I met Fortune Senior Finance Reporter Allie Garfinkle in February 2024 at an event for comms professionals. 

She had just taken over the Term Sheet daily deals newsletter covering startups, venture capital, M&A, trends and pretty much anything tech-related.

When news broke right after our panel that Reddit was filing to go public, she didn’t have a desk or a chair, so she grabbed her laptop, sat on the floor with her back to the wall and began drafting her next column.

She wasn’t stressed out — she seemed excited and laser-focused.

Term Sheet comes out five times each week which means she’s up and reviewing reader tips between 4am and 6am. “I actually write every day because I want it to feel urgent. It's sort of this odd equivalent of being journalistically naked,” she said.

A lot of tech reporters use their platforms to make predictions, pick winners and embroider their opinions, but Allie tends to play it right down the middle. 

“The thing that I probably excel at is sort of being somewhere between neither being a cheerleader nor being an incredibly harsh critic,” she said. “I actually try to approach every person in front of me on their terms, like, “okay, who are you?”

(3:49) “I started at Fortune in January. New year, new job. I'd actually never written a daily newsletter before, ever.”

(7:00) “I think there are great hot takers in this business. But I don't think I will ever be one of them.”

(9:27) “What's the bar for including things? I try to put myself in the position of the readers.”

(11:57) “The Reddit IPO — actually the day we met — I had another story in the can. I recall this.”

(14:40) “There's a certain kind of conventional story of success I find incredibly boring.”

(16:53) “There's sometimes stories where I don't know if I'm the right person.”

(17:13) Why Elon Musk just isn’t that interesting to write about.

(19:07) How Allie really feels about writing tech trend pieces.

(21:44) She explains how Stephen Sondheim’s rules for songwriting also apply to tech reporting.

(25:04) Allie’s advice for early-stage founders who are fundraising in 2024.

(29:04) “I don't want to work with jerks. This is something that I've had to learn the hard way over time.”

• Allie Garfinkle, Senior Finance Reporter, Fortune
  • [email protected]

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.

[email protected]

Before Igor Jablokov was CEO and founder of Pryon, he worked with Apple on a prototype of Siri. He also founded a speech recognition company that Amazon acquired to develop its Alexa AI and Echo devices.

He joined me on the podcast to talk about the evolution and challenges of building AI technologies and companies, different phases of startup growth, and how AI is transforming enterprise software procurement. 

Igor also offered his insights on the current AI hype cycle, explained the concept of “knowledge friction,” and shared some personal anecdotes and observations about achieving enduring entrepreneurial success in the AI domain.

Runtime: 42:55

(2:42) “We were their first AI-related acquisition that birthed what many people know as Alexa.” 

(6:44) What happens when you can’t commercialize the technology you’ve created?

(9:11) How Pryon originated the concept of “knowledge friction.”

(14:33) Igor deconstructs the three main types of founders working in AI today.

(18:38) Where he thinks we are in the current AI hype cycle.

(21:14) “Before ChatGPT, it was a desert and very few of us survive in the desert with a small amount of water.”

(23:06) Inside Pryon’s September 2023 $100M Series B round.

(25:26) Why early-stage AI startups have a major advantage over legacy tech companies.

(28:07) Founders need “practical experience in an industry that eventually you're going to be a part of.”

(35:00) “Tech is as perishable as fruits and vegetables you can procure from Trader Joe's.”

(38:58) Questions Igor would ask the CEO if he was interviewing for a role with a startup.

• Igor Jablokov, CEO, Pryon

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Thanks for listening!

– Walter.

[email protected]

If you're building a first-to-market solution using emerging technology that could meaningfully contribute to society and generate a 50x return, TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage wants to hear from you.

I invited him on the podcast to learn about TDK Ventures’ approach to corporate VC, which uses backcasting to identify ideal future technologies and then invest in entrepreneurs who are working towards those goals. 

Portfolio companies include startups that make things like flying taxis, batteries from reclaimed materials and technology for nuclear fusion.

“There's no doubt in my mind that no one can forecast the future,” said Nicolas. 

“But what we can do, all of us, is to dream of an ideal future, then backcast from there, and look at what are the gaps to get to this ideal future.”

