The Founder Initiative
By Adam ODonnell
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Category: Technology
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Episodes: 157
Description
Helping founders hit product-market fit, get funded & stay up-to-date.
(Formerly TheTop.VC)
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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Small Town Founder, Got Into YC Without Pedigree; Joseph Johnson, CEO, LedgerUp
|
Jul 09, 2025 |
|
[$25M Raised] Getting Into YC, Top Fundraising Learnings & Hitting PMF, Matthew Watts, Co-Founder, Lendflow
|
Jul 08, 2025 |
|
From Rejection to $2.5B GMV: The Product-Market Fit Playbook
|
Jul 01, 2025 |
|
[$4B VC] Greycroft's Partner, Mark Terbeek, Behind the Curtain - intros, top sectors, etc
|
Jun 24, 2025 |
|
How Rinse Raised $70M: The Fundraising Lesson Every Founder Needs
|
Jun 18, 2025 |
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(YC S24) How Offstream Got Into YC With Screenshots, a Deck, and Low Traction — Varsha’s Blueprint for Founders
|
Jun 17, 2025 |
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[$370M Exit] Neubird's Founder, Gotham Rao; selecting your next startup idea
|
Jun 11, 2025 |
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[$70M raised] LucidLink's Founder; near shutdown to $50M ARR - PMF journey & closing your first round
|
Jun 04, 2025 |
|
[VC Pitch] Hustle Fund's GP, Eric Bahn & Feather Robotics's CEO, Hoa Mai
|
May 28, 2025 |
|
The Funding Framework, ex 500 Global, Vijay Rajendran - unique steps used by successful founders to get funded
|
May 22, 2025 |
|
[VC Pitch] Eventbrite's Founder (now VC at A*) reviews a pitch: Peter Fitzpatrick, Founder of Fawn
|
May 14, 2025 |
|
[VC Pitch] Foundation Capital's ($6B AUM), Partner Sid Trivedi <> Cofactory's, Founder Josiah Spartz
|
Apr 23, 2025 |
|
450 early stage investments; Founder & GP; Michael Cardamone
|
Apr 02, 2024 |
|
[$300M AUM] Navy SEAL & Olympian to Harpoon Ventures, Founder & GP; Larsen Jensen's Story
|
Feb 27, 2024 |
|
[$70M raised] Productiv's funding & product-market-fit journey
|
Feb 06, 2024 |
|
Immigrant founder to $10M+ raised; Oana Manolache, Founder of Sequel.io
|
Jan 23, 2024 |
|
[$13M Raised] YC Space Tech startup, how they got funded; AstroForge's Founder, Matt Gialich
|
Jan 09, 2024 |
|
What VCs expect during a pitch: Emil Capital's Managing Partner, Marcel Bens
|
Dec 12, 2023 |
|
[$23M Raised] Getting into YC (no website) & how they hit product-market fit; CommandBar's Founder, James Evans
|
Dec 05, 2023 |
|
8 Unicorns (Deel & Miro); Altair Capital's, Igor Ryabenkiy shares what he looks for when investing
|
Nov 14, 2023 |
|
[Exit to Salesforce] Troops's Founder, Dan Reich: How to fundraise without a product or customers
|
Oct 26, 2023 |
|
Exits to SAP & Medallia: Shreesha Ramdas, Founder of Lumber, why founder-market-fit is overrated & how to select the right industry
|
Sep 26, 2023 |
|
[1,500 startups reviewed] Zamir Shukho, GP at Vibranium VC; founder motivation & customer discovery pitfalls
|
Sep 12, 2023 |
|
Former a16z Partner, Rex Salisbury, now GP at Cambrian; Speed of execution & career highs and lows
|
Aug 29, 2023 |
|
Navigating Fundraising Challenges: Insights from Whizz's Co-founder Mike Peregudov, Post $1.5M Seed Extension
|
Aug 15, 2023 |
|
[$75M* Raised] Solve for: VC engagement; Matt Martin, Founder of Clockwise
|
Aug 01, 2023 |
|
[$5M Raised] Power Through Funding Doubt: Black Founder Success, Devo Harris, Founder of Adventr
|
Jul 25, 2023 |
|
MARL Accelerator's GP: Integrity, Due Diligence, and Early-Stage Investing
