Through The Valley

Mark Phillips
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Every founder has a season they leave out of the story. The stretch where the company almost went under. The years of doubt, failure, and quiet identity crisis that never make it into the profile piece. Through the Valley is a long-form interview show about those chapters. Host Mark Phillips, founder of 11 Tribes Ventures, sits down with founders and leaders to talk honestly about what it cost to get here, and who they became on the way through. New episodes every Wednesday.

Episodios

  1. hace 2 días

    Pro Basketball to 5x Founder: A Masterclass in Resilience | Jordan Fliegel

    At 28, Jordan Fliegel had a career-ending injury behind him, thirty employees in front of him, and a startup he loved so much he lived across the street from the office so he could be the first one in. Then his board told him they were replacing him as CEO, and offered him three to five million dollars at a higher valuation if he'd stay quietly and help pick his own replacement. He said yes. Not because he agreed with it, but because saying no meant firing the people he called family. He's never talked about it publicly until now. Jordan is the founder of CoachUp, former co-CEO of DRAFT, and now the founder and CEO of Acquisition Lab, where he helps people buy small businesses instead of starting them. In this conversation with Mark Phillips he walks through the whole valley: the demotion, the year he spent as a president whose title meant nothing, the nine months he slept in a Manhattan office while his next company was insolvent, and the day he finally came back and removed the investors who removed him. In this episode: The napkin math that shows exactly when your investors' incentives stop matching yoursWhy he ran through Boston in tears to a mentor's office with no appointmentWhat it feels like to sit in meetings where every good idea you offer undermines your own successorHow he told ten employees the money was gone, and what he had to say to the one he couldn't saveThe letter his mentor wrote him, read out loud for the first timeWhy he took a company from "we can't pay our bills" to a $48M exitThe Jocko Willink rule he now applies to every piece of bad news Subscribe for new episodes of Through the Valley every week. Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:21 CoachUp was his identity 03:48 What the stress was doing to his body 06:59 When investor incentives stop matching yours 07:53 The middle range, where founders get replaced 08:47 The board’s offer, and helping pick his successor 09:42 Why he said yes: the thirty people he hired 12:24 The napkin math on preferred stock 15:55 President and chairman, “which means nothing” 17:04 Every good idea undermining his own replacement 19:04 What boxing taught him about getting hit 20:02 Running through Boston to his mentor’s office 21:40 The letter, read out loud 25:24 Telling ten employees the money was gone 26:00 Out of money, and the flight to California 26:56 Buying back in, and the turnaround 33:20 Start it, join it, or buy it 35:17 Fall in love with the problem 41:27 Building Acquisition Lab 46:08 The injury that ended his playing career

  2. 9 sep

    Cancer at 30, and the Company He Built After It | Founder Brandon Aversano, The Alloy Market

    In the fall of 2022 Brandon Aversano was 30 years old, away on a trip in California, and found it himself in the middle of the night. Thirty minutes after an ultrasound the chief of urology walked into the room and told him there was a 99% chance it was testicular cancer. His first thought wasn’t about himself. It was how he was going to tell his mom. Nothing could be known before surgery. Three weeks of sitting with whether it was in one spot or everywhere. His dad had prostate cancer the year before. Brandon had built an identity on competence, distinguished scholar, Deloitte, JetBlue, JP Morgan, and the one thing he suddenly couldn’t do was be the capable one. He went on disability the day after scheduling surgery and had free time for the first time in a decade. Mark Phillips sits with Brandon on what that season cost and what it built: the medical debt that horrified a father who hated debt, the trip to Jewelers Row with his grandmother’s jewelry where strangers offered twenty cents on the dollar, the 401k he emptied into a company, the $40,000 mobile app his co-founder told him to scrap, and the surgeon who said the book on whether it comes back is already written and he doesn’t get to read the last chapter for five years. In this episode: - The 24 hours between finding it himself and hearing the number - Why telling his parents was harder than hearing the diagnosis - What three weeks of not knowing does to someone who built his life on competence - Jewelers Row, twenty cents on the dollar, and the moment Alloy became obvious - The customer who asked to speak to the founder and had them both crying on the phone - Learning to control the controllable, and the chapter he doesn’t get to read for five years - The letter from a friend of eighteen years, and what he’d tell himself on the worst night Subscribe to Through the Valley on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Brandon’s company, The Alloy Market, sends a free evaluation kit to anyone looking to sell gold. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:33 The night he found it himself 04:09 Why telling his mom was the hardest part 05:48 Three weeks of not knowing 06:54 An identity built on competence 07:48 Is that really your purpose? 09:38 Jewelers Row and twenty cents on the dollar 12:02 The lightning bolt that became Alloy 15:48 The golden handcuffs 17:05 The space the diagnosis created 19:01 Scans, and the chapter he can’t read for five years 20:36 What control means to him now 27:25 The $40,000 app his co-founder told him to scrap 29:16 What happened to the achiever 31:10 The customer call that had them both crying 33:28 Why he wouldn’t trade cancer for anything 34:29 The letter from a friend of eighteen years 39:08 What he’d tell himself on the worst night 42:37 Mark on losing his mom 45:39 The GoFundMe he started after his diagnosis

