InProd

This week, we sat down with Julia and Brian, co-founders of Pickle. Julia and Brian met at Blackstone before leaving to start Pickle, a P2P clothing rental marketplace. We discuss their founder dynamic, lessons learned through execution, leveraging micro-influencers, and scaling through network effects. We also explored their experience raising capital, how to identify the right investors, and managing round dynamics. 

Episode Chapters: 

1. Blackstone to Pickle - 1:58
2. What is Pickle? - 4:13
3. Reaching consumers - 6:24
4. Secondhand marketplaces - 10:03
5. Acquiring first closets - 13:22
6. Supply side demand - 18:29
7. Measuring success - 22:11
8. Kickstarting organic channels - 24:02 
9. Raising VC capital - 26:45
10. Two areas of validation - 31:35
11. Quick-fire round - 33:25

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

This week, we sat down with Div Garg, Founder of MultiOn. During the conversation, we discussed Div's journey from big tech to startups, the promise of agents, and how the LLMs are tackling agents. We also discussed how the agent ecosystem will evolve over time, whether we should pay our agents, and building a team as a first-time founder.

Episode Chapters:

1. Working in Big Tech - 2:28
2. Intro to AI agents - 3:22
3. MultiOn's Mission - 4:50
4. What will agents disrupt? - 8:37
5. Agent headwinds - 11:20
6. Product launch that didn't work - 13:40
7. The role of LLMs - 17:05
8. Upper limits of agents - 19:27
9. The value of agents - 21:43
10. Building an organization - 25:45
11. Raising VC funding - 29:15
12. Quick fire questions - 32:16

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today

This week, we sat down with  Brett Perlmutter, Founder and CEO of Bulletpitch. During the conversation, we cover Brett's journey starting Bulletpitch as an undergraduate student to hosting events and writing for thousands of readers. We also cover wanting to break into VC, why top VCs are fantastic media companies, and why media yields deal flow.

Episode Chapters: 

1. Starting Bulletpitch - 1:04
2. Building the pipeline - 5:50
3. The content evolution - 8:03
4. Company selection - 12:30
5. Why scarcity is critical - 16:44
6. Growth hacking in the early days - 22:50
7. Building a syndicate - 30:00
8. Brett's value add - 34:55 
9. Quick-fire round - 37:03 

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

This week, we sat down with Bobby Pinero, CEO and Co-Founder of Equals. During the conversation, we cover Bobby's journey from being inspired by "engineering entrepreneurship" at Stanford to leading the finance team at Intercom and then starting Equals. We also covered the moat behind Equals, having a clear end-user, competing with Excel and Google Sheets, and the importance of brand building.

Episode Chapters:

1. Bobby's upbringing - 1:46
2. Scaling with Intercom - 7:14
3. Seed to start Equals - 10:00
4. What is Equals? - 13:44
5. Why switch to Equals - 18:43
6. Gaining market share - 23:37
7. Two ways to grow - 27:50
8. Brand building - 32:18
9. Expand the TAM with AI - 34:285
10. Ending Questions - 36:43

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This week, we sat down with  Eli Wachs, Co-founder and CEO of Footprint. During the conversation, we covered Eli’s journey from being an undergraduate student at Stanford to an obsession with KYC and starting Footprint. We also cover KYC, starting with the Patriot Act, how to find early customers, execution at scale, and Eli’s second career as a comedian. 

Episode Chapters: 

1. What makes Eli, Eli - 1:12
2. Innovation at Stanford - 3:33
3. Know Your Customer (KYC) - 5:42
4. Why should customers trust Footprint? - 9:45
5. The value Footprint provides - 12:46
6. Working with larger banks - 16:50
7. Keeping consumer data secure - 18:30
8. What is keeping Eli up? - 20:48 
9. Moral guidance around data - 23:37
10. Stand up comedy - 27:35 
11. Ending questions - 31:45

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This week, we sat down with  Avante Price, CEO and Co-Founder of POSH. During the conversation, we cover Avante's journey from being an undergraduate student at NYU to dropping out and starting POSH. We also cover starting an event community, finding success in a consumer-facing space, optimizing for profitability, and hiring at the early stages.

