The Founder Gap

Alan Armstrong
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

The Founder Gap is a podcast about the brutal reality of building a company. No pats on the back or sugarcoating.  I talk to founders, operators, and investors who have actually gone the distance from idea to profitable company. No frameworks, no ecosystem buzzwords, no generic startup advice. Just real stories of what it actually takes. How did you get your first customers? What nearly killed the company? What mistake cost the most money? What would you do differently today? My guests have the scars to back it up. They have built products, won customers, raised capital, scaled teams, failed, recovered, and sold companies.  If their title disappeared, I would still want to hear their story.

  1. 06/13/2022

    28: Building a successful German food startup during COVID with Mathyas Lopez Redetzki

    Mathyas is the founder of El Origen a German food startup bringing healthy snacks from Latin America to Europe! They produce and distribute tasty organic plantain and manioc chips which are currently available in over 6000 stores in Germany.  Unfortunately, this episode got interrupted by connection issues and I lost the first 20 minutes. But this second half of the podcast is still packed full of value. Mathyas discusses what it's like to start a company in Germany, the importance of processes to help you manage your company, and the role that short-form content can play in your company and personal brand.  Enjoy and share if you care!   Connect with Mathyas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathyas-lopez-redetzki-90b42415/ Check out his TikTok & Instagram pages too https://www.tiktok.com/@startuptogo?lang=de-DE https://www.instagram.com/mathyaslr/  Check out El Origen https://www.elorigenfood.de/

    26 min

  2. 06/05/2022

    27: Three simple steps to start your own company with Alan

    This week's podcast is a clip from an event I hosted together with Forge Accelerator in 2021. Most first-time entrepreneurs get overwhelmed in the beginning and struggle to know what their next steps should be. In this podcast, I go through 3 simple steps that you can use from TODAY to start building your own business. Each of the steps includes a free tool that you can use to guide you on your way. Enjoy and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss our upcoming podcast episodes! Sign up for the newsletter below! https://thestrongstartup.com/

    14 min

  3. 05/30/2022

    26: The most overlooked step in building a business with Adam Forbes

    If you're struggling with how to start building a start then look no further than this podcast! Developing deep relationships with your future customers as early as possible is absolutely critical for business success. And Adam Forbes is an expert in this area helping startups to accelerate their path to product market fit, spend efficiently on marketing and find and nurture real customers.  In this podcast, Adam and I discuss why hard customer facts in the form of data is a solid foundation for building a business, the type of data you should look for, and the very first few steps you can take this week to start building relationships with your customers.   Connect with Adam below https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkforbes/  Grab a free trial of Adam's customer discovery tool "Familiarize" https://www.gofamiliarize.com/    Share if you care!

    1 hr

  4. 05/20/2022

    25: Bootstrapping during times of war with Alyona Mysko

    If you're looking for a real-life example of how to build a startup, look no further than Alyona Mysko from Ukraine.  She's the founder and CEO of FuelFinance a FinTech startup making finance cool again for startups and small businesses. Her journey to date has involved persevering through both COVID and the war in Ukraine. Throughout that time she led her team as a solo founder, remained fully bootstrapped and manage over $250m in their client's ARR. There are some amazing stories and lessons to be learned from this conversation so enjoy.    Connect with Alyona below https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyona-mysko-%F0%9F%87%BA%F0%9F%87%A6-39039766/  Check out FuelFinance here https://fuelfinance.me/  Please support Ukraine and donate use these options https://fuelfinance.me/2022/03/05/fuel-stands-with-ukraine/

