Shows
Venture with GraceMarty Kausas, Pylon CEO on Modern B2B Support, AI KB & Post‑Sales ToolsMarty Kausas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pylon, one of the fastest-growing platforms modernizing B2B customer support. With prior engineering experience at Airbnb, Marty blends deep technical chops with a market-first mindset to tackle one of the most overlooked segments in enterprise software: post-sales support. Since launching, Pylon has become the go-to support infrastructure for high-growth B2B companies, backed by leading investors like Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator. Under Marty’s leadership, the company is pioneering an AI-native approach to customer success—replacing outdated ticketing systems with a platform purpose-built for tools like Slack and...2025-08-0656 min
EOHow I Raised $17M in 14 Days | Pylon, Marty Kausas | EO
How I Raised $17M in 14 Days | Pylon, Marty Kausas
In this episode, we sit down with Marty, cofounder and CEO of Pylon, the first customer support platform built specifically for B2B companies.His key insight: 👉 "All you need is one thing to work out, and that'll blow away all the failures in the past" – demonstrating the resilience required through the inevitable "Pivot Hell" every founder faces.Within just three months of having the idea, Pylon reached $120K in ARR, securing their first customer in only 14 days. They've raised $20 million from top investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Gener...2025-07-2118 min
Born In Silicon ValleyPylon’s Marty Kausas: Supercharging B2B Support with AI and Omnichannel InnovationIn this conversation, Marty Kausas, co-founder and CEO of Pylon, shares his journey from working at Airbnb to founding his own startup. He discusses the challenges he faced in identifying market needs, the evolution of Pylon, and the strategies he employed to raise capital and build a strong company culture. Marty emphasizes the importance of product development and the need for a dedicated sales team to drive customer acquisition. He also reflects on his growth as a leader and the future vision for Pylon.
Host: Jake Aaron Villarreal, leads the top AI Recruitment Firm in Silicon Valley...2025-05-2223 min
Fractal Capital#28 – Marty Kausas: Redefining Post-Sales CRM for the Modern B2B EraMarty Kausas, is the co-founder and CEO of Pylon—a post-sales CRM redefining how B2B companies manage customer relationships after the close.Marty grew up in San Diego after his parents immigrated from Lithuania following the fall of the Soviet Union. He was writing code before he could vote, living off lentils, and leading Purdue’s elite hacker group by 19. But it was two tough years of “pivot hell”—false starts, failed ideas, and no clear path forward—that laid the real foundation for Pylon.What began as a simple integration between Zendesk and Slack quickl...2025-04-2547 min
The Revenue FormulaYour guide to killing Zendesk (with Marty Kausas, co-founder & CEO at Pylon)If there's something we all love, it's to root for david beating goliath.And right now, there's a small team doing just that. Pylon, led by Marty Kausas, is going head to head with Zendesk.Naturally, we asked Marty to share their playbook.(00:00) - Introduction
(01:17) - The Motivation Behind Building Pylon
(01:52) - The Journey to Becoming A-List
(02:19) - Board Games and Strategic Thinking
(04:16) - Targeting a Massive Market
(09:46) - Building the First Product
(11:42) - Competing with Giants
(18:59) - Product Development and Marketing Strategies
(26:35) - Embracing a Heavy Debate Culture
(29:24) - Leveraging LinkedIn...2025-03-1350 min
Category VisionariesMarty Kausas, CEO & Co-Founder of Pylon: $20 Million Raised to Build the First B2B Support PlatformPylon is pioneering the first customer support platform purpose-built for B2B companies, securing $20 million in funding to transform how B2B companies interact with customers post-sale. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Marty Kausas, CEO and Co-Founder of Pylon, about his journey from Airbnb software engineer to category creator. Marty shares how Pylon evolved from a Slack connector tool to a comprehensive platform challenging incumbents like Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud by addressing the unique challenges of B2B support.
