Shows
Paradigm ShiftEP42: Evaluating and accelerating talent with Ali Partovi, Founder/CEO of Neo; and investor in Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, and moreIn this episode we talk with Ali Partovi about lessons learned identifying, evaluating and accelerating talent across a long and storied career in Silicon Valley. We talk about his founder experience, great investments he's made, and his new accelerator Neo (which is something like YC 2.0). You can learn more about Neo here, and follow Ali to on Twitter to connect with him. 2024-01-1652 min
Paradigm ShiftEP41: Bootstrapping Boast.ai to $10M ARR with No Marketing Team with Lloyed Lobo2023-09-141h 14
Paradigm ShiftEP40: AI as the next platform shift and investing in emerging technologies, with Elad Gil entrepreneur and investor2023-06-3048 min
Paradigm ShiftEP39: Lessons learned bootstrapping SwagUp to $100M+ in revenue with founder and CEO Michael MartocciMichael Martocci is the Founder and CEO of SwagUp, a platform that makes it easy to create, automate and distribute swag globally. In this episode we talk about:Lessons learned bootstrapping SwagUp to over $100M in revenueAdvice on managing cash flow and how Michael approached forecastingMichael's vision and SwagUp's unique position to reimagine the entire end to end workflow from the customer experience to the complex supply chain. This was a really fun conversation. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!Hit subscribe to keep up with new episodes!...2023-06-0552 min
Paradigm ShiftEP38: Michael Stoppelman, former SVP Engineering at Yelp and investor in 300+ companies, on building world class engineering teams and lessons learned scaling Yelp from 6 to 600 engineersMichael Stoppelman is the former SVP of Engineering at Yelp and profilic angel investor in 300+ startups. In early 2007, he left Google to join Yelp, and helped scale Yelp Engineering from 6 to 600 engineers. In this conversation we talked about Michael's lessons learnt building and scaling a world class engineering team- from hiring to motivating to leading world class teams. We also talk about lessons learned from early days at Google, and his approach to angel investing where he has an extremely impressive portfolio and track record. This was a really fun conversation. We hope you enjoy...2023-04-0547 min
Paradigm ShiftEP37: Building and funding enduring fintech companies, with Cameron Peake, Partner at Restive (fintech VC) and founder of early SMB neobank Azlo (almost $1B deposits)Cameron Peake is a Partner at Restive Ventures, an early stage fintech focused VC fund. Previously Cameron was co-founder and CEO of Azlo, a company that provided online banking services for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and freelancers, and quickly grew to almost $1B in deposits. Cameron understands fintech from multiple vantage points: building for international markets, building one of the first neobanks in the US, and now funding early stage companies. In this conversation we discuss what it takes to build an enduring fintech, drawing from Cameron's experiences as both a builder/operator and investor. Path to bu...2023-03-0550 min
Paradigm ShiftEP36: Semil Shah (founder Haystack, early investor in DoorDash, Instacart, Figma) on the current fundraising market and building intuition to pick winners earlySemil is the founder and GP at Haystack, an early-stage VC firm with $450M+ AUM. He’s an investor in 200+ companies including DoorDash, Instacart, Hashicorp, Figma and more. In this conversation we discuss the current funding environment, Semil's approach to venture capital and making early investments, and his advice for founders starting a company and fundraising in today's market. This was a really fun discussion and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did! LinksFollow Semil on TwitterHit subscribe to keep up with new ep...2023-01-2538 min
Paradigm ShiftEP35: Beerud Sheth, founder of Upwork ($1.5B public co) and Gupshup ($1.4B unicorn), on the resilience and grit needed to build two generational companiesBeerud Sheth in a rare founder who’s started not one, but two unicorns — UpWork and Gupshup. He’s seen a lot of pivotal moments in SV history — having started Upwork in 1998 before the dot com bubble, and Gupshup in 2005, three years before the GFC. Today, Upwork is a publicly traded company valued at $1.5B and Gupshup is a unicorn, last valued at $1.4B+ as of April 2021. In this conversation, we talk with Beerud about his experiences building UpWork and Gupshup across almost 25 years. LinksLearn more about Gupshup and try Upwor...2023-01-1856 min
