Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business

In this special Collab Week episode of Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, 13 founders come together to answer one deceptively powerful question:
Tell us about something you picked up during your school years that had nothing to do with the actual coursework, but has helped you in day-to-day as a business owner.
From a nightly outfit ritual that taught preparedness, to a rugby final that taught the difference between the right action and the right outcome, to a boss's two-word correction that reframed an entire philosophy of customer service, this is a wide-ranging episode that's a reminder that the most useful business lessons rarely show up on a syllabus.
For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur who's ever wondered whether their "unrelated" hobbies, jobs, or offbeat professors actually mattered, this episode is proof they did — and a nudge to go looking for the lesson hiding in whatever felt like a distraction at the time.
✨ What You'll Take Away
In this episode, you'll learn how to:
How sourcing advice from total outsiders gives you unbiased market intel
Why knowing when you're being told something wrong matters more than ever in the AI era
How getting comfortable around smarter people builds stronger partnerships
Why arguing both sides of an idea (respectfully) leads to better decisions
How choosing the right action over the desired outcome protects your progress
Why choosing the pain of discipline beats the pain of regret, every time
Why realistic workloads (not cramming) make you a better manager and leader
🎙️ Meet the Collab Week Contributors
Patricia Ballivian — Altura Strategies
Founder of Altura Strategies, helping founders bring clarity and structure to the messy realities of scaling.
Website: https://www.alturastrategies.net/
Drew Mehta — ThinkFraction
20+ years in corporate; now helps owner-operators grow revenue by fixing back-end workflow leaks and applying AI the right way.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhroovmehta/
John Lunsford — Tethral
Engineer, anthropologist, and PhD in tech adoption; formerly led AI and personal safety at Uber, now founder/CEO of Tethral.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-lunsford/
Arjun Bidesi — Orcana.AI
Co-founder/CEO of Orcana.AI, closing the gap between operating plans and actual performance with AI-driven insights.
Website: https://www.orcana.ai/
Stephen Custer — Dry Humor Marketing
Owner of Dry Humor Marketing, pairing serious strategy and data with authentic storytelling that gets people to act.
Website: https://www.dryhumormarketing.com/
David Beltran — Accord Intelligence
Founder/CEO of Accord Intelligence, building the decision layer that keeps humans accountable for AI-driven decisions.
Website: https://www.accordintelligence.ai/
Zeyno Dodd — AlgiSense
Co-founder of AlgiSense, developing AI-driven EEG biomarkers to objectively measure pain.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeynoaygendodd/
Raamon Newman — New Mavericks
Co-founder of New Mavericks, a CEO leadership development partnership; co-author of The Science of Protection.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raamonnewman/
Mike Gross — Michael J. Gross, LLC
Trainer, consultant, and auditor helping organizations apply ISO standards practically, with 35+ years of experience.
Website: https://mj-gross.com/
Nicholas Cook — Money 101 Academy
Founder of Money 101 Academy and owner of Prime Land Properties; also writes at The Place Blog.
Website: https://money101academy.com/
Erik Berglund — Loominary
Founder of Loominary, building skill simulation systems for practicing business's hardest conversations.
Website: https://www.loominary.io/
Nate Hebbert — SelfWare Consulting
Founder of SelfWare Consulting, helping small business owners beat burnout without pressing pause.
Website: https://selfwareconsulting.com/
Brandon Pankey — Blue Pine Works
Co-owner/Operations Lead at Blue Pine Works, an arboriculture and land stewardship company in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area.
Website: https://bluepineworks.com/

Tired of wrestling with clunky spreadsheets or paying a fortune for software that doesn't quite fit your business? James Edgell, a former technology leader at giants like McDonald's, IBM, and Deloitte, is here to show you a better way. He shares how his new venture, SoftExit Studio, is using AI to make custom business software accessible and affordable for everyone. This episode is a masterclass in leveraging technology to solve real-world business problems without a team of developers or a venture capital budget. James breaks down how any entrepreneur can now build the exact tools they need to scale, automate, and finally get out of "spreadsheet hell."