Topics Discussed:
Pylon's evolution from a Slack connector to a full B2...2025-03-1136 minCategory VisionariesMarty Kausas, CEO & Co-Founder of Pylon: $20 Million Raised to Build the First B2B Support PlatformPylon is pioneering the first customer support platform purpose-built for B2B companies, securing $20 million in funding to transform how B2B companies interact with customers post-sale. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Marty Kausas, CEO and Co-Founder of Pylon, about his journey from Airbnb software engineer to category creator. Marty shares how Pylon evolved from a Slack connector tool to a comprehensive platform challenging incumbents like Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud by addressing the unique challenges of B2B support.
Topics Discussed:
Pylon's evolution from a Slack connector to a full B2...2025-03-1136 min
Startup StrategiesHe raised $17m in 14 days from investorsMarty Kausas is the co-founder and CEO of Pylon. He's today's guest on Startup Strategies with Juliana Hahn and he is building the customer support platform for B2B companies - the Zendesk of B2B. How did he go from failed startup ideas & scrappy experiments to getting into Y combinator, then raising $17m for his startup in 14 days with Andreessen Horowitz, completely unplanned. We chat about how he acquired his first customers and beyond, the highs and lows of startup fundraising and the actual strategies implemented by Marty & his team to ensure they had a successful outcome for...2025-03-101h 01
The Founder-Led Marketing ShowThe LinkedIn Post Format This SaaS CEO Used to 5.5x Revenue in 2024Marty Kausas is the Co-Founder & CEO at Pylon. Pylon is a modern alternative to Zendesk, optimized for B2B.Marty's LinkedIn posts generated 1.2 million impressions, leading to 5.5x their revenue in 2024.We talk about the impact of Founder-Led Marketing on Pylon's revenue, how the tech landscape in San Francisco is changing, and many other topics like:- Founder-Led Marketing Insights- Marty's Journey of Building his LinkedIn Presence- Measuring Success and Growth- The Role of LinkedIn...2025-02-2140 min
The Tech TrekPivoting with Purpose: Navigating Startup ChallengesIn this episode, Amir Bormand is joined by Marty Kausas, Co-founder and CEO of Pylon, a groundbreaking customer support platform for B2B companies. Marty shares his journey of navigating "pivot hell," the challenges of ideation, finding the right co-founders, and understanding what it takes to build a billion-dollar company. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned professional, this episode is packed with insights on creating, evolving, and scaling a tech startup.
Key Takeaways:
The Ideation Journey: Startups often require multiple pivots before discovering a viable product-market fit.
Co-founder Chemistry: Aligning goals...2025-02-0527 min
Get the CheckInside Pylon: Co-Founder Marty Kausas on modernizing B2B supportThis episode of Get the Check features Marty Kausas, co-founder and CEO of Pylon, a modern support platform built for B2B companies. Pylon brings everything post-sales teams need from a ticketing system to integrations with Slack, email, and Teams all into one powerful platform.
Marty shares Pylon’s “sell before you build” philosophy, starting with how they landed their first customer just minutes after coming up with the idea. The conversation also dives into his fundraising journey, from being part of the first YC batch post ChatGPT to securing a Series A from a16z in just 1...2025-01-2341 min
A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for FoundersYC said his idea "would never work". So he lived in his office for months—then raised $17M from a16z in 14 days. | Marty Kausas, founder of PylonMarty and his co-founders lived full-time in their office for several months. They worked on their startup 24/7. To come up with the idea, they messaged 120 potential customers every day for 3 months. Originally, when they pitched YC they were told their idea would never work. YC said they'd seen it several times and it was destined to fail. So in 2 weeks Marty landed a customer and built a product-- and YC let him in. He went on to raise a $3M seed round from General Catalyst in 6 days and later a $17M Series A from a16z in 14...2024-12-191h 07
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #21) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 9/2/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Butlr, led by Honghao Deng, has raised $38 million in Series B funding. Butlr offers an AI-driven platform to monitor movements and occupancy in spaces, optimizing real estate, health, and energy efficiency without capturing personal data.
2. Planera, led by Nitin Bhandari, has raised $13.5 million in Series A funding. Planera provides a CPM-based scheduling platform for the construction industry, offering real-time progress tracking, risk simulation, and collaboration tools for all project phases.
3. Miris, led by Marlin Prager, has raised $26 million in Seed funding. Miris brings spatial computing to r...2024-10-2412 min