Podcast
Fund/Build/Scale
Hosted by Walter Thompson · EN
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 to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.
Fund/Build/Scale is a production of Truth and Soul Media LLC.
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 to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.
Fund/Build/Scale is a production of Truth and Soul Media LLC.
36episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
2025 Cybersecurity Trends, Insights and Storytelling Advice from YL Ventures' Andy Ellis
Jan 9, 202500:44:15Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I talked with YL Ventures Partner Andy Ellis (a former CISO) about his approach to storytelling, tactics for founder-led sales and marketing, and why he thinks the cybersecurity hiring challenge isn’t a talent shortage, but a market misunderstanding. We also discussed refining product-market fit, customer discovery methods and pitfalls like believing in one's own narrative too strongly. The conversation also touched on hiring strategies, managing design partnerships, and maintaining humility as a founder. “The basic entry level skill of reading the room is knowing when somebody already agrees with you,” said Andy. RUNTIME 44:15 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:44) Andy describes his day-to-day work at YL Ventures with founders. (4:08) "It's like you now have an infant, and your only job as a parent is to create a competent adult.” (6:33) How he prefers to be pitched. (7:52) ”The art of storytelling is taking a message and putting it in a narrative vehicle.” (14:38) The biggest storytelling mistakes early-stage founders make. (17:08) “ The basic entry level skill of reading the room is knowing when somebody already agrees with you.” (18:50) “ Fear is a hard, hard sale… It's so transparent and CISOs do this every day.” (19:36) Common cybersecurity GTM missteps. (21:40) ”The moment that you can sell the same product to two different companies, you should have a sales rep.” (23:45) How Andy helps founders read the room when they’re trying to make a sale. (27:20) “ You're hiring really out of a very different pool when you're in the cybersecurity space.” (29:08) “ Stealth is sort of a misnomer, but we're still sort of stuck in it.” (30:54) What to say if you want someone to quit their cushy job and join your risky startup. (32:46) Rock-star hires are “fantastic if they stumble into your lap, but you can't go look for them.” (35:08) “ That first marketer you hire needs to be able to do a lot of things.” (39:05) “People with massive egos have a lot of humility.” (41:20) Trends in cybersecurity and AI he’s excited about in 2025. LINKS Andy Ellis 1% Leadership: Master the Small, Daily Improvements that Set Great Leaders Apart csoandy.com YL Ventures YL Ventures’ The State of the Cyber Nation 2024 (PDF) SUBSCRIBE TO FUND/BUILD/SCALE LinkedIn Substack Instagram Thanks for listening! – Walter.
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Lessons from Operant AI's Startup Journey: “ We're not wasting time on wheel spinning.”
Jan 3, 202500:48:14Tap to summarizeTwo of the three co-founders of Operant AI — CTO Dr. Priyanka Tembey and CMO Ashley Roof — joined me to talk about building the first runtime application protection platform and navigating the challenges of cloud-native security. The company announced a $10M Series A in September 2024 — In October, we discussed taking the leap into entrepreneurship, the lessons they learned through customer discovery and education, making early hires count, and the importance of early-stage team dynamics. RUNTIME: 48:14 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:28) “ I think it was within six months that we were able to have our first customer conversation.” (3:46) What can customers do with a runtime application protection platform? (9:38) “ What is interesting about our team is we don't come from prior security vendor companies.” (12:59) Ashley explains how her first “real job” at Google eventually led her to Operant AI. (15:51) “ I had many years of imposter syndrome to get over.” (17:57) Why working with design partner teams is key, particularly for stealth startups. (20:43) Priyanka discusses the company’s early customer education efforts. (24:23) Ashley on why previous runtime application protection products hit “the trough of despair pretty fast.” (28:26) Turning design partners into paying customers was part of their seed-to-Series A transition. (31:04) Priyanka explains how Operant AI runs proof-of-concept programs for customers. (34:28) Why they decided to start up in stealth. (36:29) “ I honestly don't know how any consumer company could possibly start in stealth.” (38:35) “ We have the technical leadership in place now… to scale the product further.” (41:02) Inside their recruiting strategy and process. (44:35) What’s changed since closing the Series A? LINKS Operant AI Dr. Priyanka Tembey co-founder, CTO Ashley Roof, co-founder, CMO Operant AI Secures $10M Series A to Protect the Modern Cloud Across APIs, Applications and AI SOC 2 compliance SUBSCRIBE LinkedIn Substack Instagram Thanks for listening! – Walter.
