Arjun built a $100M startup by helping other founders incorporate and start their own. Along the way he went through Y Combinator and built an audience of over 80,000 people on X and LinkedIn.

📚 1,800 Pitch Decks (Free) → deck-database.carrd.co

Follow Arjun’s journey:

🐦 X → x.com/ArjunMahadevan

💼 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/mahadevanarjun

🚀 Startup → doola.com

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💼 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/michael-houck

In this conversation we discuss:

Founder Mode

(00:00) — Intro
(04:09) — Fundraising skills applications to life
(05:07) — Creating a founder brand
(06:35) — How Arjun is thinking about AI
(12:07) — Advice to a first-time founder
(24:31) — What Arjun took from working at Dropbox
(26:35) — Dealing with failure as a 1st-time founder

Fundraising

(01:13) — How to raise $1M in 2 minutes
(14:45) — Going through OnDeck & Y Combinator
(17:59) — doola’s value prop
(21:03) — doola’s pivot during YC batch

Startup Strategy & Operations

(08:01) — Why doola niched down to E-commerce
(10:21) — Why data isn’t as actionable as we think
(30:25) — Importance of asymmetric upside
(44:08) — How to know when to build vs. partner with external vendors
(46:36) — Incorporation
(50:38) — Importance of bookkeeping

Growth

(32:38) — The content funnel
(35:25) — Creating content for systems
(37:45) — Content platforms to be excited about
(41:09) — Why any problem can be solved by talking to customers

Rapid Fire

(53:23) — Who is one investor you’d recommend?
(53:44) — One thing you’d change about startups?
(54:29) — Advice for first-time founders?
(55:33) — Something you believe that most disagree with?

How Arjun Mahadevan Raised $1 Million In 2 Minutes