Never Too Early

Lauren Ipsen , talent partner at Decibel, hosts Hemal Shah (formerly OpenAI, Atlassian, and Root) to answer common founder questions about enabling AI for the first time. Shah argues AI isn’t just an individual productivity tool; it exposes organizational bottlenecks like slow coordination and alignment, shifting the focus to designing systems where humans and agents work together. They discuss ho...

Lauren Ipsen , talent partner at Decibel, hosts an episode of Never Too Early featuring Adam Hall , who runs strategic marketing at SentinelOne and previously worked at Microsoft, Google, Headspace, and Aurora. They discuss what product marketing should own, emphasizing the role as a cross-functional discipline spanning product, marketing, and sales, and noting that the first PMM is typically a ge...

In this episode, Lauren Ipsen hosts Laura Burkhauser, CEO of Descript, to discuss the intricacies of video content creation and distribution. Laura shares her journey from working at Twitter to discovering her passion for content creation, recently becoming the new CEO of Descript, a comprehensive video editing solution. They chat about the pressures of content creation in the digital age, the rol...

In this episode of Never Too Early’s “Founder Therapy” series, Lauren Ipsen , talent partner at Decibel, sits down with Ash Devata , the CEO of GreyNoise Intelligence. Ash shares his unique journey from growing up in a small village in India to becoming a cybersecurity leader. He reflects on his career transitions, challenges faced while moving from large corporations like Cisco to leading a 55 pe...

In this episode of 'Never Too Early,' host Lauren Ipsen is joined by Jonathan Schneider , founder of Moderne and US Army alum. They delve into topics crucial for business leaders and operators, such as multi-year deals, pricing strategy, and knowing when to fight versus fold. Jonathan shares his journey from Netflix to founding Moderne, his insights on pricing models, challenges with enterprise de...

In this episode of 'Never Too Early,' host Lauren Ipsen , Talent Partner at Decibel, welcomes Maria Zhang , former VP of Engineering at Google and other major tech companies, who recently launched her startup, Palona AI. Maria discusses her new venture, her transition from corporate roles to founding a startup, key insights from talking to over a hundred customers, and the importance of building f...

In this episode of Never Too Early's Founder Therapy Series, Lauren Ipsen from Decibel sits down with Matt Peters , the former Chief Product Officer at Expel and now a tech entrepreneur. They discuss his journey to becoming a founder, including his early career experiences, the challenges of building his company Fixify, and the learnings from product development to managing investors. Matt shares...

In the first episode of NTE’s Founder Therapy Series, Lauren Ipsen , Talent Partner at Decibel, interviews Navrina Singh , founder and CEO of Credo AI. Navrina shares her journey from leading AI products at Microsoft to founding Credo AI in 2020. She discusses the challenges she faced, such as creating a new category in AI governance and navigating the complexities of the startup world. The conver...

In this episode of 'Never Too Early,' host Lauren Ipsen from Decibel engages with Amy Kim , the Chief Revenue Officer at A.Team, discussing the strategic use of contractors for early-stage startups. Amy provides insights into the evolving gig economy, emphasizing the paradigm shift towards output-driven organizations in a rapidly changing workforce landscape. She discusses the benefits of hiring c...

In this episode of 'Never Too Early,' Lauren Ipsen , Talent Partner at Decibel, hosts Sally Carson , an experienced design leader with a background at LinkedIn and Duo Security. Together, they explore the top five questions founders have about building their design organizations from scratch. Key topics include the timing and type of first design hires, the roles of product and brand design, intro...

In this episode of 'Never Too Early,' host Lauren Ipsen , Talent Partner at Decibel, interviews Giri Sreenivas , Chief Product Officer at Docker, about essential strategies for founders building their product organizations for the very first time. The conversation addresses when to hire your first PM, the importance of founders remaining involved in the product vision, and the pros/cons between hi...

In this episode of Never Too Early, Lauren Ipsen from Decibel talks with Nir Polak , co-founder and former CEO of Exabeam, about selecting a co-founder and productive co-founder dynamics for new founders. Nir comes from 18 years of information security experience. He shares the importance of complementary skill sets, and maintaining open communication and a “no-ego culture.” Lauren and Nir also di...

In this episode of Never Too Early, host Lauren Ipsen from Decibel interviews growth advisor Yuriy Timen , former global head of marketing and growth at Grammarly. They discuss actionable insights for founders on topics such as establishing a growth engine, balancing growth with profitability, the importance of leaning into organic growth before paid channels, and when to bring in fractional advis...

In this episode of 'Never Too Early', host Lauren Ipsen speaks with Joe Sullivan , an esteemed internet security expert, about key considerations for founders hiring their first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Joe shares insights from his extensive career running security for Uber, Facebook, and Cloudflare. The discussion covers when to outsource vs. hire full-time, the importance of pr...

In this episode of Never Too Early, hosted by Lauren Ipsen , talent partner at Decibel, Dana Lawson , CTO of Netlify, shares insights on understanding the productivity of your engineering organization. Lauren and Dana cover topics such as measuring technical output, the role of AI in productivity, the best structure for your team, and how to determine when to hire or promote internally. Dana also...

In this episode of Never Too Early, host Lauren Ipsen , Talent Partner at Decibel, dives into the vast and increasingly popular world of advisors. Lauren's guest, Jennifer Longnion shares her perspectives on the different roles an advisor can play, and how to choose the right person and structure for your business. 00:00 Introduction to 'Never Too Early' Series 00:20 Meet Jennifer Longnion: Season...

In this episode of Never Too Early, host Lauren Ipsen , Talent Partner at Decibel, dives into crucial sales compensation strategies for early-stage founders. Lauren's guest, Brian Murphy , former CRO of Sigma Computing and Sales Leader at Okta, shares his perspectives on how to hire and pay your early sales team as well as properly structure and incentivize each stakeholder in your organization to...

Jen is currently the COO of Cube.dev , formerly the CEO of Appify, and held the CMO title at Box, Elastic, and Looker. As a 3X CMO, Jen has seen it all. In this episode, Lauren asks Jen Grant the top five commonly asked questions she gets from founders building their first marketing organizations. What kind of marketer do I hire first? [2:48 - 4:54] What comes first, product marketing or a demand...