Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

Mylance
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Formerly Six Figure Secrets of Fractional Experts, Founder Unfiltered is the show about the stuff founders don't talk about: the identity crisis when you go from operator to leader, the weird shame of self-promotion, the gap between who you are and who your business needs you to be. Hosted by Bradley Jacobs, founder of Mylance — a LinkedIn thought leadership platform for B2B founders — this show gets into the psychology, the patterns, and the honest conversations that actually move the needle. No hacks. No hype. Just the raw truth about what's really holding you back.

  1. 2 days ago

    Why You’re Scared to Grow Your Business (And What to Do About It)

    I want to tell you about something I almost didn't admit out loud. I shipped a feature I'm genuinely excited about, one that finds the people commenting on your posts, scores them against your ideal customer profile, and even drafts a reply for you. It's working, and I told almost no one. No email to my customer list, no newsletter blast, no LinkedIn post. In this episode, I dig into why I did that, and why so many founders do the same thing without realizing it. The honest answer is fear. Not fear of failure exactly, fear that if the product isn't perfect, that says something about me. When you're a solo founder, or when you are the product, like a fractional COO or independent consultant, that fear gets even sharper because there's no cofounder in the room to call it out. I break down the real loop every growing business depends on: build something imperfect, put it in front of real customers, get their honest reaction, and iterate. That loop only works if you're willing to be seen before you're ready. I talk through how to separate your worth from your product, how to notice the voice in your head that's actually running the show, and what it really takes to keep showing up every day even when the thing you built has bugs in it. If you're a founder who has been sitting on a launch, a post, or a feature because it isn't polished enough yet, this one is for you. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.coConnect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ Timestamps 00:00 Welcome to Founder Unfiltered00:35 The feature I shipped and hid01:28 Why I didn't tell anyone02:22 The fear underneath the silence02:40 Shipping before it's perfect03:27 I coach founders on this daily04:13 The hypothesis every founder is running04:34 The vulnerability of being the product05:19 Getting judged by the market06:16 The feedback and iteration loop07:14 Why this hides in the shadows07:46 Not telling anyone about your product08:30 The unconscious fear behind the story09:07 Making it about you, not the work10:03 Distraction and procrastination as avoidance10:37 What you would tell someone else11:05 Owning the truth about building11:45 Separating yourself from your product12:32 What makes a great founder13:09 Naming the voice running the show13:29 Realizing it's not true, it's not you14:17 A daily battle, not a one time fix15:21 What Mylance does with your story16:10 Ratings, thanks, and sign off

  2. 3 Sept

    The Mirror Test: What Every Founder Needs to Confront with Chris Deaver

    Chris Deaver spent his career shaping culture inside Apple, Disney, and Dell. Then he went out on his own and learned what that culture work actually costs a person. In this conversation, Chris and I get into what "brave" actually means when you're a founder with no big company behind you. We talk about the mirror test, a principle from his book that pushes you to get quiet enough to ask what you actually need to do differently, instead of copy pasting someone else's playbook. We go deep on the difference between being brave alone and being brave together, why deleting priorities is harder than adding them, and why the best leaders lead with questions instead of answers. Chris also gets real about his own valley. Right as his book was launching and his career should have been peaking, his marriage was ending, his company was getting acquired out from under him, and he couldn't get out of bed to shoot a video with his own co-author. He shares what actually pulled him through it, and why he thinks becoming a founder might be one of the most spiritual experiences available to us today. If you've ever felt like your business identity and your personal identity got tangled up in a way that isn't working, this one is for you. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.coConnect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Intro to Chris Deaver00:45 What brave means for solo founders01:44 Why bravery alone has limits02:42 Getting stuck without knowing why04:08 The mirror test explained05:44 Why the founder journey is confronting06:25 Ed Catmull and asking better questions07:14 The hero's journey and sacrifice09:21 The Warren Buffett top five method10:23 Steve Jobs and the sacrifice question10:53 Why deleting is harder than doing11:25 Ed Catmull, take care of the baby12:35 Amazon's sequential build lesson13:57 Culture as the golden goose14:14 Leaving big companies to go solo16:55 What it was really like eating glass19:41 AI disruption and founder priorities20:11 The bottom falling out moment21:28 The Weekend at Bernie's video shoot22:16 A hand on a tree25:07 When founder identity confuses with the business27:30 The solar startup culture turnaround30:04 Building a brain trust32:39 From 15 million to 150 million34:41 Finding your tribe at a company35:37 Spock and Kirk co-founder dynamics36:28 Softway and the trust question38:06 Ice baths and stacking habits39:03 The spiritual side of building40:23 Leading with questions, not answers44:32 Asking for help and refining leverage45:23 A team that rocks together46:13 Where to find Chris Deaver

