Day: September 13, 2025

• Business Insider has spoken with a handful of successful entrepreneurs and business owners.
• Many of them have one thing in common: Their business was born out of a problem they faced in their everyday lives.
• To launch a successful business of your own, start by thinking about solutions to daily problems.

The summer before my senior year of college, while participating in a four-week intensive entrepreneurship program, Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph came to speak to my class.

Nearly 13 years later, I still remember his advice: Build a product that solves a problem. He encouraged us to think about pain points in our own lives and how we could deliver a solution.

For my capstone project that summer, I tried to solve a problem I encountered nearly every day when I stepped onto a tennis court: After wearing out a handful of tennis balls, I’d toss them in the trash.

I never followed through on my idea of upcycling dead tennis balls — turning them into outsoles or playground surfacing — but the general advice stuck. And as I’ve written about successful entrepreneurs over the years, I’ve noticed that many of them do exactly what Randolph instructed my class to do years ago.

Take Garrett Gosselin, who became obsessed with pickleball when COVID hit and stripped him of his sommelier job. He started playing nearly every day of the week and competing in tournaments around Southern California — and he found himself cycling through a lot of paddles.

“At that time, they were all made out of fiberglass, and they all had really loud, vibrant graphics. They kind of looked like toys, and they were falling apart really fast,” Gosselin told Business Insider. “There was a need for a better paddle.”

When he decided to build his own — a sleek and durable, high-performance paddle with a carbon fiber face — he didn’t intend to start a company. He simply wanted a better option for him and his doubles partner to use in competition. It wasn’t until other people started noticing his prototype and asking where they could buy one that he ordered 500 units and set up a website.

Gosselin sold out within a week and couldn’t keep his paddle in stock for the first two years of the business. The former somm now runs CRBN full-time, manages a team of 25 employees, and has expanded to offering bags, eyewear, and apparel.

Like Gosselin, Jack Schrupp encountered a problem he decided to tackle first and foremost for himself. Schrupp, a former collegiate athlete, couldn’t find a protein powder that suited his sensitive stomach. He bought a spice grinder and a small blender, loaded up on ingredients such as oats and eggs at the co-op close to his college campus, and became a bit of a “mad scientist” in his dorm room, he told Business Insider.

While the taste of his original concoctions “left a lot to be desired,” he said, “it didn’t upset my stomach, and that’s what mattered most to me.”

After graduating and landing a teaching position at a boarding school, Schrupp continued experimenting with recipes. His tinkering evolved into Drink Wholesome, a protein powder company that resonated with so many others that he eventually quit his job to go all in on his startup. In 2024, the company did seven figures in online sales.

Lisa Harrington also turned a personal problem into a seven-figure business.

When the Massachusetts-based e-commerce entrepreneur and self-proclaimed “cat lady” went online to buy an interior cat door, “there was only one option,” she said, and it wasn’t what she was looking for. “It was the quintessential, ‘I can do this better.'”

The first cat doors she manufactured and listed online were profitable but not a smash hit. It was when she noticed a recurring customer comment — people wanted a closable door, rather than a cat door with flaps — that things at Purrfect Portal started to take off.

The solution to her customer requests was born out of a happy hour with friends.

“Someone said, ‘What about a miniature door? A little human door with a little doorknob and a little window and a little door knocker,'” recalled Harrington. “And everyone just lost their minds, even the non-cat people. And in my gut, I knew people would love it.”

It took about two years to bring the happy hour vision to life, but when it launched in 2020, “people just lost their minds,” she said. “It catapulted to the top of the bestseller list pretty quickly. We were selling 100 units a day.”

Of course, once you identify a problem in your life, the next step is to solve it effectively — if you want to pursue the path of an entrepreneur, that is — and it takes a certain type of person to follow through.

Gosselin’s childhood friend and business partner at CRBN, Kyle Goguen, gave insight into how Gosselin thinks.

“I remember Garrett would brew his own kombucha and make his own sourdough, and he has always been this sort of inventor,” said Goguen.

When it came to bringing the pickleball paddle he wanted to life, “he didn’t have these barriers,” he added. “I think most people would be like, ‘How do I create a product?’ Instead, he was just like, ‘I’m going to go figure out how to make it better because these problems exist.'”

• Angel Studios, the company behind the surprise blockbuster “Sound of Freedom,” just went public.
• While the studio is known for its faith-based programming, its green-lighting model sets it apart.
• Angel’s leadership team shared the pitch they’re giving investors.

Angel Studios just went public and is selling investors on a business model that gives its streaming subscribers creative control.

The Utah-based studio is known for its faith-themed and “values-driven” movies and TV shows, like making the 2023’s sleeper box-office hit “Sound of Freedom” and its involvement in the “The Chosen” series based on the life of Jesus Christ.

