Founders · new episode 25 Oct 2026
Fund/Build/Scale
Hosted by Walter Thompson
Founders and investors on raising money, from the first cheque to later rounds.
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Investors named as guests in the most episode titles on Fund/Build/Scale.
Every episode 135 · page 1 of 5
- 135Do the Work Before You Start the Clock25 Oct 2026 · 44 min▶Show page
About this episode
Before you raise money, hire a team or start building, how much should you already know? Vineet Edupuganti, co-founder and CEO of Cogent Security, joins Fund/Build/Scale to break down the work his team did before committing to the company: talking with roughly 100 potential customers, studying previous attempts to…
- 134Why Some Startups Get Taken Seriously and Others Don't19 Oct 2026 · 35 minBeck Bamberger▶Show page
About this episode
Why do some startups get taken seriously while others struggle to earn attention, even when they're solving similar problems? Beck Bamberger, founder and CEO of startup communications agency BAM, joins Fund/Build/Scale to discuss how early-stage founders establish credibility before they have much traction. We…
- 133How Much Proof Does a Consumer Startup Need to Raise Money?6 Oct 2026 · 37 minTorch Capital▶Show page
About this episode
“Follow your dreams and quit your day job” is terrible advice. That’s not me saying it. That’s Jon Keidan, founder and managing partner of Torch Capital, where he’s backed companies including Sweetgreen, Acorns and Zocdoc. He has a better suggestion: before you blow up your life for a startup idea, find some proof…
- 132What You Permit Is What Gets Produced2 Oct 2026 · 50 min▶Show page
About this episode
Most of us learn culture by adapting to one that already exists. We join a company, figure out what gets rewarded, who has power, what people say in meetings, and what they say after the meeting ends. Founders don’t have that luxury. They’re not fitting into a culture. They’re creating one, whether they mean to or…
- 131How VCs Judge Founders With No Track Record1 Oct 2026 · 40 minOutlander VCPaige Craig▶Show page
About this episode
What makes a startup worth backing if it has no product, revenue or meaningful traction to evaluate? Paige Craig, founder and managing partner of Outlander VC, invests at the idea stage, which means much of his job involves assessing founders before the usual signals exist. In this episode, Paige explains what he…
- 130What Investors Learn When They Watch You Talk To Customers30 Sept 2026 · 46 minAmy Cheetham▶Show page
About this episode
Selling your pitch to an investor is one thing. Showing that you understand how to sell your product to customers is another. Amy Cheetham, partner at Costanoa Ventures, sometimes watches founders talk to prospective customers as part of her diligence. Those conversations can reveal how well they understand the…
- 129How to Get Through a Tech Layoff Without Losing Yourself26 Aug 2026 · 49 min▶Show page
About this episode
If you work in tech long enough, there’s a good chance you’ll go through a layoff. Either your own, or one that leaves you wondering whether you’re next. Shanon Olsen, COO of Henley Leadership, works with executives and organizations navigating growth, disruption, and change. In this episode, we talk about why…
- 128Before You Build in Senior Care, Figure Out Who Pays21 Aug 2026 · 39 min▶Show page
About this episode
America is getting older. Tens of millions of people are caring for parents, grandparents and other family members. The problems are everywhere, and many of them are painful, expensive and still poorly served by technology. That does not mean every care-related startup is a good business, however. Tatyana Zlotsky,…
- 127How to Know If Your Startup Idea Is Worth Pursuing20 Aug 2026 · 36 min▶Show page
About this episode
If you have a startup idea, how do you know whether you’re onto something, or just really good at convincing yourself? Pete Martin has spent his career finding out. He’s worked at six cybersecurity startups, most of them in the pre-product, pre-revenue days, with two IPOs along the way. Today, he’s CEO and co-founder…
- 126Why Technical Founders Should Stop Answering Questions18 Aug 2026 · 43 min▶Show page
About this episode
Peter Wang is co-founder and Chief AI and Innovation Officer at Anaconda, a company he helped start in 2012 after years of working as a software developer and consultant. In this episode, Peter draws on Anaconda’s early days and the entrepreneurship lessons he shares with scientists and engineers at Cornell to…
