The Startup Podcast

About The Episode All of a sudden, AI is everywhere. But how do you pick through the hype to understand the real impact? And importantly, as a founder how should you react to the rapid emergence of LLM-based AI? Chris is joined by two leaders in the AI space, AI analyst and prolific investor Jeremiah Owyang and Ben Parr (co-founder Octane AI) to give you actionable insight and advice on how AI aff...

About The Episode In this episode, Chris Saad and Jack Bloomfield discuss the pros and cons of moving to the US to accelerate and amplify the success of your startup. They discuss topics like.. Is the US really that great? Isn't moving to a big city pointless after Covid? Isn't it unpatriotic to leave your country for the US? And more... The Pact Honour The Startup Podcast Pact! If you hav...

About The Episode Chris has had to watch from the sidelines for the last four episodes while he rested his voice, and it almost killed him! This week he is BACK and can’t wait to share his spicy takes on everything we discussed during his convalescence. If you ever wondered what Gogglebox crossed with TSP might be like, this one is for you. The Pact Honour The Startup Podcast Pact! If you have lis...

We’ve been communicating all our lives, so we’re probably pretty good at it, right? Wrong. Poor communication has arguably been responsible for more startup failures than any other single cause. In this episode, Yaniv is joined by Jenny Rudd, founder of DisputeBuddy , to talk about good communication: what it is, how to do it, and why your startup will die without it. Honour The Startup Podcast Pa...

Darker times in venture have seen the return of some old investment terms that haven’t had much of an airing lately: warrants, participating liquidation preferences, tranches, and more. These aren’t always bad, but if you’re not careful you can end up with a cap table that makes you uninvestable in future rounds. In this episode, Yaniv is once more joined by Jessy Wu, Investment Principal at After...

Communicating with your investors can seem like an annoying chore when you’re grinding away as a founder trying to make something out of nothing. But there are a lot of good reasons why you should keep your investors in the loop. And it doesn’t have to be painful!  In this episode, Yaniv is joined by friend-of-the-pod Jessy Wu, Investment Principal at Afterwork Ventures, to talk through her six ti...

Netflix popularised the term “talent density” to describe the key plank of its approach to building a high-performing organisation. But what is it? Why is it important? And of course, how can you ensure your startup possesses high talent density? While Chris rests his voice, Yaniv is joined by Henry Innis, founder of Mutinex, to dive into this topic. They cover the following, while sharing hard-wo...

Chris braves his vocal issues to rejoin Yaniv in our latest Listener Q&A episode. Five great questions, lots of great discussion and actionable advice. * How do you break into startups when you only have corporate experience? * What is your take on when startups need legal support, and what should the characteristics of an optimal legal support for startups be? * What's the most common misconc...

If using your product becomes an ingrained habit for your users, you’re well on your way to massive success. But how do you make your product habit-forming? On this episode of The Startup Podcast Yaniv talks to Nir Eyal, the world’s leading behavioural designer and author of the bestselling book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Nir and Yaniv talk about what types of products can benefi...

Without a clear communication path back to leadership, creating autonomous teams doesn’t lead to an empowered organisation… it just leads to chaos. Escalation is that clear communication path. Far from being a minor practice, escalation is the nervous system that allows multiple empowered teams to still act as a single cohesive organisation. In this episode, Chris and Yaniv explain what escalation...

It is nearly impossible for a startup to succeed if its leaders do not have a clear sense of conviction about the direction they are going. But what is conviction? Why is it so critical? And what are the ingredients that are necessary in building and maintaining that sense of conviction as a leader? In this episode, Chris and Yaniv break down this sometimes murky topic into a clear set of criteria...

Amir Shevat was in charge of Twitter's developer platform, until he was fired (along with his whole team) by Elon Musk. Twitter no longer has a developer platform. In this episode, Amir talks with Chris and Yaniv about Twitter’s deep but troubled history with its developer platform, and what that history teaches us about how and when startups should build a developer platform. And yes, he tells us...

