Before running Y Combinator, Geoff Ralston built RocketMail at Four11, which sold to Yahoo for $96 million and became the foundation of Yahoo Mail. He later became CEO of Lala, a music startup Apple acquired in a deal valued at over $80 million, which became the technical foundation for Apple Music.

From there, Geoff served as President of Y Combinator, overseeing a portfolio including Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Coinbase, and DoorDash — companies whose combined valuation topped $800 billion.

In this episode, Geoff shares stories from his career, including quitting HP to chase startups, the deal that nearly bankrupted Lala Media, and the lessons that shaped his path to YC.

Govind Mundhra is the first and only VC in India to have built and scaled two profitable unicorn startups — InMobi, where he helped drive the company to become India's first profitable unicorn, and WeWork India, where he served as CFO.

In 2020, he co-founded Paradigm Shift Capital, India's first VC fund built exclusively to back founders building tech products for the world, which has already made around 25 investments without deviating from its thesis.

In this episode, Govind shares high-level insights on leadership, scaling global businesses from India, and what it actually takes to build a unicorn from the inside.

Peter Hazlehurst was the first COO of Postmates — a company that would later sell to Uber for $2.65 billion — and has held senior product and leadership roles at Google (Google Wallet, Google Payments), Nokia, Uber (where he built and led Uber Money), and Yodlee.

He's also an angel investor with multiple previous startup exits, including a sale to Nokia. Today he's founder & CEO of Synctera, a banking-as-a-service platform that's already reached over 3 million end customers and raised a $33M Series A.

In this episode, Peter breaks down whether good founders are made or born, lessons from being Postmates' first COO, how to handle feedback as a founder, and how to find the right mentors and advisors.

Isaac de la Peña founded multiple startups before switching sides to become a VC, and today is General Partner at Conexo Ventures, whose portfolio includes Feedzai — a billion-dollar AI fraud-prevention company used by major banks worldwide.

An MIT Sloan MBA with 25+ years building and scaling tech businesses, Isaac now helps bridge founders across LatAm, Spain, and Portugal with Silicon Valley's venture ecosystem. In this episode, Isaac breaks down fundraising tips for introverts and technical founders, how to find the right co-founder, and what it's really like to go from founder to VC.

Eyal Lifschitz built and exited multiple HealthTech startups before becoming a venture capitalist. His past ventures include PharmaSys (acquired by Elan Corp), ECR (acquired by AVX Corp, NYSE: AVX), and Given Imaging — which later sold to Covidien for $860 million.

He went on to co-found Peregrine Ventures, Israel's first dedicated healthcare-focused VC fund, which today manages roughly $600 million in assets.

In this episode, Eyal breaks down how to build billion-dollar HealthTech brands as an outsider, why young founders should spend time in Tel Aviv's tech ecosystem, and how to do the market research that actually finds the right product.

Scott Wyatt is a Marine Corps veteran and 2x exited founder who took Dollar Beard Club from 0 to $50M in revenue in its first year, before going on to co-found and serve as CTO of CoolBox and, now, Squillo.

During this episode, we went over: - How Scott went from growing up in a poor family in a small town of Indiana to building a multi-million dollar business - When the pivot vs persist when building a startup - How to use AI in your business - Why SaaS is dying - And more...

Luke Janssen built & scaled Tigerstrike to $50M in revenue before exiting it for $80M. He also raised close to $20M from venture capital funds for Tigerstrike. Luke is also the founder & GP of a VC fund / studio called Mangosteen where he funds & helps founders build their startups. During this episode, I had an hour-long chat to learn how he went from 0 to exit as well as: - Luke's take on education - Where to live as a founder - When to or if you should fundraise vs bootstrap - Why you should be wary of taking anyone's advice - including expert - And more

Charles Tseng has founded multiple startups, including a company that raised over $200M in venture funding and reached a successful exit.

He co-founded ELEV^TE, a venture studio that partners with founders to turn ambitious ideas into industry-changing companies, and now invests in and incubates startups full-time.

In this episode, Charles breaks down what it actually takes to go from zero to exit — from generating great startup ideas and finding product-market fit, to managing the anxiety and loneliness that come with being a founder, and becoming a better communicator along the way.

Maria Palma is General Partner at Freestyle Capital, a firm with over $565M AUM and investments in over 150 companies including Airtable, Intercom, Patreon, and BetterUp.

Before Freestyle, she built her track record as a GP at Kindred Capital in London and a Principal at RRE Ventures in New York, investing in 35+ companies along the way — plus personal angel bets in breakout AI startups like Lovable.

In this episode, Maria breaks down how to pitch effectively, what makes a startup truly venture-scalable, and why picking the wrong VC can actually destroy your company.

Gal Treger is General Partner at First Spark Ventures, a $250M global deep tech fund built in partnership with The Stanford Research Institute — where former Google CEO Eric Schmidt sits as a partner.

Before First Spark, Gal served as a Director at Schmidt Futures and as an Economic Advisor in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office focused on technology and finance.

In this episode, Gal breaks down what it takes to back the next generation of deep tech founders — with a front-row seat to some of the most technically ambitious research in Silicon Valley.