Clock Speed with Shamus Madan

Josh Mohrer discusses the journey of developing the Wave app, sharing insights into its early development and the challenges faced, including combating copycats and acquiring users. He emphasizes the importance of overcoming skepticism with a strong work ethic and maintaining a work-life balance. The conversation delves into growth tactics, user acquisition costs, and leveraging Apple search ads....

Joseph Krause shares his journey from leaving a PhD program to diving into entrepreneurship, drawing on lessons from his military service. He discusses his transition to Alley Corp and insights into venture capital, emphasizing the importance of convincing investors about the potential of material science. Joseph delves into building a successful company culture, leveraging AI, and identifying tar...

Josh Suggs shares his entrepreneurial journey, starting with the founding of 203 Media and Tabs Chocolate. He discusses his transition from college to launching Study Buddy and overcoming initial challenges in NYC. Josh reflects on his decision to pursue entrepreneurship full-time while balancing college and business growth. He emphasizes the importance of commitment in scaling a business, transit...

Eli Cohen shares his journey from fintech to agency success, highlighting early challenges, strategic pivots, and rapid revenue growth through partnerships. He explores value propositions, deal structuring, and building a thriving agency with effective systems and sales automation. Eli introduces the Hawk Method for scaling, emphasizing learning from mistakes and persistence. The episode covers ma...

This is the $200M deal no one saw coming. Dan Porter was days from bankruptcy when a side project, Draw My Thing, became the #1 game in the world. Six weeks later, he sold his company for $200M. Then he did it again — founding Overtime, now valued at half a billion. This is how he changed his life in 12 months… and built a media empire from scratch.

Hamza Alsamraee shares his entrepreneurial journey, detailing his transition into the marketing agency world and the recognition of short-form content's potential. He discusses strategies for acquiring initial clients and principles for creating compelling ads, reflecting on early successes. Hamza offers insights on making the first $10-20k and navigating business and personal challenges while bal...

Dan Ahrens shares his journey from family influences to founding Left Lane Capital and raising a $630 million fund. He discusses the traits of great investors and offers advice for early career professionals, emphasizing the value of hustle and thinking like an owner. Dan explores evaluating investments, promoting from within, and operating efficiently. He provides insights on human-led sourcing i...

At 23, Alexa von Tobel dropped out of Harvard to launch a financial education company, LearnVest, during the Great Recession. She put her life savings into starting the business. Years later, she sold it for $375 Million. This is her story.

Krish Ramineni joins the episode to share his entrepreneurial journey from Microsoft to founding Fireflies. He discusses the origins of Fireflies, its transformation into a meeting assistant product, and the strategies that fueled its viral growth. Krish offers insights on overcoming financial challenges in the early startup phase, balancing purpose and profit, and the importance of maintaining wo...

Ankur Nagpal shares his entrepreneurial journey, from making his first million through Facebook applications to founding Teachable. He discusses the evolution of Teachable, scaling its revenue, and navigating its acquisition. Ankur offers advice for college students on networking and for founders feeling stuck. Post-acquisition, he delves into his new ventures, Ocho and Carry, and running a ventur...

Andy Dunn joins the show to discuss the founding and growth of Bonobos, from its inception at Stanford to its acquisition by Walmart. He delves into the challenges faced with co-founder dynamics and the transition of CEO roles. Andy shares insights on raising initial funds, disrupting the men's pants market, and the importance of branding and customer service. He reflects on mental health struggle...

Zach Yadegari joins the show to discuss his journey from self-taught coder to successful entrepreneur. He shares how he sold his first company, Totally Science, for $100k, his new venture, Cal AI, and the tactics they've used to scale to seven-figures per month in revenue. Balancing education with entrepreneurship, he emphasizes bootstrapping and rapid idea validation. He reflects on the challenge...

Sean O'Sullivan shares his entrepreneurial journey, from not being able to afford food to selling his company for $15 Million at 28 years old. He discusses the traits of a great founder and offers advice for young entrepreneurs navigating today's market. Sean reflects on his early programming days and the founding of MapInfo at age 21, detailing the motivations behind the company and the challenge...

Join Anthony Pompliano and Shamus Madan as Anthony shares his journey from military service to entrepreneurship. He reflects on the impact of September 11th, handling pressure, and balancing ambition with practicality. The discussion covers business ideas for students, the book that changed his life, and Facebook frameworks that connect humanity in business. Anthony explores AI, overlooked opportu...

Kian Sadeghi shares his journey, beginning with a personal tragedy that inspired the creation of Nucleus. He explains the decreasing cost and increasing value of genome sequencing and his decision to drop out of UPenn to focus on build a biotech company. Kian shares the challenges he faced and the strategies he used to raise $18 Million from investors such as Alexis Ohanian. He highlights the adva...

Dylan Diamond shares his entrepreneurial journey, starting with making websites in 4th grade to becoming Tesla's youngest intern at 17 to dropping out of UPenn to pursue building a company. He discusses his engineering background, early projects, and the creation and adoption of the Saturn app. Dylan balances his Tesla work with app development, meets co-founder Max, and reflects on early startup...

Bryan Clayton joins Shamus Madan to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, starting with his early experiences and scaling a lawn mowing business to $10M. Bryan shares insights from selling that business and transitioning to Greenpal, tackling early challenges and learning from failures. He details his journey into software development, building a tech platform, and forming a development team. Bryan...

Jacob Klug, a 20-year-old entrepreneur, embarked on a remarkable journey when he co-founded Creme Digital. At Creme, they specialize in creating beautiful software products at a fraction of the traditional cost and time. Their portfolio ranges from MVPs for startups to internal tools for Fortune 500 companies. What’s even more impressive? All their software is built using no-code tools like Bubble...

Shamus Madan interviews Gina Gotthilf, covering her pivotal career decision with Tumblr, an unexpected experience with a former boss, and she grew Duolingo to 200M users with PR. They discuss trust and risk in startups, PR misconceptions, meeting President Obama, and her work with Latin American startups at Latitude.

In this episode, Shamus Madan interviews Chess.com's Erik Allebest about his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges of running a $100 million business, and maintaining balance. They delve into building company culture in a remote setting, growth strategies, and the impact of AI on online chess.

When Neil Parikh was in medical school, he called his parents to say he was taking a year off to move to NYC. At the time, they were furious, but little did he know that would be one of the best decisions of his life. He partnered with his friend, whom he met at a coworking space, to build a DTC mattress company. Their most recent valuation was at over $1 Billion. This is the story of Casper and t...

At just 12 years old, Sam Obletz decided to put his studies on the back burner and start a computer integration company with his friend. Today, he has come a long way from building computers and is now on a mission to change advertising forever. This is his multi-billion dollar plan.

The education system is broken, but Tade Oyerinde is on a mission to save it with his startup Campus. He raised tens of millions from Sam Altman, Dr. Shaquille O'Neal, and many others. This is his multi-billion dollar plan.

In 2016, Joe Lemay's balance sheet for Rocketbook was -$400k, and no VC would touch him. Bootstrapping was his only option. After four years of sweat and tears, he and his co-founder, Jake, built the company to a +$50M exit. This is the story of Rocketbook.

In this episode, Shamus Madan chats with Bobby Brannigan about his entrepreneurial journey, from his father's grocery store to stock trading and textbook business. They discuss Bobby's innovative strategies, business financing, handling lawsuits, and market competition. Bobby shares his personal journey, including a life-changing backpacking trip and the influence of mentorship. The discussion end...