Real Founders.
Real Stories.
No Fluff.
How It Started is where $1M+ founders share the raw truth about building a business. The failures. The pivots. The lessons learned the hard way.
Not Another Business Podcast
Most business podcasts sound the same. Polished stories. Highlight reels. "Here's what I did right" without the context of what went wrong first.
How It Started is different.
We Talk About:
- • The origin story — How you got here
- • The turning points — Decisions that shaped everything
- • The systems you built — What actually works
- • The lessons you'd share — What you'd tell yourself 5 years ago
Format:
- • 45-60 minutes
- • Conversational, not scripted
- • In-studio (Vegas) or remote
- • Raw, honest, real
Hosted by Hiram Andino
Combat Army Veteran - Afghanistan Deployment
Early Days - Building PodLab
Hiram Andino didn't start as an entrepreneur. He started as a combat Army veteran who brought military systems thinking into the business world.
"Most founders hit the same walls. The only difference is how fast they recognize the pattern and build the system to break through."
The Journey
From humble beginnings to helping $1M+ founders duplicate themselves
New Jersey → Las Vegas
From humble beginnings in NJ to making the move to Las Vegas. High school, early years, building the foundation.
Combat Army Veteran
Joined the military, deployed to Afghanistan. Leadership under pressure. Systems thinking forged in combat.
→ Where systems thinking was born
Sales → GSM → Corporate Director
Started in sales at the world's most famous dealership. Promoted to General Sales Manager in just 6 years. Then Corporate Director for entire dealership group — hiring, onboarding, training all positions, customer service.
→ Built scalable systems across an entire organization
Opened PodLab → Failed
Launched PodLab. It didn't work. Hard lessons learned about positioning, systems, and founder dependency.
→ Failure as teacher
Cardone Ventures - #1 Hire
Joined Cardone Ventures as #1 hire for event sales and business development. 6 months of high-performance validation.
→ Proved the model worked at scale
PodLab v2 - Armed with Lessons
Relaunched PodLab with clarity on positioning, systems, and delivery. The grind to $1M. Got beat up on the way. Paid the price.
Duplicated Myself into Strategic Videos
Created 4K strategic video assets that sell 24/7. Built systems to make delivery easy. Built systems to get paid. Removed myself as the bottleneck.
→ Record once, sell forever
Helping Founders Duplicate Themselves
PodLab exists to help $1M-$8M founders duplicate their best sales conversations into strategic video assets. Remove founder dependency. Scale without adding complexity.
→ Turning the lesson into a movement
How It Started
A podcast for entrepreneurs to learn from $1M+ founders who built real systems. The journey. The failures. The breakthroughs. No fluff, just truth.
→ Real founders. Real systems. Real results.
The Founder Duplication System
"I was stuck. Revenue depended on me being in every sales call. My brand didn't match my business quality. I was spending 20+ hours a week explaining the same thing to different prospects."
So I duplicated myself into strategic 4K videos that sell 24/7.
Built systems to make delivery easy. Built systems to get paid. Removed myself as the bottleneck.
Now I help other founders do the same.
Listen to How It Started
Want to Share Your Story?
If you're a $1M+ founder with a story worth telling, we want to hear it.
Apply to Be a Guest →