Social Currency with Sammi Cohen

Afleveringen

1. Victoria Thain Gioia (Perelel) on Supplement Science, Raising Less Money and the $3.8 Billion Thorne Deal

   3 november 2026 · 59 min

   Afspelen
   When Victoria Thain Gioia started pitching investors in 2020, she heard the same thing over and over: women’s health was “too niche.” Six years later, her vitamin company Perelel is approaching a $100 million run rate. Lees meer

   This week, Victoria joins Sammi to share the story behind Perelel, which began after her second daughter was born with a cleft lip and Victoria went deep into the world of prenatal nutrition. She explains why she launched with five products when everyone told her to start with one, how a friend from business school invested without even looking at the pitch deck, and why she brought on OB/GYN Dr. Banafsheh Bayati as an equity-holding co-founder.

   Then, Victoria breaks down the money. She shares the business school advice that shaped her fundraising strategy, why Perelel turned down hockey stick growth to reach profitability, and how a big chunk of the roughly $40 million raised went to buying out early investors. She also opens up about the co-CEO structure she ran for years with co-founder Alex Taylor and what changed when Alex stepped away to focus on advocacy.

   Plus, Sammi asks the tough question: how much of what Perelel sells is proven versus plausible? Victoria explains the gap between ingredient claims and clinical dosages, why there’s essentially no pre-market regulation for prenatal supplements and how Perelel is investing in clinical trials on its own products. Finally, she weighs in on Procter & Gamble’s $3.8 billion acquisition of Thorne and shares the “good enough” mindset she relies on as a working mom of four.

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter

   Here’s What Sammi Covers with Victoria:

   00:00 Victoria Thain Gioia’s Social Currency

   01:14 Partner Message - Omnisend

   04:02 The Origin Story Behind Perelel

   06:31 Why Women Are Left to Do the Research Alone

   08:24 From Side Project to Quitting Her Job in 2020

   10:37 Building the Founding Team

   11:51 Pitching Investors During the Pandemic 1

   3:34 The…

2. Saul Cohen (Sammi’s Husband) on Marriage to a Creator, AI Agents for Wall Street and Raising $12.5 Million

   27 oktober 2026 · 49 min

   Afspelen
   He’s been the most requested guest in Sammi’s DMs… and he also happens to be her husband. Lees meer

   Today, Sammi sits down with Saul Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Clifton AI and the third Cohen to ever appear on Social Currency (but the first one she’s married to). Saul shares his side of the story, from how they met on a dating app during COVID to being Sammi’s hype man when she posted her first TikTok and when she left Amazon to make content full time. They also get into their relationship dynamics, their South African wedding, the “passenger princess” travel routine and the hardest part of being married to a creator.

   Then, Saul breaks down Clifton, the autonomous AI analyst that investment firms can hire to handle the monotonous work typically assigned to junior staff. He explains how Clifton differs from timer-based AI agents, why most investment firms are looking for the wrong thing from AI and why he believes analysts will soon be managing agents instead of Excel spreadsheets. Plus, Sammi reveals the secret behind her same-day earnings breakdowns.

   Finally, Saul shares the founder advice Sammi relies on most: why the customer is all that matters, how he raised $12.5 million, why introductions from other founders beat cold outreach to VCs, the tradeoffs of angel investors and what everyone gets wrong about vibe coding.

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter Try Clifton with code SAMMY

   Here’s What Sammi Covers with Saul:

   00:00 Saul Cohen’s Social Currency

   01:03 Partner Message - Mercury Spend

   03:40 The Third Cohen on the Show

   05:01 Sammi’s First TikTok

   06:00 The Decision to Go Full Time

   06:18 Building Businesses Side by Side

   07:40 How Sammi and Saul Met

   08:30 “I Just Went on a Date With My Husband”

