Inc. Uncensored

Karen Robinovitz and Sara Schiller had each been through multiple traumas when they found reinvention and joy through the unlikeliest of substances: slime. Yes, slime. They explain to hosts Diana Ransom and Christine Lagorio-Chafkin how they channeled their newfound joy, and passion for sensory play, into a business, the Sloomoo Institute. Sloomoo is a growing slime-museum business with four locations that makes some 600 gallons of slime each day. This episode was recorded live on-site in SoHo, New York, at the Sloomoo Institute. Links: ⁠Inc.com⁠ article: ⁠www.inc.com/christine-lagorio/from-the-ground-up-sloomoo-institute-karen-robinovitz-sara-schiller-grief-as-startup-fuel.html⁠ Episode transcript: ⁠www.inc.com/transcript-from-the-ground-up-podcast-sloomoo-institute-founders-karen-robinovitz-sara-schiller.html⁠ The Sloomoo Institute: ⁠https://sloomooinstitute.com/pages/new-york-2-0?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic⁠ Slime play and care (PSA about slime removal!): ⁠https://sloomooinstitu

According to a recent study from Fundera by NerdWallet, women now make up nearly half (44 percent) of Seattle’s self-employed business owners. Despite this impressive statistic, women-owned startups often face significant challenges when attempting to secure capital. While venture capital is one of the best-known ways to fund a business, it doesn't always offer the best path to success. It often comes with tradeoffs such as loss of control and equity dilution, and in 2024 only 1 percent of women-led companies received VC funding. Self-funding, on the other hand, can be a powerful alternative, allowing entrepreneurs to maintain full control of their companies and make decisions independently. In this bonus episode of From the Ground Up in partnership with Chase for Business, Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business and Shelia Winston, a Seattle-based Senior Business Consultant at Chase, explain how self-funding can be a powerful alternative for growth that can also put founders in a stronger position to weather

What would you do if someone told you that you had just become a billionaire? Some people would quit their jobs on the spot, go on a shopping spree, or buy a mansion they never dreamed they could afford. But Lucy Guo? When a reporter told her the news that the valuation of her first company—in which she still maintains a sizable stake—had spiked, Guo recalls telling the journalist something along the lines of, “It’s all on paper, LMAO.” With her stake in data labeller Scale AI, Guo is now the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, a title she seized from pop icon Taylor Swift. She is now CEO of a  second startup, Passes, which is a social platform for content creators—think OnlyFans meets Patreon. On the site, fans can have bespoke relationships with creators, from sharing messages and video calls, to having one-on-one golf lessons. Passes is quite different from her previous venture at Scale. “I felt like I experienced every challenge and I could go out and build a B2B AI company enterprise. And I

Flashback to the 1990s: Beanie Babies are all the rage, everyone’s doing the Macarena, and, chances are, you have at least one fanny pack. Al Gore is a prominent voice spreading awareness of the looming disaster of climate change, and consumer sentiment is shifting in favor of wanting to help save the planet. Stores such as Whole Foods are starting to experience exponential growth, introducing to climate-conscious customers organic foods and ethically sourced products. Fair Trade is becoming both a rallying cry and a stamp.  Paul Rice is the founder of Fair Trade USA, which he launched as a nonprofit in 1998. It became a certification body for products that meet a set of sustainability and human rights qualifications in how they work with international suppliers on everything from coffee beans to fish to cotton.   But what’s changed since the ’90s is that customers are increasingly voting with their dollars. And companies have taken notice. That’s according to one founder who’s been at the heart of persu

Before Teslas started popping off the line in 2011, few EVs were on roads. Recently, the terrain has become far more crowded. Teslas aren’t sharing the road just with major automotive companies that make their own EVs, but with smaller operators that are gaining ground as well. Christine reminded me of a new company called Slate, led by Chris Barman, who, like Diana, clocks in at 5 feet, 2 inches. But unlike Diana, Barman is a car industry veteran—and one to watch. And then there’s Rivian, the Irvine, California, electric vehicle maker that’s ascended in America’s consciousness—particularly in the wake of Tesla owner Elon Musk’s efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency to dismantle the federal government. Amid the Tesla takedown—which is seeing some Tesla owners reportedly trading them in for Rivians—the latter car company is having a moment. Still, electric vehicles are expensive. And the lack of an affordable option for consumers has been the key barrier to the proliferation of EVs. “The biggest

