Founders by LightShed Ventures

LightShed Ventures
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The LightShed Ventures team interviews portfolio companies to understand why they created their startup, what problems is their startup solving, the size of the market opportunity, lessons learned from their startup journey and much more.

Episodes

  1. 03/19/2025

    Status

    Fai Nur is the CEO and co-founder of Status, a simulated social media game powered by AI, think of it as Sims for social media.  Status merges social media, fandom, entertainment, AI, and interactive gaming to create a first-of-its-kind experience. Since launching last month, Status has already surpassed 500,000 DAUs, with users spending on average over 80 minutes per day, rivaling time spent on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.  The app is free to download and play.  Early monetization efforts focused on allowing users to play even more per day has already generated more than $400,000 in gross revenue.   Status has capitalized on rapidly declining AI costs to affordably power an immersive, gamified social network engine – something that was not economical a year ago.  Real-time AI-powered NPCs engage with users dynamically to create a personalized social network. This fusion of gaming and social interaction allows users to build fandoms, develop digital personas, and experience both fame and cancellation within an AI-driven universe. Status has just launched direct messaging with AI-powered NPCs and multiplayer is coming soon, enabling users to play with their real-world friends.    Status’ mission is to transform users from passive consumers of social media into active creators, influencers, and participants in a constantly evolving digital world. This innovative approach is not only reshaping social media and gaming, but also opening new opportunities for content creators to engage consumers in a more interactive and personalized way.  Status expects to surpass 1 million DAUs in a matter of weeks with 10 million on the horizon in-line with their goal of becoming the next big social platform. Timestamps [0:56] What is Status? [2:59] What inspired you to create Status? [5:40] What makes Status different than traditional social media? [7:08] How is this different than Character AI? [9:12] How did you approach virality when developing this product? [11:42] How can content creators, IP owners and brands use Status to increase fandom? [15:30] What was your original business idea before pivoting and what did you learn from that experience about consumers? [18:04] What key metrics indicate that Status has achieved product-market fit? [20:23] Is Status blending entertainment and gaming? [22:30] How do you approach integrating real-life friends into Status without compromising its unique experience? [26:07] How have users scaled since launch and what are the demographics to-date? [30:00] Do you plan to age up Status? [32:28] Why do you think woman are more engaged with Status than men? [34:19] Which characters and fandoms are most popular on Status? [36:02] How do you handle AI costs as you scale? [40:08] How do you make the AI powering Status feel conversational/organic vs. robotic? [42:34] What lessons have you learned from scaling Status from thousands to hundreds of thousands of users, especially in managing backend infrastructure challenges? [45:32] Early thoughts on monetization. [47:38] Are you surprised, given the age/demos of Status, that people are spending as much as they are to play longer? [49:33] What new features are on the roadmap in the short term? [53:07] Unlike traditional social media, where most users are passive, every Status user is actively engaged and posting content.  [55:07] What milestones/goals are you shooting for by the end of 2025? [56:30] Who is your favorite founder?

    1 hr

  2. 01/31/2025

    Affiniti

    Aaron Bai is the CEO & co-founder of Affiniti, one of the fastest growing SMB fintech platforms ever. Affiniti has raised over $62M in capital and serves small businesses that generate $4B+ of combined revenues.  With SMBs contributing 90% of the U.S. GDP, they are the backbone of the economy. However, Silicon Valley's financial technology companies have largely overlooked them. Affiniti is changing that by partnering with the largest industry trade associations to deliver co-branded and customized financial technology solutions tailored for SMBs. Their platform includes credit cards, loans, expense management technology, and more. Affiniti's vision is to be the technology driven JP Morgan Chase for small businesses — building innovative tools to empower the businesses that keep America running. [0:25] What problem does Affiniti solve? [3:04] What was the original business idea? [6:46] Why did you pivot to Affiniti? [9:12] How did you begin building trust with trade associations? [11:05] How do you think about product distribution? [11:44] Which trade associations are you currently working with? [13:07] What products does Affiniti offer SMBs compared to competitors? [15:42] Why has Affiniti been more successful in the SMB category than Brex and Ramp? [19:40] What are the credit scores of Affiniti customers? How does that differ from the rest of the industry? [22:49] What percentage of customers interested in Affiniti products are you turning away? Will that change over time? [24:47] How do you get SMBs comfortable with expense automation, and what other offerings do you provide them? [26:10] How quickly is the business ramping? [28:31] What types of trade associations are you looking to expand into and what makes them a good fit for Affiniti? [33:38] What does your product roadmap look like over the next few years? [36:50] How do you balance growth with launching new products? [38:43] Provide one or two case studies of how you acquire customers. [42:31] How did you come up with the name Affiniti? [43:49] How big is your TAM? What are your long-term ambitions for Affiniti? [45:11] Which entrepreneur do you admire the most?

