The #1 Risk First-Time Founders Always Underestimate (It's Not Technology)

Most first-time founders believe startups fail because of bad ideas, weak technology, or poor timing.

In this episode, Tarang Vaish argues that the real failure mode is far less obvious—and far more dangerous: people risk.

Drawing from his journey across hardware, data infrastructure, SaaS, and AI, Tarang shares hard-earned lessons on co-founder dynamics, solo founding, risk stacking, and founder mindset. He also offers a practical mental model for using AI effectively—by treating it like an intern, not magic.

This conversation is for founders who want to think more clearly about risk, leadership, and what actually determines success in the early days.

🔑 Key Topics & Takeaways

Why people risk is the most underestimated startup risk

Why solo founding is exponentially harder—especially fundraising

How first-time founders accidentally stack too many risks at once

Why technical brilliance rarely saves a startup on its own

The importance of co-founder complementarity, not similarity

What “realistic optimism” really means for founders

Why being transparent about founder ambitions can build trust

Lessons from building across hardware, storage, SaaS, and AI

Why data and security remain evergreen startup categories

How to use AI effectively: treat it like an intern, with structure and feedback

⏱️ Episode Chapters

00:00 – Why most startups fail (and why it’s not technology)

01:01 – Tarang’s background: curiosity, IIT, Stanford, startups

03:23 – Early startup lessons from hardware and tight constraints

05:45 – Why ML and SaaS are harder to productize than they look

07:20 – The cloud tradeoff: easy to start, hard to scale

08:17 – Being upfront about wanting to become a founder

09:12 – How Granica emerged from real operational pain

12:21 – Signal vs noise: compression, AI, and learning efficiency

16:50 – Who actually buys AI and data infrastructure today

20:53 – Why everything eventually becomes a data lake

23:58 – Why data and security are evergreen founder bets

25:28 – 🔥 The #1 risk founders underestimate: people risk

26:10 – Solo founding, fundraising, and risk stacking

27:10 – Staying sharp as a founder

28:05 – Using AI like an intern (with a practical prompt tactic)