Founders' Forum
Great business stories and great people come together on Marc Bernstein’s Founders’ Forum! Marc Bernstein sits down with business founders across the country to discuss their lives, successes, lessons, and their vision for the future. It’s all about the success they’ve earned and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. These are American success stories and they’re not done yet! Your Host, Marc Bernstein Marc Bernstein is an entrepreneur, author, and consultant. He helps high performing entrepreneurs and business owners create a vision for the future, accomplish their business and personal goals, financial and otherwise, and on helping them to see through on their intentions. Marc recently co-founded March, a forward-looking company with a unique approach to wealth management. He captured his philosophy in his #1 Amazon Bestseller, The Fiscal Therapy Solution 1.0. Marc is also the founder of the Forward Focus Forum, a suite of resources tailored specifically to educate and connect high performing entrepreneurs, and helping them realize their vision of true financial independence. Find out more about Marc and connect with him at marcjbernstein.com. Are you a visionary founder with a compelling success story that deserves to be shared with our audience? We're on the lookout for accomplished business leaders like you to be featured on the Founders' Forum Radio Show and Podcast. If you've surmounted challenges, reached significant milestones, or have an exciting vision for the future, we'd be honored to have you as a guest on our show. Your experiences and insights can inspire and enlighten others in the business world. If you're eager to share your journey and the invaluable lessons you've learned along the way, we invite you to apply here. Connect with us, and let's discuss the possibility of featuring you in an upcoming episode. Join us in celebrating your success and contributing to the legacy of the Founders' Forum! Securities offered through DFPG Investments, LLC (“DFPG”) Investment Advisory Services offered through Diversify Advisory Services, LLC (“Diversify”). DAS and DFPG are affiliated entities. March is unaffiliated with DAS and DFPG. Member FINRA/SIPC The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as investment advice. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Diversify or DFPG.
Episodes
What do you do with a lifetime of treasured things when your kids don’t want them? Hilary Jay has built a career helping people answer that question with heart.
Marc Bernstein sits down with Hilary Jay, founder of Department of Better LLC, award-winning journalist, designer, and author. She built a multimillion-dollar jewelry company by age 26, wrote for top design magazines, and now helps older adults downsize, rehome, and ho...
What if your greatest success isn’t what you build, but who you help along the way?
Jay Gohel (CEO) and Preeti Gohel (CFO) of Aesthetic Dental Associates return to Founders’ Forum to share the story behind Thrive 360, their new venture to mentor dentists and entrepreneurs. They talk about how COVID gave them a deeper purpose, why they involve their kids in the mission, and how they want to leave a lasting legacy.
Key Take...
What does it take to turn a 400-square-foot backyard wood shop into a 125-employee, nationally recognized cabinetry powerhouse, and then walk away from it? Joe Trave has an answer, and it's not what you'd expect.
In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Joe Trave, founder and CEO of Village Handcrafted Cabinetry in Lansdale, PA. Joe shares how he built his business from the ground up after losing his father ...
Ever wondered why a magic trick can hold your attention more than your own to-do list? Business strategist and keynote speaker Tyler Jensen joins Founders' Forum to explain what magic, focus, and top performance have in common, and why distraction might be costing you more than you think.
In this episode, Marc Bernstein and co-host Steve Berardi sit down with Tyler, KSL's 2025 Business Coach of the Year, to unpack his journey from c...
A signed term sheet, a fax machine mix-up, and a lost job. That was the day Gary Pudles' entrepreneurial journey really began.
Gary Pudles, president and CEO of AnswerNet, joins Marc Bernstein on Founders' Forum to share how he went from a young lawyer to the founder of a company with 1,200+ employees across 42 states and five Canadian provinces. He talks about buying a small Allentown answering service, growing through acquisitions...
Phillip Gonzales didn't set out to become a growth strategist. He started out running a mall cart selling personalized kids' music CDs. That first job taught him a lesson that would shape his entire career: the power of systems.
In this episode of Founders Forum, Marc Bernstein and co-host Susan Egan sit down with Phillip Gonzales, founder and CEO of Adriel Partners Growth Agency, to talk about his path from Texas transplant to Babc...
What happens when a love of golf turns into a niche nobody else was serving? For Larry Hirsh, it built a business that's touched over 3,500 golf properties across the globe.
In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Larry Hirsh, CRE, MAI, SGA, president of Golf Property Analysts and founder of the Society of Golf Appraisers. Larry shares how a childhood spent on golf courses with his father turned into a deca...