- 125If It’s Not on Paper, It’s Not Real: Canvas Prime's Rebecca Lynn13 Aug 2026 · 41 minRebecca Lynn▶Show page
About this episode
Canvas Prime Co-founder and Managing Director Rebecca Lynn has spent 25 years in venture capital, backing companies including LendingClub, Doximity and Casetext and helping founders navigate more than a dozen exits. In this conversation, we get into why taking venture capital puts founders on a path toward liquidity,…
- 124Why Technical Founders Hire Marketing Too Late13 Aug 2026 · 41 min▶Show page
About this episode
Head of Marketing for Observe at Snowflake Shruti Bhat has spent her career helping highly technical companies explain why their products matter, find the customers who need them most, and build go-to-market systems that can actually scale. In this episode, she talks about how founders identify their real market,…
- 123CVC Is Not Your Exit Strategy or GTM Plan31 Jul 2026 · 36 minTamara Steffens▶Show page
About this episode
Tamara Steffens is managing director of Thomson Reuters Ventures, where she invests in early-stage companies building around legal, tax, accounting, and enterprise workflow. Corporate venture capital can look like a shortcut to customers, distribution, and credibility, but Steffens says founders need to understand…
- 122AI Makes Building Easier. Selling Is Still Hard.23 Jul 2026 · 42 min▶Show page
About this episode
Thanks to AI, you could have an idea for a startup on your way home from work Thursday and finish a rough prototype by Monday morning. That's great news for founders, but it also raises the bar: if everyone can build a convincing demo, what actually separates a durable company from a clever prototype? To explore…
- 121The Most Expensive Money You'll Ever Raise11 Jul 2026 · 35 minElia Wallen▶Show page
About this episode
A lot of founders assume raising venture capital is just part of the process: you have an idea, build a deck, find some investors and start pitching. But what if you don't actually need the money yet? Elia Wallen is the founder and CEO of Engine, a business travel platform valued at $2 billion. He bootstrapped his…
- 120Why Most Startups Shouldn't Raise Money (Even If They Can)6 Jul 2026 · 45 minEdison PartnersRyan Ziegler▶Show page
About this episode
Most startup fundraising advice focuses on how to get investors interested. Ryan Ziegler sees the process from the other side of the table. As a General Partner at Edison Partners, Ryan evaluates startups that have already survived one of the hardest phases of company building: finding customers willing to pay for…
- 119Money Is the Only Customer Validation That Matters14 Jun 2026 · 49 minGoogle▶Show page
About this episode
Conventional wisdom says the hardest part of building a startup is building the product. Shanea Leven says the harder challenge is figuring out what customers will actually pay for. Before co-founding Empromptu.ai, Shanea spent more than 15 years building products at companies including Google, eBay, Docker, and…
- 118What Hospitals Are Actually Buying in the AI Boom13 Jun 2026 · 39 minMayo Clinic▶Show page
About this episode
If you're building a startup, there are easier industries to choose than healthcare. Sales cycles are long, regulations are complex, and earning the trust of providers and patients takes years. In this episode, Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate Director Jamie Sundsbak explains how healthtech founders can improve their…
- 117The 10x Rule: Turning a Research Paper into an AI Company10 Jun 2026 · 46 minGoogle▶Show page
About this episode
Most startup advice assumes the biggest challenge is finding customers. But what happens when the demand is obvious and the real question is whether the technology can actually work at scale? In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I sit down with Stanford professor and Inception Labs founder and CEO Stefano Ermon to…
- 116Your First Marketing Hire Is Probably Not a CMO5 Jun 2026 · 45 min▶Show page
About this episode
Most technical founders can explain how their product works. Far fewer can clearly explain why a customer should care. In this episode, Cribl CMO Abby Strong shares what she has learned from building go-to-market teams and helping scale one of the fastest-growing companies in data infrastructure. Drawing on her…
- 115How AI-Native Startups Actually Get Built20 May 2026 · 52 minMayank MehtaPuneet Agarwal▶Show page
