After racking up thousands of dollars in fines, Chicago roommates Mark Lawrence and Jeremy Smith figured there had to be an easier way to park. So in 2011, they launched SpotHero as a peer-to-peer service, where people who lived near Wrigley Field might rent out their driveway on a game night. But that strategy wasn’t scalable, so SpotHero soon partnered with garages to sell excess inventory. Over the years, the startup faced intense pressure from investors to expand quickly and copy whatever the competition was doing. But Mark insisted on slow, strategic growth, and today, SpotHero is one of the largest digital parking platforms in North America, servicing about 300 cities.

This episode was researched and produced by Katherine Sypher with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant. Our engineers were Kwesi Lee and Patrick Murray.

You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com. Sign up for Guy’s free newsletter at guyraz.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Zumba co-founder and CEO Alberto Perlman joins Guy on the Advice Line, where they answer questions from three early-stage founders. Plus, Alberto’s take on the value of partnerships for growing brands — and why entrepreneurs should say ‘yes’ more often.

First we meet Stefanie in Michigan, who’s looking for the smartest route to raise capital for her non-slip workout shoes. Then Jack in New Hampshire, who wants to broaden the appeal of his protein powders for sensitive stomachs. And Peter in Colorado, who needs help evaluating which opportunities to chase for his plant-based ski wax.

Thank you to the founders of Barreletics, Drink Wholesome, and mountainFLOW for being a part of our show.

If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode, leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298.

And be sure to listen to Zumba’s founding story as told by Alberto and his co-founder Beto on the show in 2017.

This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.

You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram and sign up for Guy’s free newsletter at guyraz.com or on Substack.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

During its formative years in the late 1990's, Paypal attracted an extraordinary group of young entrepreneurs, who then went on to build some of the best known companies in tech. They became known as The PayPal Mafia—and Max Levchin was one of the leaders. A computer genius from Soviet Ukraine, Max joined Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and others as they grew PayPal into a massively successful online payment service. Along the way, they encountered almost every start-up challenge imaginable, including the emotional ouster of Elon Musk as CEO. After PayPal was acquired by eBay in 2002, Max couldn't sit still, so he launched a startup lab that eventually led to another successful fintech company: Affirm.

This episode was produced by Alex Cheng with music by Ramtin Arablouei. Edited by Neva Grant, with research from Claire Murashima.

You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com. Sign up for Guy’s free newsletter at guyraz.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.