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| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| From $0 to $165M: How Harsh Patel Built and Sold 3 Companies (and What He’d Do Differently) | 17 Feb 2025 | 01:04:33 | |
Harsh Patel is a repeat founder, investor, and board member who has built and sold multiple companies, including MakerSquare, Hack Reactor, and Galvanize, which had a $165 million exit. With experience scaling businesses from zero to one, finding product-market fit, and navigating M&A, Harsh has seen it all. In this conversation, we discuss:
Brought to you by:
Where to Find Harsh Patel
Where to Find Dav J Phillips
In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced in This Episode
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| From cold email to his 2 startups getting acquired for $100M+ | 27 Jan 2025 | 01:52:44 | |
Fondo: Your all-in-one accounting platform for startups. Get your books closed, taxes filed, and cash back from the IRS. - https://www.tryfondo.com/ In this podcast episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Chris Bakke, who shared his journey from working in private equity to finding success in the tech startup world. He described how his experience in private equity was challenging and often felt like a grind, which led him to seek a more fulfilling career in technology. This transition taught him the importance of hard work and resilience, especially when facing tough tasks that may seem unglamorous at first. Chris emphasized that the key to his success was not just about having a great product but also about persistence and adaptability. He learned that building a business requires a lot of cold outreach and networking, which can be exhausting but ultimately rewarding. His insights highlight that maintaining mental health and motivation is crucial when navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, as it can lead to significant achievements and personal growth Timestamp (0:17) - Origin Story: Growing Up and Early Career (0:48) - Transition from Private Equity to Tech Startups (3:03) - Lessons from Private Equity: The Importance of Scrappiness (8:21) - Building Interviewed: The Idea and Early Customers (12:01) - Sales Process: From Cold Emails to Conferences (35:05) - Acquisition by Indeed: The Negotiation Process and Insights Host Links: https://x.com/davj https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips/
https://x.com/ChrisJBakke https://www.linkedin.com/in/bakk3/ | |||
| Trailer | 15 Jan 2025 | 00:00:26 | |
https://www.tryfondo.com/ | |||
| 🎧 START pod: Liam Karlsson & William Gyltman, Co-Founders of Rankad.ai "Turn AI visibility into revenue. On autopilot." | 31 Mar 2026 | 00:12:05 | |
Liam Karlsson had no clue why his SEO clients were losing traffic while rankings held Then his 57-year-old mom asked ChatGPT for new running shoes Nike answer. Bought the shoe. Was super happy. Google was never part of that customer journey... That was the seed of Rankad.ai He pitched Co-Founder William Gyltman. They went all in Track and grow brand visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot. Enter your domain, 30 seconds later you're in the app. AI agent optimizes your site directly Liam Karlsson & William Gyltman, Co-Founders, Rankad.ai at The Residency Demo Day 🎙️ Fondo START pod w/ David J. Phillips (full ep in comments) 00:25 “We’re helping companies earn more money in AI search” | |||
| 🎧 START pod: Matthew Chen, Founder & CEO, Laurence "Autonomous performance marketing" | 27 Mar 2026 | 00:07:41 | |
Amazon sellers do not have a data problem. They have a decision problem. They already have the clicks What they do not have is a system that knows what to do with it. So brands pay agencies $5,000 to $50,000 a month - and still lose money on ads Matthew Chen built Laurence to change that. A quantitative system for Amazon advertising. When confidence is high, it acts The result: about 40% better performance for customers. Amazon is the wedge. 🎧 START pod: Matthew Chen, Founder & CEO, Laurence "Autonomous performance marketing" 00:23 What Laurence does | |||
| JJ Maxwell, CEO & Founder, Pillar (trypillar.com) "Your App's Copilot" | 17 Mar 2026 | 00:16:37 | |
Setting up a single trigger in Zendesk takes 30 clicks With Pillar it takes one sentence JJ Maxwell built an open source copilot you build into your app. Users talk to it in natural language and it drives the app for them The problem: products can do a lot but users don't always know what's there. So they ask support. Or they churn Before Pillar, JJ built a creator ad marketplace with about 40,000 creators. Then spent two years on another product through YC W24. About $30M on the platform, real users, decent growth. Pivoted anyway. As soon as he lost belief it was gonna work, he ripped the bandaid off Web MCP is already rolling out. Companies trying to stop agents from taking actions are fighting a losing battle 🎙️ JJ Maxwell, Founder & CEO of Pillar (trypillar.com) on the Fondo START pod 01:56 What Pillar is: a copilot that’s easy to build into your app | |||
| Julian Weisser | The Solo Flippening: How 1-in-3 Startups Broke the Co-Founder Myth | 20 Dec 2025 | 00:18:18 | |
The script has been the same for decades: find a co-founder Investors demanded it. The narrative became so entrenched that founders started pairing up out of obligation, not alignment. Julian Weisser, founder of SOLO and ODF, has a name for this phenomenon: co-founders of convenience And he's proving they're not just unnecessary-they're often the reason companies fail. This week, Julian released 'The State of Solo Founding' report: "Today, solo founding is considered odd. Soon it will be the default. This report features exclusive Carta data alongside commentary from solo founders who have raised over $250M and the investors who backed them." The comprehensive tracks solo founder rates across thousands of startups, the headline finding is historic: for the first time, over one-third of new startups are solo-founded (That's 36% in 2025, up from under 25% in 2019) 👉 Download the report here: https://solofounders.com/report 👉 Apply to the Solo Founders Program today. A three-month, in-person residency for 6 ambitious solo founders. Next cohort starts Jan. 23, 2026: solofounders.com/program Where to find Julian Weisser: Where to find SOLO: Where to find ODF: Newsletters: Where to find David Phillips: Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups @ fondo.com | |||
| Nate Matherson | Set It, Forget It—Scaling to 2,000+ Customers at Numeral | 19 Dec 2025 | 00:15:05 | |
Nate Matherson has spent 10+ years as a founder. He's built companies and even exited. After that first exit, he started angel investing in dozens of companies, then launched a fund. Numeral was one of his early bets. He sent Numeral's CEO Sam an email. By the end of the day, he was working there as Head of Growth. Now he's helping scale the YC-backed sales tax platform serving over 2,000 customers. Nate's seen what happens when founders don't think about sales tax. "They actually found out that they owed about a half million dollars in sales tax… the buyer subtracted that off what would have gone to the founders." When Nate was a founder, he'd log into Stripe and that sales tax dashboard was lit up like a Christmas tree. Numeral does free nexus studies and monitoring — takes five minutes to set up, plugs into Stripe and Rippling, then runs itself. They launched their SaaS product recently, and their whole concept is set it and forget it. They actually love it when customers don't log in. Some of Nate's new learnings? "When I was a founder, I was always pretty good at marketing. I was just marketing not-so-great products, which made marketing a lot harder." At Numeral, with the right product at the right time, everything clicked.
Key Topics Covered
Follow Numeral: FollowDavid Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com | |||
| 🎧 Startup Growth Podcast, Ep. 32 Jayden Clark | Moments to Flywheels: Founders Engineering Repeatable Reach | 18 Dec 2025 | 00:10:38 | |
Jayden Clark didn’t abandon music. He re-scored it for distribution. After music school, a hedge fund tour, and a B2B SaaS sprint, he launched MOTS—short, sharp episodes designed to be both of the moment and built to last a quarter. His north star isn’t “go viral.” It’s “be clear.” The insight is disarmingly pragmatic: structure is not the enemy of creativity—it’s the amplifier. Lists compress cognition. A beginning–build–end gives every clip a runway and a landing. When a five-replies-deep roast on X unexpectedly detonated, MOTS podcast already had the scaffolding to catch the surge. That’s the signature move: follow a consistent weekly cadence, then publish “emergency episodes” when the culture pops. The result is a feed that feels alive without feeling random. Key Topics Covered
Timestamps: 00:20) "neither timely nor timeless" (00:51) Keeping the music alive (02:10) SF Music → hedge fund → SaaS → pod (03:20) Jazz improvisation: a content strategy (03:42) Building blocks & two-five-one progressions (04:35) How to make content easily digestible (04:53) The @theo ratio backstory (06:46) @sethsetse viral quote-tweet (07:17) Emergency pods vs. weekly episodes (07:22) Emergency Pod #1: @bchesky's bench press (09:42) Where to find @mots_pod Where to find Jayden Clark: X: @creatine_cycle Where to find MOTS Podcast: X: @mots_pod
Website: atlasmedialabs.com Where to find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com | |||
| Sky Yang & Neo Lee | Content-Market Fit > Product-Market Fit: Why B2B Founders Are Getting Cloned | 16 Dec 2025 | 00:12:44 | |
Sky Yang (CEO) & Neo Lee (CTO) are Co-founders of Imagine AI, an AI-powered content engine that clones B2B founders—replicating their voice, context, and backstory to create scalable personal brands. Before Imagine AI, Sky was elected student body president at UCSD by 32,000 students at age 19, then secured $150 million in state funding for university housing through coalition-building and advocacy in DC, Sacramento and at the UC Board of Regents. He co-founded "Break the Outbreak," a nonprofit that delivered PPE across 18 states and 53 cities during COVID, earning commendations from Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Eric Swalwell. Neo transferred from UCSD to Berkeley, then dropped out to build. He met Sky freshman year at a beach event—asking "Are you Skygodkingdom?"—before they went skydiving together and Neo cut Sky's hair in the woods after COVID. Their catalyst was realizing founders were building in public on X but deals were happening on LinkedIn. After meeting advisor Gustaf, they pivoted distribution strategy to focus on where B2B founders actually live and transact. Sky calls this "content-market fit"—a state where your content hits your target customer every single time, creating scalable, repeatable inbound motion. They were fully booked from their first week post-YC launch, landing Series B customers. One founder messaged urgently, jumped on a 15-minute call, and paid on Stripe immediately. They recruited over Halloween weekend instead of partying. They hosted a yacht party with $10 billion in collective GDP (320 capacity, 750+ on waitlist). Neo's philosophy: "The product is just amplifying what we already are. Just be authentic." Sky's vision references Westworld: "Your agents will interact with each other instead of humans." Key Topics Covered: · What Imagine AI is: a chat-first AI clone with high-fidelity persona creation, subject matter expert interviews, and content engineering to hit content-market fit · From X to LinkedIn: pivoting distribution to where B2B deals actually happen; Gustaf's advice on market selection · Sky's origin arc: Chengdu → LA → Bay Area → UCSD student body president → $150M state funding advocacy → Break the Outbreak nonprofit · Neo's journey: UCSD → Berkeley dropout → "Skygodkingdom" beach encounter → haircut in the woods → building startups pre-Imagine AI · Content-market fit framework: when your content hits your customer every single time—scalable, repeatable motion with high-intent top-of-funnel inbound · Week-one hypergrowth: fully booked post-YC launch, Series B customers, 15-minute Stripe close during conference, recruiting over Halloween · Authenticity over algorithm: amplification not fabrication; the product shapes around you, not the other way around · Building clones that replicate voice, context, backstory, heuristics, and cognition · The $10B GDPyacht party: 320 founders, 3 DJs, 750 waitlist—building community as cultural moment · The 'Westworld' thesis: AI agents interacting on your behalf · Building in public as 2025 narrative: why founders do great work but nobody knows; solving discovery through personal brand at scale · Design philosophy: one infinite content motion thread vs. scattered posts; AI handles artifacts, humans make strategic decisions Chapters: Where to find Sky Yang: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skyyang X: https://x.com/skygodkingdom Where to find Neo Lee: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neo-lky Where to find Imagine AI: Website: https://www.imagineai.me LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ai-imagine Where to find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips Brought to you by:Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com | |||
| Rebecca Medina & Jeff Phillips | How Talent Cheetah Cut PM Hiring from 90 Days to 5 Minutes with Transparent Pricing | 11 Dec 2025 | 00:32:36 | |
Rebecca Medina and Jeff Phillips built an AI-powered talent marketplace that's disrupting recruitment with transparent pricing, direct negotiation, and same-day PM hires for SMBs. Rebecca Medina had the network. She had decades of Big Tech experience. She had the credibility. But when she needed project management help on a client engagement as an independent consultant, none of it mattered. "Even with my network of project managers, I couldn't find the right person fast enough," Rebecca recalls. "And it created a big problem for the company because we weren't able to scale as quickly as we wanted." That pain point became Talent Cheetah. Five years later, Rebecca and her co-founder Jeff Phillips have built an AI-powered talent marketplace connecting pre-vetted project managers with SMBs. They've scaled to 300 PMs across 34 US states. They've even partnered with the Project Management Institute. But the metric that matters most: the Bureau of Labor Statistics says it takes 90 days to hire a technical project manager. Talent Cheetah does it in minutes—with same-day hiring possible. In this episode, Medina and Phillips break down the recruitment model that turns recruiting on its head: transparent pricing that exposes hidden markups, lower take rates than traditional agencies, direct PM-to-company negotiation, and real-time hiring through AI matching. Their core unlocks: many traditional staffing firms charge companies a significantly higher rate than what PMs actually earn—often without disclosing the difference to either side; cultural fit matters just as much as credentials (project management exists on a broad spectrum — the skills needed vary widely across industries, company sizes, and stages of growth.); and past execution remains the strongest predictor of future performance. Their 25-point vetting process includes one pivotal test: candidates must be able to produce legitimate professional references—if you can't find even one after years in the field, you're not ready for the platform. In this conversation, they reveal just how much AI is automating routine PM artifacts (like meeting notes, risk logs, and timelines) while increasing the premium on leadership and communication; how their intentional U.S.-based strategy competes on quality and transparency in an industry racing to the bottom on cost; and how Talent Cheetah is opening doors for underrepresented groups in project management; why fractional engagements (such as part-time PM support for short durations) are suddenly viable when traditional agencies can't deliver them well.
The pain point origin: Rebecca's consulting crisis when her network couldn't deliver PM talent fast enough The 90-day problem: Bureau of Labor Statistics average vs. Talent Cheetah's minutes-to-same-day matching Exposing the hidden markup: traditional agencies bill $x/hour, pay PMs $x/hour, keep $x secret from both parties No posting fees: free to post unlimited jobs (vs. ZipRecruiter/Indeed/LinkedIn pay-per-post), no sign-up fees for PMs The 25-point vetting process: professional references, credential validation, and candidates who wait years The reference test: some applicants can't find anyone to vouch for them after 12-24 months Four-year minimum: experience requirement (not just title) focused on herding cats and managing projects PMP vs. experience: why certification proves framework knowledge but not execution capability Direct negotiation: PMs and companies set rates transparently, eliminating hidden recruiter markups AI-powered matching: real-time algorithm surfaces top 3 PMs, with 297 more to browse Cultural fit dynamics: startup PMs vs. Big Tech PMs require different personalities PMI partnership: hiring bonanzas and visibility programs in San Francisco White glove service: helping first-time contractors negotiate rates and structure engagements AI's impact on PMing: automating artifacts while amplifying leadership and communication needs Fractional engagements: 10-hour/week arrangements that traditional agencies can't serve Chapters: (01:55) Origin story: Talent Cheetah (03:16) What makes Talent Cheetah different: Speed as the #1 differentiator, same-day hiring possible (04:05) US-based strategy: competing on quality and credential familiarity (06:08) Supporting underrepresented groups: veterans (logistics → PM transitions) and women in tech (07:33) Serving both sides: job search help for PMs, FAANG-quality talent for clients (08:43) White glove service: flexible involvement based on needs, negotiation help included (09:16) How it works: 30-second account creation, under-5-minute posting, real-time AI matching (10:15) Platform scale: 300 PMs across 34 US states, discipline-specific but industry-agnostic (11:04) The 25-point vetting process: four-year minimum, references, credentials, interviews (14:09) PMP certification vs. hands-on experience: gold standard plus practical execution (16:02) Exposing the hidden markup: how traditional agencies work (17:08) AI's impact on PM work: automating artifacts, amplifying leadership and communication (20:40) Expanding beyond PMs: network architects, developers, product managers (23:02) PMI partnership: 'hiring bonanzas' and visibility programs in SF (25:12) Ideal clients (26:47) Transparent pricing model: no posting fees for companies, no sign-up fees for PMs (27:36) Getting started: talentcheetah.com, instant talent matching (30:48) Internal messaging and AI matching: top 3 matches with direct communication (32:00) Where to find them on LinkedIn, YouTube, talentcheetah.com Where to Find Rebecca Medina:
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| Julian Weisser | 'The Flippening': Why Solo Founders Are Becoming the Default | 04 Dec 2025 | 00:42:53 | |
Julian Weisser is the Founder and CEO of Solo Founders, a three-month residency program in San Francisco where founders live and work together while maintaining full authorship of their companies. He's also the CEO of On Deck Founders (ODF), a program that over seven years and 26 cohorts has helped over 1,000 people start companies that have collectively raised more than $2 billion. As an angel investor with more than 150 portfolio companies including Levels, Astroforge, and MagicSchool, he's seen patterns in what actually predicts startup success versus what investors claim they're looking for. He writes the Texts with Founders newsletter sharing bite-sized practical wisdom for entrepreneurs and publishes Multitudes, a newsletter exploring founder psychology and startup strategy. In this episode, Weisser breaks down the denominator delusion: solo-founded companies were more likely to succeed than co-founded ones, but nobody talked about it because when you look at the total number of successful companies, co-founded businesses eclipse solo successes—while hiding how many unsuccessful co-founded companies exist in the denominator. His core unlocks: two-thirds of startups die from co-founder disputes before reaching product-market fit or running out of money, being solo is far better than 99% of potential co-founders, and authorship (the desire to express yourself and put your vision into the world) matters more than contortionism (twisting your company to match what investors want to see). The flippening already happened in ODF 26—over half chose solo. In this conversation, he breaks down why MagicSchool's Adil Khan (a former high school principal with no startup experience) succeeded solo, how "co-founders of convenience" kill companies before they reach potential, what makes the Solo Founders residency feel like having "five co-founders while building your own company," and why mimicking trends accrues value to memes instead of founders.
Chapters:
Where to find Julian Weisser: Where to find SOLO: X: https://x.com/solofounding Where to find ODF: X: https://x.com/joinodf Newsletters: Where to find David Phillips: Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com | |||
| Allen Naliath | Sam Altman + Garry Tan Cold Asks, Win Conditions You Control & Why Friday Stops at 99% | 02 Dec 2025 | 00:19:37 | |
Allen Naliath is the Founder and CEO of Friday, a Chrome extension that integrates AI email management directly into Gmail. Two years ago at Stanford, he struggled with the confidence to ask for what he wanted. So he engineered a solution: a 30-day rejection challenge where he had to hear "no" once per day or start to ask for increasingly audacious requests. The problem: people kept saying yes. He escalated strategically—waiting by a golf cart to ask Sam Altman to sign his laptop, and cold-asking Garry Tan to add him on LinkedIn during a Stanford talk. Garry's response: "Is this a Psyop?" He added him anyway. That connection led to YC. Today, Friday processes emails via predicted action buttons—users press enter repeatedly to archive, reply, or unsubscribe. Allen personally onboards every user to inbox zero in 10 minutes, even with 18,000 unread emails. Naliath's catalyst was advice from a founder mentor: "If you want to work on startups when you graduate, don't even apply to Apple and Google. If you have no plan B, plan A has to work." His core insight: most people's win condition depends on the other person saying yes. He reframed it so yes and no are both wins—the win condition is in his control just by asking. That philosophy runs through Friday's design: it doesn't put email on full autopilot (which "induces anxiety"), it gets users 99% of the way. Friday started as a hackathon project, evolved into a mobile text assistant, then became a Chrome extension after realizing Gmail integration was faster than building feature parity. The average person spends two hours per day in email; Friday users get through 30 emails in 60 seconds. Key Topics Covered: - Rejection challenge: daily "no" requirement, mindset shift from fear to relief - Win condition reframe: "Yes and no are both wins. The win condition is in my control just by asking." - Cold approaches: Sam Altman golf cart ambush, Garry Tan LinkedIn add during Stanford talk - Friday evolution: hackathon project → mobile assistant → Gmail Chrome extension - Anti-autopilot philosophy: "That induces anxiety. It gets you to 99%—you stay in control." - Predicted action buttons: archive, reply, unsubscribe—all one-keystroke approvals - Voice matching: Friday drafts replies that sound like you, including dash preference - 10-minute inbox zero: personal onboarding using auto-archive rules for old emails - Chat feature: "Look him up online, find his email in my inbox, draft an intro." Chapters: (00:33) The rejection challenge that rewired his confidence (03:35) Changing you win-condition to be in your control (05:20) Meeting Silicon Valley Legends (06:05) "Is this a Psyop?" - how a cold LinkedIn ask to Garry Tan led to YC (07:03) Dropping out of Stanford: "If you have no plan B, plan A has to work." (09:23) Friday DEMO: how enter-enter-enter clears 30 emails in 60 seconds (13:45) The inbox zero system: snooze what matters, archive the rest, empty daily (15:13) Why Friday stops at 99%: "Full autopilot induces anxiety—you need control." (17:36) Chat-powered bulk actions: "Look him up online, find his email, draft an intro." (19:21) Make every day feel like Friday Where to find Allen Naliath: X: https://x.com/AllenNaliath
Company X: https://x.com/fridaymail
X: https://x.com/davj
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| Lindsay Amos | Old vs. New Media, Exclusive vs. Embargo & Why Founder Brands Win Early | 26 Nov 2025 | 00:39:13 | |
Lindsay Amos is the Founder of Amos Communications, a boutique firm for founder-led marketing and PR. From 2018 to 2024, she ran communications at Y Combinator, where she coached thousands of startups and wrote YC's handbook on startup PR. Before that, she worked in comms at Square and Meta, giving her a 360° view of how stories move from boardrooms to bylines to buyer behavior. Today, she advises founders on landing real news (not ads), building durable founder brands, and operating across a media landscape that's shifted from legacy gatekeepers to creator-led growth channels. She also co-created The To-Do List Summit, a workshop bootcamp teaching early-stage teams the tactical basics of comms, video, events, and community, and she writes a Substack on startup storytelling and strategy. Amos's catalyst was living both media eras: nine months shepherding a single Wired story about Square moving into a new office versus today's "algorithms plus authenticity" environment. Her core unlocks: lead with the what (then earn the why), tie every pitch to a macro trend your audience already cares about, and default to exclusives over embargoes until you're big enough to run a press gauntlet. New media isn't a replacement for traditional outlets; the best founders run both lanes—because audiences follow people first, products second. In this conversation, she breaks down how to pick the right channel, prep for tough interviews, avoid blacklist behaviors, and time transparency (share the "personal hell" after you've won, to teach—not spiral). Key Topics Covered: - What "news" actually is: a hook plus a macro trend your customer already thinks about. - Founder brand vs. company brand: why audiences follow people first (and how to use it). - Exclusive > embargo (early): how editors green-light stories and why timing matters. - Practical media ops: avoid Friday pitches, follow up once, don't text or Signal reporters. - Content that converts: entertaining, educational, or perspective—never just ads. - Cinematic launches: when video helps, when it's sizzle; why distribution still wins. - New media shift: reporters → Substack/podcasts; find where your audience actually is. - The To-Do List Summit: teaching founder-led marketing when agencies aren't the answer. Chapters:
Where to find Lindsay Amos: Where to find David Phillips: Brought to you by: | |||
| Joe Holberg | Bootstrapped, Beat 30x-Funded Rivals, Acquired: Now He's Running for Mayor | 24 Nov 2025 | 00:37:51 | |
Joe Holberg is the Founder & former CEO of Spring, a workplace financial wellness platform that began D2C, pivoted to employer-paid, and became a top-rated U.S. offering for three consecutive years, serving 25,000+ users. He bootstrapped from 2015 to 2018, raised a $1M seed, and sold Spring to Mariner Wealth Advisors in 2023, remaining through early 2025. Before Spring, he taught with AmeriCorps on Chicago’s West Side and built CS education at Google. A first-generation college graduate who once slept in his car to finish school, Joe is now a declared candidate for the 58th Mayor of Chicago. Holberg’s catalyst was seeing financial confusion across backgrounds—even among peers with professional-class parents. Early Spring had universal interest but low willingness to pay; the unlock was changing the buyer (HR) and making a firm pricing decision: “Pricing isn’t science—it’s a decision.” In this conversation, he discusses building Spring, the B2B pivot, lessons from pricing and sales, and his views on city governance, housing supply, business climate, and tech-literate leadership. This episode presents his perspective and experiences as a founder and candidate.
(00:36) Spring’s origin — addressing financial education gaps observed across income levels. (01:43) Early arc — glow-stick hustle; first-gen college; sleeping in the car; AmeriCorps; Google; leaving to build. (04:21) “Credibility book” — unconventional sales asset for HR conversations. (06:14) The pivot — strong demand, low D2C conversion; employer-paid model. (08:43) Building years — 2015 start, 2018 $1M seed, solo grind → top-rated 3 years, 25k+ users; 2023 acquisition; through early 2025. (12:39) Pricing "aha" — choosing and owning a price to accelerate qualified deals. (14:37) Why enter politics — empathy across the income spectrum; need for tech-aware governance. (20:02) Entering the arena — outreach, mentorship, and announcing candidacy. (24:23) Status quo (guest’s view) — resident/business trends; collaboration with builders. (27:22) How Chicago governance works — mayor vs. council; CPS board; housing supply. (30:55) Voter expectations — vision, ideas, results. (32:32) Closing themes — affordability, fiscal considerations, and civic participation.
Disclosure / Non-Endorsement Note: The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not reflect the views of David J. Phillips, Fondo or the Startup Growth Podcast. Appearance on the podcast does not constitute an endorsement of any candidate, campaign, or policy proposal. This episode is provided for informational purposes only. | |||
| 🎧 START pod: Milind Sagaram, Co-Founder & CEO, Articulate "Speeding Up Construction with AI" | 27 Mar 2026 | 00:06:52 | |
Construction doesn't fail on the jobsite. It fails in the drawings. The jobsite just reveals it Project managers spend half their time scanning plans page by page for conflicts between disciplines. Plumbing through steel beams. Electrical into HVAC They still miss most of it. Millions in rework when caught in the field Milind Sagaram built Articulate to catch these issues before construction starts AI reads the PDFs. Finds clashes across architectural, structural, and MEP sheets. Generates draft issue reports automatically The surprise: construction teams aren't resistant. They want it more than anyone expected 🎙️ Milind Sagaram, Co-Founder & CEO, Articulate / Helonic.com on Fondo START pod 00:18 AI for finding drawing issues before construction starts | |||
| Jay Ram | Beyond Evals: Build Environments That Make Agents Better | 19 Nov 2025 | 00:22:01 | |
Jay Ram is Founder & CEO of Hud, the evaluation and RL platform for AI agents. Hud helps startups build RL environments, run fast reward loops, and plug into any RL backend—so teams can cut costs and push last-mile accuracy once they've hit PMF. Before Hud, Jay left a lucrative quant career, shipped an AI prank-calling app that briefly hit #1 on the App Store (≈500k calls), and decided he wanted harder problems and smarter customers. He's a YC W25 alum; Hud is already used by researchers at foundation labs and is expanding into enterprise environments. Jay's catalyst was realizing he didn't want to just talk weekends—he wanted to build. He and his co-founders first tackled computer-use evals for labs. Inside that work, the language shifted: labs asking for "evals" really needed environments—places where you design rewards, iterate, and actually improve model behavior. Today, Jay frames Hud as the "Next.js of RL environments": opinionated lifecycle, backend-agnostic training, and infra that returns signal fast. Early on, use a foundation model; post-PMF, train your own with SFT/RL—that's where environments matter. Looking ahead, he sees post-training speciation: domain-tuned models for finance, accounting, creative tooling, and more—because teams will own more of their stack again. Key Topics Covered: · What Hud is: tools to set up your agent for RL, define tasks, shape rewards, and plug into RFT/other RL backends.
(00:15) Cold open — "We give you all the tools to set up your agent for RL." Where to find Jay Ram:
Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com | |||
| Kevin Xu | From $35K to $10M: The Alpha Behind Your Next Bet | 17 Nov 2025 | 00:38:03 | |
Kevin Xu is Founder & CEO of Alpha AI, your “AI money friend” that plugs into real-time markets and your portfolio to explain what just happened—and what matters next—inside a simple chat. Before Alpha, Kevin became a WallStreetBets folk hero as turning $35K in a 401(k) into $10M through high-conviction swing trades. He previously founded Fan Hero (YC S13), worked at Stripe (~#300) and Google/YouTube, and appeared in MSNBC Studios’ Diamond Hands on Peacock. Kevin’s catalyst was realizing the products he loved—Google, Wikipedia—were built by real people. That sent him to YC, then Stripe for world-class reps, then into the internet’s finance classroom: Reddit. He posted every win and loss, learned in public, and distilled trading into rules like “If it’s good enough to screenshot, it’s good enough to sell.” After building After Hour to socialize trading, he’s now productizing that edge with Alpha AI: a proactive, personable copilot designed to build money confidence for the next million millionaires. Key Topics Covered: • What Alpha AI is: a chat-first AI money friend with market context + your portfolio, proactive “what just happened” nudges, and customizable character. Chapters Where to find Kevin Xu: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imkevinxu Where to find Alpha AI: Website: https://alpha.so Where to find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips
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| Daivik Goel | From Bootstrap to Batch, Last-Minute YC Submit & Why Fintech Speed Matters | 01 Nov 2025 | 00:37:52 | |
Daivik Goel is Co-founder & CEO of Shor, a global payroll platform for startups. Traditional EOR providers charge around $7,000 per year to manage an employee earning $20,000 per year. Shor uses automation to reduce costs and embeds payroll actions into Slack and WhatsApp through AI agents, so founders can request tax documents or payment updates without opening another dashboard. Daivik and co-founder Avi Konduru submitted their YC application at 7:59 PM, one minute before the deadline. After multiple prior rejections, they got an interview, then a follow-up call, then acceptance. They started YC with a crypto payment idea, pivoted five weeks before demo day to global payroll—a problem they'd worked on two years earlier—and shipped contractor payroll within a week. They've since raised funding and are scaling. Key Topics Covered: • What Shor is: global payroll/EOR rebuilt for startups; automation handles ops, AI teammates deliver docs/actions in Slack/WhatsApp. • From clever to sellable: pivoted inside YC from crypto/fiat rails to payroll where they had access and clear pain. • Cost math that breaks: why legacy EORs charging ~$7k/yr on a $20k salary fail SMB/unit economics—and how Shor attacks the middle. • Ship speed as strategy: prior fintech muscle let them launch contractor payroll in one week (KYC/KYB, payouts, tax flows). • Design → dashboards: move work to the user (chat interfaces), keep humans making decisions, let AI do the background jobs. • Distribution as a moat: serve the massive long tail priced out by incumbents; win on affordability + responsiveness. • YC pragmatism: plain-English interviews beat pitch theater; momentum over mockups. • Execution after Demo Day: demand first, fundraising next, delivery always—scaling compliance/country coverage without losing speed. • Founder operating cadence: daily inches over hype cycles; embrace “pivot hell,” but pick battles you can actually win with customers. • Finance stack mindset: reliability and support matter most when back-office tools fail—opt for vendors who show up. Chapters (00:00) Cold open — the 7:59 PM YC submission Where to find Daivik Goel: Where to find Shor: Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://fondo.com | |||
| Cody Schneider | Growth Flywheels, Underpriced Attention & Building Graphed's AI Agent for Marketing Analytics | 24 Oct 2025 | 00:23:55 | |
Cody Schneider is the Founder & CEO of Graphed, an AI agent for marketing analytics. Graphed plugs into common data sources, manages the data warehouse, and lets marketers chat with their data to generate on-demand visuals—“stacked bar of new vs. total users week over week,” “add a line of best fit,” and similar prompts. It’s built to handle scale (Cody mentions onboarding ~25M rows of Facebook data) and to avoid rate limits and sluggish queries by owning the warehousing layer. In this episode, Cody outlines a practical path from data sprawl to decisions: skip steep BI learning curves and ticket queues; connect sources and ask in plain English for charts and basic analyses. He also talks about how creative volume now functions as targeting—ship lots of concepts, let algorithms find buyers—and positions Graphed as the way to see what’s working without waiting on a data team. For founders and marketers, it’s a clear primer on turning raw rows into faster feedback loops. Key Topics Covered: • What Graphed is: an AI agent for marketing analytics that connects sources, manages the warehouse, and lets you chat to generate charts and basic analyses.
X: https://x.com/codyschneiderxx
X: https://x.com/graphed Where to find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips
Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://fondo.com | |||
| Craig J. Lewis | 750K Contractors Paid, $25M Raised, MassChallenge Board - From Gig Wage to Ogentic AI | 24 Oct 2025 | 00:31:04 | |
Craig Lewis is the Founder & CEO Ogentic AI, builder of Zing—an AI-native enterprise browser that turns intent → action in a secure, workflow-native workspace. Before Ogentic, he founded Gig Wage (750k contractors paid, ~$1B moved, $25M+ raised) and learned payroll inside ADP. That operator muscle fuels Ogentic’s pace: incorporated in June, alpha in July, beta in August. He also serves on the governing board at MassChallenge and angels actively. In this episode, Craig shares velocity advice like: ship before perfect (feedback > stealth), build pro-human AI (human-in-the-loop), and treat fundraising like sales (expect 19 no’s, optimize investor–founder fit, when it’s right—TTFM). He outlines the back-office stack that keeps your startup in good shape and his board philosophy: offer perspective, not prescriptions. If you’re building enterprise AI—or just want to move in weeks, not quarters—this one’s for you.
(00:00) The Rise of Ogentic AI (13:37) Building a Strong Back Office (17:02) Navigating Fundraising Challenges (19:14) The Role of MassChallenge (23:12) AI and the Future of Work (27:40) Fundraising in the AI Era
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrfutureofwork X: https://x.com/CraigJamalLewis Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craigjlewis
Where to find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips
Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://fondo.com | |||
| Grace Gong | Lessons on Building Founder–Investor Community: Curate for Outcomes, Not Optics | 17 Oct 2025 | 00:27:37 | |
Grace Gong is the Founder & CEO of Smart Venture Media, podcast host, angel investor, and author. She’s interviewed 500+ founders, investors, and operators on her podcasts, then parlayed that network into a high-signal community: curated founder–VC dinners, conferences (including the Smart AI Summit), and rooms where intros turn into customers and checks. The flywheel started during the pandemic with 5 pm Friday Zooms—and evolved into tightly curated IRL events supported by sponsors and operators. In this episode, Grace outlines a practical approach to community-building: curate for outcomes, not optics (every seat should benefit from every other seat). Her angel filter doubles as her invite list. Online → IRL is the sequence: earn trust digitally, concentrate it offline. For founders aiming to stand out without burning cash, this is a clear primer on turning audience into deal flow. Key Topics Covered:
(00:00) Building Community: The Organic Approach
Where to find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips
Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://fondo.com | |||
| Collin Wallace: Inside venture funds, why billion-dollar outcomes make sense - and how founders stack the odds | 15 Oct 2025 | 00:44:48 | |
Collin Wallace is a partner at Lobby Capital with 20+ years as an engineer, inventor, operator, and investor. Before Lobby, he was Managing Director of Techstars Silicon Valley, launching the first two Bay Area accelerator programs with JPMorgan and eBay. He founded FanGo (Techstars S10)—acquired by Grubhub in 2011, where he became Head of Innovation (OrderHub + pre-IPO patents)—and later co-founded ZeroStorefront (YC W19), acquired by Thanx in 2022. Collin advises the Roelof Botha & Huifen Chan Innovation Program, co-teaches Startup Garage at Stanford GSB, has run two YC Demo Day Funds, and has invested in 80+ startups (e.g., Payjoy, Landed, Mosaic Voice, Postscript, Vellum). In this episode, Collin gives founders some great advice: you’re running two businesses (product for customers, equity for investors). Fund math in concentrated portfolios means ~2 of ~20 bets must carry returns; with dilution to ~10% at exit, winners need multi-billion-dollar potential. Sequence your proof: Pre-seed = prove value; Seed = prove people pay (repeatably); Series A = scale what’s already repeatable. Don’t scale misses (the Steph Curry test). And match capital to your vehicle - venture is rocket fuel: perfect for rockets, destructive for "pickup trucks".
Chapters (00:00) Introduction to Colin Wallace and His Journey Where to find Collin Wallace: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/collin-wallace/ Website: https://lobby.vc/people/collin-wallace/ Where to find Lobby Capital: Where to find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips Brought to you by:
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| Alessandro Chesser: Turn Founder Shares into Tax‑Free Gains with QSBS Trust Stacking | 09 Oct 2025 | 00:33:42 | |
Alessandro Chesser is the founder and CEO of Dynasty, a startup focused on making Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) trust stacking accessible to founders. Before launching Dynasty, he led sales at Carta from the early days to roughly $300M in ARR, gaining hands-on insight into equity workflows, 409A dynamics, and how distribution is built around real, recurring needs. Dynasty offers a subscription service—$1,500 per year for up to four family trusts—that includes trust creation, annual administration, and tax return filing, turning a traditionally bespoke, high-cost process into something founders can set up early in their journey. In this episode, we unpack the mechanics and timing that make—or break—QSBS outcomes. We cover the core tests (acquiring shares before $50M in assets, five-year hold, qualified C-corp status), state-level differences (New York recognizes QSBS; California does not), and why early planning can start both the QSBS and long-term capital gains clocks while avoiding later surprises. Chesser talks about trust stacking—gifting shares into multiple family trusts so each may pursue its own QSBS exclusion—and notes practical guardrails and expert advice for dong it right. Beyond the tax planning, Chesser shares go-to-market lessons from Carta and Dynasty: using the network effect (e.g., certificates signed), creating urgency with must-do workflows (like 409A), iterating growth levers monthly, hiring decisively, and using social + creator partnerships instead of traditional cold outbound. The result is clear: tactical advice for founders on when to exercise, when to gift, how to document, and how to avoid the common QSBS pitfalls discussed in the conversation. Key topics covered - QSBS allows startup shareholders to sell up to $15 million tax-free. In This Episode, We Cover (00:00) Introduction to QSBS and Its Importance (06:35) Understanding QSBS Eligibility and Benefits (13:08) The Role of Dynasty in Maximizing QSBS Benefits (16:29) Alessandro's Journey and the Birth of Dynasty (18:36) Growth Strategies and Lessons from Carta (27:14) Leveraging Social Media for Growth Where to Find Alessandro Chesser: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandro-chesser-84763748 Where to Find Dynasty: Website: https://www.getdynasty.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/getdynasty X: https://x.com/getdynasty_com Where to Find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://fondo.com | |||
| Jeff ‘Jiho’ Zirlin: From 300 Users to $4B+ in Trading Volume, The Story Behind Axie Infinity’s Meteoric Growth | 03 Oct 2025 | 00:35:54 | |
Jeff ‘Jiho’ Zirlin is a co-founder of Sky Mavis, the team behind Axie Infinity and the Ronin blockchain. At the forefront of Web3's most groundbreaking experiments, Jeff helped transform Axie from a small crypto-native community into a cultural phenomenon that onboarded millions to blockchain technology. With over $4 billion in NFT trading volume - earning a Guinness World Record - Axie didn't just talk about bringing people to crypto; it actually did it. Beyond Axie, Jeff pioneered the Ronin blockchain, which now hosts 70+ games and has proven that purpose-built infrastructure can unlock exponential growth for crypto applications.
Jeff 'Jiho' Zirlin:
Skymavis:
Axie
Ronin
David Phillips:
In This Episode, We Cover
(17:41) Community-Driven Growth: The Role of Guilds (18:38) Experimentation as a Growth Strategy (19:52) Challenges and Advantages in Crypto Growth (20:03) Learning Through Gaming: Onboarding to Crypto (21:27) The Uniswap Airdrop: A Catalyst for Growth (22:18) Onboarding and Scaling in Crypto Gaming (23:17) The Ronin Network: A Solution for Scalability (24:40) The Evolution of Ronin and Its Community (25:10) Expanding the Ronin Ecosystem: New Games and Innovations (27:02) Economic Experiments in Crypto Gaming (28:56) The Cultural Renaissance of Crypto (30:14) Future Innovations in Web3 Gaming (31:36) Optimism for the Future of Crypto Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://tryfondo.com | |||
| Parthi Loganathan: Beyond Cold Outbound - How Letterdrop Transforms Intent Signals Into Revenue Opportunities | 23 Sep 2025 | 00:31:16 | |
Parthi Loganathan is the founder and CEO of Letterdrop, a Y Combinator-backed startup that helps B2B companies build pipeline by focusing on the warmest leads and people who are actually in market. Since launching Letterdrop, he's helped companies move beyond saturated email and cold calling tactics to identify prospects who want to talk and send them highly tailored messaging. The platform analyzes public conversations, CRM data, and sales calls to segment buyers and enable personalized outreach without relying on high-volume approaches.
Where to find Parthi Loganathan: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parthiloganathan/ Where to find Letterdrop: Website: https://letterdrop.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/letterdrop/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/43bSCi3FcFaJ28H7qEK59X?si=2f6afe15cea342ea Where to Find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips/ In This Episode, We Cover (00:00) Introduction to LetterDrop and Its Mission
Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://tryfondo.com | |||
| 🎧 START pod: Tejas Bhakta, Founder & CEO , Morph "Subagents and tools that improve coding agents" | 27 Mar 2026 | 00:20:15 | |
Agents don’t need bigger models. They need better tools. Morph trains coding subagents.
Because when context gets too large, performance drops.
One newer model runs at 33,000 tokens/sec: https://docs.morphllm.com/sdk/components/compact
01:30 Fast Apply + WarpGrep | |||
| John Paul Mussalli: How One EMT's Scrappy Prototype Evolved Into an AI Tool That Won Over 20% of NYC's EMTs | 16 Sep 2025 | 00:21:03 | |
In this episode, I sat down with John Paul Mussalli, the co-founder and COO of CareSwift, a Y Combinator-backed startup building AI-powered software to streamline documentation for EMT workers. JP and his cofounders brings a unique blend of technical expertise and entrepreneurial drive to the healthcare technology space, having previously worked across diverse fields from real estate automation to web development. Since co-founding CareSwift, he's helped scale the platform to serve over 2,000 EMTs in New York City alone, generating more than 90,000 automated reports. Beyond product development, JP leads go-to-market strategy and is currently pursuing EMT certification himself to deepen his understanding of the industry's challenges. In this episode, we explore the journey from scrappy prototype to venture-backed startup and the critical lessons learned along the way. Key topics covered:
Where to find John Paul Mussalli - Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpmussalli/ Where to find CareSwift: - Website: https://careswift.ai/ - Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/careswift/ Where to Find David Phillips: - X: https://x.com/davj - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips/ In This Episode, We Cover
(02:54) The Birth of CareSwift: Addressing EMT Challenges (06:09) Impact of CareSwift on EMT Efficiency (09:01) Navigating the Startup Journey: Lessons Learned (09:35) Navigating Startup Structures and Legalities (12:14) The Journey Through Y Combinator (15:06) Daily Life as a Founder in Y Combinator (17:13) Building a Founder Stack: Tools and Resources (18:57) Future Plans Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://tryfondo.com | |||
| Reuben Torenberg: Inside SF's Office Market Comeback: Deals, Trends & AI Company Growth | 12 Sep 2025 | 00:27:38 | |
Reuben Torenberg is a Senior Vice President at CBRE, the world's largest commercial real estate services firm. Reuben specializes in helping startups in San Francisco navigate the complex and rapidly changing office leasing landscape. Since joining CBRE in 2014, he's represented some of the biggest names in tech - including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, and Dropbox - and is widely known as the go-to broker for early-stage startups and growth-stage companies alike. Beyond real estate, Reuben is also a community builder, having founded SF Hoops and SF Links, two of the city's most exclusive and founder-heavy social sports leagues. In this episode, we explore the dramatic transformation of San Francisco's commercial real estate market and the evolving dynamics between landlords, tenants, and the broader tech community. The conversation delves into current market trends in both office and retail spaces, examines how AI companies are reshaping demand patterns, and discusses the critical importance of community building in the tech industry through initiatives like SF Hoops. We also dive deep into pricing strategies, emerging market opportunities, and provide a comprehensive outlook for businesses seeking space in San Francisco.
CBRE: https://www.cbre.com X: https://x.com/RTorenberg021 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reuben-torenberg-b985b646
Where to Find David Phillips: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips/ In This Episode, We Cover (00:00) Current Trends in San Francisco Commercial Real Estate (02:53) Navigating the Market: Opportunities and Challenges (05:54) The Shift in Office Space Demand (08:43) Retail Space and Its Transformation (11:55) Landlord Strategies and Market Dynamics (14:52) The Rise of SF Hoops: Networking Through Sports (17:59) Future Outlook: What to Expect in the Coming Months Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://tryfondo.com | |||
| Stephen Llevano: The Founder Journey, Startup Surprises, and Takeaways for Every Founder | 03 Sep 2025 | 00:31:18 | |
Stephen Llevano is the founder and CEO of Capabuild, a software platform designed for restoration contractors who work on insurance jobs. Capabuild helps these businesses manage compliance, streamline field documentation, and create accurate estimates — fast.
One of the biggest takeaways? The power of watching customers work in their real environment — instead of relying on what they say they need. We dive into how observing contractors in the field led to unexpected product decisions, how Capabuild evolved its pricing model after early pushback, and what it takes to build trust in a traditional, change-resistant industry. Stephen also shares his thoughts on building for overlooked markets, supporting local service businesses, and why long-term traction comes from delivering real operational value — not chasing trends or vanity metrics. If you’re building software for non-obvious industries or trying to unlock early traction, this episode is packed with practical, hard-earned wisdom.
Where to find Stephen Llevano Where to Find David Phillips
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| Saving Startups Millions, R&D Credit Deep Dive, and Breaking Down the Big Beautiful Bill: Jake Wedig | 15 Aug 2025 | 00:39:42 | |
Jake Wedig is the Director of Tax at Fondo, where he helps startups navigate complex tax legislation and maximize their tax benefits. With deep expertise in startup tax strategy, Jake specializes in R&D tax credits, Section 174 compliance, and helping growing companies optimize their tax positions while managing cash flow challenges. In this conversation, Jake breaks down the recent changes in tax legislation that every startup founder needs to know about, particularly the game-changing provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill and how startups can leverage R&D tax credits to get substantial cash back on their development investments. We explore the challenges that Section 174 has created for startups and dive into practical strategies for navigating these changes, including when amending tax returns makes sense and how to leverage bonus depreciation and Section 179 deductions. Jake also explains the powerful long-term benefits of Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) for founder wealth optimization. Key topics covered:
Brought to you by:
Where to find Jake Wedig
Where to Find David Phillips In This Episode, We Cover
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| Nathan Latka: Bootstrapping to $2M ARR, Turning Down $6.5M, and Funding 500+ Startups | 05 Jun 2025 | 00:18:29 | |
Nathan Latka is the founder and CEO of Founderpath, a fintech platform that has deployed nearly $200 million in non-dilutive capital to 500+ software companies. He’s also the creator of GetLatka, a massive SaaS database built off the back of his top-ranked Latka podcast, where he’s interviewed thousands of founders. Nathan’s entrepreneurial journey began at 18 with the launch of Heyo, a Facebook fan page SaaS tool he bootstrapped to $2M in ARR before raising venture capital and eventually exiting. In this conversation, Nathan shares hard-earned lessons from building and exiting companies, explains why most founders don’t understand the true cost of raising VC, and offers a compelling case for why debt and secondaries can be a smarter option. We also explore:
Brought to you by:
Where to Find Nathan Latka
Where to Find David Phillips In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced
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| Selling Before You’re Ready: How Early Stage Founders Close Their First Customers | 27 May 2025 | 00:41:34 | |
Ajith Govind and Avinash Joshi are the co-founders of Cactus, an AI copilot for solopreneurs such as private chefs and caterers, helping them streamline admin tasks and grow their business. Brian Kuan, Community Manager at Vanta, hosted the conversation. Together, we explore early-stage sales, building trust, and the YC network's unique power to catalyze startup momentum. In this episode, we discuss:
Brought to you by:
Where to Find the Guests:
Ajith Govind (Cactus, X25)
Avinash Joshi (Cactus, X25)
Where to Find the Companies
In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced
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| From Overpriced to Undervalued: Why Now is the Time for Startups to Get in on SF's Real Estate Deals | 20 May 2025 | 00:35:57 | |
Reuben Torenberg is a First Vice President at CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm. Reuben specializes in helping startups in San Francisco navigate the complex and rapidly changing office leasing landscape. Since joining CBRE in 2014, he's represented some of the biggest names in tech — including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, and Dropbox — and is widely known as the go-to broker for early-stage startups and growth-stage companies alike. Beyond real estate, Reuben is also a community builder, having founded SF Hoops and SF Links, two of the city’s most exclusive and founder-heavy social sports leagues. In this episode, we dive into the state of commercial real estate for startups in 2025, including:
Brought to you by:
Where to Find Reuben Torenberg
Where to Find David Phillips In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced
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| He Built Mafia Wars to $10M a Day and Now Makes Bets on 130+ Startups | 05 May 2025 | 00:37:28 | |
Roger Dickey is a serial entrepreneur and prolific angel investor with over 130 startup investments under his belt. From humble beginnings coding games as a kid to building Mafia Wars at Zynga—a game that reached a $300 million annual run rate—Roger has scaled multiple companies and exited to giants like Zynga, Home Depot, and private equity. He's also pioneered the "search lab" approach to company building, a structured yet high-velocity process for launching and validating startup ideas. In this episode, we cover:
Brought to you by:
Find the transcript at: https://www.tryfondo.com/podcast (or wherever you're hosting it) Where to Find Roger Dickey
Where to Find David Phillips In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced
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| Fresh Blood in Old Insurance: How Vouch Built a Business Revolutionizing Startup Coverage | 28 Apr 2025 | 00:40:11 | |
Travis Hedge is the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Vouch, an insurance platform purpose-built for high-growth technology companies. After growing up around a family-owned insurance agency in Columbus, Ohio, Travis spent his early career at Nationwide Insurance and SVB Capital, where he saw firsthand the gaps in insurance for startups. He co-founded Vouch in 2018, and in just a few years, the company has scaled to nearly 6,000 customers. In our conversation, we dive into:
Brought to you by:
Where to Find Travis Hedge
Where to Find David Phillips (Host) In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced
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| Amazon's New Nemesis: How a 21-Year-Old Hit $1M ARR By Gaming Big Tech Engineering Interviews | 07 Apr 2025 | 00:24:06 | |
Roy Lee is the 21-year-old founder and CEO of Interview Coder a breakout startup that has taken the internet by storm. In one year, Roy went from having his Harvard acceptance rescinded to building an AI tool used by thousands of aspiring developers to land jobs at companies like Amazon, Meta, and TikTok. His story — marked by risk-taking, resilience, and relentless building — has captivated millions on social media and sparked a firestorm of controversy in academia and Big Tech alike. In this episode, we cover:
Brought to you by:
Where to Find Roy Lee
Where to Find David Phillips In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced
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| 🎧 START pod: Pamir Ehsas, CEO & Co-Founder, Arcline "AI-native legal services for startups" | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:15:02 | |
Pamir Ehsas spent years as outside counsel serving startups. He saw the same problem on repeat Simple legal work took weeks. Pricing was opaque. Lawyers kept starting from scratch instead of using AI So he built Arcline. AI generates the first draft. Elite lawyers from the best firms, and schools (Harvard, Oxford etc.) do the final revision Up to 80% of the work gone. Same-day turnaround (Try getting that from a traditional law firm) 50+ venture-backed startups already onboard when this ep was recorded Most legal AI tries to replace the lawyer. Pamir replaced the busywork 02:09 “Fondo, but for legal” / AI-native legal for startups | |||
| Three Startups, $70M Raised, and One Successful Exit | 02 Apr 2025 | 00:46:34 | |
Jay Reno is the founder and CEO of PointHound, a free platform helping hundreds of thousands of people earn and redeem credit card points for maximum value—often unlocking free business class flights. But Jay’s journey started long before PointHound. He previously founded Feather, a furniture subscription startup that redefined how millennials furnish their homes. Under Jay’s leadership, Feather scaled to $15M in annual recurring revenue, raised over $70M in funding, and was ultimately acquired in 2022. In this conversation, Jay and David dive deep into the full founder arc—from early failures to scaling a venture-backed operation—and everything he's applying to his new startup. They discuss:
Brought to you by:
Find the transcript at: Startup Growth Podcast Where to Find Jay Reno
Where to Find David Phillips
In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced
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| He Bought a College to Fix Higher Ed — Tade Oyerinde’s $100M Vision | 25 Mar 2025 | 00:35:37 | |
Tade Oyerinde is the founder and chancellor of Campus, a revolutionary online community college reimagining access to higher education. Starting with viral dorm-room startups, Tade’s journey took him from building UniRoulette and CampusWire to acquiring an accredited college and launching Campus. Today, Campus serves over 2,000 students, employs 240+ staff, and has raised $100M+ in venture capital, all while helping students graduate debt-free. In this conversation, Tade shares the winding path to building Campus, including:
🔑 Key Takeaways
Brought to you by:
Where to Find Tade Oyerinde
Where to Find David Phillips (Host) In This Episode, We Cover
Referenced The Social Network (Film): Clubhouse liquidity challenges: Andreessen Horowitz's investment in Clubhouse: CampusWire (Tade's previous startup): General Catalyst: UC San Diego Transfer Admissions: FAFSA Application (for Pell Grants): | |||
| From Data Engineer to Meme King: How MEMES Make MILLIONS | 17 Mar 2025 | 00:35:10 | |
In this episode of the Startup Growth Podcast, I sit down with Jason Levin, the founder and CEO of Memelord Technologies. Jason shares his unconventional path—from creating YouTube videos as a kid and ghostwriting for founders to authoring Memes Make Millions and launching a software that empowers companies like HubSpot and Coinbase to create viral memes. Discover how he leveraged newsletter hacks, guest posts, and cold DMs to build an organic growth engine and why starting small can lead to massive success. Timestamps & Key Topics: Key Takeaways:
Guest Information & Resources:
Brought to you by tryfondo.com: | |||
| How Kush Patel Built a $25 Million Business from Scratch—And How You Can Too | 24 Feb 2025 | 00:54:42 | |
Kush Patel is the co-founder of App Academy, a pioneering coding bootcamp that introduced the income share agreement (ISA) model to tech education. With a background in finance and a deep passion for unlocking access to opportunity, Kush helped scale App Academy from a modest, bootstrapped startup into a $25 million revenue business with global reach. In this episode, we dive into Kush's entrepreneurial journey, from launching the first free cohort on Hacker News to transforming lives through coding education. We discuss:
Brought to you by:
Where to Find Kush Patel Where to Find the Host In This Episode, We Cover: (00:21) Entrepreneurial inspiration from family. (04:49) Coding bootcamp's innovative launch. (09:46) Selecting students for coding class. (12:49) Income share agreements in education. (15:19) Launching and iterating contracts. (19:04) Growth channels for App Academy. (23:02) In-person coding bootcamp launch. (27:17) Continuous product improvement strategies. (30:39) Hiring for high potential talent. (35:09) Online education challenges and opportunities. (36:11) Online education community building. (42:11) Freemium model and brand equity. (44:39) Product funnel management strategies. (49:29) Bootstrapped company growth success. (51:35) Building a sustainable business. Referenced:
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| 🎧 START pod: Naman Ambavi, Founder & CEO, Oximy "See and control all AI activity across your enterprise" | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:16:56 | |
An employee used his corporate Gemini account to generate fake receipts for reimbursements Not because he was lying. He just didn't have the real ones That's when the CISO realized they needed Oximy Ask an enterprise how many AI tools they use. They say 10. The real number is probably 40+ Most of the risk isn't malicious. People just want to get things done faster. So customer lists end up on free tools with no DPA The first instinct is to block everything. But people bypass restrictions anyway The real question: how do you say yes to AI without losing control? That's Oximy. A control layer for enterprise AI adoption. Track usage, manage spend, enforce governance 🎙️ Naman Ambavi, Founder & CEO, Oximy on Fondo START pod 00:19 — What Oximy helps enterprises understand and manage | |||
| 🎧 START pod: Raffi Isanians, Founder & CEO, Mage Legal "Automatic AI M&A Legal Diligence" | 24 Mar 2026 | 00:43:03 | |
Attorneys are trained to spot issues. That’s literally what law school teaches. Show them your product, and the first thing they’ll say is: “the margin is off on this.” Every hour they spend learning software is an hour they’re not billing. Raffi Isanians knows that because he lived it. That’s why Mage Legal has a simple standard: if a lawyer opens the product with no instructions and can’t figure it out, "we’re failing" Comprehensive AI coverage across the entire data room: All async. 05:15 - Puts a TOS into ChatGPT 3.5, comes back 85-90% there
13:00 - Clients are pushing AI adoption, not the lawyers
30:56 - Engineers simplify, lawyers complicate
40:34 - Simple enough to use with zero instructions | |||
| 🎧 START pod: Lucas Ngoo, Co-founder & CEO, Cortex AI "The Real World Is the Next Training Ground for Embodied AI" | 19 Mar 2026 | 00:10:46 | |
The internet was the training set for intelligence Nobody has built the equivalent for the physical world Previously, Lucas Ngoo co-founded Carousell, scaled it past $1B Now at Cortex AI he's collecting the data robotics labs need to train foundation models Cameras, VR headsets, glasses on factory workers, retail workers, everyday people. Recording real-world manipulation work (Maybe tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of hours) Not building the robot. Not training the model. Collecting what goes in 2026: scale data in a big way While humans step in, the system keeps learning That's the flywheel toward full autonomy 01:38 Cortex as the data layer for general-purpose robotics | |||
| 🎧 START pod: Gavin Brennen, Cofounder, Lance "The Future of Hospitality" | 18 Mar 2026 | 00:09:14 | |
Some hotel software is still DOS-based. Sometimes pen and paper (that's why guests are waiting 45 mins to get towels) Gavin's dad has worked at Marriott for the last nine years. When he showed Gavin the old software, that was the spark Lance builds AI agents that answer calls, handle back office operations, run sales workflows & more Started with voice, got inside the hotels, and realized how much more they could automate With coding agents one engineer acts like five Big contracts need custom solutions. Now they can deliver 🎙️ Gavin Brennen, Co-Founder, Lance (YC W26) on Fondo START pod 01:02 The reality of hotel software | |||
| Nikhil Reddy, CEO & Cofounder, Arzule "Gong for ecosystem driven growth" | 18 Mar 2026 | 00:12:02 | |
Direct sales reply rates are going down. AI spam is making it worse Nikhil Reddy saw the shift early: as trust matters more, partnerships become a real revenue channel Problem is most partnership teams are still running on spreadsheets. They don't know where to focus. Attribution across emails, events, and co-marketing is a mess Arzule uses CRM data, market signals, and ecosystem signals to help partnership teams discover and prioritize the partnerships that actually drive revenue Two people building it. Already working with companies generating over $400M in ARR Applied late to YC's fall batch, never even got a reply. Applied again for winter, got in, and their group partner told them to pivot the next day. That became Arzule 🎙️ Nikhil Reddy, Co-Founder & CEO, Arzule on the Fondo START pod 01:09 What Arzule does and who it's for | |||