  3. 1 sep

    Why There's Shame in Getting Sober but None in the Damage | With The Maze Founder Justin Gurland

    Justin Gurland arrived at rehab at eleven at night, three thousand miles from everyone he knew. He woke up the next morning in Los Angeles on Super Bowl Sunday, 2008, gave himself the finger in the mirror, and watched the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots. Then the staff turned off the game, walked everyone into a group room, and asked what each of them believed in. He was twenty-five. He had no community, no sober person anywhere in his life to point at, and no idea what the question meant. What he said was that the Giants had just won and he could hold on to that for now. He describes the moment as meaningless on its face, a football game, a team he wasn't on. It was also the only thing he had. Mark Phillips sits with Justin eighteen years later, five blocks from The Maze, the members club he opened in the Flatiron where hundreds of New Yorkers pay to belong to a building with no alcohol in it. They talk about the sister who told him she couldn't take it anymore, the letter his father hand-wrote for this episode, the Grateful Dead lyric he keeps returning to, and the question he still can't answer: why the shame attaches to getting sober instead of to the damage. In this episode: • Why he says his sister saved his life, and what happens to people who never get that conversation • The Godfather scene he read a month before everything came apart, and why it stayed with him • What he actually said when a counselor asked the room about God • Playing a kids' board game in treatment and feeling his side hurt from laughing for the first time in years • What his father wrote about Justin's lowest moment, and where his relationship with him sits now • Why there is shame in getting sober and none in the harm that came before it • The alcohol-free movement he did not know existed until it was growing in front of him • What he would say if he could sit with himself on the worst night: take this in, and get to work Subscribe to Through the Valley on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. You can find The Maze at themazenyc.com, on Instagram at @themazenyc, and on LinkedIn. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:32 January 2008, and what the end looked like 03:56 The sister who would not let it go 04:24 Never having known a sober person 05:13 The book he was reading when it turned 08:10 What happens without someone in your corner 09:07 Through the valley: how dark it got 09:48 Arriving at rehab on Super Bowl Sunday 11:10 Borrowing hope from a football team 12:23 Something insignificant that carried enormous weight 13:10 Faith as an evolving process, and what seeking means 15:16 Laughing until his side hurt for the first time in years 17:47 The moment with his brother 18:45 What his father wrote about that season 20:48 What the word shame actually means here 22:57 Shown the light in the strangest of places 25:06 Really being awake 36:13 How The Maze started with coffee 38:20 Still reeling from Covid, and what fake connection looks like 43:01 What he would say to himself on the worst night 45:13 Who The Maze is actually for

  4. 25 ago

    Why Brutal Honesty Is the Kindest Thing an Investor Can Do, with VC Coach Charlie O’Donnell

    For 20 years, Charlie O'Donnell was the most findable investor in New York. Email on the front page of his site, pitch me anything, come to the dinner. Then in May 2023 he wrote a sentence announcing his last venture deal and stopped. The market didn't push him out. Most people in venture keep raising because it's a good job and there's always a next fund. Charlie ran Brooklyn Bridge Ventures as a solo first-check investor across more than 100 companies, and when he looked at the two available ways to keep doing it into his 40s (hire a younger version of himself, or stop looking at anything pre-revenue) he decided he'd rather not do the job at all than do it that way. Mark Phillips sits with Charlie on what it costs to hold a career loosely: the ice cream shop that went to zero and the conversation he never had with those founders, the marathon he ran badly and blamed on the wind, the 80 days in the NICU where three term sheets got signed, and the firefighter father who played tennis in the morning and did tax returns in the afternoon and was content. In this episode: • Why Charlie stopped raising funds while the option to continue was still open • The tradeoff he now tells every founder about before they take a check • How to hold "good investor" as a job rather than an identity • What 16 collapsed triathletes reveal about experienced high performers • The rounded-up revenue number that quietly ends a fundraise • What his father's illness taught him about asking what a person actually needs • The one thing he realized far too late about being a partner at home Subscribe to Through the Valley on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Charlie's book, Founder Unfriendly: What Investors Won't Tell You About Getting Funded, is available wherever you buy books, and his newsletter has been running at thisisgoingtobebig.com since 2004.

  5. 18 ago

    From Losing Everything at 30 to Building the Firm That Coaches Fortune 100 Executives: Jason Jaggard

    Jason Jaggard is the founder of Novus Global, one of the biggest executive coaching firms in the world whose coaches work with Global Executives, professional athletes, and Grammy-winning artists. But at 30, his life collapsed. In a single year, he quit a great job, lost 90% of his revenue, and watched his most important relationship fall apart. We talk about what broke, why it broke, and how that year became the foundation for the firm he leads today. In this first episode of Through the Valley, Jason talks with Mark Phillips about the night he collapsed on his apartment floor, the "cold war" he entered with God, and how the tools he found in his darkest season became the foundation of a coaching firm that now serves some of the most influential leaders on Earth. They cover why blame keeps you stuck, why self-pity is a drug, the difference between psychological safety and psychological strength, and why community is the closest thing to a bulletproof vest a founder can wear. Through the Valley is hosted by Mark Phillips, founder of 11 Tribes Ventures, and explores the seasons of loss, failure, and doubt behind remarkable careers. CHAPTERS0:00 - Cold open: "I was hurting myself, and I was using them to do it"2:11 - The question Jason's whole life has circled: what am I capable of?3:46 - Quitting the job, losing 90% of revenue, the relationship imploding5:11 - The collapse: "I wept and wailed"6:46 - The small voice that says it's going to be okay8:17 - Prayer as defibrillator9:37 - A cold war with God11:18 - Control, and why control and love can't coexist12:54 - The 12-step program that changed everything15:26 - The valley makes you who you are16:53 - Blame, and discovering radical responsibility19:06 - "Who needs heroin when you can feel sorry for yourself?"20:00 - Shampoo-commercial coaching and the barbed wire blanket20:34 - The leaders who don't realize they're in the valley21:31 - "This isn't fun anymore"22:03 - Every new level of the video game demands more23:44 - How much margin should a leader have?26:47 - Passion means suffering. Choose yours27:34 - Be the buffalo: run into the storm29:42 - Psychological safety vs. psychological strength31:43 - A letter from Mateo32:45 - Loneliness is the most dangerous warning light33:45 - The bat signal: 18 cars in two minutes36:15 - Mark on losing his mother37:02 - How to actually build community38:42 - What Jason would say to his younger self on his worst night40:38 - Closing prayer

  • 5 episodios

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Every founder has a season they leave out of the story. The stretch where the company almost went under. The years of doubt, failure, and quiet identity crisis that never make it into the profile piece. Through the Valley is a long-form interview show about those chapters. Host Mark Phillips, founder of 11 Tribes Ventures, sits down with founders and leaders to talk honestly about what it cost to get here, and who they became on the way through. New episodes every Wednesday.

Información

  • Creador
    Mark Phillips
  • Años de actividad
    2026
  • Episodios
    5
  • Clasificación
    Explícito
  • Copyright
    © Mark Phillips
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Through The Valley