START

Direct sales reply rates are going down. AI spam is making it worse

Nikhil Reddy saw the shift early: as trust matters more, partnerships become a real revenue channel

Problem is most partnership teams are still running on spreadsheets. They don't know where to focus. Attribution across emails, events, and co-marketing is a mess

Arzule uses CRM data, market signals, and ecosystem signals to help partnership teams discover and prioritize the partnerships that actually drive revenue

Two people building it. Already working with companies generating over $400M in ARR

Applied late to YC's fall batch, never even got a reply. Applied again for winter, got in, and their group partner told them to pivot the next day. That became Arzule

🎙️ Nikhil Reddy, Co-Founder & CEO, Arzule on the Fondo START pod

01:09 What Arzule does and who it's for
02:24 Direct sales is dying. Trust is taking over
02:43 Pivoting mid-batch from multi-agent coordination to partnerships
03:12 Why partnership teams are finally getting their moment
03:54 The data layer: CRM signals, ecosystem signals, company-specific inputs
04:09 Why attributing revenue to partnerships is so hard
05:24 Affiliate links, rev-share, bounties, and contracts in one platform
06:03 What onboarding looks like for larger customers
07:02 Start analyzing everything early, even if it feels relationship-driven
07:48 Tracking signals like new partnership hires and market expansion
08:28 Revenue attribution as the core of predictable partnerships
09:26 Applied late, got no reply, applied again, pivoted the day after getting in
10:02 Move fast and pick something you want to do for 10 years

Setting up a single trigger in Zendesk takes 30 clicks

With Pillar it takes one sentence

JJ Maxwell built an open source copilot you build into your app. Users talk to it in natural language and it drives the app for them

The problem: products can do a lot but users don't always know what's there. So they ask support. Or they churn

Before Pillar, JJ built a creator ad marketplace with about 40,000 creators. Then spent two years on another product through YC W24. About $30M on the platform, real users, decent growth. 

Pivoted anyway. 

As soon as he lost belief it was gonna work, he ripped the bandaid off

Web MCP is already rolling out. Companies trying to stop agents from taking actions are fighting a losing battle

🎙️ JJ Maxwell, Founder & CEO of Pillar (trypillar.com) on the Fondo START pod

01:56 What Pillar is: a copilot that’s easy to build into your app
02:19 Why users ask support or churn when product complexity hides value
03:05 “30 clicks” in Zendesk becomes a sentence
03:39 Why AI can do this now: models are better at reasoning and chaining actions
04:19 What implementation looks like: wrap existing frontend code and tool calls
05:25 Why teams can often get Pillar working in about a day
06:09 The Double journey, real traction, and the decision to pivot
11:00 Web MCP and why agent-ready software is coming
12:23 Why companies may not be able to stop agents from taking actions forever

The script has been the same for decades: find a co-founder

Investors demanded it.
Accelerators screened for it.

The narrative became so entrenched that founders started pairing up out of obligation, not alignment.

Julian Weisser, founder of SOLO and ODF, has a name for this phenomenon: co-founders of convenience

And he's proving they're not just unnecessary-they're often the reason companies fail.

This week, Julian released 'The State of Solo Founding' report: "Today, solo founding is considered odd. Soon it will be the default. This report features exclusive Carta data alongside commentary from solo founders who have raised over $250M and the investors who backed them."

The comprehensive tracks solo founder rates across thousands of startups, the headline finding is historic: for the first time, over one-third of new startups are solo-founded (That's 36% in 2025, up from under 25% in 2019)

👉 Download the report here: https://solofounders.com/report

👉 Apply to the Solo Founders Program today. A three-month, in-person residency for 6 ambitious solo founders. Next cohort starts Jan. 23, 2026: solofounders.com/program

(00:44) Why the report matters now
(02:17) The data: 24% → 36%, first year over 1-in-3
(04:32) 3 forces: AI, visible wins, collapsing narrative
(06:00) Investor POV
(07:30) Org design insight: cutting the middle layer
(09:47) Download report: http://solofounders.com/report
(11:01) ODF26: half the cohort flipped to solo
(12:33) Inside SOLO
(14:30) Why coworking doesn't work for startups
(16:37) Outcomes: $1M ARR in 2 months & more
(17:19) Follow @solofounding & @joinodf

