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The Hard Launch

Natasha Yuhjtman

Where founder life meets the chaos, joy, and drama of weddings, relationships, and real life.

Hosted by Natasha Yuhjtman — a founder, mom, and entrepreneur — The Hard Launch is a podcast that explores what it really takes to build something from scratch: a business, a brand, a marriage, or even your dream wedding.

Each week, Natasha sits down with startup founders, wedding industry experts, and creative entrepreneurs for candid conversations about the messy, beautiful, and often hilarious process of launching and scaling anything worth building. Together, they unpack the behind-the-scenes realities of entrepreneurship, love, and personal growth — from navigating founder burnout and creative pivots to rethinking relationship dynamics and startup-style wedding planning.

Whether it's AI-powered wedding tools, female founders redefining success, or love lessons learned the hard way, The Hard Launch is your go-to podcast for discovering how to balance ambition, relationships, and real life — and still find joy in the process.

For founders, creatives, dreamers, and anyone juggling big ideas, big love, and even bigger goals.

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  • 22 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 59 min
  • English

Episodes 22

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  • Dec 11, 2025 · 56 min

    The Unfiltered Founder Experience and What it Really Takes to Build a Business While Building a Life with Kathleen Sheppard

    #7 In this episode of The Hard Launch, Natasha sits down with Kathleen Sheppard—three-time founder and co-creator of Tote—to talk about building a startup while building a life. Kathleen shares the personal growth, resilience, and alignment required to navigate foundership and the lessons that come from betting on yourself and creating a life that truly fits. She also opens up about her Bora Bora engagement, planning a destination wedding in Menorca, and how she and her partner balance both being founders, fiancés, and future family-builders. A grounded, honest conversation about love, leadership, and the milestones that shape us as entrepreneurs. More about Tote Follow The Hard Launch on Instagram Follow Natasha on Instagram Watch the full episode on YouTube Timestamps 00:00 – Welcome + introducing Kathleen 01:00 – Kathleen's path to becoming a 3x founder 04:00 – Lessons from past startups & finding real customer pain points 09:00 – Product-market fit, prototyping, and team dynamics 13:30 – Kathleen's Bora Bora engagement 16:00 – Wedding planning while building a company 20:00 – Balancing two founder schedules + boundaries 24:00 – Vendor challenges + destination wedding logistics 30:00 – How relationship dynamics influence startup life 34:00 – Emotional support, resilience, and future planning 41:00 – Advice for founders juggling life milestones 48:00 – What Kathleen has learned about herself 52:00 – Co-founder dynamics & how they met

  • Dec 4, 2025 · 50 min

    Building the Future of Wedding Media, Co-Founder Lessons, and How to Spot a Transformable Venue

    This week, Natasha sits down with Alina Krupenina and Daria Neretina, the co-founders of WedVibes, one of the fastest-growing wedding media companies in the world. One a planner and the other a consumer marketer, both immigrants that came together in the most unexpected way to build a global brand and scale their team across continents. Alina and Daria dive into their co-founder dynamic, how they built in a fragmented female-driven industry, the setbacks that shaped them, and the mindset behind building a category-defining company from scratch, and how they stayed innovative for over a decade. Plus they share how they bootstrapped Web Vibes, navigated cultural transitions as immigrants, signing their first members, and survived setbacks. Follow Wed Vibes on Instagram Follow The Hard Launch on Instagram Follow Natasha on Instagram Watch the full episode on YouTube Timestamps 00:00 – Meet Alina & Daria + how Wed Vibes began 05:00 – Launching their first membership & early traction 10:00 – Why the wedding industry is an underestimated powerhouse 15:00 – Building a co-founder partnership that actually works 22:00 – Handling disagreements & using a coach to grow 30:00 – The future of Wed Vibes + their new wedding venue venture

Showing 21–22 of 22 episodes