Podcasts about 1m arr

Mark was running a startup out of a tiny annex office in Dublin with zero product usage. Then one customer turned it on and overnight he saw usage spike to thousands of simulations. He got to $1M ARR 100% through outbound, by sending 500,000 cold emails. A few months ago he closed a $25M Series A.In this episode, Mark breaks down the pivot from sales roleplay to customer support that unlocked his first real traction, the cold outbound playbook that took him to $1M ARR (500K emails, 250 meetings, 40 customers), and why doorstepping customers in Utah is what drove his net revenue retention to 186%.Why You Should ListenExactly how to use a cold outbound strategy to hit $1M ARR.Why getting on 56 flights last year to visit customers led to 186% NRR.How he closed a $25M Series A in just 6 days.Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, AI startup, customer support, cold outbound, Y Combinator, Series A, enterprise sales, SaaS, Solid RoadChapters00:00:00 Intro00:06:10 The Pivot From Sales to Customer Support00:12:54 Why Moving to SF Changed Everything00:22:34 Cold Outbound to $1M ARR00:32:47 Doorstepping Customers for 186% NRR00:39:17 Closing a $25M Series A in 6 DaysSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Get the 3 prompts (research + classify, gift ideas, note writer) in my paid newsletter here.---In this episode, I break down the 2-step ABM gifting system you can run on your top 200 accounts. How to find the clue. How to classify the prospect into one of four buckets (Identity, Passion, Milestone, or No Gift). How to pick a gift that maps to the specific niche. And how to write the note that proves the research wasn't AI-generated.--If you're new here, I'm Elric Legloire, founder of Outbound Kitchen. I help B2B SaaS companies between $2M and $50M ARR fix and scale their outbound system. My view: in 2026, productivity is the multiplier to scale outbound teams.Menu:- Why a $300 researched gift is cheaper than the cold email sequence you'd run into a $200K to $1M ARR account- The 4-bucket prospect classification: Identity, Passion, Milestone, No Gift (and why ~70% land in No Gift)- The specificity ladder: vague vs. niche vs. Passion vs. Signature clues, and which two qualify for a gift- Where to find Signature clues: LinkedIn About sections, podcast appearances, keynotes, blogs, book forewords- A worked example on Kyle Norton (CRO at Owner.com). From clue ("former MMA gym co-owner, black belt") to gift (personalized oak belt display from Etsy with his "Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast." quote)- The 5-part note template: research proof, rabbit hole, gift bridge, pitch + proof, soft ask- Why Perplexity beat ChatGPT for clue research this round, and why you should keep benchmarking AI modelsReferenced:- Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Quake rocket launcher gift, sent by Brennan- Tom (CMO, Incident.io), signed vinyl gift- Newsletter with the 3 prompts (research + classify, gift ideas, note writer): https://newsletter.outbound.kitchen/p/abm-how-to-gift-your-top-200-accountsChapters(00:00) Why Gifting Works(01:37) ABM Outbound Fit(02:41) Step One Find Clues(03:29) Clue Buckets Framework(04:41) Avoid Creepy Research(05:38) Make Clues Specific(06:55) Where To Research(07:17) Kyle Norton Example(09:51) Decision Tree Choices(10:40) Step Two Gift Ideas(11:56) Personalized Gift Build(13:24) Write The Note(14:58) Note Template--When you're ready⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Want to work with me? Send me a DM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ---Connect with me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

MoneyWise is a Hampton podcast. Hampton is a private, vetted community for founders doing $3M or more in revenue. Apply at https://www.joinhampton.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=yt051126.From Minecraft maps to $400k months — but the money isn't the story.Nathan May grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Ohio. His mom made $32,000 a year. He never left the state until he was 18. At 15, he was selling custom Minecraft maps to famous YouTubers and making his first $100K. He went to Wharton, joined BCG, quit, and built one of the fastest-growing newsletter agencies in the country before turning 30.But the week he hit his first million dollars, his mom died. And he felt nothing.In this episode, Nathan gets brutally honest about what money actually gave him — and what it didn't. We go deep on the community he's built in New York with a group of founders sharing an office, a monthly revenue leaderboard, and the kind of real talk that doesn't happen anywhere else. He calls it the Media Mafia. He says it's changed his life more than any dollar amount ever has.We also get into:Growing up in poverty and never leaving Ohio until 18How a Minecraft addiction became his first real businessLeaving a six-figure BCG career to bet on himselfBuilding a $1M ARR agency in under a year with 1,000 newsletter subscribersHis actual net worth, his $10M target, and why he keeps almost no cashWhy he thinks the wealthiest people he knows are often the least happyTimestamps00:00 - Cold open00:58 - Introducing Nathan May01:23 - Small talk / how Nathan starts his day02:32 - The agency, the numbers, how life has changed03:24 - Growing up poor in Ohio — never left the state until 1805:35 - He originally wanted to be an actor06:04 - The Minecraft business: how a video game addiction made him $100K at 1509:05 - Wharton, Wall Street culture shock, and the path to BCG10:36 - What BCG actually changed about his life12:01 - Building the agency: newsletters, Schwarzenegger, and why it felt like video games again15:32 - His real relationship with money: checking account, savings, leverage strategy16:52 - The $10M number: how he used ChatGPT to find his "enough"18:34 - The Media Mafia: seven founders, one office, a monthly revenue leaderboard20:31 - Being at the cusp — exciting, terrifying, or both?23:07 - Why IRL community is the highest-leverage thing a founder can build26:03 - What Hampton means to him27:31 - His mom's passing, the $1M milestone, and why none of it felt like anything29:24 - Can you be successful without community?31:39 - What's next and closing thoughtsMoneyWise is the podcast where high-net-worth founders get radically transparent about how they actually make, spend, invest, and think about money. Hosted by Daniel Berk and presented by Hampton.Sponsors:Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Anada Lakra just raised a $21M Series A for BoldVoice, a $150/year pronunciation app that helps immigrants speak English with confidence. But she started from zero in her Harvard dorm room and a problem most VCs didn't think was big enough. She recruited a Hollywood accent coach, shipped a bare-bones V1, and got into YC.In this episode, Anada breaks down why she launched a consumer app when every investor was chasing B2B, how a Reddit thread called "Judge My Accent" became an early growth hack, and why switching to annual-default pricing transformed her unit economics overnight.Why You Should ListenWhy building a consumer app in the 2020s is not as crazy as VCs think.How Reddit threads and guerrilla marketing drove BoldVoice's first thousand users.Why defaulting to annual pricing gave her instant CAC payback.How she grew from zero to $1M ARR and raised a $21M Series A.Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, consumer app, B2C startup, pronunciation app, accent coaching, AI app, YC startup, mobile app growth, Anada Lakra, BoldVoiceChapters00:00:00 Intro00:02:14 The Accent Problem Nobody Was Solving00:11:49 Getting Into YC with No Revenue00:22:48 Shipping V1 from a Dorm Room00:29:31 Guerrilla Growth on Reddit and Facebook00:36:05 Cracking the YouTube Influencer Playbook00:48:09 Why Annual Pricing Changed Everything00:50:47 The Moment of True Product Market FitSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Joseph Lee didn't follow a straight path. After spending nearly a decade building a food marketplace, he walked away and started over. What came next was Supademo — an AI-powered product demo platform that scaled from zero to $5M ARR in three years, mostly through product-led growth. In this episode, we break down exactly how that happened.We get into: How Supa Demo hit $1M ARR in under a year  The SEO + LLM strategy that drove early traction  Programmatic content and competitor pages that convert  What “product-led growth” actually means in practice  Designing virality directly into the product  Why free users are a growth engine, not a cost center  Reverse trials and onboarding that removes friction  Using AI across engineering, sales, and operations  Real internal AI workflows (including automated follow-ups)  Why most teams struggle with AI adoption  The real moat in a world where everything is easier to build  How to think about pricing without over-optimizing  Why founders should stop overthinking and just start If you're building SaaS right now, this episode is a clear look at what's actually working in today's market — and what's already outdated.

Tarek already built a B2B software company to $30M ARR. But when the AI wave hit, he realized he could build a generational business by automating the manual world of accounts receivable. So, he left to start Stuut.In this episode, Tarek breaks down how he reached $1M ARR in a couple of months and is on track to hit up to $50M this year. He reveals how he pre-sold his first $65k contract with just wireframes, why he forces new customers to introduce him to five peers, and the brutal reality of finding message-market fit through hundreds of cold calls.Why You Should ListenHow to pre-sell a $65k enterprise contract before writing code.The "Closing Discount" hack to generate 5 referrals from every new customer.Why finding "Message Market Fit" is more important than your ICP.How to spot and avoid early-stage startup "vultures".Why scaling a B2B sales motion requires hiring misfits over pedigree.00:00:00 Intro00:01:41 Leaving a $30M Startup to Build with AI00:08:06 Finding Message Market Fit Through Cold Calling00:20:07 Pre-Selling a $65k Contract with Wireframes00:27:51 The Voice AI "Aha" Moment00:33:07 The Closing Discount Referral Hack00:37:18 The Brutal Reality of B2B Sales00:42:19 Hitting $1M ARR and Pacing for $50M00:45:05 Why Product Market Fit is Never Truly FoundSend me a message to let me know what you think!

•saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies. In episode #13 of season 6, Anna Nadeina talks with Joel Griffith, founder of browserless, a cloud-based headless browser-as-a-service platform that allows developers to run automated browser tasks.Joel Griffith didn't start in tech, he was a professional jazz musician.Today, he runs browserless, a browser automation infrastructure powering AI agents, bots, scraping systems, and developer tools worldwide.In this episode, we cover:• What “headless browser” actually means (without jargon)• Why Joel chose to bootstrap instead of raising VC• Growing to $1M ARR without a marketer• Open source as a growth engine• Rewriting the entire product to eliminate technical debt• AI, automation, and whether bots are good or bad• The emotional reality of hiring, firing, and founder lifeIf you're building a devtool, infra SaaS, or considering rewriting your codebase - this one's for you.Joel Griffith - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-griffith-93933332/Browserless - https://www.browserless.ioSubscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-groupStay up to date:Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_groupLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

On the podcast: about hitting $1M ARR in four months with no paid ads, why trial extensions beat discounts for saving cancellations, and why you should be hiring content creators, not influencers.Top Takeaways:

Why do most startups waste thousands of dollars on advisors who deliver zero results? Ron Levin, a partner at Alumni Ventures, explains why you should never pay a retainer to an advisor and how to structure equity-based deals that actually align incentives. In this interview, Ron shares his transition from co-founding TravelPerk (a unicorn startup) to becoming a venture capitalist. He reveals why he prefers investing over operating, the "Cold Outreach" myth that stops founders from reaching VCs, and the new trend of startups hitting $1M ARR before even raising a seed round. He also breaks down his "Super Angel" scout program and why the best founders are often the ones who failed their first time. Check out the company: https://alumniventures.com

Roy is a three-time founder who has cracked the code on enterprise AI. After selling his first company and realizing his second idea was too slow, he pivoted to solving a massive problem: customer service automation.In this episode, Roy breaks down how GetVocal went from zero to $1M ARR in just five months. He reveals the "Context Graph" technology that allows them to beat LLM wrappers, why he believes purely generative AI is useless for business, and how he turned a single deployment into an enterprise-wide contagion.Why You Should ListenHow to hit $1M ARR in 5 months with a single salesperson.Why "Context Graphs" are the secret to building AI that doesn't hallucinate.How to expand from a single agent to 80 agents across the enterprise.The critical difference between Deterministic and Probabilistic AI Why starting with a personal passion project failed, but pivoting to enterprise worked.Keywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, enterprise AI, customer service automation, finding pmf, context graphs, AI agents, B2B sales, Roy Moussa00:00:00 Intro00:02:29 From Engineer to 3-Time Founder00:08:11 The Failed Pivot00:12:49 Solving Sales Efficiency First00:16:06 The Pivot to Customer Service00:18:57 Why Chatbots Failed & The Hybrid AI Solution00:25:43 What is a Context Graph?00:34:46 The "Contagion" Effect: 80 Agents in 8 Weeks00:39:34 Competing with Decagon & The Human-Centric Approach00:41:58 Hitting $1M ARR in 5 MonthsSend me a message to let me know what you think!

In this episode, we are joined by Zakhar Azatian, a bootstrapped technical solo founder based in San Francisco and the creator of BeHard, a gamified accountability app built around lifestyle challenges.He's a two-time founder with one successful exit and has grown B2C mobile products to over 1 million users, without a big team or massive funding.In this session, Zakhar breaks down how he generates and tests hundreds of ad creatives per month, the gamification mechanics that dramatically increased retention and referrals, and how he treats App Store search like a technical optimization problem, not just marketing.If you're building a consumer app and want practical growth tactics, this episode is packed with real execution frameworks.You will discover:✅ How to generate and test hundreds of ad creatives per month with a tiny team✅ How to treat App Store search like a code optimization problem✅ Paid growth insights from Meta, TikTok & influencer marketing Learn More:Explore Be Hard

Michel raised $185M and achieved a unicorn valuation before he fully cracked monetization. How? By building a community so strong it broke his engineering team.In this episode, Michel breaks down the chaotic journey from a failed YC marketing idea to becoming the standard for open-source data movement. He reveals why he killed a high-growth fintech product, how he used the "Magic Wand" question to find his true direction, and the specific insight that allowed Airbyte to hit $1M ARR in just 4 months after launching their enterprise product.Why You Should ListenHow to hit $1M ARR in 4 months with a bare-bones product.The "Magic Wand" framework for validating startup ideas.Why you should sometimes optimize for Vanity Metrics.How to raise $150M+ by solving the "build vs buy" dilemma.The critical difference between Project Market Fit and Product Market Fit.Keywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, open source business model, data infrastructure, product market fit, Y Combinator, pivoting, fundraising, developer tools, Airbyte00:00:00 Intro00:09:37 The Failed Marketing Product & COVID Pivot00:16:13 The "Magic Wand" Framework for Ideas00:20:52 Launching Open Source to Solve "Build vs Buy"00:24:39 Bootstrapping a Community on Reddit & Hacker News00:30:17 Why Too Many Users Broke the Team00:34:32 Project Market Fit vs. Product Market Fit00:36:16 Hitting $1M ARR in 4 Months00:37:53 Managing a Unicorn Valuation Without Revenue00:41:20 Advice for Early Stage FoundersSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Hey, it's Alex, let me tell you why I think this week is an inflection point.Just this week: Everyone is launching autonomous agents or features inspired by OpenClaw (Devin 2.2, Cursor, Claude Cowork, Microsoft, Perplexity and Nous announced theirs), METR and ArcAGI 2,3 benchmarks are getting saturated, 1 person companies nearing 1M ARR within months of operation by running AI agents 24/7 (we chatted with one of them on the show today, live as he broke $700K ARR barrier) and the US Department of War gives Anthropic an ultimatum to remove nearly all restrictions on Claude for war and Anthropic says NO. I've been covering AI for 3 years every week, and this week feels, different. So if we are nearing the singularity, let me at least keep you up to date

Discover how AI is completely transforming sales coaching and why the old methods of manual call reviews are obsolete. Join us as Matt Doyon reveals the exact system that helped Triple Session reach $1M ARR by automating sales feedback.   In this episode of Born in Silicon Valley, we sit down with Matt Doyon, Co-founder and CEO of Triple Session. Matt shares his journey from scaling massive teams at HubSpot to building a revolutionary AI-powered coaching platform. He breaks down why traditional sales tools were failing his teams and how he decided to build a solution that automatically serves up best practice clips for top performers.   We also dive into the realities of running a rapidly growing tech startup from Guadalajara, Mexico. Matt provides incredible insights on evaluating geographical risk, building powerful non-competitive partnerships like their deal with Aircall, and the exact hiring framework he uses to find top-tier talent. Whether you are leading a sales team or building an AI startup, this conversation is packed with actionable takeaways.   Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 03:08 Matt Doyon's Journey to Entrepreneurship 05:54 Identifying the Need for Coaching Solutions 11:00 The Role of AI in Sales Coaching 14:12 AI Coaching: Seller Reactions and Insights 19:32 Building an AI-Driven Coaching Platform 21:55 Business Model and Market Positioning 23:26 Growth and Partnership Strategies 27:46 Challenges of Running a Startup in Mexico 28:07 Risk Perspectives in Entrepreneurship 30:50 Challenges in Hiring Qualified Candidates 32:56 Effective Hiring Strategies 37:40 Future of Sales and AI 43:42 Building Interconnected Systems in Business 46:10 Prioritizing Key Roles for Growth   Host: Jake Aaron Villarreal leads the top AI recruitment firm in Silicon Valley, www.matchrelevant.com, uncovering stories of funded startups and going behind the scenes to tell their founders' journeys. If you are growing an AI startup or have a great story to tell, email us at: jake.villarreal@matchrelevant.com

Kevin was building a successful startup in the NFT space. They'd hit $1M ARR. But he looked at the market and realized it wasn't big enough. So he made the terrifying choice to pivot the entire company into cybersecurity.In this episode, Kevin breaks down how he navigated that transition without killing the business. He reveals how he sold his first $5k/month contract with no product, why he raised a massive seed round he didn't need, and how he convinced Andreessen Horowitz to lead his Series A in the middle of a strategic shift.Why You Should ListenHow to pivot from a bad market to a unicorn opportunity.Why he sold a $5k/month contract with zero product.How to raise a Series A from a16z during a pivot.Why you never truly "find" Product Market Fit.The danger of building for a niche market (and how to escape).Keywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, pivot, cybersecurity, crypto startup, a16z, raising series a, Kevin Tian00:00:00 Intro00:02:17 Meeting at Uber and the "Glass Eating" Phase00:07:21 The First Idea00:11:52 Selling the First $5k/Month Contract with No Product00:16:52 The Decision to Pivot at $1M ARR00:29:43 Network Selling to Enterprise Cybersecurity00:32:03 Raising Series A from a16z During a Pivot00:33:36 Why Product Market Fit is Not a One-Time Event00:35:10 Action Produces InsightsSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Chaz has founded 3 companies. The first sold for over $40M. The second sold to GoPuff for even more. Now, he's on his third act with Model ML, having just raised $75M Series A