Connie McDonald and Pam Weekes of Levain Bakery were pioneers in the cookie industry. And their journey from owning a neighborhood bakery into running a nationally revered brand would take 30 years. The first inflection point came in 1997, when Amanda Hesser wrote in The New York Times that Levain made "the largest, most divine chocolate chip cookies in Manhattan." Following that, their business grew rapidly, with lines forming around the corner from their original location. In 1998, they launched a website to capitalize on their newfound success, and over the next decade, the mail-order business for Levain cookies grew by 1,600 percent. By the early 2000s, investors began to show interest as well. Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom recently sat down with Weekes and McDonald to discuss their friendship, their business relationship, their early venture into e-commerce, brand and store expansion, and—perhaps most important—why their cookies weigh in at a hefty six ounces. Additional research and informati

The online deception economy is rife with romance scams, financial fraud, and even violence. In just four years, $75 billion has been lost to pig butchering scams, where fraudsters use fake identities, like the scammers who infamously posed as Brad Pitt. In the U.S., one in 10 dating profiles is estimated to be fake, and with advances in AI, falsified information is even more difficult to detect. In this custom episode, host Abigail Bassett sits down with Kalie Nitzsche, founder and CEO of Fuzzy, and Jaqi Saleem, founder and CEO of Qualified Digital, to learn how these two visionary female founders are leveraging the power of collaboration to create revolutionary technology to solve this global issue. Discover how their new brand empowers everyone to stay safer online.

As the Trump administration closes out its first 100 days, significant changes have taken place. The Small Business Administration has cut at least 20 percent of its workforce, while Trump has tasked the agency with managing student loans. Meanwhile, the IRS is in turmoil, as some 7,000 employees have been laid off, and it’s at risk of losing tens of thousands more. In addition, we have witnessed a resurgence in cryptocurrency, and surges and flip-flops in tariffs, and we are beginning to see the impact of Trump’s trade war with China on the global economy. Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom recently hosted a roundtable discussion with senior staff writer Jennifer Conrad, policy correspondent Melissa Angell, and staff writer Brian Contreras to share the latest updates from their reporting during the first 100 days. Additional research and information: To read more Inc. coverage on Trump’s first 100 days: Trump’s First 100 Days of Tax Policy: A Lot of Ideas—and Waiting First 100 Days of Tariffs: Who’s H

Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of Kind Snacks, is perhaps best known for his appearances on Shark Tank. But much of his focus these days is on expanding his Builders Movement, the initiative he co-founded that aims to bring together “builders” from around the world to help replace extremism with practical problem-solving. Lubetzky is trying to counter the political polarization that is taking over our culture and discourse, and to build better communities by promoting compromise and efforts to find common ground among people who disagree. Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin spoke to Lubetzky about Shark Tank, his investment firm Camino Partners, his business philosophy, and how Builders Movement got started. He told From the Ground Up: “We need to bring a builder’s mindset to all conversations by relying on curiosity, compassion, creativity, and courage.” He said that, while founders, and leaders, are important to the process of change, it’s an anti-authoritarian movement that he’s trying to spur.

Over the past 13 months, venture capitalist Arian Simone has been tested. A federal court case against her Fearless Fund, which backs under-resourced entrepreneurs such as women of color to ensure they have the support they need to succeed in business, became one of the most closely watched anti-DEI lawsuits in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action. Those months of litigation meant substantial costs for Fearless Fund, including the loss of two-thirds of its team and stymied fundraising efforts. That's not to mention the emotional toll on Simone and her remaining team. However, in September 2024, the case was settled and she remains optimistic despite the continuing challenges facing DEI. As part of our 2025 Female Founder’s series, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom sat down with Arian to talk about her upbringing, the federal court case, and how to pursue a mission-driven venture. She even spoke about her family’s relationship with civil rights legend Rosa Parks.   Addi

