Let me tell you a story.
I once worked at a startup where my boss ordered the entire office to stop what we were doing so we could decorate the empty cubicles with posters, coffee mugs, plants and other personal items.
The reason: the CEO was meeting potential business partners that afternoon, and they wanted to make sure the place looked “busy.”
After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned:
Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck.
Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge.
Real, actionable advice comes from those who've actually done it.
There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder.
I like the Rule of Three, it lends clarity. Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale:
To help founders make fewer mistakes.
To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey.
To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out.
This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business.
I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising when you’re outside a major tech hub — all of it.
In season two, meet industry leaders like:
Allie Garfinkle, Senior Finance Reporter, Fortune
Amr Awadallah, CEO, Vectara
Chikodi Chima, growth communications/mentor
Courtney Leimkuhler and Elana Berkowitz, Springbank
David Placek, president and founder, Lexicon Branding
Deb Kemper, managing partner, Golden Seeds Venture Fund
Drew Glover, CEO, Fiat Ventures
Hantz Fevry, founder/CEO, Stoovo
Igor Jablokov, founder/CEO, Pryon
Jenna Birch, founder, SISU
Jeremiah Stone, CTO, Snaplogic
Kevin Weber, managing director, Amex Ventures
Laura González-Estéfani, founder/CEO, The Venture City
Laura Schaffer, VP Growth, Amplitude
Naveen Rao, VP Generative AI, Databricks
Nicolas Sauvage, president, TDK Ventures
Nicholas Thorne, co-founder, Audos
Tim Davis, CEO/co-founder, Modular
Tracy Young, CEO/co-founder, TigerEye
Tzahi Weisfeld, GM, Intel Ignite
Viviana Faga, Felicis Ventures
Interested? Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on all major platforms and follow the podcast on LinkedIn or Substack to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.
Thanks for listening!
– Walter.
