Startup Success: A Podcast for Founders & Investors

With Q2 in the rearview mirror, we welcome back one of our most popular guests, Steve Lord, COO & Head of Service Delivery at Burkland. Steve joins us for a macro view of the startup and VC ecosystem—and the message is clear: uncertainty still reigns. From geopolitical instability to unpredictable trade policies and inflation, Steve breaks down what founders and investors need to know right no...

We’re thrilled to welcome back Feras Alhlou—seasoned entrepreneur, startup coach, and co-founder of Start Up With Feras—for another insightful episode of Startup Success. In this candid conversation, Feras dives into what it really takes to build and scale a successful startup. He shares hard-earned lessons from his own journey, including how to focus on what matters most during each phase of the...

In this episode, we sit down with Merrill Lutsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Graphite, a breakout startup redefining code review for the AI era. Originally built solely as an internal code review tool, Graphite unexpectedly attracted a huge amount of interest from the developer community, prompting the team to pivot their startup to focus entirely on that tool. Today, Graphite’s AI developer productivi...

If you’re a founder gearing up to raise capital, this episode of Startup Success is your ultimate fundraising playbook. We’re joined by Nathan Beckord, CEO of Foundersuite and Fundingstack, and host of the How I Raised It podcast. Nathan has helped hundreds of startups navigate every stage of the fundraising process—and he’s sharing his top strategies to help you maximize your next raise. We explo...

What makes a co-founder relationship thrive—or fall apart? In this episode of Startup Success, we’re joined by Tim He, Founder of Cherrytree, a company helping startup co-founders navigate the tricky terrain of working together. Tim draws on his personal experience co-founding a startup with four friends and explains how that journey led him to launch a newsletter and private coaching practice for...

What makes a startup board really effective? How do you build one that will truly benefit your startup? How do you conduct board meetings that are helpful and not just a quarterly scramble to put together a deck?  In this episode of Startup Success, we dive deep into a topic we’ve never explored before: the real role and power of a startup board. Your board can be a game-changer for your startup—i...

In this episode of Startup Success, we welcome Arielle Lechner, Executive Coach and Founder of NewPo, to discuss the crucial role of decision-making and leadership in early-stage startups. Arielle, a mentor for TechStars and former startup operator, shares insights on how founders can move faster, avoid burnout, and create a thriving company culture. We dive into how founders can distinguish betwe...

Finding startup success outside of Silicon Valley is possible – it just requires some ingenuity. We couldn’t think of anyone who knows more about this topic than Rick Turoczy. With three decades of experience supporting founders, Rick Turoczy, GM and Co-founder of PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment), is the ultimate connector and an expert at helping startups turn ideas into reality. In this episo...

Join us for a Q1 update! Kicking off 2025, many anticipated a return to the "good old days" of economic optimism, but the reality has been more complex. In this episode of Startup Success, we sit down with Steven Lord, Burkland’s COO, to get a pulse on the startup ecosystem and the broader economic landscape as Q1 comes to a close. We discuss: What’s going on with interest rates? Trends in startup...

In this episode of Startup Success, we explore the data privacy considerations that all founders need to address, not ignore, with Katharine Tomko, Partner at First Ascent Ventures. Katharine fully understands all the priorities and stresses founders face, so she lays out a clear roadmap for them with small, actionable steps they can take now that will help them down the road with privacy. With an...

Pricing and packaging can make or break a startup, yet many founders struggle to get it right. In this episode of Startup Success, we sit down with Fynn Glover, Co-Founder and CEO of Schematic, to explore his journey from startup founder to pricing and packaging expert. Fynn shares lessons from his first startup—how a pivot led to an acquisition, the challenges of scaling, and what sparked his fas...

In this episode of Startup Success, we are joined by Daniel Loreto, founder of Jetify, who dives into his journey from working at tech giants like Google, Twitter, and Airbnb to launching his own startup. Daniel shares how his passion for accelerating software development led to the creation of Jetify and how AI is transforming the way developers bring ideas to life. Highlights: Daniel’s candid ad...

There is no getting around the power of customer feedback in building a successful startup. In this episode of Startup Success, we sit down with Luke Kim, founder and CEO of Liner, an AI-powered search tool revolutionizing the way researchers, students, and knowledge workers find reliable information. As a child during the dot-com boom, Luke dreamed of one day starting his own company. Right out o...