Former finance executive Cate Luzio founded and self-funded the professional-network platform Luminary in late 2018 with the mission to uplift, upskill, and propel women and allies forward through all phases of their professional journeys. Luminary is a gender inclusive B2C and B2B global professional education and networking platform. Today the company has more than 15,000 members globally across 30 countries and leads more than 20 workshops, programs and events each month in person and virtually.  Not only did Cate appear on our Female Founders list in 2019 and 2021, but in 2024 and this year she also joined our Female Founders board of advisers and helped review the 2025 list.  Our hosts, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, sit down with Cate in a special roundtable discussion to wrap up our Female Founders 2025 series. They chat about the state of women in entrepreneurship, why women are the masters of bootstrapping, and how founders–and we as a culture–

Babba Rivera, the founder and CEO of clean-beauty company Ceremonia, is a cover subject of Inc. magazine’s 2025 Female Founder issue. Her heritage is both an inspiration and a driving force for her brand.  When Babba Rivera was growing up, her Chilean family moved to Sweden to escape the brutal Pinochet dictatorship. She spent her early career working at startups in both Sweden and the U.S., at Uber and at the luggage upstart Away, where she was director of marketing. During that time, Babba was spending an hour every morning styling her hair with really “toxic, unhelpful products.” As a Latinx woman, she didn’t see any products that were designed with her heritage or type of hair in mind. So, in 2020, she founded Ceremonia, an aspirational natural-ingredient brand that seeks to fill a void in the beauty market for her fellow Latinx consumers. For Inc. magazine’s Female Founders 2025 series, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom sat down with Babba to chat about her background and where the seeds for Ceremonia t

Half of Americans live in child care deserts. For many more, child care is unaffordable. Paid leave for parents is far from universal. Reshma Saujani is on a mission to change all this.  Reshma is best known for having founded Girls Who Code in 2012 during her run for the U.S. Congress. She has raised $100 million and taught 670,000 girls programming skills over the past decade. Now, Reshma has turned her sights on building her second nonprofit, Moms First, which focuses on making women’s lives better in the workplace through paid family leave, improved child care, and pay equity for moms. Today, Moms First is a community of 1.1 million. For Inc. magazine’s Female Founders 2025 series, Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin sits down with Reshma to chat about how she is bringing everything she learned from scaling Girls Who Code into her new venture, the potential lasting impact of the war on DEI programs, and the ongoing fight against the rising cost of child care in this country. Along with Inc. exe

In this episode, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin host a roundtable discussion with some of the reporters who contributed to Inc. magazine’s 2025 Female Founders issue. They are joined by freelancer writer Issie Lapowsky and senior editor Rebecca Deczynski to discuss how the state of female entrepreneurship is rapidly changing in this political moment. In putting together the 2025 Female Founders issue of Inc., Diana noticed an interesting phenomenon: There were a significant number of women entrepreneurs who’d bought back their businesses or returned to the helm of their startups after having stepped away. What’s going on? We discuss. Also: The challenges—and remarkable innovations—of women-founded companies in health care. And finally! Celebrity business overload! Could 2025 see a shift in strategy, with brands leaning more on social media influencers and fans to reduce their reliance on costly A-list celebrities? What industries are still ripe for celebrit

The serial founder says the legacy pasta brands have made their beds. So she made a new one.   Jen Zeszut’s mac and cheese brand, Goodles, is designed not just to stand out in the aisle—with rainbow-hued packaging amid a sea of beige and blue—but also to carve out a new customer for the classic pasta recipe: young adults who like convenience, but who aim to eat something healthier than your standard boxed fare.   This meant changing adopting new market strategies in addition to creating a nutrient-packed mac and cheese. Jen is not a first-time founder, nor is she a stranger to the consumer packaged goods landscape. She left her role as CEO of the baby food company Cerebelly to launch Goodles in 2021, and the brand has been on the rise ever since. Today, it’s the fastest-growing mac and cheese in the U.S. and the seventh-fastest-growing natural food brand in the U.S. grocery category.   For our mini-series highlighting Inc.’s 2025 Female Founders honorees, executive editor Diana Ransom sat down with Jen to dis