Paradigm ShiftEP34: Finding product-market fit and blitzscaling a healthcare marketplace 25x in 18 months, with Wei Deng, CEO/Founder Clipboard Health ($1.3B)Wei is the founder of Clipboard Health. Clipboard Health makes it really easy for nurses to search for jobs based on what they're qualified for and what they care about, and apply with one click.Over the last few years, Clipboard has have experienced rapid growth and become the leading marketplace for healthcare profesional to find on-demand shifts at healthcare institutions. Clipboard has raised $94M from top VCs that include YC, Initialized, Caffeinated Capaital, and Sequoia, most recently at a $1.3B valuation.In this conversation we talk about Wei's path to founding Clipboard Health, how...2022-12-2043 min
Paradigm ShiftEP33: Building and scaling network-based enterprise businesses with James McGillicuddy, former Head of Strategy at Carta ($7.4B) and COO SourceGraph ($2.6B)In this conversation, we speak with James McGillicuddy. James was previously Head of Strategy at Carta ($7.4B valuation) where he brought products like CartaX to market, and before that was the COO and early team member of SourceGraph — a universal code search tool company valued at $2.6B. He was also early at RelateIQ (acquired by Salesforce for $390M) and played college football for Stanford under Jim Harbaugh. Some highlights: how James approached decisions on which early stage companies and founders to work with, lesson learned from building and scaling GTM at the zero to one stage from ear...2022-12-2042 min
Paradigm ShiftEP32: Building and launching cross-chain crypto infrastructure, with Bryan Pellegrino, founder/CEO of Layer Zero ($140M Series A)Bryan is the founder of LayerZero Labs, which is an omnichain interoperability protocol that unites decentralized applications across disparate blockchains, enabling cross-chain applications.LayerZero Labs is building foundational crypto infrastructure. Since being founded in 2021, the company has raised over $140M from top investors including Sequoia Capital, a16z, Tiger Global, Coinbase, Cristies, Paypal, Polygon and Dapper Labs.In this conversation, we discuss the LayerZero founding story, how Bryan approached building complex decentralized infrastructure, their explosive launch and seemingly immediate product-market fit, and the cross-chain opportunity space. This was an incredibly fun conversation and...2022-12-0654 min
Paradigm ShiftEP31: Kunal Shah on building breakout consumer internet products, founding Cred ($6.4B) and Freecharge ($450M exit), and angel investing in 200+ Indian startupsKunal Shah is a serial entrepreneur and founder of two iconic Indian companies -- CRED and Freecharge. CRED is an Indian consumer fintech that is valued at over $6.4B, and Freecharge was one of the earliest Indian fintechs that sold to Snapdeal in 2015 for $450M. Kunal has an unmatched track record not just as a founder, but also as an investor and thinker. He’s a prolific angel investor in over 200+ Indian startups and shares insightful, bite-sized philosophical wisdom on Twitter with over 700K followers. In this conversation we explore frameworks and insights that have guid...2022-11-3051 min
Paradigm ShiftEP30: Building web3 email, drive and docs with a privacy-first and decentralized approach, with Andrew Milich, founder of Skiff ($10M Series A led by Sequoia)Andrew is the founder of Skiff, which is a privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted, wallet native workspace with email, file sharing, and collaboration.Skiff has hundreds of thousands of users and is part of a broader trend towards privacy-first and decentralization. Skiff is backed by Sequoia Capital who led their seed and Series A.In this conversation we discuss Andrew’s path to building privacy-first products, approach to finding Product-Market Fit with Skiff, and the various tarde-offs and opportunities when building privacy-forward and web3/decentralized products.This was a really fun conversation and we learnt so...2022-10-3043 min
