Scaling Nerds | Startup PR, Thought Leadership and Storytelling for Startup Founders

The Future of Media, AI & Founder Visibility Guest: Steven Perlberg LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/sperlberg/⁠ · Merantix Capital: ⁠https://www.merantix-capital.com⁠ Head of Communications at Merantix Capital — Berlin-based VC investing in early-stage AI. Former reporter at WSJ, BuzzFeed News, and Business Insider covering media, tech, and politics. Happy to connect with journalists ex...

Most founders walk onto stage cold. Even Usain Bolt doesn't do that. In this solo episode, Marina shares the exact warm-up routine she uses as a professional moderator — a five-minute ritual that will make you sharper, more confident, and more connected with your audience. Do this before your next pitch, panel, or keynote and you'll be in the top 5% of speakers on stage. The framework: Bre...

Make your investor updates the highest-leverage tool to unlock intros, hires, and your next round. In this episode, you get a full, practical breakdown of how to write investor updates that actually work. We cover how to keep them fast and simple, what to include (and what to leave out), how to structure wins, losses, and asks, and how to turn a simple email into a system that builds trust, moment...

Your voice communicates leadership long before your words do. In this solo episode of Scaling Nerds , Marina Schmidt explores a subtle but powerful communication skill most founders never think about: vocal placement . Links Connect with the host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ marina@wearekinetik.com Could use some help with your comms? Work with Marina via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https...

Imagine you are about to perform a three-minute startup pitch. You stand on stage, the countdown timer ticking. Precious seconds go by, and as you start talking about your business, you explain who you are. You mention the team — beep, beep — the time is up. What. Already. Well, that has happened to a lot of founders. I can guarantee you, nailing a three-minute stage pitch is not easy, and it’s no...

Okay, this was a really, really great episode. Today I'm helping another founder with a life pitch fix, and you are really in for a treat because on the one hand, Strong by Form, the company of today, is absolutely fascinating. And on the other hand, we are also going to be covering so many helpful concepts that will help you improve your pitch and your communication, all while working on a re...

 Early-stage founders spend years learning how to fundraise from venture capitalists. But very few ever look beyond the VC sitting across the table. Just like founders need to fundraise from VCs, VCs need to fundraise from limited partners. Who are the guys who give VCs the molah-molah? What are the hidden incentives? And how those dynamics quietly shape fundraising, timing, and pressure. “Everyon...

Find out how to solve the top 3 issues you may face in corporate sales: .1 not understanding the process, 2. the sale taking way too long, 3. getting ghosted or declined and not knowing why. An absolute must-watch episode for any founder currently hustling for big client deals. Links Connect with Ben Kimura-Gross: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-k-g/ Check out Catalyne https://www.thecatalyne.com/...

 Thought leadership. It's a big topic. You may know of Infarm, the vertical farming company that raised $600 Million before going bust after the Ukraine war drove up energy prices and made their business collapse. Regarding their operations can say all you want, the CEO of Infarm was an exceptional fundraiser. But how did he do it? One of my close friends worked for infarm and thats how I foun...

At pre-seed and seed stage, many scientific and technical startups don’t have a comms specialist on board. So pitch decks are puzzled together in endless iterations, website copy is written off the cuff, and the founders just riff in interviews. That may work out fine until the company starts truly scaling and you may face a growing amount of media interest and scrutiny. In this episode you will h...

How can you adapt your pitch on the fly to a potential customer, to an investor, or to a generalist audience? Today you can listen in on a live consulting session where I help a founder crack this question. In this episode, I'm consulting Oliver Siegel, the co-founder and CEO of the deep tech startup Magmatic Bio. Magmatic designs synthetic proteins that separate critical metals from each othe...

If your startup needs to speak to very different audiences — investors, corporates, consumers — this episode lays out why that skill matters more than most founders think. How you explain your work changes depending on who’s in front of you, and that can decide whether people actually understand what you do. If you’re selling cookies, fine. If you’re building a complex solution to a complex proble...

When you are working on a technical or scientific innovation, pitching a specialized VC firm may seem like the light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, someone who will get it. Or… will they? Today’s guest, Steve Molino, is Principal at Synthesis Capital based in New Jersey. And today’s episode asks: How can founders with complex tech craft pitch decks that help them get there, past the initial in...