UNLOCK THE 13 SYSTEMS EVERY AGENCY OWNER NEEDS TO REACH 8 FIGURES:https://bit.ly/41Sm05NIn this episode, Jordan Ross breaks down the most important signal of 2026 for marketing agencies: Y Combinator, the world's top startup accelerator, is now investing in AI-native agencies.This episode unpacks why YC's move into the agency world is not just surprising but a clear signal that the industry is about to be fundamentally reshaped.Jordan walks through:- What it means to be an AI-native agency (not just using AI tools)- Why AI-native agencies will dominate the next 3–5 years- The difference between AI-enhanced and AI-powered service models- How VC-backed founders with deep engineering talent will outscale traditional operators- Why custom internal IP (not public tools) will define the next 8- and 9-figure agency brandsHe also explores why most current agencies, despite using ChatGPT or automation tools, aren't anywhere near “AI-native,” and why those who ignore this shift may not survive the next wave of innovation.Whether you're at $1M ARR or already at 8 figures, this is a must-listen if you care about margins, scale, and defensibility in the AI era.Chapters:— Intro: Why YC's Latest Move Matters— Who YC Has Funded (and Why That's Relevant Now)— What “AI-Native” Really Means (and Why You're Probably Not One)— Why This Will Reshape the Entire Marketing Services Industry— How VC-Backed Agencies Will Outspend and Outbuild Everyone— What You Must Build If You Want to Compete in 2026–2028— The New Playbook: Custom IP, Internal Tools, and Service-as-Software— Closing: What You Need to Do Right Now to Avoid Getting Left BehindTo learn more go to 8figureagency.co

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies. In episode #5 of season 6, Anna Nadeina talks with Iliya Valchanov, founder of Juma, an AI workspace platform built for marketing teams to collaborate and create on-brand content.----------- Episode's Chapters -----------0:00 — Introduction & Background2:44 — The OpenAI Letter & Rebrand Trigger5:35 — The Power of Product Communities8:03 — Finding Product-Market Fit at $1M ARR9:22 — Choosing the Name: Just Marketing10:14 — The Vision: AI Marketing Super Agent13:46 — Data Analysis: The Killer Use Case27:19 — Impact on Growth & SEO32:02 — AI in Operations: Where to Draw the Line39:20 — Wins, Failures & Team Changes42:00 — Growth Hack: Analyzing Customer CallsIliya - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iliya-valchanov/ Juma - https://juma.ai/ Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-groupStay up to date:Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_groupLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

Everyone says you need to post "Educational Content" to grow B2B sales. And technically, the data agrees (94% of marketers use it). But if you're reading this, you know the truth. It isn't working for you. The problem isn't the volume of content you post. It's the mechanism. Educational content "teaches"—but it doesn't necessarily "sell." The method that actually built my company to nearly $1M/year—without running real ads—is simple: Demonstration. So today, I'm going to show you how to stop "teaching" and start "showing." We are going to build a high-converting, demonstration-based content asset... without writing a single word from scratch. IN THIS EPISODE: We analyze why "How-To" posts are failing and break down the "Demonstration" logic that drives Ojoy.ai. We then use Project Shepherd to write a script using the famous "South Park Rule" (But... Therefore...) and instantly turn that script into a social carousel. Anyway, here is how we will use AI to stop educating and start demonstrating: Step 1: The "Education Trap." We look at the stats (purchase probability increased by 83.6%) but explain why this advice is outdated for 2026. If you are just teaching, you are attracting students, not buyers. Step 2: The "South Park" Framework (Project Shepherd). We take a raw idea and use the "But / Therefore" storytelling technique used by the creators of South Park to build tension. This keeps viewers watching your demo instead of scrolling past it. Step 3: The "Voice Clone" Protocol. Most AI sounds like a robot. We show how to feed the AI samples of your previous writing (or just you rambling into a mic) so the script sounds exactly like you, quirks and all. Step 4: The "Instant Asset" (Carousel Maker). We take the finalized script and use AI to automatically generate a slide-by-slide social media carousel. This turns one video idea into a multi-platform asset in about 90 seconds. If you want an audience of buyers instead of students, this video shows you the shift you need to make.

Can you land enterprise clients like Marriott and Panasonic without a massive sales team? Dima Syrotkin, founder of Panda Training, reveals his strategy for hacking enterprise sales: partnering with consulting firms who already have the trust (and the golf buddies) to close the deal for you. In this interview, Dima and Sean discuss why firing middle managers is a mistake, the reality of "AI shrinking companies," and why getting SOC2 and ISO certifications was the best $20k he ever spent. Dima also shares his personal struggle with defensiveness as a CEO and how hiring an angel investor full-time forced him to confront his own ego. Check out the company: https://pandatron.ai

Is AI coming for your job, or just the boring parts you hate? Tim Cakir, an AI consultant who scaled his agency to nearly $1M ARR in the first year, reveals why he believes "boring work" is the enemy of productivity and how AI agents can eliminate it. In this interview, Tim shares the controversial story of how he helped a company replace 50 employees with an automation tool, why he believes leaders are manufacturing AI fear, and how he built a fully automated sales CRM using Claude and Make.com. He also debates Sean on the future of "Vibe Coding" and why the future of work might just be a black terminal screen. Check out the company: https://aioperator.com

Amir (Co-Founder at Humblytics) shares how he builds an “AI-native” company by focusing less on shiny tools and more on change management: assessing AI fluency across roles, setting the right success metrics, and creating shared context so AI can reliably ship work. The big theme is convergence—engineering, product, and design are collapsing into tighter loops thanks to tools like Cursor, MCP connectors, and Figma Make. Amir demos workflows like: AI-generated context files + auto-updated documentation, scraping customer domains to infer ICPs, turning screenshots into layered Figma designs, then converting Figma to working React code in minutes, and even running an “AI co-founder” Slack bot that files Linear tickets and can hand work to agents.Timestamps0:00 Introduction0:06 Amir's stance: “no AI experts” — it's constant learning in a fast-changing field.1:59 Cursor as the unlock: not just coding, but PM/strategy/design work via MCPs.4:17 The real problem: AI adoption is mostly change management + fluency assessment.5:18 The AI fluency rubric (helper → automator → augmentor → agentic) and why it matters.8:13 Cursor analytics: measuring AI-generated code and usage across the team.9:24 “New code is ~99% AI-generated” + how they keep quality via tight review + incremental changes.10:58 Docs workflow: GitBook connected to repo → AI edits docs and pushes live fast.14:02 ICP building: export Stripe customers → scrape domains with Firecrawl → cluster personas.17:45 Hallucination in the wild: AI misclassifies a company; human correction loop matters.34:43 Wild move: they often design in code and use an AI-generated style guide to stay consistent.38:10 Best demo: screenshot → Figma Make → layered design → Figma MCP → React code in minutes.45:29 “AI co-founder” Slack bot (Pixel): turns a bug report into a Linear ticket and can hand off to agents.48:46 Amir's wish list: we “solved dev”; now we need Cursor for marketing/sales → path to $1M ARR.Tools & technologies mentionedCursor — AI-first IDE used for coding and product/design/strategy workflows; includes team analytics.MCP (Model Context Protocol) — “connector” layer (Anthropic-origin) that lets LLMs interface with external tools/services.ChatGPT — used as a common baseline tool; discussed in the context of prompting practices and workflows.Microsoft Copilot — referenced via the law firm incentive story; used as an example of “usage metrics” gone wrong.Anthropic (AI fluency framework) — inspiration source for the helper/automator/augmentor/agentic rubric.GitBook — documentation platform connected to the repo so docs can be updated and published quickly.Firecrawl (MCP) — agentic web scraper used to analyze customer domains and infer ICP/personas.Stripe — source of customer export data (domains) to build ICP clustering.Figma — design collaboration tool; used here with Make + MCP to move from design → code.Figma Make — feature to recreate UI from an image/screenshot into editable, layered designs.Figma MCP — connector that allows Cursor/LLMs to pull Figma components/designs and generate code.React — front-end framework used in the demo for generating functional UI components.Supabase — mentioned as part of a sample stack when generating a PRD.React Router — mentioned as part of the sample stack in PRD generation.Slack — where Amir runs internal agents (including the “AI co-founder” bot).Linear — project management tool used for creating tickets from Slack/agent workflows.CI/CD — their deployment/review pipeline; emphasized as the human accountability layer.Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

