By Mistral.vc
Every founder has 1 goal: find product-market fit. We interview the world's most successful tech founders on the 0 to 1 part of their journeys. We've had the founders of Reddit, Rappi, Cohere, Glea
... more
The podcast currently has 125 episodes available.
Liran quit a cozy job at IBM to launch Fusic, a TikTok-like app back in 2011. He raised over $10M, acquired tens of thousands of users, and failed.
So he went back to what he knew: deep tech and enterprise. He launched WEKA in 2014 to improve the efficiency of GPUs. He was operating on hard mode: building deep tech and selling to large enterprise customers. It took him 5 years to build a commercially-ready product. In that time, he raised over $35M from strategic investors, since VCs didn't get it.
Once they launched, they more than doubled every year. And this year, they crossed $100M in ARR.
Here's how Liran built WEKA and got it off the ground.
Why you should listen:
Keywords
Weka, deep tech, large enterprises, GPUs, OS, product-market fit, funding, strategic investors, POCs, POVs, AI, GPU use case, performance, cost reduction, rapid growth
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:12) Why my first startup failed
(00:08:35) Starting WEKA
(00:15:04) WEKA's First Customer
(00:17:43) The Operating System of CPUs
(00:21:19) The Issues with Deep Tech Companies
(00:26:19) Competing with a Free Product
(00:32:57) Reaching a Couple Million in ARR
(00:36:26) Fundraising
(00:43:19) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:44:08) One Piece of Advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
This episode is going to piss you off. Most founders struggle to raise their first few million. Many have to bootstrap for years. Even once there's revenue, many get rejected because they're "too early".
Dan had dozens of VCs asking to invest before he even quit his job. He raised his first $5M with no deck, no story, and no product idea. All it took was two founders who wanted to build something in the security space. To add fuel to the fire, 6 months after he incorporated, he raised a $50M round from Sequoia... with no revenue!
He didn't pitch dozens of VCs. He didn't create a deck. He just spoke to a partner at Sequoia and had a term sheet in 3 days. The reasons are part macro, part team, part market... and part just the insanity that sometimes happens in Startup Land.
It's hard to beleive and makes little sense from the outside. But it often works. Chainguard just closed $140M Series C, has 100s of customers and does 8 figures in ARR.
Here's how it happened.
Why you should listen:
Keywords
startup, fundraising, product market fit, Sequoia, security, open source, venture capital, entrepreneurship, growth strategies, technology, innovation
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
It was “really slow in the first couple of years...really, really slow.” GoHenry was an app and debit card for kids to help parents teach their kids about money. Dean started over a decade ago in 2012, when mobile was just truly taking off.
And yet, it took multiple years to get off the ground. Once he found the right channels and repeatable growth, he and his team started pouring fuel on the fire. In total, they raised over $100M.
He ultimately grew to 2 million paying customers. Earlier this year, they were acquired for an undisclosed sum in what is one of the bigger fintech M&A deals of the last few years.
Here's how it happened.
Why you should listen:
Keywords
GoHenry, startup, acquisition, product market fit, customer feedback, financial education, kids debit card, scaling, marketing strategy, entrepreneurship
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:1:34) The Beginning of GoHenry
(00:5:57) Why I talk to users every week
(00:11:22) You Grow by Learning Faster than Your Competitors
(00:26:50) V1 of GoHenry
(00:35:26) Getting to 10,000 Customers
(00:38:33) Conversion Rates from Social Media
(00:41:51) Getting Acquired
(00:50:59) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:51:33) One Piece of Advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
Jaspar graduated YC & closed a $11.5M seed round this week. He launched Artisan just 8 months ago. And this is the first venture-backed startup he's ever ran.
He started with product-led-growth but struggled. In May, he moved to a sales-first go-to-market & scaled from $200K ARR to $1.3M ARR by September.
