144: David Lekach (Serial Entrepreneur)
David Lekach on Innovation City
“I feel most alive when I’m solving problems.” – David Lekach
Welcome to Season 3 of Innovation City, a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.
Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in cooperation with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community. Venture Cafe is the largest combined gathering of entrepreneurs and innovators anywhere in the world. Events are held every Thursday in St. Louis, Miami, and other leading innovation cities around the globe.
Today’s guest is serial entrepreneur, David Lekach. Lekach inherited the entrepreneurial spirit from his father who is the founder of the well known fragrance company Perfumania. Lekach lives to solve problems and create businesses admitting he has few interests outside the world of start-ups. In this episode, Tyler and Leigh-Ann have a lively talk with David about how Dream Water was conceived, the importance of making connections and being resourceful, how product placement is everything, why experience is the best teacher, and much more!
They discuss:
- How having an entrepreneurial family sparked Lekach’s passion for start-ups
- Staying focused on personal growth
- Focusing on local communities
- Why it’s a good idea to position products at the point of sale displays
- What you can learn in consumer facing roles
- The importance of getting a product in consumer hands as a sales strategy
- Learning how to negotiate contracts
- The complexity of finding a consumer demand
- Why experience is the best teacher
- Thinking strategically about data and logistics
- Why being a consumer of your own product helps you sell it
- How Dream Water is expected to evolve over extending to include CBD, hemp, and beauty products
Lightning Round:
- What is the last book you read?
- Leadership and The Art of Self Deception by The Arbinger Institute
- What is your favorite restaurant?
- What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?
- Check my phone
- What do you spend too much time doing?
- Playing fantasy baseball
- Browsing Instagram
- What is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?
- Make affirming gestures of appreciation
- What is your Superpower?
- Perseverance
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