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Welcome to the Founderz Lounge Show Notes Feed.
Founderz Lounge is where Don Varady, Co-Founder of Clean Eatz, and Stephen “Steve” Bon, Co-Founder of Bon’s Eye Marketing, kick back and talk all things business and bullsh*t. If you have ever grabbed a drink with friends to blow off entrepreneurial steam, rant about the grind, or share a big win, you just walked into that moment online.
Here in the show notes feed, you’ll find guest links, episode timestamps, and a running list of every conversation so you can dig deeper into the lessons, replay your favorite rants, and catch the moves that might just change how you build. Pull up a seat and stay awhile.
One Tiny Oven To a $2M Cookie Business w/ Addison LaBonte of Sweet Addison’s (EP #112)
Addison joins Don Varady and Steve Bon to share how she built Sweet Addison’s with a $5,000 investment, tested 27 cookie recipes, and learned expensive lessons about packaging and shipping. She breaks down how customer feedback, an engaged online community, and word-of-mouth marketing helped her grow a bootstrapped business while keeping 100% ownership.
3 days ago2 min read
How Success Changes Your Friendships (EP #111)
Don and Steve get real about outgrowing friendships, one-sided relationships, and the difference between networking and your inner circle. They discuss why chasing popularity can pull your attention away from the people who actually show up for you.
Nov 22 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Watch This Before You Give Up On Your Business (EP #110)
Don and Steve get real about business owner burnout, losing passion, and what to do before calling it quits. They break down why checking your cash flow, asking for help, and building a realistic turnaround plan matter more than making a permanent decision in an emotional moment.
Oct 262 min read
This Founder Created A Better Student Loan Model for Career Training w/ Meaghan Dennison (EP #109)
In this episode, Meaghan Dennison joins Don and Steve to explain how The Forward Fund is building a different financing model for career training, trade programs, and other nontraditional education paths.
Oct 192 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: The Dark Side of Franchising Nobody Warns You About (EP #108)
In this episode, Don and Steve break down the dark side of becoming a franchisor, why growing too fast can expose weak systems, and why Clean Eatz intentionally stopped selling franchises for a year to fix the foundation.
Oct 122 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Two Founders Expose Business Myths You Need to Stop Believing (EP #107)
In this episode, Don and Steve call bullshit on some of the most common business myths they used to believe, from work-life balance and “fake it till you make it” to thinking you need every detail figured out before you start.
Oct 52 min read
What Bodybuilding Taught Him About Business w/ IFBB Pro John Rivas (EP #106)
In this episode, John Rivas joins Don and Steve to talk about the mindset, discipline, risk, and obsession behind both high-level bodybuilding and entrepreneurship.
Sep 282 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Franchisor With 100+ Units Starts A Franchise From Scratch (EP #105)
In this episode, Steve puts Don through a full reset of Clean Eatz and asks what he would keep, what he would change, and what he would never do again after more than a decade of building and scaling a franchise brand.
Sep 212 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Founder Bottleneck Warning Signs (EP #104)
In this episode, Don and Steve break down the warning signs that show up when founder leadership turns into control, micromanagement, and too many decisions running through one person.
Sep 142 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Do I Really Need a CEO? Founders Discuss Executive Leadership (EP #103)
In this episode, Don and Steve break down executive leadership through the lens of founders who have actually made the hires, gotten some right, and learned from the ones that did not work.
Sep 72 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: When to Build a Marketing Team or Hire an Agency (EP #102)
When should you build an in-house marketing team, and when does it make more sense to hire an agency?
Don and Steve break down the real tradeoffs between internal marketing and outsourced marketing, including cost, brand knowledge, creative quality, speed, accountability, and what changes as a business grows.
Aug 312 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: $500K to Fix a Failing Franchise. How Would You Spend It? (EP #101)
What would you do if you had $500,000 to fix a struggling franchise?
Don gives Steve a hypothetical 30-unit restaurant brand called “Taters” and forces him to make the hard calls. Do you pause franchise sales? Spend on operations or marketing? Fix unit economics or the brand experience? And at what point is the founder no longer the right CEO?
Aug 242 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Founder Truths We Learned The Hard Way So You Don’t Have To (EP #100)
For the 100th episode of The Founderz Lounge, Don and Steve look back at the founder truths, business lessons, mistakes, and hard-earned realities that keep showing up when you are actually building something real.
Aug 172 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Phone Books, Cemetery Rent, and the End of Sex Sells (EP #99)
In this Business & Bullsh*t episode, Don and Steve break down the weird, funny, and surprisingly useful business lessons hiding in marketing, consumer behavior, AI, and old-school advertising that somehow still exists.
Aug 102 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Scented Billboards, Tiny Homes, and the Death of Celebrity Trust (EP #98)
In this Business & Bullsh*t episode, Don and Steve break down the strange, funny, and surprisingly useful business lessons hiding inside modern marketing trends.
Aug 32 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Do You Want a Good Nut by Tom Brady and Other Founder Hot Takes (EP #97)
In this Business & Bullsh*t episode, Don and Steve are back with founder hot takes on weird products, smart brands, bad marketing ideas, and the business trends that make you stop and ask, “Who approved this?”
Jul 272 min read
Inside North Carolina’s Leading Firearms Training Academy w/ Bill Praschak of Fully Loaded Defense (EP #96)
In this episode, Steve holds down the lounge solo while Don is out handling some HVAC chaos, and sits down with Bill Praschak, founder of Fully Loaded Defense, to talk about what it really takes to train civilians, businesses, churches, and organizations to protect themselves before something goes wrong.
Jul 202 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: Growth Exposes the Founder Before It Exposes the Business (EP #94)
In this episode of Business & Bullsh*t, Don and Steve break down why growth exposes the founder before it exposes the business.
Jul 62 min read
Why So Many Men Lose Themselves in Their 30s and 40s w/ Brad Dunn Founder of Reliant Fitness (EP #93)
In this episode, Don and Steve sit down with Brad Dunn of Reliant Fitness to talk about why so many men lose themselves in their 30s and 40s, and what it really takes to rebuild your body, mindset, and identity. Brad shares how he went from chaos, bad priorities, and a life that needed radical change to becoming a firefighter, a father, and eventually building Reliant Fitness around his own transformation and a no-gimmicks, no-bullsh*t approach to helping men change their liv
Jun 293 min read
Business & Bullsh*t: The Rise of the Super Franchisee EP (#92)
The Founderz Lounge Episode #92 with Don Varady and Steve Bon.
Jun 222 min read
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