Mantle Mondays

Amar Varma and Amit Jethani
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Hosted by Amar Varma and Amit Jethani, Mantle Mondays brings you authentic conversations with builders, founders, and funders every other Monday.

  1. 4D AGO

    The Founder's Guide to Managing Post-Exit Wealth

    What does it actually take to manage wealth well after an exit?In this episode of Mantle Mondays, Chris Canavan, the General Manager for post-exit founders, breaks down how founders should think about managing post-exit wealth — from preparing your personal finances before liquidity to handling the operational, emotional, and strategic complexity that shows up after the deal closes.

    42 min

  2. MAR 23

    The Build vs. Buy Debate in the AI Era with Ashok Sivanand

    AI makes it easier to ship. Ashok Sivanand, founder and former CEO of Integral, explains why that can be dangerous if founders confuse output with progress.In this Mantle Mondays conversation, Ashok breaks down how lean product teams actually win: identify the constraint, sequence the bottlenecks, and tie every prototype to a real business outcome. 00:00 Intro01:17 Ashok’s origin story05:18 Efficiency vs. effectiveness07:56 Silent killers before Series A17:18 AI experimentation and false progress21:56 Build vs. buy in the AI era27:43 The hidden cost of building in-house32:38 What Ashok is optimistic about34:23 Rapid fire

    40 min

  3. MAR 9

    The Ops Playbook Behind Tensor’s Acquisition by Coinbase

    Phil Jacobson, former Head of Operations at Tensor Labs, breaks down what startup ops actually looks like when the stakes are high: legal, finance, hiring, cap table cleanup, and acquisition readiness. The biggest takeaway: the systems founders delay early are often the same systems that matter most when it’s time to raise, scale, or sell. In this Mantle Mondays episode, Phil shares how he went from founder to operator, why he joined Tensor Labs, what he learned running ops in crypto, and why getting the cap table out of a spreadsheet was one of the first things he tackled before Tensor’s acquisition by Coinbase.

    37 min

  4. MAR 2

    The Brain Behind Boardy: Andrew D’Souza

    Most people treat networking like a volume game: more DMs, more intros, more meetings. Andrew D’Souza (Boardy, ex‑Clearco) argues it’s actually a trust + memory game—and AI finally makes a true “trust bridge” possible. In this episode, Amar Varma (Mantle) and Andrew D’Souza (Boardy) break down: Why paid referrals can kill trust (even when the intro is great)What product-market fit feels like in real life (“stumbling in the desert” → inflection)The CEO moment nobody talks about: knowing when you’re not the right operatorWhy Boardy exists: perfect memory + growing imagination + a principled network2026 go-to-market: what AI makes possible that humans never could (or never would)If you’re building something ambitious and want better opportunities to find you, listen to Andrew’s framework and then get on Boardy’s radar by telling your “why you, why now.”Subscribe for more founder/operator conversations on Mantle Mondays. Take a call with Boardy: www.boardy.ai Create your cap table with Mantle: www.withmantle.com

    43 min

  5. FEB 23

    The Painkiller Principle: How Zocks Is Giving Financial Advisors Their Time Back (Mark Gilbert)

    In this episode of Mantle Mondays, Amar Varma sits down with Mark Gilbert, co-founder and CEO of Zocks, to talk about what it really takes to build a product people can’t live without. Mark's journey is anything but linear: from programming at Canada Post as a teenager, to interning at Elon Musk's first company Zip2, to building global infrastructure at Microsoft and scaling Twilio through COVID, Mark brings a rare combination of deep technical credibility and hard-won founder instincts. Learn more about Zocks: zocks.io Learn more about Mantle: withmantle.com

    41 min

  6. FEB 16

    AI Just Killed the Geography Advantage | Tiho Bajic (Fifth Quarter Ventures)

    For decades, if you wanted to build a world-class tech company, you had to move to Silicon Valley. AI just changed that. When SF deploys new AI infrastructure today, the entire world gets access within 24 hours. For the first time in tech history, a founder in Belgrade has the same tools on day one as a founder in San Francisco.Tiho Bajic lived this shift firsthand. He went from war refugee at age 9 to first engineer at Rypple (acquired by Salesforce) to founding CTO at Nitro to building the Long-Term Stock Exchange with Eric Ries. Now, as GP at Fifth Quarter Ventures, he's investing in overlooked geographies, particularly the Balkans. In this conversation, we cover his "first follower" philosophy, the distribution hacks that actually scaled Nitro, what pre-seed/seed means in 2026, and why geography still matters—just differently. Silicon Valley still has speed and capital density, but it lost its monopoly on technology. The opportunity now is understanding what each geography uniquely offers.

    44 min

  7. FEB 9

    Running a Family Office Solo: Tools, Data & Contrarian Bets | Joshua Berkowitz

    Joshua Berkowitz, Managing Principal at Berkocorp, shares how he runs his family's investment office as a one-person investment team—and why that's actually an advantage.In this episode of Mantle Mondays, Josh reveals:- Why most investors are "investing not to lose their job, not to make money"- How family offices win by being contrarian when institutions can't- The data stack and AI tools he uses daily (Mantle, Attio, ChatGPT)- Why top quartile VC returns have never exceeded 3X net—and how to beat that- His approach to "weird" investments that institutions won't touchLearn more about Mantle Portal: withmantle.com/portal

    35 min

  8. FEB 2

    How AI is Reshaping LP Operations | Narayan Chowdhury (Franklin Park)

    In this episode of Mantle Mondays, Amar Varma sits down with Narayan Chowdhury, Co-founder and Managing Director at Franklin Park, for an in-depth conversation about how AI is fundamentally transforming institutional investing and what it means for LPs navigating this transition.Narayan brings a unique perspective as both a technical builder and an institutional investor. From writing code to selecting venture managers, he shares candid insights on the challenges and opportunities facing LPs in 2026, including why firms built in the pre-LLM era face a critical dual pivot, how the cost of operations is trending toward zero, and why experience still matters in an increasingly automated world.Learn more about Franklin Park: www.franklinparkllc.comLearn more about Mantle: www.withmantle.com0:00 - Narayan's background7:00 - What is Franklin Park?14:03 - Franklin Park's philosophy17:21 - How AI is transforming LP operations26:26 - The dual pivot problem29:35 - The Goldilocks paradox34:03 - Advice for aspiring LPs39:14 - Rapid fire42:18 - Life lessons from hockey and closing thoughts

    46 min
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About

Hosted by Amar Varma and Amit Jethani, Mantle Mondays brings you authentic conversations with builders, founders, and funders every other Monday.

Information

  • Creator
    Amar Varma and Amit Jethani
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Amar Varma and Amit Jethani
  • Show Website
    Mantle Mondays