Angel’s name isn’t only about religion. It’s also a nod to its unconventional green-lighting process. Angel’s streaming subscribers — with plans starting at $12 a month — double as “angel investors” who can vote on what future films get made.

“Our problem isn’t with what’s being made,” Angel CEO Neal Harmon said of Hollywood. “It’s with what’s not being made.”

Harmon founded the company alongside three of his eight siblings — Jeffrey, Jordan, and Daniel — and a cousin. Neal, Jeffrey, and Jordan spoke with Business Insider about what sets their studio apart, hours after Angel’s stock debuted on Thursday.

Angel went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Southport Acquisition Corporation. Its stock, which trades under the ticker ANGX, has been volatile since its debut, swinging between $10.35 and $20.39.

The company generated $135 million in the first half of 2025, with a net loss of $53.3 million in that span.

The brothers, who repeatedly called themselves “Idaho farm boys” during the interview, are proud to be Hollywood outsiders. They believe they’ve found a lucrative niche in what they’re making and how they’re making it.

Let there be green lights

Angel’s mission statement is to “amplify light” — a deliberately ambiguous motto that “means different things to different people,” said Jeffrey, Angel’s content chief.

Many of the 1.5 million members in the so-called Angel Guild want their faith represented, while others yearn for wholesome, family-friendly shows, Jeffrey said. Angel Guild members can vote on what projects get made, and can even give direct feedback to the production company.

By making movies that its fans have already endorsed, Angel Studios’ films tend to generate strong audience scores on sites like Rotten Tomatoes — and robust ticket sales.

Angel Studios earned an average of $34.7 million per movie released from 2023 to 2025, which is higher than any other independent studio, according to media analyst Evan Shapiro.

Industry analysts say this fan-centered approach has shown promise so far and could have staying power.

Angel “specializes in mobilizing underserved audiences” with its inexpensive, faith-centered content, said Brandon Katz of entertainment data provider Greenlight Analytics.

“It’s a very specific audience hungry for programming that appeals to their particular tastes and values,” Katz said.

KPMG media analyst Frank Albarella said that “today’s audiences are rejecting one-size-fits-all content creation in favor of platforms that turn viewers into creative collaborators.”

Pay models and ‘growing pains’

Angel is also pitching a distinct pay model for creators.

Netflix upended the entertainment business over a decade ago with a cost-plus model that paid filmmakers as if their movie was a modest hit. While this reduces risks, it also caps creatives’ upside.

“It overpays for failures and it underpays for success,” said Jordan, who’s Angel’s president. Angel’s model shares half of the profits from a title with its creator.

Angel has had some business “growing pains,” Jordan said. Two production companies that partnered with Angel have since terminated their arrangements, leading to legal fights.

Dallas Jenkins, creator of “The Chosen,” accused Angel of contract violations. Arbitrators ruled in Jenkins’ favor, officially severing his business relationship with the company. Angel has appealed the decision. Slingshot, which made the “David” animated movie based on the biblical character, terminated its deal. Angel responded with a lawsuit, which is ongoing.

“Lawsuits in the entertainment industry — it’s like pigeons in New York City,” Jordan said. “It’s just the reality of this space.”

The Harmon brothers first learned that when launching VidAngel, which removed profanity and sexual content from movies. Disney sued in response, and the subsequent ruling pushed VidAngel into bankruptcy. A few years later, the Harmons rebounded by starting Angel.

In the years since, Angel has turned heads in Hollywood through its unique relationship with its streaming subscribers.

Jeffrey said that being a publicly traded company is an extension of that mission, describing it as “the ultimate grassroots.”

• A growing number of the world’s richest entrepreneurs are using their wealth to fight aging.
• They’re taking supplements, abiding by fitness routines, and investing millions into research.
• BI rounded up a list of 8 entrepreneurs actively seeking the fountain of youth.

These days, a big topic at the diplomatic round table is apparently living for over a century.

At least that’s what Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin spoke about earlier this month, when they discussed the possibility of humans living to 150 sometime this century.

It’s not just world leaders who are intrigued by the idea of a fountain of youth. Silicon Valley’s top executives have long used their wealth to challenge the notion that death is life’s only certainty — or at the very least, to try to extend their time on Earth.

Some — like Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman — are investing in companies trying to reverse aging at the cellular level. Others — like Sergey Brin and Sean Parker — are directing their wealth to combating age-related conditions, from cancer to Parkinson’s disease. And others like Bryan Johnson are investing in intensive nutrition, exercise, and wellness plans in a serious attempt to slow the aging clock. 

Here are 8 of the world’s wealthiest tech leaders who are funneling their wealth into extending life itself.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is funding a company that wants to add 10 years to the human lifespan.

