Leap Academy with Ilana Golan

Tom Cortese helped turn an idea that investors rejected hundreds of times into Peloton—an $8.1 billion public company that completely changed the way millions of people exercise. But his story isn’t just about building Peloton. It’s also about knowing when to walk away from something that has become part of your identity and having the courage to start again.In this episode, ...

Sir Richard Harpin put £50,000 of his life savings into a business that nearly collapsed—twice. That company eventually became HomeServe, serving millions of customers globally before being sold for more than £4 billion. In this episode, Richard joins Ilana to share the lessons behind that extraordinary journey, from finding the business model that saved HomeServe with his f...

At 18 years old, Shawn Nelson had a crazy idea: build a beanbag so massive it could fill an entire room. That idea eventually became Lovesac, a publicly traded furniture company and major consumer brand.

In this episode, Shawn joins Ilana to share the real journey behind building Lovesac, from taking risks and learning as he went to winning Richard Branson’s The Re...

Manu Sai Bakshi arrived in New York with $2,500, a new wife, and a degree that wasn’t recognized in the U.S. Within weeks, he was applying for a job at Macy’s in Herald Square.

That humbling beginning eventually led Manu into the hedge fund world, where he spent nearly a decade learning how the industry identifies and hires elite talent before launching Permanence Advi...

Ilana Golan knows what it feels like to lose everything. After climbing from the Air Force to Intel to VP in a Silicon Valley startup, she thought she had made it. But when a trusted co-founder cut her out of their new business overnight, she was left with nothing. No job, no company, no income, and a shattered ego. That collapse became the turning point, forcing Ilana to ask...