What happens when something you spent more than a decade building disappears almost overnight?

Angela M. Keaveny shares the unfiltered story behind ROWDYDOW bbq, from rapid growth and national contracts to a supply chain collapse that nearly ended everything. This is a conversation about grit, resilience, leadership, and why some founders keep going when others walk away.

This is not a food story.
It's a perseverance story.

00:00 Eleven years to build, five minutes to lose it
03:40 Turning a family recipe into a real business
08:15 Scaling fast and landing national contracts
14:10 The supply chain warning signs most founders miss
22:05 The moment everything started to fall apart
31:50 Losing Walmart, Sodexo, and momentum
41:30 How close she came to walking away
49:20 Why grit matters more than strategy
56:40 Rebuilding, mentoring, and what comes next

About The Fervent Four Show
The Fervent Four Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Tim Ryan and Zack Miller, featuring candid conversations with entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders shaping Hampton Roads and beyond. Each episode focuses on real stories, hard lessons, and what it actually takes to build something that lasts.
Learn more at https://www.innovate757.org/ferventfour/

Innovate Hampton Roads exists to tell the real stories of entrepreneurship happening across our region and beyond. We highlight founders, leaders, and builders who are shaping the future through action, not hype.

If you care about entrepreneurship, leadership, and building something that lasts, subscribe and explore more at https://www.innovate757.org

Public exposure sounds exciting until you live inside it.

Years of live television forced Kristen Crowley into visibility before she was ready, stripping away approval, confidence, and privacy. What followed wasn't polish. It was survival. This conversation explores what public pressure does to identity, why most people break under scrutiny, and how repeated exposure reshapes who you become.

If you're building something publicly, whether in entrepreneurship, leadership, or creative work, this episode confronts the psychological cost no one prepares you for. Halfway through, Crowley explains the exact moment she stopped caring what people thought, and why everything changed after that.

00:00 – Pressure is not a metaphor
03:12 – Thrown into live TV with no training
08:41 – Public criticism and psychological cost
14:27 – When confidence stopped mattering
20:05 – Identity versus approval
26:18 – From television to entrepreneurship
32:44 – "We have fun and we get shit done"
36:10 – "Fuck your feelings" explained
41:52 – Visibility, ego, and survival
48:30 – Why most people break under exposure
55:40 – What survives when approval is gone

Learn more about Kristen's work at ReFRAME Your Brand:
https://reframeyourbrand.com/

Pratik Kothari, CEO of TechArk, shares how he built a 120+ person global technology company spanning the US and India, and why embracing AI early has become a leadership imperative, not a risk.

From launching TechArk while still employed full-time, to building a 24-hour global delivery model, to leading AI adoption internally before selling it externally, this conversation dives deep into modern leadership, global communication, and navigating rapid technological disruption.

Topics include building trust across cultures, why waiting on AI is more dangerous than testing it, how leaders earn buy-in through execution, and why small community-driven events often matter more than massive conferences.

This is a candid look at what it actually takes to build a resilient, future-ready company.

00:00 Why leaders fear AI and how teams really respond
02:03 The origin story of TechArk and its early experiments
03:35 Growing to 120+ employees across the US and India
04:42 Building a true 24-hour global operations model
06:33 Why offshore tech projects fail and how to fix them
09:25 How Pratik ended up in Norfolk and Hampton Roads
12:48 The power of authentic startup communities
18:42 How great leaders earn buy-in through listening
22:48 TechArk's evolution from software to digital growth
26:53 Why networking works better when money isn't the goal
34:14 The AI challenge that changed TechArk internally
38:38 Global attitudes toward AI, US vs India vs China
44:07 How CEOs should evaluate AI risk and adoption
49:10 Firing bullets before cannonballs, a growth strategy
56:06 Advice for entrepreneurs building long-term relevance
59:19 A local food recommendation that defines Hampton Roads

1. Full conversation with Pratik Kothari on leadership, AI adoption, and organizational alignment, Fervent Four Show

2. Learn more about TechArk and its AI-forward approach: https://www.techark.com

3. AI Collective Hampton Roads, a community-led initiative focused on the human side of artificial intelligence and responsible AI education: https://www.theaicollective.ai/hampton-roads

Want more stories like this on innovation, leadership, startups, and what's being built across Hampton Roads?

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