    43 min

  5. 01/31/2022

    24: Why Startups Struggle to Scale with Olav Carlsen

    Olav Carlsen is a Silicon valley CFO veteran having worked with many startups there for over a decade taking two of those companies public. The most recent of those companies was PortalPlayer Inc. known for "delivering technology to Steve Jobs". They worked exclusively with Apple and provided almost everything that went into the first generation of their Ipods.  In this podcast we discuss the two main challenges facing startups as they being to scale their business, we dip into a discussion about how silicon valley has both changed and remained the same over the past 20 or so years. Finally, we provide an overview of the ScaleUp4Europe program which is an equity-free acceleration program helping startups to scale through access to customers in Europe.    Check out the 4 startup programs offered by ScaleUp4Europe below https://scaleup4.eu/   Connect with Olav Carlsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/olavcarlsen/

    1h 6m

  6. 01/19/2022

    23: Why VCs are just like Startups with Dr. Alex Kern

    In this episode, Dr. Alex Kern and I go deep into the world of Venture Capital discussing how VCs are a lot of more Startups than you might think in terms of their structure as well as how VCs are financed and the competitive nature of the VC market.    Alex also provides a nice overview of how VC funding is layered from pre-seed to Series A, B, etc, and discusses the process he went through to self publish his very own children's book about Startups and the world f Venture Capital!   Dr. Alex Kern has extensive experience in the world of finance and Venture Capital. He's currently principal at AKX Capital where he helps VCs get setup and grow & Managing Partner of the Deutsches Euro-Institute a consulting firm focusing on M&A, VC/PE, Corporate Restructuring, and Corporate Development.   Alex is also a Professor of Finance (EDHEC Business School) and Management (International University of Monaco) and a lecturer at King's College London.    Check out Alex's tiktok channel (focusing on Blockchain) https://www.tiktok.com/@akx_capital Grab his children's book about VCs on Amazon! https://tinyurl.com/2hf5tpa2

    55 min

  7. 12/25/2021

    22: comfort of successful investing comes with artificial intelligence

    Franz is the co-founder and head of business development at Sub Capitals a FinTech startup from XPRENERUS Incubator at UnternehmerTUM in Munich They’re democratizing access to artificial intelligence for everyday investors like me and you. They've just launched their platform neoland.ai where you can test out their amazing tailored AI experience on the real financial market!   Signup to Neoland.ai for free right now  https://tinyurl.com/rc4yun8e   Check out Sub Capitals https://www.subcapitals.com/en/   Connect with Franz Liebermann https://www.linkedin.com/in/franz-liebermann-335513182/

    42 min

  8. 11/28/2021

    21: How to become a leader at UnternehmerTUM with Patrick Remerscheid

    We're back after a long break! I'm joined this week by Patrick Remerscheid a scholar at the Manage and More program at UnternehmerTUM.    Patrick gives you the full low down on this amazing program that is helping shape the future leaders and startup founders of Germany!   It's an 18-month program open to bachelor and master's students from either Technical University Munich (TUM) or Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) in Munich, Germany.    They also do a public pitch competition at the end of each semester (so twice per year) called "Start and Spread" with around €3k in prize money up for grabs as well as access to the UnternehmerTUM network, pithing workshop & 1-on-1 coaching. Best of all this competition is open to any and all entrepreneurs - you don't need to be a scholar from Manage and More!   Check out the next start and spread event on Dec 1st 2021 https://www.eventbrite.de/e/start-and-spread-winter-2021-powered-by-manage-and-more-tickets-194538669397    Check out the Manage and More program  https://www.unternehmertum.de/en/services/manage-more   Connect with Patrick https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickremerscheid/

    44 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The Founder Gap is a podcast about the brutal reality of building a company. No pats on the back or sugarcoating.  I talk to founders, operators, and investors who have actually gone the distance from idea to profitable company. No frameworks, no ecosystem buzzwords, no generic startup advice. Just real stories of what it actually takes. How did you get your first customers? What nearly killed the company? What mistake cost the most money? What would you do differently today? My guests have the scars to back it up. They have built products, won customers, raised capital, scaled teams, failed, recovered, and sold companies.  If their title disappeared, I would still want to hear their story.

Information

  • Creator
    Alan Armstrong
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2022
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2021 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Founder Gap