The Badass CEO

Emily Vaca Emily Vaca, Founder of MINNIDIP Luxury Pools Emily Vaca is the founder of MINNIDIP and La Vaca Design House, a non-toxic inflatable pool design that she self-funded and spent over two years working on before officially launching! Her company is family-run, ethically sourced, and operated in her hometown of Chicago. Tune in to learn more about how she started her design company, manufactured and launched the first designer inflatable pool, and her advice for creative female entrepreneurs who want to self-fund their business. Find Emily and MINNIDIP: Website Instagram Episode Contents Starting MINNIDIP and The Inspiration Behind It Sourcing and Manufacturing The Highest Quality Materials Emily’s Legal Advice as a Female Founder and Preventing Knockoffs Self Funding Her Ventures as a Female Founder Lessons Learned From Working with Family Have Thick Skin and Hear the Nos Starting MINNIDIP and The Inspiration Behind It Mimi: Emily, thank you so much for coming on today, I really...

Melissa Clayton, Founder and CEO of Tiny Tags Creating a meaningful business that celebrates mothers across the country is the exact mission Melissa Clayton set out to achieve when she left corporate America and started Tiny Tags. Tiny Tags is an online jewelry store that designs and creates fine, personalized jewelry. Clayton left her secure CPA job in order to pursue entrepreneurship and has now turned her dreams into a multimillion-dollar business. Tune in to learn about her jump from CPA to female founder, why strategic retail partnerships are crucial for sustained growth, and her advice for female entrepreneurs starting out! To Find Melissa and Tiny Tags: WEBSITE INSTAGRAM From CPA to Female Entrepreneur Mimi MacLean: Melissa, thank you so much for coming on today. I really appreciate it. I'm excited to learn about Tiny Tags and how you built your company and all the press that you've received from it. I love your product. Anybody who hasn't checked out Tiny Tags, yo...

Valentina Berger, Founder of GO Broadway Valentina Berger is a Broadway industry vet with experience in press work for shows like Spiderman Turn Off The Dark. She founded and ran GO Broadway, an accredited theater program that focuses on bringing shows and lessons to clients worldwide. Over the past decade, she's produced hundreds of theater workshops in-person and online for over 15,000 students connecting Broadway's best teachers and theater-makers to students worldwide. Her recent production of Rent in Argentina was the first Broadway show licensed internationally by MTI for live streaming. To Find Valentina and GO! Broadway: Website Instagram LinkedIn Valentina’s Career on Broadway and Starting Her Production Company Mimi MacLean: Hi, welcome back to The Badass CEO. This is your host, Mimi MacLean, and today we have on Valentina Berger, and she has worked in the Broadway industry for over a decade in various capacities after receiving a BFA from the New School. Valentina i...

Katrina Markoff Katrina Markoff, Founder and CEO of Vosges Katrina Markoff is the founder and CEO of Vosges, a chocolate brand with a mission to share quality, meaningful food with the world. She began her chocolatier internship in Spain under the direction of Ferran and Albert Adria of the famed El Bulli, where she began to understand that food was a medium for transformative visceral experiences. At the encouragement of Ferran, she set out on a quest directed by the signs to identify her path and reason for being in the world of good, meaningful food and embarked on a trip around the world. Find Katrina and Vosges Haut Chocolat: Instagram Website Episode Content Apprenticing and Learning About the Chocolatier World Approaching Distribution with a Fashion Model - Some Products DTC and Other Retail Following Your Intuition Through Growth and Fear Self Funding for 15 Years and The Power of Slow Growth Why Jumping Into A Second Product Category Isn’t So Easy Perfectionism Isn’t The Answe...