The Under 30 Podcast cover art

The Under 30 Podcast

The Under 30 Podcast

Written by: Forbes
Listen for free

How did they make their first million? Whether it’s revenue, followers, streams or something else entirely, the Under 30 Podcast is the must-watch show for anyone young and ambitious building from the ground up. We go beyond the headlines and into the details, unpacking what it really took to go from zero to 50, then 100, and beyond. Hear from some of the most successful founders, actors and musicians featured on the iconic Forbes Under 30 list, as well as the industry veterans, investors and mentors who helped shape their journeys. Real stories, hard-earned lessons and practical insights from the people who have done it. Plus, we make it fun.About The Hosts: Alex York and Zoya Hasan are editors of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, covering the emerging businesses, brands and founders shaping our economy today. From AI unicorns and drone manufacturers to media empires and cult-followed consumer brands, they put a new spin on business news. Both joined Forbes in 2023, and are New York University alumni.© Forbes Economics Social Sciences
Episodes
  • This Entrepreneur Raised $400 Million To "Poison" Your Data (And Protect Your Privacy)

    This Entrepreneur Raised $400 Million To "Poison" Your Data (And Protect Your Privacy)
    Jul 6 2026
    Is your phone number revealing your deepest secrets? Today on the Forbes Under 30 podcast, hosts Alex York and Zoya Hasan sit down with Arjun Bhatnagar, co-founder and CEO of Cloaked. After building a crude AI that accidentally automated his relationship, Arjun realized just how vulnerable our personal data truly is. Now, with $400 million in funding, Cloaked is helping consumers fight back against data brokers and hackers using a radical technique: data poisoning. Arjun breaks down why you should never give out your real phone number at checkout, how Cloaked secured a massive privacy partnership with the NFLPA, and the terrifying reality of what someone can do with just a single piece of your personal information. Plus, he shares the massive $1.5 million marketing gamble that saved his company, and finally sets the record straight on the biggest Forbes Under 30 myth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    38 mins
  • What It Takes to Get Legendary VC Bill Gurley To Invest In Your Startup

    What It Takes to Get Legendary VC Bill Gurley To Invest In Your Startup
    Jul 13 2026
    In this masterclass episode of the Under 30 Podcast, hosts Alex and Zoya sit down with Silicon Valley royalty and legendary venture capital investor Bill Gurley for an unvarnished, deep-dive interview on the state of global technology, high-stakes startup financing, and the future of corporate growth. Broadcasted from the heart of the world's most competitive technology corridors, this video serves as an authoritative field guide for founders, angel investors, and tech enthusiasts navigating the modern market, stretching from traditional innovation hubs like San Francisco and Silicon Valley to rising ecosystems in New York, Austin, London, and beyond. The macro tech landscape has shifted dramatically into an aggressive, hyper-polarized market. Bill Gurley breaks down the stark, black-and-white divide where artificial intelligence startups are raising capital at historic, astronomical valuations, while non-AI tech companies face massive friction securing seed or growth capital. Looking closely at hot sectors like the automated coding space and legal AI vertical, Gurley highlights that upwards of seven distinct companies have raised more than $200 million each. This creates a hyper-competitive landscape where companies deploy immense capital reserves purely to fund aggressive customer acquisition strategies, rendering traditional, conservative bootstrap approaches completely obsolete. As venture capital firms scale their own asset management pools, a dangerous dynamic has emerged. Gurley details the "observer effect" in modern startup investing, where venture capitalists aggressively push capital onto high-performing tech startups that do not actually need the cash. Founders are routinely flown out in helicopters and gifted premium sports box access to incentivize them to sign away equity, with the implied threat that if they refuse the funding, the cash will be handed directly to a direct market competitor. Taking unnecessary funding artificially drives up a startup's burn rate and obscures its fundamental financial health. Gurley explicitly warns young founders that private cap tables are structurally rigid, built only to scale upward. Due to liquidation preference stacks and ratchet clauses, navigating a down-round in private equity is incredibly destructive, unlike public market stock corrections. While historical anomalies like Uber successfully scaled past a $2 billion annual burn rate to now generate over $10 billion in free cash flow, structural over-leveraging routinely leads to total business failure, as famously seen in corporate downfalls like WeWork. A critical warning for startup founders in this episode centers on unit economics and pricing integrity. Gurley sounds the alarm on the modern trend of "vibe coding" and the illusory software growth scaling metrics reminiscent of the dot-com bubble. Tech startups are frequently caught in an unsustainable cycle where they purchase underlying computing architecture or tokens from upstream tech giants (like Amazon or Anthropic) and resell them to corporate clients at a net loss. Gurley notes that when an enterprise sells a dollar for $0.80, it can easily demonstrate infinite operational growth, but it will face a catastrophic reckoning when forced to achieve true cash-flow break-even metrics. For early-stage startup founders attempting to raise venture capital, Gurley outlines his precise investment framework. Beyond identifying strong consumer marketplaces built on compounding network effects where the 10,000th user derives infinitely more value than the 100th, Gurley prioritizes a founder's raw capacity for salesmanship. Whether loud or quiet, a chief executive must master the art of recruitment, closing customer acquisitions, and navigating fundraising rounds. He references Jeff Bezos' investment thesis of seeking "unbounded determinism"—the visible trait in an entrepreneur that proves there is absolutely no obstacle capable of stopping them from building their enterprise. Stepping outside the boardroom, Gurley shares unexpected historical anecdotes from his early career, including how annual trips to Las Vegas led to counting cards at Binion's casino. By strategically hunting down specific gaming pits where high-rolling gamblers distracted the house pit bosses, Gurley and his peers learned to gamble with a mathematical edge—a strategy that directly mirrored his transition into technology investing. He applies this same analytical lens to the meteoric rise of prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi, warning investors to heavily monitor volume data and watch out for low-float market manipulation or high house rakes on esoteric prop bets. Finally, drawing from the core principles of his newly published book, Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Thrive in a Career You Actually Love, Gurley challenges the standard "follow your passion" corporate cliché. Pointing to landmark Stanford research proving that ten years post-graduation, fewer than 40% ...
    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
  • From Stocking Walmart Shelves To Her Face On The Shelf: The Rise Of Chef Tini

