Hot Takes Big Stakes
The real-world highs and lows of building a business—from early ideas scribbled on napkins to multimillion-dollar raises and the pivotal moments in between. Hosted by serial founders Natalie Holloway (Bala) and Lana Elie (Floom). We explore the unfiltered truths most founders are too polished (or too cautious) to say out loud. No hype, no jargon—just honest conversations about what actually works, what doesn’t, and what it really takes to grow something from nothing. Each week, Natalie and Lana sit down founder-to-founder to share sharp insights, fresh perspectives, and the kind of candor you rarely hear in the boardroom. Build your dream. Burn the playbook.
Episodes
Let’s Talk About the Elephant in the Room… Shark Tank.
On Hot Takes, Big Stakes, host Natalie Holloway, founder of Bala, and co-host Lana Elie, founder of Flume, are here to help you turn your time into real value.
In today’s episode, Lana interviews Natalie about one of the most pivotal moments in her career with Bala: her appearance on Season 11 of Shark Tank. The pitch led to a major turnin...
Lucas Lappe, co-founder of Canopy and Doris Dev, joins Hot Takes, Big Stakes to share how he built a successful wellness brand from the ground up without raising venture capital. From launching his first absurd product (a hot glue gun for string cheese) to designing mold-resistant humidifiers now sold at Sephora, Lucas explains what it really takes to launch and scale a physical product.
This episode covers how Canopy focused on so...
Starting a business? Expect uncertainty and scrappy decisions.
In this Hot Takes, Big Stakes deep dive, co-founders and hosts Natalie Holloway and Lana Elie break down the real behind-the-scenes of launching a brand. From bad product ideas and co-founder debates to raising capital, faking it with factories, and why launching to crickets still taught them everything. No fluff, just the stuff we wish someone...
How do you build a period care brand that’s unapologetically bold, digitally native, and actually different? On this week’s episode of Hot Takes, Big Stakes, Lana Elie sits down with Nadya Okamoto—activist, author, and co-founder of August—to unpack exactly how she turned a mission into a movement (and a movement into a business).
With over 6 million followers and major shelf space in Target and Whole Food...
What are you investing in?
Time is your most valuable resource. On Hot Takes, Big Stakes, host Natalie Holloway, founder of Bala, and co-host Lana Elie, founder of Floom, are here to help you turn that time into real value.
After speaking with founders across a wide range of industries, one thing became clear: we’re all getting asked the same questions. So we decided to create a space where we...
Who are you investing in?
On Hot Takes, Big Stakes, host Natalie Holloway, founder of Bala, and co-host Lana Elie, founder of Floom, are here to help you turn your time into real value.
In today’s episode, Natalie and Lana sit down with Zach Rosner, co-founder of Our Place, a nine figure business with a team of over 100 and more than 90 million dollars raised to date. Before building Our Place...
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