In less than 12 months, Shahar went from an idea to a $30M Series A and a team of 40. He didn't sell another AI tool—he built an AI-first service that replaced expensive human consultants in the massive pen-testing market.In this episode, Shahar breaks down the "Service-as-Software" playbook that allowed him to hit $1M ARR in just three months. He reveals how to convert design partners into paying customers before the product is finished, why he refuses to sell to service providers, and how to achieve a 40% SQL-to-Close rate in the enterprise.Why You Should ListenHow to hit $1M ARR in a single quarter with zero marketing spend.Why asking "Would you use this?" is useless and the one question that actually validates demand.Why "Service-as-Software" is the single best business model for AI startupsHow to maintain a 100% win rate against competitors in live bake-offs.The ultimate litmus test for knowing if you have true Product-Market Fit.Keywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, agentic AI, cybersecurity startup, B2B sales strategy, service as software, rapid scaling, Felicis00:00:00 Intro00:04:06 Why Manual Pen Testing is Broken00:15:42 Ideation and The Wallet Test00:22:38 How to Convert Design Partners to Paid00:28:05 40 Percent SQL to Close Rate00:33:14 The Service as Software Business Model00:46:06 Hitting 1M ARR in One Quarter00:48:50 Raising a 30M Series A from Felicis00:50:01 The Turn It Off PMF TestSend me a message to let me know what you think!

ProductLed 100 - The Solo-Founder Playbook: How to Run a $1M ARR SaaS with 1 person Most founders believe scaling requires a massive headcount, co-founders, and VC funding. They think success is measured by the size of the team, not the efficiency of the revenue. In this episode of the ProductLed 100 series, Wes Bush sits down with Vincent Jong (Founder of Poolside Ventures) and Esben Friis-Jensen (Co-Founder of Userflow) to discuss the emerging era of the "One-Person Company" - businesses designed to generate millions in revenue with just a single operator. Vincent reveals his strategy for building a portfolio of lean, highly profitable SaaS companies like MeetBot. Together with Esben, they break down how AI tools like Lovable and Cursor have removed the technical barrier to entry, why "speed" is the new competitive moat against incumbents like Calendly, and the exact skill sets required to thrive as a solo builder. Whether you are a developer looking to launch your own venture or a founder trying to maximize efficiency, this episode offers a blueprint for building high-revenue, low-headcount businesses that are built to last forever. Key Highlights: 01:36: Why Vincent stopped looking for co-founders and started building alone03:09: The AI Tech Stack: How tools like Lovable and Cursor replace engineering teams06:07: Why building the product is the easy part (and selling is the hard part)13:17: Disrupting a Red Ocean: Why MeetBot entered the crowded scheduling market16:53: The Economics of Infinite Runway: Operating a SaaS for a few hundred dollars a month20:31: Speed vs. Scale: How one-person teams outmaneuver incumbents27:21: The "Launch Early" myth vs. the new bar for MVP quality37:44: Vincent's advice: Don't quit your job. Build on weekends Resources:

In this episode, we sit down with Carl Mattsson, VP & GM EMEA at Kong, to discuss one of the most remarkable scaling journeys in the industry. Carl joined Kong when it was at just $1M ARR in the EMEA market and has since spearheaded its growth to nearly $100M ARR. We explore the unique sales principles that shaped the organization, the "heart surrounded by science" culture, and how Carl navigated the transition from a single-product company to a dominant AI-governance platform. Carl also shares the incredible story of a founder's personal commitment that kept him at the company during a critical turning point.

"I checked the cash balance and the number came out negative. I had to call my wife and say we might need to liquidate our entire 401k to make payroll."In today's episode of Bricks and Bytes, we had Thiago Da Costa from DataGrid and Clifton Harness from TestFit and we got to learn about the raw truth of building construction tech startups - from pivoting at $1M ARR to nearly missing payroll.These founders didn't hold back. They shared the moments that almost broke them and the decisions that saved their companies.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why Thiago pivoted his entire company after raising a Series A (and how he told his board)✅ The morning Clifton woke up and realized he couldn't make payroll✅ Why most construction tech companies plateau at $3-5M ARR and never break through✅ How to know when you've actually found product-market fit versus when you're chasing a ghostWatch now to hear the full conversation about what it really takes to build in construction tech.Our SponsorAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk -  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comBuildVision -   streamlining the construction supply chain with a unified platform - www.buildvision.ioChapters00:00 Introduction to Startup Journeys 05:47 Navigating the Pre-Seed Stage 12:47 The Importance of Pre-Sales and Pivoting 17:39 Understanding Product Market Fit 23:22 Defining Product Market Fit in Construction Tech 31:14 Facing Startup Challenges and Scary Moments 33:25 Navigating Financial Challenges 37:07 The Importance of Family in Business 39:00 Facing Fear of Failure and Pivots 40:32 Balancing Hype and Substance in Business 48:47 Endurance in Entrepreneurship 54:53 Optimizing for People in Startups

Ashwin built a $1.5B company in two years. He didn't do it with a massive team or a complex 5-year roadmap. He did it by ignoring "strategy" and talking to 100+ buyers until he found a problem so painful they would pay six figures for a solution that didn't fully exist yet.In this episode, Ashwin breaks down the exact playbook Decagon used to go from zero to unicorn. He reveals why he refused to hire anyone until $1M ARR, how to differentiate in a crowded AI market, and why your customers are the only roadmap you'll ever need.Why You Should ListenHow to hit $1M ARR in 6 months with just two founders and zero employees.The "Willingness to Pay" test: How to know if a customer will sign a $150k check.Why "over-thinking" your strategy is the fastest way to kill your startup.How to close massive enterprise deals before you have a full product.Why going vertical is often the wrong move for AI startups.Keywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, B2B sales, enterprise sales, AI startup, customer discovery, pricing strategy, early stage growth00:00:00 Intro00:02:56 Selling His First AI Startup to Scale00:09:11 Why Founders Over Intellectualize Strategy00:13:48 How to Get 100 Customer Interviews00:15:10 The 150k Willingness to Pay Test00:21:05 Hitting 1M ARR with Zero Employees00:25:09 Ignoring Scalability to Win Early Customers00:31:43 Defensibility in the Gen AI Era00:39:42 Mocking APIs to Close Enterprise Deals00:42:58 The Moment of True Product Market FitSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Siqi was the CEO of a hot startup doing $20M a year. Then COVID hit. Overnight, revenue went to zero. He had to lay off 95% of his staff. In the chaos of trying to save the company using broken spreadsheets, he found his next big idea: Runway.But the path wasn't a straight line. Siqi spent four years building the product before fully launching. In this episode, he breaks down why product taste matters more than A/B testing, and the insane viral launch strategy that overwhelmed his sales team and generated $1M ARR in a single month.Why You Should ListenHow a viral marketing campaign added $1M ARR in just 30 days.Why "user love" is a trap.Why it took 4 years of building in the dark to create the "Figma for Finance."How to mentally survive losing 95% of your revenue and staff overnight.Why startups are a test of stamina, not intelligence.Keywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, viral marketing, fintech, financial modeling, finding pmf, startup growth, founder stories, Siqi Chen00:00:00 Intro00:04:09 The COVID Crash: From $20M to $0 ARR00:20:36 The V1 Trap: Great UI, Zero Willingness to Pay00:36:25 The 4 Year Build: Comparing to Figma and Notion00:46:53 The Viral Time Locked Jacket Launch00:53:04 Adding 1M ARR in 30 Days00:53:45 The PMF MomentSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Robin Eissler is the founder and CEO of BoosterHub, a vertical SaaS platform built for high school booster clubs. After selling her prior business as a private jet broker, Robin volunteered to run a local booster club and discovered a messy problem run with spreadsheets, emails, and manual accounting. She decided to build a single system that could actually handle it. BoosterHub now serves nearly 600 booster programs, representing over 100,000 users. With just two full-time employees and a small dev team, the company processes more than $40M in transactions across payments, fundraising, merchandise sales, and accounting. Annual contract value typically runs $1,500–$2,000 per customer, with strong retention and expanding usage. Still independently-owned and bootstrapped, BoosterHub is approaching $1M ARR and profitability. Robin shares lessons on building complex software with a tiny team, selling to volunteer buyers, surviving seasonal revenue swings, and why slow, compounding growth can create durable SaaS businesses without venture capital. Key Takeaways Tiny Teams Work - Two employees plus contractors can build serious SaaS with focus, systems, and modern tooling. Sticky Beats Big - Hundreds of small customers compound more reliably than a handful of enterprise deals. Seasonality Is Real Education-adjacent - SaaS must survive cash spikes and winter slowdowns without panic. Founder-Led Marketing - Consistent content from the founder still drives inbound growth in niche markets. All-In-One Wins in Verticals - Being the system of record makes churn low and customer value expand naturally over time. Quote from Robin Eissler, Founder and CEO of BoosterHub "The numbers are much better than what we projected. so we're starting to see that compounding effect is really what's happening is there's just enough users and enough people in the system that they're using more of the add-on products and we're processing more volume.  "So it's starting to have that compounding effect. And so I really just admitted to myself this month, like, I think we're seeing it.  "I think we're finally seeing it. I feel like, OK, maybe for me, it's almost that I can exhale. I've been holding my breath for four years, so maybe I can breathe." Links Robin Eissler on LinkedIn BoosterHub on LinkedIn BoosterHub website Podcast Sponsor – Full Scale This podcast is sponsored by Full Scale, one of the fastest-growing software development companies in any region. Full Scale vets, employs, and supports over 300 professional developers, designers, and testers in the Philippines who can augment and extend your core dev team. Learn more at fullscale.io. The Practical Founders Podcast Tune into the Practical Founders Podcast for weekly in-depth interviews with founders who have built valuable software companies without big funding. Subscribe to the Practical Founders Podcast using your favorite podcast app or view on our YouTube channel. Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com. Practical Founders CEO Peer Groups Be part of a committed and confidential group of practical founders creating valuable software companies without big VC funding.  A Practical Founders Peer Group is a committed and confidential group of founders/CEOs who want to help you succeed on your terms. Each Practical Founders Peer Group is personally curated and moderated by Greg Head.