Paradigm ShiftEP29: Keith Rabois on navigating the downturn, developing good judgement, and building an iconic companyKeith is a Silicon Valley legend— an accomplished operator, founder, and investor. He started his career as an early executive at PayPal, LinkedIn and Square, before going on to co-found companies like OpenDoor (which IPO’d in 2020) and OpenStore.He’s currently a General Partner at Founders Fund and Co-Founder/CEO of OpenStore. Along the way, he’s made incredible investments as an angel and VC in companies like DoorDash, Affirm, Stripe, YouTube, Palantir, Airbnb, Ramp, Faire, and many more.In this conversation we ask questions that span three broad areas: how to grow through a downtu...2022-09-0835 min
Paradigm ShiftEP28: Building an open source powered product and company, with AppSmith Co-Founder/CEO Abhishek NayakAbhishek is the co-founder and CEO of AppSmith, which is a low-code tool that helps developers build dashboards and admin panels very quickly. AppSmith has raised over $50M from investors like Accel, Bessemer, Insight and Prasanna Sankar (previously on the pod!).In this conversation we primarily explore how Abhishek is building AppSmith with the open source community as a core part of the product, business model and long term strategy. We also talk about Abhishek’s incredible journey (and lessons) as a serial entrepreneur, how the Indian startup ecosystem has evolved over the last 10+ years, and the ke...2022-07-2041 min
Paradigm ShiftEP27: Building crypto products for mainstream users, with CoinList Co-Founder and Eco Co-Founder/CEO Andy BrombergAndy is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Eco a new kind of wallet to spend, send and save money. It combines traditional banking rails with crypto rails to deliver a new kind of experience that creates more value for customers in an easy to access way. Before Eco Andy was a co-founder at CoinList which is another very successful crypto project.In this conversation we talk about the founding stories behind both CoinList and Eco. We discuss Andy’s lessons from navigating the last crypto winter. And we discuss Andy’s approach to building Eco into a ma...2022-07-1249 min
Paradigm ShiftEP26: Reimagining healthcare from first principles, with Forward Founder/CEO Adrian AounAdrian is a serial entrepreneur and currently Founder/CEO of Forward. Forward is a healthcare startup that provides a membership-based healthcare system. Forward is redesigning the way healthcare is delivered using cutting edge technology that has long been neglected such as sensors, mobile, and AI.Before Forward Adrian founded AI startup Wavii which was acquired by Google, where he subsequently led Special Projects for the entire company. In this episode we dive into Adrian’s entrepreneurial journey and how Forward is redefining healthcare from first principles.In this episode we discuss:Wavii an...2022-06-2044 min
Paradigm ShiftEP25: Founding and scaling a logistics unicorn, with ShipBob Co-Founder/CEO Dhruv SaxenaDhruv is the Co-Founder/CEO of ShipBob, the leading global omni-fulfillment platform designed to provide small and medium-sized businesses access to best-in-class supply chain and fulfillment capabilities.Dhruv started ShipBob in his Chicago apartment in 2014, and has scaled it today to over 7,000 e-commerce brands, with fulfillment centers around the world. They’ve raised $300m+ and have achieved a $1B valuation.In this episode we discuss:Going from an Electrical Engineering PhD to building things How did you end up building things?What were some early ideas and products you tested?What led you...2022-06-1140 min
Paradigm ShiftEP24: Market landscape and opportunities in the Indian software ecosystem, with Nikhil Sachdev, Managing Director at Insight Partners focused on software, fintech and cryptoNikhil is a managing director at Insight Partners, where he invests in software, fintech, and crypto companies. In this conversation we talk about the recent market corrections, investment landscape in the Indian startup ecosystem, and some of the opportunity areas Nikhil is most excited about across software/SaaS, fintech and crypto.In this episode we discuss:Market context and Insight Partners as a fund What’s your perspective on the current market backdrop?What are the areas Insight Partners is most focused on?What are you seeing behind the scenes in terms of fundraising act...2022-06-0732 min
