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PODCAST

Fund/Build/Scale

Walter Thompson

After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned: 1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck. 2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge. 3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it. There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if

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All Episodes

34:28

How to Think Like a VC When You’re Building (or...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/08/17

Brian Rothenberg, partner at Defy and former VP of Growth at Eventbrite, joins Fund/Build/Scale to share what really matters when evaluating early-stage startups. From spotting false signals of traction to building defensible business models, Brian offers practical advice for both founders and operators.He also explains why job seekers should “think like a VC” before joining a startup, how he prefers to be pitched, and what signals he looks for in AI and emerging tech companies. Whether you’re

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38:44

Cap Table Strategy: A Playbook for Early-Stage Founders

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/08/12

When you’re raising your first rounds, every cap table decision can echo for years. Give away too much equity early, lock yourself into restrictive pro rata rights, or over-optimize for valuation — and you may find yourself boxed in just when your company starts to grow.Pulley co-founder and CEO Yin Wu has seen these mistakes firsthand. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, she offers practical, founder-first strategies for structuring and managing your cap table so you can attract top talent, keep

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51:58

From D2C to B2B: How to Pivot Without Losing Your...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/08/08

A turbulent flight sparked Wayne Slavin’s idea for Sure: let consumers buy insurance in real time. But after launching as a D2C app, he realized the bigger opportunity was powering insurance sales for others. Sure’s pivot to B2B turned it into a vertical SaaS platform that lets enterprise companies embed insurance at the point of transaction. In this episode, Wayne explains how to pivot without losing your mission, why founders should lead early enterprise sales, and why he refuses to run

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46:38

How to Sell Your World-Changing Idea to a...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/08/01

James Joaquin is co-founder and managing partner at Obvious Ventures, a VC firm that backs startups tackling intractable problems like climate change, chronic disease, and income inequality. Their portfolio includes businesses that once sounded like science fiction but are reshaping billion-dollar industries. He says he's looking for technology that will “move humanity forward." But this episode isn’t just about mission-driven investing. James gets extremely tactical: he breaks down how Obvious

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40:46

Why Conviction Matters More Than TAM: The Seed-Stage...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/06/23

Uncork Capital Partner Amy Saper shares practical advice for early-stage founders building AI-enabled tools for engineering, product, and design teams, or as she describes them, "products that make you not want to quit your job."Drawing on her experience in product marketing at Twitter, Uber, and Stripe, she explains why storytelling is an underrated founder skill, how to refine your ideal customer profile, and why it’s good to reverse-engineer a roadmap from your Series A goals. She also shares

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38:06

How (and How Not) to Pitch a Cybersecurity VC

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/06/22

Ten Eleven Ventures CTO and Operating Partner Scott Lundgren shares practical advice for early-stage cybersecurity founders. He explains why founder-market fit matters more than product polish, how teams should think about TAM in fragmented markets, and the signals he looks for in technical pitches. He also breaks down how Ten Eleven’s network helps with diligence and customer development — and why “cool tech” often misses the mark. Plus: his take on the AI hype cycle, and why building credibility

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43:10

Deep Tech Without Stealth: Inside Dusty Robotics’...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/06/19

Construction workers spend hours on their hands and knees snapping chalk lines to mark where walls, plumbing and utilities should go. It’s painstaking, back-breaking labor. And that’s how it’s been done for centuries.Tessa Lau saw an opportunity — and built a robot that does it faster, safer, and with surgical precision. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, the Dusty Robotics founder and CEO shares some of what she's learned about transitioning from a researcher to a deep tech founder,

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39:46

Leveraging Founder-Market Fit to Win Over Risk-Averse...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/06/13

What happens when a team of legal veterans decides to rebuild the dispute resolution process from the ground up? To find out, I interviewed Rich Lee, co-founder and CEO of New Era ADR, a platform designed to resolve legal disputes faster, at lower cost, and with less friction for both companies and individuals. We talked about building a team that had enough credibility to sell into one of the most risk-averse industries, how they approached trust-building with both customers and investors, and

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49:49

From Side Project to API Powerhouse: How Postman Went...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/06/09

Before Postman became a category-defining platform used by millions of developers, it was a personal side project. In this episode, co-founder and CEO Abhinav Asthana shares how he went from hacking on API tools in Bangalore to leading a global company with nearly 900 employees across three continents. We talk about: Building a developer-first product that spread through word of mouth Choosing a CEO when everyone on the founding team is an engineer How to reach U.S. customers before you have a

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50:14

When a Power User Becomes CEO: How Medium Found Its...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/05/30

When Tony Stubblebine took over as CEO of Medium in 2022, the platform was burning $2.5 million a month, bleeding subscribers, and was overrun with content that left founder Evan Williams cringing. Tony pitched Ev a turnaround built on small teams with access to data, customers, and the freedom to rebuild Medium like a startup from the inside out. He wasn’t just another executive parachuting in — Tony had worked with him as head of engineering, later as a power user and publishing partner, and