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
 🔧 How to escape "spreadsheet chaos" and the growth plateau it causes for so many small businesses.
 🤖 Why AI-driven configuration (not code generation) is the key to building stable, bug-free custom applications quickly and affordably.
 🚀 The single most powerful (and boring) concept James learned in big business that you can apply to scale your small business.
 💰 How to build powerful, custom tools like CRMs and inventory systems without paying for expensive AI tokens or hosting fees.
 📈 A framework for identifying the hidden gaps in your operations that are perfect candidates for a custom software solution.
 🤝 How to use AI as your "brutally honest" co-founder to pressure-test ideas and build a rock-solid business plan.
 🛠️ Why bootstrapping a powerful tech-enabled business is more achievable now than ever before.
📝 About James Edgell
James Edgell is a seasoned technology executive, entrepreneur, and the founder of SoftExit. With a high-impact career spanning roles at IBM, Motorola, and McDonald's, he was a key leader behind the digital platforms that served millions of customers, including the McDonald's mobile app. James has a unique talent for transforming complex business challenges into practical, scalable technology solutions. Now, he's on a mission to empower small and mid-sized businesses with SoftExit Studio, an AI-enabled platform that makes custom software a reality for entrepreneurs everywhere.
🎯 James’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
“This is the most exciting time for entrepreneurs… AI can be your co-founder. I mean, you finally have somebody you can bounce ideas off of that knows everything… Get out there and try it and do it… This is the time where bootstrapping actually makes sense.”
📢 Memorable Quotes
 “I learned something that was incredibly boring, incredibly powerful, and it's called process. And it is absolutely amazing.” – James Edgell
“A lot of companies… end up dropping back to spreadsheets. And then when they start to grow, that kind of plateaus their success because now they're in all these spreadsheets up to their neck and none of them work together.” – James Edgell
“We're going to provide a great service to a lot of companies at an affordable price for our entire existence.” – James Edgell
💡 Actionable Takeaways
 ✅ Audit Your Spreadsheets: Identify the one spreadsheet in your business that is the most complicated, error-prone, or critical to your operations. This is your first opportunity for a custom solution.
 ✅ Think Like a Change Agent: Step back and work on your business. Ask yourself: "If I could build any tool to solve my biggest daily frustration, what would it do?"
 ✅ Use AI to Challenge Your Business: Go to your favorite AI chatbot and prompt it with: "Be brutally honest and attack the weaknesses in this business idea..." See what you uncover.
 ✅ Explore No-Code First: Before assuming custom software is too expensive or complicated, explore an affordable platform like SoftExit. You might be surprised by how quickly you can solve a major business problem.
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: http://www.softexit.com/
Connect with James on LinkedIn
Follow SoftExit on LinkedIn
Follow SoftExit on Facebook

Tired of hearing about AI as a novelty? This episode cuts through the noise. Serial entrepreneur Marty Reed joins the show to reveal how to implement AI with a founder’s mindset, focusing on one thing: a tangible return on investment. He explains why simply chatting with an LLM is the lowest bar and shares how to build custom AI agents that automate complex workflows, multiply your team's productivity, and directly impact your P&L. For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur feeling overwhelmed by AI, Marty provides a clear, strategic playbook for leveraging this technology to build a more efficient, scalable, and profitable business. This isn't about AI for AI's sake; it's about making AI work for you.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
Beyond the Chatbot: How to move from basic AI prompts to building "agentic tooling" that automates repetitive, time-consuming tasks across your business.
The 5X Productivity Formula: Learn how AI can analyze thousands of data points (like customer emails) to create automated workflows that make your team five times more productive.
The Founder’s ROI Playbook: Discover how to identify the highest-impact areas for AI implementation and calculate the financial return before you invest a single dollar.
Context is King: Understand why giving AI access to your unique data (emails, meeting transcripts) is the secret to making it an invaluable, personalized executive assistant.
Human Capital Multiplier: Reframe your thinking from AI as a job "displacer" to a powerful "multiplier" that frees up your team for high-value strategic work.
Winning Over the Skeptics: Learn the strategy for turning AI naysayers on your team into your biggest advocates and drivers of adoption.
