A PodLab showHow It StartedReal founders. Real stories. No fluff.
Where $1M+ founders share the raw truth about building a business.

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. It is a conversation about the failures, the pivots and the lessons learned the hard way, with founders who built real systems.
- The origin story: how you got here
- The turning points: the decisions that shaped everything
- The systems you built: what actually works
- The lessons: what you’d tell yourself five years ago
- 45 to 60 minutes
- Conversational, not scripted
- In the Pods in Las Vegas, or remote
- Raw, honest, real
Hiram Andino, Founder, 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.
He built PodLab in Las Vegas on one idea: record once, sell forever. The show is where he asks other founders how they got there.
“Most founders hit the same walls. The only difference is how fast they recognize the pattern and build the system to break through.”

From the grind to a system.
From New Jersey to Las Vegas, and from the grind to a system that runs without him.
- 01OriginsNew Jersey to Las Vegas
From humble beginnings in New Jersey to the move to Las Vegas. High school, early years, building the foundation.
- 02MilitaryCombat Army veteran
Joined the Army, deployed to Afghanistan. Leadership under pressure.
Where systems thinking was born - 03CorporateSales to General Sales Manager to Corporate Director
Started in sales at the world’s most famous dealership. General Sales Manager in six years, then Corporate Director for the whole dealership group: hiring, onboarding, training every position, customer service.
Built systems across an entire organization - 04The first attemptOpened PodLab. It failed.
Launched PodLab. It didn’t work. Hard lessons about positioning, systems and founder dependency.
Failure as teacher - 05Proof of conceptCardone Ventures, hire number one
Joined Cardone Ventures as the first hire for event sales and business development. Six months of high-performance validation.
Proved the model worked at scale - 06The relaunchPodLab, second time around
Relaunched with clarity on positioning, systems and delivery. The grind to $1M. Got beat up on the way. Paid the price.
- 07The breakthroughDuplicated himself into video
Strategic 4K video assets that sell 24/7. Systems that make delivery easy. Systems that get paid. The founder taken out of the middle of every sale.
Record once, sell forever - 08TodayHelping founders do the same
PodLab duplicates founders’ best sales conversations into video and systems, so growth stops depending on their hours.
Full episodes are on YouTube. Watch the channel
Want to share your story?
If you’re a $1M+ founder with a story worth telling, we want to hear it. Recorded in the Pods in Las Vegas, or remote.
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