We go deep and tactical to figure out exactly what he did to grow so fast: from hiring a Chief of Staff as one of his first hires, to living in the same house as his employees, to meeting 50-100 Account Executives for each AE he hires. He shares specific numbers, specific tactics, and specific mistakes he made along the way.
Why you should listen
- How solving a #1 priority problem is the single biggest reason for fast growth.
- How to use LinkedIn, Reddit, and SEO to generate so many leads your AE's are drowning. (Jaspar's AEs do 20 demo calls per day).
- How to close yourself by hiring a Chief of Staff early on.
- How to find 10/10 Account Executives that closes $300K ARR in their first month.
Keywords
startup growth, sales strategy, marketing tactics, customer success, hiring AEs, product-led growth, sales-led growth, founder insights, business scaling, ARR, product-market fit
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:03:44) Getting leads from Reddit
(00:06:00) Launching V1 quickly
(00:12:28) Getting leads from blogs & SEO
(00:15:33) Getting leads from LinkedIn
(00:17:10) Why you should hire a Chief of Staff Early
(00:21:30) How to hire the best Account Executives
(00:24:46) How to get to $1M ARR
(00:26:10) Making Customers Successful
(00:29:43) One Piece of Advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
Cody started a ride-share business in 2017 with no capital. He focused exclusively on small towns (population <100K) where Uber/Lyft weren't available. I know as a VC I would've passed if he'd pitched me when he started—and I would've been dead wrong.
So far he's raised only $2.1M, compared to Uber's $30B+ raised. And yet, he built a business doing $20M+ in annual revenue that is live in a dozen markets and multiple countries.
At one point, he came weeks away from bankruptcy when ride-share froze during the early days of COVID. He goes through exactly what he did to survive—and to grow well beyond where he was pre-COVID just a year after.
If you're bootstrapping or competing with better funded players, check this episode out.
Why you should listen:
Keywords
Uride, rideshare, entrepreneurship, bankruptcy, business growth, startup challenges, market expansion
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:48) Thunder Bay Ridesharing
(00:03:49) A Problem that Shouldn't Exist
(00:06:44) The Launch
(00:08:15) Growing and Outgrowing
(00:10:50) A Bylaw Loophole
(00:13:27) Expanding to Other Communities
(00:17:05) Three Phases
(00:21:54) Surviving
(00:29:18) The Demand Curse of Ride Sharing
(00:34:09) Unride Focus
(00:39:46) Long Ways to Go
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
I tried to pay my employees as little as possible. I thought I was being resourceful—& it seemed to work. Until it totally backfired. I learned my lesson the hard way.
No founder wants to hire B-level or C-level talent. Everyone is looking for A-players. But most founders don't put in the work. And they end up with B-level teams.
If you're serious about getting and keeping A-players there's only one way to do it. You need to have a coherent strategy, you need to be intentional, and you need to make it priority number one. Here's how.
Takeaways
Keywords
founders, compensation, hiring, A players, salary strategy, employee retention, startup culture, leadership, team building, performance reviews
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
Kyle left his job as a hacker at the NSA to launch Huntress. He bootstrapped for 3 years and burned all his savings. One of his co-founders quit. He got into an accelerator program, but had to sleep in his car for 16 weeks because he couldn't afford a hotel.
Finally, 3 years in he'd hit $1.5M ARR. So he pitched 60 VCs for a Series A—and got 60 'no's. He was forced to raise a small, $1M inside round.
But then things changed:
2018: $1.5M ARR
2019: $5M ARR
2020: $10M ARR
2021: $20M ARR
2022: $40M ARR
2023: $70M ARR
2024: $100M+ ARR
Huntress is valued at $2B.
The investors who backed his $1M bridge are up 140x.
Now every VC wants to invest—and Kyle's the one saying 'no'.
