#178: Does Your Business Need to Be Marketed?

This week, Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit with Simon Matthews, President and CEO at Open Door Media Solutions, LLC. Open Door Media Solutions is a Faith-based Marketing and Creative agency headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Open Door Media Solutions is a network of marketers, designers, artists, writers, technologists, and an awesome group of people serving businesses looking for brand identity development and content creation. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Simon’s journey, how Open Door Media Solutions is innovative, working with ambitious and driven people, and much more!

#177: Buying and Selling a Car Post Covid

This week, Tim Ryan and Zack Miller chat with Marouane Sadoq, Chief Executive Officer at Green Light Auto Auctions. Green Light Auto Auctions is a virtual auction place for people who want to sell their cars fast, convenient, and for the most money. Green Light Auto Auctions understands that buying and selling cars can be time-consuming and stressful, so they’ve created a platform that makes it easy and convenient for our users. Watch this week’s episode to hear about how Green Light Auto Auctions helps people get the most for their cars fast, what happens when you trade into a dealer, and much more!

#176: When Your Business is Poop

This week, Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Rachel Willinger, Chief Operating Officer at Pancopia, Inc. Pancopia is an environmental engineering firm specializing in research, development, and commercialization of water and wastewater treatment technologies. The NASA-inspired technology, which recycles wastewater into drinking water for astronauts, has been brought down to earth. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Rachel’s journey, recycling waste, innovation, and much more!

#175: What Founders in Virginia Can Do to Grow Faster

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Richard Wintsch, Executive Director of Startup Virginia. Startup Virginia (SVA) supports startups and innovators with an engaged community, holistic programs, targeted resources, and dynamic workspace to help them reach their full potential and positively impact Virginia’s economic landscape. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Startup Virginia’s Incubator pipelines, the great tools Entrepreneurship Support Organizations are offering, the infrastructure in place for founders, and much more!

#174: Growing the Virginia Startup

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Paul Nolde, Managing Director of 757 Collab. 757 Collab is collaborative vehicle focused on growing an interconnected, inclusive, and impactful entrepreneurial ecosystem. Harnessing the power of 757 Angels, 757 Accelerate and 757 Startup Studios, 757 Collab provides capital, acceleration, and an incubation arm—a unique, complete model for achieving success for the region’s entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Paul’s journey, who is 757 Collab, “leaning in” to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and much more!

#173: Technology and Your Business

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Tom Marsden, Vice President of Marathon Consulting. Marathon Consulting is an Information Technology consulting services firm headquartered in Virginia Beach, delivering services to small to medium-sized businesses and global Fortune 500 companies. Marathon offers a wide range of Information Technology consulting and digital marketing services, utilizing proven IT and management methodologies to achieve world-class results. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Marathon’s growth, commitment to local development, growth by acquisition, and much more!

#172: Being Colorful in Business

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Carl Cleanthes, Founder of Epic Made. Epic Made is a digital art and animation studio made up of expert strategists, artists, and storytellers who help brands tell powerful and engaging stories. With expertise in visual storytelling, fantasy pop-culture, and detailed world-building, Epic Made has collaborated with some of the biggest entertainment brands such as SYFY, Nickelodeon, and TNT. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Carl’s journey, making art, working with big time brands, and much more!

#171: Building an Event-Based Business

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Carrie Lauck, Owner and Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP), at The Happy Hour Hostess. The Happy Hour Hostess is a Virginia Beach-based event planning company that serves across Virginia in places such as; Richmond, Charlottesville, the Eastern Shore, and Washington DC. The Happy Hour Hostess, a dynamic team of event planning experts, is dedicated to event excellence and providing the ultimate guest experience, specializing in wedding, corporate, and social event planning and design. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Carrie’s journey, hospitality passion, business scaling, and much more!

#170: Investing in the Next Virginia Startup

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Dustin Dunbar, Investment Associate at Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC). VIPC is a non-profit corporation formed to support the Commonwealth’s vision for the expansion of innovation, opportunity, and job creation here in Virginia. Through commercialization and seed funding VIPC helps entrepreneurs launch and grow high-growth technology companies and create high-paying jobs for the future. Watch this week’s episode to hear about VIPC’s mission, investors, other resources within Virginia, and much more!