From Two Weeks to 20 Minutes: Hear a real-world example of how AI condensed a complex, two-week reporting process into a 20-minute automated task.
📝 About Marty Reed
Marty Reed is the managing partner of Apex AI Advisors and a seasoned serial entrepreneur who has founded seven companies and successfully exited four. With a deep background in finance and operations, Marty approaches technology from a business-first perspective. His last venture, an edtech company called Aranda Solutions, deployed statewide data systems in 35 states and 7 countries. Marty’s unique expertise lies in his ability to look past the AI hype and pinpoint exactly where it can deliver measurable ROI, making him an invaluable guide for founders looking to build smarter, more efficient companies.
🎯 Marty’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"I don't know where we're going and I know exactly how to get there."
📢 Memorable Quotes
“Adoption is ROI, period. And as long as you have adoption, ROI will follow.” – Marty Reed
“[AI is] a really smart executive assistant that has no idea what you do or how you do it... How do we leverage this tool... to really have impact on our business?” – Marty Reed
“This is all about multiplying, right? All about multiplying capital, all about multiplying human capital. And how do you leverage those really, really smart people?” – Marty Reed
💡 Actionable Takeaways
Audit Your Workflow: Identify one repetitive, time-consuming task you do daily or weekly. This is your first target for AI automation.
Give Your AI Context: Instead of re-explaining your business in every prompt, connect your AI tool to your emails or meeting transcripts to create a personalized assistant that understands you.
Calculate the ROI First: Before building a complex AI solution, ask yourself: "If this task was automated, how many hours would it save my team per month?" and "What is that time worth?"
Convert a Naysayer: Find a skeptical team member and offer to build a simple automation that solves one of their biggest daily frustrations. Their success will drive wider adoption.
Schedule Your Learning: Create a recurring task in your calendar to spend 15 minutes testing the latest AI models with a baseline question to see how they’re improving.
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: https://apexblueprint.ai
Connect with Marty on LinkedIn

In an era where AI tools like ChatGPT are making it easier than ever for students to cheat, how can we ensure real learning is still happening? This episode dives deep with Kevin Doshi and Patrick Roscio, the co-founders of Scholera, an AI-native platform designed to solve the biggest problems plaguing education today. They share their incredible journey from identifying a critical issue in academia—partly from their own experiences—to building a sophisticated tech solution from the ground up. This isn't just a story about EdTech; it's a masterclass in how to tackle a complex societal issue, find a co-founder with a shared vision on LinkedIn, and navigate the challenges of selling a disruptive product to a traditional industry. For any entrepreneur looking to solve a meaningful problem, this conversation is packed with insights on product development, market positioning, and the relentless drive required to build something that matters.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
How to spot a massive business opportunity by analyzing the unintended consequences of new technology (like AI in classrooms).
The framework for turning a personal pain point into a scalable, tech-driven business idea.
Why building a "memory layer" for your platform can create a deep, analytical moat that competitors can't easily replicate.
Strategies for navigating a long sales cycle in a traditional industry like education by finding internal change agents and running pilot programs.
How to leverage your co-founder's unique perspective to build a more robust and well-rounded product.
The art of filtering feedback—knowing when to listen to criticism and when to block out the negative energy to stay focused on your vision.
Why solving the core problem is more important than ever, especially when AI makes the "building" part of a tech business easier.
📝 About Kevin Doshi & Patrick Roscio
Kevin Doshi and Patrick Roscio are the innovative co-founders of Scholera, an AI-native learning platform for universities. Kevin, who grew up learning the fundamentals of customer relationships in his father’s stationery store in Mumbai, brought his computer science expertise from Stevens Institute of Technology to conceptualize Scholera. Patrick, also an engineer from Stevens, was inspired to tackle the AI cheating problem after seeing his own reliance on AI tools as a student and recognizing the skills gap it created in the professional world. Together, their shared vision and complementary experiences led them to build a platform that addresses the core issues of modern education head-on.
🎯 Kevin’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"Startups are not just about making money. It's really about trying to solve a problem which maybe you faced… go out there and trying to solve that problem… fail 100 times. But I guess you need just that one time you need to succeed."