Why you should listen:
Keywords
entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, product market fit, startup journey, military experience, SMB market, funding challenges, automation, human expertise, business growth
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:2:01) Working at the NSA
(00:6:14) A big win in counter cyber terrorism
(00:10:00) What gave way to Huntress
(00:14:22) Pitching to a startup accelerator
(00:16:29) Adopting curiosity
(00:21:04) Getting ahead of cyber criminals
(00:26:00) Starting to grow
(00:32:50) Cult or conviction
(00:35:00) It takes grit
(00:39:50) Learning from people's lessons
(00:42:20) Cockroaches and underdogs
(00:46:10) Three strikes, I'm out
(00:52:56) Having a military background
(00:56:17) One piece of advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
MrBeast's 36-page framework leaked this week. It's how he built a $1B+ company and became the #1 YouTuber in the world. His channel is worth over $1B. For the first time ever, we get to see how MrBeast operates.
We go through the 7 most important things that startup founders can learn from MrBeast. From what maniacal obsession looks like, what it means to be an "A player", to how to teach employees to never take 'no' for an answer. In the leaked document called "How to Succeed at MrBeast Productions, he goes into specific details and share clear examples of what you should do.
MrBeast Mode puts Founder Mode to shame.
Keywords
MrBeast, onboarding, clear mission, hiring A players, obsession, extreme ownership, consultants, persistence, documentation
Why you should listen
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:00:42) 1. Have a clear mission
(00:02:05) 2. Hire A players
(00:03:49) 3. Be Obsessed
(00:05:22) 4. Extreme Ownership
(00:07:19) 5. Copy & Steal
(00:09:29) 6. Never take 'no' for an answer
(00:010:49) 7. Write a doc!
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
Andres Bilboa is one of the co-founders of Rappi, the highest-valued app of LATAM ($5B valuation). Now he runs an incubator called Makers and has invested in dozens of startups.
In this episode, he shares how Rappi started with no funding and no network. They added restaurants into their platform without permission and gave cash to couriers to buy meals. Demand was through the roof. But just as they started closing funding and scaling, Uber and UberEats came to compete.
Here's the story of how Rappi found product market fit, and what Andres learned about founder psychology and mental health.
Why you should listen
Keywords
Rappi, on-demand delivery, competition, growth, fundraising, founders, ambition, drive, entrepreneurship, fear of failure, achievement, therapy, fundraising
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:53) The Origin of Rappi
(00:06:58) How Rappi Works
(00:13:37) RappiCash
(00:15:55) Colombia's World Class Convenience
(00:18:05) It's a Winner Takes All Market
(00:20:44) Andres' Roles at Rappi
(00:22:27) Competing with Uber
(00:26:00) Crazy Doesn't Cut It
(00:29:51) The Problem is You are What You Achieve but Nothing Is Ever Enough
(00:40:44) Fear is Unproductive
(00:45:25) What is Makers
(00:50:30) One Piece of Advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
Douglas has been in media and PR for over two decades. He’s the founder of Betakit Inc and has been running Betakit, Canada’s TechCrunch, for nearly 10 years. He understands what startups need to do to leverage PR, and how PR can help startups hire, fundraise and sell.
On this episode, we get tactical and go deep on exactly when it makes sense to use PR and how founders can get the most from it.
Why you should listen
Keywords
PR, media strategies, startups, business goals, target audiences, media storytelling, marketing initiatives, traction, leads, stories, funding announcements, product launches, media profiling, channels, audiences, founder, pitch, media, framing, storytelling, target audience, channels, journalists, PR, origin story, company values, thought leadership, customer stories, employee stories
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:05:19) The 101 of Media PR
(00:06:04) Three Questions
(00:08:40) An Operational Lens for Media Engagement
(00:12:16) Understanding the Target Audience
(00:19:55) Inbound Marketing
(00:25:20) A Super Important Caveat
(00:29:08) Roam Auto as an Example
(00:34:00) The Right Channel
(00:36:40) Treating Media Pitching Like Investor Pitching
(00:43:04) Be Professionally Interested
(00:44:49) Putting a Human Face on Your Company
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
The podcast currently has 125 episodes available.