#169: Developing the Visual Aspects to Your Business

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Hunter Walsh, Director of 757 Startup Studios. 757 Startup Studios is a vibrant and inclusive Downtown Norfolk community full of energy, inspiration, programming, and resources to support startup companies and founders. Watch this week’s episode to hear about getting started in the 757, helping companies grow, the entrepreneurial community, and much more!

#168: The 757 Startup Scene

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Hunter Walsh, Director of 757 Startup Studios. 757 Startup Studios is a vibrant and inclusive Downtown Norfolk community full of energy, inspiration, programming, and resources to support startup companies and founders. Watch this week’s episode to hear about getting started in the 757, helping companies grow, the entrepreneurial community, and much more!

#167: How to Build a Network

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Markella Mitcheison, Founder of Hampton Roads Networking Group (HRNG), a networking group that helps people meet clients, have fun, and be known by more professionals in Hampton Roads. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Markella’s marketing and advertising techniques, launching HRNG, the desire to connect people, and much more!

#166: The Makerspace Movement in the 757

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Beau Turner, Founder and CEO of 757 Makerspace, a community and shared space that empowers individuals to give form to their ideas through membership, education, access to tools, equipment and the space to prototype and work. Since 2013, the Makerspace has provided tools, equipment and space for designers, technologists, innovators, artists and creatives to collaborate and bring ideas to life. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Beau’s journey, enhancing the creativity in the 757, and much more!

#165: The Legal Process in Growing Your Business

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with John Paris, Corporate Attorney at Williams Mullen, a regionally based, full-service law firm with more than 240 attorneys in offices across North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. For more than 30 years, John Paris has acted as a trusted partner and quarterback for his clients, both public and private, in various stages of growth. Watch this week’s episode to hear about John’s journey, helping corporate clients, and much more!

#164: Eating Across the 757

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Jarrell Williams, Founder of Nomarama, a  culturally influencing brand that highlights a lifestyle of adventure, fun, play & education. Working directly with Destination Marketing Organizations, Nomarama showcases a lifestyle of adventure, local love & play via travels through organic and real content creation. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Jarrell’s journey, growing Nomarama, the top food in the 757, and much more!

#163: Developing Long Vision Relationships

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Ben Munson, Mortgage Loan Officer at Tidewater Mortgage Services, Inc, a privately held mortgage company dedicated to facilitating the dream of homeownership from the first-time homebuyer to the seasoned real estate investor. Ben’s desire is to find the best solution for his client’s situation, whether it’s Down Payment Assistance or strategies on how to get the lowest monthly payment. Watch this week’s episode to hear how Ben’s nerdiness can benefit homebuyers, how easy it actually is to qualify for and purchase a home, making the mortgage part easy, and much more!

#162: Getting a Grip on your Business

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Crystal Lugo, CEO of B & C’s Gloves LLC, an innovative fish-handling and scaling glove for all fishing individuals. This product is a completely new type of fish scaling glove, offering a faster and safer way to descale fish by providing better protection against fish handler’s disease. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Crystal’s entrepreneurial journey and inventing the GloveScaler, the challenges she faced, never giving up, and much more!

#161: Introducing Innovate Hampton Roads

Hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down to discuss everything entrepreneurship in the 757. StartWheel Corporation and Hampton Roads Innovation Collaborative (HRIC), two of the region’s most influential players in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, are merging their education programs. Watch this week’s episode to find out what this merger means for the region!

#160: Raising Money in the 757

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Scott Janney, Co-Founder and CEO of Magazine Jukebox, Inc., the first digital magazine platform that does not require an app. Magazine Jukebox is a subscription service built for waiting rooms, hotels, hospitals, salons, cafes, gyms, or anywhere with stationary customers. A QR code lets customers scan and access a large catalog of magazine titles on a digital magazine rack at no cost to them. Watch this week’s episode to hear about how the Magazine Jukebox got started, how they are located in 4000+ locations and growing quickly, and much more!

#159: Next Generation Digital Health for New and Expecting Parents

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Carly Buxton, Co-Founder and CEO of Nessle, a digital health platform that serves both sides of the parent support marketplace. The online platform makes it easy for birth workers, parenting coaches, and other expert consultants to launch, run, and grow their parent-support businesses. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Carly’s journey, how Nessle had to pivot, connecting parents and experts, the secure Q&A feature, and much more!

#158: The Brand Behind Your Business

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Pamela Rosara Jones, Founder of The Branding Icon, the first Innovation Brand Marketing Consultancy in the Hampton Roads area. The ICONIC Formula is applied to every client’s campaign to bring out their brand’s authentic and unique DNA. Pamela is giving businesses, organizations, nonprofits, and solopreneurs a complete and comprehensive brand campaign that changes the scope of their vision and their bottom line. Watch this week’s episode to hear Pamela’s journey, the different ICONIC comprehensive packages, how Pamela can brand your business in a day or in a year, and much more!

#157: Powering Startups

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Adam Sledd and Braden Croy, Executive and Program Directors of Dominion Energy Innovation Center (DEIC), an affiliated innovation center of Activation Capital that supports early-stage advanced technology companies by providing them with collaborative space, guidance, and resources needed to accelerate their growth. DEIC supports great ideas across a wide spectrum of industry sectors in addition to its focus on building the alternative, renewable energy sector in Central Virginia. Watch this week’s episode to hear about the upcoming SPARK 757 advanced energy micro-conference and pitch competition, the DEIC Accelerate program, how DEIC’s supports energy entrepreneurs, and much more!

#156: Treating Allergies From Your Kitchen Table

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Aakash Shah, Founder and CEO of Wyndly, a modern medical practice that specializes in helping allergy sufferers achieve allergy-free lives. Wyndly is replacing antihistamines and nasal sprays that don’t solve the underlying problem with accessible allergy immunotherapy, a proven way to train the immune system to ignore allergy triggers. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Aakash’s journey, how allergies are a fixable condition,  the ethos behind Wyndly’s care model, and much more!

#155: Making EdTech Fun

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Howard Hesson, Founder and CEO of Fun1st, an education technology company specializing in the integration of technology and wellness practices into schools. Fun1st incentivizes students to achieve academic success by tracking their behavior & performance and rewarding them with tokens that can be spent in Fun1st’s digital school store. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Howard’s journey, the importance of disruptive behavior in classrooms, EdTech Markets growth, and much more!

#154: Disrupting Onboarding for Financial Freedom

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Drew Keever, Co-Founder of AdvisorFinder, an online marketplace to help people find a financial advisor. AdvisorFinder makes financial advice more accessible by helping people understand what financial advisors do, how much they cost, and more, giving them more confidence in choosing the right advisor. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Drew’s journey, how financial advisors help the average person, what makes AdvisorFinder different, and much more!

#153: Growing Black-Owned Businesses

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Jeanette Prophyl, Founder of The B.O.B.O. Collective, a supply chain collective and brokerage for black owned consumer packaged goods businesses looking to grow their distribution. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Jeanette’s journey, how black consumers disproportionately outspend on products in the consumer packaged goods space, and much more! 

#152: Bringing Efficiency to the Gig Economy

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Adquena Faine, Founder of Bäro My Keys Inc., an on-demand key-exchange solution using a web app integrated with an intelligent locker system. The app allows guests to safely and conveniently reserve various types of rentals, whether a car or a house, in one place and pick up all keys at any time of the day. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Adquena’s journey, how Bäro is helping people manage short-term rentals, and much more! 

#151: Modernizing Talent Acquisition

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Katy Schuck & Sean Worden, Co-Founders of Reelist, a software company helping companies attract and engage Gen Z and Millennial job seekers for entry-level jobs. With Reelist, companies create short-form videos about their jobs and company, deliver them to targeted job seekers, and use data to improve the effectiveness of their recruiting efforts. Watch this week’s episode to hear about how Katy and Sean become co-founders, how they’re helping companies hire talent, describe challenges employers face, and much more! 