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49:49

Muse Capital’s Approach to Finding Value in...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/05/28

Rachel Springate is the founding general partner of Muse Capital, an early-stage venture fund focused on overlooked sectors like women’s health, wellness, parenting, gaming, and sustainability.In this episode, she shares her strategy for finding value where other investors aren’t looking, explains how Muse assesses early traction in non-traditional markets, and breaks down the persistent funding gap facing women founders. We also discuss: How AI could transform women’s health Why traditional VCs

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44:58

Creative Ops at Startup Speed: Lessons from Superside

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/05/23

Fredrik Thomassen, co-founder and CEO of Superside, joins the show to unpack how startups can scale creative work without slowing down or burning out their teams.Superside is a subscription-based design company that helps fast-growing teams get high-quality creative at scale. In this conversation, Fredrik shares how he built a globally distributed team, why async collaboration beats real-time meetings, and what most startups get wrong when managing creative work. We also get into: Hiring in

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59:08

How to Pitch VCs Like a “Dangerous” Founder

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/05/10

What makes a founder dangerous?Not credentials. Not their pedigree. And it's not who they know. For investor and former operator Promise Phelon, a dangerous founder is someone with lived experience, relentless conviction, and the ability to build something the world doesn't expect. Promise is the founder and managing partner of Growth Warrior Capital, an early-stage venture firm that invests in founders building seed and Series A enterprise AI companies. In this episode, she shares hard-won lessons

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32:15

The 5-Year Ramp: How Alcatraz Scaled in Enterprise...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/05/07

What kind of founder spends five years building a product before going to market? One who's trying to solve a very hard problem. Vince Gaydarzhiev is the founder of Alcatraz, a deep tech startup that uses facial authentication. The platform isn’t used to lock people out of single offices or consumer gadgets; its customers are buying global enterprise security, where compliance is strict, trust is earned, and failure isn't an option. In this episode, Vince shares the emotional, strategic, and

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45:20

From Play to Pay: How Soundtrack Uses PQLs to Drive...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/05/06

What turns a free trial user into a paying customer? For Ola Sars, founder and CEO of Soundtrack, the answer is all about behavior. In this episode, we break down how his team uses product-led growth (PLG) and product-qualified leads (PQLs) to drive conversions. You'll hear how playing 100 tracks became a key signal for purchase intent, the tactics Soundtrack deploys to help self-serve customers experience value fast, and what it takes to scale a SaaS business in a market ruled by consumer

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55:09

From ML Engineer to CEO: Brightwave's Mike Conover on...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/04/18

Mike Conover started his career as a machine learning engineer. Today, he’s the co-founder and CEO of Brightwave, an AI startup helping financial professionals make faster decisions with massive, unstructured data.In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, Mike shares how he made the leap from technical contributor to strategic leader—and the hard lessons he learned along the way. From translating technical vision into a focused go-to-market strategy, to learning how to coach, hire, and scale

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39:52

What Investors Really Want From AI Founders

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/04/11

Igor Taber has sat on both sides of the table: first as a VC at Intel Capital, then as an operator at high-growth AI startup DataRobot. Now, as co-founder of Cortical Ventures, he’s backing the next generation of AI-first startups.In this episode, Igor shares how his operating experience reshaped his investment lens, what most VCs still miss about early-stage execution, and how founders can break through the AI noise to build something that actually lasts. We also get into: What it really takes to

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39:46

The Art of the Waitlist: Siqi Chen on Driving...

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/04/11

Runway CEO and co-founder Siqi Chen shares how his team used a waitlist not just to build hype, but to engineer smarter growth. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, Siqi breaks down how Runway strategically kept customers in a holding pattern to gather feedback, qualify demand, and refine product-market fit. We also talk about: How to build trust with early users through transparency Using scarcity and access control as GTM levers Why financial planning should be accessible to everyone on the

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49:49

PR Advice for Founders in the AI Era

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/04/03

Ayelet Noff has spent more than two decades helping startups land meaningful press — but she’s also seen how the game has changed. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, the founder of SlicedBrand and new PR tech startup Dazzle shares what still works, what doesn’t, and how founders can earn meaningful attention in today’s fractured media landscape. We get into: – What makes a pitch actually land with reporters – How to build credibility before you have traction – The biggest mistakes founders make

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46:18

The Hard Tech Hustle: Building and Selling Industrial AI

Fund/Build/Scale ·

2025/04/01

Sahitya Senapathy, founder and CEO of Endeavor AI, joins Fund/Build/Scale to talk about launching a solo-founded startup at the intersection of AI and heavy industry. From building FEMA apps at age 11 to raising $7M before finishing college, Sahitya shares the hard lessons behind the headline. We dig into: – Selling AI solutions to manufacturers with no network and no co-founder – What enterprise customers actually care about in early-stage tech – Navigating credibility as a first-time founder in

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101 results

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