Where to find Julian Weisser:‍
X: https://x.com/julianweisser
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianweisser
Website: https://weisser.io‍

Where to find SOLO: ‍
X: https://x.com/solofounding
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solo-founders
Website: https://solofounders.com

Where to find ODF:‍
X: https://x.com/joinodf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solo-founders
Website: https://joinodf.com‍

Newsletters: ‍
Texts with Founders: https://textswithfounders.com
Multitudes: https://multitudes.weisser.io‍

Where to find David Phillips:
X: https://x.com/davj
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davjphillips‍

Brought to you by:‍ Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups @ fondo.com

Nate Matherson has spent 10+ years as a founder. He's built companies and even exited. After that first exit, he started angel investing in dozens of companies, then launched a fund.

Numeral was one of his early bets. He sent Numeral's CEO Sam an email. By the end of the day, he was working there as Head of Growth. Now he's helping scale the YC-backed sales tax platform serving over 2,000 customers.

Nate's seen what happens when founders don't think about sales tax. "They actually found out that they owed about a half million dollars in sales tax… the buyer subtracted that off what would have gone to the founders."

When Nate was a founder, he'd log into Stripe and that sales tax dashboard was lit up like a Christmas tree. Numeral does free nexus studies and monitoring — takes five minutes to set up, plugs into Stripe and Rippling, then runs itself.

They launched their SaaS product recently, and their whole concept is set it and forget it. They actually love it when customers don't log in. Some of Nate's new learnings? "When I was a founder, I was always pretty good at marketing. I was just marketing not-so-great products, which made marketing a lot harder." At Numeral, with the right product at the right time, everything clicked.

And he knows: great products make marketing easy. Timing makes it effortless.

‍

Key Topics Covered

• [00:10] $500K sales tax bill found during due diligence
• [01:10] What is nexus and how it triggers
• [01:51] From founder to angel to fund manager to operator
• [04:02] 10+ years building, angel investments, vc fund
• [05:27] Numeral: e-commerce to SaaS journey
• [08:12] States that tax SaaS + global VAT complexity
• [08:40] "Set it and forget it"
• [10:37] Free nexus study + monitoring in 5 minutes
• [11:24] What's working in growth 
• [13:28] Great products make marketing easy, timing makes it effortless
• [14:25] Nate's investing rule per batch

Follow Nate Matherson:
X: @NateMatherson
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/natematherson

‍

Follow Numeral:
X: @numeral
YouTube: youtube.com/@numeraltax
Website: numeral.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/numeralhq

‍

‍FollowDavid Phillips:

‍X: https://x.com/davj

‍LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips

‍

Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com

Jayden Clark didn’t abandon music. He re-scored it for distribution. 

After music school, a hedge fund tour, and a B2B SaaS sprint, he launched MOTS—short, sharp episodes designed to be both of the moment and built to last a quarter. 

His north star isn’t “go viral.” It’s “be clear.”

The insight is disarmingly pragmatic: structure is not the enemy of creativity—it’s the amplifier. Lists compress cognition. 

A beginning–build–end gives every clip a runway and a landing. 

When a five-replies-deep roast on X unexpectedly detonated, MOTS podcast already had the scaffolding to catch the surge. That’s the signature move: follow a consistent weekly cadence, then publish “emergency episodes” when the culture pops. 

The result is a feed that feels alive without feeling random.