   09:47 The White Lies From the First Date

   11:12 A Wedding in South Africa

   12:20 Sammi’s Early Content Experiments

   14:34 The Passenger Princess Travel Routine

   16:09 Finding Your Lanes at Home

   17:44 The Hardest Part of Being M…

3. Mary Holland Nader (Mary & Pip) on Fintech Fundraising, Reality TV and Shame-Free Money

   20 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 5 min

   Afspelen
   Mary Holland Nader spent five years managing money for ultra-high-net-worth clients at Deutsche Bank. Then she quit to film a reality show with her three sisters… and pitched a fintech company on camera. Lees meer

   Today, Mary joins Sammi to talk about life as “the finance sister.” She shares why she dropped her middle name and hid her Instagram from her Wall Street colleagues, how pitching Mary & Pip on Love Thy Nader turned viewers into a community, and how she uses fame as a business asset without sacrificing the credibility a finance brand needs.

   Then, Mary breaks down the business. She explains how she raised her first round through friends, family and cold outreach, the investor who told her she was raising far too little, and why she’s holding off on venture capital for now. She also walks through how Mary & Pip works, from the three accounts everyone needs to get started to a financial health score designed to replace the shame of a credit score, and what she learned studying the graveyard of fintech companies that came before her.

   Plus, Sammi asks what happens when business and family overlap, including the awkward moments of asking her sisters to pay her back and explaining SAFEs at the dinner table. Finally, Mary shares the most common money mistake she saw among wealthy clients, the financial product she considers the biggest scam and whether Gen Z’s “little treat” spending is really the problem.

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter

   Here’s What Sammi Covers with Mary:00:00 Mary Holland Nader’s Social Currency

   01:15 Partner Message - Mercury and Gusto

   03:25 Introducing Mary Holland Nader

   05:28 From Wall Street to Love Thy Nader

   06:40 Pitching Mary & Pip on Reality TV

   09:05 Why Mary Launched the Growing Interest Podcast

   10:40 Why Mary Hid Her Instagram From Her Colleagues

   13:05 Becoming “The Finance Sister”

   16:55 Using Fame as a Business Asset

   20:05 Partner Message - Mercury and Gusto

   24:10 The Lord of the Rings …

4. Alpha School: Two-Hour Learning, the $150K Founders School and the Future of AI Education

   13 oktober 2026 · 21 min

   Afspelen
   What if kids could finish a full day of academics in just two hours? That’s the promise behind Alpha School, the AI-powered private school claiming its students learn 2.6 times faster than their peers and graduate with an average SAT score above 1470. Lees meer

   Today, Sammi takes you inside the Alpha School story. It began in 2014 as Emergent Academy in Austin, founded by MacKenzie Price and Brian Holtz, and today it is backed by billionaire Trilogy founder Joe Liemandt. Sammi breaks down how the model works, from adaptive learning software and $100,000-a-year “guides” to afternoons spent on public speaking, entrepreneurship and life skills. She also looks at Founders School, Alpha’s $150,000-a-year high school that promises students will build a business generating $1 million in profit by graduation or get their tuition refunded.

   Then, Sammi digs into the criticism: regulatory pushback in New York and Pennsylvania, concerns about screen-based instruction, extensive student monitoring, equity and access, and the lack of independent research behind Alpha’s headline numbers. So is Alpha School the future of education, or a high-priced experiment that’s still waiting on proof?

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter

   Here’s what Sammi covers today:

   00:00 Alpha School’s Bold Promise

   02:47 The Origin Story of Alpha School

   03:32 The Pitch Behind Two-Hour Learning

   04:15 How Alpha School Actually Works

   04:36 Guides vs. Teachers and $100K Salaries

   05:03 Inside a Typical Alpha School Day

   05:51 Does It Actually Work? Alpha’s Test Score Claims

   06:36 The Missing Independent Evidence

   07:30 Why Parents Are Drawn to Alpha

   08:16 Paying Up to $75,000 a Year

   08:53 What Alpha Parents Told Sammi

   09:14 Founders School and the $1 Million Business Guarantee

   11:51 Inside the Founders School Day

   12:22 The $150,000 Tuition and Refund Fine Print

   13:08 What Founders School Reveals

   13:33 The Five Big Criticisms

   13:43 Regulatory Friction

   14:33 The S…

5. Natalie Holloway (Bala) on Bootstrapping, Shark Tank and Dupe Culture

   6 oktober 2026 · 59 min

   Afspelen
   Bala started with $5,000, a sketch and a yoga class that wasn't hard enough. Today, the brand behind the bangles on every workout influencer's wrists is growing 50% year over year with just 12 full-time employees. Lees meer