    47 min

  3. 05/17/2024

    Breach

    Breach  Eyhab Aejaz is CEO of Breach Insurance, a global insurance underwriter addressing the insurance gap in the crypto space.  Breach creates regulated solutions for both enterprises and individuals. With deep insurance and crypto expertise, as well as proprietary technology, Breach is pioneering industry-first solutions that serve as critical risk management tools for the underserved trillion dollar digital asset market.    [02:15] What is Breach? [03:28] How did the idea for Breach come about? [08:15] Why did you choose to start a crypto business in 2018, on the heels of a significant market downturn? [12:13] How did your experience navigating the downturn in the crypto market in 2018 shape your approach and strategies in your business today? [14:25] What exactly does Breach insure in the digital asset space?  [19:12] What does Breach not insure? [20:15] Who is Breach’s end customer? [23:10] What is Breach’s go-to market strategy? [27:23] Who is the competition? [29:30] Why would an institution choose Breach? [31:38] What does the regulatory landscape look like? [33:44] How does Breach’s product differ from traditional insurance providers? [35:30] Does crypto scare people away from investing in this industry? [38:00] How challenging is it to underwrite crypto with minimal historical information? [39:33] Does your underwriting model provide a competitive advantage? [41:15] What are you doing in Abu Dhabi at Hub71 and how will that help accelerate the business? [43:58] Do you know who Reuben Feffer is?

    45 min

  4. 02/01/2024

    Telly

    Ilya Pozin is the founder and CEO of Telly, the biggest innovation in TV since color. Launched out of stealth in May of 2023, Telly is transforming both the consumer television experience, morphing the TV from a monitor on the wall into the smartest and most useful device in the home, and the very way in which content is delivered and consumed all on a free, ad supported dual-screen television. Prior to founding his fifth company Telly, Pozin co-founded Pluto TV, challenging a half-century-old model for content distribution, believing consumers deserved to share in the value exchange of advertising with free ad-supported TV. Telly’s dual screen design features a stunning 55-inch 4K HDR main Theater Display, a secondary Smart Screen seamlessly merging traditional television viewing with interactive experiences and a sound bar.  This game-changing device goes way beyond streaming, Telly's Smart Screen brings everything from video calling powered by Zoom, news, weather and sports updates, smart home controls, casual games, music, Telly AI voice assistant, motion tracking fitness, and so much more to the living room.  And with Telly’s innovative ad-supported model, consumers are able to enjoy the smartest TV every built along with all of these premium features for the revolutionary price of free. Discover more about Telly and reserve yours now at www.telly.com. [2:41] What is Telly? [3:40] How did the idea for Telly come about? [6:42] What gave you the confidence that you were going to generate enough from advertising and ancillaries to create a great biz? [9:38] If this business model is so good, why can't an LG or Samsung just copy what you're doing? [15:05] What is the attraction of the second screen below the main TV screen? [18:22] What is different about your OS than anything out there today? [20:57] How do you decide who gets a free Telly? [22:33] What do the demos look like on your 400,000-person waiting list? [23:40] Given Telly's transparency about advertising, are the ads on screen surprising to anyone? [26:48] What are some of the early trends that you're seeing? Is anything surprising? [31:40] How do you get advertisers to understand the opportunity presented by Telly? [33:43] How do you make money? [39:08] How do you handle privacy? [40:47] What type of innovations are you already thinking about for Telly’s future? [44:08] Can you build social interaction/engagement across the Telly user base? [44:52] As a repeat founder, what has helped you to build Telly? [47:52] Which CEOs have significantly influenced your views on entrepreneurship and the world?

    50 min
  5. Workweek

    11/17/2023

    Workweek

    Adam Ryan is the founder of Workweek, a platform for niche professions powered by creators.  Their platform combines content, community, and software into a single pane of glass - ultimately helping users have a more productive work week. The company operates across 8 professional verticals, including franchisees (Wolf of Franchises) and hospital administrations (Hospitalogy).  All content is created by actual operators and subject matter experts.  The communities formed are born from the rare insights of creators who are the leading voices of authority within their industry.  Every software product built is catered to the specific needs of each community. In a little over two years, the results of this novel approach have led to hundreds of thousands of subscribers and tens of millions in run rate revenue. [2:11] What is Workweek? [3:46] What unique problem isWorkweek solving? [6:12] How did you come up with the idea for Workweek and why are you the right person to execute this strategy? [9:39] Why newsletters to start? [11:10] Was there a grander vision beyond newsletters? [13:40] What are a few examples of insights that Workweek provides? [15:23] What are the other ways Workweek monetizes beyond advertising? [16:53] Do you have creators that are monetizing beyond advertising currently? [18:58] What is the selection process for creators? [23:02] How does the transition from creator to business operator work? [25:26] How does Workweek become a billion-dollar business?

    37 min
  • 5 Episodes

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The LightShed Ventures team interviews portfolio companies to understand why they created their startup, what problems is their startup solving, the size of the market opportunity, lessons learned from their startup journey and much more.

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