How They're Here

This week you'll hear a conversation I had with former Bite Squad COO, Kyle Hale. Bite Squad is a restaurant delivery service that was founded here in Minneapolis, and is prominent for providing excellent service whether delivery or take-out. They are partnered with local restaurants, maintain a robust customer service, and utilize a fleet of environmentally friendly vehicles to get fresh food from the restaurant straight to the customer, quickly and hassle free! They are widely regarded as one of the city’s most successful tech start-ups. Kyle Hale is an entrepreneur and technology executive who built the foundation of his career in sales and operations with both B2B and B2C high growth technology companies. His roles span the fitness industry, multi-unit operations in QSR, e-commerce, selling software to the enterprise and most recently as partner and COO of Bite Squad, the restaurant delivery service which was acquired for $321M in January of 2019. As COO Kyle led customer support, dispatch, field operations, and cross matrix managed sales, marketing, and product with the CEOs. A unique generalist with expansive domain knowledge in sales, marketing automation, product/software development, full-cycle recruiting, leadership, and strategy execution. More creative than an executive, he has a non-egotistical approach with a focus on developing the psychology and performance of his team through 1-1 mentoring. After building two companies to acquisition in the last 7 years, he is now consulting with startups in the midwest, serves as a dad to his son, Sky, and is working to start a children’s clothing line. Get a FREE $5 -> https://cash.app/app/CSDFRPD Check out my gear -> https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup [https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup] Earn a free stock -> https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU [https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU]

This week I have one of the more unique conversations I’ve had in a while with Minnesota’s resident “dot connector and glue piece,” Nick McLaughlin aka the Stationary Astronaut. On the surface, Stationary Astronaut is a philanthropic media and event company, but deeper than that it’s the culmination of all Nick’s entire life… the good, the bad and the ugly. In this episode we dig into all of it, we talk about what makes up the fabric of an entrepreneur and what someone in my position can be doing to cut their teeth and shape themselves for the next 10 years. Enjoy! Get a FREE $5 -> https://cash.app/app/CSDFRPD Check out my gear -> https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup [https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup] Earn a free stock -> https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU [https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU]

**NOTE** Upon going back to edit this episode, the first 33ish minutes of this podcast’s audio file vanished. Poof, gone, nada, nothing. So you’ll have to bear with some below average camera audio until about minute 33 when the microphones kick back in. Sorry for my seeming incompetencies. I won’t be sorry, I’ll be better. This week I sat down with Jackson LeFebvre, the co-founder and CEO of ParkPoolr. ParkPoolr is a web-based app that crowd-sources parking spots for large events, such as sports, concerts or even the Minnesota State Fair. While this is his first official business venture, Jackson has always been a man of ideas and an admirer of entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. But it took a trip to Hong Kong (where he met his co-founder Landon Butterworth), for Jackson to realize that the trajectory he was on at the University of Minnesota of studying finance and entrepreneurship was much like that of most of his other classmates. Aspiring for more, Jackson took his semester abroad as a leap of faith, which catalyzed the start of ParkPoolr and the rest of his professional career. Since, Jackson and ParkPoolr have won the MN Cup (an entrepreneurship competition in which the winner pockets $40,000), been featured on numerous media outlets, and on boarded thousands of potential parkers thanks to the Minnesota United season and Minnesota State Fair. Get a FREE $5 -> https://cash.app/app/CSDFRPD Check out my gear -> https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup [https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup] Earn a free stock -> https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU [https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU]

This week you'll hear the second part of a two part series chronicling the start of Minnesota-based tech start-up, Float. COO and Co-Founder of Float, Ross Larson, describe the web-based service as the "Airbnb of boats," which simply allows boat owners to rent out their boats when they're not using them. Ross’s story is one that looks a lot like anyone else's. He went to school at Iowa State, studied engineering and had a good paying sales job in Chicago after graduation. However, for Ross, there was still something that felt unfinished. The conversations he and his life-long friend Jake McHenry had about starting a business never fully came to fruition. That all changed when Jake called Ross with a recent relocation he had in an MBA class: Airbnb for boats. Ross loved the idea but was skeptical about leaving his young career in Chicago. That was until he had a life-altering tipping point. His mom died unexpectedly, which caused Ross to face the music. He realized he wanted to be doing something more with his life, so he quit, packed his bags and moved into Jake’s mom’s basement in Minnesota. Hear the whole story, and the mindset that got him here in this week's episode! Get a FREE $5 -> https://cash.app/app/CSDFRPD [https://cash.app/app/CSDFRPD] Check out my gear -> https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup [https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup] Earn a free stock -> https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU [https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU]

This week you'll hear the first part of a two part series chronicling the start of Minnesota-based tech start-up, Float. CEO and Co-Founder of Float, Jake McHenry, describe the web-based service as the "Airbnb of boats," which simply allows boat owners to rent out their boats when they're not using them. Jake's story is one grounded in entrepreneurship, work and constant progress and it started younger than most as he began working for his parent's ballroom dance studio around the age of 5. From there, his entrepreneurial ambitions grew, although briefly side-tracked during his time in school and working at Target. But even as he was pursuing a more "traditional" career, the wheels never stoped turning and him and his co-founder / life-long friend, Ross Larson (next week's episode), and an epiphany struck while in an MBA class here at Carlson for peer-to-peer rentals for boats. Hear the whole story, and the mindset that got him here in this week's episode! Get a FREE $5 -> https://cash.app/app/CSDFRPD [https://cash.app/app/CSDFRPD] Check out my gear -> https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup [https://kit.com/howtheyrehere/podcast-setup] Earn a free stock -> https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU [https://act.webull.com/promotion/invitation/share.html?inviteCode=VRufndUhOqUU]