Paradigm ShiftEP23: Building in public and the future of AI powered creative tools, with Paul Yacoubian, founder/CEO of Copy.AIPaul Yacoubian is the founder/CEO of Copy.AI. CopyAI is building AI-powered tools that help users automatically generate marketing copy in seconds, and has over 1M registered users.Paul is an extremely positive and inspiring presence on twitter and has mastered the art of building in public. In this conversation we talk about Copy.AI, Paul’s approach to building in public, and the future of AI powered tools.In this episode we discuss:Building in public How did you get started building in public?What principles guide your online content?Wha...2022-05-2340 min
Paradigm ShiftEP22: Lessons from building world class teams at Carta and DoorDash, with Nolan Church, founder/CEO of Continuum, ex-Chief People Officer at Carta, ex-Head of Talent at DoorDashNolan is one of the best HR leaders in the world for high growth startups. He’s currently the Founder/CEO at Continuum, which is a talent marketplace that helps startups hire the best people for key functional needs, and helps executives work with multiple companies at once.Before that he was the Chief People Officer at Carta helping it grow to a $10b valuation, Head of Talent at DoorDash from early days of 50 employees to 800+ employees, and a recruiter at Google helping scale a new org from zero to 80 engineers.Thanks to Ashley Davis an...2022-05-161h 06
Paradigm ShiftEP21: Building and growing a community of over 15M Indian women, with Sairee Chahal, founder/CEO of Sheroes and Mahila MoneySairee is a serial entrepreneur and Founder/CEO or Sheroes. Sheroes is a social network with over 15M women. It helps empower them with a broad set of tools, community, jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities and financial services. It’s profitable and has quickly grown to several million in top line revenue. Sairee is also the founder of Mahila Money and serves on the board of PayTM Payments Bank.In this episode we discuss:Founding and growing Sheroes to a profitable community of 15M women What led you to tech entrepreneurship?What led you to found She...2022-05-0332 min
Paradigm ShiftEP20: DeFi and Yield Farming deep dive, with Kedric Van de Carr, serial entrepreneur, DeFi investor and co-founder of DeFi MasterclassKedric is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded and teaches the DeFi Masterclass, a hands-on workshop that has helped 100s onboard into the world of DeFi, learn how to research crypto opportunities, and make a passive income.Before DeFi masterclass Kedric was co-founder of Unblockable which builds crypto and NFT/sports prediction games. He also co-founded performance marketing agency Playbook Media, and was Chief Business Officer at Exitround, a marketplace for private company M&A.In this episode we discuss:The hook that got Kedric to go down the DeFi rabbit hole What w...2022-04-1943 min
Paradigm ShiftEP19: Building and scaling nationwide virtual primary care, with Sean Mehra, founder and CEO of HealthTapSean is founder and CEO of HealthTap which makes primary care affordable and easy to access for all Americans. In this episode we discuss:HealthTap’s virtual primary care clinic Affordable solution for all Americans regardless of whether they have insuranceHow it works from user experience to business modelTypes of conditions and issues that can be treated through primary careHow HealthTap approaches different use cases and care scenariosBuilding a healthcare product and company How to get early tractionImportance of patience and resilienceMaximizing luck surface areaBeing early to telehealth and growing with the marketImpact of pand...2022-04-0650 min
Paradigm ShiftEP18: Building customer obsessed products and culture, with Mari Baker, Silicon Valley veteran who was one of the first 30 employees and SVP at IntuitMari has held a variety of incredible roles in Silicon Valley as a product veteran, company builder, and now board member. Mari started her career in startups. She was one of the first 30 people at Intuit and helped grow the company grow over 10 years into a public company with thousands of employees.At Intuit, Mari went from being a Product Manager for Quicken to SVP and got to work closely with industry legends like Scott Cook and Bill Campbell to shape Intuit’s products and culture. Intuit of course is well known for having one of the mo...2022-03-221h 19
Paradigm ShiftEP17: Building remote controlled mobile vending machines, with Dmitry Shevelenko, who was early FB, Linkedin and Uber, before founding TortoiseDmitry is the founder of Tortoise ($11m raised), which is building remote-controlled mobile vending machines, which are the world’s first “smart stores”. It takes less than 15 seconds to complete a transaction with frictionless tap-to-pay user experience and Tortoise is piloting these robots in at least a dozen cities around the world. In this episode we talk about how Dmitry approached building a robotics and automation startup, and the many decisions that led Tortoise to where it is today.We also talk about Dmitry’s stellar early career and lessons learnt from being part of the early team at...2022-03-1651 min
Paradigm ShiftEP16: Opportunities in Marketplaces, Future of Work, and Fintech, with Don Stalter, investor at Global Founders Capital and former Head of International at Airbnb & GrouponDon Stalter is a Partner at Global Founders Capital (GFC) and has an incredible portfolio of investments including Brex, Deel, CultureAmp, Checkr, FamPay and many more. Before transitioning into an investment role, Don was a co-founder of CityDeal which he sold to Groupon, and subsequently led International at both Groupon and Airbnb.In this conversation we talk about Don’s learnings from working on two of the most explosive marketplace companies of the last decade (Groupon and Airbnb), and trends/opportunities he’s seeing in Marketplaces, Future of Work, and Fintech.In today’s episod...2022-03-0237 min
Paradigm ShiftEP15: Building crypto native products, with Qiao Wang, co-founder of Alliance DAO, the leading Web3 accelerator and builder communityQiao Wang is the co-founder of Alliance DAO, which is the leading web3 accelerator and builder community. In terms of impact, Alliance has helped accelerate 10% of the top crypto projects by market cap. Their most cohort had 30 companies building web3 products across DeFi, Social, NFTs and Gaming. Before Alliance, Qiao was the Head of Product at Messari which is a market intelligence product that provides advanced analytics for crypto.Special thanks to Roberto Riccio and Brian Ma for providing questions for this conversation.In today’s episode we discussCrypto La...2022-02-2249 min
Paradigm ShiftEP14: Bringing crypto loans to the real world, with Blake West, co-founder/CTO of Goldfinch, $500M DAO and $25M from a16zIn this wide-ranging conversation, we chat with Blake about his experiences starting out his professional career as a musician, and all the key experiences and trends that led him to founding the Goldfinch decentralized lending protocol (recent $25m Series A from a16z, and $500M DAO).This is an incredibly rich conversation where we explore so many interesting topics. Some select highlights: the similarities between being a musician and an engineer, and between being in a band and a startup. How the Goldfinch protocol works and Blake’s most ambitious vision for it. Advantages of setting up Go...2022-02-031h 02
Paradigm ShiftEP13: Building Communities and All Things DAO, with Don Ho, co-founder of OrangeDAO which is a collective of 1k+ YC founders helping build and accelerate web3In this conversation we chat about Don’s experiences in the crypto world as Managing Partner of QuantStamp, and through multiple cycles over the last decade. We spend most of our time talking about his recent experience co-founding OrangeDAO which is a collective of 1k+ YC founders helping build an accelerate web3.Don walks us through how he thinks about building communities, why DAO’s are exciting, and shares a breakdown of how the OrangeDAO was setup— across the early community, token design, building products, raising a venture fund, and how everything fits together.This is an...2022-01-2741 min
Paradigm ShiftEP12: Linda Zhang, early product leader at Faire ($12b co), on key growth unlocks in early days, ideal culture at fast growing companies, and founding Product LessonsIn this conversation we chat about Linda’s journey from a traditional consulting career to startup rocket ships (Snap and Faire), product management, and entrepreneurship.We start out talking about the early days at Faire and key growth unlocks that helped it quickly grow from $50m to $2.5b, and now a $12b valuation. Linda was an early product leader, and saw it grow from 14 to 300 employees. We then talk about challenges when growing that quickly and reflections on ideal culture at fast growing startups. Finally, we talk about Linda’s path towards starting Product Lessons, and building an e...2022-01-1943 min
