Keep Going

For more than 50 years, some of the women who helped build modern computing couldn’t tell anyone what they had done. Not even their families.On this episode of Keep Going, I spoke with Eileen Buckholtz, author of Queens of Code: Inspiring True Stories from NSA’s Computing Women, about the women who helped develop some of the world’s earliest computer systems while working in secrecy at the National Security Agency.Buckholtz joined the NSA in 1970 as one of its first employees with a computer science degree. At the time, the agency had more than 100 computers spread across five acres of basement space, and many of the women working there had started their careers breaking codes by hand during World War II.These women helped develop early programming methods, worked with IBM on new computer systems and built technology that would eventually become part of everyday computing. They also faced serious discrimination. Buckholtz recalled how women had to fight for equal access to promotions and senior positions, even as they were doing some of the most advanced technical work in the country.We talked about the early days of computer science, what it was like debugging enormous machines with paper printouts, the women who helped build the NSA’s computing operations and why so much of their work has been missing from the history books.Buckholtz spent years collecting their stories, working through the restrictions surrounding classified material and documenting the contributions of 29 women whose work had largely gone unrecognised. Her book, published by MIT Press, arrives November 17.It’s a fascinating conversation about the history of technology, the people who helped create it and the importance of making sure their stories aren’t lost. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.keepgoingpod.com/subscribe

Pete Dering, founder and CEO of Peak Design, did just that. He started in 2010 with an idea for a camera clip, launched it on Kickstarter in 2011, and spent the next 15 years turning a simple photography accessory into a company selling everything from camera straps and tripods to backpacks, phone mounts, and luggage.Along the way, he avoided outside investors, built a loyal customer base, and largely ignored the conventional rules of running a growing business. For years, it worked remarkably well. The original camera clip still brings in $7 million in annual sales, and Peak Design has grown into a business with roughly $100 million in annual revenue.But success brought its own problems. After years of growth, the company began hiring too quickly, costs rose, and Dering found himself facing the prospect of an unprofitable business. He had to make difficult staffing decisions and reconsider an approach to management that had served him well for more than a decade.In this episode of Keep Going, I talk with Pete about the role of luck in building a successful company, why solving real problems matters more than clever marketing, and what happens when a founder realizes that instinct alone is no longer enough to run the business.We also discuss why he has no plans to sell Peak Design, why he prefers developing leaders from within the company, and why he believes that being a relaxed, happy CEO might be more useful than the constant intensity we tend to associate with successful founders.It’s a fascinating conversation about building a company, making mistakes, and figuring out what success should actually look like after you’ve achieved it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.keepgoingpod.com/subscribe

Can you rebuild a business that has been declining for more than a decade?On this episode of Keep Going, I spoke with Dorothy Belshaw, CEO and co-founder of Rockview Management Group, which recently acquired NY NOW, the New York gift and home furnishings trade show.At its peak, the show occupied more than 500,000 square feet of exhibition space at the Javits Center. But years of ownership changes, shifting strategies and the COVID pandemic took their toll. When Belshaw acquired the show, attendance had been declining for years and the event was a fraction of its former size.Rather than starting a new event, Belshaw saw value in the existing business, including its brand, buyer and exhibitor relationships and established place in the industry’s buying calendar. She also saw an opportunity to run it differently, with a small team that could make decisions quickly and work directly with customers.The early results are encouraging. After just three months under the new ownership, the August show grew slightly in size and attendance increased 5%, reversing years of decline.We talked about what it takes to rebuild a struggling business, why physical trade shows still matter in a digital world and how small brands can decide when they’re ready to move from direct-to-consumer sales into wholesale.It’s a conversation about taking an established business, treating it like a startup and finding out whether personal relationships and faster decisions can bring it back. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.keepgoingpod.com/subscribe

