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In this episode, I sit down with Justin Mares, co-founder of TrueMed and Founder Health, to unpack a topic most founders ignore until it’s too late: your health is part of your business model. Justin shares how he built companies around prevention instead of reaction and why founder energy, clarity, and resilience directly compound into better decisions, stronger leadership, and long-term business growth. We talk about the hidden costs of burnout, why traditional healthcare fails entrepreneurs, and how treating health like infrastructure changed the way Justin builds. If you’re scaling a company, leading a team, or feeling the weight of constant decision-making, this conversation reframes health not as self-care, but as a strategic advantage. Watch now to learn how elite founders protect their most undervalued asset: themselves.

Justin Mares

Connect with me: My website: https://limitless.ceo/ Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/themarkmacleod/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markmacleodcoach/

Join a community of ambitious CEOs who are looking to build market-leading companies without sacrificing health and happiness.

Check out: https://limitless.ceo

What no one tells you about scaling is that the “big milestones” usually aren’t revenue numbers; they’re philosophy shifts, focus decisions, and how you build a company that can outgrow its founders. In this episode of The Startup CEO Show, I sit down with Vitaly (StackAdapt) to unpack how StackAdapt scaled to 1,600 people, crossed $500M+ in revenue, and stayed Virtual-First without letting culture collapse into chaos. We talk about what changed when Vitaly stepped into the CEO seat after nine years of founder-led leadership, why they delayed early fundraising and later brought in growth-stage investors (for credibility, maturity, and long-term category leadership), and what it takes to build systems that don’t depend on a few heroic decision-makers. We also get into a powerful insight Vitaly doesn’t hear enough in marketing conversations: a great product makes marketing easier. If you’re building in a crowded market, scaling a remote team, or trying to grow without losing your soul as a company, this one’s for you.

Connect with me: My website: https://limitless.ceo/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/themarkmacleod/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markmacleodcoach/

Join a community of ambitious CEOs who are looking to build market-leading companies without sacrificing health and happiness.Check out: https://limitless.ceo

What does it really take for a finance guy to become a startup founder and build all the way to a meaningful exit?In this episode of the Start Up CEO Show, I sit down with Blair Livingston, founder of Street Context, to unpack the real story behind building a vertical SaaS business inside one of the hardest enterprise markets on earth: capital markets. Blair shares how 300 coffees and relentless hustle opened doors early, why “delusional optimism” is a founder superpower, and what it felt like to spend nearly a decade “crossing the desert” before growth finally took off.We also get into the gritty stuff most founders avoid: when raising money becomes a trap, why strategy can’t be driven by capital, how Blair executed a painful 40% layoff to save the company, and why he optimized for control (board + voting) so he could run the business with clarity and transparency. Finally, Blair opens up about the emotional whiplash of selling, post-exit identity shifts, and why he’s now focused on AI + tokenization as the next major wave in finance.

Blair Livingston

Connect with me:My website: https://limitless.ceo/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/themarkmacleod/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markmacleodcoach/