Episode Chapters:

1. DJ to Startups - 1:12
2. Three Missing Themes in Event Platforms - 5:56
3. Deciding to Drop Out - 8:24
4. Creating a New Market - 11:20
5. Gaining Market Share - 15:25
6. 2024 Roadmap - 17:51
7. Managing as a Younger Founder - 23:15
8. The Shopify Journey - 26:30
9. Events on the POSH Platform - 30:22
10. Quick Fire - 32:13

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

This week, we sat down with Avery Rosin, a Partner at Lead Edge Capital. During the conversation, we cover Avery's long journey at Lead Edge, where he has impressively navigated the path from Analyst to Partner. We also cover Lead Edge's strategy, Avery's areas of focus, his thoughts on the current macro environment, and his advice to aspiring growth equity investors.   

Episode Chapters:

1. Selling Cutco Knives - 1:20
2. Staying Power at a Fund - 5:25
3. Lead Edge's Strategy - 8:10
4. Retention is King - 12:50
5. Determining the Best Benchmarks - 16:06
6. Investing as a Generalist - 19:50
7. Healthcare IT - 21:21
8. Raising Fund II and Beyond - 26:22
9. IPO Market Opens Up - 28:22
10. Quick Fire Round - 31:55

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

We are excited to sit down with Sara Choi, Partner at Wing VC! Prior to Wing, Sara co-founded the mobile data company Airfox. Since 2019, Sara has dedicated her efforts to investing in early-stage companies operating at the intersection of bio and data. During this episode, we discuss raising VC capital (versus not), the impact of a thematic focus, and the future trajectories of drug discovery.

Episode Chapters:

1. The American Dream - 1:15
2. Founder Journey X 2 - 5:33
3. Day 1 at Wing VC - 8:10
4. Entry Stage Valuations - 12:55
5. Sector Specialization - 14:30
6. Data's Impact on Biology - 19:04
7. Sourcing Superpower - 23:43
8. VC Office Hours - 26:50
9. Drug Development - 28:37
10. Healthcare with Employers - 36:21
11. Ending Questions - 39:10

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We are excited to sit down with Pete Mathias, Partner at Alumni Ventures. Prior to VC, Pete was the lead drummer in a rock band, Filliger, where he traveled the world for 14 years. Later in his career, Pete found his way into the venture world and focused on strategic technologies critical to the United States. During the episode, we discuss breaking into VC from a non-traditional background, a network-powered approach, and why software has eaten the world.

Episode Chapters:

1. From Graduation to Rockband - 1:30
2. Discovering Venture Capital - 4:15
3. VC with a Non-Traditional Background - 6:54
4. Two Types of Investment Opportunities - 10:27
5. "I am wet clay" - 13:36
6. Investing in Nuclear Energy - 18:05
7. Tips for the "Partner Path" - 25:20
8. Is VC the Right Fit? - 27:45 
9. Ending Questions - 28:58

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

We are excited to sit down with Alessio Fanelli, Partner and CTO at Decibel. Alessio grew up in Rome and made his way to the US as an engineer at 645 before landing at Decibel Partners, an early-stage fund focused on data, dev tools, and cyber security. During the episode, we discuss dropping out of school to start a company, the importance of open-source software, how to diligence pre-product market fit, and the next wave of large language models.

Episode Chapters:

1. Growing up in Rome - 1:20
2. Learning to Code - 3:27
3. Joining 645 - 7:10
4. Partner & CTO @ Decibel - 10:42
5. Open Source Software - 15:56
6. Diligence as a Pre-PMF Investor - 26:10
7. Challenging Open AI - 29:54 
8. Now's the Time for Dev Tools? - 34:50
9. Ending Questions - 36:17

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

Check out Alessio's podcast!