Six years after his first appearance on Founder Views, Luca is back with the real story of how AI forced a full business model and go-to-market shift.Customerly went from a seat-based, product-led support platform for small SaaS teams to an AI-first customer service engine selling into mid-market and enterprise, where volume and ROI are obvious.In this episode we get into:The AI pivot: why they refused to build “old-school chatbots,” and how ChatGPT changed what was possibleQuality metrics that matter: error rate, confidence thresholds, escalation triggers, and why AI CSAT can be higher than humansWhat actually trains a good AI agent: knowledge base structure, what not to upload, and how hallucinations happen in the real worldAutomation outcomes: average ticket closure rates, what drives 80%+ vs 40–50%, and how teams improve over timeEnterprise GTM shift: moving from product-led to sales-led, filtering signups, longer cycles, bigger ACVOutbound reality: why the agency failed, what changed when they built outbound internally, and the tooling stack (Clay, Apollo, Lemlist, Pipedrive)Founder sales lessons: Challenger Sale thinking and why founders still need to own sales earlyThe Arena The Arena is a private Skool community for SaaS founders who are actively building and selling. I share real-time decisions, experiments, and assets as I use them while growing a bootstrapped SaaS.No theory. No polish. Just execution.Learn more at: https://www.skool.com/the-arena/Chapters / Timestamps00:00 – Reunion after 6 years and what changed (COVID + AI era)01:27 – Luca intro: what Customersly does today02:30 – From $100K ARR to near $1M and why pricing changed05:08 – “Chatbots are shit”: how they built AI without the bad UX07:10 – Under 1% error rate and reducing hallucinations09:52 – Grounded AI, intents, and automating beyond FAQs11:09 – Closure rate benchmarks and what “good” looks like16:41 – How to pick an AI support tool that actually works18:20 – Training mistakes: transcripts, clutter, and marketing banners causing hallucinations20:46 – Confidence thresholds and escalation as a feedback loop22:48 – How long it takes to move from 45% to 70–80% automation24:34 – Should AI learn from your inbox? Pros, risks, and why they avoid it29:41 – Implementation timelines: small teams vs enterprise rollouts31:38 – Why AI CSAT can beat humans (speed wins)35:46 – Escalation rules: human request, sentiment, low confidence, missing info37:21 – Going enterprise: ARPU jump and sales-led reality41:02 – Outbound experiment: agency failure and building it internally43:32 – LinkedIn ads + Clay targeting + the masterclass lead magnet49:25 – Challenger Sale and shifting the conversation53:20 – Founder lesson: why you can't outsource what you haven't done58:54 – Outbound stack: Clay, Apollo, Lemlist, Sales Nav, Pipedrive01:05:12 – 2026 vision and wrap

They were building a Segment competitor. It was working—customers were paying. But every sales call, prospects kept asking about the backend tech instead of the product. So they killed the roadmap and pivoted. It took them 18 months to hit $1M ARR. Then they started growing. And so far, they've raised $350M. Viraj walks through exactly how he validated the pivot, landed the first 10 customers, and why being outside Silicon Valley forced him to show more traction than everyone else.Why You Should ListenHow to know when your side feature is actually your real productThe exact question to ask prospects to validate willingness to payWhy getting to $1M ARR slowly can set you up to scale fasterHow to compete when you're not based in Silicon ValleyWhat talking to your first customer 4x a day for 2 months teaches youKeywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, open source startup, B2B SaaS growth, pivot strategy, developer tools startup, finding product market fit, early stage fundraising, design partners, commercial open source00:00:00 Intro00:01:46 Getting caught at the Coldplay concert00:14:29 Deciding to Pivot From a Working Product to Something New00:17:27 Building a Business Around Open Source Technology00:19:38 Selling Before You Build00:27:37 Talking to the First Customer Four Times a Day00:30:51 Landing the First Ten Customers00:35:10 Fundraising Without Silicon Valley Pedigree00:38:48 When He Knew He Had Product Market FitRetrySend me a message to let me know what you think!

In this hands-on labs episode of This Week in NoCode + AI, JJ sits down with David, CEO and solo founder of Formula Bot, for a practical, live walkthrough of how AI is changing the way teams analyze data.If you want to learn by doing, this episode is for you. JJ and David dive directly into the Formula Bot platform, connect real data sources, and show how AI can act as a true data analyst — answering questions, generating reports, and uncovering insights without complex dashboards or manual spreadsheet work.You'll see how Formula Bot evolved from a simple Excel formula generator into a full AI-powered data analysis platform that integrates with tools like Google Analytics, data warehouses, and more. David walks through key features including data connectors, automated reporting, web scraping, and enrichment — all designed to help teams move faster from raw data to decisions.David also shares his journey bootstrapping Formula Bot to over $1M in revenue as a solo founder, what he learned along the way, and how he thinks about AI competing with (and complementing) tools like ChatGPT.Whether you're in finance, accounting, marketing, or running a small business, this episode shows exactly how AI can simplify data analysis and unlock insights you may be missing today.Links & Resources

Amit walked away from being President of 1-800-Flowers after scaling it from $500M to $2B because he saw smart people trapped in dumb systems. His insight: half of global GDP is 90% manual work—salespeople entering data instead of selling, technicians reading manuals instead of fixing. He started Instalily in Spring 2023 when everyone said AI agents were impossible. Instead of replacing workers, he built AI that finds signals in noise—telling each salesperson exactly which deal to focus on right now. The results are insane: $1M ARR within months, tripling revenue year two, delivering $150M+ value to single customers. His secret? While competitors pitched flashy demos, Amit's team attended 100+ trade shows to understand actual operator pain. They hired fresh AI grads who "shipped fearlessly" instead of senior talent stuck in old paradigms.Why You Should Listen:How "operator market fit" beats product market fit for enterprise salesThe GTM playbook that hit $1M ARR in months by attending 100+ trade showsWhy hiring AI-native grads crushed hiring senior talent for AI productsHow focusing on time-to-value unlocked enterprise dealsThe counterintuitive approach: augment the best parts of jobs, not the worstKeywords:startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, Instalily, Amit Shah, AI agents, enterprise sales, operator market fit, B2B SaaS, AI automation, vertical SaaS00:00:00 Intro00:04:42 Leaving 1-800-Flowers00:09:55 Starting when everyone said AI agents were impossible00:11:51 The vision—amplify the best parts of work, not replace the worst00:16:59 Operator market fit over product market fit00:20:48 Landing first $2B enterprise customers 00:29:00 The 100+ trade show GTM strategy that actually worked00:33:02 Why they hired AI-native grads instead of senior talent00:34:51 Hitting $1M ARR in monthsRetrySend me a message to let me know what you think!

