entrepreneurs should ask for money to test products, how to be confident as a young person in business, why BarkBox was able to succeed, his advice to young entrepreneurs, and so much more. Get 50% off Verb Energy's caffeinated energy bars, which have just 90 calories and pack the same punch as a cup of coffee, coming in delicious flavors like Vanilla Latte, Double Chocolate, and Peppermint Mocha. You, the Our Future listener, can get 16 Verb energy bars for just $12 by purchasing through our unique link here: https://www.verbenergy.com/ourfuture Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2htIc3-njRI5BKTJ2QqNfA Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: https://www.ourfuturehq.com/ Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ourfuturehq/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ourfuturehq