Walk into a fast food restaurant and count the number of smiling employees. With the way fast food workers are paid, chances are your count won’t be too high. That’s the MO John Pepper, founder and former CEO of Boloco, tried to erase when he started the burrito chain. Pepper wanted to create a culture where employees received better wages — which would lead to them caring more about their job and treating customers better. And hopefully the customers would be more satisfied with being treated well and it’d lead to future visits.

In this episode, host Mike O’Toole sits down with John Pepper. They discuss how John wanted to make a difference in the fast food industry by improving the wages of the people who work in it — and why that idea didn’t necessarily fly with key stakeholders.

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When Evernote came along, it re-shaped note taking by giving us a way to use technology to remember things. Many thought the application would fail with the business model it had — there was no specific target audience and people could use it for free, forever. But what those naysayers didn’t see was that Evernote’s value to the user grows over time — and ultimately, that value is significant enough for people to pay for the premium version.

In this episode, host Mike O’Toole chats with Evernote’s Chief Technology Officer, Dave Engberg. They discuss how Evernote users become more dependent on the app each time they use it — why that eventually leads to them paying for it.

You can also subscribe to The Unconventionals on iTunes and Stitcher. And be sure to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter as well.