The Venture

Starting a business is a leap of faith. It’s unpredictable, exciting, foolish and brave -- it’s an adventure. 

Kill Rock Stars is one of indie rock’s most respected record labels, known by fans for its superior taste in music, and by musicians for its ethical approach to business. Nirvana, Sleater-Kinney and Elliott Smith all have roots at the label. But there are a lot of bumps on the road, as you take a business from a one-bedroom apartment to the big time. Follow founder Slim Moon and current label presi...

As the owner, head chef, and mastermind behind her restaurant n/naka, Chef Niki Nakayama serves up coveted kaiseki dinners, a structured multi-course meal that emphasizes seasonality and extreme technical prowess. Niki truly straddles the line of tradition and innovation, sourcing local ingredients and employing centuries-old techniques. And she just may be the only woman in the world who does it. ...

It all started when Jon Murray, a TV and documentary producer, and Mary-Ellis Bunim, a soap opera writer, approached MTV with an idea that ultimately changed television forever. The Real World popularized a new genre of television known as “reality TV.” Today, reality TV has splintered into innumerable forms, but its backbone was built with The Real World, and Bunim/Murray Productions continues to ...

It all started with coupons -- and it’s become a multi-million dollar, multi-platform media empire. It’s The Onion: A worldwide source for witty news satire. The Onion was started by a few college kids at the University of Wisconsin in the late ‘80s. Now it’s so engrained in our culture that we point out when the real news “looks like an Onion headline.”  The Onion has both observed the world, and ...

Before organic products were trendy, before “hippie chic” was a popular Pinterest search term, there was Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap Company. For decades, Dr. Bronner’s pure-castile liquid soap was affiliated with counter-culture folks drawn to its simplicity and “We are All-One!” messaging. And while it was founded by a German immigrant in the 1940’s, the generations that came after him -- his sons a...

She’d never written a line of code in her life -- but she had the guts to take on one of tech’s biggest problems. Meet Reshman Saujani: a daughter of refugees, a Yale Law graduate, a former Wall Street lawyer, and an ex-candidate for Congress. Today, she runs Girls Who Code, an organization she founded to disrupt the tech talent pipeline, by closing the gender gap. Through all of it, she’s learned ...

This week, something a little different. A panel discussion featuring Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, along with Seattle entrepreneurs:

Our season finale! Advice on turning simple ideas into business adventures from a panel of L.A.-based entrepreneurs and Virgin Group founder and author Richard Branson.