Pathfinders Playground
Pathfinders Playground

A podcast about starting something of your own

Nobody handed them a map.

Every episode is one conversation with someone who took the first step on their own: a shop, a studio, a farm, a company. Most of them are the first in their family to do it.

See how each episode runs Pitch yourself as a guest
Pathfinders Playground logo: a vintage microphone in front of an amber sunburst
Guests
People who started on their own
Often
First-generation entrepreneurs
Format
One guest, one honest story
Episodes
Recording now. Coming soon.

A playground, not a lecture.

Pathfinders Playground is for the person who has an idea and nobody around them who has done it before. We talk to the ones who went first anyway.

A pathfinder is anyone who took the initiative. They did not wait for a job offer, a loan officer or a family business to hand them a start. We ask how they began, what went wrong, and what they would do again.

The playground part is on purpose. These are relaxed, curious conversations where trying, failing and trying again are the point.

First in the family

No playbook at the dinner table. We look for founders building where nobody before them did.

Started, not planned

We care about the first real move: the first sale, the first month without a salary, the first customer.

Any kind of venture

Tech, food, crafts, services, farms. If you built it yourself, it belongs here.

How an episode runs

Five stops on every trail.

  1. The trailhead

    Where they started from: the town, the family, the job they were in before any of this.

    "What did starting look like where you grew up?"

  2. The first step

    The moment they decided to go. What they had, what they lacked, and who they told.

    "What was the very first thing you did?"

  3. The wrong turn

    The mistake, the stall, the month that nearly ended it, told without polish.

    "When did you almost stop?"

  4. The climb

    First customer, first hire, first time the money made sense. How it grew from nothing.

    "What changed when it started working?"

  5. The view

    What they would tell the next person standing at the trailhead with an idea and no map.

    "What would you tell someone who is about to start?"

For guests

Started something? Tell us.

  • You began on your own, with your own money, time or nerve.
  • You are the first in your family to run a business, or close to it.
  • You can tell the hard parts as clearly as the wins.
  • Size does not matter. A one-person shop counts.

Draft your pitch

This builds the message for you to copy. Send it to the host through their usual channel.

Where to listen.

Every episode comes to YouTube first. Spotify is on the way.

YouTube Watch here Spotify Coming soon Catch snippets on Instagram

For sponsors

Back the people who start things.

Our listeners are founders, first-time business owners and people with an idea who are working up the nerve. If your brand serves them, we would like to talk.

Sponsors show up in the conversations, on YouTube and in the clips we share on Instagram. We only partner with brands we would be happy to recommend ourselves.