Problem Solvers

Most hit makers never make a second hit. Bing Gordon cracked the code. As part of the founding team at Electronic Arts, he helped build Madden, The Sims, and SimCity, and learned exactly why people return to a product (or don’t). His first question for any business is a strange one: Does your app make customers feel liked? Chapters 0:00 Does your app make customers feel liked? 0:38 Why video game companies become one-hit wonders 2:03 Bing Gordon, Electronic Arts co-founder 2:39 Why creators and musicians struggle to repeat a hit 4:35 How EA kept the Madden NFL team motivated for decades 5:56 Why gamers come back: social, mastery, and rewards 7:39 Session economics and the MyFitnessPal retention lesson 11:08 Customer retention: does your product love its users? 12:15 How Duolingo and Peloton make users feel recognized 13:15 Zynga, Facebook, and Twitter’s magic engagement numbers 14:18 How Twitter’s retweet came from watching user behavior 16:47 Why customer feedback misleads product teams 17:43 Why kids love Roblox games adults find boring 21:01 What SimCity players taught EA about personalization 22:48 How parents should talk to kids about video games Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

KIND bar founder and Shark Tank investor Daniel Lubetzky has a new obsession. It’s a nasal strip. When his team at Camino Partners first pitched him on Intake Breathing, his reaction was “What are you guys smoking?” Then he saw the data. He hasn’t seen numbers like it since KIND’s early days. Now he and Camino Partners president Elle Lanning are making a major investment, and they explain why nasal breathing could be the next big wellness habit, how to build a consumer brand in a crowded market, and why every CPG founder needs to hear that the product is king. Timestamps: 00:00 – What is a brand? 00:41 – How to spot what’s coming next 02:09 – Meet Daniel Lubetzky and Elle Lanning 03:44 – The big investment reveal: Intake 05:36 – Why they bet on it 07:24 – People don’t want new things. They want better old things. 08:44 – From pharmacy aisle to everyday habit 10:16 – How to pick the winner in a crowded category 11:43 – Can great marketing save a mediocre product? 15:08 – How to get customers to use your product more often 20:08 – Great product, no traction? Advice for CPG founders 23:16 – What a brand really is 24:15 – “Dr. No” vs. “Dr. Not Now” 24:52 – The four Ps (plus one) 26:19 – Where to find Intake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Flowers for Dreams gives away 25% of its profits. In the flower business, where margins are already brutal. Co-founder Steve Dyme sketched that number on a bar napkin 15 years ago, and he’s kept it through investor pushback and on-air skepticism from Megyn Kelly. The result is more than $1.8 million donated, and a spot on Entrepreneur’s America’s Favorite Mom and Pop Shops list. But there’s a twist. When he surveys customers, the giving doesn’t even rank in their top three reasons for buying. This episode is brought to you by CLA. With you on every step of your financial journey. To learn more, visit CLAConnect.com.Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:48 Can a business give back and still make money? 2:48 Selling leftover flowers on street corners 5:58 The solopreneur trap 9:05 Scaling on customer revenue alone 10:27 Why customers don’t buy for the mission 13:10 The mistake of overgiving 14:48 Where the 25% came from 15:54 Megyn Kelly’s tough question 16:54 Why investors pushed back 19:23 Why start a nonprofit too 23:21 Are there tax benefits? 24:24 Giving back only works if it’s real 25:10 Where to find Flowers for Dreams Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthony Pompliano built an AI financial assistant people loved. Then his most engaged users started costing him too much money. That’s a good problem to have. But it’s still a problem. His solution came from an unlikely place. Olive Garden’s breadsticks. Here’s how Silvia cut costs without cutting what users love, and got 25% of monthly active users to pay. Find Anthony's book here! This episode of Problem Solvers is presented by AT&T Business. To learn more about how the right connectivity can help support your business as it grows, visit att.com/smallbusiness. Jason wants to help solve your impossible problem! Click the link below to sign up: https://entm.ag/levelup2026 Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:38 The idea of a “better problem” 2:05 Anthony’s book, How to Live an Extraordinary Life Volume Two 5:00 Silvia’s power-user problem 6:50 The Olive Garden breadstick lesson 9:15 Weighing every possible fix 11:07 Building a model router 12:55 Bracketing: a military trick for making decisions 16:50 Experiments vs. archaeology 18:15 Training their own model (97% cheaper) 19:10 Rolling out the paywall 20:40 Why people pay 21:45 How to spot this problem in your own business 24:16 Where to find Anthony and Silvia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GoFundMe had a strange problem. About a quarter of people created fundraisers and then never shared them. Better share buttons didn't fix it. That's because the problem wasn't the product. It was human. Asking for help is really, really hard. CEO Tim Cadogan explains how GoFundMe rebuilt around that truth, and why the fix generated more than double the help they expected. This episode of Problem Solvers is presented by AT&T Business. To learn more about how the right connectivity can help support your business as it grows, visit att.com/smallbusiness. Jason wants to help solve your impossible problem! Click the link below to sign up: https://entm.ag/levelup2026 Chapters: 00:00 – Intro 00:35 – GoFundMe's strange problem 02:10 – A quarter of fundraisers never get shared 03:10 – How GoFundMe spotted the gap 04:30 – Why better share buttons didn't work 05:15 – The four reasons people weren't sharing 07:00 – When the product isn't enough 08:30 – Fixing the sticking points, starting with titles 10:55 – Building the AI coach 12:45 – How the coach works day to day 14:00 – Is this just AI for AI's sake? 16:45 – A father's story 18:15 – Jason's book launch lesson: Asking is generous 19:50 – The paradox of help 20:15 – The best way to ask for help 21:30 – The results: More than double what they expected 22:15 – What's next for the coach Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices