Growth Advising by Darrell Lerner (DCL Corp)

I help businesses, startups, influencers, and creators grow, monetize, and optimize their digital strategy & product growth strategy.

https://www.darrelllerner.com/

🔸 Creator Monetization
🔸 Management consulting
🔸 Growth and revenue generation
🔸 Product strategy and development
🔸 Problem-Solving & Strategic Planning
🔸 AI integration and optimization for your business
🔸 Digital strategy (Social media / conversion optimization)


Consulting/advising businesses and startups on growth, product, operations, scaling, management, digital strategy, marketing, and social media etc. 

Will consider new advising and digital consulting engagements on a case by case basis.

Growth and Strategy Advisor for Businesses & Startups | Fractional COO

PEF Community

A global community of the world's top post-exit founders.

Member

Syndicate 11

• Syndicate11 is a private creator network of 350+ top creative talent (creators, influencers, actresses, models etc), with a collective reach of 400M+ followers. (Top niches: Health & wellness, luxury, lifestyle, fashion)

• All talent is hand selected, vetted & manually approved.

• We specialize in creating boutique highly curated luxury experiences to generate organic content.

Each event is invite-only and designed for intimate, high-touch connection. 

@syndicate11_ on IG

Founder

Network Effects

We grow loyal audiences for top entrepreneurs, founders, and business leaders through industry leading content strategy, creation, and distribution. 

We turn invisible experts into respected authorities. 

Achieve your business goals faster by letting us take the hassle out of building your personal brand on X and LinkedIn.

‘Saturday’ App by FOMO Ventures, Inc.

Saturday is a venture-backed, community-driven social app designed to help users forge meaningful connections with those around them. 

It combats loneliness and engineers serendipity through the use of cutting-edge AI and geolocation technology. 

Saturday offers AI-curated local connections and personalized conversation starters, fostering a community where meaningful relationships can flourish.

Co-Founder & Board Member 

AllPaws.com (acquired by PetSmart)

🐶 FOUNDER & CEO of ALLPAWS - a leading digital pet adoption platform with over 1.5 million registered users on web & iPhone. 

AllPaws was acquired by pet industry leader PetSmart in October 2016.

AllPaws was a best-in-class web & mobile platform and community for pet lovers which applied an online dating approach to pet adoption and used proprietary technology to re-imagine the way people find their next dog, cat, or pets. AllPaws was one of the largest pet adoption platforms on the internet and offered a comprehensive solution on web and a fun & addicting mobile app experience on iPhone. 

Key stats and achievements:

🔹 Over 1.5 Million Registered Users

🔹 More than 1 Million Visits per month  

🔹 Over 500,000 iPhone App Downloads & Top 100 Ranking in Lifestyle Category of App Store. 

🔹 Generated over $1.5 million in advertising revenue from highly engaging custom placements created for premium pet brands designed to reach new pet parents at the point of market entry.  

🔹 Top tier press coverage + many unsolicited product recommendations - incl. featured on ABC News, Fox News, Huffington Post (2x), Forbes, MSN, Mashable, Good Morning America, Engadget, Fast Company, Product Hunt, and being recommended by Good Housekeeping Magazine, PureWow, Netted & more.

Following the acquisition by PetSmart, I stayed on as General Manager and Consultant for a transitional period.

Founder | Chief Executive Officer | President | Consultant | General Manager

Founder & CEO

Paltalk, Inc.

CO-FOUNDER of SNAP INTERACTIVE (now PalTalk) - one of the first publicly traded company in the online dating & social media space.  SNAP's leading online dating apps and social apps experienced extraordinary growth - attracting more than 100 million users. Ranked as the 36th fastest growing company in North America on Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500 for achieving 4,400% revenue growth over 5 years.

As Co-Founder and one of only two members of Senior Management from 2005 through late 2011, I was primarily responsible for all legal, financial, administrative, human resource, hiring, anti-fraud, and public company regulatory and operational functions as we scaled the company. I was also responsible for writing all company press releases since inception. 

We grew SNAP to nearly 50 employees and approximately $20 million in annual revenue. We hit a peak market cap of ~ $150 million and raised $8.5 million in capital from institutional investors in January 2011.  Prior to that, we succeeded while raising under $ 1 mm in total capital (with no new capital since 2007) - growing entirely on revenue generated from operations for 3+ years.

Co-Founder

Serial Entrepreneur (2 exits) & Growth Advisor • Founded AllPaws (Sold to PetSmart) • Co-Founded Saturday App & Snap Interactive (100m users & $100m revenue)

𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝟭𝟬𝟬𝗠 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 & $𝟭𝟬𝟬𝗠 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 • 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿 𝘄/ 𝟮 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘀 • 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽, 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁, 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴.

Serial tech entrepreneur, business operator, and strategic advisor with deep experience starting and growing consumer-digital businesses. 

As a growth and product-driven startup founder, I have a proven track record of building and growing innovative products used by millions. I have achieved successful exits while overseeing multiple C-Level executive roles for publicly traded, growth stage, and venture-backed startups. I have a bias for action and a passion for solving big problems. Proven ability to innovate and deliver rapid revenue and user growth. 

At the intersection of my passion for pets and online dating expertise, I co-founded AllPaws. This innovative, online dating-style pet adoption platform quickly gained millions of users and was acquired by the pet industry leader, PetSmart. 

Before that, as co-founder I helped build and lead publicly traded SNAP Interactive from inception to rank as the 36th fastest growing technology company in North America with 4,400% revenue growth over 5 years, $20 million+ in annual revenue, and over 100 million users of our online dating apps and social products. 

Today, I advise businesses and startups on optimizing their digital and product growth strategies. Additionally, I coach entrepreneurs and business leaders on building high-income personal brands, and advise top influencers, models, and creators on growing and monetizing their audiences.

I continue to work on new projects, explore new opportunities, and advise. 

Been featured in ABC News, Bloomberg, Good Morning America, TechCrunch, Fox 5 News,  Huffington Post, Mashable, Forbes, Fast Company, Business Insider, and many other top tier publications. 

SPECIALTIES: Growth, Optimization, Digital Strategy, Product Strategy, Personal Branding 

Start-ups | Digital Strategy | General Management | Product Strategy and Development |  Rapid Revenue Growth | Strategic Vision | User Growth & User Acquisition | Marketplaces | Business Strategy | Business Operator | Problem-Solving | Business Operations (CEO, COO, GM) | Product Management | Conversion Optimization | A/B Testing | Web and Mobile Analytics | Mobile Applications | Mobile Growth | iTunes App Store Optimization | e-Commerce | Social Media Marketing & Strategy | M&A Process | Pet Industry | Online Dating Apps

Darrell Lerner

We built Syndicate 11 quietly. 
Now PEOPLE are noticing. 

Syndicate11 wasn’t designed to be loud. 

It was built as a tight, high-signal network of top creators, models, and cultural catalysts who actually move attention - not just post into it.

And when you do that well enough, visibility finds you anyway.

This People feature is a great example: no PR push, zero agenda, just a powerful moment that got noticed.

That’s the power of momentum compounding.

2x Exited Founder & Growth Advisor • Built AllPaws (Acquired by PetSmart) • Co-Founded SNAP Interactive (100m users & $100m revenue)

Opening Bell Daily

Opening Bell Daily is an independent news and research outlet committed to demystifying markets, investing, and Wall Street — at no cost to readers. 

The outlet's morning column hits 240,000 inboxes every day, and it is nationally syndicated with Inc. Magazine.

Co-founded with Anthony Pompliano.

Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief

Inc. Magazine

I write a weekday column covering financial markets and the economy as part of a partnership with Opening Bell Daily.

Columnist

Journalists Club

A community for journalists, authors, and media professionals who want to build relationships in real life. We host and produce industry dinners, large events, panels, and workshops.

The Blog of Phil Rosen

The official website and newsletter for award-winning journalist and bestselling author Phil Rosen. Hundreds of essays and posts about writing, careers, books, and personal growth.

Creator, Writer

"Everywhere But Home" & "Life Between Moments"

📘 Life Between Moments: New York Stories (August 2022) 
▪ #1 Bestseller New York City Travel, #1 Bestseller Literary Short Story Criticism, #1 Bestseller Religious and Spirituality Anthologies, #1 Bestseller Historical Fiction
▪ #1 New Release Short Story Collections, #1 New Release New York City Travel, #1 New Release Fiction Anthologies, #1 New Release Literary Short Story Criticism

📒 Everywhere But Home: Life Overseas as Told by a Travel Blogger (July 2020) 
▪ Travel memoir based on my time living in Southeast Asia from 2018-2020. 
▪ #1 bestseller ranking on Amazon in the following categories: Travel Writing, Solo Travel, Travelogues and Memoirs, Hong Kong Travel, China Travel, Hong Kong History. 
▪ #1 Most Wished For from July-September in Travel Writing on Amazon.

Author

Business Insider

⚡For over 2 years, I authored and hosted Business Insider's daily markets newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell, growing it from 0 to 2.4M subscribers on LinkedIn
⚡Pitch, write and report on a broad range of market and economic stories including stocks and bonds, cryptocurrencies, oil, commodities, and trade
⚡️Contribute markets commentary and analysis on Insider's podcast, The Refresh

Senior Markets Reporter

Markets Reporter

Associate Editor, Newsletters

Newsletter Fellow

GreenBiz Group

♻️Pitch, report, and write business and technology features on sustainability, corporate investing and climate science.
♻️Interview, source, and network with C-suite executives, industry leaders in climate tech and business, as well as top academics and scientists.

Contributing Writer/Reporter

Freelance

✏️Freelance reporter on topics including business, science, climate, technology, and startups. I have reported for Fortune Magazine, BuzzFeed News, Insider, and other outlets.
✏️Author of a 9-part health science column published monthly for The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2020.

Freelance Writer/Reporter

Flique Editorial

Assign and edit stories, network with freelancers, manage writers, editorial content and graphic design; I am responsible for spearheading the article series "The Postgrad Playbook," biweekly articles on professional skills and career advice geared toward a Gen-Z and millennial audience.

Managing Editor

Staff Writer

University of Southern California

🔎"The Formation and Influence of News and Information Repertoires at the Onset of the COVID-19 pandemic" - Research with Dr. Su Jung Kim accepted for presentation at a communications conference in Detroit, Michigan (August, 2022)
🔎Research included media consumption patterns based on demographic, political slant, and pre- versus post-COVID-19 eras; responsibilities include literature reviews and reading academic journals, parsing through data bases, editing and writing

Annenberg Graduate Fellow

I covered markets and investing at Business Insider for three years. There, I wrote one of the most popular financial newsletters in media, published a book, and won overseas fellowships.

Then in 2024, I quit my job to launch Opening Bell Daily, an independent financial media outlet committed to demystifying Wall Street with original reporting — at no cost to readers. 

Around the same time I also founded Journalists Club, a community for members of the media in NYC. I produce in-person events, dinners and workshops for reporters and editors to make friends and get jobs.

You can find my work in Fortune, BuzzFeed News, Yahoo Finance, GreenBiz, and US-China Today, among other outlets. I've also had my fiction published in various online publications. 

I regularly speak on panels, podcasts and at universities about media, financial reporting and writing, and I work as a mentor for college students.

Some awards I've won: 

▪️Fulbright Fellowship, Berlin Capital Program (2024)
▪️Austrian American Media Fellowship (2022) 
▪️Bryce Nelson Award, Distinguished Journalism (2021)
▪️Penny Lernoux Award, International Reporting (2021)
▪️USC Annenberg Graduate Fellowship (2020)

As mentioned, I previously anchored Business Insider's markets newsletter, which had over 2.4 million subscribers via LinkedIn and email. I led ~1,000 editions of this production, transforming it from a headline roundup into a must-read Wall Street column.

Separately, I self-published two books by the age of 25. Both became #1 bestsellers on Amazon:

📘LIFE BETWEEN MOMENTS: NEW YORK STORIES (2022) earned an Amazon #1 Bestseller ranking on five separate categories and #1 New Release across six. 

