Venturing with Vishesh — Startup Founder Interviews on SaaS, AI, Fundraising & Venture Capital.

Vishesh Duggar
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Venturing with Vishesh is a weekly founder interview podcast hosted by Vishesh Duggar (5× founder, ex-CTO at Vamstar). Each week Vishesh talks to SaaS founders, AI builders, and venture capitalists from the US, Europe and India — unpacking what almost broke their companies and how they turned it around. Real fundraising stories, GTM playbooks, product-market fit lessons, and the unglamorous side of building a startup. Guests backed by Y Combinator, Benchmark, a16z, and Sequoia. New episodes every week.

  1. # 65 The Marketing Industry Solved Measurement. It Was Always the Wrong Problem. | Peter Grafe

    5d ago

    # 65 The Marketing Industry Solved Measurement. It Was Always the Wrong Problem. | Peter Grafe

    # The Marketing Industry Solved Measurement. It Was Always the Wrong Problem.## Guest IntroductionI'm joined by Peter Grafe, Founder at BlueAlpha, the AI-native marketing hub built for performance marketing. A first-cohort data science graduate who turned down nothing to keep a Tesla internship, he spent four years building the measurement infrastructure that proved Tesla's paid media actually worked — then left to commercialize it for growth-stage companies.## Episode SummaryMost companies have solved measurement — and it still hasn't fixed their marketing. The real problem is the gap between a statistical model output and an action a marketing team can actually take. This episode traces how that insight was earned inside Tesla's demand machine and turned into a company built to close that gap for everyone else.## Key Points- 🔥 Why every ad platform is actively lying to you about which campaigns drove your sales- 💡 The counterintuitive discovery that proved Tesla's search ads were claiming credit for sales YouTube actually drove- 🎯 Why the marketing industry solved measurement and it was always the wrong problem- 🚀 The 'operating system for agents' thesis that turns dashboards into autonomous executions- 🧭 What a data scientist with zero sales experience learned the hard way about closing a deal- 🤖 The unconventional GTM play — creatine gummies, work trials, and leading with value before the pitch## Important Links- You can reach Peter Grafe at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ped-grafe/- Vishesh, your host at https://vishesh.space- Checkout BlueAlpha at https://bluealpha.ai- Hands hurt while you use the keyboard or mouse? https://tryneo.dev## Chapters0:00 - Introduction1:33 - How Peter and Scott Persinger connected at Frontier Tower SF3:45 - Writing a data science master's thesis while holding a Tesla internship simultaneously4:35 - From EMEA data scientist to leading Tesla's marketing measurement team7:33 - The moment Tesla flipped from supply-constrained to demand-constrained9:44 - The Elon paradox: no paid media becomes paid media when supply exceeds demand13:00 - Building the marketing data science function — as a team of one15:40 - How YouTube drove Tesla sales that Google Search was falsely claiming17:00 - Marketing mix models vs. incrementality testing explained without the jargon20:10 - What actually breaks when you lose Tesla's first-party data advantage23:51 - BlueAlpha's seven-agent performance marketing stack and the vision for 205028:35 - Using public ad transparency libraries and pixel-scraping for competitor intelligence32:08 - Why measurement solved the wrong problem: the measurement-to-action gap37:00 - How AI bridges data science outputs to decisions marketers can actually act on40:33 - First-time founder sales: what they got badly wrong and what fixed it45:38 - The intent scoring system, HubSpot automation, and creatine gummies as a GTM move53:02 - The work trial hiring process that generated Business Insider hate and better hires58:49 - Tool stack, on-site culture, and why BlueAlpha is building MCP-first1:01:20 - Biggest founder lessons, book recommendation, and where to find Peter

    1h 4m
  2. #64 From $7 on a Pizza Box to a $16M Series A | Voice AI Startup Phonely | Will Bodewes

    May 28

    #64 From $7 on a Pizza Box to a $16M Series A | Voice AI Startup Phonely | Will Bodewes