When Aaron Argueta and his business partner Jay started Bailey’s CBD for Pets, they had 50 bottles of CBD extract, about $500 and a dog named Bailey. Nearly a decade later, the company has more than 20 products and distribution in over 400 pet stores. Getting there, however, meant surviving an industry that seemed determined to put them out of business.On this episode of Keep Going, I spoke with Argueta, co-founder and CMO of Bailey’s CBD for Pets, about what happens when your payment processors stop working, your competitors have millions of dollars and you spend your days visiting pet stores that have absolutely no interest in what you’re selling.The story actually begins with music. Argueta and Jay met while touring in bands in 2013. Both had experience with California’s cannabis industry, and Jay had begun experimenting with CBD extracts at a time when the market was still developing. Customers occasionally asked whether he had something similar for their dogs, so he put together a product with his pug Bailey’s face on the label.The first batch consisted of just 50 bottles made in Jay’s kitchen. The response convinced them that there might be a real business there, and the two eventually reunited to launch Bailey’s CBD for Pets.Then things got difficult.When the money stopped coming inThe period between 2018 and 2020 was particularly brutal for Bailey’s. Following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, CBD businesses were entering the market rapidly, but financial services companies remained reluctant to work with them.Argueta described how one payment processor, Elavon, abruptly stopped servicing smaller CBD businesses in 2019. Bailey’s lost its ability to process conventional credit card payments and relied on PayPal, which subsequently shut down its account as well.The company suddenly had a serious problem. It could make products and find customers, but collecting payments online had become extremely difficult. Worse, payment providers could hold funds for months, leaving the founders without working capital.At roughly the same time, California dispensaries began dropping hemp-derived CBD products because of regulatory restrictions. The company was losing sales channels just as competition was becoming more intense.And this wasn’t a market filled exclusively with small startups. Argueta recalled competing against CBD brands associated with Martha Stewart, Willie Nelson and other famous names with considerably more money to spend.For a business that had started with a few hundred dollars, those were difficult odds.Twenty-five stores and not a single saleArgueta’s response was to sell the old-fashioned way. He drove around Los Angeles and Orange County visiting pet stores, pitching products and trying to persuade owners to carry Bailey’s.Some days he visited 20 or 25 stores without securing a single account. Retailers were already overwhelmed with competing CBD products, and many were skeptical about the category altogether.Weekends weren’t much easier. Argueta and Jay attended farmers markets, dog events and retail pop-ups, selling products directly and explaining what CBD was supposed to do. Sometimes they would spend hours at a store that already carried their products without generating much interest.Argueta admitted that the constant rejection was disheartening. What helped was a community of other entrepreneurs facing similar problems, along with a determination to keep the business operating as cheaply as possible.They reduced expenses, took modest salaries and reinvested what they could. In the early days, Argueta said, there were times when even finding money for lunch was a concern. The founders also took on side work to bring in extra cash.Their strategy was relatively simple: survive long enough for the market to settle down.And eventually, it did.At the SuperZoo pet industry trade show in 2019, Argueta remembers seeing more than a hundred businesses offering CBD products. By 2022 and 2023, that number had declined considerably. At the most recent show, he estimated there were fewer than ten.Many competitors had disappeared. Bailey’s was still there.Finding a business beyond CBDSurvival alone wasn’t enough. The company also had to find new ways to grow in a crowded market.One important change was moving away from generic CBD dog treats toward products marketed for specific purposes, including calming and hip and joint support. These formulations incorporated additional ingredients and gave customers a clearer understanding of their intended use.Argueta believes they should have made that change earlier. Instead of expecting customers to understand CBD and determine why they might want it, the company could explain what each product was designed for.Bailey’s also expanded beyond CBD into products such as probiotic chews and mushroom-based supplements. That opened sales channels that remained unavailable to CBD products, including certain wholesale marketplaces.Another opportunity came from manufacturing products for other brands. Argueta recalled losing an early contract because Bailey’s wasn’t organised to handle it. Rather than ignore the opportunity, the founders spent years building a private-label and contract-manufacturing operation. Today, he said, the company works with about eight consistent clients.It’s an interesting development for a business that once struggled to compete with other CBD brands. Now, some of its revenue comes from helping other companies make their own products.The problems haven’t disappearedBailey’s still faces restrictions on advertising and distribution, and Argueta described the difficulties of competing for attention on Google when many major retail platforms don’t allow CBD products.The company has consequently invested heavily in organic search, blogging and website development rather than depending entirely on paid advertising.There have also been regulatory problems. Argueta said Bailey’s received an FDA warning letter roughly a year and a half before our conversation and has been working through the agency’s concerns. He described a slow process of submitting changes and waiting for responses, with the warning letter creating additional concerns among retailers and customers.These are reminders that surviving the initial wave of competition doesn’t mean the business suddenly becomes easy.But the company has also found opportunities. Argueta said sales grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic as more people adopted pets and sought products marketed for calming and wellness. More recently, Bailey’s has been expanding its affiliate relationships and looking for additional distribution channels.Why keep going?I asked Argueta why he and Jay were still building a CBD company when they could have moved into an entirely different business.His answer was the pet industry itself. Both founders enjoy working with pet owners, and Argueta said the customer feedback they receive continues to motivate them. He also spoke about Bailey, the original pug who inspired the business and died in 2024.The dog may be gone, but the company still carries his name.What I found most interesting about Argueta’s story is how little of it involves a sudden breakthrough. There was no enormous investment that solved everything, no single marketing campaign that transformed the business and no moment when the founders could stop worrying about money.Instead, they kept expenses low, found alternative ways to sell their products, built relationships with other operators and gradually expanded into new areas of the industry.A lot of their competitors didn’t make it through the difficult years. Bailey’s did, and that gave the company an opportunity to keep growing. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.keepgoingpod.com/subscribe