Paradigm ShiftEP11: Sander Daniels, co-founder of Thumbtack, on idea exploration, key phases in building a marketplace, and his secret to effective cofounder relationshipsIn this conversation we chat about so many key moments in Sanders journey cofounding, building and scaling Thumbtack into a $3.2b business with 900+ employees over 13 years.We start with the founding story and weekly brainstorm calls that led to the company. We then talk about the four key phases of building a successful marketplace startup, from finding product-market fit to hyper-scaling. And finally, we talk about how Sander and his co-founders built incredible long term relationships, working together for 13+ years.We hope you enjoy this amazing episode!Episode HighlightsGrowing...2022-01-1248 min
Paradigm ShiftEP10: Alanna Gregory, founder VIVE and Sr Director at Afterpay, on marketplace economics, growth marketing at Afterpay, and how NFTs could become lot more mainstreamIn this conversation with Alanna we talked about pivotal moments in Alanna’s journey from working on emerging markets research on Wall St, to founding a YC backed marketplace startup, to growth marketing leader at Afterpay. Alanna has a broad and unique perspective on startups, fintech and crypto, and in this conversation we cover a wide range of topics across all three. Episode HighlightsStarting her career on Wall St during the 2008 financial crisisCulture working in finance vs techFounding VIVE — what drove her to marketplacesVision to build a marketplace that helps salons acquire custo...2022-01-0530 min
Paradigm ShiftEP9: Vrinda Gupta, founder/CEO of Sequin, on why she started a company to help women build credit, approach to building a new financial services product, and opportunities for more personalizationSummaryIn this conversation with Vrinda we cover a wide range of topics including how the current credit system works, why women are more likely to have negative credit experiences, and how Sequin solves that inequity gap with a new debit card for women that helps build credit. We also talk about the process of launching a new card based product at a bank vs. a startup, and both opportunities and challenges to innovate in the space.Episode HighlightsWorking on Chase Sapphire card at Visa and getting rejected for...2021-12-1645 min
Paradigm ShiftEP8: Shamir Karkal, founder Bank Simple (first neobank) and Sila, on how fintech has evolved over the last decade, what he's most excited about, and predictions for the next decadeSummary:Conversation with Shamir Karkal, co-founder of Sila. Prior to Sila, he was co-founder of Bank Simple, which was the first US neobank and early fintech pioneer. For many it was one of the most exciting and groundbreaking products of the last decade. We talk about the Bank Simple story, banking and fintech landscape, and his new company Sila. Sila makes it easy for any business to program money through APIs for digital wallets, linked accounts, ACH, money storing, transferring and payouts.Episode Highlights:Career path from software...2021-11-1447 min
Paradigm ShiftEP7: Finding Product-Market Fit with B2B products, with Paul Sawaya, founder Human Interest ($1b valuation)Summary:Conversation with Paul Sawaya, co-founder of Human Interest, $1b company that makes it easy for SMBs to provide 401k savings plans to their employees, and helps employees save for their retirement.We cover so many interesting topics in this conversation across the Human Interest story, numerous lessons learnt, and technologies he's most excited about for the future.Episode Highlights:Early experiences like building an FB app at BloombergInterviewing with Emmett Shear to interview at Justin.TVHow big company vs tiny startup experience made him want...2021-10-3155 min
Paradigm ShiftEP6: Jim Brusstar, founder Treasury Prime ($31.5m Series B), on being early to fintech, how banks work under the covers, building APIs to connect banks to fintechs, and why fintech has tons of headroom to growConversation with Jim Brusstar, co-founder of Treasury Prime, which is building APIs to connect a network of banks to fintechs. They make it easy for fintechs to partner with the right bank, and reduce the time to market for a neo bank or embedded banking product from years to months.We cover so many interesting topics in this conversation — starting with being early at Sidecar and lessons learnt from competing with Uber and Lyft, being early to fintech with Standard Treasury which built banking APIs and sold to Silicon Valley Bank, how banks work under the covers, an...2021-09-1743 min
