# Fund/Build/Scale: the investor podcast, by episode > Fund/Build/Scale: Founders and investors on raising money, from the first cheque to later rounds. 135 episodes, each linked to the investors in it. Source: https://millionrounds.com/podcasts/fund-build-scale (Millionrounds; every figure on the page links to its filing or article) 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. Follow on Apple PodcastsBrowse the episodes **135** episodes **28** investors heard as guests **42 min** an average episode 42 in the last 12 months ## The regulars Investors named as guests in the most episode titles on Fund/Build/Scale. [BH *1* **Benjamin Humphrey** 1 episode](https://millionrounds.com/person/benjamin-humphrey)[CL *1* **Courtney Leimkuhler** Spring](https://millionrounds.com/person/courtney-leimkuhler)[CB *1* **Cyan Banister** Long Journey Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/cyan-banister)[DD *1* **Dan DeGolier** 1 episode](https://millionrounds.com/person/dan-degolier)[DP *1* **David Placek** 1 episode](https://millionrounds.com/person/david-placek)[DK *1* **Deb Kemper** Golden Seeds](https://millionrounds.com/person/deb-kemper)[DG *1* **Drew Glover** Fiat Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/drew-glover)[EB *1* **Elana Berkowitz** Spring](https://millionrounds.com/person/elana-berkowitz)[EL *1* **Eric Ly** 1 episode](https://millionrounds.com/person/eric-ly)[GM *1* **Gaurav Misra** 1 episode](https://millionrounds.com/person/gaurav-misra)[JL *1* **James Luo** CapitalG](https://millionrounds.com/person/james-luo)[KW *1* **Kevin Weber** Synchrony Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/kevin-weber) ## Every episode 135 · page 1 of 5 - 135 **Do the Work Before You Start the Clock** 25 Oct 2026 · 44 min 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… ▶Show page - 134 **Why Some Startups Get Taken Seriously and Others Don't** 19 Oct 2026 · 35 min [Beck Bamberger](https://millionrounds.com/person/beck-bamberger) 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… ▶Show page - 133 **How Much Proof Does a Consumer Startup Need to Raise Money?** 6 Oct 2026 · 37 min [Torch Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/torch-capital) 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… ▶Show page - 132 **What You Permit Is What Gets Produced** 2 Oct 2026 · 50 min 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… ▶Show page - 131 **How VCs Judge Founders With No Track Record** 1 Oct 2026 · 40 min [Outlander VC](https://millionrounds.com/fund/outlander-vc)[Paige Craig](https://millionrounds.com/fund/paige-craig) 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… ▶Show page - 130 **What Investors Learn When They Watch You Talk To Customers** 30 Sept 2026 · 46 min [Amy Cheetham](https://millionrounds.com/person/amy-cheetham) 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… ▶Show page - 129 **How to Get Through a Tech Layoff Without Losing Yourself** 26 Aug 2026 · 49 min 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… ▶Show page - 128 **Before You Build in Senior Care, Figure Out Who Pays** 21 Aug 2026 · 39 min 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,… ▶Show page - 127 **How to Know If Your Startup Idea Is Worth Pursuing** 20 Aug 2026 · 36 min 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… ▶Show page - 126 **Why Technical Founders Should Stop Answering Questions** 18 Aug 2026 · 43 min 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… ▶Show page - 125 **If It’s Not on Paper, It’s Not Real: Canvas Prime's Rebecca Lynn** 13 Aug 2026 · 41 min [Rebecca Lynn](https://millionrounds.com/person/rebecca-lynn-2) 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,… ▶Show page - 124 **Why Technical Founders Hire Marketing Too Late** 13 Aug 2026 · 41 min 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,… ▶Show page - 123 **CVC Is Not Your Exit Strategy or GTM Plan** 31 Jul 2026 · 36 min [Tamara Steffens](https://millionrounds.com/person/tamara-steffens) 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… ▶Show page - 122 **AI Makes Building Easier. Selling Is Still Hard.