Sam Altman has invested $180 million in Retro Biosciences, a startup that aims to extend healthy human lifespans by a decade.

Retro CEO Joe Betts-LaCroix told Business Insider that the company is “breaking all the rules of early-stage biotech, where you’re usually expected to focus on a single platform or target and put everything behind it.”

Altman, whose net worth Forbes pegs at $2.1 billion thanks to ChatGPT’s success, believes longevity research needs an “OpenAI-type effort” — a true disruptor.

His personal antiaging regimen is straightforward: eat healthy, exercise, sleep well, and take metformin, a diabetes drug popular among Silicon Valley biohackers as a potential antiaging tool.

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel has funneled millions into the field of longevity research.

Thiel was an early investor in Unity Biotechnology, a company developing drugs to target aging cells. In 2006, he pledged $3.5 million to the Methuselah Foundation, a nonprofit focused on anti-aging research through tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. By 2017, he had increased that commitment to $7 million.

He has also reportedly signed up with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to cryonics — the freezing of human corpses to halt the aging process. In addition, he has backed several biotechnology companies through the Thiel Foundation and others through his venture firm, Founders Fund.

“There are all these people who say that death is natural, it’s just part of life, and I think that nothing can be further from the truth,” he told Business Insider in 2012.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison has devoted millions over the years to fighting death.

Ellison once told his biographer, “Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?” 

In 1997, he founded the Ellison Medical Foundation, which “supports basic biomedical research on aging relevant to understanding lifespan development processes and age-related diseases and disabilities.”

Until the foundation stopped funding new antiaging research in 2013, about 80% of the $430 million in grants it awarded to medical researchers were directed to this cause. 

He’s also donated millions to other medical causes, including $200 million to a USC cancer center in 2016, which was eventually renamed the Ellison Institute of Technology. The EIT announced an Oxford campus in 2023.

 

In 2013, Google co-founder Larry Page announced the launch of an antiaging endeavor called the California Life Company, more commonly known as Calico Labs.

Calico Labs, part of Google’s parent company Alphabet, was founded to study aging and develop medicines for age-related diseases.

In 2014, the company partnered with biopharmaceutical giant AbbVie on therapies for age-related conditions — an initiative backed by billions in investment.

More recently, Calico has been credited as the precursor to Altos Labs, a cell-rejuvenation startup that reportedly counts Jeff Bezos as an investor.

But in 2020, Calico co-founder Bill Maris told Business Insider he was “disappointed” by the company’s lack of visible progress in the field.

Sergey Brin’s interest in longevity research is fueled — in part — by his own genetic predisposition to Parkinson’s disease.

In 2008, the Google cofounder revealed in a blog post that he had a genetic mutation that made him more susceptible to Parkinson’s disease. 

Over the years, Brin has poured more than $1 billion into research on the disease, Forbes reported.

Brin has also spearheaded ventures devoted to stopping the aging clock, like Calico Labs. In 2015, he announced that Google’s Life Sciences team would become an independent unit under Alphabet and rebranded to Verily Life Sciences.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has also long been preoccupied by questions of life and death.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are among a small crop of Silicon Valley elite who founded the Breakthrough Prize. The prize offers $3 million to scientists in fields such as life sciences, medicine, and math. Many of these scientists are working on cures for neurodegenerative diseases and gene editing.

In 2016, the couple committed millions to curing infectious diseases through their philanthropic initiative, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 

Zuckerberg said at the time that “by the time we get to the end of this century, it will be pretty normal for people to live past 100.” 

Zuckerberg also has an intensive fitness regimen, which includes jiu-jitsu and CrossFit routines.

Jeff Bezos has also gotten into longevity investment game in recent years.

Bezos is reportedly an investor in Altos Labs, a biotech startup with a goal “to restore cell health and resilience through cellular rejuvenation programming to reverse disease, injury, and the disabilities that can occur throughout life,” according to its website. 

Aside from investments, Bezos is reportedly a “monster” in the gym, according to his wife Lauren Sanchez. With his trainer Wes Okerson he reportedly does a variety of low-impact, high-resistance exercises, like rowing and lifting weights. He also takes his workout outdoors, where he might kayak, paddleboard, or run hills.

The 48-year-old biotech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has the heart of 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old, and the lungs of a young adult

Johnson seems to be reversing, or at least stopping, the aging clock through an intense regimen of exercise, diet, and daily supplements guided physician Oliver Zolman, who calls himself a  “rejuvenation doctor.”

The entrepreneur’s daily routine starts at 5 am with a mouthful of supplements including lycopene, metformin, turmeric, zinc, and others.

Johnson also maintains a vegan diet of solid and soft food that total up to around 1,977 calories a day. 

In 2021 alone he achieved a world record age reversal of 5.1 years.