From child refugee to chart-topping pop star, and now a mentor to thousands, Christian Ray Flores’ journey is one of resilience, reinvention, and unshakable hope.

Born in Moscow to a Chilean father and Russian mother, his earliest memories were shaped by displacement after a brutal coup left his father imprisoned in a concentration camp. By the age of seven, Christian had lived in four countries, speaking four languages while navigating war, exile, and cultural upheaval.

Out of that adversity, he rose to global stages, with his music once becoming the anthem of freedom during Russia’s pivotal presidential campaign. Today, Christian channels that same passion into mentoring high-achievers, leading nonprofits in Mozambique and Ukraine, and equipping leaders to build personal brands that multiply both income and impact through his company, Xponential Life.

From Security Systems to Scaling Startups: Meet the Engineer-Turned-CEO Powering Fashion’s Digital Backbone

This week, we interview Harish Chandramowli, the brilliant mind behind Flaire a lightweight, intuitive ERP system that’s quietly transforming how fashion brands manage inventory, purchasing, and operations. Before stepping into the world of fashion tech, Harish built his reputation in elite engineering circles leading cloud infrastructure teams at MongoDB, securing sensitive systems at Bloomberg, and co-founding India’s first P2P bike-sharing platform, Ridengine. With over a decade of technical leadership under his belt, he’s now steering a venture-backed startup in New York that bridges deep tech with business empathy.

Flaire isn’t just software, it’s a founder-led, customer-first movement that’s reshaping how emerging brands scale with clarity and control. And Harish isn’t your typical CEO. He codes, jumps on sales calls, rolls out productivity tools like Greptile, and builds remote-first teams with care and culture in mind.
In this interview, we go beyond the product. We unpack his immigrant journey, his childhood curiosity, and how he found the courage to shift from code to customer balancing resilience, reinvention, and the business of listening.

What does it take to go from not knowing how to hail a cab in Manhattan… to becoming a Vice President of Technology Strategy at a global company? In this deeply moving and energizing episode, we sit down with Gustavo “Guga” Netto, who shares his remarkable journey from São Paulo to New York City with no English, no connections, and no safety net.

Gustavo opens up about the early years in survival mode working as a dishwasher, waiter, and roller-skating through Fifth Avenue to stay mentally afloat. But what makes his story extraordinary is the mindset shift he made: choosing growth over fear, and vision over circumstance. From discovering healing routines at Barnes & Noble to becoming a self-taught programmer during the internet boom

Whether you’re an immigrant navigating a new beginning or someone dreaming of a seat at the table, Gustavo’s story proves this: you don’t need to have it all figured out, you just need to keep building. Because, as he says, “Survival is just the first stage. Then comes growth. Then comes abundance—and giving back.”