Free Agency

It's time for Episode 001 of something new! Super excited to finally release Three Course Founders, and the first episode is with my friend, Matt Harris. Three Course Founders is a startup podcast featuring deeper, nerdier, and more honest conversations about what's being built, why, and how. It's inspired by Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, where it's practitioner to practitioner (founder to founder, in this case), recorded on location in restaurants, breaking the bounds of how this type of content is normally produced. This first episode was filmed almost entirely at our old offices, but future episodes are inside NYC restaurants or other "out in the world" locations. Over three 'courses,' I dive in with founders in tech across their novel market insights, mutual founder therapy over the 'tough stuff,' and strengths + weaknesses fueled by conversations I have with their founder friends. I'm tired of the hearing the same anecdotes from the same people recording them from the same podcast studios. And I think founders are tired of it, too. So, if you're a startup founder, operator, or nerd, this is my love letter to you. I hope my curiosity intrigues you, and I invite you to dive into the nuance with me. With that, this first conversation with Matt is a fun one -- we cover everything from what VCs get wrong in certain parts of fintech to the unique psychological challenges of building a venture-scale business. We challenge each other about burnout and Matt tells us about the world of modern credit, lending, and underwriting. If you don't know him, he's the founder of Bloom Credit, and now serves as an executive coach and advisor to dozens of early stage startups trying to change the way the earth spins. Links will be down below. New episodes every Thursday. Hope you love it.

It's time! Episode 029 of The Feedback Loop, featuring Jesse Middleton of Flybridge fame and 3 ambitious startup founders trying to change the way the earth spins. As Jesse pointed out after hearing the first founder take his turn, giving a 1 minute pitch is super hard. But it's almost never the case that you're actually giving a 1 minute pitch, or that you wind up stuck in an elevator with a money printer. Instead, it's about using the lens of a 1 minute pitch to understand the essentials of a story and the hooks of interest that can push a conversation forward. And so, after each of these founders gave their best 1 minute pitch, Jesse and I gave them unfiltered feedback in the hopes of pushing them forward on that narrative journey. Links to see the thing in the comments! A shout-out to Yoeven D Khemlani, Sai Nanduri, CSM, PMI ACP, and Christopher Truong for getting up on stage in front of the live NYC crowd. Go founders, go!

A few months ago, Hilary Taylor joined us on The Feedback Loop and pitched her EV charging startup, WattsUp. Will leave a link to the conversation in the comments below! And some thoughts – What I got excited about as she shared her vision: this is a founder with extreme founder-market fit, with an electrical engineering degree and 10 years spent in engineering leadership at energy companies. When a founder has been obsessed with a space for so long, they have a variety of advantages, but my favorite is that they know how to tweak and refine along the way – at a depth and understanding that can't be beat. Early stage startups go through a chiseling process as they find out exactly what they are going to be, and it almost never looks like the original plan. And founder-market fit usually means an exceptional ability to chisel.

The magic of startups: Getting to watch young, ambitious founders accelerate our progression into space. When the tech industry is at its best, it lets ideas and execution win out over legacy and preconceived notions. WATCH: founder Muhammad Hunain tells venture investors Sherveen Mashayekhi and Mike Ma about new materials he's building for space craft, devices, satellites, uniforms, and more.

Tomorrow! Charley Ma joins the tank for the latest taping of The Feedback Loop. Super excited to have him as our guest investor for the evening. After leading growth at canonical tech companies like Plaid, Alloy, and Ramp, Charley co-founded Exponent Founders Capital, a $125M early stage fund that, as he puts it, backs "early founders with strong opinions." And tomorrow, we'll get his strong opinions as 7 startup founders pitch their vision of the future, then get feedback from me and Charley on their storytelling and their concept. 6p to 8p at our offices in NYC! If you'd like to attend, RSVP link in the comments! (and if you're a fintech founder, we're holding an extra slot or two so that we can get Charley's most native industry insights, apply link is in the Luma!)

Episode 017! Soon, The Feedback Loop will be graduating from high school and headed to college. Should we put drinks on stage for Episode 021?! Anyway... My guest co-host for the evening: 3-timer Mike Ma of Sidecut Ventures. The ambitious founders looking to change the world: Benjamin Cohen wanting to change the way we brush our teeth, Trish Lim telling us there has to be a better way re: community health, and Sandra C. exploring guardrails for the edges of our new generative AI reality. What a batch! They get 1 minute each to pitch us, and then we deliver feedback that money just can't buy. Links to the good stuff below!

A few weeks ago, Mat Kaliski and I got to hear from a batch of startup founders and give them hopefully-helpful feedback! That was Hilary Taylor building a AI-enabled EV maintenance platform, Kristofer Patel using AI and ML to build a better understanding of biology and disease, Vineet Parvathala building a gamified recommendations platform, and Caroline McCaffery building AI governance for privacy and security teams. Beyond hearing these incredible founders talk about their ambitious vision of the future, we got into the weeds of good and bad pitching. Things like.. should you pitch with your co-founder, how do you talk about being an AI wrapper, what does it mean to have platform risk, how to pitch when you're in the realm of a "tarpit idea," and so much more. It's Episode 016 of The Feedback Loop! For the full episode, peek for links below...

Double digits! That's right, it's Ep. 010 of The Feedback Loop, the second half of a night of startup pitches with guest co-host Mike MacCombie. And this time, we had Gaby Berne, Kaiwen Zhang, Anisha Quadir, and Olia Stasiuk on stage pitching concepts across gamified exercise, AI-enabled customer support, matchmaking for women, and an AI-enabled LMS! As always, a shout-out to the founders who pitched their vision of the future. The Feedback Loop is dedicated to creating an engine of support for startup founders attempting to change the way the earth spins. We're on your side. Episode links below!

Ep. 009 of The Feedback Loop is out now! And it features me and guest co-host Mike MacCombie hearing from... Leland Krane and Viktoria Krane about AI-driven video production, Colette Ellis on AI-enabled mental wellness, Aidan McDowell on AI-powered personalized learning, and Craig Bromberg on a more socially-driven approach to real estate. This was an energizing batch of mission-driven founders. And if you know Mike, you know he's a super-connector in the world of early stage startups and $$. Given how many companies and investors he connects on a daily basis, he knows how to repackage a pitch to get to the details that matter and make a concept more universally attractive. It's one to watch – so watch it! https://lnkd.in/e7pGYYZd

This Friday morning in NYC! Join me for a fireside chat with Innocent C., where we'll talk all about building in healthtech and the nuances for founders within the industry. Innocent's done it before with Kaia Health and doing it again now with Ciba Health -- and with a background as a physician and clinical researcher, he has more context than most to bring to the table. Excited for this one! RSVP below. https://lu.ma/ekgfbjie