The Growth Show

Culture happens. Whether you plan for it or not, all companies have a culture. An no one knows more about how culture works than New York Times’s best-selling author Daniel Coyle. Daniel talks about his latest work, The Culture Code, where he goes inside the world’s most successful organizations - Pixar, San Antonio Spurs, SEAL Team Six, and more - to find out what makes them tick.

It was the largest offer in Shark Tank history. Mark Cuban offered Arum Kang $30 million for her dating app Coffee Meets Bagel. But she and her sisters swiped left, and that decision made them the targets of keyboard cowboys who labeled them “foolish” and “greedy”. There was a specter of self-doubt, a discovery of the company’s real values, and a final rise above all the noise. Three years later, Kang feels zero regret for her decision to pass on the Shark’s tantalizing offer.

Davis Smith grew up like every other kid -- spearfishing piranhas in the Amazon, eating wild coconuts for snacks, and taking family adventures around Central and South America. During these early years, Davis also saw the abject poverty that others lived in first-hand. So he founded Cotopaxi, an outdoor brand committed to alleviating poverty and empowering communities through entrepreneurship.

Joe De Sena founded Spartan with a single purpose: to change people’s lives. But growing the company has been the toughest race of Joe’s life. Its meant persevering through a near death experience, pivoting after a decade of failing business models, and setting one of the most ambitious growth goals ever.

[News] Amazon has officially announced the locations for the company’s second headquarters -- Crystal City, Virginia, and Long Island City, New York. But with the announcement comes controversy. HubSpot’s resident news writer Amanda Zantal-Wiener joins us to break it all down.

If there’s one thing everyone can agree on, it’s how much they loathe insurance companies. And yet, despite every technological revolution, the insurance industry continues to operate basically the same way it did in the Middle Ages. Dan Schreiber, co-founder of Lemonade, saw the fundamental wrong of insurance: If people don’t get paid for claims, insurance companies make more money. So he aligned the company with its customers and created a bot to make the process surprisingly more human.

[Mini Episode] The robots have arrived. Welcome! First stop: the kitchen. So we asked, is that really all that bad a thing? We sit down with robot restaurateur Michael Farid of Spyce to hear about why standing over hot stoves, endlessly stirring, chopping, and plating food might just be a thing of the past.

After founding and stepping away from Moz, Rand Fishkin finds himself back in the startup world. Only this time, he’s doing things differently. In this live recording from INBOUND 2018, we talk to The Wizard of Moz about why he now refuses venture capital, how he’s helping SparkToro grow better, and what it’s like to play Dungeons & Dragons with Anita Sarkeesian.

Beauty is a $450 billion industry. But traditionally, communication on beauty routines and products came from companies, not other customers. That is, until a little blog named Into the Gloss was launched. Using customer insights, the blog launched Glossier -- it’s own line of beauty products. Ali Weiss tells us how Glossier is giving the makeup industry got a much-needed makeover.

[Mini Episode] Take a look at your Instagram feed. You likely follow a few different influencers. But look a bit closer. Are each and every one of them human? Not if you’re one of the 1.5M followers of Lil’ Miquela. The rise in AI influencers might not be the stuff of nightmares or summer blockbusters, but it’s not that far off. Our producer Matthew Brown talks with Chris Detert of Influential about our human(less) future.

Movement is the art of change. You pass through one physical location to the next, with decisions at every step. And whether that’s in dance or starting a company, movement is what inspires us. Payal Kadakia's career has taken a number of tough decisions -- some that could have derailed her entire career. We caught up with Payal for a live recording at INBOUND 2018. She tells us how she knew when to start ClassPass, and more recently, when to step down as CEO.

It’s August 21, 2017. There’s only one thing on people’s minds: The solar eclipse. Every brand under the sun jockeyed for the cultural zeitgeist, but it was MoonPie — throwing a little shade at Hostess — that won the day. The company’s viral tweet “Lol ok” broke brand social records and the ensuing demand sold out stores and shutdown the bakery. Dooley Tombras gives us a look into how how he made a humble snack cake one of the most out of this world brands on social.

Kristen Kish’s road to Season 10 of Top Chef was winding, to say the least. She tried out business school for a spell, got in way over her head as an executive chef, and ended up working for one of the best-known culinary icons in the world. And the entire time, she was struggling with her own identity. In the last episode of The Turnaround season, we explain why appearing on Top Chef was only the second biggest turnaround in Kristen’s life.

During the Summer of 2014, customers and employees of Market Basket boycotted the company, demanding that the board of trustees reinstate Arthur T. Demoulas, the beloved president and CEO of the grocery store chain. This week, we tell the story of that protest, which is a good reminder that the people sitting around a boardroom table aren’t the only ones who own a company.

The World’s Only Curious George Store sits in the heart of Harvard Square. It’s been there, in some form, since 1995. But behind the bright colors and the cheery facade, there’s been a fight raging to keep the store open since day one. In today’s episode, we tell the dramatic and little-known story of literature’s most mischievous monkey.