A crisp crash course on announcing your fundraise correctly, including: a good timeline for drafting, reviewing, and sending out the press release how to correctly manage stakeholder feedback and how to maximize the benefits of the announcement The guest you’ll hear from today, Elisheva Marcus, and I met at the Deep Tech Momentum conference in Berlin and connected over nerding out about comms. Eli...

Climate activism failed to inspire hope, can founders fill the void? Discover why the next cultural revolution won’t be led by politicians, but by startup leaders. Episode Summary In this solo episode, Marina Schmidt dissects how startup founders have become some of the most powerful public communicators of our time—and why that power matters. She explores the rise of founder evangelism , the cult...

The food tech and biotech podcast Red to Green is becoming Scaling Nerds: the communications podcast for science & tech founders. New episodes every two weeks! Please share with friends, colleagues and whoever might be interested. Connect with Marina Schmidt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/ Need help with comms as a startup founder? Check out https://www.wearekinetik.co...

Find out all the details about micro fermentation. Discover how Formo is using this process to churn out Koji protein-based cheese alternatives that are hitting over 2000 stores in the DACH region. The episode breaks down the differences between micro and precision fermentation and why micro fermentation's quicker market route is so exciting. Learn about the sustainability perks and the cool s...

- An old episode from the Red to Green Podcast on Food Tech & Bio Tech. Listen if you are interested in the future of food, but this isn’t Scaling Nerds. Red to Green was a podcast that investigated how to transition the food industry from harmful to healthy, from polluting to sustainable, from Red to Green. Each season had a different topic Season: Cultivated Meat Season: Plastic Alternatives...

- An old episode from the Red to Green Podcast on Food Tech & Bio Tech. Listen if you are interested in the future of food, but this isn’t Scaling Nerds. Red to Green was a podcast that investigated how to transition the food industry from harmful to healthy, from polluting to sustainable, from Red to Green. Each season had a different topic Season: Cultivated Meat Season: Plastic Alternatives...

- An old episode from the Red to Green Podcast on Food Tech & Bio Tech. Listen if you are interested in the future of food, but this isn’t Scaling Nerds. Red to Green was a podcast that investigated how to transition the food industry from harmful to healthy, from polluting to sustainable, from Red to Green. Each season had a different topic Season: Cultivated Meat Season: Plastic Alternatives...

- An old episode from the Red to Green Podcast on Food Tech & Bio Tech. Listen if you are interested in the future of food, but this isn’t Scaling Nerds. Red to Green was a podcast that investigated how to transition the food industry from harmful to healthy, from polluting to sustainable, from Red to Green. Each season had a different topic Season: Cultivated Meat Season: Plastic Alternatives...

- An old episode from the Red to Green Podcast on Food Tech & Bio Tech. Listen if you are interested in the future of food, but this isn’t Scaling Nerds. Red to Green was a podcast that investigated how to transition the food industry from harmful to healthy, from polluting to sustainable, from Red to Green. Each season had a different topic Season: Cultivated Meat Season: Plastic Alternatives...

- An old episode from the Red to Green Podcast on Food Tech & Bio Tech. Listen if you are interested in the future of food, but this isn’t Scaling Nerds. Red to Green was a podcast that investigated how to transition the food industry from harmful to healthy, from polluting to sustainable, from Red to Green. Each season had a different topic Season: Cultivated Meat Season: Plastic Alternatives...

- An old episode from the Red to Green Podcast on Food Tech & Bio Tech. Listen if you are interested in the future of food, but this isn’t Scaling Nerds. Red to Green was a podcast that investigated how to transition the food industry from harmful to healthy, from polluting to sustainable, from Red to Green. Each season had a different topic Season: Cultivated Meat Season: Plastic Alternatives...

- An old episode from the Red to Green Podcast on Food Tech & Bio Tech. Listen if you are interested in the future of food, but this isn’t Scaling Nerds. Red to Green was a podcast that investigated how to transition the food industry from harmful to healthy, from polluting to sustainable, from Red to Green. Each season had a different topic Season: Cultivated Meat Season: Plastic Alternatives...