Runtime: 43:31

• 4:50: “The origin story of TDK Ventures was three interactions in classes from a Stanford executive program in 2018.”

• Nicolas Sauvage, president, TDK Ventures
  • Entrepreneurship: A superhero’s journey

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.

[email protected]

In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, host Walter Thompson engages in a comprehensive discussion with Hantz Févry, co-founder and CEO of Stoovo, an AI-based geospatial data company.

Hantz shares invaluable insights into separating one's identity from their job, the importance of rapid execution in startups, and the journey from working at Google to launching his own company.

This episode targets tech workers aspiring to start their own businesses and immigrants in the U.S. on worker visas, highlighting the unique challenges and strategies for achieving entrepreneurial success. Hantz speaks on redefining success, Stoovo's pivotal evolution post-pandemic, and the critical importance of profitability and investment strategy.

Tune in to gain practical advice and inspiration for your startup journey.

Runtime: 36:23

2:26: “We realized that when it comes to the last hundred meters, there's a big gap.”

6:34: “I don't like to call it a pivot. I like to say that Stoovo evolved.”

8:35: “I do not think pivoting is a bad word. Actually, I think it's a sign of resilience.”

10:55: “By working together, it was very natural for the whole team to transition.”

15:07: “I was working at a company called Google, but I am Hantz, I'm not a Googler.”

17:10: “You might get there. You might not, but at least you were courageous enough to try.”

18:36: How Hantz defines work-life balance

22:20: Before he could launch Stoovo, “I had to wait until I had my green card.”

25:16: “I didn't have a uncle here, I do not have that famous garage where I can just sleep”

27:37: How Hantz and his co-founder Pierre connected with early investors

29:19: His framework for assessing founder-investor fit

33:38: Fundraising advice for Black and immigrant founders  

34:32: Why “you don't need to be in Silicon Valley to build a business.”

• Hantz Fevry, CEO/co-founder, Stoovo

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fund-build-scale/id1719488387

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0EbC8PTUSfpZ4USPC9ErnN

Follow Fund/Build/Scale on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.

[email protected]

Enterprise companies like Salesforce, Oracle and Cisco use sales-led growth to drive revenue and build relationships with potential customers.

Early-stage startups can't afford to rely on traditional sales and marketing, which is where product-led growth (PLG) comes in. Instead of creating slick sales collateral and hiring aggressive go-getters, PLG presents the product itself as the primary driver for customer acquisition, expansion and conversion.

"It's an end-user-based revenue motion," said Laura Schaffer, VP of Growth at analytics platform Amplitude. "So you're trying to ultimately drive revenue growth by focusing on the end user."

I invited her on the podcast to talk about how founding teams with limited resources can build a robust PLG framework that gathers actionable data and drives engagement.

"If you think of payment, it's just a kind of friction. Just like completing a signup is friction. Just like learning a new product is friction," said Laura. "Payment and pricing and charging is just another friction."

• Introduction to Laura Schaffer and her background in sales and growth

• Laura Schaffer, VP Growth, Amplitude

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.

In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I interviewed Amex Ventures Managing Director Kevin Weber about some of the nuances between traditional VC and corporate venture capital.

It’s quite a mix: he’s looking for founders who can create value for individual American Express cardholders and the firm itself, so we talked about what types of opportunities he’s looking for, some of the problems he’s trying to solve, and the role risk plays in pushing organizational boundaries. 

“In many cases, I actually want to take more risk in some of the investments that I'm going to make because that risk and the investment that I'm making for the potential opportunity that I could have to American Express is likely worth the bet,” he said.

If you’re interested in pitching Amex Ventures or another CVC, listen in for insights on fintech, AI, and e-commerce investments, the importance of aligning startup strategies with corporate goals, and key advice for first-time founders on fundraising and market positioning.