For episode 630 of the BlockHash Podcast, host Brandon Zemp is joined by Ramees PS, Founder & CEO of PlayAI.Ramees PS is a multi-talented entrepreneur whose background spans product management, marketing, leadership, and design, combining creativity with strong execution.  Before founding PlayAI, he co-founded Dehidden, a venture-backed product studio generating $1M+ ARR and delivering projects for Sony, Mercedes-Benz, Adidas, Prada, and Flipkart. He also co-founded Pebble DLT, a payments protocol startup, and held product leadership roles at Airblack and Cope.Studio, where he served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence driving growth, design, and engineering initiatives. A graduate of NIT Calicut in Electronics & Communication Engineering, Ramees now leads a global team of early builders from Polygon, Microsoft, and Play Ember at PlayAI, developing the next frontier of AI-driven gaming and social coordination. ⏳ Timestamps: (0:00) Introduction(1:27) Token launch(2:30) Who is Ramees PS?(7:44) What is PlayAI?(11:31) Benefits of Web3 workflows(15:30) PlayHub(17:03) Use-cases(21:13) Future integrations with PlayAI workflows(26:42) PlayAI roadmap for 2026(29:03) PlayAI website & socials 

Jordan Shlosberg: Why agency recruiters will win (and internal TA won't)Jordan Shlosberg runs Atlas CRM—the fastest-growing, AI-native recruitment platform in the world.Thousands of recruiters use his technology every day. Real-time data. Real billings. Real problems being solved.If anyone knows what's actually working with AI in recruitment, it's him."Internal talent teams have a lot to worry about. Agency recruiters? There's a renaissance coming."Here's why:Agency recruiters have years of candidate conversations. Reference calls. Market knowledge built through relationships. The ability to cut through 1,500 AI-generated applications with actual insight.Internal TA has a resume. Sometimes a screening call. That's it.But here's the problem: agency recruitment only represents 7-8% of all hires in Europe.We could grow our share massively. Or we could shrink into irrelevance.The difference? How quickly we become AI-literate.This week on The RAG Podcast, Jordan and I go deep on what's actually happening in recruitment AI.We cover:Why Atlas crossed $1M ARR in 10 months while the market contractedHow clients are growing from 4 to 15 seats in under a yearThe fatal flaw in "agentic job boards" like Jack & JillWhy sourcing platforms only show you 50% of LinkedIn's dataThe partnership we're launching to make recruiters top 5% AI usersThis isn't another "AI is coming for your job" panic post.This is strategic intelligence from someone watching what actually works across thousands of recruiters every day.__________________________________________Episode Sponsor: AtlasAdmin is a massive waste of time. That's why there's Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies.It doesn't only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it's entering a whole new era.With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords.Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow.Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that's not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in monthly billings after adopting the platform.No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus on what actually drives revenue.Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting.Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/__________________________________________Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn.Spending thousands on Recruiter licences.Building connections. Posting content. Growing networks.But here's the question almost no one can answer:How much revenue is LinkedIn actually bringing into your business?Most founders have thousands of connections but no clear process to turn that attention into cash.That's the problem we solve.At Hoxo, we help recruitment founders build predictable revenue systems on LinkedIn, not just noise or vanity metrics.Our clients are turning LinkedIn into £100K–£300K in new billings within months, using their existing...

We've all been told the same story: build a great product, and success will follow. But history tells a different tale. The truth is, most great products never make it—not because they weren't good enough, but because they never found their way to the people who needed them.In this talk at App Growth Summit, Steve shared why distribution is the real engine of growth—and how focusing on your channels first can unlock exponential scale. From household brands to breakthrough startups, the winners didn't simply build better; they built more innovative paths to market.This is a talk about flipping the script: why the fastest way to grow isn't adding more features, but finding the right shortcut to scale.You'll learn:✅ How one app went from $0 → $90,000 ARR — completely free using lifetime deals + smart ASO✅ The “brandjacking” keyword hack that indie devs use to rank #1 without big budgets✅ How a no-code founder used paid tests + AI tools to hit $1M ARR with no app✅ Why “content-first” launches are dominating 2025 — and how one viral TikTok created a brand-new app categoryIf you're serious about app growth — this talk is your 2025 playbook.Something exciting is brewing at AppsFlyer - their first Fall Release is almost here!We'd love to tell you more... but you'll have to register for the November 18 online event to find out what's shaping the future of marketing.

In this episode, I reveal the real secret to finding your first customers and how we scaled to $1M ARR in less than 11 months. Get actionable steps for startup growth, customer acquisition, and building a loyal audience. 00:00 - Intro & Why Finding Customers Is Hard 01:10 - The Customer Adoption Lifecycle 05:30 - Focusing on Early Adopters 09:21 - Squarespace Sponsor 10:30 - Steps to Find Your First Customers 18:00 - The Power of Social Media & Viral Growth 23:00 - Cold Outreach & Referral Programs 29:00 - Lessons Learned & Final Thoughts Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share if you found this helpful! Get 10% off your first Squarespace order by using code NATALIEBARBU or go to htps://squarespace.com/nataliebarbu and sign up for my newsletter: https://www.thegrowthlist.beehiiv.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Achieving your financial goals in the world of commercial open-source requires careful planning and strong commitment. Ben Rometsch is joined by Matt Althauser and Alex Boswell, founding partners of Polychrome, who share their journey from hitting their first $10k annual recurring revenue to reaching their first $1M ARR. Matt and Alex talks about the role of a dedicated community support in shaping their financial strategies and the importance of setting clarity on their target customers' needs. They also reveal their secrets in building a well-rounded team and navigating the ever-changing licenses for open-source projects.

Zach Lloyd is the Founder and CEO of Warp, the next-generation developer terminal reinventing how engineers build and collaborate. Warp has raised over $70M from top-tier investors including Sequoia Capital, GV, Dylan Field, and Elad Gil. Before founding Warp, Zach was Principal Engineer at Google, where he led development of Google Docs, and later served as CTO at Time. He's one of the most respected engineering minds redefining the future of developer tools. AGENDA:  04:14 Biggest Product Lessons from Rewriting Google Sheets 07:10 Why I Would Short Google: Leadership and AI Strategy 09:55 Comparing AI Models: GPT, Claude, and Gemini: Who Wins and Loses 17:04 Do Margins Matter in AI? 24:57 Adding $1M in ARR Every Week: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead? 33:58 How to Build Defensibility in a World of AI? 43:05 OpenAI vs Anthropic: Who Wins and Why? 44:25 Biggest Fundraising Lessons Raising from Sequoia, Elad Gil and GV 50:56 Why Sequoia are the Best VC 53:51 What Every Founder Gets Wrong in Fundraising 01:01:30 Quick Fire Questions and Final Thoughts  

Zach spent 8 years at Google leading engineering for Google Docs, then left to build a photo sharing app with zero go-to-market plan. Reality hit hard: "At Google, anything you launch gets millions of users. At a startup, the challenge isn't building—it's getting anyone to care." After writing a brutal postmortem documenting everything that went wrong, he started Warp with strict principles: only hire product-obsessed people, document every process, build pure software not services. For three years, Warp had hundreds of thousands of free users but no revenue. Then they pivoted to AI-powered development in 2024. Here's how they went from taking 300 days to hit their $1M to now adding $1M ARR every 10 days. Why You Should Listen:Why working at Google can set you up to fail as a founderHow to know when to quit your own startupWhy you should write down every operating principle before startingThe shift he made to grow insanely fastWhy competing directly with fast-growing startups is actually smartKeywords:startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, Warp, Zach Lloyd, Google alumni, developer tools, AI coding, product-market fit, startup pivot, Series B00:00:00 Intro00:01:48 From law school to Google via Craigslist00:05:01 Why Google makes you a terrible startup founder00:10:36 Joining SelfMade as technical co-founder00:19:00 Writing a brutal post-mortem of the startup experience00:27:15 Building Warp and getting 10,000 signups day one00:38:08 Raising $50M Series B with zero revenue00:41:50 Pivoting to Agent Mode and AI development00:46:27 From 300 days to $1M to adding $1M every 10 daysRetrySend me a message to let me know what you think!

