Venturing with Vishesh — Startup Founder Interviews on SaaS, AI, Fundraising & Venture Capital.

In this episode, I’m joined by Ohad Biron, Co-Founder & CEO of Bagel AI, a product intelligence platform that helps product managers bridge the gap between product and revenue. Ohad brings 18 years of experience at the intersection of R&D and business, having scaled startups from pre-revenue to multi-million ARR.

We dive into:

🔍 Why Product and Go-To-Market Teams Are Often Misaligned

📊 Lessons from Founder-Led Sales

🛡️ How to Build Trust and Close Deals in a Skeptical Market

🏗 How to Build a Strong GTM Motion Without a Huge Budget

🔥 The Reality of Selling AI to Enterprise Customers

🎯 How Bagel AI is Automating Product Insights to Reduce Churn & Improve Onboarding

This episode is packed with tactical insights for founders building B2B SaaS, especially if you're trying to find product-market fit, align product with revenue, or scale your sales motion efficiently.

Important Links

Bagel AI - https://getbagel.com

Quirky Startup Merch https://shop.7tea1.com

AI is consuming the internet—scraping content, generating responses, and reshaping how we search for and interact with information. But there's a massive problem: who gets paid?

In this episode, I sit down with Hirsh Pithadia, CEO & Co-founder of Valyu Networks, to discuss how content creators, publishers, and businesses can monetize their data in the age of AI.

We talk about:

🔍 The AI Monetization Problem: How LLMs consume content without compensating creators
💰 The Future of Search: Why search engines are dying, and what comes next
📈 The Business Model Shift: From training data licensing to context enrichment
🛠 Valyu’s Solution: Building monetization rails for AI-generated responses
🚀 Startup Fundraising Stories: How an accidental meeting with a16z led to funding
🤖 AI-Generated Data & Model Collapse: What happens when models train on AI-generated content?
🌍 US vs. Europe for AI Startups: Why Hirsh believes scaling in the US is crucial
🎯 Advice for Founders: How to navigate and build in a fast-moving industry

This is a must-listen if you're a founder, AI enthusiast, or anyone thinking about the future of data, monetization, and AI business models.

Important Links:

https://www.valyu.network/

In this episode, I sit down with Michael Bak, Head of Investor Relations at TechBBQ, founder of Nordic Investor Day, and a key player in shaping the Nordic startup ecosystem. With over 15 years of experience building communities and fostering investor-startup relationships, Michael shares the hidden rules of fundraising and building startup ecosystems.

We talk about:

🌍 The rise of Copenhagen’s startup ecosystem and what makes it unique

🔥 How TechBBQ went from a grassroots initiative to a 10,000-person event

🤝 How investors evaluate founders beyond pitch decks

💡 Why trust is the #1 currency in fundraising (and how to build it)

🎯 How founders can avoid wasting time with the wrong investors

🚀 Insider tips on networking and making the most of startup events

This episode is packed with fundraising strategies, investor psychology, and practical event networking hacks that will help you build the right relationships and raise capital faster.

You can connect with Michael at https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbak/

Find more about TechBBQ at https://techbbq.dk/

This week, I’m joined by Duke Vu, co-founder & CEO of Fungies.io, a platform helping Indie SaaS and Game Developers sell globally without the headaches of payments, taxes, or compliance.

Duke shares his journey from startup failures to big wins. We also talk about fundraising, scaling, and finding the right co-founder—without sugarcoating the hard parts.

If you’re an indie founder looking to sell smarter and scale faster, this episode is for you.

Important Links:

https://fungies.io

In this episode, I’m joined by Mario Tarouca, co-founder of FrameDrop, a company that started by helping Twitch streamers automatically clip and repurpose their content but is now making a bold pivot from B2C to B2B.

Mario shares his entrepreneurial journey, including the challenges of scaling a B2C SaaS product, and how his team identified a bigger B2B opportunity in media and broadcasting.

We talk about:

🎮 The origins of FrameDrop

📉 B2C SaaS struggles

🔄 How FrameDrop found a major pain point in media companies

⚡ Why speed is crucial when making a major shift

🛠️ How FrameDrop leveraged organic traffic to scale its B2C product

💰 How investors view iterations and pivots

This episode is packed with insights for founders navigating pivots, customer discovery, and growth—whether you're in SaaS, media, or any other industry.

Important Links:

FramedropAI - https://framedrop.ai

In this episode, I’m joined by Philip Johnston, founder of LumenOrbit, a company pioneering AI-powered data centers in space. Philip shares his insights into the radical shift happening in space infrastructure.