00:19 Meet Kevin Weber: Amex Ventures' Managing Director

00:42 The Role of Corporate Venture Capital

01:24 Kevin's Career Journey

02:53 Amex Ventures' Investment Strategy

03:06 Differences Between Corporate and Traditional VC

04:05 Strategic Value and Partnerships

05:30 Focus Areas and Portfolio Companies

07:49 AI and Machine Learning in Venture Capital

09:29 Investment Process and Founder Relationships

15:11 Turning Investments into Partnerships

20:23 Collaborating with Businesses to Achieve Goals

20:39 Addressing Pain Points and Future Trends

21:10 Focus on AI

22:23 Business Goals and Fraud Prevention

24:09 Investment Strategies and Pivots

25:37 Exit Strategies and Acquisition Policies

31:40 Working with Accelerators and Incubators

34:44 Advice for First-Time Founders

39:07 Risk Tolerance in Corporate Venture Capital

• Kevin Weber, Managing Director, Amex Ventures

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.

Everyone's looking for ways to implement AI solutions, but integrating them into existing systems means entering uncharted territory. 

Despite the hype cycle, a majority of enterprise customers “are spending 70-80% of their capacity maintaining legacy application infrastructure,” said Jeremiah Stone, CTO of SnapLogic.

As a result, these companies often lack the necessary talent to effectively assess or integrate AI, making compliance and security the two biggest challenges for AI-first founders.

To overcome these and other adoption barriers, early-stage CEOs need to become educators and great listeners before they can ever act as salespeople.

In this episode, I interviewed Jeremiah to learn more about identifying and overcoming barriers to AI adoption, strategies for effective customer engagement and the importance of transparency and iterative experimentation in AI development.

• Security and compliance “are the two things that are challenging for adoption right now.”

• Jeremiah Stone, CTO, SnapLogic

Thanks for listening!

-- Walter.

Deb Kemper is a managing partner of Golden Seeds Ventures, a firm that focuses on backing early-stage, women-led companies.

She joined me on the podcast to share tactics with founders who want to build networks with investors outside of Silicon Valley and discuss some of the challenges facing anyone seeking follow-on funding these days.

We also talked about the criteria investors use to gauge the strengths of teams and their ideas.

“I know some investor groups do full-on psychological assessments of founders and their teams,” she said, noting that she prefers to learn through observation. One red flag: entrepreneurs who can’t easily explain their ideas aren’t ready to work with investors.

“If I go to a networking event and someone can't tell me in 60 seconds what they do — or even less — I'm done,” said Deb.

“They just want to talk to you and tell you everything about their company. And I walk away saying, “I still don't know what they do.’”

Episode breakdown

• How Golden Seeds Ventures works with Golden Seeds Angel Network

Links

• Deb Kemper, managing partner, Golden Seeds Ventures

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.

One of the first interviews I did for the podcast was with Renen Hallak, CEO and founder of AI infrastructure company VAST Data. 

The company launched in 2019, and three years later, it was ranked No. 5 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™. Today, its customer base includes massive organizations like Disney, Verizon, the US Air Force and the US Department of Energy. It’s one of the fastest-growing companies in its sector.

You can probably tell I was a little nervous.

Most of the questions I asked covered VAST Data’s first eighteen months: his customer discovery process, how his team worked to gain traction and build credibility with clients and also, why he looked for a co-founder who could take over go-to-market strategy.

Renen also spoke frankly about his previous experiences launching startups, which weren’t as successful.

When it came to fundraising, “I did not know how to do it,” he said. “I didn't understand the game. I thought that VCs judge ideas based on the merit of the idea. In fact, I think most of the weight goes to who you are, what you've done, and who vouches for you, in terms of who they choose to invest in.”

If you’re an academic or a worker in a technical role who’s thinking about starting up, you’ll definitely want to listen to this episode.

LINKS

• Renen Hallak, CEO/founder, VAST Data

EPISODE BREAKDOWN

• What VAST Data does

Viviana Faga is general partner at Felicis, a venture firm that invests in seed to Series B startups in several sectors. Since its founding in 2006, the company has backed breakout companies like Adyen, Canva, Shopify and Runway. 

Because she’s a former operator with experience in positioning, branding and go-to-market strategy, I asked her to come on Fund/Build/Scale to talk about how she evaluates seed-stage AI investments and share some of the tactics she’s using to help founders “really focus on this idea of a defensible brand.”

• A look at Felicis’ strategy of investing across different sectors and stages

• Viviana Faga, general partner, Felicis

Thanks for listening,

– Walter.

• FBS on Substack