THIS is a Thing

Dana Mauriello
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated weekly

Have you ever looked at a business and thought, "Wow, I cannot believe that is a thing!"? We’re not here to talk about big tech or main street businesses… we’re here to celebrate all of cool, unique, and unusual businesses in between. Get ready to meet water park owners, plant sitters, magicians, and go kart mechanics. We’ll talk to these founders about how they came up with their wild idea, why they decided to launch their business, what success means to them and why they love their work. Hosted by Dana Mauriello a serial entrepreneur and professor of entrepreneurship at NYU.

  1. 14 hr ago

    Ep 25: Marc Evan, Maniac Pumpkin Carvers

    Marc Evan is the co-founder of Maniac Pumpkin Carvers, a New York-based studio that has elevated pumpkin carving into a legitimate fine art — with work displayed at MoMA, the Whitney, and Yankee Stadium, and clients including Martha Stewart, Food Network, and the New York Botanical Garden. In this episode, Marc traces the whole journey: from carving Halloween decorations at the East Village bars where he and co-founder Chris worked, to posting on Flickr, to getting a cold email from Wired Magazine asking for a Star Wars pumpkin, to fielding a call from the New York Yankees needing 50 pumpkins in 48 hours. What makes Marc's story especially interesting is how deliberate he and Chris were about not just building a business, but building an entire industry. When they started, there was no market for fine art pumpkins. People balked at spending $50. So every press opportunity — morning shows, Food Network, Martha Stewart — was a chance to plant a seed: pumpkins are worth spending money on. The long game paid off. We also talk about identity: what it means to call yourself a professional pumpkin carver, how pricing changed everything, and why Marc kept bartending for years even as the business grew. It's a story about following the fun, being ready when opportunity knocks, and sometimes having to create the market before you can sell to it. Maniac Pumpkin Carvers: www.maniacpumpkincarvers.comDana's Newsletter: nationofdoers.substack.com

    30 min

  2. 18 Jun

    Episode 24: Dasti Llenga, American Liquidations

    Dasti Llenga was juggling three things at once — private equity job, master's degree, growing side hustle — when he asked himself a simple question: what could he do if he put all his focus into one? It started with a $4,000 Mercedes he flipped for $15,000 in three days. Then came the flea market finds, the first liquidation pallet, a truckload of Costco returns sold out of his parents' garage. By the time his employer told him to come back to the office, the decision was already made. Today Dasti runs American Liquidations — New England's largest liquidator — with nearly 100 employees and 200,000 square feet across Connecticut. www.americanliquidations.com Newsletter --> nationofdoers.substack.com

    26 min

  3. 11 Jun

    Episode 23: Arthur Wei, Brooklyn Camper Vans

    Arthur Wei was a three-time national chess champion by age 11 — and then he quit. That decision taught him a framework for making big choices that he's used ever since: always choose the path that maximizes the number of potential positive outcomes. It's the logic that led him to leave a stable job at Oracle, travel the world for four years as a filmmaker, build a custom camper van in Brooklyn during the pandemic, expanded that into a thriving business and launched another business creating mobile offices. In this episode, Arthur talks about how he built Brooklyn Camper Vans from a pandemic side project into a thriving business — and why he recently launched Next Gen Vans to regain more of his freedom. 🚐 Brooklyn Campervans: https://www.brooklyncampervans.com 🏢 Next Gen Vans: https://www.nextgenvans.com 📩 Subscribe to THIS is a Thing newsletter: https://nationofdoers.substack.com

    23 min

  4. 4 Jun

    Episode 22: Rachel Clowes, The Sustainable Sequin Company

    Rachel Clowes founded The Sustainable Sequin Company out of an MA thesis project asking one deceptively simple question: why do the materials in special occasion clothing last thousands of years when we only wear those clothes two or three times? Her answer — bio-based, biodegradable sequins — turned into a business she started with a government startup loan and a customer lined up before she had any inventory. In this episode, we dig into the decisions behind the business: why she launched with recycled plastic sequins instead of going all-in on bio-based from day one, how she thinks about bespoke custom work versus scale, and the moment she stopped thinking of herself as someone developing a product and started thinking of herself as someone running a company. It's a really honest, grounded conversation about what it actually looks like to build something unusual from scratch — without a business background, without a lot of capital, and with a lot of genuine passion for the craft. 🌐 The Sustainable Sequin Company: thesustainablesequincompany.com 📩 Dana's newsletter: nationofdoers.substack.com