    From Stocking Walmart Shelves To Her Face On The Shelf: The Rise Of Chef Tini
    Jul 20 2026
    In this definitive episode of the Under 30 Podcast, hosts Alex and Zoya dive into a masterclass on the creator economy, brand equity, and real estate acquisition with viral culinary trailblazer and entrepreneur Tina Younger, globally recognized by her 12 million supporters as Chef Tini. Broadcasted as an authoritative playbook for modern creators, culinary professionals, and startup founders, this comprehensive interview traces the raw mechanics of scaling an online persona into a highly lucrative multi-platform empire. From navigating corporate asset negotiation to establishing long-term financial freedom outside traditional media hubs, this conversation serves as the ultimate guide to modern business disruption. The narrative of self-made success is perfectly embodied in Chef Tini’s business trajectory. Long before achieving status on the Under 30 framework, Tini recounts her formative years as Tina Tanaka navigating a rigid public school education system in Maryland that failed to align with her hands-on capability. After pivoting to a regional trade school program at the Career Technology Center (CTC) to avoid standard desks, her behavioral and academic metrics completely shifted from failing grades to the Dean’s List. Tini highlights a profound full-circle milestone that defines her current corporate scale: transitioning directly from a minimum-wage position stocking inventory on Walmart shelves to having her own face printed on national grocery product packaging distributed across those exact same shelves. This profile underscores how specialized trade talents can outpace standard corporate climbing structures when paired with aggressive work ethics. A core lesson for any startup founder or creator in this episode centers on calculating high-stakes risks under extreme time constraints. Tini outlines the disruptive moment Gordon Ramsay’s casting team reached out for Next Level Chef Season 2 just two weeks before active filming was scheduled in London. At the time, she was completely broke, selling household furniture alongside her husband Antoine simply to meet monthly rental obligations, all while balancing full-time culinary school and exhaustive fine-dining restaurant shifts. To capitalize on this career-altering pivot, Tini strategically surrendered a secured corporate culinary internship with Disney. Facing a logistical crisis with an expired passport, she proactively petitioned her local congressional office to secure an emergency next-day passport dispensation to catch her flight to the United Kingdom. Rather than succumbing to the immense pressure of competing against seasoned Michelin-star sous chefs, she viewed the intense television production as a high-velocity learning environment, ultimately placing in the Top 8 and transforming her newfound credentials into sustainable market leverage to secure premier talent representation. Building digital content on platforms like TikTok requires shifting from vanity metrics (like follower counts) to structural monetization and protective intellectual property (IP) management. Chef Tini outlines her rigorous blueprint for maintaining brand integrity within highly competitive consumer spaces: Executive Control in Partnerships: Tini actively rejects standard, passive influencer structures. In high-profile collaborations with premium culinary brands like Headley & Bennett, she enforces strict design autonomy over custom product lines—including specialized aprons and chef knives—ensuring her name and reputation are never compromised by corporate oversight. Selective Brand Alignment: In a landscape driven by fleeting internet fame, Tini maintains strict filters on corporate sponsorships. Her creative marketing integration is anchored purely in everyday utility, as demonstrated by her massive marketing campaign with Marvel to promote major theatrical releases. In-House Business Infrastructure: Rather than employing standard third-party management agencies that run the risk of financial mismanagement, Tini maintains complete fiduciary transparency by appointing her mother—an experienced independent business owner—as her core business manager. For young entrepreneurs suddenly experiencing rapid wealth accumulation, capital allocation strategy is everything. While many rising creators fall into the trap of short-term consumer liabilities, Chef Tini outlines a highly conservative financial philosophy focused entirely on generational wealth protection. She openly rejects standard designer clothing, luxury items, and fleeting consumer trends, identifying high-quality tattoo artwork as her only personal indulgence. Instead, Tini's smartest financial decision has been the aggressive acquisition of physical real estate and land assets. By avoiding saturated, high-cost metropolitan hubs like Los Angeles or New York City, she has focused her capital on developing an expansive family land compound designed for agricultural sustainability, fishing, ...
    Show More Show Less
    36 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet