Joe Markham’s dog Fritz liked to chew rocks. That’s right — rocks. Out of desperation to saves his dog’s teeth, Joe created the Kong, one of the most unique, successful and useful dog toys of all time. But building the Kong Company wasn’t easy. When he first pitched his idea to pet store owners, they told him not to quit his day job. Fortunately he disregarded their advice and since then, over 50 million Kongs have been sold. That’s almost one for every dog in the US. Listen in to hear how Joe did it.

 

 Kong Company founder Joe Markham [ 34:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2643)

In July 2006 Mignon Fogarty launched “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing,” a podcast that highlights common grammar mistakes. Since then, in under ten months, she’s been a guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the topic of articles in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BusinessWeek and CNN.com. On iTunes, her podcast has been ranked as high as #2 and her audiobook topped their best-selling list ten days after it was released. Her show has been downloaded over five million times. Listen in to hear how grammar suddenly became hip.

 

 Grammar Girl's founder Mignon Fogarty [16:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2570)

Eventbrite founder Kevin Hartz is the quintessential serial entrepreneur. His most recent venture is a company that has created an online platform where users can sell tickets to events like reunions, fundraisers and classes. The small event ticket market is estimated to be in the billions with only 2% currently collected online. Other companies kevin previously founded include Connect Group which in the mid 90’s wired hotel rooms for internet access and Xoom an international online money remittance service funded by Sequoia Capital. Kevin had the insight to be an early investor in PayPal and saw firsthand how PayPal beat out dozens of competitors to emerge as the clear market leader. He is now applying the lessons learned from PayPal and his previous successful ventures to Eventbrite. Listen in to hear how Kevin and the Eventbrite team are tackling this enormous opportunity.

 

 Eventbrite founder Kevin Hartz [23:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3264)

Ravenswood Winery founder Joel Peterson began wine tasting at the age of 11 and had a dream to create wines in California that would rival the greatest of Europe. He turned his dream into reality in 1976 with his first vintage that won a prestigious San Francisco tasting. Even so, he kept his day job as a microbiologist for 15 years while he grew Ravenswood Winery into one of the most well known and well respected names in the industry.

Because of Ravenswood’s strong brand, Bill Hambrecht of WR Hambrecht thought it was the perfect candidate to test out his new idea for taking a company public via Dutch auction. Bill approached Ravenswood and in 1999 the company made history by becoming the first company to sell their IPO shares via auction over the internet. Two years later, the company was bought by Constellation Brands (STZ), the largest wine company in the world, for 3 times the initial IPO market cap. Tune in to hear the full story behind Ravenswood and how Joel built such a strong brand.