    I am joined today by Will Bodewes, founder and CEO at Phonely. Phonely uses AI to answer business phone calls so naturally that nine out of ten callers can't tell it's not human. They just raised sixteen million, and one of their customers replaced three hundred and fifty agents in a single month. Key Discussion Points: 🔥 How a $7 idea on a pizza box turned into a $16M Series A funding round 🤖 The surprising truth about AI-powered phone answering and its potential 📈 The challenges of recruiting and hiring the right talent for a startup 🚀 The importance of finding and solving hard problems to create a successful startup 🤔 The limitations of fine-tune models in voice-based AI and what's next 💡 The role of vertical AI and horizontal tech platforms in startup success 📊 The current state of AI development and what to expect in the future Timecodes: 0:00 - Introduction 2:30 - Founding Phonely and its AI-Powered Phone Answering Service 4:21 - The Inspiration Behind Phonely and its First Customer 6:03 - Investing in Other Startups and Partnerships 7:17 - The Decision to Move Away from OpenAI and Develop Fine-Tuned Models 9:05 - The Difference Between Horizontal and Vertical Tech 10:25 - Scaling the Company and Organizational Changes 11:32 - The Limitations of AI Models and Future Improvements 12:47 - Marketing Strategy and AI Stack 14:18 - Lessons Learned from Y Combinator 15:10 - Current Challenges and Hiring Process 16:40 - The Most Important Quality in a Candidate 17:29 - Worst Advice from a VC 19:07 - The Importance of Not Rushing into Raising Money or Releasing a Product 19:45 - Family Support and Phonely's Progress 20:20 - Transitioning from a Hardware to a Software Startup 22:14 - Epic Failures and Lessons Learned 24:07 - Scaling the Organization and Designing its Structure 25:20 - How to Reach Will and Learn More About Phonely Important Links: You can reach Will Bodewes at https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-bodewes Checkout Phonely at https://phonely.ai Vishesh, your host at https://vishesh.space Hands hurt while you use the keyboard or mouse? https://tryneo.dev 🎙️ Subscribe for more episodes! #Episode64 #VenturingWithVishesh #Startups #Entrepreneurship #startups #entrepreneurship #venturingwithvishesh

    27 min
  3. #63 Throxy: The outbound company that ignored LinkedIn completely | Arnau Ayerbe

    May 13

    #63 Throxy: The outbound company that ignored LinkedIn completely | Arnau Ayerbe

    Arnau Ayerbe left JP Morgan at 23 to build Throxy — an outbound company that ignores LinkedIn completely and sells into manufacturing, logistics, and construction using AI agents and human cold-callers. They just raised 6.2 million from Base10 after going through YC. Today we're getting into the contrarian bets, the co-founder dynamics of building with your best friend since age 14, and why he thinks SaaS is already dead. Key Discussion Points: 🔥 How AI is revolutionizing sales processes and what it means for the future of sales teams 🤖 The surprising benefits of taking a contrarian approach to sales and marketing 📈 The importance of human capital in delivering results and driving revenue growth 🚀 The challenges of scaling a startup and finding top-tier talent to drive innovation 🌎 How location and hiring practices can impact the success of a sales development representative team 💡 The need for a service-oriented approach to sales and the benefits of performance-based pricing Timecodes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:22 - Transition from Finance to Startup Life 3:05 - The Mission of Throxy: Automating Sales 4:25 - Building a Team: Co-founders and Early Projects 6:20 - The Role of Human Cold Callers in Sales 7:43 - Explaining Throxy: Service vs. Software 9:02 - Targeting Non-Traditional Markets for Sales 10:30 - The Importance of Human Touch in Automation 11:32 - Fundraising Challenges and Investor Perspectives 13:26 - Pricing Model: Performance-Based Revenue 14:43 - Setting Up Operations in Cape Town 15:55 - Lightning Round: Key Insights and Lessons 17:33 - Overrated Advice from Y Combinator 18:21 - Essential Tools for Startup Success 20:09 - Learning from Mistakes: Early Missteps at Throxy 22:05 - Current Challenges and Future Growth Plans 23:50 - Conclusion and How to Connect with Throxy Important Links: You can reach Arnau Ayerbe at https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnau-ayerbe Vishesh, your host at https://vishesh.space Check out Throxy at https://throxy.com P.S. Hands hurt while you use the keyboard or mouse? https://tryneo.dev 🎙️ Subscribe for more episodes! #Episode63 #VenturingWithVishesh #Startups #Entrepreneurship #startups #entrepreneurship #venturingwithvishesh

