PODCAST · society
Founder Portraits
by Christianne
Ambition, pressure, taste, instinct. FP decodes how the best builders actually think and decide; the gut-feel behind the companies that work. Long-form founder conversations, hosted by Christianne, a former comms & media banker who traded the deal desk for the mic. Formerly GUT with Christianne (CC).
Episodes
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Cam Stajer: The $20 Logo That Became an Olympic Sponsor
He cold emailed the Olympic committee with no connections and no reply for weeks. Three months later, his company had exclusive rights as Team Canada's official wellness recovery partner through 2028.Cam Stajer started Kala with 5,000 dollars, a 20 dollar Fiverr logo, and a product he found…
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Ilias Anwar: His Company Died in One Night
Ilias Anwar is the founder New York's startup world can't stop talking about; the one who throws 16 events in a week, treats every room like a king, and once faked a $28 million sale on April Fool's just to get investors to call him back. What almost nobody knew: months before the crowds, he was...
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Brian Schardt: He Killed 250K Users to Bet on Nancy Pelosi
He was 24, eating at Michelin-star restaurants in New York. He'd never been more miserable. Brian Schardt was Director of Engineering at Warner Music Group; parties, money, everything he thought he wanted. Then he flew to Argentina for a wedding and watched people with nothing laugh harder than...
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Why a 'Safe' Job Is the Most Dangerous Bet | Ex-Big Law Founder, Sabih Siddiqi
Sabih Siddiqi had the golden handcuffs: big law, the prestige, the paycheck, and walked away to build Irys (formerly Iqidis), a legal-AI company he calls "Palantir meets Bloomberg." A cancer diagnosis at 18 blew up the pre-med identity he'd built his whole life around. He rebuilt it as a…
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He Quit a Top Ad Agency to Bet on a Category That Didn't Exist | Rei Lalo, TRIHARD
If you've been telling yourself you'll start the thing "when you're ready," this episode is for you. Rei Lalo had a stable job at McCann — one of the biggest ad agencies in the world. He'd been promoted twice in three years. He had a clear ten-year trajectory, a real salary, and the kind of…
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Hedge Fund to Founder: Building Lasso in 11 Months, Clarke Pennington
Clarke Pennington spent a decade in finance: investment banking, Columbia MBA, a consumer hedge fund. Then he left to build Lasso, a better-for-you gelatin cup with protein and fiber that no one had been able to manufacture before. He gave himself 12 months. He did it in 11 — with six failed...
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Anonymous Big Law Associate: Her High Pain Tolerance Almost Killed Her
She walked into her boss's office crying and came out smiling. For years, Sabrina was the Law Associate everyone thought was fine. Her firm literally put "high pain tolerance" in her performance review. She took it as a compliment. Her body was telling a different story. This is GUT's first...
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Vanessa Mitchell: The Performer Who Couldn't Quit
Vanessa Mitchell has been a professional performer since she was a teenager: musical theater, national tours, cruise ships, aerial acts. From the outside, she was living the dream. On the inside, her perfectionism and anxiety were running the show. When her body started breaking down on a luxury...
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Geri: Iced Out at Work, Viral on Tiktok
Geri spent six years in the legal field doing everything right, taking on extra work, building new skills, waiting for the moment she'd earned enough to ask. When she finally walked into that room and advocated for a promotion, it didn't go the way she expected. Instead of moving up, she got iced...
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Madie Wilson-Walker: One Spot Away From the Paralympics
Madie Wilson-Walker became a double-leg amputee from meningitis at age three. By 18, she'd made the Canadian Paralympic track and field team, the youngest in her category, competing against athletes a decade older. Then she missed Rio by one spot on the list and found out through Instagram. This...
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VP at BlackRock to Quitting With No Plan | Kirsten Breidenbruch, Wellth by Kirsten
Kirsten Breidenbruch spent a decade at BlackRock. She made VP. She was making great money. From the outside, she had everything figured out. From the inside, she was waking up two hours early every day just to calm herself down enough to walk to work. Her feet felt like cinder blocks. Her body…
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George Foreman: Reinvention, Identity, and Letting the Old You Die
George Foreman built an identity the way founders build companies. Brutal focus, no room for weakness. The problem was that the man underneath was deeply sensitive, and the persona he engineered to survive his childhood eventually became the cage. It cost him a championship. It cost him…
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Abby Walker: Eating Disorder Recovery and Finding Yourself
Abby Walker was a driven kid. Competitive soccer, prestigious business school, investment banking. Work hard, get the approval, be good at something, and then you're good enough. Then the eating disorder took the wheel. She calls the voice of the Eating Disorder “Ed”. At its worst, Ed consumed…
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Marcus Aurelius: How to Lead Through Collapse
Content warning: this episode contains mentions of death and mature themes. In the winter of 169 AD, the most powerful man on earth was sitting in a freezing tent on the frontier, covered in mud, surrounded by dead soldiers. A plague was killing 2,000 people a day in Rome. The economy had...
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Arsh Toor: Her Dad Would Have Killed for the Job She Quit
Arsh Toor's dad moved from India to Canada as an engineer and ended up taking whatever work he could find to support a family on a single income. The message was clear: work hard, get good grades, get a steady job. Arsh did exactly that. She got into an impressive school, landed in investment...
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Beethoven: The Man Who Couldn't Hear His Own Masterpiece
Content warning: this episode discusses suicide, childhood abuse, and mental health. Vienna, May 7th, 1824. A 53 year old man in an ill-fitting green coat is on the podium in front of an orchestra twice the normal size, punching at the air, crouching low, leaping up. The musicians aren't watching...
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Maya Angelou: How to Find Your Voice
Content warning: this episode includes descriptions of childhood sexual abuse, trauma and violence, racism, abandonment, and mental health struggles. In 1993, a 64 year old woman stepped up to a podium and read a poem to 20 million people at Bill Clinton's inauguration. Almost none of them knew…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Ambition, pressure, taste, instinct. FP decodes how the best builders actually think and decide; the gut-feel behind the companies that work. Long-form founder conversations, hosted by Christianne, a former comms & media banker who traded the deal desk for the mic. Formerly GUT with Christianne (CC).
HOSTED BY
Christianne
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Founder Portraits have?
Founder Portraits currently has 17 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Founder Portraits about?
Ambition, pressure, taste, instinct. FP decodes how the best builders actually think and decide; the gut-feel behind the companies that work. Long-form founder conversations, hosted by Christianne, a former comms & media banker who traded the deal desk for the mic. Formerly GUT with Christianne...
How often does Founder Portraits release new episodes?
Founder Portraits has 17 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Founder Portraits?
You can listen to Founder Portraits on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Founder Portraits?
Founder Portraits is created and hosted by Christianne.
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