The Founders Sandbox
By Brenda McCabe
Categories: Business, Management, Education
The Founder's Sandbox, produced and sponsored by Next Act Advisors, is now in its fourth season. Hosted by NAA founder Brenda McCabe, each episode features in-depth conversations with founders of small and midsized, owner-operated companies, and operators that support the ecosystem including board of directors and service providers. Together, they explore how to build scalable, resilient, purpose-driven businesses underpinned by strong governance. You'll discover: - Inspiring origin stories and pivotal "aha" moments - Strategies for scaling without sacrificing your company's core values - Techniques to cultivate mission-aligned, engaged teams - Tips for balancing ambitious growth with genuine fun Intro music by Daphne Willis Artwork and graphics by Whitney Otte Learn more at https://nextactadvisors.com
51 episodes indexed on PodSearch.
Recent episodes
- Season 4, #7 - Abundance in the Startup Ecosystem
Episode Summary: Abundance in the Startup Ecosystem with Naseem Sayani In this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda McCabe sits down with investor, ecosystem builder, and female founder advocate Naseem Sayani to explore how capital, community, and visibility can create a more abundant and…
- Season 4, #6- Resilience & Purpose: A Little more Social
In this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, host Brenda McCabe sits down with behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business to explore the surprising power of human connection. Drawing on decades of research and his new book A Little More Social, Epley…
- Season 4, #6- Building Reputation with Purpose
In this episode of the Founder's Sandbox, Brenda McCabe sits down with growth advisor and author Vanessa Golsby to explore what it really takes to scale private equity-backed SaaS companies. Vanessa shares the story behind her new book, The $100M Push: The Four Decisions PE-Backed SaaS CEOs Make…
- Season 4, #5- Be Curiously Different
What happens when you're tasked with reinventing an economy—and later find yourself building investment systems in countries where the rulebook doesn't exist? That's the story of Thomas Nastas, this month's guest on the Founder's Sandbox. His journey from Michigan's automotive belt to the front…
- Season 4, #4 - Chris Daden Scaling for work 4.0
In this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, host Brenda McCabe sits down with Chris Daden, CTO of Criteria Corp, to explore what it takes to scale purpose-driven businesses in the era of Work 4.0. Chris shares his fascinating origin story—starting with a childhood shaped by tech-savvy parents and…
- Season 4, #3 - Growth Gears for Scaling
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda McCabe sits down with Jen Apy, Area Managing Partner and Chief Marketing Officer at Chief Outsiders, to explore how scaling companies can unlock growth through fractional marketing leadership. Jen shares insights from her 30+ years of marketing…
- Season 4, #2 - Sustainable Impact Through Family Play
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Anbern R. Guarrine: a partner of The Guarrine Group (tGG), a global training company based in Illinois. tGG has facilitated team building, leadership, and organizational development workshops around the world for over 30 years. tGG…
- Season 4, # 1. Purpose: Ethos in Employee Benefits
On this episode of "The Founder's Sandbox", Brenda speaks with Donovan Ryckis; CEO of Ethos Benefits, the nation's leading fiduciary benefits consultant in mid- -large market employers. Ethos Benefits was founded in 2016, after a chance request from a client of Donovan when he operated as a…
- Season 3, #14 - Scaling the Co-founder Relationship
Tim He checks many boxes as a guest on the Founders Sandbox- a 3x founder, now advisor, professor, creator, writer and coffee snob. Tim's newsletter, "Cherrytree", allowed him to keep teaching entrepreneurship while the pandemic closed the classroom. By providing a newsletter, Cherrytree now…
- Season 3, #13- Scaling AI with Ruthless Compassion
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with David Hirschfeld, owner of 18 year old business Tekyz, that boasts a hyperexceptional development team building high "ticket" products in the B2B space. They speak about ways in which AI is a gamechanger, how Tekyz backs their work for…
- Season 3, #12 - Purpose: Preserving Family Wealth
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Alexa Steinberg – a corporate and transactional attorney for middle-market companies and entrepreneurs. Acting as outside general counsel, Alexa represents privately held companies in a wide range of general corporate and transactional…
- Season 3, #11 - Purpose: Bridging Gaps for Better Governance