|
Jun 22, 2023 |
|
1# Correlation to Startup Success: $340M AUM, Clear Ventures's GP, Rajeev Madhavan (2x founder)
|
Jun 13, 2023 |
|
[$9.9M Raised] Do you have a moat? Answering VC's, funding 101: David Fink, CEO Postie
|
May 23, 2023 |
|
[$29M raised] Getting Sequoia to Invest In Your Seed; Brian, CEO of Doppler
|
May 09, 2023 |
|
Inside the Mind of a Solo Capitalist; Itamar Novick, Managing Partner of Recursive Ventures
|
May 02, 2023 |
|
Investor in Gusto & Robinhood; Chamaeleon's Managing Partner, Nuno G. Pedro; how VCs evaluate founders, DD process unpacked, and pitching without slides
|
Mar 30, 2023 |
|
Founder Market Fit - what are investors actually looking for? VC, Emma Silverman, from TMV shares her perspective
|
Mar 21, 2023 |
|
Sequoia & Kleiner invested pre-product; Shane Curran, Founder of Evervault shares what he did
|
Mar 14, 2023 |
|
[$0-IPO] Braze's Founder, Mark Ghermezian; now running m]x[v Capital; how to evaluate early stage founders
|
Mar 07, 2023 |
|
4 weeks of runway to $48M total raised; how did Therma's founders, Manik Suri and Lucas Tepman do it?
|
Feb 28, 2023 |
|
[Seed Investor in Paypal & Co-Founder of Eventbrite] Kevin Hartz, GP at A* Capital; what does he look for in a founding team?
|
Feb 14, 2023 |
|
Tesla of Motorcycles? - Oben's Founder, Madhumita Agrawal; funding a hardware startup in a recession
|
Feb 13, 2023 |
|
TechCrunch Disrupt Winner: Minerva Lithium's Founder, Sheeba Dawood; how did they win?
|
Feb 07, 2023 |
|
[$1.3B AUM] Crosslink Capital's Tobias Nilsson-Roos: how to nail your first meeting with a VC
|
Jan 27, 2023 |
|
VamosVentures's Principal, Ashley Aydin: breaking imposter syndrome during a pitch, LatinX investment trends, & Miga Health investment reasoning
|
Jan 24, 2023 |
|
[$600+ AUM] M13's Anna Barber; why multiples ACTUALLY went down & how to shift your funding strategy
|
Jan 17, 2023 |
|
[$10M Seed] Using a white paper to oversubscribe your round; Dan Bladen, Founder of Kadence
|
Jan 05, 2023 |
|
Angular Ventures's, David Peterson: 3 things VCs look for what YOU might not have in your deck?
|
Dec 13, 2022 |
|
GTMfund's Scott Barker; nail these 4 things if you want a chance of raising in this environment
|
Dec 08, 2022 |
|
[Airtable's former VP of Growth] Darius Contractor; showing VCs how you could return their fund
|
Nov 15, 2022 |
|
[$12M Seed, Greylock Invested] Rishabh Jain, Co-Founder of Fermat Commerce; raising in a downturn
|
Nov 08, 2022 |
|
Mendoza Ventures, GP Senofer Mendoza; how to share the 'elephant in the room' with a VC
|
Nov 01, 2022 |
|
Atlassian Ventures & others just invested $12.5M in Allstacks; learn from founder Hersh Tapadia on how he did it
|
Oct 27, 2022 |
|
Fiat Ventures, General Partner, Drew Glover: sharing your GTM tests and strategies in your deck
|
Oct 18, 2022 |
|
Adam Burrows, Founder of Range Ventures: competitor response, VC updates, and common red flags during due diligence
|
Oct 11, 2022 |
|
[$450M AUM] Ridge Ventures, Partner Yousuf Khan: don't overlook the power of nailing your story
|
Oct 04, 2022 |
|
Raising $70M in a downturn in 6-weeks; Matt Danna, CEO of Boulevard
|
Sep 27, 2022 |
|
Why they invested in Paccurate - SpringTime Ventures, Matt Blomstedt; case studies, customer calls, & sharing your weaknesses
|
Sep 20, 2022 |
|
[$42M raised] Onramp's Founder, Eric Youngstrom: how they closed $42M; multiples & investor timelines
|
Sep 13, 2022 |
|
[#1 on Product Hunt] Gated's CEO, Andy Mowat, raised millions by prioritizing branding
|
Aug 30, 2022 |
|
Monta Vista Capital; Sameer Chopra: Founders, are you going to return their fund?
|
Aug 23, 2022 |
|
Pitch Review: Mayfield's ($2.2B AUM) Partner, Rajeev Batra, shares top trends & analyzes a founder's pitch
|
Jul 26, 2022 |
|
YC Founder; Applying & How They Raised $5M With No Deck; Promoted.ai's CEO, Andrew Yates
|
Jul 19, 2022 |
|
YC Founder Just Closed $5M: echo3D's CEO, Alon Grinshpoon shares his winning deck
|
Jul 12, 2022 |
|
Bain Capital & Battery Invested: Fulcrum's Founder, Sunny Han - moving from pitching to evaluating
|
Jun 21, 2022 |
|
$400M+ AUM, Defy.vc's Bob Rosin; why, when & how to get the best angel investors
|
Jun 14, 2022 |
|
Dcode Capital; Nailing Your VC Empathy
|
Jun 07, 2022 |
|
Aircover's Co-Founder & CEO, Andrew Levy: Facetime-Still-Matters
|
May 24, 2022 |
|
Bling Capital's Eric Theis & Charlie Pinto on oversubscribing your next round
|
May 03, 2022 |
|
Paperstreet's Founder: 2 Things To Consider In Your Updates
|
Apr 12, 2022 |
|
$18M+ Raised, Duy Vo, CEO of Productfy; lead with your strength and be vulnerable
|
Mar 29, 2022 |
|
$81M Raised, Klue's Founder shares questions to ask VCs during a pitch
|
Mar 22, 2022 |
|
DocSend's Head of Research shares the importance of sharing your organic story
|
Mar 15, 2022 |
|
$588M AUM, OUP's Principal, Manny Stockman shares the importance of simply picking up the phone (not Zoom)
|
Mar 08, 2022 |
|
$350M+ AUM, Touchdown Ventures's Alex Nwaka shares the importance of getting back-channel feedback on your deck
|
Mar 01, 2022 |
|
$3M Raised & 15 Angel Investments: CEO of NachoNacho, Sanjay Goel Shares His First Principles In Fund Raising
|
Feb 22, 2022 |
|
$80M Raised, Rewind's CEO, Mike Potter: The Power of Oversharing With Investors
|
Feb 15, 2022 |
|
Fellow.app's CEO, Aydin Mirzaee: Seek-100x-ROI
|
Feb 08, 2022 |
|
WeFunder's VP of Fundraising, Jonny Price: Community-Rounds?
|
Feb 03, 2022 |
|
Realworld's Founder & CEO, Genevieve Bellaire: Consuming Investor's Content
|
Feb 02, 2022 |
|
WeFunder's Founder in Residence; Adam Roberts talks about tandem-investing
|
Feb 01, 2022 |
|
Forum Ventures's General Partner, James Murphy: Predestined-Investor
|
Jan 26, 2022 |
|
$19.5M Merge's Founder, Gil Feig - Getting Pre Customer Commits & Showing In Your Deck
|
Jan 18, 2022 |
|
$77M Hatch Card, CEO Thomson Nguyen; leveraging micro angles to close a $58M Series B
|
Jan 11, 2022 |
|
Launch Ventures's Ray Walia on Non-fungible tokens
|
Dec 08, 2021 |
|
Techstars MD, Amos Schwartzfarb; raising 2-rounds in advance
|
Dec 01, 2021 |
|
New Enterprise Associates (NEA)'s Partner, Andrew Schoen: Never-Cold-Outreach-A-VC
|
Nov 16, 2021 |
|
How to raise $750k on crowdfunding
|
Nov 10, 2021 |
|
How to oversubscribe a $3M round using 'Investor Blitzing'
|
Nov 03, 2021 |
|
Kuli Kuli's Founder & CEO, Lisa Curtis: Update-Your-"No"-List
|
Oct 26, 2021 |
|
Stakester's Founder, Tom Fairey: Serial-Connecting
|
Oct 20, 2021 |
|
Amberstone Ventures's Principal, Cessna Mac: Don't-Be-Afraid-to-Say-No
|
Sep 23, 2021 |
|
Be-Like-A-Sith
|
Sep 14, 2021 |
|
Emergent Ventures's General Partner, Anupam Rastogi: Cold-out-reach-works
|
Sep 07, 2021 |
|
ffVC's Partner, John F Frankel: Decks-are-for-storytelling
|
Sep 02, 2021 |
|
The Power of a .EDU email
|
Aug 25, 2021 |
|
Stacker's CEO, Michael Skelly: Blitzkrieg-Fundraising
|
Aug 19, 2021 |
|
Red Bike Capital's Partner, Rachel ten Brink: Benchmark-Your-TAM
|
Aug 12, 2021 |
|
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Pariti's Global Programs Manager, Iynna Alitiana Halilou: Term-Sheet-101
|
Aug 03, 2021 |
|
Foundation Capital's Partner, Sid Trivedi: VC-Customer-Networks
|
Jul 21, 2021 |
|
$4.8M funding, Macro's Co-Founder & CEO Ankith Harathi: Even-The-Best-Get-Rejected
|
Jul 20, 2021 |
|
$107M in funding, Drift's Matt Bilotti's, Product Lead on their Growth Dashboard
|
Jul 14, 2021 |
|
Coyote Ventures's Co-Founding General Partner, Jessica Karr: Never-Too-Early
|
Jul 13, 2021 |
|
Sierra Ventures's Principal, Vignesh Ravikumar: Revenue-as-Deodorant
|
Jul 01, 2021 |
|
$105M In Funding: CEO of Dooly, Kris Hartvigsen, shares his tactics
|
Jun 30, 2021 |
|
TechStars - Dubai's Managing Director, Vijay Tirathrai: Authenticity Speaks
|
Jun 29, 2021 |
|
Boast.AI's Co-Founder, Lloyed Lobo: Dating-Investor-Analogy
|
Jun 23, 2021 |
|
M6:33 Capital's Managing Director, Erik Fast: Empower-Other's-Values
|
Jun 23, 2021 |
|
Gig Wage's Chief Strategy Officer, Ethan Austin: Hyper-Targeting-Investors
|
Jun 21, 2021 |
|
Chingona Ventures's Founding Partner, Samara Hernandez: Traction-Trumps-All
|
Jun 16, 2021 |
|
Silicon Matter's Founder, Olga Orda: 3 funding necessities
|
Jun 15, 2021 |
|
Google's Head of VC & Startup Partnerships, Mark Hall: building-in-public
|
Jun 09, 2021 |
|
Brown Venture Group's Dr. Paul Campbell; the economic impact of racial bias
|
May 11, 2021 |
|
Yamaha Ventures VC, Anish Patel: rising bar, $400k - $750k ARR minimum at seed stage
|
May 06, 2021 |
|
Foundation Capital's GP, Joanne Chen: the rise of ops as a B2B buyer
|
May 04, 2021 |
|
'The 2% Rule' - Rob Ness
|
Apr 29, 2021 |
|
Nate Williams, Founder & Managing Partner at UNION Labs: the rise of non-technical hires...sooner
|
Apr 27, 2021 |
|
CEO of BuildFire, Ian Blair: AI-powered copywriting - they average 250k views/mo.