    26 min
  4. #62 Synthetic Human as a Service | Krishna (Vasanth) Namasivayam

    Apr 23

    #62 Synthetic Human as a Service | Krishna (Vasanth) Namasivayam

    My next guest, Krishna Namasivayam, is working on what he calls "Synthetic Human as a Service." After leading AI at Dropbox and Meta, he’s now building with the radical belief that we should simulate human behavior before we ship code, product, messaging, or anything really. In this episode, we break down his contrarian thinking on product, AI, hiring, and what it takes to launch in a greenfield market. Key Discussion Points: 🔥 How simulating human behavior can revolutionize product development 🤖 The surprising ways AI tools are empowering entrepreneurs to make better decisions 📊 Why understanding user needs is crucial for startups, especially in hard-to-reach markets 🚀 How to leverage synthetic humans to test and refine product ideas 👥 The importance of hiring experienced talent to drive startup growth 📈 Why misaligned incentives in tech companies can lead to products that miss the mark 0:00 - Introduction & Why This Podcast 0:45 - What Featurely Does (Human Behavior Simulation) 3:44 - Key Use Cases: Product & Marketing Workflows 5:55 - How Synthetic Users Interact With Products 7:25 - Dogfooding Featurely Internally 8:01 - Accuracy, Risks & Human Judgment in Simulation 9:19 - Founder Journey: From Big Tech to Startup 11:18 - Frugality & Hiring Through Reddit 13:21 - Hiring Lessons & Talent Strategy 16:14 - Why Most Products Fail (And Where Process Breaks) 21:20 - Team Structure Without a PM 26:15 - Ideal Startup Team Composition 26:46 - Go-To-Market Strategy for a New Category 28:29 - Reducing Time to Value for Users 30:34 - Testing Messaging & Growth Experiments 31:33 - Books, Advice & Founder Mindset 34:32 - Closing & Where to Find Featurely Important Links: You can reach Krishna (Vasanth) Namasivayam at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasanthnamasivayam Vishesh, your host at https://vishesh.space Check out Featurely AI at https://featurely.ai P.S. If your hands hurt or you just hate using a keyboard or mouse, https://tryneo.dev

    36 min
  5. #61 The Business of Being Different | Build An Inclusive Culture | Sara-Louise Ackrill

    Mar 19

    #61 The Business of Being Different | Build An Inclusive Culture | Sara-Louise Ackrill

    Episode 61 with Sara-Louise Ackrill FRSA, Founding CEO at Wired Differently. My next guest is a therapist-turned-founder, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and author of The ND Lovers Club. She runs Wired Differently — a 32-person company where 85% of the team is neurodivergent. We talked about founders who are building from exile, why psychological safety isn't a luxury that disappears under pressure, and what managing a team of neurodivergent people actually looks like in practice — and a lot more. Sara-Louise Ackrill. Key Discussion Points: 🔥 Founders in exile: Creating businesses through fear and rejection 🤝 The importance of confronting past workplace experiences for healthier leadership 💡 How neurodiversity can impact entrepreneurship and innovation 📈 The benefits of bootstrapping a business compared to seeking venture capital 📊 Time management and energy mapping for neurodivergent entrepreneurs 👥 Managing a neurodivergent team: Understanding individual needs and spoon theory Timecodes: 0:00 - Introduction 1:00 - Understanding the Concept of "Founders in Exile" 4:00 - Strategies for Overcoming Founder Vulnerability 6:30 - Healing the "Exile Wound" While Running a Business 9:00 - The Benefits of Bootstrapping vs. VC Funding 12:00 - Building a Public Speaking Career from Scratch 15:00 - The Impact of Neurodivergence on Public Speaking 18:00 - Overview of Wired Differently and Its Services 21:00 - The Role of Virtual Assistants in Supporting Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs 25:00 - The Importance of Energy-Based Scheduling for Founders 30:00 - Managing Context Switching in Entrepreneurial Tasks 34:00 - Conducting an Energy Audit for Better Productivity 38:00 - The Role of Psychological Safety in the Workplace 41:00 - Adapting Management Styles for Neurodivergent Teams 46:00 - The Dangers of Culture Fit in Hiring Practices 50:00 - The Importance of Understanding Neurodiversity in Team Dynamics 54:00 - The ND Lovers Club: Exploring Relationships and Neurodiversity 57:00 - Final Thoughts on Effective Management and Team Building Important Links: You can reach Sara-Louise Ackrill FRSA at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-louise-ackrill Vishesh, your host at https://vishesh.space Check out Wired Differently at https://www.wireddifferently.co.uk/ And her book "The ND Lovers Club" at https://www.amazon.in/ND-Lovers-Club-Neurodivergent-Women-ebook/dp/B0DX8MM38F P.S. If you are writing on LinkedIn https://tryjerry.com 🎙️ Subscribe for more episodes! #Episode61 #VenturingWithVishesh #Startups #Entrepreneurship #startups #entrepreneurship #venturingwithvishesh

