Raw and Real Entrepreneurship

By: Susan Sly
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • Get ready to step into the unfiltered world of entrepreneurship with the award-winning entrepreneur Susan Sly on the Raw and Real Entrepreneurship podcast. Recognized and featured by major media outlets such as Forbes, MIT Sloan Management Review, CNBC, Fox, and CNN, Susan brings an exceptional blend of real-world experience and hard-earned knowledge to the podcasting stage. As the co-founder of a leading AI company, Susan harnesses her unique insider perspective to explore the hearts and minds of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. She presents candid, in-depth conversations that uncover the realities of their journeys, featuring enlightening discussions with illustrious founders like Glenn Stearns, Jesse Itzler, and Brandon Steiner. The Raw and Real Entrepreneurship Podcast is a dynamic and insightful show dedicated to revealing the unfiltered truths of entrepreneurship with new interviews every week. Through compelling stories and personal anecdotes, guests share their highs and lows, offering listeners a glimpse into the perseverance, resilience, and hard work required to navigate the unpredictable landscape of business ownership. From startup struggles to strategic growth, each episode provides valuable insights, practical advice, and actionable takeaways for aspiring and established entrepreneurs alike.
    Copyright ©2024
    Show more Show less
Economics Leadership Management & Leadership
Show more Show less
Episodes
  • From The Bachelor to Brand Builder: Kirpa Sudick on Turning Personal Growth into a Scalable Business

    From The Bachelor to Brand Builder: Kirpa Sudick on Turning Personal Growth into a Scalable Business
    Apr 21 2025
    What happens when visibility doesn’t automatically lead to a business? For Kirpa Sudick — former contestant on The Bachelor Season 23 — the next step was clear: build a brand rooted in purpose and long-term value. In this episode of Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, Susan Sly speaks with Kirpa about how she transitioned from public figure to business owner, scaling a coaching brand with authenticity, content strategy, and operational discipline. They explore how to build trust in a noisy market, the role of AI in supporting productivity, and why emotional clarity matters for sustainable growth. If you’re building a business around your message, this episode offers clear, tactical insights for creating momentum and staying aligned as you scale. About Kirpa Sudick: Kirpa Sudick is a spiritual content creator, intuitive guide, and manifestation coach helping others break free from limiting beliefs and step into their highest selves. With a background in transformational work and a deep understanding of consciousness, she blends humor, relatability, and profound insights to make spirituality accessible and empowering. Through her content on TikTok and Instagram, she shares wisdom on intuition, manifestation, and breaking free from the matrix, inspiring thousands to rewrite their realities. Her mission is to help others embody their power, trust the unseen, and manifest effortlessly—while keeping it real, fun, and expansive. Connect with Kirpa: Instagram: @kirpasudick TikTok: @kirpa_sudick About Susan Sly: Susan Sly is the maven behind Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. An award-winning AI entrepreneur and MIT Sloan alumna, Susan has carved out a niche at the forefront of the AI revolution, earning accolades as a top AI innovator in 2023 and a key figure in real-time AI advancements for 2024. With a storied career that blends rigorous academic insight with astute market strategies, Susan has emerged as a formidable founder, a discerning angel investor, a sought-after speaker, and a venerated voice in the business world. Her insights have graced platforms from CNN to CNBC and been quoted in leading publications like Forbes and MarketWatch. At the helm of the Raw and Real Entrepreneurship podcast, Susan delivers unvarnished wisdom and strategies, empowering aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business veterans alike to navigate the challenges of the entrepreneurial landscape with confidence. Connect With Susan: Website https://susansly.com Website https://thepause.ai/ LinkedIn @susansly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    36 mins
  • How Sircles Raised $1M in 6 Days and Is Flipping the Review Model, with Founder John Worthington

    How Sircles Raised $1M in 6 Days and Is Flipping the Review Model, with Founder John Worthington
    Apr 14 2025
    In this episode of Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, Susan Sly sits down with John Worthington, founder of Sircles —a social recommendation app that raised over $1M in just six days on WeFunder and is on a mission to disrupt the Yelp model. They get candid about the real cost of building a startup, leading through chaos, and the emotional resilience required to scale. John shares his personal ‘why,’ how Sircles is creating a platform rooted in trust—not reviews—and why a community-first ethos is their greatest strategic advantage. If you’re raising capital, facing founder fatigue, or building something from the ground up, this is your strategic pause. About John Worthington: John Worthington is a serial entrepreneur who’s built and scaled multiple businesses from the ground up. He’s the founder and CEO of Sircles, one of the most successful crowdfunded startups in tech without VC backing. His “Riding the Escalator” strategy has redefined how startups grow, turning investors into loyal users and brand advocates. Connect with John: Website: https://sircles.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sircles/ About Susan Sly: Susan Sly is the maven behind Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. An award-winning AI entrepreneur and MIT Sloan alumna, Susan has carved out a niche at the forefront of the AI revolution, earning accolades as a top AI innovator in 2023 and a key figure in real-time AI advancements for 2024. With a storied career that blends rigorous academic insight with astute market strategies, Susan has emerged as a formidable founder, a discerning angel investor, a sought-after speaker, and a venerated voice in the business world. Her insights have graced platforms from CNN to CNBC and been quoted in leading publications like Forbes and MarketWatch. At the helm of the Raw and Real Entrepreneurship podcast, Susan delivers unvarnished wisdom and strategies, empowering aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business veterans alike to navigate the challenges of the entrepreneurial landscape with confidence. Connect With Susan: Website https://susansly.com Website https://thepause.ai/ LinkedIn @susansly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    47 mins
  • The Realities of Startups, Pitching & AI’s Next Wave with Hikari Senju, Founder of Omneky

    The Realities of Startups, Pitching & AI’s Next Wave with Hikari Senju, Founder of Omneky
    Mar 6 2025
    In this episode of Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, host Susan Sly sits down with Hikari Senju, Founder of Omneky, to discuss his journey from a creative childhood to scaling innovative startups. Hikari dives into his early entrepreneurial experiences, the rise of generative AI, and how AI is transforming advertising. He also reveals the challenges of raising capital—having pitched to hundreds of investors—the power of networking, and how introverts can thrive in business. Susan and Hikari break down the realities of acquisitions, the importance of finding the right investors, and the vision behind Omneky. This episode is packed with real-world insights on building, funding, and scaling a business in the AI era. About Hikari Senju: Hikari Senju is a computer science graduate from Harvard University with a passion for technology and design. He founded his first startup, QuickHelp, an on-demand tutoring app, which he later sold to Yup.com and became their Head of Growth. During his time at Yup.com, Senju observed inefficiencies in content spending and the potential of AI in advertising, which inspired him to establish Omneky in 2018. Senju’s background in computer science, entrepreneurship, and his experience with AI technologies led him to create Omneky, an AI platform that generates, analyzes, and optimizes personalized ad creatives at scale. Connect with Hikari: Website https://www.omneky.com/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hikari-senju-63780199/ About Susan Sly: Susan Sly is the maven behind Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. An award-winning AI entrepreneur and MIT Sloan alumna, Susan has carved out a niche at the forefront of the AI revolution, earning accolades as a top AI innovator in 2023 and a key figure in real-time AI advancements for 2024. With a storied career that blends rigorous academic insight with astute market strategies, Susan has emerged as a formidable founder, a discerning angel investor, a sought-after speaker, and a venerated voice in the business world. Her insights have graced platforms from CNN to CNBC and been quoted in leading publications like Forbes and MarketWatch. At the helm of the Raw and Real Entrepreneurship podcast, Susan delivers unvarnished wisdom and strategies, empowering aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business veterans alike to navigate the challenges of the entrepreneurial landscape with confidence. Connect With Susan: Website https://susansly.com Website https://thepause.ai/ LinkedIn @susansly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    50 mins
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_webcro768_stickypopup

What listeners say about Raw and Real Entrepreneurship

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.com reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Jessica Leichtweisz

Great podcast for startup founders and entrepreneurs

This is my go to podcast for advice for my business! Always receive value and actionable tips!

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!