‍

Key Topics Covered

• Career path: SF Conservatory → hedge fund → B2B SaaS → MOTS + Atlas Media Labs
• Jazz formulas = content formulas: two-five-one progressions, building blocks, beginning-middle-end
• Why lists work: digestibility, structure, pattern-matching
• "Neither timely nor timeless": weekly SF tech culture + emergency current-thing episodes
• Emergency episode #1: Brian Chesky's bench press 
• The viral ratio: Meta Ray-Bans clip → five-tweets-deep → Theo's reply → Seth's "roast" GIF
• "16 hours of screen time": the competitive advantage
• Distribution strategy across Twitter, YouTube, Apple, Spotify

‍

Timestamps:

00:20) "neither timely nor timeless"

(00:51) Keeping the music alive

(02:10) SF Music → hedge fund → SaaS → pod

(03:20) Jazz improvisation: a content strategy

(03:42) Building blocks & two-five-one progressions

(04:35) How to make content easily digestible

(04:53) The @theo ratio backstory

(06:46) @sethsetse viral quote-tweet

(07:17) Emergency pods vs. weekly episodes

(07:22) Emergency Pod #1: @bchesky's bench press

(09:42) Where to find @mots_pod
‍

Where to find Jayden Clark:

X: @creatine_cycle
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jayden-clark-75991a1aa

‍

Where to find MOTS Podcast:

X: @mots_pod
YouTube: @motspod
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mots-pod

Where to find Atlas Media Labs:

Website: atlasmedialabs.com

‍

Where to find David Phillips:

‍X: https://x.com/davj

‍LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips

‍

Brought to you by: Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com

Sky Yang (CEO) & Neo Lee (CTO) are Co-founders of Imagine AI, an AI-powered content engine that clones B2B founders—replicating their voice, context, and backstory to create scalable personal brands. Before Imagine AI, Sky was elected student body president at UCSD by 32,000 students at age 19, then secured $150 million in state funding for university housing through coalition-building and advocacy in DC, Sacramento and at the UC Board of Regents. He co-founded "Break the Outbreak," a nonprofit that delivered PPE across 18 states and 53 cities during COVID, earning commendations from Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Eric Swalwell. Neo transferred from UCSD to Berkeley, then dropped out to build. He met Sky freshman year at a beach event—asking "Are you Skygodkingdom?"—before they went skydiving together and Neo cut Sky's hair in the woods after COVID.

Their catalyst was realizing founders were building in public on X but deals were happening on LinkedIn. After meeting advisor Gustaf, they pivoted distribution strategy to focus on where B2B founders actually live and transact. Sky calls this "content-market fit"—a state where your content hits your target customer every single time, creating scalable, repeatable inbound motion. They were fully booked from their first week post-YC launch, landing Series B customers. One founder messaged urgently, jumped on a 15-minute call, and paid on Stripe immediately. They recruited over Halloween weekend instead of partying. They hosted a yacht party with $10 billion in collective GDP (320 capacity, 750+ on waitlist). Neo's philosophy: "The product is just amplifying what we already are. Just be authentic." Sky's vision references Westworld: "Your agents will interact with each other instead of humans."

Key Topics Covered:

· What Imagine AI is: a chat-first AI clone with high-fidelity persona creation, subject matter expert interviews, and content engineering to hit content-market fit

· From X to LinkedIn: pivoting distribution to where B2B deals actually happen; Gustaf's advice on market selection

· Sky's origin arc: Chengdu → LA → Bay Area → UCSD student body president → $150M state funding advocacy → Break the Outbreak nonprofit

· Neo's journey: UCSD → Berkeley dropout → "Skygodkingdom" beach encounter → haircut in the woods → building startups pre-Imagine AI

· Content-market fit framework: when your content hits your customer every single time—scalable, repeatable motion with high-intent top-of-funnel inbound

· Week-one hypergrowth: fully booked post-YC launch, Series B customers, 15-minute Stripe close during conference, recruiting over Halloween

· Authenticity over algorithm: amplification not fabrication; the product shapes around you, not the other way around

· Building clones that replicate voice, context, backstory, heuristics, and cognition

· The $10B GDPyacht party: 320 founders, 3 DJs, 750 waitlist—building community as cultural moment

· The 'Westworld' thesis: AI agents interacting on your behalf

· Building in public as 2025 narrative: why founders do great work but nobody knows; solving discovery through personal brand at scale

· Design philosophy: one infinite content motion thread vs. scattered posts; AI handles artifacts, humans make strategic decisions

