Walk Like Beggars is about the humble path of now successful entrepreneurs, athletes, politicians, and others. We highlight their failures, struggles, and triumphs as they walk the lonely road towards success.
Walk Like Beggars | John Richards, Serial Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, Mentor
He made his splash by taking yellow pages online and had a massive 7 figure+ exit. Since then he has been a entrepreneur: Co-founder of several ventures leading to high-multiple exits.
As an investor: Active angel investor having directly invested in scores of new and mature ventures as well as hundreds more through investment funds.
Loves to mentor in which he give's much time to mentor startup entrepreneurs, having mentored thousands.
Also a professor at BYU in which he taught entrepreneurship (lean startup) at leading universities.
Finally at an executive level: C-level executive with substantial early-stage experience. High premium on Internet, software, and lean startup.
Walk Like Beggars | Platform Accounting Group, Founder and CEO - Reyes Florez
At Platform, they acquire independent accounting firms and then manage them with one-on-one care, while giving them a technology and operational touch-up.
He studied at Chicago Booth School of Business, associate at Goldman Sachs, Investment banking at Credit Suisse before jumping into entrepreneurship.
Walk Like Beggars | BetterBody Foods, Founder and CEO - Stephen Richards. BetterBody Foods provides natural foods to almost every major retail store in the US and more (think Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, you name it!), with well over 50 million in sales a year. Spearheaded by there flagship product PBfit a powdered peanut butter.
Stephen started out as a lawyer in LA before moving to Utah and into business. Another lawyer, guys, don’t be a lawyer. They all hate it. Its never too late to change paths and try to get something going.
Walk Like Beggars | Neighbor, Founders - Joseph Woodbury, Colton Gardner, and Preston Alder
These guys are the AirBnB of storage. They help thousands of people make anywhere from $500-$15,000/year by renting out unused space to neighbors who need storage.
From recent BYU grads to one of Utahs most prospective startups, with a fast growing company and eyes on the prize of a huge innovation to take over the home storage market. It was our first multi-person interview and it was a lot of fun to see these guys bounce off each other.
Walk Like Beggars | John R. Curtis proudly represents Utah’s 3rd Congressional District in the United States Congress.
Prior to being elected on November 13th, 2017, John was the 45th mayor of Provo City serving two terms. Known for his personal approach to city government, Mayor Curtis prioritizes his outreach to residents of Provo by utilizing various channels including his popular blog. He was named the #1 Top Elected Official on Social Media 2015 by the Government Social Media group and has been recognized by Forbes for his commitment to citizen engagement. Curtis was re-elected for a second four-year term as mayor in 2013 with 86.49% of the vote. As mayor, he averaged an approval rating of 93%.
During his terms in office, the city of Provo ranked #1 in the nation for Business and Careers by Forbes as well as #1 for Well-Being by Gallup.
John was recognized by Silicon Slopes this year as their first Community Hero Award recipient. Other personal awards comprise of Civic Innovator of the Year by Utah Valley University, Thayne Robson Award for Leadership in Economic Development, and Outstanding Citizen Award from the Office of Civic Engagement Leadership by Brigham Young University
Before becoming mayor, John built a world-renowned multi-million-dollar business Action Target where with he led sales and operations strategy as COO. Curtis and his wife Sue have six children, five grandchildren and a closet full of stately socks.
Walk Like Beggars | Humless Reliable Energy, Founder and Owner - Glenn Jakins
Glenn was born and raised in South Africa, Glenn lived a life full steam ahead. Currently managing well over 10 business averaging over 40 million in sales a year, he served in the South African navy, has swam with great white sharks, sailed around half the world, and all starting by selling avocados for 5 cents.
Truly a self made Amercian dream, and an immigrant. Started from nothing and grew his own empire. All you need is integrity, loyalty and hard work.
Walk Like Beggars | Executive Director, Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at Brigham Young University - Scott Peterson
Scott is the Executive Director of the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at BYU, a program which he ran as the Managing Director between 2010-2015. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Omadi, Inc., a venture backed SaaS mobile CRM platform for workforce management, serving the insurance, towing, and transportation markets. While at BYU the entrepreneurship program was ranked in the top 5 of all university Entrepreneurship Centers each of those years. Scott is a long time entrepreneur having co-founded or partnered in building 7 companies
Walk Like Beggars | Kenneth Boggs Custom, Founder and CEO - Kenneth Boggs. Kenneth is a former college athlete, Boggs’ started creating suits that can be found on Dwight Howard of the Washington Wizards, Ziggy Ansah of the Detroit Lions, Raul Neto of the Utah Jazz and James Harden of the Houston Rockets. His suits have also walked the runways of Paris, New York and Atlanta shows.
And Boggs — a man who does not own one pair of jeans — is very serious about his suits.
“I’m either in sweatpants working out, or I’m in a suit. There’s really no middle for me. I’m very comfortable in a suit,” he said with a chuckle.
Walk Like Beggars | Kodiak Cakes, Co-Founder and CEO - Joel Clark
Kodiak Cakes is a family business that was a 'Shark Tank' reject — now it's bringing in $100 million a year with the best-selling pancake mix at Target.
Kodiak Cakes are the national market leader for whole grain, high protein flapjack & waffle mixes sold in supermarkets nationwide. www.kodiakcakes.com
One of our favorite interviews from one of the most humble entrepreneurs out there.
Walk Like Beggars | Slingshot, Founder and CEO - J. Taylor Olson
ANOTHER former lawyer. HE knew before he even graduated that law wasn’t right from him. Slingshot is one of the fastest growing companies in Utah. Slingshot provides home service companies with a suite of tools and services that create instant lead contact, enhance close rates and turn existing customers into raving fans.
This was such a fun interview and we gained a lot of amazing insights from Taylor, enjoy!
Walk Like Beggars | Jenny Wecker is the CEO and Founder of the multimillion dollar female bag company Fawn Design which set the standard for diaper bags. Fawn Design - Helping women embrace every stage of Womanhood. More importantly, Jenny is a wife and mom of 2. Dive in as we learn her story from the early days of sewing herself as a little girl, to having celebrities around the world rock her bags. She is an incredibly powerful female and we were honored to have her on the show.