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Mercury Raise 2024 Survey: Founder Challenges, Fundraising Trends, and the AI Hype Cycle
Dec 19, 202400:44:44Tap to summarizeStartups are built on grit, vision, and — surprisingly — a lot of peer advice. In this episode, I sat down with Mallory Contois, Head of Community at Mercury and leader of Mercury Raise, their founder success platform. Drawing from their latest survey, Mallory shares eye-opening insights about how early-stage entrepreneurs navigate challenges like fundraising, hiring, and customer acquisition. Why do founders rely more on peer networks and podcasts like this one than their VCs for operational advice? Mallory explains the unique psychology that makes it hard for founders to admit uncertainty to their investors and why angel investors often provide more operational value than institutional funds. We also discuss key survey findings, including the evolving AI landscape, the benefits of accelerators, and how lean teams are reshaping what’s possible in a startup. Whether you’re building your first company or gearing up for the next funding round, this episode offers actionable insights and a fresh take on founder dynamics in today’s startup ecosystem. Subscribe now to Fund/Build/Scale and learn how to turn your idea into a sustainable business. RUNTIME: 44:44 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:19) A brief overview of Mercury and Mercury Raise. (3:42) Mallory describes a day in the life of Mercury’s Community team. (6:18) Do mature startups worry about the same things as seed-stage teams? (8:41) “ We have a pretty good pulse on what people are talking about and what people are struggling with.” (9:26) Nearly a quarter of all survey respondents applied to accelerators but were rejected. (11:05) Why founders are more likely to get advice from this podcast than their VCs. (13:39) “ The peer connection that founders have is almost trauma bonding.” (15:02) “ We're seeing founders and investors giving the advice to be much more constrained in spend management.” (17:43) Mallory describes different founder archetypes who are attracted to Mercury Raise. (21:07) “ AI investments now are a lot more calculated than they were in the last couple of years.” (24:45) For AI founders, building in a hype cycle “ can be simultaneously demoralizing and exciting.” (27:17) How Mercury Raise creates value through community. (29:54) Mercury’s Investor Connect program helps founders sharpen pitches. (32:54) “Fundraising in general is just a black box.” (36:13) Vibe check: “solo founders are actually becoming a little bit more common and a little bit more accepted.” (37:19) ”Co-founder breakups — it's worse than the real thing.” (38:02) Mallory’s advice for founders who are planning to fundraise in 2025. LINKS Mallory Contois Mercury Mercury Raise Mercury Investor Connect SUBSCRIBE 📓Substack: https://fundbuildscale.substack.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📥 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ Thanks for listening! – Walter.
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Rusty Ralston and Jay Patil of Swell VC: A Hands-on Approach to Building Startups
Dec 17, 202400:42:09Tap to summarizeIn October 2024, New York-based Swell VC announced its second fund with $11.5 million in commitments. Co-founded by general partners Jay Patil and Rusty Ralston in 2011, the firm now manages two seed-stage funds and a special purpose vehicle with $19 million in assets. Compared to larger firms, they’re small potatoes — but that’s intentional. Swell VC is all about being hands-on: helping founders with critical early hires and go-to-market strategies. I invited them on Fund/Build/Scale to discuss their investment thesis, why diversity matters for building innovative teams, and how to know when it’s finally time to stop thinking about your startup idea and start building. RUNTIME 42:09 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:36) Rusty explains how he and Jay met. (4:08) “ People determine the outcome of a company.” (5:36) “ You start the search when you're ready to hire. And then you build momentum.” (8:27) When Swell VC gets involved with founders, where they’re looking to invest. (11:24) Jay talks about the firm’s portfolio strategy and its second fund. (14:38) When it comes to early hiring, “ over the last 15 years, we've codified like all of our learnings.” (17:16) Where do founders make the most mistakes in the hiring/interview process? (21:43) “A big blind spot is thinking diversity is just about hitting certain metrics.” (23:15) “ We're all about finding founders to live on what we call ‘the edge of the inside.’” (26:39) “ No solo founder can do everything forever.” (29:14) “ You don't need to build a full team right away. Your network is kind of your first line.” (31:55) Signals that indicate a founder’s ready to take the leap into entrepreneurship. (34:40) Why Swell VC is looking for category-creating startups to invest in. (37:34) Questions Jay and Rusty expect founders to ask during the discovery meeting. (40:25) How they prefer to be pitched. LINKS Jay Patil Rusty Ralston Swell VC info@swell.vc Swell VC Closes $11.5M Fund II, Proving Small Funds Can Deliver Big Wins (PR Newswire) Distributed to Paid-In Capital (DPI) definition SUBSCRIBE 📥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📓 Substack: https://fundbuildscale.substack.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ Thanks for listening! – Walter.