Shensi cold messaged 50,000 engineers to build Merge. She worked 9am-9pm every day, gave her first customers two months free to prove herself, and refused to hire anyone remote—even during peak COVID. She purposefully didn't collect a single dollar of revenue until she knew she could hit $1M in a months. "Startups are all about momentum." She lost their biggest deal to a competitor who copied them, then won that customer back years later. She outbounded her way from zero to $10M through sheer force of will, doing demos all day until her calendar was completely booked. Today Merge has raised $75M and powers integrations for hundreds of B2B companies. This is raw, unfiltered founder advice from someone who believes you just have to "man up" and outbound your way to success.Why You Should Listen:Why you should wait to collect revenue until you see a clear path to $1M ARR. Why you need to outbound thousands of people to build your team.You can will your way to $10M—but you'll need something else to hit $100M.Why they are an in-office company, even for remote rockstar devs.Keywords:Startup podcast, Startup podcast for founders, Merge, Shensi Ding, integrations, B2B SaaS, outbound sales, seed funding, product-market fit, API, developer tools, startup growth00:00:00 Intro00:02:55 From coding in middle school to investment banking00:06:45 How she found the problem00:09:09 100 customer conversations00:13:51 Quitting during COVID00:16:16 Raising $4.5M seed in 3 weeks00:21:01 Outbounding 50,000 engineers00:25:32 Landing first customers through cold LinkedIn00:31:37 Not collecting revenue on purpose00:37:47 When product-market fit actually hitSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Eldon put a $150K line of credit on his house to start eSentire in 2001. No VCs would touch him—they didn't understand services businesses. He worked 12-hour days, 7 days a week for 7 years to hit $1M in revenue. His co-founder coded while he flew to New York on $99 JetBlue flights from Buffalo to save money. Then something clicked: they brought in an experienced CEO who transformed their scrappy cybersecurity consulting into a managed service. Revenue grew from $1M to $10M in just 3 years. They won 95% of competitive deals against Dell-backed SecureWorks by comparing themselves to a local burger joint versus McDonald's. Today eSentire is worth over a billion dollars. This is the raw, unfiltered story of building a massive B2B company without following any of the Silicon Valley playbook—no YC, no venture capital for years, just pure survival mode.Why You Should Listen:How to win head-to-head sales battles against bigger competitors with no marketing budget.Why taking a long time to hit $1M ARR doesn't mean failure.How bringing in an experienced CEO after 8 years saved the company.Keywords (comma-separated):Startup podcast, Startup podcast for founders, eSentire, Eldon Sprickerhoff, cybersecurity, bootstrapping, managed services, B2B sales, Canadian startup, MSSP, founder-led sales, pivot00:00:00 Intro00:01:00 Starting eSentire after 9/1100:03:26 The dot-com crash reality00:05:23 $150K home equity line to start00:08:32 Landing first customer at ING00:14:03 Making up the rules as they went00:19:09 Bringing in an experienced CEO00:22:44 The hamburger pitch that beat Dell00:28:36 From $1M to $10M in 3 years00:34:39 Common founder mistakes00:40:39 Chief survival officer mindsetSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Jon spent 3 years building Gamma with barely any traction—just a few hundred users after burning millions. Then ChatGPT dropped. In desperation, he pivoted to AI-powered presentations in March 2023 with one year of runway left. What happened next was insane: Paul Graham publicly mocked their launch tweet calling it worthless—then it went viral. They went from 2,000 signups a day to 60,000. Their servers crashed for three days, but when they came back online, panicked users threw $50K at them thinking they needed to pay to make it work. Within two months of launching payments, they hit $1M ARR and became cashflow positive. This is the raw story of how a dying startup caught the AI lightning and never looked back.Why You Should Listen:How to survive 3 years with no traction.Why 80% hype and 20% value can still build a real business The exact onboarding flow that turned 5% activation into viral growthHow negative viral engagement can still drive massive revenueThe difference between 10x better and 50% betterKeywords:Gamma, Jon Noronha, AI presentations, product market fit, pivot to AI, viral growth, Paul Graham, ChatGPT, cashflow positive, productivity startup00:00:00 Intro00:02:15 Why presentations haven't changed in 40 years00:11:55 User research reveals the real problem00:26:26 The market crashes and runway shrinks00:34:32 ChatGPT drops and everything changes00:43:19 Paul Graham trashes the launch tweet00:48:59 Going viral by accident00:51:33 60,000 signups a day breaks everything00:55:07 Hitting $1M ARR in 2 months00:58:47 Endurance is everythingSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Soham co-founded Rubrik by taking what he learned from building Google's data center tech to enterprises desperate for cloud migration. Two quarters later, he hit $1M ARR. And a few years later, a $16B IPO. Soham breaks down why paid pilots beat free trials, how to sell enterprise hardware before it works, and why early customers become your biggest champions when you solve real pain. Now building WisdomAI after watching the ChatGPT moment unfold, he shares what's different about competing in AI's gold rush versus owning an ignored category.Why You Should Listen:Why early customers  endure broken productsHow he hit $1M ARR in 2 quarters selling enterprise hardwareWhy you should always charge for pilotsCustomer feedback is the only PMF signal that mattersKeywords:Rubrik, Soham Mazumdar, enterprise sales, data backup, IPO, product market fit, B2B SaaS, cloud migration, WisdomAI, data centers00:00:00 Intro00:04:26 Leaving Google to start a company00:11:00 Building the founding team00:14:27 Landing the first customer in Australia00:22:30 Hitting $1M ARR in two quarters00:25:42 Go-to-market strategy and the DeLorean stunt00:30:30 When Arvind left to start Glean00:34:10 Starting WisdomAI after the ChatGPT moment00:51:22 Advice for early stage foundersRetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Is founder-led growth helping or holding you back?Early wins often come straight from the founder's voice. Nobody knows the problem better, or tells the story with more passion. That credibility is what gets the first customers to sign, keeps them close, and often carries a young company through its earliest deals. But founder-led growth has limits. Time runs out. Markets expand. What worked at $1M ARR may stall out at $15M.In Episode 89 of B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks, host Brian Graf and Kalungi founder Stijn Hendrikse unpack both sides of founder-led growth: why it's such a powerful accelerator in the beginning, and why it can quietly become a ceiling if companies don't evolve.You'll hear how to recognize the signs that your business is over-reliant on the founder, and what founders, teams, and investors can do to keep growth compounding even as the company matures.Critical topics in this episodeWhy founder-led growth works: The credibility, subject matter expertise, and customer intimacy that early adopters can't resist.Where it breaks: The hidden ceiling that appears when everything still flows through the founder.Transition challenges: Letting go of sales, messaging, and culture without losing the magic.Investor view: How search funds and acquirers spot businesses that need to move past the founder model.The Kalungi story: What happened when Stijn stepped away, and how Brian navigated the shift to a broader team-led approach.Amplifying the founder's voice: Ways to scale thought leadership without burning out the founder.By the end, you'll see founder-led growth for what it is: a launchpad, not a permanent operating model. And you'll walk away with sharper instincts for when to double down on the founder's voice—and when it's time to build beyond it. B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks is one of the most respected voices in the SaaS industry. It is hosted by two leading marketing and revenue growth experts for software:Stijn Hendrikse: Author of T2D3 CMO Masterclass & Book, Founder of KalungiBrian Graf: CEO of KalungiB2B SaaS companies move through predictable stages of marketing focus, cost and size (as described in the popular T2D3 book). The best founders, CFOs and COOs in B2B SaaS rely on a balance of marketing leadership, strategy and execution to produce the customer and revenue growth they require. Staying flexible and nimble is a key marketing asset in a hard-charging B2B world.Resources shared in this episode:BSMS 77 - Leveling up your go to marketThe 4 SaaS Marketing Leadership Maturity Stages ExplainedLooking for a Startup Marketing Agency? Here's What Every B2B SaaS Founder Needs to Know T2D3 CMO MasterclassSubmit and vote on our podcast topicsABOUT B2B SAAS MARKETING SNACKSSince 2020, The B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks Podcast has offered software company founders, investors and leadership a fresh source of insights into building a complete and efficient engine for growth.Meet our Marketing Snacks Podcast Hosts: Stijn Hendrikse: Author of T2D3 Masterclass & Book, Founder of KalungiAs a serial entrepreneur and marketing leader, Stijn has contributed to the success of 20+ startups as a C-level executive, including Chief Revenue Officer of Acumatica, CEO of MightyCall, a SaaS contact center solution, and leading the initial global Go-to-Market for Atera, a B2B SaaS Unicorn. Before focusing on startups, Stijn led global SMB Marketing and B2B Product Marketing for Microsoft's Office platform.Brian Graf: CEO of KalungiAs CEO of Kalungi, Brian provides high-level strategy, tactical execution, and business leadership expertise to drive long-term growth for B2B SaaS. Brian has successfully led clients in all aspects of marketing growth, from positioning and messaging to event support, product announcements, and channel-spend optimizations, generating qualified leads and brand awareness for clients while prioritizing ROI. Before Kalungi, Brian worked in television advertising, specializing in business intelligence and campaign optimization, and earned his MBA at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business with a focus in finance and marketing.Visit Kalungi.com to learn more about growing your B2B SaaS company.

What SaaS metrics and financial metrics really matter when you're scaling toward your first $1 million in ARR? In episode #305, Ben Murray breaks down the essential numbers to track using his Five Pillar SaaS Metrics Framework. From building a strong accounting foundation to tracking investor metrics like retention, bookings, and gross profit, this episode gives you the tools to set your business model up for scale and eventual company valuation growth. Whether you're a founder, CFO, or finance lead, you'll learn how to implement the right KPIs before you cross the $1M mark, so you can confidently present metrics to your team and/or investors and operate with clarity. What You'll Learn: SaaSfy Your Accounting Foundation Why your accounting system (QBO, Xero, etc.) needs a SaaS-specific structure. How a clean P&L improves your ability to track revenue, margins, and KPI's. Track Bookings Data Early Why executed contracts (new ARR, expansion ARR, and contraction) are one of the most important SaaS numbers. How bookings feed your go-to-market efficiency calculations and help measure sales ROI. Retention Is Key Gross revenue retention, net revenue retention, renewal rates, and logo retention — and when each matters most. How retention signals product-market fit and impacts valuation. Other Metrics to Watch Gross profit, EBITDA, cash flow forecasting, and cash runway. How do these connect to financial strategy and your long-term investor metrics? Why These Metrics Matter Before $1M ARR: Creates a financial systems foundation for scale. Equips you to benchmark your performance against peers. Builds a data story for fundraising and valuation discussions. Avoids costly gaps in financial modeling once growth accelerates. Resources Mentioned"

