HeyJaredThe CEO Series
Hosted by William Salvi, The CEO Series is an Emmy-winning original series produced by Salvi. Each episode profiles a business leader and their respective business.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 8
- Latest publication
- Sep 17, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 10, 2026
Latest episodes
Spin Master Co-Founder Ronnen Harary on Paw Patrol, Bakugan, and Betting on Yourself Young (opens the original)
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In this episode of The CEO Series, Will sits down with Spin Master co-founder and chairman Ronnen Harary. Ronnen walks through the early days of the company, including Earth Buddy, Devil Sticks, and Air Hogs. He also gets into the boom and bust of Bakugan, when sales went from $450 million to a billion and back again. He points to hubris as the real cause and explains how that period led directly to Paw Patrol. He tells the full story of Paw Patrol's inception. He talks about writing his book, N
Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest on the Netflix documentary, the cheating scandal and 10M daily users (opens the original)
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In this episode of The CEO Series, Will sits down with Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest. Erik walks through the early days of Chess.com and the two chess businesses he ran before it. He talks about the company's slow, steady growth for over a decade, the surge that came with COVID and Queen's Gambit, and the playbook they built afterward for getting chess into the cultural conversation. He also covers the second spike in 2023, driven by the Hans Niemann lawsuit, short form video, and chess taking off
How this investment banker became CEO of a Whiskey brand at 33 | WhistlePig CEO Alex Roberts (opens the original)
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In this episode of The CEO Series, Will travels to Vermont to sit down with Alex Roberts, CEO of WhistlePig Whiskey, at the WhistlePig farm. Alex explains how he went from working as a 24-year-old investment banking analyst on a potential sale of WhistlePig to being offered the CFO job himself. He talks about entering the company with no operating experience, dealing with imposter syndrome and the blunt feedback from his CEO that forced him to rethink how he was adding value. Eight years later,
Mid-Day Squares Co-Founder Jake Karls on How They Built a $38 Million Brand by Being Themselves (opens the original)
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In this episode of The CEO Series, William Salvi sits down with Jake Karls, co-founder and Chief Rainmaker of Mid-Day Squares. Jake walks through the early version of the business which was three people making 50 to 100 bars a day in a condo kitchen and hand delivering samples with a Polaroid and a handwritten note. He explains how they raised money and built their own manufacturer. Jake talks about why he doesn't believe he is a good manager, his burnout, pitching to Wall Street in shorts and a
HexClad CEO Danny Winer on building a billion-dollar brand after 50 (opens the original)
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In this episode of The CEO Series, William Salvi sits down with Danny Winer, co-founder and CEO of HexClad. Danny traces his path from studying theater and film at NYU and moving to Los Angeles with $2,000 and three suitcases, to a car accident at 28 that broke his back, shattered his right leg, and left him six figures in debt with no ability to work. He rebuilt by selling cookware at trade shows, then lost his first company, Juicepresso, in September 2016 at age 50. What became HexClad started
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