HeyJaredFervent Four
Where Hampton Roads entrepreneurs tell their stories.Since 2020, The Fervent Four Show has been the weekly conversation connecting the entrepreneurs, innovators, and community builders shaping the future of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Each Thursday at 11 a.m.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 22, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 7, 2026
Latest episodes
She Built a Global Brand Without a Plan (opens the original)
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Paula Short didn't set out to build a global beauty brand. She and her business partner created a glitter lip product to get more customers through the door of their salon. Then people started buying it. They took the product to London. Landed Topshop. Expanded internationally. Supplied major retailers and airlines. Paula appeared on BBC Dragons' Den. And somewhere along the way, the small idea became a very real business. But growth came with another side. The fun disappeared. The pressure incr
Pain Is Your Greatest Superpower (opens the original)
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Greg Tomchick has been through enough over the last few years to completely change how he thinks about business, success and himself. The founder of Valor Cybersecurity returns to Fervent Four more than three years after his first appearance. Since then, he found Valor's market serving defense contractors, endured an investor falling out, a divorce and a painful split with a business partner, and came out of it with a very different definition of winning. Greg joins Zack Miller and Tim Ryan to t
The Goal Isn't to Own the Business Forever (opens the original)
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Joe Benedetto spent his career in an industry most people rarely think about: recycling. His family has been in the business for more than 100 years. Joe started working in recycling at 13, eventually launched Recycling & Disposal Solutions (RDS) in 2004, and grew the company to five locations and roughly 80 employees. But this conversation goes well beyond recycling. Joe joins Zack Miller and Tim Ryan to break down how technology and AI are transforming one of the oldest industries around, why
When Did $40 Million Stop Being a Win? (opens the original)
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Building something meaningful and building something massive don't have to be opposing goals. Adam Alphin, founder and CEO of KleerCard, joins The Fervent Four to talk about building a company on his own terms while still thinking big about where it can go. KleerCard has grown to more than 1,250 customers while taking a deliberately disciplined approach to outside capital. Adam shares why the company raised as little as possible early on, what he learned from six years at Coupa and why founders
HE HIT #1. THEN FOUND A BETTER WAY TO WIN | Canaan Smith (opens the original)
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In Episode 324 of Fervent Four, Canaan opens up about moving to Nashville knowing no one, working as a custodian while writing songs, landing a publishing deal, competing on The Amazing Race, and eventually earning a No. 1 country hit. He also talks candidly about the pressure that followed that success, why chasing the next No. 1 started to take more than it gave, and how fatherhood, faith, family and a career reset changed his definition of winning. Today, Canaan says he feels like he's writin
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