    1h 8m
  6. #60 Redefining AI Ethics | Current AI Blindspots | The A3 Model Explained | Vendan Kumararajah

    Feb 13

    #60 Redefining AI Ethics | Current AI Blindspots | The A3 Model Explained | Vendan Kumararajah

    Today's guest watched digital transformation projects fail for years. Not because the tech was broken — the governance was. The values had drifted. And nobody noticed until it was too late. So he did something unusual. He went back 2,000 years to Tamil philosophy — specifically a tradition called Saiva Siddhanta — and built a framework that treats ethics not as a compliance checkbox, but as the actual operating system. Vendan Kumararajah is a transformation architect, cybernetician, and the creator of something called the A3 Model. His new book "Navigating Complexity and System Challenges" makes a bold claim: that we can design AI systems that don't just follow ethical rules, but actually enact ethical intelligence in real time. So today we're going to unpack what the A3 Model actually is. And pressure-test it against real founder scenarios. Key Discussion Points: 🔥 You can't have a dynamic system with a static rule-based. 🤖 Static rules cannot evolve in a dynamic environment because there is distortion at every stage. 🚨 Distortion is when the journey starts for a system. 👥 Ethics, distortion, and agency as a self-regulating, self-evolving structure. 📊 The ethical coherence is a red line because it shows the harm limits. 💡 What looks like success may be actually a time bomb waiting to explode. 🚨 The A3 model starts warning every time, regardless of what the KPIs are showing. Important Links: You can reach Vendan Kumararajah at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vendan-kumararajah-1049634 Checkout his book, Navigating Complexity and System Challenges: Foundations for the A3 Model at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1919249303?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE Vishesh, your host at https://vishesh.space P.S. If you are writing on LinkedIn https://tryjerry.com

    34 min
  7. #59 Unlocking the Potential of AI in Heavy Industries | Sama Carlos Samame

    Feb 4

    #59 Unlocking the Potential of AI in Heavy Industries | Sama Carlos Samame

    This episode is about what happens when you win — and still feel lost. My guest Sama went from hospital clown to cybersecurity founder to a successful exit. And on this episode we get into the stuff nobody talks about after an acquisition — the identity crisis, the scars, the 'now what.' We also unpack his clown mindset framework — this idea that failure is success — why he's now building AI to keep miners alive in Peru, and the two startups that failed before the one that worked. If you're a founder questioning your path, this one's going to hit. Key Discussion Points: 🔥 How to identify and mitigate risks when applying AI in unexpected industries 🤖 The surprising ways AI can improve safety in heavy industries like mining 💡 What it takes to implement AI in complex industries 🚀 How to navigate the challenges of applying AI in industries with limited digital infrastructure 💻 The importance of understanding the unique needs and pain points of each industry when applying AI Timecodes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:15 - Overview of Misty AI and Its Mission 1:52 - The Importance of Safety in Mining 6:28 - Identifying Buyer Personas in Heavy Industry 11:30 - The Co-Founder Dating Phase: Finding the Right Partner 14:52 - Insights from Clowning: Lessons for Founders 24:36 - Embracing Failure: Lessons from Clowning 26:38 - Previous Startups: Experiences and Learnings 28:56 - Transitioning from Investor to Co-Founder 31:51 - Reflections on the Exit from Boxee HQ 37:58 - Understanding the Gap Between Startups and Enterprises 40:47 - Strategies for First-Time Founders in Enterprise Sales 42:20 - Advice for New Entrepreneurs: Enjoy the Journey 43:07 - Balancing Family Life with Startup Challenges 45:54 - Final Thoughts for Founders in Heavy Industry 47:10 - How to Connect with Sama and Misty AI Important Links: You can reach 🚁 Sama Carlos Samame at https://www.linkedin.com/in/samame Vishesh, your host at https://vishesh.space Checkout MISTI AI at https://mistiai.com P.S. If you are writing on LinkedIn https://tryjerry.com

