Brent Polacheck, owner of Polacheck’s Jewelers, is proving that the art of generational relationship-building still drives retail success in an era of instant gratification. How do you keep customers coming back for decades and sustain a 101-year-old family business when most people shop with a single click? In this episode, Jon talks with Brent about turning his Calabasas showroom into a social destination, choosing customers who value long-term relationships, and staying ahead of market cha...
Kristin Olszewski, founder of Nomadica, is bringing premium wine to aluminum cans — and major retailers are taking notes. How do you take an industry rooted in tradition and turn it on its head? Kristin Olszewski, sommelier-turned-entrepreneur, is revolutionizing the $385 billion wine industry—one aluminum can at a time. As the founder of Nomadica, Kristin brings organic, zero-sugar, premium wine to the masses in eco-conscious packaging. In this episode, she shares how her expertise as a Mich...
Vadim Fedotov, CEO of Bioniq, aims to personalize the supplement market by creating custom pharmaceutical-grade products. Having played basketball on the German National Team, Vadim experienced firsthand the shortcomings of conventional sports supplements. After tearing his ACL, he was prescribed various off-the-shelf vitamins and nutrients, but none provided the relief he needed. This experience made him realize that supplementation must go beyond one-size-fits-all formulas to address indivi...
Mike Feldstein, Founder and CEO of Jaspr, joins the show to discuss how he transformed bulky commercial-grade air purifiers into stylish, accessible solutions for home use. With a background in disaster restoration, Mike developed a deep understanding of air quality issues and recognized the need for products that effectively capture 99.9% of ultra-fine particles, including wildfire smoke and mold. He initially designed Jaspr for family and friends, but the demand surged during the COVID pand...
Forrest Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Kineon, joins the show to discuss how he transformed bulky clinical machines into convenient, wearable devices for red-light therapy. With a background in Chinese language and 18 years of startup experience in China, Forrest recognized a market opportunity for portable, FDA Registered near-infrared therapy devices after witnessing the therapeutic benefits firsthand during his sports career. Kineon’s MOVE+ Pro device is making clinical-grade treatment acces...
Sam Faycurry, Co-Founder and CEO of Fay, joins the show to discuss how a family favor led to the creation of a personalized nutrition counseling service. Initially helping his mother and sister, both registered dietitians, with their dietetics practice, Sam discovered an untapped business opportunity and co-founded Fay—a digital platform that connects people with registered dietitians for personalized nutrition counseling. Fay has now raised $25 million in funding and is revolutionizing the a...
Tim Rosa, CEO of Somnee, sits down to discuss his journey from gaming and fitness tech to pioneering sleep neurotechnology. Tim shares how his mission to help people led him from successful stints at major gaming companies and Fitbit to his current role leading Somnee, which is developing personalized neurostimulation devices to improve sleep. Tim details Somnee's innovative approach using EEG and alternating current stimulation to map brain activity and induce sleep more effectively than pil...
Ray Kelly, founder of TERSA, joins the pod to share his journey from celebrity injury rehab expert to wellness tech innovator. Ray is building an innovative ecosystem of technology products that he says, “address the intersection of emotional, physical, and mental health.” His crown jewel is Sava, a sound therapy pod designed to induce altered states of consciousness. Ray discusses the potential medical applications of Sava, including research on PTSD, Parkinson's, and athletic performance. H...
In this episode host Jon Bier talks to Hyrox CEO, Christian Toetzke about one of the fastest growing fitness movements since Crossfit. HYROX is a global fitness race that combines running, high intensity interval training (HIIT), and functional strength training. The race is designed to challenge a participant's strength, power, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness. HYROX combines both running & functional workout stations, where participants run 1km, followed by 1 functional wo...
Gilad Jacobs is the son of, Dr. Laura F. Jacobs, MD, PhD, who is the founder of Normatec Industries, a company that specializes in compression and recovery technology. Jacobs, a physician bioengineer, started the company in 2004 with the goal of helping people improve their lives by increasing blood flow and circulation. She originally created Normatec to help breast cancer patients recover from lymphedema, a type of swelling, but the technology quickly became popular with athletes and...