#150: From Navy to Self-Taught Entrepreneur

This week hosts, Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Ricky Eckhardt, Co-Founder and CEO of Cliqket, creator-led social marketplaces that empower communities to interact with the people, brands, and retailers that matter to them most. Each Clique is an invite-only, fully social experience first (like Discord) with a full P2P marketplace one swipe away. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Ricky’s journey, how Cliqket is defragmenting the hobbyist and collector space by building inclusive Cliques, monetizing social marketplaces for creators and brands, and much more! 

#149: Spilling the Tea on Entrepreneurship

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Chase Austin, CEO of OverAchieving Tea, a brewing and blending craft tea company focused on quality, innovation, and pushing the boundaries of what you think tea is. OverAchieving Tea offers a healthy alternative to coffee and energy drinks. Watch this week’s episode to hear about how Chase Austin started his company with just a few hundred dollars, created an innovative tea company, the benefits of taking risks to better ourselves, and much more!  

#148: Your Legacy on Social Media

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Ikeobi Ekwevi, Founder and CEO of Rooa, an app that allows you to dynamically manage and store all your interactional media data. Its goal is the preservation of your interactional data and the extension of human presence on earth. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Ikeobi’s background, providing indefinite access to social data, becoming the number one reminisce storage provider, and much more!

#147: Pitching Your Business Like a Pro

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Brian Owens, Program Manager of B-Force Accelerator, a 12-week business development course with workshops, one-on-one technical assistance, and direct access to capital. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Brian’s background in music and business, the opportunity B-Force provides, growing community, and much more!

#146: Deterring Phishing Attacks

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Emanuel Perez, Co-Founder and CEO of Novus, a startup that builds anti-phishing tools for end users, beginning with non-custodial wallet owners in web3. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Emanuel’s why, the need for elevating operational security for users on the internet, lessons learned from mistakes, and much more!

#145: Rolling with the Punches

This week hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down to discuss everything entrepreneurship in the 757. Don’t miss out on the news regarding the latest startups, events, and jobs! Watch this week’s episode to hear about Zack’s Texas trip, the staples locations in the region, the highs and lows of business, and much more!

#144: The Six Year Evolution of a Founder

This week hosts Tim Ryan, and Zack Miller sit down with Erica McMannes, Founder & Chief People and Community Officer of Instant Teams, a talent marketplace that uses innovative technology, career development, and a focus on skills-based hiring to create employment solutions for companies and remote careers for military and veteran spouses. Watch this week’s episode to hear about the growth of Instant Teams, the services they provide, remote opportunities, and much more!

#143: Developing the Mental Athlete

This week hosts Tim Ryan, and Zack Miller sit down with Greg Tomchick, Partner, and CEO of Valor Cybersecurity, a cybersecurity company that simplifies identifying and addressing cybersecurity threats and business requirements for small-medium sized businesses in financial, defense, and investment communities. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Greg’s background as a professional baseball player, dealing with doubters, protection for small businesses, and more!

#142: Sustainability in Business

This week hosts Tim Ryan, and Zack Miller sit down with Hamilton Perkins, Founder and President of Hamilton Perkins Collection, an independent brand that designs and produces unique and award-winning bags and accessories made from upcycled materials. Each bag is made from pineapple leaf fiber, billboard vinyl, fabric banners, apparel, and other advertising waste. Watch this week’s episode to hear about upcycling, entrepreneurship, design, and more! 

#141: Bringing the heat to business

This week hosts Tim Ryan, and Zack Miller sit down with Tahjere Lewis, Founder, and CEO of Aunt Carol’s Sauce, an all-purpose sauce delicious with meats, vegetables, and especially seafood that’s purpose is to be delicious and bring families together. The sauce is of the loving memory of Carol Scott, Tahjere’s Aunt, who originally created the sauce for her family. Watch this week’s episode to hear about Tajhere’s journey, how to start a food business, Aunt Carol’s sauce story, and more!