Founder's Story

Dr. Arjen de Jong, an aerospace engineer and founder of AirTulip, joins Founder’s Story to share how clean-room tech, fluid mechanics, and a little smoke visualization led to a Shark Tank pitch—and a consumer sleep product unlike anything else on the market.

From clean air in dentist offices to hydrogen water-style traction for your bedroom, Arjen walks us through how laminar airflow can drastically improve health, reduce allergies, and even reinvent how we think about air.

Key Discussion Points

Clean Room to Clean Sleep: How a cigarette in a laminar flow booth sparked the product idea

Pivoting Post-COVID: Why dentistry was the real product-market fit before sleep

Shark Tank Secrets: The casting line, the 30-minute pitch, and walking away from an offer

Visualizing Air: How lasers and wind tunnels helped explain an invisible product

Consumer Trust vs. Engineering Genius: Why educating the market is the hardest part

Scaling a Physical Product: The difference between B2B machinery and consumer DTC

Long-Term Vision: From side hustle to orbiting planet—Arjen’s exponential success roadmap

Key Takeaways

• Think Laterally: The best innovations come from cross-industry application of existing tech
• Educate First, Sell Second: Customers need to believe the invisible before buying
• Personal Experience Sells: Real stories of health improvement drive conversion
• Community = Credibility: DTC success hinges on trust, repetition, and consistency
• Don’t Just Launch—Prepare for the Surge: Shark Tank is a spotlight, not the finish line

Closing Thoughts

AirTulip isn’t just another sleep gadget—it’s a physics-first approach to rethinking how we breathe. Dr. Arjen de Jong’s journey proves that the smartest solutions aren’t always the loudest. Tune in to learn how engineering curiosity, strategic pivots, and real-world validation turned laminar airflow into a movement.

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Yash (the "Water Genie") and Smile (an Ironman athlete) co-founded Dr. Water to solve what they call the world’s most overlooked health crisis: dehydration. With backgrounds in sustainability and performance science, the duo reveals how hydrogen water can transform energy, recovery, and aging—while also cutting plastic waste. They share the journey from building DTC wellness brands to going viral on TikTok and pitching billionaires via cold emails.

Key Discussion Points

The Spark of a Problem: Why 75% of Americans are dehydrated—and what that does to your body.

From Ironman to Founder: How Smile’s training journey revealed major hydration myths.

Hydrogen 101: The science behind hydrogen water, molecular research, and anti-aging benefits.

Design Meets Wellness: Creating the first modern hydrogen tumbler with UV filtration.

Go-to-Market Playbook: Why social selling (TikTok, Meta) beat Amazon for this brand—and how they got their first billionaire buyer.

Founders Who Fit: Why this co-founder duo works—9 years of history, clarity of roles, and shared obsession.

Educating a Market: Using MMA athletes, NFL doctors, and real stories to take hydrogen water mainstream.

Key Takeaways

• Water is Wellness: You can’t absorb supplements, recover well, or think clearly without proper hydration.
• Science Backed, Lifestyle Led: Products need to heal and be something people love showing off.
• Social is the New Shelf: Founder-led brands that educate and entertain will win on TikTok and YouTube.
• Complementary Founders Scale Faster: Visionary + executor beats any solo genius.
• Hydration is the First Habit: If you fix water, you unlock the foundation for every other wellness behavior.

Closing Thoughts

From battling microplastics to unlocking cellular energy, Dr. Water isn’t just a hydration brand—it’s a movement. Tune in to learn how two first-time founders went from global agriculture and Ironman races to building a multi-country wellness company that just might reshape the water industry from the inside out.

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Sanjay Chadha, co-founder of SAV Associates, brings over 25 years of global experience in corporate finance, cybersecurity, and risk management. From navigating boardrooms in Vietnam and Madagascar to safeguarding data in North America, Sanjay has advised more than 1,000 clients on building resilient, profitable companies. In this episode, he reveals the costly mistakes most founders make—plus how to prevent a deepfake disaster from taking down your business.

Key Discussion Points

Why He Left Corporate Life: The spark that pushed Sanjay to leave Big Four consulting and build a global advisory firm.