If you haven't heard of Mid-Day Squares yet, you will as this family-run start up out of Montreal is sweeping across Canada and the USA. In 2018, Jake Karls co-founded Mid-Day Squares with his sister, Lezlie Karls, and her husband, Nick Saltarelli. The trio wanted to create a modern chocolate bar, replacing the unhealthy sugar snacks that litter the food aisles with a low-sugar, high-protein plant-based alternative. In this episode Jon and Jake discuss the recipe for success. E...
In 2008, while Jason was in Special Forces and Emily his wife was in the CIA, they started GORUCK out of her house in war-torn West Africa. The goal was pretty simple: build a rucksack with life or death quality standards that would thrive in Baghdad and NYC, not to mention Côte d’Ivoire — and show people of all walks of life how to operate smartly and safely in some of the harshest environments in the world (using said rucksack). How to travel, how to train, how to get the most...
Research has shown that the number one predictor of one’s health and happiness isn’t diet, exercise, or wealth: it’s the quality of one’s relationships. Ours is a modern day relationship wellness company, trusted by thousands of couples. Host Jon Bier talks all things relationships, therapy and wellness and other important matters with Ours CEO, Jessica Holton.
Matteo Franceschetti is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, the sleep fitness company. Eight Sleep developed a proprietary technology which is redesigning sleep by developing cutting-edge AI and machine learning models to track bio signals during the night and optimizing body recovery and rest while asleep. The end goal of the Pod is to compress sleep and scan your body while asleep to monitor your health. Eight Sleep is currently used by pro athletes and top performers across multiple in...
Jake Muise, Maui Nui CEO & FOUNDER Jake was born and raised in Northern Canada. Adventurous and inquisitive, he followed his gut to Hawaiʻi for college as a D1 athlete. During his years at Mānoa, he was taken in by a Molokaʻi family which was where his relationship with Axis deer began—over holidays and summer breaks, alongside multi-generational subsistence hunters. Over the years, his fascination and respect for this animal grew and after founding a research-based non-profit, the Axis D...
Ken Rideout is a guy who has risen above what most people who see as insurmountable obstacles to become one of the world’s pre-eminent athletes. Now 51, he leaves his (often younger) running competitors in the dust—and is only beginning to hit his stride. Ken's life hasn't been easy. In his early years he had a rough childhood, a battle with addiction, learning brutal truths as a prison guard right out of high school, and later losing friends on 9/11 are just a few of the many adversities he...
Dan Freed who struggled with focus, had behavior issues and was failing all his classes in school figured out that his brain was differently from his sister. She did all of her homework and everything seemed to come easy. Flash forward to today and it's no wonder that she became a triple board certified physician. Freed grew up in Los Angeles, worked internationally for a decade, studied at INSEAD + Yale. He's now in New York building Thesis: the world’s only personalized brain supplements ...
Mac Davis never planned on revolutionizing human health through gene therapy. A serial biotechnology entrepreneur, he founded Minicircle after developing a groundbreaking transient genetic enhancement platform. In this episode, Davis shares his journey from scientific researcher to innovative startup founder, discussing the potential of hormones like statin to optimize muscle health, reduce inflammation, and potentially slow aging. He explores the challenges of building a gene therapy company...
NextSense CEO, Jonathan Berent, never planned on reinventing how we sleep. He was a successful Google X engineer until a fascination with brain-sensing technology pushed him to leave everything behind and found his company. Now, he develops EEG earbuds aimed at upgrading our nightly rest and well-beingbeing. In this episode, he talks about his leap from corporate engineer to entrepreneur, why going “all in” was non-negotiable, and how we can all shed self-imposed labels to unlock bigger possi...
Todd Anderson had no entrepreneurial experience, but bootstrapped a business revolving around sleep. As a former NFL player and lifelong high performer, he was obsessed with optimization. He tried every hack, supplement, and tool he could find. After learning he had mild sleep apnea, he took a close look at sleep, and found a glaring gap in the wellness business. Dream Performance & Recovery was born from Todd Anderson's research and product-based solutions. After getting "in bed" with st...