“... probably the riskiest thing I ever did in my life was to go out there and start laying down whiskey, not knowing what it's going to taste like four or five years later.”

Our guest, Kaveh Zamanian, took his family “down the rabbit hole” when he decided to pursue his dream of becoming a bourbon entrepreneur. Kaveh shares his story from growing up in Iran to moving to the United States, where he began his career in the psychology field, and his transition to Louisville, Kentucky, to start Rabbit Hole. Like many small businesses, Rabbit Hole has been hit hard during COVID-19. Listen in to learn how Kaveh responded to help the community he loves and, despite the challenges, his ongoing belief in the American Dream.

“We started making hand sanitizer, coordinated with FEMA to make sure that it was going to the right folks that need it the most.”

“I was just looking for opportunities and I wasn’t afraid to do something that I didn’t know how to do.”

By the age of six, Rodney Williams knew he was going to be an entrepreneur, and he hasn’t slowed down or stopped creating businesses since the day he started renting magazines to customers at his mom’s hair salon. His entrepreneurial drive has taken him on a winding journey through consumer goods giant, Procter & Gamble – where he worked in the Pampers department and onto a “start-up bus” that resulted in the founding of his company LISNR. On the podcast, Rodney also talks to MCAAD President Kerry Healey about his latest endeavor, a fin-tech start-up called SoLo Funds. A serial entrepreneur, Rodney has gone on to win numerous awards, including Tech Entrepreneur of the Year by Black Enterprise, 2016; 25 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Under 40 by Entrepreneur Magazine 2016; and Entrepreneur of the Year in Connected Communications by EY in 2017. 

“I think the American Dream for me is that I'm going to go out and define my own world. I'm going to go out and define the environment that I'm going to be successful in and then, I'm going to be relentless…”

“The sky is the limit here. I really think so. If you put the work in, if you aren't afraid of giving it your all, I think there's a good potential in each and every one of us to reach goals that we set up.”

After a diverse career in Sweden, Sassa Akervall, CEO of Akervall Technologies, moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she founded her mouthguard business. After starting her business at the kitchen table, Sassa began distributing prototypes to her daughter’s sports team -- and promoting through the Roller Derby Girls. When purchase orders started to dry up as a result of COVID-19, Sassa, within only 10 days, pivoted to produce face shields. Listen in to hear more about Sassa’s background and her business's response to the pandemic.

“We were up and running with facial production within 10 days. We were calling everybody back and, we were all in there cutting and stapling and packaging.”