   This week, Sammi sits down with Bala co-founder and CEO Natalie Holloway, author of Bootstrap Empire, to unpack how she and her husband Max went from burnt-out ad agency employees at 72andSunny to building one of fitness's most recognizable brands. Natalie shares the Kickstarter number that would have made her walk away, why she walked into Shark Tank asking for $400K for 10% and walked out with $900K for 30%, and what happened when the episode aired just two weeks before the world shut down.

   Then, Natalie opens up about the post-COVID bust that forced Bala to lay off nearly its entire team, the spending mistakes she'd never repeat, and why she chose small business loans over venture capital to keep control of the company. Later, she breaks down the reality of dupe culture, from navigating patents across countries to confronting retailers who sell knockoffs next to Bala, and explains why the brand created Move by Bala for its upcoming Walmart launch.

   Plus, Natalie shares how Bala plans to become the "female Rogue," the repeat purchase challenge of selling products people keep for years, why she walked away from a New York City fitness studio the night before signing the lease, and how she and Max keep work and marriage separate.

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter Check out Natalie's book Bootstrap Empire

   Here's What Sammi Covers with Natalie: 00:00 Natalie Holloway's Social Currency 05:45 How Advertising Prepared Natalie to Build a Brand 07:05 Why You Can't Be Married to an Idea 08:05 The Origin Story of Bala Bangles 11:35 From Account Person to Product Designer 13:10 Launching Bala With $5,000 14:20 The Kickstarter Number That Would Have Made Her Quit 15:40 Climbing "Cringe Mountain" 19:55 Inside Bala's Shark…

6. Peloton: First Profit, the Spotify Deal and Why the Stock Still Fell

   29 september 2026 · 16 min

   Afspelen
   For the first time in its history as a public company, Peloton turned a profit. After years of billion-dollar losses, the fitness brand posted $63 million in net income this fiscal year. Just three years ago, it was a punchline. Lees meer

   Today, Sammi unpacks how Peloton went from pandemic darling to cautionary tale and back again. She revisits the crash that wiped out $40 billion in market value, founder John Foley's exit, and the Sex and the City reboot that turned a Peloton bike into a plot device. Then, she breaks down the turnaround strategy led by CEO Peter Stern, the former Apple executive who built his career on subscriptions, not hardware.

   Sammi walks through the bets that got Peloton back in the black: aggressive price increases and cost cuts, a viral ad campaign starring Heated Rivalry's Hudson Williams, a global partnership with Spotify, and a new push into commercial gyms. Plus, she explains why the stock dropped more than 11% on the day Peloton announced its historic profit, and what that says about whether Peloton is really back.

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram

   Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter

   Here's What Sammi Covers Today:

   00:00 Peloton's First Profitable Year

   01:50 Partner Message - Mercury

   02:50 From $50 Billion to Punchline

   03:45 John Foley's Exit and the 87% Wipeout

   04:15 The Pandemic Bubble Cautionary Tale

   04:55 Enter Peter Stern, Peloton's Apple Hire

   05:45 The Four-Pillar Turnaround Plan

   06:15 Price Hikes and Cost Cuts

   07:30 The Heated Rivalry Ad That Went Viral

   08:15 The Spotify Partnership

   08:58 Peloton's Commercial Gym Bet

   09:55 The $63 Million Turnaround

   10:25 Partner Message -Mercury

   12:45 Why the Stock Fell Anyway

   13:15 A Shrinking Subscriber Base

   14:40 How to Show Social Currency Some Love

   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7. Evan Spiegel (Snap) on AR Glasses, Getting Copied by Big Tech and the Social Media Age-Gating Debate