|
Apr 14, 2021 |
|
G. Founder of lemist; turned down $30M in funding
|
Apr 13, 2021 |
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ex Intel Capital MD, Hassan Miah: event growth strategies still work
|
Apr 09, 2021 |
|
David Weekly; Founder & CEO of Medcorder: stop "pitching" investors
|
Apr 09, 2021 |
|
$360M+ AUM, Neotribe Ventures's Managing Director, Aditya Singh: Super SEs
|
Apr 07, 2021 |
|
Salesforce's Mathew Sweezey, Director of Marketing Strategy: 'Message to Experience'
|
Apr 06, 2021 |
|
$80M+ AUM, Clout Capital's German Fondevila; VCs Want Conversation NOT Presentations
|
Mar 30, 2021 |
|
ex Foundation Capital & Current WestWave Capital GP, Warren Weiss: large customer have increased pressure to work with startups
|
Mar 26, 2021 |
|
FreelanceForLaw.com CEO, Brian Bedard; how to use cold calling as an early growth strategy
|
Mar 26, 2021 |
|
Matik's CEO Nikola Mijic: "Champagneing" --> the best inbound strategy
|
Mar 25, 2021 |
|
MARL 5G Accelerator's Managing Director, Amir Khan: investors are prioritizing corporate experience > college dropout
|
Mar 24, 2021 |
|
$850M+ AUM, SOSV's Managing Partner, Sean O'Sullivan: why you must fire bad-fit customers quickly
|
Mar 23, 2021 |
|
Oracle For Startups's, JD Weinstein: Product-Led-Growth & Corporate Startup Partnerships
|
Mar 18, 2021 |
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PS27 Ventures, CEO Jim Stallings; Voice Automation For Everything
|
Mar 17, 2021 |
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$15M+ Funding, DroneSeed, CEO Grant Canary: improve your deck with three tactics
|
Mar 16, 2021 |
|
HubSpot's Scott Brinker, VP Platform Ecosystem; App Store Optimization
|
Mar 15, 2021 |
|
"The Trident" | schedule a meeting with any hard-to-reach prospect; Gordon Droitcour, CEO Syne
|
Mar 12, 2021 |
|
Agorapulse CEO, Emeric Ernoult; "SaaC" = speakers-as-a-channel
|
Mar 11, 2021 |
|
Yamaha Ventures VC, Rebecca Woodcock; Aspirational Health
|
Mar 09, 2021 |
|
Founder & MP at Resolute Partners Group, Kevin Lutz: SPACs...the music is still playing
|
Mar 04, 2021 |
|
Yariv Ganor, Startup Psychologist with Sheba Tel HaShomer City of Health about Founder Psychology
|
Mar 04, 2021 |
|
Sanjoy Roy, Co-Founder of AskSid.ai a Techstars company
|
Mar 02, 2021 |
|
HearstLab's VP, Lisa Burton O'Toole; corporate <> startup partnerships
|
Feb 25, 2021 |
|
Simultaneous Meal Delivery + Zoom? --> Andy Scott, Partner at Advantary
|
Feb 24, 2021 |
|
Techstars, SVP Ecosystem Development, Chris Heivly
|
Feb 22, 2021 |
|
Nathan Porras, Product at Brilliant ($21M total funding)
|
Feb 17, 2021 |
|
Ryan Pokrasso, Founder of SPZ Legal; more favorable terms for stock options
|
Feb 09, 2021 |
|
Sean Sheppard, Founder of GrowthX Fund: 'the new formula' for pre-Series A investing
|
Feb 08, 2021 |
|
2x Founder, David Mandell and current Managing Director at Massive & Partner at The Fund
|
Feb 04, 2021 |
|
ex SVP Marketing at Indiegogo turned investor, Christian Busch
|
Feb 03, 2021 |
|
2x Successful Founder, Shreesha Ramdas on Angel Investing
|
Feb 02, 2021 |
|
$21M in Funding, MetaCX, Co-Founder Dave Duke
|
Feb 01, 2021 |
|
Comradery > NDAs: Daniel Hallawi, Managing Director of H1 Family Investment
|
Jan 28, 2021 |
|
Nathan Beckford, CEO @Foundersuite; Close Your Round Before "Officially" Announcing The Raise
|
Jan 27, 2021 |
|
Is there a formula to getting funded?
|
Jan 26, 2021 |
|
$35M In Funding, Stampli, CEO Eyal Feldman: zooming in and out
|
Jan 22, 2021 |
|
500 Startups's, Vijay Rajendran: Corporate <> Startup Partnerships
|
Jan 22, 2021 |
|
Facebook Product Manager, Timothy Buck
|
Jan 21, 2021 |
|
CEO of Chargifi, Dan Bladen
|
Jan 20, 2021 |
|
EthAum Venture Partners Founder, Pankaj Gupta
|
Jan 18, 2021 |
|
ex Techstars, Current MD @ Massive.vc, and Partner @ The Fund, Ari Newman
|
Jan 14, 2021 |
|
Emergence Capital Growth Partner, Doug Landis
|
Jan 13, 2021 |
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ex Norwest & Samsung NEXT VC; Amit Garg, Managing Partner at Tau Ventures
|
Jan 13, 2021 |