    The Mirror Test: What Every Founder Needs to Confront with Chris Deaver

  3. 27 Aug

    Trying to Get Visible While Staying Invisible | The Fear That's Costing You Clients

    A few months ago I got on a call with a business owner who almost canceled on me twice. She runs a real consulting business, real clients, real revenue, and she's smart and experienced. But when we finally connected, she told me something I hear constantly: she's trying to grow her visibility while staying invisible. She wants more clients and more reach, but she doesn't want to actually put herself out there to get it. In this episode I dig into that contradiction, because it's one of the most common things I see in founders, consultants, and fractional executives. I ask her the question I ask almost everyone in this spot: what are you actually afraid of? Her answer was blunt. She's scared to fail in public. Scared of bad takes. Scared people will read what she posts and think less of her. I walk through why that fear feels so real and so specific, and why it almost never matches what actually happens once people start posting. If you've ever sat on a draft, rewritten a headline five times, or talked yourself out of hitting publish, this conversation is for you. This is the fear that quietly costs founders clients, and I want to help you name it so you can move through it instead of around it. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.coConnect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 The client who kept rescheduling00:53 Why founders stay invisible01:26 Naming the real fear02:33 Fear with no actual consequence03:10 The vulnerability of putting yourself out there04:09 The founder who never posted once05:04 What actually happens after a bad post05:51 Why posting daily doesn't bombard anyone06:30 The algorithm myth everyone believes06:53 Your content isn't about you08:18 My own fear before hitting publish09:15 Why nothing is ever perfect at launch10:02 The hardest part of being a founder10:30 The exercise: name what you're avoiding11:02 Let your vision be bigger than your fear11:33 Closing and where to find Mylance

  4. 20 Aug

    13 Years to $180M: What Bootstrapping Really Looks Like with Gregory Galant

    I sat down with Gregory Galant, co-founder and CEO of Muckrack, the leading PR software platform, and co-founder of the Shorty Awards. Greg bootstrapped his company for 13 years on roughly $200K in angel funding before raising $180 million. That's not a typo, and getting there was not a straight line. We talk about persistence, and how to actually tell the difference between an idea worth sticking with and one you need to walk away from. Greg shares the story of spending two years building a podcast ad network that never found its market, even while competitors were getting funded by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, and how that experience shaped the way he evaluates decisions today. He also gets into one of his most useful habits: writing a private memo before every major call so he can go back later and separate a good decision from a lucky or unlucky outcome. We get into mindset too. Greg is honest about how hard it is not to take a failing business personally when your identity is wrapped up in it, and the mental model he uses to treat entrepreneurship more like running experiments than staking his self-worth on every outcome. We also cover why he thinks courage and judgment matter more than ever now that AI has made tactical knowledge nearly free, why Muckrack went all-in on remote work over a decade before it was normal, and how he actually measures performance on a distributed team. If you're building something and wondering whether you're pushing a boulder uphill or riding a market that's actually pulling you forward, this conversation will give you a real framework for figuring that out. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Intro to Gregory Galant 00:47 The single biggest factor in success 01:50 Knowing when to persist vs. pivot 02:31 Two years on a podcast ad network 03:45 Competing against Sequoia-backed rivals 04:28 Pushing a boulder vs. market pull 05:19 A mediocre team in a great market 06:07 Learning it wasn't him, it was the market 07:25 The Edison filament analogy 08:41 Giving yourself entrepreneurial longevity 08:57 How the Shorty Awards went viral in 24 hours 10:14 Talking mindset and imposter feelings 11:09 Separating identity from outcome 12:18 Treating decisions like experiments 13:07 Writing private memos before big calls 14:35 It's not about you, it's the market 15:26 Why this never gets easier 15:59 AI and the death of tactical advantage 17:41 Why Silicon Valley insiders had the edge 18:00 Courage and judgment as the new differentiators 19:21 Why AI won't give you conviction 20:06 The Felix Dennis paycheck-addiction line 21:09 Founder mistakes that actually cost him 22:00 Building tech before proving the business 23:32 Launching a dozen side projects 24:29 The angel investors who called him unfocused 25:05 Discovering Muckrack's real audience 26:19 What changed to make him double down 27:02 Muckrack's first $8,000 in MRR 28:15 The market kept pulling harder 28:51 Going remote before it was normal 30:08 Why they never made anyone commute 31:38 Giving up the New York office for good 32:26 What remote work exposes about culture 33:31 How he measures performance remotely 34:04 The Andy Grove input/output framework 36:09 Advice to his younger self 37:13 Where to find Gregory Galant

    13 Years to $180M: What Bootstrapping Really Looks Like with Gregory Galant

  5. 13 Aug

    The Hard Lessons Nobody Tells You When You Leave Corporate

    Leaving Uber was one of the strangest experiences of my life. One day I'm running a business line worth billions of dollars, the next I have no manager, no structure, no salary, and no idea whether I'm doing a good job. In this episode, part three of my conversation with Kassidy Warren, I get into everything that happened after I left: pitching my first consulting client on a $25k proposal I basically made up on the spot, learning to ask for what I actually want (something corporate culture trains out of you), and the existential wobble of defining success for myself for the first time. We talk about why so many founders confuse their identity with their business, and why separating "I am Bradley" from "I am the business" was the single biggest unlock in my entrepreneurial journey. I share how a mastermind group, a few minutes of intentionally feeling hard emotions, and a shift from chasing metrics to falling in love with process changed how I run Mylance day to day. We also get into how Mylance came to be, why posting daily on LinkedIn became my entire marketing engine, and why keeping your hard-won expertise to yourself is, in my view, the most selfish thing you can do. If you're building something on your own and wondering whether the chaos is normal, this one's for you. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.coConnect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Intro to part three00:16 Everything after Uber01:18 Making up a $25K proposal02:08 First entrepreneurial leap02:52 Learning to ask for what you want03:29 Why corporate discourages asking04:14 Knowing your market value04:42 Never Split the Difference tactic05:24 Falling into consulting06:06 Existential first months solo07:18 Building an informal advisor board08:06 Corporate structure vs going solo09:10 Starting a mastermind for support09:51 Facing the fear of shutting down10:13 Separating self from the business11:29 Letting yourself feel emotions12:26 Trauma responses and burnout13:21 Ditching fancy business models14:19 Falling in love with process15:07 Systems as 98% of the game15:30 Planning nights for needle movers17:14 Purpose over hitting numbers18:09 Why Mylance was founded19:06 The first client conversation20:12 Researching the market21:32 Sales and marketing struggles21:49 Building trust through daily posts22:52 Coaching program pivot23:19 The $12,000 sale story24:07 The power of compounding trust25:04 Posting consistently, small audience26:00 What a thousand followers is worth26:42 Speak from the "I," not the "you"27:43 Fear of being seen29:19 Entrepreneurship as self-improvement30:05 Keeping expertise to yourself is selfish32:04 Content as a mirror for others34:00 Where to find Bradley and Mylance

  6. 6 Aug

    AI Can Steal Your Skills. It Can't Steal This with Abhijit Bhaduri

    I've talked to a lot of guests on this show, but this conversation with Abhijit Bhaduri gave me a word I haven't stopped thinking about since we recorded it: hunar. Abhijit has led learning and leadership development at Colgate, Wipro, Microsoft, and Pepsi. He was Wipro's first Chief Learning Officer, has written six books, and has built an audience of nearly a million followers on LinkedIn. But none of that is really what we talk about. We talk about the thing underneath all of it. Hunar is a Persian-origin word used in Hindi and Urdu, and it sits somewhere between mastery and artistry. Abhijit breaks down the difference between talent (what you're born with), skill (what can be taught and benchmarked), and hunar (the unrepeatable stuff you bring from your own life, your disappointments, your obsessions, your weird taste in music) that shows up in your work whether you mean it to or not. He tells the story of Alfred Hitchcock's childhood and how a single terrifying afternoon became the signature of "the master of suspense." We talk about Roger Federer, why his rivals cried when he retired, and why AI can replicate a skill but never a signature. If AI can build the CRM, write the copy, and do the accounting, the thing that makes your product yours isn't the execution. It's you, integrated into the work. We talk about what that means for building in public, for LinkedIn content, and for founders trying to differentiate in a market where everyone has access to the same tools. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.coConnect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Introducing Abhijit Bhaduri01:14 The through line across his career02:29 Going out on his own after big brands04:42 Building identity without a big name05:15 Where the idea of hunar began06:13 Talent versus skill versus hunar07:41 The Alfred Hitchcock origin story09:23 How fear became his signature10:47 The unsigned painting analogy12:17 Why AI can steal skill, not hunar13:30 Why we still need teachers14:12 The human side AI can't replicate15:28 What makes a CRM actually different16:08 The industrial era of interchangeability17:45 Why benchmarks hurt mental health18:24 His next book, AI Identity19:17 The vulnerability of being unique20:01 Bringing storytelling into corporate work22:40 Illustrating his own LinkedIn content23:15 Roger Federer as a hunar example24:34 Why his rivals cried at his retirement26:20 Learning from others without copying them27:00 How founders can go find their hunar28:42 Coaching founders on money and identity30:15 What works for him on LinkedIn32:07 Posting consistently over years33:33 Writing for yourself and the reader34:07 His closing message to founders35:11 Where to find Abhijit Bhaduri

    AI Can Steal Your Skills. It Can't Steal This with Abhijit Bhaduri

  7. 30 Jul

    The Billion-Dollar Uber Business Nobody Talks About

    This is part two of my conversation with Kassidy Warren, and if you haven't listened to part one about launching Raleigh, the Lyft wars, and Uber Eats in Miami, go back and start there first. This episode picks up right where things got hard. I talk about getting rejected for a role I was asked to interview for, and the lesson that rejection taught me about making career moves about what a company actually needs instead of what I want. From there I take you through moving to Europe to launch Uber Eats in Milan, managing a team of over 25 Italians without speaking the language, and learning the difference between managing and leading the hard way. Then I get into the part of my Uber story almost nobody knows: Uber Freight. I walked into a warehouse in San Francisco with a handful of people from the freight world and helped build a digital freight brokerage from scratch, inside a hundred billion dollar industry that was still running on phone calls and fax machines. Two years later, that business crossed a billion dollar valuation. I talk through the two-sided marketplace problem we got completely backwards at first, why enterprise sales in freight is a game of pure reliability, and how Uber's willingness to make big, bold, expensive bets is what actually built the business. If you're building something new inside an old industry, or you're trying to figure out how much risk you're actually willing to take on to grow, this one's for you. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Intro and part two setup 00:40 The rejection that taught a lesson 01:10 Launching Uber in Italy overview 01:23 Getting rejected for the Madrid GM role 01:50 Applying anyway without fluent Spanish 02:07 The call that changed everything 02:49 Putting ego aside to add value 03:11 Asked to launch two cities at once 04:01 Choosing Milan over Madrid 04:47 Launching Uber Eats in Milan 05:16 Grassroots marketing with no brand 05:45 The lunch culture clash 06:38 Managing the pressure from corporate 07:39 First launch day: 50 orders vs 1,003 08:16 Becoming a pure manager for the first time 08:52 What he'd do differently in Italy 09:44 Deciding to come home after seven months 10:04 Hearing about the Uber Freight acquisition 10:52 Getting the call to join Freight 11:16 Why chaos and building excite him 12:02 Sponsor: Lodify 13:05 Walking into the Freight warehouse 14:03 The disconnect between plan and reality 14:44 Breaking the news to leadership 15:08 Grassroots interviews with truck drivers 16:15 Crossing a billion dollars in two years 16:39 The hundred billion dollar fragmented market 17:00 The chicken-and-egg marketplace problem 18:07 Why loads mattered more than sign-ups 19:35 First time doing enterprise sales 20:01 What shippers actually care about 20:39 Proving reliability with the worst loads 21:16 How they hit a billion dollar valuation 21:38 Growth versus profitability tension 22:32 Spot market versus contract market 23:16 Beating the market with technology 24:23 Using the Uber name as leverage 25:22 Would Freight work without Uber's name 25:54 What made Uber succeed overall 26:24 Travis and the big bold bets philosophy 27:41 Bradley's own lessons from getting slapped down 28:38 Setting up part three

  8. 23 Jul

    Stop Selling Your Product. Start Selling How You Think with Simon Bowen

    This episode changed how I see my own business. Most founders think their product is the thing they sell. It isn't. Your thinking is the real product. I sat down with Simon Bowen, founder of the Models Method and creator of the Genius Model, a system he's used for nearly 30 years to help founders and consultants turn complex expertise into visual frameworks that actually close deals. Simon's work spans 30 countries and industries from defense to one-on-one coaching, and he's spent his career helping people get out of their own heads long enough to see what they actually know. We get into why "uniqueness" is a trap in a world flooded with AI-generated marketing copy. Simon breaks down his framework for company genius: the 20% that's truly yours (your original perspective, shaped by your story) integrated with the 80% you've curated from everything else in your industry. We talk about why purpose doesn't make the sale, why the sale is made in the how, and Simon walks through a real example of finding "the ache," the deep, often unnamed problem underneath the problem a customer says they have. If you've ever struggled to explain what makes you different, or felt like imposter syndrome was creeping in because so much of what you do isn't "original," this conversation will change how you think about your own value. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.coConnect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Intro to Simon Bowen00:56 Simon's origin story02:35 Ideas start as a drawing04:10 Facilitating rooms that disagree05:24 The real Pareto principle06:44 Getting rooms to the breakthrough09:24 What is company genius10:09 Make me safe, help me win11:04 Why AI breeds sameness12:00 Thinking is the real product13:15 The founder's story as a lens15:13 The laundromat example begins18:03 Curate, create, integrate19:02 Imposter syndrome reframed20:28 Purpose, mechanics, and magic21:29 Consistency builds reliability22:15 Culture creates character23:13 The believability crisis25:12 Purpose doesn't make the sale26:55 The sale is made in the how28:44 What AI can't replace32:02 What the market really wants34:19 Introducing "the ache"36:02 The acne treatment example39:05 Three levels of problem40:59 Naming the ache42:00 Why founders forget their own ache44:34 Closing thoughts on business46:01 Business as the cornerstone of community48:37 Where to find Simon Bowen

    Stop Selling Your Product. Start Selling How You Think with Simon Bowen
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About

Formerly Six Figure Secrets of Fractional Experts, Founder Unfiltered is the show about the stuff founders don't talk about: the identity crisis when you go from operator to leader, the weird shame of self-promotion, the gap between who you are and who your business needs you to be. Hosted by Bradley Jacobs, founder of Mylance — a LinkedIn thought leadership platform for B2B founders — this show gets into the psychology, the patterns, and the honest conversations that actually move the needle. No hacks. No hype. Just the raw truth about what's really holding you back.

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