   22 september 2026 · 53 min

   Afspelen
   Nearly a billion people open Snapchat every month, and almost half a billion use it every single day. Fifteen years after Evan Spiegel and his co-founders launched the app, formerly known as Peekaboo, out of a Stanford dorm room, Snap is betting its next decade on something you wear on your face. Lees meer

   This week, Sammi sits down with Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel to talk through the evolution of the company, how he thinks about being one of the most copied products in social media, and Specs, the $2,195 AR glasses more than a decade in the making. He explains why he sees the copying as a compliment to great design, why hardware is a much harder bet for competitors to follow than software, and what convinced him a decade ago that computing needed to move off screens and into the world.

   Evan also breaks down the viral meme that introduced Specs to a mainstream audience, how the company thinks about privacy on a device built to record, and why Spotlight, Snap's video feed, has become one of its fastest growing products by rewarding authenticity over AI generated content. He shares his prediction for what Snap looks like in 2036 and his take on the ongoing debate over minimum ages for kids on social media.

   Toward the end, Evan gets personal, talking about parenting four kids in a world full of screens, what his wife Miranda Kerr has taught him about skincare, and the story behind his family's donation to an organization that relieves medical debt.

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter

   Here's What Sammi Covers with Evan:

   00:00 Evan Spiegel's Social Currency

   03:42 How Snapchat Started as "Peekaboo"

   05:57 The Insight That Turned It Into a Messaging App

   08:47 Being Social Media's Most Copied Product

   11:06 What Evan Still Signs Off On at Snap

   12:32 The Decade-Long Bet on AR Glasses

   16:05 The Timeline for Mass Adoption of Specs

   17:05 Evan's Live Reaction to Sammi Trying Specs

   20:47 Why Specs Are Priced Like a Computer

   22:…

8. Jim McKelvey (Square) on Beating Amazon, The Innovation Stack and Fixing FDA Drug Trials

   15 september 2026 · 1 uur 8 min

   Afspelen
   How does a scrappy startup beat Amazon when Amazon copies your product, undercuts your price and slaps its own name on it? According to Square co-founder Jim McKelvey, you don't. Except, once in a while, someone does. Lees meer

   This week Sammi revisits one of her favorite conversations ever recorded for Social Currency: her sit-down with Jim McKelvey, the artist-turned-entrepreneur who co-founded Square (now Block) with Jack Dorsey. Jim opens with the story of how he once stripped down in a trade association's office just to get a meeting, and explains why getting someone's attention is always the real first step in any pitch. He breaks down why he intentionally designed Square's original card reader to work poorly, and how that "flaw" turned millions of small business owners into free advertisers for the brand.

   Then, Jim tells the almost unbelievable story of how Square survived Amazon's attempt to copy and kill its business with Amazon Register, why he studied history to understand how rare that survival really was, and how a conversation with Southwest's Herb Kelleher led him to write his book, The Innovation Stack. Jim also opens up about his years as an independent director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, what he learned living through zero interest rates, the pandemic and the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and how the role reshaped his politics. Plus, he explains why his media venture Invisibly failed to save journalism despite cracking the monetization problem, and details his newest venture, Fast Trials, an attempt to slash the cost of FDA drug trials so more life-saving drugs can make it to market.

