Video Of The Week: The Nitty Gritty Podcast

Bond Street, a startup company that makes small business loans, has started a podcast to tell stories about small business entrepreneurs and the companies they create and run. They call it the Nitty Gritty Podcast.

The first episode features an entrepreneur who is also a friend of ours, Gabe Stulman.

Gabe is a restaurant operator in the west village of Manhattan, where we live. We started our relationship with Gabe as regulars at his first restaurant and we have gone on to be investors in all of his current restaurants, as well as good friends with him.

Here is Gabe’s story. It’s a good one.

#entrepreneurship#NYC

Comments (Archived):

  1. awaldstein

    I’ll listen when I work out in a bitThe title triggered a memory of a fave band from the distant past.https://en.wikipedia.org/wi

  2. fredwilson

    I bet that is the genesis of the name of the podcast

    1. awaldstein

      Drew me in right away.This is the year when podcasts become the perfect medium for storytelling. Where marketing and messaging fit the mobile and multitasking reality of our world.Everything is moving around–4.9b mobile phones this year. Some 20+billion data emitting things in IoT in the next four years.Being interesting is not enough.Making the medium part of the dynamics of the audience is prime. Podcast do this for me–in the gym, on the subway, as part of every flight.Anyone out there have a service to help startups launch a series of these with some decent production values?Know a few that would use it today. Podcasts like video works when it is done well, boring and sucky when not.

      1. Ro Gupta

        more for ‘micropods’ I think but check out bumpers.fm

        1. LE

          That isn’t what he was asking for the way I interpret. He is asking a good question that really boils down to a service that is easy and doesn’t take a great deal of DIY time and direction following to produce a podcast of high enough quality to be taken seriously. Similar to what is done with websites with squarespace or ecommerce with volusion. Better yet might be just a consultant that provided the necessary handholding to get someone up to speed without having to do a great deal of reading, thought and time. That is the bane of any entrepreneur. Lack of time and generally lack of intelligent staff that could run with any small project like producing podcasts. That said the difference between podcasts and a website is you constantly have to come up with the time to make new material that is interesting, not just the process of actually producing and understanding the process.

      2. Anne Libby

        @pointsandfigures told me about Ringr (midwestern startup). It’s a dead simple way to record phone calls, which I’ve been using for a couple of months to make recordings of phone calls that I’ve been sharing (via newsletter.)I like a radio show or podcast to have some “grit,” but not in a way that creates inaudibility: and this fits the bill. I hope the company thrives.

  3. lichmd

    As a New Yorker and entrepreneur I really enjoy your posts Fred. Gabe’s story is an awesome, classic American in New York story.And we love The Little Owl

  4. LE

    This is fantastic. Listening to it now.

  5. Erin

    The bond street guy sounds barely twenty.

    1. LE

      Yeah I really liked this and just finished the entire podcast [1] . Gabe did a great job of answering some typical open ended political reporter type questions “what does it mean to be a restaurateur?” … “what’s next?” (to which Gabe answers (he is really funny by the way) “I am just excited to serve dinner tonight!”. I don’t do well with quiz questions like that “what do you like about your wife” I call them. So much of entrepreneurship is serendipity [2] and I get the impression that Haber (while well meaning) doesn’t entirely grok what it’s like to be an entrepreneur (at this level) and how the brain works in essentially making smart decisions and exploiting potential opportunities as they come up. Hard to explain that and feel it if you’ve never been there. Doesn’t come from reading about it. It’s not the same as running a bigger corporate ship or climbing that ladder.This podcast reminded me (fondly) about many conversations that I had back in the day with various business people where you’d pick their brain and hear their war stories. They were always happy to dish. Simply because their aren’t many people that you would run into that wanted to hear those stories and listen to them. Or hear someone talk in a way that could be thought to be bragging (who cares if it is?) The difference of course between hearing in person and reading is that you can ask questions and dive into more detail and not go away with a nugget out of context. [3]My last thought on this was how similar my upbringing (having to earn money to buy things that I wanted) was so helpful to me and how much I learned from those things that I did (that led to actually later being able to make a living). That is what is missing today from the way children are raised at least from what I see and am exposed to. It’s way beyond being spoiled and it’s actually harmful.[1] I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.[2] Gabe’s examples of landlords approaching him and what happened with his overflow crowds and how that led to having multiple venues for example.[3] Insurance claim story is a good example I am sure most people hearing that are thinking something different than what I thought when I heard Gabe’s side of it.

      1. Erin

        Yeah I don’ t think I’ve listened to an entire podcast before either. I hate them. But this was good.

        1. awaldstein

          I seriously love podcasts and listen to one every morning in the gym.There are 900 episodes of This American Life to start with 😉

          1. Erin

            Lol omg. 900! You don’t feel like they’re a bit sensory-deprivation tank-ish? I need visuals. I don’t understand why they can’t just throw up a video camera and record it from there. That picture of Gabe’s face was the only thing keeping me hanging on.

          2. awaldstein

            I work out every morning before 7 after I write.I would much rather start my day with a story going through my head than music. That is where podcasts come into play for me.This expresses how I feel.Rediscovering storytelling http://awe.sm/x0bHt

          3. Erin

            Fair enough. Fair enough. I might listen to a short something on the treadmill today…

          4. awaldstein

            Each to their own.This is a classic. I’m a huge Ira Glass fan since he started in radio.http://www.thisamericanlife

          5. Erin

            Ok yeah maybe. Although the treadmills have TV’s and I DID just discover My 600 Pound Life…

          6. awaldstein

            I’m an interval workout freak so always on the move and use almost no machines so to me its all focus and a carrying story in my head.

          7. Erin

            OK I’m on a strict No-Sinatra diet, but I’ll listen to this one called Switched at Birth. http://www.thisamericanlife…Interval training is the new thing from what I hear.

          8. awaldstein

            I listened to that this morning. Have fun!

          9. Erin

            That was messed up. Who do you blame? For why the mix-up was covered up for so long?

          10. awaldstein

            Stories that leave you wondering are ones worth telling…

          11. Erin

            It was Norbert’s fault.

          12. awaldstein

            somebody made it through the podcast!

          13. Erin

            Barely. I almost fell off the treadmill from the disorientation of not having video along with the sound but I hung on. 🙂

  6. jason wright

    i’m five minutes in and already i’m fascinated and perplexed by how complicated the issue of food and eating was for Gabe’s family.

  7. panterosa,

    I love that the first restaurant was built with bare hands and Ikea budget. But it was “wholesome, enthusiastic, and we were the underdog”. Authenticity and the lack of pretension, passion and chutzpah are so refreshing. Still.

  8. Brendan

    Enjoyed the podcast as I’ve followed Gabe’s success from restaurant to restaurant in the west village, plus it’s great to see him escape from the maddening crowd on occasion to chow down on a slice at some of our favorite spots in the hood. He’s developed a great model for winning in the restaurant biz.