Esther Dyson has spent decades studying technology, business, and the ways both affect society. But she doesn’t consider herself a futurist. As she explains on this episode of Keep Going, she’s more interested in understanding the present and helping people change what comes next.Dyson, whose forthcoming book In Defense of Limits: Human Time and AI Scale examines the relationship between human life and technological growth, believes that American society has become increasingly focused on making money rather than creating value. People see enormous fortunes being made through cryptocurrency, financial speculation, and technology companies while ordinary workers struggle to get by. The result is a growing sense that the system is unfair and that individual effort no longer matters.One of Dyson’s central concerns is what she calls “information diabetes.” Just as processed food can damage physical health, she argues that a constant stream of simplified, fragmented information can damage our ability to think critically. AI-generated summaries, social media feeds, and business presentations filled with impressive numbers but little context encourage people to consume information without understanding it.She sees a similar problem in what she calls “money diabetes,” the accumulation of wealth through systems that extract money from other people’s activities without producing much value themselves. The problem isn’t capitalism itself, she argues, but a culture that increasingly treats financial success as proof that something is worthwhile.That concern extends to artificial intelligence. Dyson is less worried about machines becoming powerful enough to destroy humanity than about companies using AI to keep people dependent on their products. “I’m not worried about predatory AI, I’m worried about parasitic AI,” she says. These systems don’t need to destroy their users. They simply need to keep collecting small amounts of money, time, and attention from them.The conversation also turns to the growing loss of human agency. Dyson compares modern society to the social structure of medieval Europe, where a small ruling class held most of the power while ordinary people had little control over their lives. Today, she argues, many people feel similarly powerless in the face of governments, technology companies, and financial institutions.One possible response is what Dyson calls universal basic service. Rather than simply giving people money, she proposes a period of paid public service for young adults. Participants could work in parks, schools, public facilities, or other community settings, gaining experience while working alongside people from different backgrounds. The goal would be to restore a sense of shared responsibility and remind people that their time and attention have real value.Dyson also questions the modern obsession with eliminating friction from everyday life. Technology companies promise to make everything faster, easier, and more efficient, but not every difficult experience needs to be removed. Building relationships, raising children, learning new skills, and helping other people all require effort. That effort is often what makes those experiences meaningful.Despite her concerns, Dyson remains hopeful. She believes people are beginning to recognize the costs of systems that put growth and profit ahead of human well-being. Parents are questioning the effects of social media on their children, communities are demanding more control over decisions that affect them, and governments are slowly responding.When asked why people should still have hope, Dyson offers a simple answer: “because we’re still fighting.”For Dyson, progress isn’t about reaching a perfect future where every problem has been solved. It’s about doing useful work, making things better for other people, and passing that work along to the next generation. No individual can fix everything, but everyone can contribute to something worthwhile.In this episode of Keep Going, we talk about AI, cryptocurrency, inequality, public service, the value of human connection, and why the effort to improve the world matters more than any promise of a perfect future. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.keepgoingpod.com/subscribe