In this episode of  Startup Success , we're joined by Manish Patel, founding partner at Nava Ventures and self-described accidental venture capitalist. Manish shares his fascinating journey into venture capital, including the challenges and rewards of running a Series A-focused fund and his firm’s thesis-driven approach to investing. We discuss: What Manish looks for when investing in Series A sta...

The Trump 2.0 era will reshape the startup landscape. Is your startup prepared for what’s next? In this insight-packed episode of Startup Success, we welcome back one of our favorite guests, Steven Lord, Burkland’s Managing Director of Service Delivery and Chief Learning Officer. Steve dives deep into the state of the startup ecosystem as we close out 2024 and enter a pivotal year. We explore the...

In this episode of Startup Success, we sit down with Surojit Chatterjee, the CEO and founder of Ema, a generative AI platform poised to transform the future of work. With a career spanning high-level roles at Google and Coinbase, Surojit shares his journey from building billion-dollar businesses to creating Ema’s Universal AI Employee, designed to automate tedious tasks and empower employees to fo...

In this episode of Startup Success, we dive into the incredible entrepreneurial journey of Russ d’Sa, Co-Founder and CEO of LiveKit, a startup that evolved from a pandemic side project into an open-source development stack that powers real-time AI. The wildly varied use cases for LiveKit’s technology range from voice conversations with ChatGPT to saving lives on 911 emergency calls. It's a fascina...

In this episode of Startup Success, host Kate Adams sits down with Vlad Voroninski, CEO and co-founder of Helm.ai, an AI software startup that is developing the world's safest and most advanced autonomous driving systems at scale.  Vlad gives us a fascinating look into Helm.ai's innovative approach to addressing previously unsolved problems in the self-driving car space, detailing how his company...

What if the powerful nutritional compounds in breast milk could be harnessed to improve the health of people of all ages? Today, we’re sitting down with Laura Katz, CEO and founder of Helaina, a groundbreaking biotech startup that’s pushing the boundaries of what food can do for health. Helaina’s technology platform replicates functional proteins found in the human body, making them available as n...

What if your inspiration for starting a company came from solving a problem you experienced first-hand as an engineer at a tech giant like Uber?  In this episode, we welcome Anish Dhar, Co-Founder and CEO of Cortex, to share his incredible journey from an engineer at Uber to founding Cortex, the internal developer portal that addresses a massive gap in engineering processes and recently raised a $...

For startups, even software startups, figuring out what is worth patenting is one of the most important moves a founder needs to make. That’s where our guest today comes in. Jeff Schox, Founding Partner and Patent Attorney at Schox Patent Group, is a patent expert who’s helped hundreds of very successful startups navigate this rocky terrain. Jeff joins us to give startup founders a basic primer on...

We explore some weighty questions on this episode of Startup Success, including: What would the world look like if half the venture capital dollars were in women-led funds?  Is VC funding the golden ticket or just another hurdle for startups?  How do we overcome the biggest limiting factor to success – ourselves? Why is the bulk of venture capital still not in the hands of women? Sutian Dong , Par...

To celebrate the 100th episode of Startup Success, we have two exceptional guests: Peter Reinhardt, CEO and co-founder of Charm Industrial (and the former co-founder/CEO of Segment), and Jeff Burkland, CEO and founder of Burkland. Peter and Jeff take us behind the scenes of Segment, the hugely successful startup that was acquired by Twilio for $3.2 billion in 2020. They recount their time working...

In the rapidly evolving world of AI, standing out requires more than just innovation; it demands leadership and a clear vision. Enter Lin Qiao, the driving force behind Fireworks AI, who is redefining the limitations of speed, value and scale in generative AI. With a $52M Series B secured earlier this summer, Fireworks AI has quickly become a major player after launching their public platform just...

Amid high interest rates and election uncertainty, navigating the startup landscape has never been more challenging. Fortunately, our special guest, Steve Lord , is here to offer a broader perspective that may help ease your mind. As a member of Burkland’s Leadership Team, Steve serves as Managing Director of Service Delivery and Chief Knowledge Officer. Steve has been in the trenches for a while...