What drives the world’s top founders to succeed—against all odds? In this second episode of the Founder DNA series, Petter Made speaks with legendary angel investor and serial founder Fabrice Grinda, Founding Partner at FJ Labs.
Drawing from over 1,200 startup investments and decades of entrepreneurial experience, Fabrice unpacks the essential traits that define exceptional founders—ranging from obsessive curiosity and eloquence to extreme resilience. He shares personal stories of failure, persistence, and eventual success, including how he survived near-bankruptcy and legal threats while building a multi-million dollar company from scratch.
The conversation also explores FJ Labs’ framework for evaluating founders in early-stage deals, what makes a pitch truly stand out, and how to identify the rare combination of vision and execution. Fabrice reflects on the mental game of entrepreneurship, compares it to competitive sports like tennis, and explains why consistency and grit often matter more than raw intelligence.
This episode is packed with wisdom, real talk, and actionable insights for anyone building—or investing in—the next generation of great companies.
About Fabrice Grinda
Fabrice Grinda is a French-born entrepreneur, angel investor, and venture capitalist renowned for his contributions to the global startup ecosystem. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1996 with a BA in Economics and began his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company before transitioning into entrepreneurship
Grinda co-founded several successful ventures, including Aucland, one of Europe's leading auction sites, Zingy, a mobile media company, and OLX, a global leader in online classifieds. OLX grew to operate in over 90 countries and was eventually acquired by Naspers. He also founded FJ Labs, a venture fund and startup studio specializing in marketplaces and consumer-facing startups. FJ Labs has invested in over 1,000 companies worldwide
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabricegrinda/
About Petter Made
Petter Made is a fintech pioneer with over 25 years of experience. He co-founded SumUp, a global company valued at €8.5B, serving over 4 million SMBs across 36 countries. Then, as CPTO at Drooms, he led the development of the world’s fastest virtual data room, scaling the business to nine figures. Petter’s earlier career saw him in leadership roles at Inatec Payment AG, Ongame Networks, and Chinsay AB.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pettermade/
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