Dr. Kryn McClain never planned to become an entrepreneur. She was working in mental health when she returned from maternity leave to find her position had been eliminated. That setback pushed her to launch Paragon Behavioral Health Services, a company she built around one core belief: take care of your employees, and they'll take care of your clients.
In this episode, Marc Bernstein sits down with Dr. McClain, a trauma therapist tur...
From potato fields in Wisconsin to nature art that shapes Florida's development plans, Shelly Castle's story proves that vision and grit can turn any beginning into a legacy.
On this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc sits down with nature artist Shelly Castle, MFA, alongside co-host Dr. Jennifer Languell of Trifecta Construction Solutions. A fourth-generation entrepreneur who grew up helping her family build a golf course from a pota...
A phone call from a Netflix producer. A childhood spent training in the Israeli desert. A year living in an industrial Chinese village to master martial arts. These are just pieces of the unconventional path that led Yoav Oren to build Zoog, a platform reconnecting grandparents and grandchildren separated by distance.
On this episode, Marc Bernstein and co-host Pete Meyer talk with Yoav, co-founder and CEO of Zoog AI, about the wind...
What happens when a former HR professional with zero art background decides to turn a vacant downtown bank space into a 15,000 square foot art gallery? Victoria Abadir did just that, and two years later, Lancaster Art Vault is profitable, thriving, and home to 24 resident artists.
In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Victoria Abadir, founder of Lancaster Art Vault in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Victoria sha...
Paul Spiegel switched majors, took a job he knew nothing about, and turned it into Practical Energy Solutions, a company that worked with over 80 municipalities and eventually caught the eye of an acquirer. On this episode of Founders Forum, Paul joins Marc Bernstein and co-host Justin Tennant to unpack how a chance connection with Walmart pulled him into the energy business, why he had to convince clients to even care about energy...
After 25 years building and scaling technology companies, serial entrepreneur Matt Bramson made an unexpected pivot: walking away from data-driven growth to build a platform that gets people to put their phones down. His new venture, Interact, uses QR code scans to spark real, face-to-face conversations at live events, no data collection, no monetization, just human connection.
In this episode of Founders Forum, Matt joins Marc Bern...
Michele Sullivan was born four feet tall in a world that didn't expect much from her, and she went on to lead one of the most respected corporate foundations on the planet.
In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Michele Sullivan, former President of the Caterpillar Foundation and Director of Social Innovation, at Babcock Ranch. Michele shares how she rose through a male-dominated company over a 30-year car...
What does it take to turn a college side hustle into a 90-person company with 38 years of staying power? Peter Barber, co-founder and CEO of Two Dudes Painting Company, joins Marc Bernstein to share exactly that.
Peter started painting houses as a Franklin & Marshall College student looking to cover tuition. What began as a way to pay for school turned into a full-time commitment when he and co-founder Brian McCaskey decided to ...
From running a presidential campaign at 28 to building a Philadelphia PR powerhouse, Susan Jacobson has never stopped betting on herself.
In this episode of Founders Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with Susan Jacobson, CEO of Jacobson Strategic Communications and Praxtera AI Institute, to trace her path from political operative to PR entrepreneur to AI fluency pioneer. Susan opens up about getting pushed out of a corporate role afte...
From an eight-year-old sweeping up scraps in his father's makeshift dental lab to co-leading a five-location practice with his wife and business partner, Jay Gohel's path into dentistry was anything but planned.
In this episode, Marc sits down with Dr. Jay Gohel and Preeti Gohel of Aesthetic Dental Associates, husband-and-wife founders who built one of the largest privately owned dental groups in the Delaware Valley from a single pr...
From a potluck dinner for Italophiles to a 20,000-person street festival, Tim Austin has turned small-town Lancaster County into a launchpad for big ideas.
In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with architect and entrepreneur Tim Austin, founder of Colab XYZ and co-founder of Litalia Fest and the new Lancaster Capital Day. Tim shares his path from studying architecture at Cornell and earning a design degree in...
Helen Denise left the Soviet Union with nothing but a suitcase and a knack for sales, and built a company that changed how women understand their own bodies. On this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with the CEO and Founder of Hilin Life Products, Inc. and inventor of KNOWHEN, to talk about ambivalence, risk, and the traumatic health event that launched a movement.
After surviving an ectopic pregnancy in 1999, He...
Most surgeons chase technical mastery. Dr. Patrick Roth built a career on something rarer: listening.
In this episode of Founders' Forum, Marc Bernstein sits down with neurosurgeon Dr. Patrick Roth, co-founder of New Jersey Brain and Spine, to talk about building a specialized medical practice rooted in empathy rather than ego. Pat shares how he went from general neurosurgery to a narrow focus on spine, why he wrote a book that "can...
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