Global Lessons from 7 Countries: What living and working across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East taught him about scaling internationally.

How to Think Like a CFO: The most overlooked financial mistakes—and why founders must read the story behind their numbers.

Cybersecurity & Deepfakes: Why AI is a blessing and a bombshell—and how one email nearly tricked his entire firm.

Risk is the New Currency: Why protecting data matters more than profits in today’s tech-driven landscape.

Cash Burn ≠ Growth: The trap of fast-spending founders and the secret to building companies that last.

Key Takeaways

• Startups don’t fail from bad ideas—they fail from poor financial fluency.
• If you can’t read your numbers, you can’t write your success story.
• Cyber risk isn’t optional anymore—one deepfake could cost your company everything.
• Global mindset, local agility: Scaling safely starts with structure, not size.
• Every number tells a story—and your CFO should know how to read it.

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Kit Gray, President and Co-Founder of PodcastOne (NASDAQ: PODC), reveals how he parlayed childhood radio fandom into a thriving public podcast network. From early iPod hacks with Adam Carolla to structuring live reads, community-first ad packages, and an IPO, Kit shares the timing, tactics, and tenacity behind PodcastOne’s $51M revenue and its 200-show roster.

Key Discussion Points

Radio Roots & Howard Stern: How listening to sports talk and Stern’s brand-building ignited Kit’s love for audio.

Selling the Download: Early deals with Adam Carolla (ProFlowers, LegalZoom) that proved CPMs & CPA tracking worked.

Building a Network: Moving from one-off ad reads to 360° packages—audio, video, social—for A&E, Lady Gang, Jordan Harbinger, and more.

Timing the Tides: Why the iPhone, COVID lockdowns, and YouTube’s podcast push turbocharged growth.

Going Public: Lessons (and flip-flops) on spinning out, partnering with bankers, and using equity to align talent.

Community over Impressions: Why buying engaged audiences beats mass buy, and how brands scale with niche pods.

Key Takeaways

• Be first, but stay fast: Early movers in on-demand audio captured both talent and advertisers.
• Proof precedes scale: Start with one host, one campaign; use hard ROI data to win bigger deals.
• Sell the community, not just ad slots: True influence lies in loyalty, not lowest CPM.
• Equity aligns interests: Offering stock to creators fosters retention and shared upside.
• Adapt or fade away: From iPods to social streams to IPO filings, continual reinvention is non-negotiable.

Closing Thoughts

 Dive into how Kit Gray built a soup-to-nuts podcast empire—signing singers turned podcasters, structuring ad-stacked communities, and trading on NASDAQ—and walk away with a playbook for finding, owning, and monetizing the next great audio audience.

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Alessandro Figliano, Founder & CEO of Jet 365, shares how he turned a love for flying into a luxury aviation brand trusted by F1 and high-net-worth clients. From flying school to building a white-glove charter service, Alessandro breaks down how Jet 365 blends safety, personalization, and tech into an experience the new generation of elite travelers demands, while maintaining the service standards legacy brands lost.

Key Discussion Points

Pilot to Founder: How Alessandro funded a flying school through his first business, then transitioned from hobbyist to charter operator.

Seeing the Gap: Why a fragmented broker space inspired Jet 365’s concierge model—tailored for both tech-savvy users and traditional luxury clients.

F1-Level Partnerships: How a personal network led to Jet 365 becoming the aviation provider for a Formula One team.

Luxury that Listens: The power of referrals, retention, and saying yes—even when a plane breaks down hours before takeoff.

High-Touch Meets High-Tech: How Jet 365 is building a new platform to serve both automated and white-glove clientele.

Custom Over Scale: Why Alessandro rejects fast growth in favor of sustainable, service-first expansion.

Key Takeaways

• Solve before you scale: High-end clients don’t care about volume—they care about flawless delivery.
• White-glove wins: Luxury is less about cost and more about care. Every detail matters.
• Two types of clients, one standard: Whether booking online or via a concierge, the experience must exceed expectations.
• Build in public (quietly): Real partnerships and growth happen behind the scenes, not on Instagram.
• Sustainability > speed: Growth that protects service levels will outlast shortcuts every time.

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