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter Read Jim McKelvey's blog and check out his book, The Innovation Stack

   Here's What Sammi Covers with Jim:

   00:00 Jim McKelvey's Social Currency

   02:03 Why Sammi Is Revisiting This Episode

   05:09 The Striptease That Landed a Six-Figure Deal

   08:00 Why Getting Attention Comes Before Any …

9. Van Leeuwen vs. Rebel: The $24 Million Ice Cream Copycat Lawsuit

   9 september 2026 · 14 min

   Afspelen
   A federal judge just ordered an ice cream company to hand over nearly $24 million because their pint looked a little too much like someone else's. Lees meer

   Today, Sammi breaks down the case of Van Leeuwen versus Rebel Creamery, a lawsuit that is about way more than ice cream. She explains how Van Leeuwen's pastel packaging, designed by the firm Pentagram in 2016, became one of the most valuable assets in the company's business and helped drive a nearly 50% jump in sales velocity. Then she unpacks how keto ice cream brand Rebel launched with strikingly similar packaging, despite a buyer warning them beforehand that it looked like a ripoff.

   Sammi digs into the legal concept of trade dress, which protects the overall look and feel of a product rather than any single design element, and explains why the court sided with Van Leeuwen. She also covers the idea of "reverse confusion," why Rebel's missing design paperwork sank their case, and how the judge's finding of bad faith unlocked a massive damages award under the Lanham Act.

   Finally, Sammi shares why this case matters for every founder and brand builder today: in an age where AI can replicate any aesthetic instantly, the real competitive advantage isn't the look itself, it's being able to prove you own it.

   Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter

   Here's what Sammi covers today: 00:00 The $24 Million Ice Cream Lawsuit 00:59 Partner Message: Mercury 02:16 Van Leeuwen's Origin Story 02:44 The Pentagram Packaging Redesign 03:34 How the Design Became the Brand 03:50 Enter Rebel Creamery 04:17 The Wegmans Warning 05:00 Van Leeuwen Files Suit 05:25 What Is Trade Dress? 06:06 Proving Consumer Confusion 06:46 The Concept of Reverse Confusion 07:10 The Paper Trail That Won the Case 07:46 Rebel's Missing Evidence 08:25 The Judge's Bad Faith Ruling 08:34 The Good Faith Remote User Defense 09:10 How Rebel's Profits Became the Damages 09:50 The $23.8 Million Verdict and Redesign Order 10:16 Partner …

10. Dan Clancy (Twitch) on Live Streaming Community, Creator Monetization and the Future of AI

    9 september 2026 · 1 uur 9 min

    Afspelen
    Dan Clancy's resume includes NASA, Google and Nextdoor, an unlikely path to becoming CEO of one of the biggest live streaming platforms in the world. This week, Sammi sits down with Dan to unpack what actually makes Twitch different from every other social platform: a community that survives even when the algorithm doesn't. Lees meer

    Dan explains why he still streams himself as "DJ Clancy" (despite never once DJing), what that experience taught him about belonging that he couldn't have learned any other way, and why Twitch's average watch time of 73 minutes says more about human connection than any growth metric. He breaks down how creator monetization actually works, why gift subscriptions often outperform tipping, and the advice he gives anyone intimidated by starting their first stream.

    Then, Dan gets into why platforms like YouTube have tried and failed to poach Twitch's top streamers, what's still defensible about Twitch a decade after everyone copied the format, and how he thinks about AI as a creative tool rather than a threat to authentic connection. Plus, he opens up about the songwriting career he only discovered in his fifties, the identity boxes we build for ourselves, and the life advice he shared with Sammi that she says she'll be thinking about for a long time.

    Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter

    Follow Twitch: twitch.tv

    Check out TwitchCon: twitchcon.com

    Here's What Sammi Covers with Dan:

    00:00 Dan Clancy's Social Currency

    02:29 From Theater Major to Tech Executive

    04:35 What Theater Taught Dan About Leadership

    08:30 Streaming as "DJ Clancy"

    10:10 What Live Streaming Taught Dan About Community

    12:05 The Pitch to a First-Time Twitch Viewer

    15:00 Comparing Twitch to Bingeable TV and "Cheers"

    15:40 The Power of Horizontal Connections

    18:04 Twitch's Core Demographics

    19:30 How Twitch Differs From TikTok and YouTube

    23:10 How Creator Monetization Actually Works

    26:10 Advice for Streamers Just Starting Out

    …

Alle 130 afleveringen →