The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore

Serial entrepreneur Adrian Balfour grew up herding sheep in rural Ireland. These days, he's building AI software at Envorso and Empwr.AI, running a wool empire in rural Pennsylvania, and helping to bring the Rugby World Cup to the U.S. for the first time. Big Idea host Elizabeth Gore talks with Balfour about his singular career, from bootstrapping his first startup, PCubed, with no venture capital, to co-founding Major League Rugby and the Seattle Seawolves club, to his current day-to-day as both a tech CEO and sheep farmer.

Danny Alexander might have the best job title in the business: Chief of Product and Purpose at Who Gives a Crap. The co-founder and Chief of PP walks host Elizabeth Gore through how his company turned a relatively unsexy product into a global brand with a cult following, why they’ve donated over $14 million to clean water and sanitation projects worldwide, and how the pandemic toilet paper panic nearly broke their supply chain.

What happens when a guy who's never worked in fashion decides to solve a major problem with menswear? You get Collars & Co, the dress-collar polo brand that went from 300 shirts to a Shark Tank deal, a brick & mortar expansion, and millions in sales. Founder Justin Baer joins Elizabeth Gore to talk about viral success, the power of "no," and why paid influencers aren't the guaranteed win they used to be.

Rebel Girls CEO Jes Wolfe turned a children's book into a global media brand that's reached millions of people worldwide. Wolfe joins host Elizabeth Gore to talk about taking over as CEO during COVID, why hitting singles and doubles can be worth more than home runs, and her newest venture: the San Francisco Signal pro women’s volleyball team.

Urban Decay co-founder Wende Zomnir built a beauty empire from the ground up, then sold it to cosmetics giant L'Oréal. Now she's starting over with her new brand, Caliray, and proving founders can disrupt the same industry twice.