From the Ground Up

It takes audacity to start a company, grit to grow it, and community--plus, plenty of money--to survive. Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interview founders of some of the most fascinating companies in the world, about the significant challenges they’ve navigated as they’ve grown their business.

“From the Ground Up” guests include Ariel Kaye, whose sustainability-minded home-goods brand, Parachute, was early to the direct-to-consumer party--and forced later confront the DTC meltdown. Thought leaders such as Simon Sinek address topics like with grief in the workplace, and creating a work culture for the generation that seems comically unmanageable, Gen Z. Ransom and Lagorio-Chafkin, in alternating interviews, hone in on the unique pieces of expertise founders have come to while on their often-lonely roads.

Fawn Weaver interview: The Billion-Dollar Whiskey Story
Podcast Episode · From the Ground Up · 11/11/2024 · 58m

Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia and Flex’s Mike McNamara interview: Starting a Company, Again
Podcast Episode · From the Ground Up · 06/20/2024 · 49m

Simon Sinek interview: Leadership for a New Generation
Podcast Episode · From the Ground Up · 11/18/2024 · 58m

And you can browse the whole library here.

What I Know

My long-form interview podcast with Inc. magazine exploring founders’ real journeys to entrepreneurial success—and what they learned along the way.

What I Know takes you inside the messy, painful, and sometimes transcendent journey of starting a company. Guests have included Eileen Fisher, John Mackey, Neil Blumenthal, Phil Libin, Rebecca Minkoff, and Jim Collins, and the stories of the founding of dozens of fascinating companies, including Reddit, Zola, Calm, Charity:Water, and Exploding Kittens.