The great disruptors of Silicon Valley are nearly all product led. In this episode, Chris and Yaniv dive deep on how a product-led organisation works, what is necessary for it to be successful, the various responsibilities of Product Managers and their counterparts, and most importantly: what it takes to transform any organisation into one that is truly product-led. It’s not easy, but it is worth...

The great disruptors of Silicon Valley are nearly all product led. In this episode, Chris and Yaniv explain what a product-led organisation looks like, how it thinks, and why it is the right model for massive disruption at scale. They then discuss common alternative models to being product led, and the risks and dysfunctions of these various alternatives. This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on trans...

All season, Chris and Yaniv have talked about the mindset that is needed to succeed at venture-backed startups. For the final episode of Season 1, we tie it all together with an analogy: tournament poker. It is amazing how many things poker and startups have in common, so in this episode we use the lens of poker to discuss the big picture of how to approach building a successful startup. We dive i...

Mike Scott is a serial entrepreneur who found himself working at a large tech unicorn when they acquired his business. As newly-minted Head of Product Partnerships, Mike has questions! Luckily, Yaniv and Chris have (some) answers. This ended up being a bit of a personal discussion and coaching session, and we thank Mike for opening up. In this Office Hours episode, topics discussed include: The tr...

Alignment is about making sure that everybody in an organisation is working in such a way that their efforts build on each other, rather than cancelling out. If you’re not aligned, it doesn’t matter how hard you work—you’re not going to get anywhere. In this episode, Chris and Yaniv discuss: What does it mean to be aligned? Alignment at different levels and across different time spans Encouraging...

This bonus episode is a collaboration with Yan Kruger’s fantastic Growth Ripples podcast. Startups can survive a bad culture to achieve product-market fit, but once they reach the scale-up stage the effects of poor culture hinder growth. In this episode, Yan and Yaniv discuss what culture is, why it’s so important, and when is the right time to start investing in it. Why culture matters. What is c...

Most startups limp along with way too many priorities—and the lack of focus will kill them. Ruthless and deliberate prioritization and sequencing is *the* secret ingredient behind successful startups. In this episode, Chris and Yaniv tell you how to do it like the best, and how to avoid falling into many common traps. Why prioritization matters & the importance of focus. Why you can’t grow you...

Emil Michael was Uber’s Chief Business Officer during the company’s glory years, and is one of the small handful of people who shaped the modern ridesharing economy. Emil is one of Silicon Valley’s most legendary business development people, and in this episode he shares some of his best tips about finding, evaluating, closing, and executing partnerships that will turbocharge your startup. As an a...

It’s no secret that the investment environment has changed quite drastically in the last six months, and for many founders out there it has become much more difficult to raise the needed funds. We have recently had the privilege of speaking to two incredible investors: Jessy Wu from Afterwork Ventures, and the legendary Emil Michael, former Chief Business Officer of Uber. In this bonus episode, we...

Yaniv is joined by Jessy Wu, Investor at Afterwork Ventures, to talk about how excessive niceness in a startup ecosystem can turn toxic, and what can be done to fight back against it. This episode is the perfect mix of thoughtful, spicy, and actionable! Listen in as Yaniv and Jessy discuss: What is toxic niceness and why is it so bad? Diversity & Inclusion and toxic niceness. How toxic niceness st...

Time for another Listener Q&A episode! Chris and Yaniv give clear, actionable answers on the following questions: How to prioritise which features to build? How to think about PR for your startup? When is the right time to start building hype and interest for your product? What’s the best way to cold email potential investors? Follow the Startup Podcast on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/com...

The modern software ecosystem is made possible by developer platforms and APIs. Many of the most successful tech startups of recent years have succeeded by offering powerful tools to developers. So what exactly are devekoper platforms, and what makes them so valuable? And how should you think about incorporating developer platforms into your own startup growth story?  In this episode, Chris a...

There comes a point in the journey of most startups when it all turns to sh*t. A crisis looms large and it is up to you, as a leader, to get things back on track. What do you do? How do you talk about it? How do you move quickly without making things worse? And how do you not lose your mind doing it? In this episode, Chris and Yaniv discuss: The different kinds of startup crisis Why you need to st...