‍

Chapters:
‍
01:21 - The origin story: "Are you Skygodkingdom?"
02:00 - Neo cuts Sky's hair in the woods
02:36 - Sky's journey: Youngest student body president at UCSD
04:20 - Securing $150M in state funding for student housing
06:28 - The nonprofit during COVID
06:40 - How Imagine AI started: solving their own problem
07:15 - Launching on YC and getting booked solid
08:00 - Using their own product for personal branding
09:08 - What is "content-market fit"?
10:08 - The future: AI clones
11:09 - The $10 billion GDP yacht party in SF
12:11 - Where to find Sky, Neo, and Imagine AI

Where to find Sky Yang:

‍LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skyyang

‍X: https://x.com/skygodkingdom

‍

Where to find Neo Lee:

‍LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neo-lky

‍X: https://x.com/neo_lky

‍

Where to find Imagine AI:

‍Website: https://www.imagineai.me

‍X: https://x.com/imagineagi‍

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ai-imagine

‍

Where to find David Phillips:

‍X: https://x.com/davj

‍LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davjphillips

‍

Brought to you by:Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com

Rebecca Medina and Jeff Phillips built an AI-powered talent marketplace that's disrupting recruitment with transparent pricing, direct negotiation, and same-day PM hires for SMBs.

Rebecca Medina had the network. She had decades of Big Tech experience. She had the credibility. But when she needed project management help on a client engagement as an independent consultant, none of it mattered.

"Even with my network of project managers, I couldn't find the right person fast enough," Rebecca recalls. "And it created a big problem for the company because we weren't able to scale as quickly as we wanted."

That pain point became Talent Cheetah.

Five years later, Rebecca and her co-founder Jeff Phillips have built an AI-powered talent marketplace connecting pre-vetted project managers with SMBs. They've scaled to 300 PMs across 34 US states. They've even partnered with the Project Management Institute. But the metric that matters most: the Bureau of Labor Statistics says it takes 90 days to hire a technical project manager. Talent Cheetah does it in minutes—with same-day hiring possible.

In this episode, Medina and Phillips break down the recruitment model that turns recruiting on its head: transparent pricing that exposes hidden markups, lower take rates than traditional agencies, direct PM-to-company negotiation, and real-time hiring through AI matching.

Their core unlocks: many traditional staffing firms charge companies a significantly higher rate than what PMs actually earn—often without disclosing the difference to either side; cultural fit matters just as much as credentials (project management exists on a broad spectrum — the skills needed vary widely across industries, company sizes, and stages of growth.); and past execution remains the strongest predictor of future performance. Their 25-point vetting process includes one pivotal test: candidates must be able to produce legitimate professional references—if you can't find even one after years in the field, you're not ready for the platform.
‍

In this conversation, they reveal just how much AI is automating routine PM artifacts (like meeting notes, risk logs, and timelines) while increasing the premium on leadership and communication; how their intentional U.S.-based strategy competes on quality and transparency in an industry racing to the bottom on cost; and how Talent Cheetah is opening doors for underrepresented groups in project management; why fractional engagements (such as part-time PM support for short durations) are suddenly viable when traditional agencies can't deliver them well.

Key Topics Covered

The pain point origin: Rebecca's consulting crisis when her network couldn't deliver PM talent fast enough

The 90-day problem: Bureau of Labor Statistics average vs. Talent Cheetah's minutes-to-same-day matching

Exposing the hidden markup: traditional agencies bill $x/hour, pay PMs $x/hour, keep $x secret from both parties

No posting fees: free to post unlimited jobs (vs. ZipRecruiter/Indeed/LinkedIn pay-per-post), no sign-up fees for PMs

The 25-point vetting process: professional references, credential validation, and candidates who wait years

The reference test: some applicants can't find anyone to vouch for them after 12-24 months

Four-year minimum: experience requirement (not just title) focused on herding cats and managing projects
US-based strategy: competing on quality, transparency, and credential familiarity instead of global price competition

PMP vs. experience: why certification proves framework knowledge but not execution capability

Direct negotiation: PMs and companies set rates transparently, eliminating hidden recruiter markups

AI-powered matching: real-time algorithm surfaces top 3 PMs, with 297 more to browse

Cultural fit dynamics: startup PMs vs. Big Tech PMs require different personalities
Expanding beyond PMs: network architects, developers, product managers using same vetting framework

PMI partnership: hiring bonanzas and visibility programs in San Francisco

White glove service: helping first-time contractors negotiate rates and structure engagements

AI's impact on PMing: automating artifacts while amplifying leadership and communication needs

Fractional engagements: 10-hour/week arrangements that traditional agencies can't serve
Transparent pricing model: complete visibility vs. hidden markups, lower take rates than Robert Half/Adecco/Tech Systems

Chapters:

(01:55) Origin story: Talent Cheetah

(03:16) What makes Talent Cheetah different: Speed as the #1 differentiator, same-day hiring possible

(04:05) US-based strategy: competing on quality and credential familiarity

(06:08) Supporting underrepresented groups: veterans (logistics → PM transitions) and women in tech

(07:33) Serving both sides: job search help for PMs, FAANG-quality talent for clients

(08:43) White glove service: flexible involvement based on needs, negotiation help included

(09:16) How it works: 30-second account creation, under-5-minute posting, real-time AI matching

(10:15) Platform scale: 300 PMs across 34 US states, discipline-specific but industry-agnostic

(11:04) The 25-point vetting process: four-year minimum, references, credentials, interviews

(14:09) PMP certification vs. hands-on experience: gold standard plus practical execution

(16:02) Exposing the hidden markup: how traditional agencies work

(17:08) AI's impact on PM work: automating artifacts, amplifying leadership and communication

(20:40) Expanding beyond PMs: network architects, developers, product managers

(23:02) PMI partnership: 'hiring bonanzas' and visibility programs in SF

(25:12) Ideal clients

(26:47) Transparent pricing model: no posting fees for companies, no sign-up fees for PMs

(27:36) Getting started: talentcheetah.com, instant talent matching

(30:48) Internal messaging and AI matching: top 3 matches with direct communication

(32:00) Where to find them on LinkedIn, YouTube, talentcheetah.com

Where to Find

Rebecca Medina:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccarm
Website: https://www.talentcheetah.com

Jeff Phillips:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyjphillipspmp
Website: https://www.talentcheetah.com

Talent Cheetah:
X: https://x.com/talentcheetah
LinkedIn: ht...

Julian Weisser is the Founder and CEO of Solo Founders, a three-month residency program in San Francisco where founders live and work together while maintaining full authorship of their companies. He's also the CEO of On Deck Founders (ODF), a program that over seven years and 26 cohorts has helped over 1,000 people start companies that have collectively raised more than $2 billion. 

As an angel investor with more than 150 portfolio companies including Levels, Astroforge, and MagicSchool, he's seen patterns in what actually predicts startup success versus what investors claim they're looking for. He writes the Texts with Founders newsletter sharing bite-sized practical wisdom for entrepreneurs and publishes Multitudes, a newsletter exploring founder psychology and startup strategy.

In this episode, Weisser breaks down the denominator delusion: solo-founded companies were more likely to succeed than co-founded ones, but nobody talked about it because when you look at the total number of successful companies, co-founded businesses eclipse solo successes—while hiding how many unsuccessful co-founded companies exist in the denominator. 

His core unlocks: two-thirds of startups die from co-founder disputes before reaching product-market fit or running out of money, being solo is far better than 99% of potential co-founders, and authorship (the desire to express yourself and put your vision into the world) matters more than contortionism (twisting your company to match what investors want to see). 

The flippening already happened in ODF 26—over half chose solo. In this conversation, he breaks down why MagicSchool's Adil Khan (a former high school principal with no startup experience) succeeded solo, how "co-founders of convenience" kill companies before they reach potential, what makes the Solo Founders residency feel like having "five co-founders while building your own company," and why mimicking trends accrues value to memes instead of founders.

Key Topics Covered:

• The denominator delusion: why solo success rates are higher but invisible in the narrative.
• Two-thirds die early: co-founder disputes kill startups before product-market fit or funding issues.
• Co-founders of convenience: rushing into partnerships because investors demand it.
• Invalid constraints: questioning beliefs (like needing school/work co-founders) that prevent great companies.
• ODF's evolution: expanding who can start companies and who they can start them with.
• The flippening moment: over 50% of ODF 26 chose solo after the program.
• Authorship vs. contortionism: building authentically vs. pattern-matching for investors.
• Solo Founders residency: six to seven founders per cohort, living/working together for three months.

