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.

Fund/Build/Scale is a news podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 129 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts Fund/Build/Scale, a news show with 129 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #116

  What Investors Learn When They Watch You Talk To Customers

  Sep 29, 202646 minS2

  Selling your pitch to an investor is one thing. Showing that you understand how to sell your product to customers is another. Amy Cheetham, partner at Costanoa Ventures, sometimes watches founders talk to prospective customers as part of her diligence. Those conversations can reveal how well they understand the problem they’re solving, whether they can absorb feedback and how effectively they communicate with the people they hope will buy what they’re building. In this episode, Amy explains what she looks for in those conversations, why learning to sell matters for founders, and how distribution can become a moat for AI startups. We also discuss what makes a strong early-stage narrative, how founders without an existing VC network can start building investor relationships, and a simple seven-day experiment for testing an idea with prospective customers. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GkTaPQ02NG8 RUNTIME 46:20 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:41) Costanoa "will invest really as early as you can imagine." (5:33) ”It's not just fundraising as a skill. We're understanding how founders sell to customers.” (21:38) If you can't explain it, you can't sell it (29:58) In the application layer, distribution is the moat (34:50) "My founder archetype has always been domain experts." (38:30) Start cultivating relationships with investors before you raise (44:07) Validate your startup's right to exist with this 7-day experiment LINKS Amy Cheetham Costanoa Ventures How to Run Efficient and Effective Early Stage Board Meetings , TechCrunch Ivo Marble Health Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If you’re building something that’s hard to explain, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative : what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com Learn more SUBSCRIBE Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow FBS on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ Watch FBS on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #115

  How to Get Through a Tech Layoff Without Losing Yourself

  Aug 26, 202649 minS2

  If you work in tech long enough, there’s a good chance you’ll go through a layoff. Either your own, or one that leaves you wondering whether you’re next. Shanon Olsen, COO of Henley Leadership, works with executives and organizations navigating growth, disruption, and change. In this episode, we talk about why layoffs should be understood as a cultural breakdown rather than a one-day event, what happens when founders build companies they aren’t prepared to lead, and why CEOs can delegate just about everything — except culture. I’ve been on both sides of this equation, so I asked Shanon about how to stay committed to your work without making your employer your identity, why it’s important to maintain relationships outside your company, how to assess whether a workplace is recovering after layoffs, and why staying in a job and exploring other possibilities don’t have to be mutually exclusive. RUNTIME 48:52 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:05) When does a startup stop being a startup? (9:37) If you're not ready to let someone go, you shouldn't be the CEO (14:57) Why layoffs are a "cultural breakdown" (19:56) How should the CEO behave after layoffs? (23:50) Building a culture that's resilient enough to weather layoffs (26:58) How to tell an employee WHY you're laying them off (32:38) " Identify what's your purpose outside of your position." (39:13) How to tell if your company is recovering after layoffs (44:23) Should you stay or leave after layoffs? Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vbunRx4FZIQ LINKS Shanon Olsen Henley Leadership Group Navigating Layoffs: Understanding the Impact on You and Your Team , Henley Leadership Group Who Do We Choose To Be , Margaret Wheatley Dunbar’s Number Johari Window Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative : what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com Learn more Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #114

  Before You Build in Senior Care, Figure Out Who Pays

  Aug 20, 202639 minS3

  America is getting older. Tens of millions of people are caring for parents, grandparents and other family members. The problems are everywhere, and many of them are painful, expensive and still poorly served by technology. That does not mean every care-related startup is a good business, however. Tatyana Zlotsky, CEO of A Place for Mom, joins me to talk about what founders need to understand before building for older adults and the people who care for them. We discuss why "seniors" aren't a single customer segment, how to conduct customer research in a market you don't know, and why founders need to distinguish between the person using a product, the person making the decision and the person actually paying for it. Tatyana also explains why private-pay and insurance-backed businesses require fundamentally different approaches, and shares the story of a founder who spent more than a year changing course after discovering he'd chosen the wrong customer. We also dig into AI. Tatyana explains why starting with what the technology can do is backwards, why proprietary customer data can create a meaningful advantage, and why founders should ask whether they're really building something that general-purpose AI can't already provide. This is a conversation about finding real problems, understanding who you're solving them for, and building businesses around customer needs instead of technology trends. RUNTIME 38:51 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:21) Tatyana Zlotsky’s path to A Place for Mom (4:46) Why senior care remains an underbuilt market (9:20) The real problems caregivers need solved (12:36) Why “seniors” aren’t a single customer segment (16:31) How to do customer research in the care market (20:35) Why “AI for X” isn’t a business strategy (24:02) Private pay vs. insurance: deciding who pays (26:50) What happens when founders choose the wrong business model (28:59) The senior-care product Tatyana wishes someone would build (33:24) What makes a care startup worth taking seriously (36:19) Why families shouldn’t wait for a care crisis LINKS Tatyana Zlotsky A Place For Mom Oura Fitbit Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative : what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com Learn more SUBSCRIBE Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #113

  How to Know If Your Startup Idea Is Worth Pursuing

  Aug 19, 202636 minS2

  If you have a startup idea, how do you know whether you’re onto something—or just really good at convincing yourself? Pete Martin has spent his career finding out. He’s worked at six cybersecurity startups, most of them in the pre-product, pre-revenue days, with two IPOs along the way. Today, he’s CEO and co-founder of Realm Security. In this episode, we get tactical about finding the right early adopters, running customer discovery that produces actual signal, recognizing patterns in the feedback, and knowing when someone’s interest is strong enough to ask a question that makes a lot of founders uncomfortable: Would you pay for this? And if you’ve got an idea but aren’t ready to quit your day job, Pete lays out a seven-day experiment you can run to start finding out whether there’s really something there. RUNTIME 36:19 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:51) What does Realm do today, and who's buying it? (3:28) Finding the right early adopters (8:01) Where to locate your first potential customers (12:54) Why customer discovery requires volume (18:55) How to write outreach that gets a (positive) response (21:05) When to say no to a potential customer (23:48) Sell the outcome, not the features (28:33) A seven-day experiment to test your startup idea (33:01) When is it time to hire a sales team? LINKS Pete Martin Realm Security Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative : what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com Learn more SUBSCRIBE Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #112

  Why Technical Founders Should Stop Answering Questions

  Aug 18, 202643 minS2

  Peter Wang is co-founder and Chief AI and Innovation Officer at Anaconda, a company he helped start in 2012 after years of working as a software developer and consultant. In this episode, Peter draws on Anaconda’s early days and the entrepreneurship lessons he shares with scientists and engineers at Cornell to explain what technical people need to learn when they launch a company. We talk about learning to ask better questions instead of rushing to provide answers, recognizing the limits of what you know, and treating yourself as an investor when deciding whether an idea is worth pursuing. Peter also explains his approach to customer discovery, why employees are investors too, and how aspiring founders can practice entrepreneurship by building something — however small — that someone will actually pay for. RUNTIME 43:00 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:53) Finding the Product by Doing the Work (10:19) "I'm just sharing my own field notes on what I had to learn." (14:05) Know the Limits of What You Know (18:18) Climbing the Ladder of Disbelief (23:59) Customer Discovery: Listen, Validate, Explore (29:02) "Your employees are also investors." (31:02) " It's really incredibly important that the vision is compelling for people." (38:39) An Exercise for Entrepreneurship Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GuysuVrGd8Y LINKS Peter Wang Anaconda Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive , Harvey Mackay Are you building something that’s hard to explain? That’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative : what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com Learn more SUBSCRIBE Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Fund/Build/Scale. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.