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Dr. Keith Dorsey – Keith is joining to announce the launch of his book on May 6, 2025 "The Boardroom Journey Practical Guidance for Women to Secure a Seat at the Table". Dr. Keith D. Dorsey is an internationally recognized governance…
- Season 3, #10 - Resilience: Human Rights in Fashion and Entertainment
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Shivani Honwad – founder of her own law firm, who specializes in immigration and business law for the creative industries. Shivani is a business and immigration lawyer, and trailblazer in supporting the Freelance and Free Act, as well as…
- Season 3, #9 - Resilience: Deeptech, Female, Veteran, Bipoc
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Chasity Lourde Wright. Chasity is inventor and founder of Infiltron Software Suite LLC. Infiltron operates in the cybersecurity space; a Service disabled-Veteran owned and women-owned small business. Infiltron offers quantum-resistant…
- Season 3, #8 - Scaling Deep Tech
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Salvador Badillo Rios. Salvador is Founder and CEO of EquiTech Innovate, a strategic consulting and advisory firm aimed at helping underserved and overlooked founders bring innovative and disruptive technologies to market. He is also…
- Season 3, #7 - Jane Zhang: Scalable AI in Pediatrics
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Jane Zhang, CEO and Founder of Remmie Health about Scalable AI in Pediatrics. Jane progressed through her professional career as Biomedical Engineer, PhD Adjunct Professor, Big Pharma and it was upon living a very personal situation that…
- Purpose: Pivoting Careers
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Tammy Alvarez, founder and CEO of Career Winners Circle. Tammy is also an author, professional keynote speaker, inspirational coach, trainer, and epic storyteller. After experiencing firsthand burn out in a corporate career she struck…
- Resilience: Why Starting a Company Today is Awesome
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Martin Tobias. Managing Partner of Incisive Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of technology companies that reduce friction at scale. Martin is a 3X venture-funded CEO…
- Resilience: Team and the Company
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Eli Farhood, Chief Executive Officer at Katsh Digital ID. Hailing from Greece, Eli is a prior financial services executive and, with Katsh, a second time Founder. After experiencing fraud first hand, he pivoted a business in the making…
- Purpose: Equitable Capital Access
On this episode, Brenda speaks about purpose with Allison Byers, founder of Scroobious, a tech company driving innovation to equitable capital access by removing barriers to partnership among diverse founders, investors, and service providers. Scroobious is a platform that is working toward…
- Purpose: Doing Good While Doing Well
On todays episode, Brenda speaks with Marcia Dawood. Marcia is a passionate advocate for positive change in empowering and educating everyone on how to invest. Her book "Do Good While Doing Well – Invest For Change, Reap Financial Rewards and Increase Your Happiness", is due out in September 2024…
- Purpose: Designing for a Next act
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, our host Brenda McCabe speaks with Khalid Machchate; accomplished 3 x exit startup founder, operator of a startup studio, board of director positions and now in his "NEXT ACT," Khalid is a member of Morocco's Royal Advisory Committee by nomination from His…
- Data, Data, Everywhere: A NAA Blog Reading
Brenda A. McCabe, MBA's personal experience has contributed to the work at Next Act Advisors. The Growth Strategies of NAA clients are always informed by current regulations and the understanding of why things have evolved to where they are because of the regulations and how they might change in…
- Season 2, #9: Purpose: Freedom to Support Lifestyles
On this Episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Matt Clark-Chief Rainmaker of The Virtual Edge and, in his own words, "Chief Igniter" for business owners. They discuss Purpose in the context of Freedom as Matt shares his background as a rainmaker first as a waiter, where he discovered…
- Season 2, #8: Unleashing Creativity for Business Excellence
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda McCabe speaks with Sue Tinnish- an executive coach working with CEO's and Presidents of middle-market companies. They discuss "unleashing creativity for business excellence" , ranging from Sue's experience while in hospitality to make events…
PodSearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about PodSearch, the privacy policy or contact us.