Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast

What if the sales strategies that built a $10B IPO could transform your go-to-market engine? In this episode of Built Not Born, host Sage Nye sits down with Tom Schodorf, the sales leader who helped scale Splunk from startup to a $10B IPO, to unpack what actually builds a high-performing go-to-market engine. Tom explains why defining your ICP and aligning company-wide messaging matter far more tha...

What if the real edge in building and investing in companies is knowing exactly where your knowledge stops? In this episode of Built Not Born, host Sage Nye sits down with Dave Fachetti, Partner at Venture Guides, to unpack the operator–investor mindset that drives durable outcomes. Drawing on decades of experience, Dave explains why great founders prioritize solving painful, urgent problems befor...

What happens when a former teenage hacker builds AI that can find security vulnerabilities before attackers do? In this episode of Built Not Born, host Sage Nye speaks with cybersecurity expert, CAIO, Founder, and CEO of Assail, Alissa Knight, about the rapidly evolving intersection of AI and offensive security. Once arrested for hacking as a teenager, Alissa went on to build Ares, a powerful AI m...

What if your multi-million-dollar GPU investment was quietly delivering less than half its potential? In this episode of Built Not Born, the conversation focuses on why AI infrastructure performance often lags far behind spend, and how continuous profiling is emerging as a real competitive edge. Join host Sage Nye as she sits down with Israel Ogbole, CEO and cofounder of zymtrace, to explore why m...

What if getting rejected 172 times was the best thing that could happen to your startup? In this episode of Built Not Born, host Sage Nye sits down with Stuart Lombard, co-founder and former CEO of ecobee, to unpack the grit and strategic clarity required to build a lasting company. After 172 investor rejections, Stuart transformed ecobee into a trusted smart home brand competing against giants li...

What if your product development cycle could be compressed from 12 months to weeks? In this episode of Built Not Born, the conversation focuses on unpacking why physical product companies struggle to move fast and how they can build agility into their DNA. Host Sage Nye sits down with Brian Lindauer, Founder and CEO of VibeIQ, as Brian shares lessons from two decades across retail and product deve...

What if a single internet outage could take down your entire business? In this episode of Built Not Born, the conversation unpacks a growing but under-discussed risk in modern infrastructure: edge fragility. Host Sage Nye sits down with Edward Tsinovoi, Co-founder and CEO at IO River, to discuss that as digital businesses scale, the risk of a single CDN outage can cascade into massive financial an...

Infrastructure decisions rarely feel glamorous, but they often determine whether a company scales or stalls. In this episode of Built Not Born, the conversation centres on how technology choices, leadership, and customer focus intersect under real-world pressure. Host Sage Nye sits down with Ian Penny, a global technology leader with over two decades of experience stabilising and scaling complex s...

Leadership in high-growth environments comes with moments of pressure, complexity, and rapid change. For go-to-market executives, your approach in those moments sets the tone for the entire team. In this episode of Built Not Born, Ethan Schechter shares how he keeps teams laughing through the lows, turns competition and collaboration into motivation, and helps build startups that endure when many...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast, the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. On this episode, host Sage Nye sits down with Miguel Navarro, Head of Applied Emerging Technologies at KeyBank, to unpack why authentic relationships outlast t...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast, the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. In this episode, host Sage Nye interviews Andrios Robert, founder and CEO of Hoop.dev, on his journey from engineer to security startup leader. Andrios shares...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast, the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. On this episode, host Sage Nye sits down with Najaf (Naj) Husain, four-time founder and CEO of Elastio, to unpack how startups can stay relentlessly customer-f...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast, the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. What does it really take to scale a cybersecurity company from startup to IPO? On this episode of Built Not Born, host Sage Nye interviews Corey Thomas, Chairm...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast, the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. In this episode, host Sage Nye sits down with Stas Bojoukha, founder and CEO of Compyl, to unpack his transition from CISO to compliance tech founder. Stas sha...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast, the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. In this episode of Built Not Born, host Sage Nye sits down with Steve Corndell, CEO of env0, to reveal what it takes to build and scale a high-performing techn...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast, the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. in this episode of Built Not Born, host Sage Nye sits down with Ben Nye, Managing Partner at Venture Guides, to explore the strategy behind their newly launche...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast—the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. Scaling a company from $50M to $4B takes more than vision—it demands execution. On Built Not Born, host Sage Nye speaks with Paul Cormier, Chairman and former C...

Welcome to Built Not Born: The Startup Go-To-Market Podcast—the podcast for early-stage founders and startup leaders who know that great companies aren’t lucky… they’re built through smart execution and a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. Hosted by Sage Nye, Managing Partner at Venture Guides, each episode dives into candid conversations with technical founders, investors, and GTM experts. You’ll...