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Seed-stage Valuation Insights from Lightspeed's Nnamdi Iregbulem
Dec 15, 202400:33:24Tap to summarizeIf a team hasn’t built a minimum viable product, secured paying customers, or demonstrated strong unit economics, what exactly are seed-stage investors betting on? To get some answers, I sat down with Nnamdi Iregbulem, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, to discuss what drives seed valuations, the traits of successful founders, and his perspective on AI startups. “A lot of the pitches that I get are basically two people, a PowerPoint deck, and their dog,” Nnamdi told me during our conversation in October 2024. Nnamdi shared his journey from coding as a kid to investment banking at JP Morgan, growth-stage investing at Iconiq Capital, and now helping early-stage founders at Lightspeed. He explains why seed valuations often reflect the opportunity cost of the founding team more than traditional factors like interest rates or public market comps, and highlights the rising costs of GPUs and AI talent as critical considerations. We also explored the traits that set exceptional founders apart — like strong domain expertise, adaptability, and demonstrated excellence — and why inference-based AI startups may have an edge over those focused on training new models. For aspiring VCs, Nnamdi offers practical advice on developing domain expertise, building a network, and honing the skills needed to evaluate companies effectively. Whether you’re a founder, investor, or simply curious about the startup ecosystem, this episode is packed with actionable insights. RUNTIME 33:24 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:24) “ I was the first-born son of two Nigerian immigrants who really badly wanted me to be a doctor.” (6:17) “ I was sort of like, ‘what do I know about early-stage companies?’ I never worked in a startup.” (8:50) The day-to-day work Nnamdi does with the founders in Lightspeed’s portfolio. (11:13) He explains why seed valuations aren’t valuations. (13:31) “ The only characteristic… that had any real predictive value was the opportunity cost of the founder.” (16:43) “ Coming from a large and stable big tech company is not the positive signal that it used to be.” (17:32) The weights and measures he uses to assess seed-stage founders. (19:33) When domain expertise is (and is not) useful. (20:53) How he evaluates technical vs. non-technical founders. (24:16) “A lot of the pitches that I get are basically two people, a PowerPoint deck, and their dog.” (25:18) How to pitch Nnamdi directly. (26:21) Setting valuations is “ more driven by the founders than it is by us.” (29:33) His advice for anyone who wants to break into venture capital. LINKS Nnamdi Iregbulem Seed Valuations Aren’t Valuations, whoisnnamdi.com email Nnamdi Lightspeed Venture Partners SUBSCRIBE 📥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📓Substack: https://fundbuildscale.substack.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ Thanks for listening! – Walter.
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From tech worker to tech founder: Lessons from Naveen Rao of Databricks
Sep 27, 2024Tap to summarizeIn 2014, Naveen Rao left his researcher job at Qualcomm to co-found machine intelligence platform Nervana. About two and a half years later, Nervana sold to Intel for more than $400 million. After a few years at Intel, Naveen became CEO and co-founder of open source startup MosaicML, which helped companies build and train large AI models more efficiently and affordably. Approximately two and a half years later, Databricks acquired that company for $1.3 billion and made him VP of Generative AI. Naveen is a neuroscientist with multiple exits, so we spoke at length about shifting from engineering into entrepreneurship. If you have a technical role and are considering starting up, he shares his perspective on balancing day-to-day responsibilities while validating your idea, the importance of challenging industry assumptions, and finding your market niche. We also talked about who should — and should not — startup in stealth and addressed some of the current challenges facing the generative AI startup ecosystem, such as the rapid failure rates of companies due to high GPU costs and overinvestment in 2021-2022. Runtime: 51:16 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:54) “Evidence is always less than you want. At some point you kind of have to take a leap.” (5:37) “My journey with Nervana was, it was immediately clear to me that the world needed this.” (11:52) “Get in the head of someone who's going to exchange money for your services and products.” (14:54) Why he’s not a big fan of remote work. (18:35) “It is on you as an adult to find balance that you can work with. It is not the company's duty to do this.” (20:31) Why product companies should “probably not” startup in stealth. (23:11) “It wasn't the right time to sell. I didn't look at it like that at all.” (26:32) Hiring and retaining generative AI talent is “a hard problem right now.” (30:16) “Companies are failing pretty fast because the GPU spends are so big.” (35:04) Interacting with Databricks’ developer community. (43:11) Naveen on accelerators: “I think there are actually faster ways to learn.” (45:05) When it comes to angel investing, “I'm looking for creativity, honestly.” (47:34) If you were interviewing for a job with an early-stage startup, what's one question you'd have to ask the CEO? LINKS Naveen Rao @NaveenGRao Databricks Databricks picks up MosaicML, an OpenAI competitor, for $1.3B Intel is paying more than $400 million to buy deep-learning startup Nervana Systems The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, Jonathan Haidt Ali Partovi Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on Substack: fundbuildscale.substack.com
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