The Defiance_ Ventures Podcast

John Espey
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Business

John Espey, a serial entrepreneur, MBA, and early stage investor interviews founders and investors at innovative companies. Defiance_ invests in, consults, and starts companies that defy conventional wisdom, and this podcast explores that world.

  1. 09/15/2021

    #83-Christian Giordano, Mancini Duffy

    When Christian Giordano joined Mancini Duffy, he was attracted to working with a well established architecture firm with a top shelf list of customers and a stellar reputation.  He would eventually take a majority ownership stake and help the company transform the industry by embracing technology.  Christian hosts The Anti-Architect podcast.  He and John discuss all of this and more in this episode.

  2. 08/03/2021

    #82 - Jeff Wickersham, The Morning Fire

    Jeff is a podcast host and executive coach who focuses on helping executives perform better by improving their daily habits.  In this episode Jeff tells his story of a life changing event that made him walk away from a successful corporate career to figure out how to improve his own health and effectiveness.  He ultimately turned that into a business and a podcast.   Oxygen Advantage Jeff's book YouTube Channel

  3. 08/03/2021

    #81 - Amy Buckner Chowdry, AnswerLab

    Amy is the founder and CEO of AnswerLab, a design strategy firm that she started after working with a design-focused startup in Japan.  In this episode she talks about starting and scaling AnswerLab.  She discusses challenges that female founders face and also talks about her ongoing efforts to support diversity and inclusion.  Amy created The Human-Centered Work Project in order to help companies embrace diversity and inclusion.

  4. 07/20/2021

    #80 - Mac Lackey, 6 Exit Founder

    Mac has started multiple successful business in industries ranging from apparel to internet software to soccer agency and many others.  He has six total exits and in this episode tells the story of how his career has shaped up.  He also talks about his interest in blockchain, what role soccer has played in his life, and what he is currently working on.

  5. 07/20/2021

    #79 - Grant Ingersoll, Lucidworks

    Grant is one of the founder of Lucidworks, a leading search engine platform.  In this episode he and John discuss the evolution of search and big data, starting a business with a group of friends, scaling that business and raising money, contributing to and starting new Apache open source projects, and becoming the CTO of Wikimedia and some of the unique challenges they face.  Grant is an author and also hosts a podcast that explores careers in technology.

  6. 07/09/2021

    #78 - Laura Smailes, Ventureprise (UNCC)

    Laura is the Assistant Director at Ventureprise, an entrepreneurship center at UNCC.  In this episode she discusses working on a radio show, creating a radio program for NASCAR, joining a startup, and eventually joining Ventureprise after working closely with it at her startup.  She discusses entrepreneurship in Charlotte, building an ecoSystem, and shares lots of knowledge after years of working with students and founders.

  7. 07/07/2021

    #77 - Aaron Bock, Opkalla

    Aaron is one of the founders of Opkalla, an IT services company based in Charlotte.  In this episode Aaron talks about going out on his own, surviving a pandemic, and scaling a business in a rapidly changing IT landscape.

  8. 06/30/2021

    #76 - Jonathan Kite, Rent Ready

    In this episode John talks with co-founder and CEO of Rent Ready, Jonathan Kite.  Rent Ready is a turnkey solution for multi-family real estate owners.  Jonathan discusses the origin story of the company, when he and two friends with very complementary skillsets came up with the concept and turned it into a reality.  He discusses raising angel and VC capital and scaling a business during a global pandemic.

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John Espey, a serial entrepreneur, MBA, and early stage investor interviews founders and investors at innovative companies. Defiance_ invests in, consults, and starts companies that defy conventional wisdom, and this podcast explores that world.

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