We talk about:

🛰️ Why space? The key drivers pushing data centers beyond Earth

🌡️ The biggest technical challenge: Keeping GPUs cool in a vacuum

🚀 Upcoming launches: LumenOrbit’s first satellite launching on a Falcon 9 this year

📉 Fundraising lessons: Raising capital in booming vs. tough markets

💰 Surviving market downturns: Why raising enough capital is critical

This episode is packed with insights for entrepreneurs building in deep tech, AI, and beyond. 🚀

Important Links:

Lumen Orbit: https://lumenorbit.com

In this episode, I’m joined by Gabriel Ferraz, co-founder of Creem, a company that helps SaaS founders and digital product creators sell globally without the headaches of tax and compliance. We dive into the complexities of scaling a business internationally, the hidden pitfalls of payment processing, and why building a Merchant of Record (MoR) is the next big thing for indie hackers and global entrepreneurs.

We talk about:

🌎 The tax and compliance nightmare of selling SaaS globally

⚖️ How startups unknowingly break the law when expanding internationally

💰 Why Stripe’s ease-of-use can be misleading for global businesses

📉 The challenges of handling international sales without slowing down growth

🔍 Why a Merchant of Record (MoR) is becoming a necessity for SaaS founders

🏗️ The journey of building Crim—from crypto to fintech to simplifying payments

🛠️ The pain of integrating payments as an indie hacker

💡 How automation could have saved months of operational effort

🏢 The future of a Company of Record—a new way to build startups with no legal setup

This episode is a must-listen for any founder looking to scale beyond their home country and avoid the compliance landmines that can kill growth.

Important Links:

Creem - https://creem.io

In this episode, I speak to Nancy Harhut, a behavioral science and marketing expert, co-founder of HBT Marketing, and author of Using Behavioral Science in Marketing. Nancy shares her insights on how behavioral science can transform your marketing strategy and help you avoid common pitfalls.

What We Cover:

🤔 The surprising mistake most founders make when pricing their product

🔍 Why being too positive in your marketing can backfire

💬 How a simple tweak in word choice can double your conversions

🎯 The underestimated power of autonomy in driving sales

🧠 Why "simple" messaging might not mean "vague" messaging—and how to strike the perfect balance

Nancy also drops actionable tips and hacks that you can apply immediately to level up your marketing, whether you’re just starting out or scaling up.

Resources Mentioned:

📖 Nancy’s book: Using Behavioral Science in Marketing - https://amzn.in/d/cVXKUEv

🌐 Visit HBT Marketing: https://HBTMKTG.com

📚 Recommended reads:

The Truth About Pricing by Melina Palmer - https://amzn.in/d/fZBv3Ao

What Your Customers Want and Can’t Tell You by Melina Palmer - https://amzn.in/d/a4zJmYd

In this episode, I’m joined by Yann Leger, co-founder and CEO of Koyeb, a cloud infrastructure company redefining how applications are deployed globally.

Yann shares his incredible journey of building cloud service providers for over 14 years and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

From scaling engineering teams to managing remote work and navigating competitive markets, this conversation is packed with valuable insights for entrepreneurs.

We talk about:

🏗️ Challenges of scaling engineering teams from 10 to 130+ in 3 months

🌍 Managing remote teams and fostering culture across continents

🛠️ How Koyeb’s platform enables scaling to zero for infinite dev environments

🧩 Competing and partnering with giants like AWS and GCP

🤑 Building frugal organizations while solving hard technical problems

⚙️ Why startups should avoid building infrastructure unless necessary

🎯 The future of AI and serverless infrastructure: Key trends and cost efficiencies

This episode offers valuable insights for founders hitting the scaleup phase!

Important Links:

Try Koyeb at https://koyeb.com

Podcast produced by Shop 71 - Hilarious startup merch. https://shop.7tea1.com

In this episode, I’m joined by Jonathan Chizick, CEO & Co-founder at SmartPath. A seasoned entrepreneur, marketer, and startup advisor with a track record of scaling high-growth companies and securing transformative partnerships.

We discuss:

👨‍🏫 The challenges of homeschooling and why 6 million+ kids in the U.S. represent a growing market.

🤖 How AI simplifies things for parents.

🎯 Lessons from Jonathan’s startup journey

Jonathan also shares stories from his entrepreneurial past, including navigating U.S. expansion for international startups, partnering with incumbents like Concur, and scaling AppZen from 5 to 50+ employees while securing partnerships with global leaders.

This episode is packed with actionable insights for founders tackling underserved markets, scaling early-stage ventures, and leveraging AI to create meaningful impact.

P.S. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your network! 🙌

Subscribe for more episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite platform. 

Links:

Checkout SmartPath at https://smartpath.school/

If you're interested in quirky startup merch for your team checkout https://shop.7tea1.com