Finding Founders

 Damion Lupo has always been a hard worker since the age of 11. His first business started when he wanted to buy video games for himself. When he went to college he started another business of selling books at a cheaper price than his school bookstore. Damion was kicked out of college for outselling his school bookstore shortly after. Damion found a love for real estate. However during the 2008 financial crisis in America, Damion went from having a multimillionaire lifestyle to living in his car. Damion was able to find peace in Yokido, a fusion of Yoga and Aikido. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe it was black magic, or maybe it was the locals pushing back on the first signs of foreign development. Regardless, it is a complicated thing to start a business when you are a foreigner. In spite of countless roadblocks, Waterborn stands, and Sayan Gulino, the current CEO of Waterborn Bali, has pushed his father's legacy forward. Today, Waterborn has won several awards and is recognized for its dedication to sustainability, but joining the family business doesn't mean success was just handed to Sayan on a silver platter. Sayan's journey to success involves music, nature, boarding schools, party planning, summer jobs, and acting gigs. Lets go back to the beginning, to when his parents, eager for adventure, left Europe for the mystical island of Bali. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Paul Austin, psychedelics are a tool or skill to be used to courageously explore and create. His own psychedelic journey began at the age of 19, and through those journeys, they allowed him to release some of the shame and guilt he’d been raised in within a fundamentalist religious family. Now, with Third Wave and Psychedelic Coaching Institute, he works to expand knowledge and guide others through similar experiences, transforming people’s lives through microdosing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raul Baltazar wields the power of painting, video, visual art performances, and much more to examine the experiences of the Mestizo Los Angeles Communities, including responses to trauma and post-colonialism. Baltazar has exhibited his community-focused art in LA and internationally, including Mexico, Taiwan, Vienna, and Australia. Baltazar has earned international acclaim and received fellowships to continue his work as an activist artist, working to preserve indigenous cultures. His unique talent for finding common ground between the old and the new is how he expresses pride in his culture and questions the nature of changing identities, bringing to the forefront of conversation groups that have long been overlooked. Raul Baltazar knows art is power and healing and is willing to share his special gifts with the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After growing up in Ireland, Patrick McAndrew moved to New York City to work in business. But after feeling called to quit his job to start his first business, he became interested in exploring human attention, particularly how we relate to technology. With that question in mind, he founded HARA, an inner circle for exceptional entrepreneurs and leaders trying to reach their highest potential in business. But before we get into his company for the 1%, let’s go back to his childhood when he was just another boy growing up in Ireland… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing up in a city with no wilderness at close proximity, Joe Robinet found his love for nature through television shows such as Little House on the Prairie. With over a million subscribers on YouTube, Joe has been sharing his outdoors experiences since 2007. Joe goes on 1 - 2 week camping adventures. However, a dirt bike incident has resulted in Joe getting lots of nerve and ligament damage. The dirt bike incident has forced Joe into a hiatus on going on camping trips.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Have you ever wished you could capture a memory forever? Heather Maio-Smith and her team have made this reality through thousands of recorded interviews with Holocaust survivors. After working with them to create interactive testimony exhibits, Heather was inspired to develop new technology that not only captures a memory, but allows for the most unlikely of conversations to occur, crossing the boundaries of both time and consequence. Heather’s natural curiosity and love of learning have led her and her team to work with the USC Shoah Foundation and Institute of Creative Technologies and thus, StoryFile launched in 2017 with the goal of bringing this technology to everyone with a device, some good lighting, and a story to tell. Heather has come a long way from growing up in a family-owned business to her own company being named the CES 2023 Innovation Awards Honoree. Likewise, StoryFile has evolved as quickly as technology itself has in the past decade, changing the way we communicate with businesses, future generations, and even our past selves! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Janel Hawkins was just scrolling on Craigslist looking at jobs when she noticed one hiring sand sculptors, no experience necessary. She worked there through college, but as she was going into her senior year, she decided to blow her life up. In one month she cut her lease, left a bad relationship, dropped out of college, quit her job, and moved back home to start her own sand castle sculpting business, Sand Castle University. Today Janel has a team of instructors, 335K subscribers on Youtube, and 871K on TikTok, all watching her as she builds, and destroys, her sand art. But before that, let’s begin with the first sand sculpture that shaped her path. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jamie Goulding has been an entrepreneur & leader since the age of 14. He has led two start-up sales teams to success and been a top salesman wherever his career has taken him, closing more than $2 million in sales. Jamie has now turned his passion for mentoring into a new mentoring platform, BeenThere, which connects mentees with mentors around the world who have already “been there.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Vietnam War put many people in the position to flee Vietnam. Marina Tran-Vu’s parents were one of the millions of people put into the position. Marina’s parents fled to Canada where Marina was born. As a refugee, it was hard to make a living as Marina’s mother worked hard to get their family from a basement to the back of a store to a house in a nice neighborhood in Toronto Canada. Nonetheless, her parents’ hard work paid off as Marina went to study marketing at the University of British Columbia. When Marina’s father got sick due to late stage lung cancer Marina made the choice to move from Canada to Vietnam to be with her family. Marina saw her nephew stepping on trash everywhere they went in Vietnam which led to the idea of EQUO. Now Marina is the CEO of a successful company that offers 100% plastic free straws, utensils, dishwash, and drinkware made of materials like sugarcane, coffee, coconut, and rice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices