Fund/Build/Scale

Walter Thompson
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Fund/Build/Scale

After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned: 1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck. 2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge. 3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it. There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder. Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale: 1. To help founders make fewer mistakes. 2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey. 3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out. This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business. I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising when you’re outside a major tech hub — all of it. Interested? Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on all major platforms and follow the podcast on LinkedIn or Substack to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.

  1. Leveraging Founder-Market Fit to Win Over Risk-Averse Buyers

    4 दिन पहले

    Leveraging Founder-Market Fit to Win Over Risk-Averse Buyers

    What happens when a team of legal veterans decides to rebuild the dispute resolution process from the ground up?  To find out, I interviewed Rich Lee, co-founder and CEO of New Era ADR, a platform designed to resolve legal disputes faster, at lower cost, and with less friction for both companies and individuals.  We talked about building a team that had enough credibility to sell into one of the most risk-averse industries, how they approached trust-building with both customers and investors, and how they're scaling a capital-efficient business in a category that’s been largely unchanged for decades. Thanks for listening! – Walter. RUNTIME 39:46 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:59) “ I'm an early adopter of, you know, anything.” (10:03) “ The core problem: why does it cost so damn much to resolve a legal dispute in this country?” (13:05) How Rich and his co-founders divided roles and responsibilities (17:15) Hurdle #1: “ Challenging the underlying assumption that litigation and a legal dispute doesn't have to be two-plus years.” (22:32) In the early days, New Era ADR developed multiple personas to overcome customer objections (25:50) “ Fortunately, we didn't have to do a lot of POCs.” (29:40) “ Our market's comically big.” (30:03) Finding your SAM and SOM when the TAM is $350 billion (32:22) Which came first: the pitch deck, or the revenue model? (35:50)  One question Rich would have to ask the CEO if he were interviewing for a role with an early-stage startup. LINKS Rich Lee New Era ADR The Future of ADR? New Era Bags $6.3m While Still at Seed Stage, Artificial Lawyer, 3/16/2022 SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

    40 मिनट
  2. From Side Project to API Powerhouse: How Postman Went Global

    9 जून

    From Side Project to API Powerhouse: How Postman Went Global

    Before Postman became a category-defining platform used by millions of developers, it was a personal side project. In this episode, co-founder and CEO Abhinav Asthana shares how he went from hacking on API tools in Bangalore to leading a global company with nearly 900 employees across three continents. We talk about: Building a developer-first product that spread through word of mouth Choosing a CEO when everyone on the founding team is an engineer How to reach U.S. customers before you have a U.S. presence Why authenticity beats thought leadership when you're building in public Going from “ramen profitability” to Series A in just 17 months Whether you're an engineer who’s thinking about starting something of your own, a founder operating outside of Silicon Valley, or just curious how Postman actually works, this episode is packed with tactical insights. RUNTIME 49:19 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:39) “ Being a developer who loved to hack and also design, I just decided to try my hand at this.” (4:00) “ We had a hypothesis, but we didn't have a company.” (6:08) Abhinav built goodwill with the developer community by being helpful (9:26) How they settled on the name “Postman” (11:51) On a team of engineers, how do you decide who should become CEO? (15:00) Who was their first key hire outside of the founding team? (20:15) Why he thinks early-stage startups should seek “ramen profitability” (23:23) “ Our first marketing hire was about two years in.” (25:18) What it was like to go from a seed round to Series A in just 17 months (30:02) “ At that point, it kind of became clear that this is a new kind of category.” (32:15) How Postman’s branding dovetails with the platform’s underlying technology (36:13) One thing he would have done differently in the run-up to the Series A (38:48) Managing cross-border growth when you’re based in Bangalore (40:56) “ Building the company in two different places… it's just incredibly hard.” (44:47) “ Don't skimp on two things ever in starting a venture-funded company: your lawyer, and your accountant.” (45:52) One question he’d have to ask the CEO if he were interviewing for a job with an early-stage startup. LINKS Abhinav Asthana Postman Postman raises $50 million to deliver its API collaboration platform to more partners, 6/19/19, VentureBeat SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/  📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ Thanks for listening! – Walter.

    50 मिनट
  3. When a Power User Becomes CEO: How Medium Found Its Way Back

    30 मई

    When a Power User Becomes CEO: How Medium Found Its Way Back

    When Tony Stubblebine took over as CEO of Medium in 2022, the platform was burning $2.5 million a month, bleeding subscribers, and was overrun with content that left founder Evan Williams cringing.  Tony pitched Ev a turnaround built on small teams with access to data, customers, and the freedom to rebuild Medium like a startup from the inside out. He wasn’t just another executive parachuting in — Tony had worked with him as head of engineering, later as a power user and publishing partner, and eventually, the person who convinced Ev that he could get things on track. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, Tony explains how Medium became profitable for the first time, why the platform banned AI-generated content from its partner program, and how his long history as a user and advisor uniquely prepared him to lead the company through a delicate transformation. RUNTIME 50:14 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (3:41) “ I have a long track record of being associated with Medium for just strange reasons.” (7:16) “ Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought on day one, ‘oh, this is a guaranteed win.’” (9:52) “ I think CEOs are delusional, and some amount of delusion is probably healthy.” (12:34) “ Precision is not possible without a combination of data science and user research or words.” (14:30) Creating customer feedback loops in a 13-year-old company (19:49) “ I would almost say there's no product to manage yet because we’re making it, and we’re making it together.” (20:17) The two mandates Evan Williams gave Tony when he hired him as CEO (24:23) “I  knew even if we could grow subscribers, it would be on the back of this content that we weren't proud of.” (25:45) Why Medium banned AI-generated content from its partner program: “ We're a pro-human product.” (30:11) “ We love human moderation. We love our trust and safety team.” (36:28) “ We're trying to be a place where a different set of writers will win on Medium than will win on these other platforms.” (40:46) “ One hundred percent: Medium is for experience, not for influencers.” (42:35) “ I really like to be a champion for what I would call ‘white hat content marketing.’” (46:45) “ It's wild to me that the art of blogging has not been perfected this many decades into it.” (48:17) “ It's impossible to understand how many niches there are.” LINKS Medium Tony Stubblebine Tony’s Medium profile Mark Suster Cal Newport Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/   📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/   Thanks for listening!   – Walter.

    50 मिनट
  4. Muse Capital’s Approach to Finding Value in Overlooked Markets

    28 मई

    Muse Capital’s Approach to Finding Value in Overlooked Markets

    Rachel Springate is the founding general partner of Muse Capital, an early-stage venture fund focused on overlooked sectors like women’s health, wellness, parenting, gaming, and sustainability. In this episode, she shares her strategy for finding value where other investors aren’t looking, explains how Muse assesses early traction in non-traditional markets, and breaks down the persistent funding gap facing women founders. We also discuss: How AI could transform women’s health Why traditional VCs struggle to spot these opportunities What needs to change to solve the “2% problem” in venture capital Whether you're fundraising or building for an underserved market, this conversation offers tactical insights you can apply right now. RUNTIME 49:49 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:57) How Rachel connected with Muse Capital Founding Partner Assia Grazioli-Venier (3:43) Why “care, live and play” are the sectors they’re most interested in (8:04) “ Entrepreneurs struggle in this space because typically the people that are building are female or diverse — building for their own.” (11:45) Many investors still don’t recognize that women’s health is a “ massive market opportunity.” (14:52) What are some of the signals that tell her a founder is ready to work with investors? (17:06) When it comes to domain expertise, “ our bar is pretty high.” (19:47) Muse Capital’s process for analyzing market opportunities and evaluating founders (24:26) How seed-stage founders should prepare for their first VC meeting (27:10) “When a founder comes in and says, ‘nobody's doing what we're doing,’ I'm like, ‘red flag.’” (29:33) When it comes to women’s health, “ there's really interesting things that can be done with AI around unique data or proprietary data sets.” (34:44) How is the current political environment impacting innovation/investment in women’s health? (37:44) Why less than 2% of venture capital goes to startups led by women (42:52) “ I do think we are going in the right direction. It's just gonna take a lot.” (44:45) How to get more women into the VC pipeline (47:45)  If you could snap your fingers today and change one thing about VC, what would it be? LINKS Rachel Springate Assia Grazioli-Venier Muse Capital SUBSCRIBE 📥 Subscribe to the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram   Thanks for listening! – Walter.

    50 मिनट
  5. Creative Ops at Startup Speed: Lessons from Superside

    23 मई

    Creative Ops at Startup Speed: Lessons from Superside

    Fredrik Thomassen, co-founder and CEO of Superside, joins the show to unpack how startups can scale creative work without slowing down or burning out their teams. Superside is a subscription-based design company that helps fast-growing teams get high-quality creative at scale. In this conversation, Fredrik shares how he built a globally distributed team, why async collaboration beats real-time meetings, and what most startups get wrong when managing creative work. We also get into: Hiring in overlooked markets Building customer trust and employee cohesion across time zones Structuring creative operations like a product team Why treating designers as partners — not vendors — drives better outcomes If you're juggling growth and messaging or just trying to build creative capacity without the chaos, listen in. RUNTIME 44:58 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:30) “ You start out and think, ‘I can do this for four or five years,’ and all of a sudden, a decade has passed.” (4:32) Superside’s beta was popular, but “ it was a total mess behind the scenes.” (7:36) Why “ it felt like an obvious move to go to YC.” (11:15) “ We found product-market fit, and then kind of COVID hit at the same time.” (14:17) The biggest mistake Fredrik made while adding headcount in the early days (18:59) Working with a founder coach has been “scary, but also in a sense, very motivating.” (21:39) Fredrik lists his preferred Norwegian authors (25:29) Inside Superside’s pivot from freelancer marketplace to enterprise creative services (29:40) “ What's growing at the moment is AI-powered creative services for our enterprise customers.” (32:08) Quantifying the efficiency gai”s from using AI-enabled services (37:53) How Superside collaborates with clients to provide strategic services and production work (40:31) “ It's quite hard to build a lifestyle business.” (42:40) The one question he’d have to ask the CEO before accepting a job offer with an early-stage startup LINKS Fredrik Thomassen Haakon Heir Jing Venås Kjeldsen Superside Y Combinator Paul Graham essays Hunger, Knut Hamsun Jon Fosse Karl Ove Knausgård SUBSCRIBE 📥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/   Thanks for listening! – Walter.

    45 मिनट
  6. How to Pitch VCs Like a “Dangerous” Founder

    10 मई

    How to Pitch VCs Like a “Dangerous” Founder

    What makes a founder dangerous? Not credentials. Not their pedigree. And it's not who they know. For investor and former operator Promise Phelon, a dangerous founder is someone with lived experience, relentless conviction, and the ability to build something the world doesn't expect. Promise is the founder and managing partner of Growth Warrior Capital, an early-stage venture firm that invests in founders building seed and Series A enterprise AI companies. In this episode, she shares hard-won lessons from the founder’s seat and the investor’s table: how to turn capital scarcity into a strategic advantage, navigating the shift from founder to CEO, and why storytelling can’t replace traction. We also talk about: How to find the investors who already have reasons to believe The “puzzle vs. mystery” framework for prioritizing execution What a dangerous founder pitch actually sounds like How underrepresented founders can cultivate an appetite for risk — without a safety net If you're building in stealth, raising without a network, or just wondering how to scale yourself as your company grows, this episode will give you a framework and some momentum. RUNTIME 59:08 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (04:32) Promise talks about her path from operator to investor (06:57) Inside Growth Warrior Capital’’s investment strategy (09:25) What her typical work week looks like (14:01) “We love the qualitative, but our goal is to get to the meat of what's going on.” (16:36) How Promise prefers to be pitched (18:21) Growth Warrior Capital has plans for a second fund in the works (21:27) Why more founders need to evolve from being firestarters to fiduciaries (25:13) Where inexperienced entrepreneurs need the most help (28:13) “ We look for coachability in a founder. We also look for rigidity.” (30:50) “ A dangerous founder is someone that you don't expect to come up and kick you in the teeth.” (34:01) “ …So Kendrick Lamar is the soundtrack for every single investor meeting.” (36:09) What it’s like to be pitched by a dangerous founder (39:30) One myth about successful founders that’s holding people back (44:23) How to cultivate an appetite for risk when you don’t have a safety net (50:41) What happens when founders learn to make bold strategic moves (53:09)  ”As a founder, you're not trying to convince anyone of anything. It's a search problem.” (57:14)  Something Promise used to believe about venture capital that is just totally untrue LINKS Promise Phelon Growth Warrior Capital Almanack of Naval Ravikant SUBSCRIBE 📥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/   Thanks for listening! – Walter.

    59 मिनट
  7. The 5-Year Ramp: How Alcatraz Scaled in Enterprise Security

    7 मई

    The 5-Year Ramp: How Alcatraz Scaled in Enterprise Security

    What kind of founder spends five years building a product before going to market? One who's trying to solve a very hard problem. Vince Gaydarzhiev is the founder of Alcatraz, a deep tech startup that uses facial authentication. The platform isn’t used to lock people out of single offices or consumer gadgets; its customers are buying global enterprise security, where compliance is strict, trust is earned, and failure isn't an option. In this episode, Vince shares the emotional, strategic, and technical realities of building a company at the intersection of AI, hardware, and enterprise infrastructure. From working nights on prototypes with a tiny team to navigating founder isolation and breaking into risk-averse markets with no Silicon Valley network, Vince takes us inside the long game of building something real. We cover: Why it took three years to get a product into customer hands — and two more to scale it Validating a deep tech startup when you're not an insider What enterprise security leaders really care about (and how not to sell to them) Why founder empathy and “becoming your customer” are non-negotiable in this space The hiring philosophy that helped Alcatraz scale with high-agency, low-ego team members How Vince de-risked himself to earn trust from investors and prospective hires If you're building something technically ambitious or thinking about launching a startup in AI, hardware, or security, listen in. RUNTIME 32:15 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:35) Where the idea for Alcatraz came from and why Vince decided to take the leap (5:51) His process for validating the concept with investors, customers, and security teams (9:37) “I  was surprised that this thing didn't exist yet.” (11:48) Why it took five years to develop a “globally scalable” minimum viable product (13:29) How much has his TAM estimate changed since entering the market? (17:55) The pitch Vince used to recruit employees away from Apple and other top companies (20:05) “ In 2016, investors were investing into companies purely on a deck.” (22:18) “ I had zero network. It was my first time.” (24:42) “ Many people mentally cannot take ‘nos’ in bulk. They get depressed, they feel it's personal.” (26:50) Why the name “Alcatraz?” (28:12) “ It's really tough to work with people that you don't like. Very tough. It's never gonna work out.” (30:24) The one question Vince would have to ask the CEO if he were interviewing at an early-stage startup LINKS Vince Gardarzhiev Alcatraz Alcatraz AI Raises $6.1M in Funding for Frictionless Access Control, 4/27/2021, press release Alcatraz AI Receives $25M Series A Funding to Accelerate International Growth, 9/13/2022, press release SUBSCRIBE 📥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/   Thanks for listening!   – Walter.

    32 मिनट
  8. From Play to Pay: How Soundtrack Uses PQLs to Drive Growth

    6 मई

    From Play to Pay: How Soundtrack Uses PQLs to Drive Growth

    What turns a free trial user into a paying customer? For Ola Sars, founder and CEO of Soundtrack, the answer is all about behavior. In this episode, we break down how his team uses product-led growth (PLG) and product-qualified leads (PQLs) to drive conversions.  You'll hear how playing 100 tracks became a key signal for purchase intent, the tactics Soundtrack deploys to help self-serve customers experience value fast, and what it takes to scale a SaaS business in a market ruled by consumer giants. If you're building a PLG motion or trying to convert lookie-loos into cash customers, listen in. RUNTIME 45:20 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (3:11) “ It's 20 years now I've been trying to make a living here in the intersection of audio, music and technology.” (5:22) How Ola became a member of Beats’ founding team. (9:37) Why he returned to Stockholm to build Soundtrack instead of remaining stateside. (13:38) When Ola started to learn about product-led growth. (15:38) “ It's a $40-50 billion market on an annual basis. And we're kind of the only company going after that market right now.” (18:54) “ We had this approach that everything had to be done self-serve.” (20:33) Creating a framework to ID and leverage product-qualfied leads (PQLs). (26:06) What role will AI play in music distribution and production? (28:23) The gaps Ola sees in today’s music technology marketplace. (32:04) Why AI-generated music “ doesn't make any sense.” (35:03) Ola reflects on several cultural shifts that have made it “much easier now” to build in Europe. (38:12) Stockholm’s entrepreneurs are “kind of hybrid Americans in a way how we think about business.” (42:08) The biggest myth Americans believe about starting up in Europe. (44:09) If you were interviewing for a job with an early-stage startup, what’s one question you’d have to ask the CEO before you could accept an offer? LINKS Ola Sars Soundtrack B2B music streaming service Soundtrack Your Brand raises $15 million, Tech.eu ​​What is “lagom?”, Study in Sweden The English term "mid" matches the Swedish term "bland, mellan,” tok-pisin.com SUBSCRIBE 📥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/   Thanks for listening! – Walter.

    45 मिनट
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ट्रेलर

परिचय

After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned: 1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck. 2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge. 3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it. There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder. Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale: 1. To help founders make fewer mistakes. 2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey. 3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out. This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business. I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising when you’re outside a major tech hub — all of it. Interested? Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on all major platforms and follow the podcast on LinkedIn or Substack to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.

जानकारी

  • निर्माता
    Walter Thompson
  • सक्रिय वर्ष
    2023 - 2025
  • एपिसोड
    74
  • रेटिंग
    अश्लील
  • कॉपीराइट
    © Produced by Truth and Soul Media LLC. Copyright 2025 | All rights reserved.
  • कार्यक्रम की वेबसाइट
    Fund/Build/Scale

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