Mantle Mondays

First-time founders: stop underpaying for top talent.

Adrian Camara learned this the hard way while building Athennian. When you're hiring a VP of Sales and one candidate costs 40-50% more than another, your instinct is to save the money.Adrian's take after raising $40M+ and scaling through COVID boom to tech winter:"The leverage they create over time, the quality of team they build around them—that incremental $100-200K you pay them amplifies into so much enterprise value."

Alex Norman, co-founder of TechTO and managing partner at N49P Ventures, joins Mantle Mondays to share his journey building one of the most vibrant startup communities while investing in 80+ early-stage companies. From the power of random collisions to what actually predicts founder success at pre-seed, Alex reveals why community must come first and why it's never been easier to start a company, but never harder to succeed.

Mike Cooke, co-founder and CEO of AmacaThera, joins Amar to share his journey building a biotech company that's tackling post-operative pain and the opioid crisis.

Mark MacLeod has seen it all—14 years as CFO at companies like Shopify and FreshBooks, founding partner at Real Ventures, ran a boutique investment bank that sold over $1B in companies, and now coaches CEOs of venture-backed startups while hosting The Startup CEO Show.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Mark shares hard-earned insights from his journey through the startup world, reveals what he's learned from coaching 100+ CEOs and interviewing 80+ more, and explains why the traditional Silicon Valley hustle narrative is actually destroying companies.

Mark's Newsletter: markmacleod.me

Limitless Community: limitless.ceo

The Startup CEO Show: podcast.markmacleod.me

Amar sits down with fellow serial entrepreneur, George Babu, founder and CEO of Aire Labs, as he shares his remarkable journey from working at BlackBerry during its $90 billion peak, to pioneering AI-powered robotics at Kindred, to now tackling the climate crisis with innovative software solutions.

Learn more about Mantle: ⁠⁠⁠withmantle.com

Cato Pastoll, co-founder and CEO of Loop, joins Amit to share his journey building a modern global banking platform for Canadian founders doing business across borders.In this episode, Cato discusses the challenges of pivoting from a lending company to a comprehensive banking solution, the importance of living in your customers' shoes, and practical advice on hiring, retention, and fundraising for early-stage founders.

Learn more about Mantle: ⁠⁠withmantle.com

Steven Trieu, CFO at 8090 Solutions, joins Amit to share his practical advice for early-stage founders navigating compensation, cap tables, and their first rounds of funding from a CFO's perspective.

Learn more about Mantle: ⁠withmantle.com

In this episode, Willful's CEO and co-founder, Erin Bury, joins Mantle's co-founder, Amit Jethani, to share how she turned a personal story into one of Canada’s leading online estate planning startups. Erin opens up about the realities of scaling a mission-driven startup, managing growth, and the behind-the-scenes challenges of equity, governance, and operations.

From early product decisions to empowering teams and working with investors, Erin breaks down what every founder should know about building a company built to last.

Learn more about Mantle: ⁠withmantle.com

From ringing up groceries at Food Basics in Toronto to leading one of the fastest-growing startups in Silicon Valley, Nilam Ganenthiran’s journey is a masterclass in humility, intuition, and leadership.In this in-depth conversation with Amar Varma (Co-founder, Mantle), Nilam opens up about his path from cashier to President of Instacart, where he helped scale the company from a single city to a $39 billion private valuation. He shares the highs and lows of startup growth — including moments of imposter syndrome, a pivotal board meeting that forced Instacart to focus on profitability, and the enduring lesson that “you can’t punt building a real business forever.”

Learn more about Mantle: withmantle.com