To kick off our fourth season of From the Ground Up, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin are speaking with founders who will be appearing on Inc. magazine’s Female Founders 2025 list. Our first guest is serial entrepreneur Jeni Britton.   She’s best known for rethinking flavor creation in ice cream, and is the founder of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, which has close to 100 scoop shops around the country and over $150 million in revenue.   During the pandemic, Britton took a step back from day-to-day management of her company—and that got her thinking about her own health. Christine sat down with Jeni to talk about the mental and physical health inspirations for her new business, Floura. Starting up a second time wasn’t the plan—but Jeni explains what her prior experience in retail and culinary experimentation armed her with for this next journey, and what she knows will still be a challenge. Plus: We get a peek into the burgeoning ecosystem of upcycled food, as Jeni

Ah, 2024. So much to say! For our last episode of the season, we analyze the biggest small-business and workplace topics of the past year and highlight what’s on the horizon for 2025. Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Chrsitine Lagorio-Chafkin sat down with senior editor Tim Crino, and staff writer Sarah Lynch to discuss the annual changes that have taken place here at Inc., the massive layoffs in the tech sector, DEI backlash, and the generational workplace mismatch between managers and Gen Z employees. Also, we look ahead to Trump’s proposed tariffs and the new wave of crypto hype and scams. Don’t worry, we are optimistic about a few things in the startup landscape, though. Additional research and information:  To read more from our Inc. 5000 coverage: How Tiny Changes Have Reaped Enormous Results at America’s Fastest-Growing Company   How Inflation Shaped the Companies of the Inc. 5000 To read our coverage from the tech layoffs: Employees Are Still Worried About Layoffs The 202

If you grew up in the ’90s, the “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!" chihuahua commercial was inescapable. Remember the vital-to-surfers sunscreen Sun Bum? Both of these memorable branding moments were created by serial entrepreneur Tom Rinks.   Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom sat down with Tom for this episode of From the Ground Up to discuss his unusual path to becoming a branding whiz—and what he’s learned about identifying human desire along the way. His early job of selling furniture taught him how to read people, and his first branding deal, with the University of Michigan’s Fab Five, immersed him in the skills needed to identify talent. Diana and Tom discuss the complex art of brand-creation, company-building, and finding the niche audience who will fiercely love your product. They also discuss Tom’s most recent branding venture, the oral-care line Made by Dentists. Additional research and information: Visit: Made By Dentists Visit: Made by Dentists’s profile Visit: Made by Dentists’s educational page Vis

Honing one's craft. Dedicating many, many hours to perfecting a skill set. Entrepreneurship can, in some ways, resemble the work life of a professional athlete. Ayesha Curry is certainly focused on her burgeoning lifestyle and culinary brand, Sweet July, and the multiple businesses within it—but that’s where she might say the similarities she has with her husband, NBA star Stephen Curry, end. Whereas Steph brings a calm sense of logic to business and philanthropic decisions, Ayesha says she’s the kind of creative founder who brings passion to a project. In this interview with Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, Ayesha describes how, when building Sweet July, she built in soul: It is designed to empower and celebrate women and BIPOC creators, and multiple arms of the business were inspired by her family’s Jamaican heritage. Ayesha explains to Christine how she’s navigated her career from aspiring chef to business owner, including the early tumultuous moments in the company, how she delegates respon

Have you ever wondered what happened to your favorite kettle chip brand or kombucha in your local supermarket? Don’t see your favorite cranberry sauce for the holidays? For this episode, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin spoke with editor-at-large Tom Foster about his recent article, “Why Are So Many Supermarket Brands Losing Shelf Space?” By the end of last year, the total amount of early-stage venture-capital funding for consumer-product brands was down about 60 percent from its 2021 high. And new product launches were down about 70 percent in the same period, according to consumer-products data provider Spins. What’s going on? Is it a CPG rupture? Paul Voge, co-founder of the sparkling water brand Aura Bora, told Tom that getting on store shelves “is astronomically harder today.” He adds that “I had a smaller, worse business in 2019, and it was easier to run than my larger, better business today.” One thing’s clear: Gone are the days of consumer-product bran