    50 min
  8. #58 Cutting 512B Cloud Waste | Fundraising in Q1 2026 | Challenges for Desi Founders in Europe | Vikram Das

    Jan 23

    #58 Cutting 512B Cloud Waste | Fundraising in Q1 2026 | Challenges for Desi Founders in Europe | Vikram Das

    Episode 58 with Vikram Das, Co-Founder & CEO at Yasu.I'm joined by Vikram Das, the Co-Founder & CEO of Yasu. Vikram spent two decades in the industry with stints at Cognizant, and AWS. He went from closing 50 million dollar cloud deals for AWS to walking into a room of 70 strangers in Amsterdam to find a Dutch co-founder he'd known for weeks, and they recently raised a little over 1 Million dollars to solve the exact problem he helped create! In this episode we talk about what does it take to build an AI Cloud Engineer, finding co-founder love and losing it, Challenges of being immigrant founder in Europe, Some of his learnings from their fundraising journey through all the bubble talk and more!Key Discussion Points:🔥 Fundraising is something that every founder is concerned about. Is it a necessary evil, or can you find alternative ways to secure funding?🤯 What are the unique challenges faced by Indian-origin founders in Europe, particularly in tech, and how can they overcome them?🚀 How can founders balance their mental health while navigating the startup journey, and what role does mindfulness play in this process?📈 What are the cultural differences between startup environments in Europe and India, and how can founders adapt to these differences?💡 Why is distribution the only key that is going to be, and how can founders prioritize it in their fundraising strategies?Timecodes:0:00 - Introduction2:15 - Discussing the Importance of Fundraising5:30 - Insights on Fundraising in the European Context8:45 - The Challenges of Fundraising for Founders12:00 - Navigating the Cloud Complexity in Startups15:20 - The Role of AI in Cloud Engineering18:30 - Team Building and Early Hiring Strategies21:00 - The Experience of Indian Founders in Europe24:15 - Balancing Startup Life with Personal Well-being27:30 - The Impact of Mental Health on Founders30:00 - The 996 Work Culture in European Startups33:15 - Exploring the Future of AI in Business36:00 - Building a Podcast as a Distribution Engine39:30 - The Journey of Transitioning from Corporate to Startup42:00 - Creating Content in a Saturated Market45:15 - The Importance of Authenticity in Content Creation48:30 - Final Thoughts and Future Plans51:00 - Closing Remarks and Next StepsImportant Links:You can reach Vikram Das at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dasvikramVishesh, your host at https://vishesh.spaceCheckout Yasu at https://yasu.cloudP.S. If you are writing on LinkedIn https://tryjerry.com🎙️ Subscribe for more episodes!#Episode58 #VenturingWithVishesh #Startups #Entrepreneurship #startups #entrepreneurship #venturingwithvishesh

    52 min
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About

Venturing with Vishesh is a weekly founder interview podcast hosted by Vishesh Duggar (5× founder, ex-CTO at Vamstar). Each week Vishesh talks to SaaS founders, AI builders, and venture capitalists from the US, Europe and India — unpacking what almost broke their companies and how they turned it around. Real fundraising stories, GTM playbooks, product-market fit lessons, and the unglamorous side of building a startup. Guests backed by Y Combinator, Benchmark, a16z, and Sequoia. New episodes every week.

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