** 23 Jul 2026 · 42 min 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… ▶Show page - 121 **The Most Expensive Money You'll Ever Raise** 11 Jul 2026 · 35 min [Elia Wallen](https://millionrounds.com/person/elia-wallen) 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… ▶Show page - 120 **Why Most Startups Shouldn't Raise Money (Even If They Can)** 6 Jul 2026 · 45 min [Edison Partners](https://millionrounds.com/fund/edison-partners)[Ryan Ziegler](https://millionrounds.com/person/ryan-ziegler) 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… ▶Show page - 119 **Money Is the Only Customer Validation That Matters** 14 Jun 2026 · 49 min [Google](https://millionrounds.com/fund/google-assistant-investments) 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… ▶Show page - 118 **What Hospitals Are Actually Buying in the AI Boom** 13 Jun 2026 · 39 min [Mayo Clinic](https://millionrounds.com/fund/mayo-clinic) 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… ▶Show page - 117 **The 10x Rule: Turning a Research Paper into an AI Company** 10 Jun 2026 · 46 min [Google](https://millionrounds.com/fund/google-assistant-investments) 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… ▶Show page - 116 **Your First Marketing Hire Is Probably Not a CMO** 5 Jun 2026 · 45 min 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… ▶Show page - 115 **How AI-Native Startups Actually Get Built** 20 May 2026 · 52 min [Mayank Mehta](https://millionrounds.com/person/mayank-mehta)[Puneet Agarwal](https://millionrounds.com/person/puneet-agarwal) 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… ▶Show page - 114 **Why Great Founders Are “Angry at the Problem”** 19 May 2026 · 56 min [One Way Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/one-way-ventures)[Eugene Malobrodsky](https://millionrounds.com/person/eugene-malobrodsky) 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,… ▶Show page - 113 **Before There Is Proof: Build a Startup Story That Shows You Can Execute** 6 May 2026 · 17 min 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.… ▶Show page - 112 **How to Hire Your First Offshore Team Without Screwing It Up** 28 Apr 2026 · 32 min 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… ▶Show page - 111 **How Technical Founders Win the First 5 Minutes With Investors** 18 Apr 2026 · 43 min [Sheena Jindal](https://millionrounds.com/person/sheena-jindal) 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… ▶Show page - 110 **Don’t Wait for the IPO: How Tech Employees Actually Get Liquid** 20 Feb 2026 · 53 min 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.… ▶Show page - 109 **Turning Utility Into Habit: Beyond Basic Gamification** 11 Feb 2026 · 37 min [Play Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/play-ventures)[Phylicia Koh](https://millionrounds.com/person/phylicia-koh) 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… ▶Show page - 108 **The Day You Raise Money Is the Day You Stop Focusing on Technology** 6 Feb 2026 · 56 min [David Cramer](https://millionrounds.com/fund/david-cramer) 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… ▶Show page - 107 **Selling Unproven AI to Skeptical Enterprise Buyers** 4 Feb 2026 · 31 min 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.… ▶Show page - 106 **From Seed to Growth: What African Founders Need to Know** 31 Jan 2026 · 47 min 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… ▶Show page ## Who the show talks about Firms named in its episodes, and people named in descriptions: talked about, rather than on the show. [**Google** *10*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/google-assistant-investments)[A **Abhinav Asthana** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/person/abhinav-asthana)[A **Ajay Prakash** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/person/ajay-prakash)[A **Alex Rodriguez** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/alex-rodriguez)[**Amex Ventures** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/amex-ventures)[A **Amr Awadallah** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/amr-awadallah)[A **Amy Cheetham** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/person/amy-cheetham)[A **Amy Saper** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/person/amy-saper)[A **Ariel Seidman** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/person/ariel-seidman)[A **Assia Grazioli-Venier** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/person/assia-grazioli-venier)[**Asymmetric Capital Partners** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/asymmetric)[B **Beck Bamberger** *1*](https://millionrounds.com/person/beck-bamberger) ## More shows like this - [**Acquired** Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal 218 episodes](https://millionrounds.com/podcasts/acquired) - [**The Pitch** Josh Muccio 215 episodes](https://millionrounds.com/podcasts/the-pitch) - [**BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech** Jeremy Au 741 episodes](https://millionrounds.com/podcasts/brave-southeast-asia) - [**The Healthtech Podcast** James Somauroo 480 episodes](https://millionrounds.com/podcasts/healthtech-podcast)