🎯 Patrick’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"You can't listen to people who are trying to put you down... you can't let negative energy and you can't let negative people turn you away from something that's gonna be great."
📢 Memorable Quotes
"With AI now, the building part has become really very easy now... We now really have to try to solve the problem because the problem-solving part needs to be easier and spot on." – Kevin Doshi
"You need one happy customer which will lead you to maybe 100 or 1,000 happy customers." – Kevin Doshi
"It's not just about getting to the final answer, it's really about the journey, which we all know is where the learning really happens." – Patrick Roscio
"For anybody that's going to put you down or any bad thing that happens along your journey to success, you have to take it in stride. Just keep plugging away at the problem and eventually you'll get there." – Patrick Roscio
💡 Actionable Takeaways
Identify a new technology trend in your industry and ask: "What is the biggest unintended problem this creates?" This is often where the most valuable business opportunities are hiding.
If you're looking for a co-founder, optimize your LinkedIn profile and start engaging with people in your target industry. A single, well-crafted message can lead to a game-changing partnership.
Instead of thinking about how to ban or fight a disruptive force (like AI), brainstorm how you can build a tool that harnesses its power for a positive outcome.
This week, reach out to five potential customers and ask them about their biggest challenges—don't pitch them, just listen. Use this research to validate or refine your business idea, just as Kevin did with university professors.
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: https://scholera-inc.com/
Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn
Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn
Follow Scholera on LinkedIn

Felix Vicknair, an executive business advisor with 25 years of experience in supply chain and operational excellence, joins the show to demystify how small businesses can leverage the strategies of global corporations. He explains why focusing solely on revenue growth is a mistake and reveals the hidden opportunities for profit and efficiency that most entrepreneurs overlook in their day-to-day operations. This episode is a masterclass for any founder who feels overwhelmed and is looking for a structured way to lower costs, improve results, and build a more resilient business. Felix breaks down complex concepts like Lean Six Sigma and process standardization into simple, actionable steps you can apply immediately, regardless of your company's size.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
How to adopt a "big business" mindset to find hidden profits and efficiencies in your small business.
The secret to consistent, high-quality results by standardizing your core processes (and why "asking Joe" is a recipe for disaster).
Why balancing revenue growth with expense control is crucial for long-term stability and profitability.
How to use data and AI as a strategic tool without falling into the trap of blindly following numbers.
The framework for identifying which tasks to automate or simplify so your team can focus on high-value activities.
Why you don't need an in-house engineering team to achieve operational excellence.
How to overcome personal limitations (like being an introvert) to become the leader your business needs.
📝 About Felix Vicknair
Felix Vicknair is an executive business advisor and the founder of United Business Works. With a background as an industrial engineer and over 25 years of experience in supply chain consulting for large global corporations, he has a unique talent for identifying operational inefficiencies. Felix is now on a mission to bring those same high-impact solutions—from cost reduction and process optimization to automation—to small businesses and nonprofits that are ready to scale. His hands-on approach helps entrepreneurs stop reinventing the wheel and start building more profitable, efficient, and sustainable companies.
🎯 Felix’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"Nobody has all the answers."
📢 Memorable Quotes
“If you're not actively thinking about ways to drive change, to take advantage of how things are moving in markets and in the world, you're falling behind.” – Felix Vicknair
“Data tells a story that it's not emotionally bound to how an operation performed on any given day. It doesn't have biases towards feelings or just experiences in the way that sometimes people do.” – Felix Vicknair
💡 Actionable Takeaways
Document one core process this week. It could be how you onboard a new client or fulfill an order. The goal is to get it out of someone’s head and onto paper to create consistency.
Conduct a "tech bloat" audit. Review all your software subscriptions and cancel any licenses or tools you are no longer using.
Identify one person in your network you can ask for feedback on a current business challenge. Schedule a 15-minute call with them.
Look at your daily tasks and identify one repetitive, low-value activity that could be simplified or automated.
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: https://unitedbusinessworks.com/
Connect with Felix on LinkedIn
Follow United Business Works on LinkedIn