📔EVERYWHERE BUT HOME: LIFE OVERSEAS AS TOLD BY A TRAVEL BLOGGER (2020) earned a #1 Bestseller ranking in six categories. 

Between philrosen.blog, Medium.com, and Quora, I've written over 1,200 blog posts on careers, books, personal brand, creativity, and audience growth. I publish a weekly newsletter on these topics via Substack.

I earned my Master's of Science from USC Annenberg while on full scholarship as an Annenberg Fellow, and hold an undergraduate degree in kinesiology and philosophy from San Diego State University.

I'm a California native based in NYC, though I've spent time living in Hong Kong, Spain, and Germany, and have traveled extensively in Europe and Asia.

Reach me at philrosen4355@gmail.com, or @philrosenn on Twitter and Instagram.

Phil Rosen

Companies like Amazon and Walmart are blaming AI for massive layoffs.

Critics say the technology is just a convenient excuse but I disagree. 

Shrinking headcount today is a bet on the future — that new technology will drive real productivity gains and eventually justify leaning into a smaller workforce.

That said, there are societal repercussions to these decisions even if they do end up being justified down the line. 

In one sense, it rewrites the longstanding social contract that promises work opportunities for hard-working individuals. 

I discussed AI's impact on jobs at the NYSE with Lance Glinn, M.A.

Co-founder, Opening Bell Daily (192K+ subscribers) • Host of FULL SIGNAL • Founder, Journalists Club • Fulbright Alum • 2x Author

Retail investors have bought the dip all year while Wall Street and institutional players have been spooked by pullbacks.

It's because most young people have never seen a prolonged bear market. Instead, they grew up stomaching 80% drawdowns in crypto. 

That means they barely notice a 15% decline in stocks. 

It's peanuts to the new generation of investors.

I shared my take during a segment at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with my friend Lance Glinn, M.A.

Co-founder, Opening Bell Daily (190K+ subscribers) • Host of FULL SIGNAL • Founder, Journalists Club • Fulbright Alum • 2x Author

The AI trade isn’t running out of juice just because stock prices are falling. 

One day after touching a record high, the Dow tumbled more than 600 points and AI heavyweights all tumbled. 

These moves track with the volatility of the last several weeks. 

Bubble fears have picked up in November even as the demand story underpinning AI becomes more robust. 

Indeed, the fact asset prices haven’t climbed despite strengthening fundamentals suggests the recent chop is a near-term reaction that could reflect any number of things — the lack of economic data during the government shutdown, hawkish Fed rhetoric, corporate layoffs.

Yet, the money managers and strategists I’ve hosted on FULL SIGNAL over the last week have remained optimistic for the year ahead.

Todd Sohn of Strategas Securities, Sonali Basak of iCapital, and Ryan Detrick, CMT of Carson Group all shared similarly optimistic takes. 

Full analysis in Opening Bell Daily!👇

Good morning, investors. US stocks just logged one their worst days in over a month as each of the major indexes turned negative and Big Tech took a h

Open article: Wall Street's top strategists aren't sweating the tech sell-off by Phil Rosen • 3 min read

Wall Street's top strategists aren't sweating the tech sell-off

"Big Short" investor Michael Burry warned that Big Tech companies may be misleading markets by adjusting the useful life of their products and services.

That's fueled new comparisons to the dot-com bubble.

Sonali Basak, chief investment strategist at iCapital, explained on FULL SIGNAL how depreciation impacts free cash flow, taxes and the outlook for investors.

Bitcoin's volatility is a feature, not a bug. 

Since 2018, bitcoin has averaged a 51% annual drawdown. Yet that volatility has also allowed it to average roughly double the returns of stocks and gold. 

Investors who want outsized returns have to be able to stomach outsized volatility, as I discuss with Anthony Pompliano.

Chatters of an AI bubble have exploded over the last several weeks but asset prices have mostly outrun those fears, with the S&P 500 notching multiple record highs in October.

