Kass & Mike Lazerow — Shoveling Shit: A Love Story About The Entrepreneur’s Messy Path to Success, Building Golf.com & Selling Buddy Media to Salesforce

The Casey Adams Show

Listener.com Podcast Network

Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today on The Casey Adams Show, I’m joined by Kass and Mike Lazerow — the powerhouse couple behind Golf.com and Buddy Media, and co-authors of Shoveling Shit: A Love Story About The Entrepreneur’s Messy Path to Success. From launching startups to navigating marriage and business together, Kass and Mike bring a raw, honest perspective to what it really takes to build and exit successful companies — while building a life together.

In this episode, we dive into their one-of-a-kind love story that began with an email proposal, the ups and downs of building businesses as a couple, and what inspired them to write so candidly about the messy side of entrepreneurship. We cover their early days, fundraising strategies, the sale of Buddy Media to Salesforce for nearly $800 million, and the emotional journey behind it all. Whether you’re a founder, in a relationship, or both — this one will hit home.

Buy the book: https://shovelingshit.com/
Follow Kass & Mike: https://www.instagram.com/kassandmike/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to the Lazerow Story
02:59 The Journey of Love and Business
05:46 Building Trust in Relationships
08:48 The Decision to Write a Book
11:58 The Evolution of Golf.com
15:00 Navigating Challenges and Setbacks
17:53 Fundraising Insights and Strategies
20:52 The Importance of Relationships in Business
23:51 Gary Vee and the Power of Consistency
31:28 The Early Days of Entrepreneurship
33:02 Buddy Media and the Social Media Revolution
36:20 The Impact of Facebook on Society
39:04 Navigating the Challenges of Entrepreneurship
41:34 The Emotional Journey of a Billion Dollar Exit
47:39 Looking Ahead: Future Aspirations and Giving Back

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Casey Adams Show. Today we're joined by Mike and Cass Lazaro. Thank you so much
0:08.0	both for being here today. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Appreciate it. Of course. So first of
0:14.8	I know we were chatting before, but I am so inspired by your story, you know, as as cofounders, as husband and wife, and as now co-authors on your new book, which we'll get into.
0:28.2	It really couldn't have come at a better time in my life.
0:31.8	I know we were chatting before.
0:32.7	I got married a month ago.
0:34.0	And I really am so excited to dive into this conversation today. And, you know,
0:38.7	for people that may not know, and you guys are both co-founders of golf.com and buddy media with
0:44.5	both had acquisitions, which we'll dive more into. But again, thank you so much for being here
0:49.7	and so excited to dive in today. And to kick things off, I got to say, one takeaway from the book,
0:55.5	you mentioned always respond to emails. And I got to start with you, Mike. Your proposal in the book,
1:03.3	which I'm sure people would dive into, this whole thing started from an email. Tell us more about that.
1:09.1	Yeah. So Cass and I really met at a wedding right after I graduated Northwestern University,
1:14.8	and Cass almost didn't go to the wedding.
1:17.3	She RSVPed to go, but it was over a holiday weekend, and one of her friends luckily said,
1:22.8	your Cass Severi, so you RSVPed, you have to go, you can't ditch it.
1:27.2	And so we went to the wedding, and we hit it off at the wedding.
1:30.3	We gave a speech together because we're both from D.C. friends with the bride.
1:35.9	And right after the first dance, we had our first dance ever.
1:40.3	And there was just kind of chemistry and electricity.
1:43.6	Unfortunately, after the wedding, I went back to Chicago and Cass went to D.C.
1:48.9	And so what that meant is that we had a year of a long-distance relationship,
	...

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