In this episode of Tank Talks, we're joined by Gaurav Jain, co-founder of Afore Capital, one of the earliest and most respected players in the pre-seed investing space. Gaurav shares how growing up in a small town in India, moving to Canada, and working at Blackberry, Amazon, and Google helped him understand the value of momentum, iteration, and building products that truly matter.He walks us through how a random dinner at Harvard led to meeting his future co-founder, how they built Afore around the belief that the best founders are often overlooked too early, and why the firm exclusively focuses on investing before there's a product or sometimes even an idea.Gaurav dives into what makes a great founder at the earliest stage, why he believes momentum is the only moat, and how the rise of AI has only accelerated opportunities for young, technical entrepreneurs to build enduring companies with less capital. He also opens up about the firm's "Founder-in-Residence" and "UTransfer" programs, his view on the Canadian tech scene, and the power of bespoke, high-conviction investing.We explore:* Why is momentum the only true moat in early-stage startups?* Can pre-seed investing still deliver alpha now that it's crowded?* Is seed-strapping the future of venture capital?* How do you identify founders before they've found their idea?* What happens when you give 19-year-olds the capital to build?Building a Pre-Seed Fund Before “Pre-Seed” Was a Thing (00:03:54)* Interning globally to chase experience and perspective* The turning point: joining Founder Collective* Meeting co-founder Anamitra through a lucky dinner at Foundation Capital* Launching Afore in 2016 to fill the pre-seed voidFounder Empathy & Early-Stage VC Lessons (00:08:17)* Mistakes from being a first-time founder* Learning that exits don't matter, products and pain points do* Why Canadian angel advice focused too much on sales, not software* Why product-led growth is a must-have, not a nice-to-haveThe 10,000 Coffees Rule of Venture (00:11:27)* How judgment is built: time, exposure, and repetition* Why investing based on ideas (not teams) is a rookie mistake* Filtering “this could work” vs. “this must work”* The real constraint in VC: time, not capitalAfore's Mission: Investing Before the Idea (00:15:00)* The “Too Early” problem founders face and why Afore exists* How FIR (Founder in Residence) and Transfer University fund ideation* Building a support system, not a portfolio of call options* Why being idea-stage isn't a red flag, it's a sign of ambitionConvincing LPs That Pre-Seed Was Real (00:19:19)* LP skepticism: “Isn't this just the bad deals no one else wants?”* How talking to founders not seed managers won over investors* Working with PitchBook and Crunchbase to split out pre-seed data* Making pre-seed visible helped founders self-identify and alignSeed-Strapping and the Rise of Efficient Startups (00:24:00)* How AI-native startups are hitting $1M ARR 2x faster* Case study: Gamma's hypergrowth on ultra-low burn* Why founders can delay growth rounds longer than ever* Capital efficiency is now a competitive edgeMomentum Is the Only Moat (00:26:07)* How Android's rise taught Gaurav speed = survival* Lessons from RIM's downfall: never rest on product laurels* Why the AI era is reshaping iteration timelines* Pre-seed startups now move at the speed of launches, not quartersPivot-as-a-Service in the AI World (00:34:16)* FIR teams pivoting from speech therapy to CX platforms* Younger founders = more raw talent, less domain bias* Startups pivoting every 6–8 weeks—and why that's healthy* Embracing pivots as a feature, not a flawScaling Afore with Purpose (00:35:21)* Fund IV, $500M+ AUM, and 150+ companies later* Why concentrated portfolios beat spray-and-pray* The dangers of being too dogmatic on stage or valuation* Supporting breakout talent like Neo, Gamma, and BenchGlobal Perspective: Canada's Role in Venture (00:41:19)* Why Canada produces world-class engineering talent* The upside and limits of building in the North* Hybrid models: Canada for R&D, U.S. for GTM* Afore's belief in serving Canadian founders, wherever they buildFailure may define most early-stage startups, but for Gaurav Jain, the real story starts before the pitch, before the product, even before the idea. With Afore Capital, he is betting on people over polish, instinct over perfection, and helping founders build long before the rest of the world is watching. His journey reminds us that great companies don't always start with traction; they start with trust.About Gaurav JainCo-founder and Managing Partner at Afore Capital. Ex-Android, BlackBerry, and founder of Polar Mobile. Afore is known for being one of the first firms dedicated to pre-seed, supporting founders before they even have an idea.Connect with Gaurav Jain on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjainvcVisit Afore Capital Website: https://www.afore.vc/Connect with Matt Cohen on LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/matt-cohen1Visit the Ripple Ventures website: https://www.rippleventures.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

SaaS companies were traditionally measured on how many years it took to achieve $100M ARR - a key milestone! In today's brave new world of AI, this milestone is now measured in MONTHS. Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike highlight discuss this new AI growth metric in today's episode with many examples including:LovableCursorWizBoltAnthropicOpenAIDave and Ray discuss how these new hypergrowth AI-Native companies compare to some of the fastest growing traditional SaaS companies including DocuSign, Atlassian, Box, HashiCorp, Zoom and Slack.The Metrics Brothers then dive a little deeper into the details of the "months to $100M" to discuss WHEN does that clock begin to tick, at launch or at $1M ARR? They then go beyond just AI and discuss how Product-Led Growth was once viewed as a key to accelerating growth to $100M and where the reality meets the expectations.Lastly, CAC and Growth discuss one example of a fast growing AI company that could not quite sustain the early growth trajectory that was greatly helped by the hype and the hope of AI - a cautionary tale for other high flyers or just an interesting data point?Take a listen to this episode if you are involved, interested or evaluating how growth rate expectations for software companies in the new era of software!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's show: Jason and Alex unpack a wild week in tech and the markets — including a fake tweet that moved $4 trillion and Trump's latest tariff talk. Lon jumps in for another round of Founder Fridays Pitch Madness, where four early-stage startups compete for a spot in the Elite Eight. Plus, Alex chats with Sunny Khamkar, CEO of MenuData, about how AI is revolutionizing the food industry. They also dive into how founders should rethink their runway, what Shopify's bold AI memo means for the future, and whether VCs are placing earlier bets to chase that $1M ARR milestone. Don't miss the founder pitches and a fresh take on AI-powered food trend tracking!*Timestamps:(0:00) Jason kicks off the show!(2:11) Market chaos, tariffs, and their effects(5:59) Economic uncertainty: Advice for founders(8:00) Tariffs' potential impact on tech sectors(9:58) Fidelity Private Shares℠ - Visit ⁠https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com ⁠! Mention our podcast and receive 20% off your first-year paid subscription.(13:27) SignalFire's billion-dollar fund(17:32) Achieving significant startup revenue and its importance(20:20) Coda - Empower your startup with Coda's Team Plan for free—get 6 months at https://www.Coda.io/twist(21:54) Krea's $87 million raise and subscription model analysis(27:33) Big tech's influence on niche subscription services(30:02) Gusto - Get three months free when you run your first payroll at http://gusto.com/twist(31:09) AI advancements: Midjourney v7 and voice activation(36:43) Shopify's AI Manifesto(41:00) Founder Friday bracket updates(57:16) Founder Q&A: Lessons for first-time founders(1:05:00) MenuData's CEO Sunny Khamkar interview(1:16:10) MenuData's pricing, customer base, and growth plans(1:23:38) AI's vertical impact and Menu Data's strategy*Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp*Links from the show:Check out MenuData: https://www.menudata.ai/Check out Krea: https://www.krea.ai/Check out Tobi Lutke's ”AI Manifesto” https://x.com/tobi/status/1909251946235437514Check out Pitchfire: https://www.pitchfire.com/Check out CREATANT: https://www.creatant.com/Check out Vidala Labs: https://vidalalabs.com/Check out Kippy: https://kippy.ai/Follow Sunny Khamkar:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunny-khamkar-84b905a*Follow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm*Follow Lon:X: https://x.com/LonsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonharris*Follow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis*Thank you to our partners:(9:58) Fidelity Private Shares℠ - Visit ⁠https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com ⁠! Mention our podcast and receive 20% off your first-year paid subscription.(20:20) Coda - Empower your startup with Coda's Team Plan for free—get 6 months at https://www.Coda.io/twist(30:02) Gusto - Get three months free when you run your first payroll at http://gusto.com/twist*Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland*Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis*Follow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com*Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Today's show: Jason and Alex dive into the startup world's latest chaos — from Nasdaq's slide and Trump's tariffs to Klarna's IPO pause and Rippling's $16B target. They break down what founders really need to know: tightening CIO budgets, longer sales cycles, but easier hiring. Plus, TikTok's ban gets another delay (with Bezos possibly lurking?). In Office Hours, they chat with two sharp founders: Luke Belbina from PodEngine, who's building AI for podcasters and doubling revenue, and David Moscatelli from Abacus, who's bringing secure, on-prem AI to banks and just hit $1M ARR. Don't miss it!