    30 min

  5. 29 May

    Episode 21: Dave Kozuha, Greenwood Lake Roasters Craft Coffee

    Dave Kozuha spent 18+ years in corporate IT. He always wanted to be in food. So when he got fed up enough to start thinking about an exit, he started researching coffee for a crepe cart he was planning to open. That was the beginning of a very unexpected rabbit hole. He couldn't find coffee he loved, so he ordered green beans and roasted them himself on Thanksgiving morning in a frying pan. Smoked out the kitchen. Made the best cup of coffee he'd ever had. Moved to the driveway. Built his own roaster out of a six-burner gas grill. Started roasting so much that strangers pulled over just to see what the smell was — and started handing him money. Dave and his wife Yolanda opened Greenwood Lake Roasters in May 2017, initially open two evenings a week. Yolanda quit her day job first, then Dave followed in 2019 — after the shop had earned enough revenue to make the leap feel like a real decision, not a leap of faith. Today they run two locations in a tiny lakeside town in New York State, with customers driving out from the city just for the coffee. 🛒 Order Dave's beans online: https://www.gwlrcc.com📩 Read the newsletter: https://nationofdoers.substack.com

    26 min

  6. 22 May

    Episode 20: Jessica Zouaoui, Oakwell Beer Spa

    Jessica Zouaoui started out with a one dream: quit her corporate job, travel the world, and open a small business when she returned. Then she met Damien. Nine months later they were married — and their individual dreams had become one joint plan. They quit their jobs and bought one-way tickets to travel the world with the goal of finding a business idea worth bringing back to the United States. Over 14 months and 25 countries, they visited hedgehog cafes in Japan, went Mario Kart racing through the streets of Tokyo, and soaked in wine spas in France — until a rainy day in Zakopane, Poland changed everything. A beer spa. It checked every box: novel, scalable, hospitable, and achievable without outside investors. They spent the back half of their trip visiting onsens in Japan and jjimjilbangs in South Korea, refining their concept and writing a full business plan from hostel common rooms in Australia. Then they flew directly to Denver — a city neither of them had ever visited — and started knocking on doors. In this episode, Jessica talks about how she and Damien evaluated business ideas on the road, how they secured funding through an unexpected city program, and what it actually took to get a landlord to rent to a beer spa. 🔗 Read the article + subscribe to the weekly newsletter: nationofdoers.substack.com 🍺 Learn more about Oakwell Beer Spa: https://oakwell.com/

    31 min

  7. 15 May

    Episode 19: Gene Nifenecker, Balloon Kings

    Gene Neffenecker II — aka King Gene — is the founder of Balloon Kings. What started as a single store on the Upper West Side with and a cult following among locals (including me) is now a growing franchise. Before all of this, Gene was a Marine Corps veteran who survived cancer, lost his sign-making business in the 2008 financial crisis, and was picking up landscaping work to make ends meet. A chance visit to a friend's balloon store changed everything. We talk about leaving his family's sign-making legacy, the four hours that turned his life around, and why he decided to grow through franchising instead of just opening more stores himself. 🎈 Balloon Kings: https://balloon-kings.com/📩 Dana's Newsletter: nationofdoers.substack.com

    23 min

  8. 8 May

    Episode 18: Bob Young, Geese Chasers

    Bob Young didn't just build a business, he built an entirely new category: using Border Collies to humanely chase geese off golf courses, school yards, parks, and neighborhoods. He didn't go looking for the idea — a golf course owner flagged him down while he was exercising his dog Boomer and begged him to clear his course. That was 1999. GeeseChasers now has 13 franchises and 27 consecutive years of growth. We talk about how Bob knew he had a real business on his hands, how he quit his day job in stages, and the advice from a billionaire that made him go all in. GeeseChasers: https://geesechasers.com Bob's Memoir: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F8Q9MY12 📲 FOLLOWInstagram: @thisisathingpod | TikTok: @thisisathingpod | YouTube: @thisisathingpodNewsletter: https://nationofdoers.substack.com/

    23 min
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About

Have you ever looked at a business and thought, "Wow, I cannot believe that is a thing!"? We’re not here to talk about big tech or main street businesses… we’re here to celebrate all of cool, unique, and unusual businesses in between. Get ready to meet water park owners, plant sitters, magicians, and go kart mechanics. We’ll talk to these founders about how they came up with their wild idea, why they decided to launch their business, what success means to them and why they love their work. Hosted by Dana Mauriello a serial entrepreneur and professor of entrepreneurship at NYU.

Information

  • Creator
    Dana Mauriello
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    26
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Dana Mauriello
  • Show Website
    THIS is a Thing