Chapters:

• (00:11) The denominator delusion: why solo-founded companies are more likely to succeed
• (02:53) How ODF expanded the co-founder search beyond school and work connections
• (07:05) The flippening: when solo becomes the default instead of the exception
• (09:27) Why two-thirds of startups die from irreconcilable co-founder disputes, not lack of product-market fit
• (10:02) Best practices for co-founding: avoiding assumptions and pre-mortems
• (14:03) How early founders decide to go solo (most don't even consider it initially)
• (17:42) ODF 26 results: over half chose to build solo
• (18:48) Founder characteristics across boom cycles: more mimicry and trend-chasing than ever
• (20:21) Mimicry vs. authorship
• (22:33) The growth narrative trap: why $100B outcome fixation from massive funds limits great companies
• (25:09) The Solo Founders residency: three months, "five co-founders"
• (30:13) The space: own rooms, common areas, office on ground floor, 6am-3am usage
• (33:27) Who applies: half bootstrapped and sold companies
• (36:46) Authorship as the defining trait

‍

Where to find Julian Weisser:

‍
X: https://x.com/julianweisser
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianweisser
Website: https://weisser.io

‍

Where to find SOLO:
‍

X: https://x.com/solofounding
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solo-founders
Website: https://solofounders.com

‍

Where to find ODF:
‍

X: https://x.com/joinodf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/'odf'
Website: https://joinodf.com

‍

Newsletters: 

‍
Texts with Founders: https://textswithfounders.com
Newsletter (Multitudes): https://multitudes.weisser.io

‍

Where to find David Phillips:
X: https://x.com/davj
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davjphillips

‍

Brought to you by:
‍

Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com

Allen Naliath is the Founder and CEO of Friday, a Chrome extension that integrates AI email management directly into Gmail. Two years ago at Stanford, he struggled with the confidence to ask for what he wanted. So he engineered a solution: a 30-day rejection challenge where he had to hear "no" once per day or start to ask for increasingly audacious requests. The problem: people kept saying yes. He escalated strategically—waiting by a golf cart to ask Sam Altman to sign his laptop, and cold-asking Garry Tan to add him on LinkedIn during a Stanford talk. Garry's response: "Is this a Psyop?" He added him anyway. That connection led to YC. Today, Friday processes emails via predicted action buttons—users press enter repeatedly to archive, reply, or unsubscribe. Allen personally onboards every user to inbox zero in 10 minutes, even with 18,000 unread emails.

Naliath's catalyst was advice from a founder mentor: "If you want to work on startups when you graduate, don't even apply to Apple and Google. If you have no plan B, plan A has to work." His core insight: most people's win condition depends on the other person saying yes. He reframed it so yes and no are both wins—the win condition is in his control just by asking. That philosophy runs through Friday's design: it doesn't put email on full autopilot (which "induces anxiety"), it gets users 99% of the way. Friday started as a hackathon project, evolved into a mobile text assistant, then became a Chrome extension after realizing Gmail integration was faster than building feature parity. The average person spends two hours per day in email; Friday users get through 30 emails in 60 seconds.

‍

Key Topics Covered:

- Rejection challenge: daily "no" requirement, mindset shift from fear to relief

- Win condition reframe: "Yes and no are both wins. The win condition is in my control just by asking."

- Cold approaches: Sam Altman golf cart ambush, Garry Tan LinkedIn add during Stanford talk

- Friday evolution: hackathon project → mobile assistant → Gmail Chrome extension

- Anti-autopilot philosophy: "That induces anxiety. It gets you to 99%—you stay in control."

- Predicted action buttons: archive, reply, unsubscribe—all one-keystroke approvals

- Voice matching: Friday drafts replies that sound like you, including dash preference

- 10-minute inbox zero: personal onboarding using auto-archive rules for old emails

- Chat feature: "Look him up online, find his email in my inbox, draft an intro."

