Leisuretown - Doug Walker and Jon Feld

Explicit content warning

05/17/22 • 75 min

If you were to set out to cut your caloric intake today, odds are pretty high that your mind would immediately go to what food groups you could swap out or substitute. But what about swapping out or replacing the beverages you consume on a daily basis? Lower calorie beverages are certainly nothing new, like diet and zero-calorie options have been staples of everything from Pepsi to Gatorade to Michelob for decades now. There are some though that are betting big that consumers are becoming bored with those antiquated options. Our guests today are Doug Walker and Jon Feld of Leisuretown, a CBD-infused sparkling water company. They’ve positioned themselves at a significant intersection of wellness, CBD, and non-alcoholic alternatives. Their immediate goal is to be the cool drink to consume at parties without any caloric or inebriated side effects. Their long-term goal has their sights set much, much higher. You don’t have to take my word for it though, as we’re about to dive into the deep end with Doug and Jon.

Listen in as we cover everything from why they got dropped from all major online payment processors in a span of three days, how they turned to NFTs in order to sell and market their drinks, and why Doug is currently running for Mayor of West Sacramento

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Fuel Finance - Alyona Mysko

On Thursday, February 24th, Russian military forces crossed the border into Ukraine and ended a peace that had existed in Europe since World War II. The war in Ukraine has, among many other tragedies, created a massive humanitarian crisis with the millions and millions of Ukrainian citizens that have fled the country in search of safety. For those that have stayed, daily life has been completely upended and their future was thrown into uncertainty. But there are still plenty of Ukrainians trying to carve out a living and maintain a sense of normalcy amidst the invasion. Our guest today is Alyona Mysko, founder of FuelFinance, a cloud-based financial service based in Ukraine. Alyona has relocated her headquarters from Kyiv to Lviv in order to avoid the worst of the assault, but she still finds herself being woken up by the sounds of air raid sirens. Listen in to this special episode as we cover everything from what it’s like to run a company in a country at war, the decision to stay in Ukraine versus fleeing, and her plans for both the short term and long term as the war drags on.

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Las Maris Vegan - Carlos Bryant

Eat your own dog food. It’s a simple phrase designed to convey the notion that if your product is good enough for your consumers, it’s good enough for you too. For Carlos Bryant, founder of Las Maris vegan food truck, his initial menu didn’t fit with his diet. Las Maris wasn’t always vegan, and when customers would ask how the food tasted, all he could offer were referrals to other people. Let’s just say it didn’t exactly inspire confidence. But Carlos was quick to recognize the dissonance and soon made the switch to vegan offerings. The rebranded food truck was a much more authentic and personal venture, one that allowed him to combine his startup with his virtues. What followed could be considered a runaway Sacramento success story, but Carlos has plans for expansion far beyond a single food truck in a single metropolitan area.

Listen in as we cover everything from the problems of scaling your business too quickly, how his rap career instilled in him the grit that he’d later use in entrepreneurship, and why life is like a game of Twister.