I bring on Darrell Lerner, a serial tech entrepreneur who co-founded SNAP Interactive’s online dating apps and AllPaws, the pet adoption marketplace acquired by PetSmart, to get into how he builds and grows consumer tech companies. We move through product strategy, user acquisition, growth systems, digital businesses, and what it takes to operate and monetize at scale. The conversation covers early-stage execution, scaling digital products, revenue growth, startup operations, personal branding, and advising founders, creators, and businesses on building and positioning in competitive markets. Chapters: 00:00 – AllPaws and why Darrell built a Tinder for pet adoption 03:59 – Writing a fake press release before building anything, and raising a million before having an idea 05:41 – Growing AllPaws to 300K Facebook followers and how early marketing actually worked 08:11 – Royal Canaan, PetSmart, and the sponsors that led to the acquisition 10:02 – Darrell losing his dad mid-sale and deciding it was time to let go 13:39 – Selling to PetSmart for 5 to 10 million and what that day actually felt like 15:28 – Staying on for a year post-sale, the loneliness of exiting, and the post-exit founders group 19:27 – The COVID-era social app, and why meeting people gets harder as you get older 21:35 – Taking LinkedIn seriously and how it changed the way people saw Maddie 24:49 – Advising a jewelry designer, scaling her business from $10K to $200K a month using organic content 26:33 – When to ask for equity vs. cash, and what Madi is dealing with right now in her consulting work Come on the pod, sponsor an episode, collab, or just reach out ⁠▫️ https://linktr.ee/maditellsall Follow my world outside the podcast (food, tailgates, health, behind-the-scenes life) ⁠▫️ https://linktr.ee/madelinehall.nyc Thanks for being here guys. Like, share and subscribe! Catch me yap same time next week, bring snacks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices