Best Mistral.vc Podcasts (2025)

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He spent 5 months working with customers before building—then grew to $10s of millions ARR. | Aviv Leibovici, co-founder of Buildots 48:10

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2d ago48:10

48:10

Aviv spent months walking construction sites carrying tools for managers just to understand their problems—speaking to customers is "bullsh*t"—you need to work beside them to see reality. His company Buildots had a working AI product that tracked construction progress perfectly, but 90% of users got zero value from it. Until he made one key change …

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She cold messaged 50,000 engineers—then grew to $10M+ ARR. | Shensi Ding, Founder of Merge 40:16

10h ago40:16

40:16

Shensi cold messaged 50,000 engineers to build Merge. She worked 9am-9pm every day, gave her first customers two months free to prove herself, and refused to hire anyone remote—even during peak COVID. She purposefully didn't collect a single dollar of revenue until she knew she could hit $1M in a months. "Startups are all about momentum." She lost …

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He bet his house on a startup—took 7 years to $1M, then hockey stick to $100M+ ARR. | Eldon Sprickerhoff, Co-Founder of eSentire 40:58

9d ago40:58

40:58

Eldon put a $150K line of credit on his house to start eSentire in 2001. No VCs would touch him—they didn't understand services businesses. He worked 12-hour days, 7 days a week for 7 years to hit $1M in revenue. His co-founder coded while he flew to New York on $99 JetBlue flights from Buffalo to save money. Then something clicked: they brought in…

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He quit his job, went all-in on AI agents—then grew to 100K users & a $30M Series A in a year. | Soham Ganatra, Founder of Composio 58:20

14d ago58:20

58:20

Soham spent 6 months building AI that would auto-generate integrations between any software. He locked down Glean as an early customer because he had friends there. And it failed completely. So he pivoted. This time, he refused to work with friendly customers who knew him. Instead, he did 10-20 calls per day with strangers who would tell him his pr…

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TechCrunch called this YC founder a fraud at 18—then he built a $10M ARR fintech. | Sahil Phadnis, Founder of Affiniti 59:59

16d ago59:59

59:59

Sahil was 18 when TechCrunch published a hit piece calling him a copycat. His co-founder Aaron was 16. They'd just raised $6 million from YC and top VCs for their crypto startup, then got subpoenaed by a state government and watched their business implode. So they fired everyone, moved back to their parents' homes, and spent months cold-calling den…

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Paul Graham Said His Startup Was Worthless—2 Months Later He Hit $1M ARR. | Jon Noronha, Co-Founder of Gamma 1:00:08

20d ago1:00:08

1:00:08

Jon spent 3 years building Gamma with barely any traction—just a few hundred users after burning millions. Then ChatGPT dropped. In desperation, he pivoted to AI-powered presentations in March 2023 with one year of runway left. What happened next was insane: Paul Graham publicly mocked their launch tweet calling it worthless—then it went viral. The…

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He quit Google, launched Rubrik—then grew to $1B ARR & a $16B market cap. | Soham Mazumdar, Co-Founder Rubrik & Wisdom AI 53:55

22d ago53:55

53:55

Soham co-founded Rubrik by taking what he learned from building Google's data center tech to enterprises desperate for cloud migration. Two quarters later, he hit $1M ARR. And a few years later, a $16B IPO. Soham breaks down why paid pilots beat free trials, how to sell enterprise hardware before it works, and why early customers become your bigges…

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He Bootstrapped to $55M in Revenue—without ever having to hit 100% YoY growth. | Stéphan Donzé, Founder of AODocs 43:23

27d ago43:23

43:23

Stéphan bootstrapped AODocs to $55M in revenue and 250 employees without taking a dime of VC money—while competing directly with venture-backed competitors. Starting as a services company in 2012, he spotted the cloud migration wave early and built document management for enterprises moving to Google Workspace. In this episode, Stéphan breaks down …

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He Bootstrapped Wrike to $10M ARR—then exited for $2.2B. | Andrew Filev, Founder of Wrike & Zencoder 1:08:13

15d ago1:08:13

1:08:13

Andrew bootstrapped Wrike and grew it from 0 to a $2.2B exit by doing the exact opposite of what every startup book tells you. No pivots. No talking to customers before launch. No narrow niche. Just 17 years of relentless focus on one problem while everyone else was pivoting every 18 months. In this episode, he breaks down exactly why bootstrapping…

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Q2 2025: The new Series A Bar is $3M ARR—& only 20% of seed startups make it. | Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta 57:09

1M ago57:09

57:09

Peter Walker from Carta drops the hard data every founder needs. Based on actual cap table data from 1000s of startups, this Q2 update reveals the brutal new reality. It takes 2+ years to go from seed to A (up from 1.6), you need 3X the revenue you used to, and if you're not AI, you're getting half the attention. But there's good news too—teams are…

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His Video AI app hit $10M+ ARR in Months—with 0 outbound sales. | Michael Lingelbach, Founder of Hedra 1:05:53

26d ago1:05:53

1:05:53

Hedra CEO Michael Lingelbach breaks down how his generative video app went from zero to millions of users and an eight-figure run rate in months — then deliberately slowed down to rebuild a V2 that enterprises would pay for. We dig into the prosumer-to-pro upsell, why free users are a false signal, and how a creator-seeded launch can outpull ad spe…

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He grew to millions in ARR in 18 months—by fighting with his co-founders on purpose. | Ross McNairn, Co-Founder of Wordsmith AI. 49:57

1M ago49:57

49:57

Ross went from lawyer to self-taught engineer to CTO at a 1,600-person unicorn—then quit to build Wordsmith AI. In 18 months, he's raised $30M and grown to mid-single-digit millions in ARR by doing everything differently. He tested co-founders by starting fights. Built in Slack for 10 months before adding a web interface. Kept his team at 8 people …

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He thought his startup would fail—then grew to $100M ARR. | Rick Song, Co-founder of Persona 59:57

1M ago59:57

59:57

Rick built Persona into a $100M+ ARR unicorn, but he never thought it would work. In fact, Rick started Persona believing it would probably fail, and that mindset might be exactly why it succeeded. In this episode, Rick reveals how a casual project with zero expectations turned into a billion-dollar business, why early-stage startups should avoid h…

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Forget PMF—Neil Patel says to give your product away for free instead. | Neil Patel, Co-Founder of Neil Patel Digital 31:01

1M ago31:01

31:01

Neil Patel just flipped everything you know about startups upside down. He says product-market fit is overrated, giving away your software for free can make you rich, and the real secret to scaling isn’t charging customers—it’s monetizing the leads your free product generates. Neil breaks down his playbook on how startups can leverage free products…

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He got kicked out of Harvard—then grew to $5M ARR in just 3 months. | Roy Lee, Co-Founder of Cluely 52:45

2M ago52:45

52:45

Roy Lee went from getting kicked out of Harvard and Columbia to building Cluely, one of the fastest-growing AI startups ever—going from 0 to $5 million ARR in just 3 months. We go deep on Roy’s playbook for using controversy, virality, and content to get millions of views—and millions in ARR. You’ll learn why Roy intentionally designs content to sp…

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She raised $1.3M, delivered real value—but didn't hit true PMF. Here’s what happened. | Mary Beth Snodgrass, Founder of Healthiby 24:14

2M ago24:14

24:14

Mary Beth Snodgrass shares the raw and real story behind Healthiby—an innovative healthcare startup that succeeded in delivering measurable health outcomes but ultimately didn't take off. Hear firsthand what went wrong, from unclear payer dynamics and sales friction, to macroeconomic shifts and storytelling gaps. This episode pulls back the curtain…

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He went viral at 11 y/o—built the world's best dictation app, then raised a $30M Series A. | Tanay Kothari, Founder of Wispr Flow 51:20

2M ago51:20

51:20

Tanay started coding at 10, built a product with millions of users by 11, and never stopped. In this episode, he shares how he created Wispr Flow—one of the fastest growing AI startups today. He's built the world's best voice to text app. I use it myself every single day. And he just raised a $30M Series A from Menlo Ventures This is a must-listen …

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PMF Observations: Why after PMF, every problem is a people problem. 18:06

2M ago18:06

18:06

We go through some lessons I learned from my own startup journey. I also go through why almost every business challenge beyond product-market fit is actually a people issue—and how to quickly spot and fix these hidden problems. You’ll learn why staying in direct contact with your customers accelerates your path to true product-market fit, and hear …

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How Mercury Hit $500M ARR—then raised $300M from Sequoia at $3.5B. | Immad Akhund, CEO & Founder of Mercury 54:58

2M ago54:58

54:58

Immad grew Mercury to $500M in annualized revenue and profitable. Mercury is one of the fastest-growing fintech startups ever. No wonder they just raised $300M from Sequoia at $3.5B. Immad breaks down exactly how he structured a viral launch, why fundraising is easier with zero customers than you think, and how he unlocked massive word-of-mouth gro…

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Mike Maples: Your Startup Idea Isn’t Crazy Enough—And it's holding you back | Mike Maples, Founder of Floodgate 57:59

2M ago57:59

57:59

Ever wonder why some startups follow every “right” rule and still fail, while others break every norm and dominate? Mike Maples (Floodgate, author of Pattern Breakers) reveals how true breakthrough startups aren’t built by checking boxes—they’re created by founders bold enough to reject consensus, ignore conventional wisdom, and rewrite the rules e…

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How he grew to $100M ARR—then exited for $460M. | Zuben Matthews, Founder of Brigit 51:10

2M ago51:10

51:10

Zuben turned his personal experience with crippling overdraft fees into Brigit, a fintech he sold for $460 million after hitting $100M ARR. This episode gives early-stage founders the unfiltered truth: how Zuben discovered massive market pain hidden in plain sight, validated the idea with real customers, built bulletproof unit economics early, and …

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He Hit $3.5M ARR and Still Failed. Here’s His #1 Mistake. | Joseph Lee, Founder of Freshline 37:08

2M ago37:08

37:08

Joseph built Freshline to $3.5 million in revenue and nearly $2 million raised. It looked like a marketplace success story—until it wasn’t. In this episode, Joe shares the hidden reasons marketplaces fail, critical lessons on how to spot the right market, and why traction alone doesn’t guarantee success. It’s a raw, real look at what happens when h…

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1st-time founder raises $140M with $0 revenue—grows to 800 employees & profitable. | Andrew Rubin, Founder of Illumio 1:03:29

3M ago1:03:29

1:03:29

Andrew Rubin raised $40M in 6 months before writing a single line of code—and another $100M before seeing his first dollar of revenue. Today, Illumio is valued at billions and counts Morgan Stanley among its earliest customers. But Andrew’s journey wasn’t smooth or easy. Listen in to learn how he navigated the fine line between being early and bein…

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PMF Observations: Why it doesn't matter how fast you get to $1M ARR 13:46

3M ago13:46

13:46

Forget what you thought about early-stage growth. In this must-listen episode, you’ll hear firsthand how startup success truly happens—and spoiler alert, there’s no playbook. From companies like Carbon6 using roll-up strategies to Graphite pivoting multiple times before exploding, we unpack real founder journeys that prove getting to $1M ARR fast i…

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He went 7 years with no revenue— then grew to $100M ARR. | Rob Woollen, Co-Founder of Sigma 55:57

3M ago55:57

55:57

Rob Woollen, founder of Sigma Computing, shares the unfiltered reality of going from 0 to $100M ARR. After spending seven years grinding without product-market fit, Sigma finally hit an inflection point—tripling revenue year over year. Rob dives deep into the pivots, setbacks, and critical decisions that turned early failure into a massive success.…

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$10M Raised, 500K Users, but she still failed—here’s what went wrong | Benedetta Lucini, Founder of Oval Money 49:31

3M ago49:31

49:31

This is the brutally honest startup story every founder needs to hear. Benedetta shares how she built a fintech app to half a million users and raised $10M—yet still failed. You’ll learn why chasing big partnerships can backfire spectacularly, how a seemingly successful startup can quietly fall apart, and how to set yourself up to avoid common but …

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How $100B Mercado Libre got started—& why it almost went bankrupt after 9 months. | Hernan Kazah, Co-Founder Mercado Libre 57:20

3M ago57:20

57:20

How do you build a $100B business without hypergrowth or endless funding rounds? Hernan Kazah co-founded Mercado Libre, the Latin American ecommerce giant, at the peak of the dot-com bubble. But when the market crashed, funding disappeared, and competitors doubled down on spending, Mercado Libre focused relentlessly on building a rock-solid, profit…

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PMF Observations: How 4 Founders Built Massive Startups Their Own Way 27:31

3M ago27:31

27:31

Four founders prove you don’t need Silicon Valley, a technical degree, or a massive seed round to build a massive company. We go through the key observations from the last 4 episodes: How Skip created a $200M business in a third tier city, Polarsteps’ NPS‑obsessed rise, Jobber’s decade‑long compounding engine, and why a small decision was key to Pu…

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His AI Voice Startup grew to $10M ARR in 1 Year—after 3 Years Stuck at $500K | Jordan Dearsley, Founder of Vapi 50:39

3M ago50:39

50:39

Jordan Dearsley spent 3 years building a startup stuck at $500K in revenue—then he burned it all down and moved to San Francisco. A year later, he was at $10M ARR. This episode walks through Jordan’s decision to abandon a profitable business, why solving a painful customer problem was the key to explosive growth, and how finding product-market fit …

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WebSummit Panel w/ Founders of Glean ($5B) and Huntress ($2B): What it takes to hit $100M ARR 18:45

3M ago18:45

18:45

Two founders, two wildly different paths to $100M ARR: Arvind Jain, founder of Glean, walked away from a unicorn to start over—raising $15M without revenue and ignoring lean startup rules. Kyle Hanslovan, founder of Huntress, faced brutal rejection, slept in his car, maxed out credit cards, and still crushed it. This episode is packed with raw less…

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How his $2B startup grew to $10M+ ARR with zero marketing. | Avery Pennarun, Founder of Tailscale 50:31

3M ago50:31

50:31

Avery Pennarun raised $160M for Tailscale—without even meaning to. What started as a small, simple project exploded into an unstoppable force in network connectivity and security. This episode reveals exactly how Avery turned a tiny seed round into millions of dollars in ARR, powered by nothing more than word-of-mouth and an obsession with solving …

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May Startup News: Elizabeth Holmes Returns, Billion-Dollar Frauds, & the End of Tech Jobs w/ Jack Kuveke 28:43

4M ago28:43

28:43

Description: Jack Kuveke returns to unpack the wildest startup news this month: from billion-dollar frauds and crypto scams, to OpenAI’s secretive $6.5 billion gadget project with Apple’s design legend Jony Ive. We dig into why big-name investors keep missing red flags, and why AI might be crushing entry-level tech jobs faster than anyone expected.…

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He hit $1M ARR in 10 months—after doing of a full, 180 pivot. | Merrill Lutsky, Founder of Graphite 56:30

4M ago56:30

56:30

After two pivots and nearly running out of runway, Merrill Lutsky found insane growth—scaling Graphite to tens of thousands of daily users and millions in ARR. He reveals exactly how Graphite landed its first massive enterprise customer, doubled revenue overnight by changing pricing, and turned user feedback into momentum. Merrill shares hard-earne…

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PMF Observations: Why passion is more important than you think 19:51

4M ago19:51

19:51

Most early-stage founders get trapped in the chaos of endless tasks, there's always too much to do and not enough time. We go through the last 4 episodes to see what how the best founders prioritize. We also see why you can raise millions without real traction but can’t fake product-market fit, how positioning yourself for luck is as important as h…

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He didn't raise VC for the first 7 years— then grew to $1B in ARR. | Dax Dasilva, Founder of Lightspeed 55:15

4M ago55:15

55:15

Dax built Lightspeed into a $1B ARR public company—even though he bootstrapped for the first 7 years. In this episode, he reveals exactly how he used a 4x pricing shift to create a global reseller machine that grew him to $10M ARR. He also breaks down why obsessing over design and deep customer empathy built the foundation for success.—and how step…

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Q1 2025: The Seed to Series A Gap is Wider Than Ever. Here's what to do. | Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta 48:22

4M ago48:22

48:22

Carta just released their report for Q1 2025. Peter is Head of Insights at Carta, and the person who owns their data practice. We sit down to talk about the largest trends he saw across fundraising, industries, graduation rates and even hiring practices. Carta data shows that graduation rates from Seed to A are as low as they've ever been. Bridge r…

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He went from 0 to a $210M exit in 3 years—without inventing anything new. | Kazi Ahmed, Founder of Carbon6 45:14

4M ago45:14

45:14

Kazi Ahmed took a small insight—seeing friends cash out from Amazon brands—and built Carbon6, a software roll-up startup, selling it for $210M just three years later. But behind the quick success was a frantic scramble to survive. Aggressive acquisitions nearly ran them out of cash, forcing a brutal pivot from burning $1M per month to profitability…

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Forecasts are overrated—great founders build one step at a time. | PMF Observations 18:06

4M ago18:06

18:06

I break down my top insights from recent conversations with four founders who won in unconventional ways. You’ll hear how Noah turned LinkedIn posts into his primary sales channel (without ever going viral), why Dan’s startup survived a brutal 95% downround but ended up at $400M ARR two years later, how Adam turned a stagnant $3M ARR business into …

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He took on Robinhood & built Public.com into a $1B company with $440M raised. | Jannick Malling, Founder of Public.com 55:12

4M ago55:12

55:12

Public co-founder Jannick Malling shares exactly how he grew his startup from a tiny beta to millions of users—and hundreds of millions raised. He reveals why fractional shares changed the game for user acquisition, how the company cleverly seized on the GameStop moment to explode growth, and why relentless product focus was critical to scaling qui…

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Adam Neumann Returns, SV Spies, AI Robots Rise | April Startup News w/ Jack Kuveke 39:53

5M ago39:53

39:53

Corporate spies stealing Slack messages. Adam Neumann raising another $100M (for WeWork 2.0?). AI startups hitting $34B valuations with zero revenue and ordering Ben & Jerry's ice cream over 15 payments with Klarna on DoorDash. April was wild, and Jack Kuveke joins the show to unpack the chaos, controversy, and insanity behind the biggest startup h…

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1 year in he had just 3 customers—today he’s at $100M ARR. | Forrest Zeisler, Co-Founder of Jobber | Forrest Zeisler, Co-Founder of Jobber 53:13

5M ago53:13

53:13

Forrest Zeisler spent 6 months hearing “no” from every potential customer he spoke to. One year in, Jobber had just three customers—paying $29/month. Today, Jobber generates over $100M ARR, has raised $180M in VC, and employs nearly 1,000 people. In this episode, Forrest shares the brutally honest story behind Jobber’s early days: months of rejecti…

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He lost 90% of his users overnight—then grew his consumer app to $10M ARR. | Koen Droste, Founder of Polarsteps 46:30

5M ago46:30

46:30

He turned a personal travel tracker into an app with 10 million users and $10 million in revenue, with almost no funding. He reveals how ignoring conventional startup advice—like launching early, chasing revenue, or partnering for growth—was key to their viral success. He realized everything growth was about word-of-mouth. So the key to success was…

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He launched a “side-project”— now it’s used by 10% of all restaurants. | Jordan Boesch, Founder of 7Shifts 40:20

5M ago40:20

40:20

Jordan Boesch started 7shifts as a teenager helping his dad manage restaurant shifts. Today, his software runs scheduling for 50,000 restaurants. This episode dives into how Jordan bootstrapped early growth, why relentless focus on solving real customer pain mattered more than funding, and how tight partnerships supercharged his expansion. Jordan a…

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1st-time founder grows AI headshot app from $0 to $10M ARR in 2 years—with no funding. | Wesley Tian, Founder of Aragon 53:26

5M ago53:26

53:26

Wesley turned a simple AI headshot generator into a $10M ARR, profitable company—in just two years. He was fired from his job, broke in San Francisco, and, after getting rejected by 30 VCs, down to his last few thousand bucks. But Wesley saw a moment: generative AI was taking off, and no one was tackling AI headshots. Fast-forward two years, and he…

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He raised $30M & failed. Then raised $0 & grew to $550M in revenue. Here's what he learned. | Mike Salguero, Founder of Butcherbox 54:56

5M ago54:56

54:56

Mike first raised $30M for a marketplace that never truly had product-market fit. Then he bet only $10K on ButcherBox. A few years later, he's doing $550M in revenue and he's profitable. The difference is in his first startup he was just catering to investors— in his second one only to customers. If you’re an early founder chasing growth, listen to…

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He invested in 30 early-stage startups. Here's what he looks for in the founders he backs. | Gopi Rangan, Founder of Sure Ventures 35:57

5M ago35:57

35:57

Gopi Rangan has invested in 29 early-stage startups from scratch. He shares a simple but powerful approach to picking the right VCs, structuring your pitch (long-term vision + short-term plan + fuzzy mid-term path), and proving you are the sort of founder every pre-seed investor craves. If you’re raising a pre-seed or seed, Gopi’s tips will make yo…

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He raised $300M to prevent heart attacks. Here's how he got his health tech startup off the ground. | Dr. Min, Founder of Cleerly 43:22

5M ago43:22

43:22

Cardiologist Jim Min watched too many 50-year-olds die with no heart-attack warning. He co-founded Cleerly to automate detailed coronary scans—no invasive procedures, no endless manual work. Yet healthcare’s glacial pace, payers, and federal approvals all stand in his way. Hear how he’s testing AI across thousands of patients, fighting for universa…

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He grew to $25M in ARR and $14M in annual profits—with no funding & no dilution. | Adam Robinson, Founder of Retention.com 52:10

6M ago52:10

52:10

Adam Robinson once struggled with a stagnant email SaaS stuck at $3M ARR, but he kept experimenting until he found how to solve a problem no one else was tackling—and everything changed. Suddenly, buyers were begging for his identity-based marketing tool—so he spun out Retention.com and grew it to $14M+ in annual profit with no outside funding. In …

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He took a 97% downround—then grew to $400M ARR & a $575M valuation in 2 years. | Dan Park, CEO of Clutch 45:22

6M ago45:22

45:22

Dan Park joined Clutch when it was selling 20 cars a month. Then he grew it from $20M in 2019 to $200M in sales by 2022. He was one of Canada's fastest growing companies. Just as he was going to close a $100M round, the macro changed completely. Suddenly, he was left with only six weeks of cash. He was forced to go through a 97% down round at a $15…

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He bootstrapped to $4M ARR in 2 years. Here's his LinkedIn playbook you can't ignore. | Noah Greenberg, Founder of Stacker 47:34

6M ago47:34

47:34

Noah Greenberg grew a content-distribution product from zero to $1M ARR in just one year (and to $4M in 2 years) by focusing on a single channel most founders underrate: LinkedIn. He posted insights daily, highlighted key players in his industry, and made it impossible for prospects not to notice him. In this episode, Noah reveals the exact step-by…