About this episode
What does it actually mean to build an AI-native company? In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I talk with True Ventures Managing Partner Puneet Agarwal and Gather CEO/co-founder Mayank Mehta about how the startup evolved from an AI-powered customer feedback idea into a broader research and content platform for…
- 114Why Great Founders Are “Angry at the Problem”19 May 2026 · 56 minOne Way VenturesEugene Malobrodsky▶Show page
About this episode
For this episode, I interviewed Eugene Malobrodsky, partner at One Way Ventures and former founder of AnchorFree, the company behind HotSpot Shield, one of the first consumer VPN products to scale globally. Before becoming a VC, Eugene spent 15 years building and scaling a startup through the 2008 financial crisis,…
- 113Before There Is Proof: Build a Startup Story That Shows You Can Execute6 May 2026 · 17 min▶Show page
About this episode
A lot of early-stage founders can explain their company five different ways, and all five might be technically correct. The problem is that often, those answers don’t fully line up. That gap in a startup’s narrative creates friction. Investors may understand the problem but still don’t feel like the story lands.…
- 112How to Hire Your First Offshore Team Without Screwing It Up28 Apr 2026 · 32 min▶Show page
About this episode
Hiring is one of the hardest things for first-time founders to get right, especially if you’re building a distributed team that spans the globe. For this episode, I spoke to Isaac Saul Kassab, co-founder of Pearl Talent, a recruiting firm that helps startups hire offshore teams. We break down the underlying hiring…
- 111How Technical Founders Win the First 5 Minutes With Investors18 Apr 2026 · 43 minSheena Jindal▶Show page
About this episode
Technical founders don’t usually struggle with what they’re building. They struggle with explaining it clearly, quickly, and in a way that makes someone want to invest. In this episode, I spoke with Sheena Jindal, Managing Partner and Founder of Sugar Free Capital, about how technical founders can de-risk themselves…
- 110Don’t Wait for the IPO: How Tech Employees Actually Get Liquid20 Feb 2026 · 53 min▶Show page
About this episode
Startup employees are encouraged to believe in the mission. But IPO timelines now stretch well past a decade, and many never happen at all. In this episode, Ben Black, co-founder and managing director of Akkadian Ventures, explains how tech workers can think more strategically about the equity they’ve helped create.…
- 109Turning Utility Into Habit: Beyond Basic Gamification11 Feb 2026 · 37 minPlay VenturesPhylicia Koh▶Show page
About this episode
I interviewed Play Ventures General Partner Phylicia Koh to explore what founders outside of gaming can learn from two decades of game design. Play Ventures began as a gaming-focused VC fund. Today, it also invests in what Phylicia calls “playable apps,” consumer products that combine utility with the engagement…
- 108The Day You Raise Money Is the Day You Stop Focusing on Technology6 Feb 2026 · 56 minDavid Cramer▶Show page
About this episode
In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, Sentry co-founder David Cramer joins host Walter Thompson for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about what founders actually struggle with, and why so much conventional startup advice falls apart in practice. David shares how he dropped out of high school, taught himself to…
- 107Selling Unproven AI to Skeptical Enterprise Buyers4 Feb 2026 · 31 min▶Show page
About this episode
Building an early-stage startup isn’t just about the technology, it’s about earning trust before the proof exists. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I’m joined by Jeff Smith, CEO and co-founder of 2nd Set AI, a startup building generative image and video tools for media, entertainment, and sports organizations.…
- 106From Seed to Growth: What African Founders Need to Know31 Jan 2026 · 47 min▶Show page
About this episode
As African startups mature, the leap from seed to growth brings a new set of challenges, longer fundraising cycles, institutional expectations, governance, and the realities of scaling across fragmented markets. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I sit down with Ngetha Waithaka, partner at Norrsken22, one of the…
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Firms named in its episodes, and people named in descriptions: talked about, rather than on the show.
