03 Sep September 3, 2025 – Car Credit Card Jacob Zachs and Barefoot Entrepreneur Michael Houlihan
Jacob Zachs – Founder and CEO of Fasten Rewards
My wife was three months pregnant. I looked at her with our first child, and
I said, ‘Hey, I think I want to start a company.’ And she said, ‘You’re crazier
than I thought, but let’s go and let’s do it.
Jacob Zachs
Jacob Zachs brings a wealth of experience from the early-stage tech ecosystem. He played a pivotal role in the growth of Newsela as its 12th employee, helping the company achieve unicorn status. His journey continued as VP of Sales at Metric Collective, where he honed his leadership skills before co-founding AiTA Bio, a medical device company revolutionizing Type 1 diabetes management. As the 2nd employee and VP of Partnerships at Forage, Jacob was instrumental in guiding the company through Y Combinator and securing a $22M Series A. His entrepreneurial vision led to the founding of Fasten in summer 2023.
Michael Houlihan – Co-Founder of Barefoot Wine, New York Times Best-Selling Author, Business Strategist
The market really doesn’t care about how great your idea is. What they
care about is… how does yours help me?
Michael Houliha
Michael Houlihan is a highly sought-after business strategist, keynote speaker, consultant, and corporate trainer. His presentations are often with Bonnie Harvey, his Co-founder of Barefoot (now the #1 wine brand in the world), providing decades of real-world, practical business experience. Using out-of-the-box thinking, pay-for-performance, positive culture, channel distribution management, and “Worthy Cause Marketing,” they help start-ups, entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 corporations increase their sales, profitability and brand equity. For the first time, their secrets to success are available in an exclusive online series. He, along with Bonnie, bootstrapped Barefoot (a novelty wine brand) into a national mega-brand, selling 600,000 cases per year in 50 states and 28 countries. They’ve keynoted at many prestigious conferences, symposiums, universities and forums. He and Bonnie’s articles on business philosophy have been reprinted in TIME, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Entrepreneurs’ Organization and numerous other business magazines and trade journals. He and Bonnie have a new project called Business Audio Theatre. When books are read in this theatre, instead of a narrator reading a business book to you, people get a “full color, audio cinematography” of scenes performed by real Hollywood actors with music, sound effects, and more. The Barefoot Spirit is finally ready to share! A promo code for School for Startups Radio listeners grants 20% off: Startups20 at www.barefootaudiobook.com Or just click here.