‍

Chapters:

(00:33) The rejection challenge that rewired his confidence
(02:08) Sam Altman signed his laptop

(03:35) Changing you win-condition to be in your control
(04:25) Asking for things that are "hard to get"

(05:20) Meeting Silicon Valley Legends

(06:05) "Is this a Psyop?" - how a cold LinkedIn ask to Garry Tan led to YC

(07:03) Dropping out of Stanford: "If you have no plan B, plan A has to work."

(09:23) Friday DEMO: how enter-enter-enter clears 30 emails in 60 seconds

(13:45) The inbox zero system: snooze what matters, archive the rest, empty daily

(15:13) Why Friday stops at 99%: "Full autopilot induces anxiety—you need control."

(17:36) Chat-powered bulk actions: "Look him up online, find his email, draft an intro."

(19:21) Make every day feel like Friday

‍

Where to find Allen Naliath:

X: https://x.com/AllenNaliath
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allennaliath

Where to find Friday:

‍Company X: https://x.com/fridaymail
Company Website: https://www.friday.so
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fridaymail

Where to find David Phillips:

X: https://x.com/davj
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davjphillips

Brought to you by:
Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com

Lindsay Amos is the Founder of Amos Communications, a boutique firm for founder-led marketing and PR. From 2018 to 2024, she ran communications at Y Combinator, where she coached thousands of startups and wrote YC's handbook on startup PR. Before that, she worked in comms at Square and Meta, giving her a 360° view of how stories move from boardrooms to bylines to buyer behavior. Today, she advises founders on landing real news (not ads), building durable founder brands, and operating across a media landscape that's shifted from legacy gatekeepers to creator-led growth channels. She also co-created The To-Do List Summit, a workshop bootcamp teaching early-stage teams the tactical basics of comms, video, events, and community, and she writes a Substack on startup storytelling and strategy.

Amos's catalyst was living both media eras: nine months shepherding a single Wired story about Square moving into a new office versus today's "algorithms plus authenticity" environment. Her core unlocks: lead with the what (then earn the why), tie every pitch to a macro trend your audience already cares about, and default to exclusives over embargoes until you're big enough to run a press gauntlet. New media isn't a replacement for traditional outlets; the best founders run both lanes—because audiences follow people first, products second. In this conversation, she breaks down how to pick the right channel, prep for tough interviews, avoid blacklist behaviors, and time transparency (share the "personal hell" after you've won, to teach—not spiral).

‍

Key Topics Covered:

- What "news" actually is: a hook plus a macro trend your customer already thinks about.

- Founder brand vs. company brand: why audiences follow people first (and how to use it).

- Exclusive > embargo (early): how editors green-light stories and why timing matters.

- Practical media ops: avoid Friday pitches, follow up once, don't text or Signal reporters.

- Content that converts: entertaining, educational, or perspective—never just ads.

- Cinematic launches: when video helps, when it's sizzle; why distribution still wins.

- New media shift: reporters → Substack/podcasts; find where your audience actually is.

- The To-Do List Summit: teaching founder-led marketing when agencies aren't the answer.

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Chapters:

• (01:58) Old media → new media
• (05:26) Why founder-on-camera works—and when it doesn't.
• (08:59) Playing the LinkedIn game, Substack, and sustaining the channels you'll keep.
• (11:10) "Personal hell" as narrative fuel—share it after the win.
• (21:58) Defining a real news hook; anchoring to macro trends (IRL + wellness example).
• (25:48) Exclusive vs. embargo: how reporters decide what to cover.
• (26:53) Pitch etiquette that keeps you off blacklists (days, follow-ups, warm intros).
• (32:32) Founder brand > company brand (early) and the three content modes.
• (36:33) The To-Do List Summit: workshops over thought leadership; hands-on playbooks.

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Where to find Lindsay Amos:
X: https://x.com/lindsayaamos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayamos, https://www.linkedin.com/company/amoscomms
Website: https://www.amoscomms.com
Substack: https://lindsayamos.substack.com
To-Do List Summit: https://x.com/todolistsummit

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Where to find David Phillips:
X: https://x.com/davj
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davjphillips

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Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: fondo.com