Paradigm ShiftEP5: Sam Corcos, founder/CEO of Levels ($12m Seed), on lessons from early startups, why he took a year off before starting Levels, how he spent his time, and why he's building a radically open company/cultureConversation with Sam Corcos, CEO of Levels health, who is a prolific serial entrepreneur and building one of the most exciting companies in healthcare today. Levels is a groundbreaking product that helps people track their blood glucose in real-time to understand and improve their metabolic health. We talk about key lessons Sam learnt from his first few startups, why he took a year off before starting levels, how he honed in on the idea for Levels, his approach towards building a radically open company, and areas he's most excited about for the next 5-10 years. ...2021-09-1044 min
Paradigm ShiftEP4: Brian Ma, founder Divvy ($2b), on his early startups, building and scaling Divvy into a real estate unicorn, and investing in Southeast AsiaConversation with Brian Ma - who interned at Zillow when it was 15 people, joined as employee #32, and went on to become a prolific serial entrepreneur. We talk about his entrepreneurial journey founding Decide.com, Weave, Divvy Homes ($2b unicorn), and most recently, a SE Asia focused Seed fund and accelerator. Some highlights from the conversation include how he skipped high school, why he joined Zillow, his first few companies, going on a "vision quest", his approach to exploring new ideas, the early days at Divvy Homes, and his recent fund and why he is excited about investing...2021-09-0446 min
Paradigm ShiftEP3: Prasanna Sankar, founder Rippling ($6.5b), on entrepreneurship, building Rippling, and crypto as the new economic engineConversation with Prasanna Sankar - whose most recent company, Rippling, went from zero to $1.35b valuation in less than 4yrs. We talk about his experiences working on startups for over 10 years, finding and scaling success at Rippling, and why he believes crypto will be a transformative new economic engine. Episode Highlights:Getting started as a programmer in high schoolApproach to building from first principles and becoming the top ranked coder in IndiaMoving from Microsoft Bing team to Silicon Valley and pitching to Paul GrahamBuilding LikeALittle - hyper-growth phase, passing on M&A, eventual crash and burnoutJoining Ze...2021-08-171h 07
Paradigm ShiftEP2: Bo Jiang, founder/CEO Lithic ($800m), on building Privacy.com and pivoting to Lithic which provides easy to use card issuing APIs to make money programmableConversation with Bo Jiang - founder and CEO of Lithic, which offers an API for card issuing. We talk about Bo's incredible journey starting out as a consumer focussed company (Privacy.com), and pivoting to Lithic, which is an easy to use API for card issuing. Today, Lithic is one of the fastest growing company in Fintech and recently announced a Series C at an $800m valuation. In this conversation, we focus on the early days and pivotal moments in Bo's journey. Episode Highlights:Growing up in the midwestHow Bo got started building productsStory an...2021-08-1735 min
Paradigm ShiftEP1: Jonathan Wegener, founder Timehop and serial entrepreneur, on building the first social memories product (Timehop), joining Evan's design team at Snap, and why he's excited about "active audio" experiencesInterview with Jonathan Wegener -- one of the most innovative product thinkers we know. We talk about his experience founding Timehop, working on Evan Spiegel's design team at Snap, and what he's working on next ("active" audio-based products). Episode Highlights:How Jonathan got started building productsHow he got into startups and started building online businessesHow Timehop started at a Foursquare hackathonTimehop early traction and explosive growthLessons from raising Series A and hyper growth phaseFacebook launches competing "on this day" productTimehop's evolution and new advertising businessJoining Evan's design team at SnapSnap's vision driven design culture "Willy Wonka c...2021-04-1252 min