That momentum just slowed down, though, as several prominent market watchers seemed to acknowledge the froth: 

🔴 Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon warned of a drawdown for stocks
🔴 Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick similarly cautioned about a correction
🔴 “Big Short” investor Michael Burry revealed a bearish position on Palantir
🔴 ARK's Cathie Wood reportedly sold 38,000 shares of Palantir ahead of its earnings results

So this raises the question — is the stock market in a bubble? 

The data suggest no. 

The S&P 500’s P/E ratio remains well below dot-com levels, and single-name Big Tech leaders like Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft have far lower valuations compared to their equivalents back in 2000. 

Plus, the companies leading the charge in AI command some of the largest balance sheets in history. 

But many on Wall Street would disagree with my take. 

Full analysis in Opening Bell Daily! 👇

Co-founder, Opening Bell Daily (192K+ subscribers) • Host of Full Signal • Founder, Journalists Club • Fulbright Alum • 2x Author

Good morning, investors. The market suddenly seems much more fragile than it did a week ago when it was breaking all-time highs. Yet the advantage of 

Open article: Bubble chatter is finally creeping into stock prices — but that doesn't justify bubble fears by Phil Rosen • 3 min read

Bubble chatter is finally creeping into stock prices — but that doesn't justify bubble fears

Asset prices could keep climbing as the $7 trillion cash on the sidelines begins to rotate into the market. 

Money market yields are already drifting below 4% with the Fed set to cut rates further, and that could get more investors back into stocks. 

Todd Sohn, an ETF strategist at Strategas Securities, joined me on FULL SIGNAL to break down the outlook.

AI could eventually shrink the labor market while making it more productive.

The data suggest that's not happening yet, but new technologies could very well to be driving a quiet, white-collar recession with specific roles and tasks being displaced.

That said, Schwab's head of macro research Kevin Gordon told me on FULL SIGNAL he remains optimistic for "creative destruction" — innovation can create new opportunities just as it may eliminate old ones.

Home affordability in the US is so strained that the typical age for buying a house is now 59.

In 2010 it was 39.

The American dream has been pushed back by two decades thanks to cocktail of difficult headwinds.

• Rising home prices
• High mortgage rates
• Limited construction and inventory
• Soft wage growth versus inflation
• Over-regulation and red tape

Important and daunting chart from Torsten Slok of Apollo Global Management, Inc.

Bitcoin is not having the year many investors expected.

The largest cryptocurrency just dipped to $93,135, turning its year-to-date returns negative by 0.03%.

At the start of 2025, many analysts and investors expected bitcoin to have a banner year given the Trump administration’s focus on cryptocurrencies, expectations for lower interest rates, and accelerating demand from ETFs.

That hasn’t exactly panned out. 

Although crypto adoption has broadened to governments and nation states, and bitcoin now underpins some of the most popular products on Wall Street, the tailwinds that were supposed to define the year haven’t translated into price strength. 

Rather, the asset has drifted sideways as gold, stocks, and even bonds have outpaced it since January.

And yet bitcoin has only seen a negative annual return three times since 2010.

Full analysis in Opening Bell Daily! 👇

Good morning, investors. I spent my Friday at Baron Capital’s 32nd Investment Conference, hosted by billionaire Ron Baron. I spoke with several shareh

Open article: Bitcoin just turned negative for the year as crypto loses $1.1 trillion in 6 weeks by Phil Rosen • 3 min read

Bitcoin just turned negative for the year as crypto loses $1.1 trillion in 6 weeks

Google Search trends for "market bubble" are spiking to levels seen during the pandemic and the Great Financial Crisis.

Meanwhile, prices for technology stocks have surged all year. 

Enthusiasm and anxiety are peaking at the same time in markets, as I discuss with Anthony Pompliano.

taplio

The Battle

Darrell Lerner

Phil Rosen

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Performance ScoreDarrell Lerner's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScorePhil Rosen's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Darrell Lerner

Phil Rosen

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Darrell Lerner's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScorePhil Rosen's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDarrell Lerner's LinkedIn Performance