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PODCAST

Startups Decoded

Most startup podcasts are built for founders who"ve already figured it out. This one"s for the founder still in the middle of it.Startups Decoded covers the full founder operating system — from idea to Series A. Brand, fundraising, marketing, operations, finance, culture, storytelling. Everything a first-time founder needs to actually run the thing, not just pitch it.Host Andy Walsh has been in it — 4x founder, 2 exits, bootstrapped $10M ARR. He brings in founders and investors who"ve built real

business entrepreneurship

All Episodes

49:00

S2E16: Angel Money Isn’t ‘Play Money’. It’s a Major...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/12/29

Women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ founders still get boxed out of capital, but Katie Dunn has built her angel investing thesis to do the opposite, and she’s doing it with actual reps (29 investments) and serious financial scar tissue (25+ years in banking with $10B financed).Subscribe nowIn this episode, Katie breaks down what early-stage angels really look for when they say they’re “betting on the founder”, why most cold outreach fails (hint: nobody reads the investor’s thesis), and how underrepresented

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48:19

S2E15: We Need To Scale Angel Investing — with Cheryl...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/12/22

Startup investing used to be gated, exclusive networks, complex diligence, and full-time fund managers. But what if anyone could build a startup portfolio the same way they’d shop online?In this episode, Cheryl Kellond, serial founder and CEO of Play Money, shares how her platform is democratizing early-stage investing by pairing curated deals from new fund managers with an experience that feels more like shopping than finance.We dive into her journey from launching Bia Sport and Apostrophe

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43:12

S2E14: When AI Chases Invoices Better Than You Do –...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/12/15

As AI moves from clever tool to “virtual teammate,” nowhere is the shift more real than in finance.In this episode of Startups Decoded, Invoice Butler founder & CEO Mihir Deo joins Andy Walsh to explore what happens when AI agents start doing the unglamorous work humans have always done—chasing invoices, managing cash flow, and acting like your accounts team.We unpack how Invoice Butler is quietly replacing manual accounts receivable workflows with an AI-powered, human-backed agent, what that

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44:54

S2E13: From Fundraise to Exit: What Every Founder...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/12/08

In this episode, Andy Walsh sits down with Jennifer Lewis, former Founder CEO of queer social app Lex, to unpack the full arc from first fundraise to exit.Jennifer shares what really happens behind the scenes when you’re raising as a queer female founder, how she navigated a co-founder departure mid-fundraise, and why “perfect data rooms” don’t close rounds, relationships, and conviction do.They walk through how she scaled Lex into a beloved LGBTQ+ community, decided to sell to 9count, and protected

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48:00

S2E12: There Is No Perfect Pitch Deck - What You...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/12/01

Robert Harary found his first venture deal while in high school detention, and hasn’t looked back since.Today, he sits at the center of the venture ecosystem as both an investor and founder, with a decade-plus obsession for making access to capital more transparent, efficient, and equitable.Robert is the #2 at Evolution VC Partners, where he’s been part of 300+ Culture Tech investments. He runs Timeless Ventures as GP, and has investments in companies like Colossal, Figure AI, and Sindarin. On the

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47:33

S2E11: Use Banks, Not VCs: Non-Dilutive Capital for...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/11/24

Attorney, entrepreneur, and policy leader Ashley D. Bell is building Redemption Bank, a modern Minority Depository Institution designed to give founders something Silicon Valley rarely does: non-dilutive capital that preserves ownership.With experience spanning the SBA, the White House, and co-founding the National Black Bank Foundation with Dr. Bernice A. King (daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), Ashley is fusing community banking, MDI syndication, and fintech infrastructure into a new model

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52:10

S2E10: The FemTech Edge: Build and Train by Your...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/11/17

94 percent of sports-science research excludes female physiology.The result? A $10 billion fitness industry that burns women out, leads to injury, and disrupts hormonal health.Lizzy Palmer, Founder and CEO of SyncN, is changing that. SyncN is the first cycle-aware fitness and nutrition platform that personalizes training and nourishment around women’s hormonal rhythms — used by athletes, creators, and founders who want performance without burnout.Sponsored by CherubIn this conversation, Lizzy

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50:26

S2E9: From Peter Thiel’s Fellowship to 1517 Fund —...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/11/10

Forget Ivy League. Build Your Own Startup Empire.From Peter Thiel’s Fellowship revolution to building the 1517 Fund, Michael Gibson has made a career out of betting on outsiders.In this episode, he reveals how Thiel’s philosophy, back people, not pedigrees, shaped his mission to fund dropouts, renegades, and deep-tech builders rewriting the future.We unpack how to spot unconventional talent before the world does, why early bets on unproven founders can outperform safe money, and how the next wave of

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47:17

S2E8: Founders: The Easy Way to Land Angels, Fast - ...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/11/03

Jaclyn Johnson is a powerhouse entrepreneur, investor, and advocate for women in business.By 35, she had already launched and sold two multimillion-dollar companies, including Create & Cultivate, a first-of-its-kind platform for female entrepreneurs that scaled to eight-figure revenue and partnered with Fortune 500 brands like Amazon, Mastercard, and Microsoft.Now, she’s back with Cherub, a double-sided marketplace designed to bridge the gap between underrepresented founders and democratizing

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44:35

S2E7: Boards That Raise, How to Turn Advisors into...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/10/27

What if founders could get the right advisor, investor, or board talent exactly when they need it, before they even ask?In this episode, Breen Sullivan (Founder & CEO, The Fourth Effect; longtime startup GC and board leader) lays out how AI is changing founder access: surfacing who you need and when, structuring “fit-for-purpose” advisory and board relationships, and turning connections into outcomes.We unpack why traditional networks leave too many founders behind, how to make boards growth

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44:55

S2E6: AI Meets Medicine — Personalized Care You’ll...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/10/20

How integrative care, AI, and behavior design are reshaping health: prevention-first, data you own, and systems busy founders can stick to.Founders are optimizing everything, except their health. Quick fixes don’t scale, and siloed care leaves people guessing.In this episode, Dr. Erik Reis, Co-Founder & Director of Health & Wellness at Nobody Studios and founder of The Neural Connection, maps a practical path to holistic, evidence-based wellness. We cover prevention vs. reaction, integrating

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45:45

S2E5: How AI Agents Ran Our Business, While I Went To...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/10/13

OpenAI’s latest “Zapier-killer” headlines were sobering, but Adam Robinson already did the unthinkable: he removed every human from RB2B, a $6M ARR SaaS, for seven days and let AI agents run sales, support, and onboarding, zero intervention.The outcome?Revenue growth held (+4%/mo), 96.6% answer accuracy in sales chats, and 89% support resolution with no customer meltdowns.In this conversation, Adam unpacks:The real playbook behind the stuntWhy he designs his business to fit AI tools (not the other

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45:08

S2E4: The Startup Security Playbook: AI That Keeps Up...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/10/06

Send us a textHow LLMs are rewriting application security: less false positives, faster triage, and real-world founder playbooks.Founders are sprinting on AI—attackers are too. Traditional security tools drown teams in alerts and miss the real threats. In this episode, Almanax founder & CEO Francesco Piccoli breaks down AI-native application security: how LLMs detect logic bugs legacy scanners miss, cut up to 90% of noise, and triage vulnerabilities at the pace you ship. We cover where “shift-left”

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43:03

S2E3: Crack the LinkedIn Code: How to Hit 100,000...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/09/29

Send us a textIn this episode of Startups Decoded, Andy Walsh talks with Charlie Hills, a global leader in LinkedIn growth strategy.AI is rewriting LinkedIn, and Charlie Hills has the receipts. In 466 days, he went from zero to 100k+ followers and ranked #1 worldwide for LinkedIn Growth. We break down the exact AI-led playbook: repeatable content systems, scroll-stopping visuals, audience targeting, repurposing loops, and lead-magnet funnels that turn attention into revenue.If you want your LinkedIn

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47:28

S2E2: Own the Audience or Lose the Game. Nick...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/09/22

Send us a textAlgorithms are wringing creators dry. In this inspiring S2 episode, Linktree co-founder & CCO Nick Humphreys ($167M raised; 70M+ users) lays out the new playbook: AI that amplifies your voice, owning your audience over chasing vanity metrics, and revenue that holds when the feed goes quiet. If you’re rebuilding your 2025 content stack, start here.Subscribe nowNick Humphreys is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Linktree, one of the world’s fastest-growing tech platforms

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41:50

S2E1: How Billion-Dollar Companies Get Built. Mike...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/09/15

Send us a textIn the Season 2 opener of Startups Decoded, host Andy Walsh sits down with Mike Jones, General Partner at Science Inc., the venture studio and fund behind household names like Dollar Shave Club, Liquid Death, and PlayVS.With more than $1.3 billion in exits and angel investments including Scopely, GoodReads, and Maker Studios, Mike has seen what separates billion-dollar companies from the ones that stall out.From his early days founding Userplane, CEO of MySpace, to building Science

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42:19

Ep#33: The Real Cost of Venture Capital in the AI Era...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/09/08

Send us a textIn this episode of Startups Decoded, I sit down with Joseph Lee, founder and CEO of Supademo, to talk about the real founder’s journey behind raising capital and the tradeoffs that come with it. Joseph shares how past experiences with over-capitalization shaped the way he thinks about growth today, and why staying true to vision matters more than chasing VC expectations.We dig into what it means to build on your own terms: scaling with AI, defining success beyond vanity metrics, and

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43:06

Ep#32: A Logo is Decoration. A Brand Is Survival....

Startups Decoded ·

2025/09/01

Send us a textIn this episode of Startups Decoded, host Andy Walsh sits down with Malcolm Buick, Partner & Chief Creative Officer at Athletics and a seasoned creative director, to unpack how design drives startup growth. From his journey through music and branding to building global identities for brands like IBM, Nike, Google Chrome, Major League Soccer, and MoMA, Malcolm explores how storytelling, community, and culture shape lasting companies.Great startups don’t just build products, they

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45:09

Ep#31: Your Digital Strategy Is Already Obsolete!...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/08/25

Send us a textIn this episode of Startups Decoded, Andy Walsh sits down with Jay Erickson, Chief Innovation Officer and co-founder of Modus, to explore why most digital strategies are already outdated, and how to fix them.They dive into emergent strategy: a flexible, human-centered approach to navigating today’s breakneck pace of change. Drawing on systems thinking, design, and culture, Jay shares how resilient teams can adapt in real time, address bias, and build strategies that evolve as fast as

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45:55

Ep#30: Future-Proofing Products in 2025: Startup...

Startups Decoded ·

2025/08/18

Send us a textSummaryIn this episode of Startups Decoded, host Andy Walsh speaks with Zoya Lehrer, founder of Orgo, about the challenges and opportunities in the startup landscape, particularly in the realm of product development and parenting logistics. Zoya shares her personal journey from immigrating to the U.S. to launching her business, which aims to streamline the logistics of youth sports for parents. The conversation delves into the importance of community feedback, the need for

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