Adam ODonnell

The Founder Initiative

Technology EN ↓ 219 episodes

Helping founders hit PMF, get funded & drive durable growth through podcasting & buyer events(Formerly TheTop. VC)

Author

Adam ODonnell

Episodes

Nate Williams, Founder & Managing Partner at UNION Labs: the rise of non-technical hires...sooner 27.04.2021 7:30

Nate Williams, ex CRO of August Home, Inc., former EIR at Kleiner Perkins, and current Founder & Managing Partner at UNION Labs Ventures shares a trend of sales, BD, & HR hires happening sooner.

CEO of BuildFire, Ian Blair: AI-powered copywriting - they average 250k views/mo. 14.04.2021 5:25

Clearscope + Conversion.ai = Turbocharged SEO Ian and his team average 250k site view/mo...not bad for a B2B company

G. Founder of lemist; turned down $30M in funding 13.04.2021 9:22

G., Founder & CEO of @lemist ‎explains how he received & turned down an offer of $30M in funding at a $100M valuation

ex Intel Capital MD, Hassan Miah: event growth strategies still work 09.04.2021 15:29

ex Intel Capital Managing Director & Standford MBA, Hassan Miah discusses his event growth strategy for his neo bank Wicket... Check out his full episode here:

David Weekly; Founder & CEO of Medcorder: stop "pitching" investors 09.04.2021 13:49

Facebook acquired 1 of his 3 startups, he has done 100 angel investments and raised millions... My friend, David E. Weekly, CEO of Medcorder shares incredible advice on raising money.

$360M+ AUM, Neotribe Ventures's Managing Director, Aditya Singh: Super SEs 07.04.2021 5:33

"Super SEs" = highly technical sales engineers --> are replacing traditional sales positions #customerempathy

Salesforce's Mathew Sweezey, Director of Marketing Strategy: 'Message to Experience' 06.04.2021 5:51

Thought Leadership 2.0 --> 'Not a message, but an experience'

$80M+ AUM, Clout Capital's German Fondevila; VCs Want Conversation NOT Presentations 30.03.2021 7:52

- You wouldn't pitch your Doctor, you would first share symptoms and have a relaxed conversation - Don't be tied to the structure of your deck

ex Foundation Capital & Current WestWave Capital GP, Warren Weiss: large customer have increased pressure to work with startups 26.03.2021 5:27

How COVID has made it easier for startups to sign big deals with fortune 500 companies! #boom

FreelanceForLaw.com CEO, Brian Bedard; how to use cold calling as an early growth strategy 26.03.2021 7:37

FreelanceForLaw.com is a platform that helps connect Attorneys and Law Firms with freelance legal professionals.

Matik's CEO Nikola Mijic: "Champagneing" --> the best inbound strategy 25.03.2021 5:37

Matik, Inc.'s CEO Nikola Mijic, shares how their thought leadership series on "How Matik Uses Matik" drove huge inbound traffic!

MARL 5G Accelerator's Managing Director, Amir Khan: investors are prioritizing corporate experience > college dropout 24.03.2021 5:25

TREND --> Where did all the college dropout founders go? Advice to 25-year old founder --> Go for it. Fail 1, 2, or 3x. Learn and that experience will differentiate you when you are raising money.

$850M+ AUM, SOSV's Managing Partner, Sean O'Sullivan: why you must fire bad-fit customers quickly 23.03.2021 10:54

"Fire your bad-fit customers...remember you're actually subsidizing them if you are an early-stage startup."

Oracle For Startups's, JD Weinstein: Product-Led-Growth & Corporate Startup Partnerships 18.03.2021 6:13

Two ways they help their startups: 1. Enterprise Client Intros - founders can partner with our Account Executives to get introduced to a large client 2. Internal Coaching - our employees love helping startups

PS27 Ventures, CEO Jim Stallings; Voice Automation For Everything 17.03.2021 7:36

'Voice automation is about to be as big as apps in 2011'

$15M+ Funding, DroneSeed, CEO Grant Canary: improve your deck with three tactics 16.03.2021 6:56

#Entrepreneurs add these two things to your deck: 1. Site your sources 2. Loom videos...' if they want to go down the rabbit hole'

HubSpot's Scott Brinker, VP Platform Ecosystem; App Store Optimization 15.03.2021 5:47

'App store optimization is one of the most underutilized growth channels since most SaaS companies are still ignoring it...'

"The Trident" | schedule a meeting with any hard-to-reach prospect; Gordon Droitcour, CEO Syne 12.03.2021 1:30

If you are having trouble getting the attention of a hard-to-reach prospect, try the Trident. Thanks, Gordon, CEO of Syne.

Agorapulse CEO, Emeric Ernoult; "SaaC" = speakers-as-a-channel 11.03.2021 5:34

$0 to $4M ARR in 2-years using this strategy... "SaaC" = speakers-as-a-channel

Yamaha Ventures VC, Rebecca Woodcock; Aspirational Health 09.03.2021 8:24

Healthcare System Evolution = Sick Care > Behavior Influence > *Aspirational Health*

Founder & MP at Resolute Partners Group, Kevin Lutz: SPACs...the music is still playing 04.03.2021 9:40

Thank you Kevin Lutz , Founder & Managing Partner at Resolute Partners Group , for sharing your perspective on SPACs.

Yariv Ganor, Startup Psychologist with Sheba Tel HaShomer City of Health about Founder Psychology 04.03.2021 4:51

@Founders, do you talk to your co-founders more than your spouse/partner? (I know I did!)

Sanjoy Roy, Co-Founder of AskSid.ai a Techstars company 02.03.2021 4:43

"CCAI" --> chatbot-conversations-as-insights "When a user has a discussion with a chatbot on your site, don't let those insights go to waste..." Sanjoy Roy, Co-Founder of AskSid.ai a Techstars company Shoutout From Sanjoy To: "Bradford Cross, we love you because you planted the vertical AI concept in our mind..."

HearstLab's VP, Lisa Burton O'Toole; corporate <> startup partnerships 25.02.2021 6:52

Here are a few lessons for other corporate accelerators from Lisa Burton O'Toole, VP of HearstLab 1. Focus on startups you can IMPACT rather than tying it to a strategic goal 2. Connect YOUR expert employees with startups for 30-min mentor sessions to drive sales, marketing, etc. 3. Use YOUR employees to evaluate prospective startups before investing Shoutout From Lisa To: "Madhuri Yechuri is the...

Simultaneous Meal Delivery + Zoom? --> Andy Scott, Partner at Advantary 24.02.2021 3:52

Three ways to overcome the siloed nature of WFH: - Meal delivery --> order sushi for everyone and have it delivered at the same time - Drink delivery --> use Drizly to send drinks to everyone on the team at the same time - Virtual Petting Zoo --> Visit a virtual petting zoo with Goat-2-Meeting