One the Come Up

David Marella -- One the Come Up

Today I was excited to be joined by David Marella, Senior M&A Associate at BakerHostetler. Always one for superlatives, I would like to recognize Marella as the first Ocean County native on the podcast. Something of a hometown hero, Marella began his education at Toms River East High School. As an undergraduate student, Marella experienced a change of pace at Rutgers University where obtained his bachelor’s in Economics and Political Science; he obtained his JD at Seton Hall Law School in 2015 where he graduated Cum Laude. David Marella began his legal career as a Corporate Associate at Gibbons P.C. in Newark, where he worked from 2016 to 2017 and then returned after a six-month stint in government service. In 2017, Marella served as an Advisor to the Executive Director of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis within the Executive Office of the President. He then resumed his corporate law practice at Gibbons before clerking for Paul B. Matey at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2019. After completing his clerkship, Marella returned to Gibbons as a Corporate Associate and remained there until 2021. He subsequently joined Squire Patton Boggs as a Corporate Associate in New York, where he worked for nearly three years before moving to BakerHostetler in 2024. He currently serves as a Corporate M&A Associate at BakerHostetler in New York, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions.

Andrew Watson from Igloo Media -- One the Come Up Podcast

Today I was excited to be joined by Andrew Watson, co-founder of Igloo Media. Professional-athelete-turned-serial-entrepreneur, Watson’s career began on the junior tennis circuit, where he competed internationally and nationally (in the UK). His efforts earned him a scholarship to the University of Memphis, a place that served as a  stepping stone for his later professional career. After graduating in 2018, Watson joined the professional circuit, playing ITF, Futures, and Challenges, ultimately obtaining a world career high of 535. When tour life offered reprieve from its demanding schedule, Watson took up an even more arduous pastime–founding a company. In 2019, Watson and a couple co-founders–tennis players really are gentlemen (at least off the court)-- started Electric Boarding Company (an e-vehicle reseller) as a way to beef up the bank account. After scaling the company for 2 years, the team sold the company to Agora Brands as a way to join a broader ecosystem of founders. I think I’ll officially diagnose Watson with a bite from the startup bug, and here’s my evidence: in 2022, Watson started Igloo Media, a performance marketing agency that helps founders make sense of e-commerce (two startups in any time span meets the threshold for a serial entrepreneur). With some travel advice at the end, and a digression into college and career, this episode is fun and informative.

Tristan Pollock Gener8tor

Tristan Pollock is the Managing Director of the Electrify Nevada Accelerator at gener8tor, a national accelerator program backing early-stage energy, battery, critical minerals, and AI infrastructure companies in Nevada. He's also Founding Partner of Cool Climate Collective and co-founded two companies, SocialEarth and Storefront. Over 15 years in startups and venture, he's been a founder, investor, and ecosystem builder. Nevada is his current focus, and he'd argue it's the most interesting energy economy in the country right now. The only U.S. state active across all seven stages of the lithium loop. Home to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, Redwood Materials, and a growing bet from OpenAI. Most people haven't caught up yet.

Megha Parekh, Executive Vice-President and CLO of the Jacksonville Jaguars

Life after One-L: This is the unofficial (and unaffiliated) podcast auditory extension of your favorite legal-drama series, Suits. Joining me today is Megha Parekh, Chief Legal Officer of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The first NJ native on the podcast, this Manalapan(ian?) started her career at Harvard, obtaining her undergraduate in three years before graduating magna cum laude from HLS in 2008. While a law student, Parekh interned at the Boston Red Sox, an experience that served as her entry point into sports law. Interviewing in 2007 and 2008, Parekh began at Proskauer Rose—having declined other firms’ offers—where her early work in sports law expanded into M&A and international deals amid the financial crisis. In 2013, after working on Shahid Khan’s acquisition of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Parekh would join the team herself as part of the in-house counsel team. Today, Parekh serves as the CLO and executive vice-president of the 2026 AFC South champions.

Calvin Bohn from Thrive. Former co-founder of Smalls!

For this episode of One the Come Up, I was joined by Calvin Bohn, former co-founder of Smalls and Head of Partner Success at Thrive. Starting his career at Yale, Bohn was a reporter and broadcaster for the Bulldogs while pursuing his degree in humanities. Unsure of what to do after college, Bohn’s first job was at the front desk of a four-star hotel in New York as part of a rotational managerial track. After two years of working at the hotel, where he scaled intake from $0 to $150,000 in ARR in his department, Bohn was bitten by the startup bug. He and his co-founder realized a gap in the catfood market: while there were three dog food brands at the time that made healthy dog foods, there were no companies making healthy cat food. And so was born Smalls, a company that makes human-grade, gently cooked cat food. Bohn and his co-founder scaled the company and completed nine-million dollars in fundraising in 2020. After transitioning away from the company in 2021, Bohn works today at Thrive, a lending platform for merchants.