

Build Mode
TechCrunch
On Build Mode, TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield Editor Isabelle Johannessen cuts through the startup mythology to uncover how founders survive the brutal early days, navigate impossible funding landscapes, and somehow keep their companies — and sanity— intact. Each season, Isabelle is joined by founders, investors, and operators to dig into specific aspects of the startup journey, from creative go to market strategies to founder mental health. The interviews are full of candid startup wisdom—think cap table drama, co-founder breakups, and pivot panic. So, if you’re starting a company or or even just thinking about it, this is your survival guide.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 31, 2023 • 49min
Avoiding the pitfalls of OnlyFans with Rosie Nguyen from Fanhouse
Rosie Nguyen (or JasmineRiceGirl as her fans know her) is the co-founder and CMO of PG-13ish content-creating platform Fanhouse. In this episode, Rosie talks with Darrell and Becca about her sometimes-scary experiences creating content on Twitch and OnlyFans that inspired the Fanhouse founding team to build a safer place for creators to monetize their content, how having a creator as a co-founder helped with their fundraising process, and how she balances being a first-time founder with building her community. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

10 snips
Jan 24, 2023 • 46min
Being the steady hand in market uncertainty with Sebastian Siemiatkowski from Klarna
This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Klarna’s Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski to talk about how the company is expanding beyond by now pay later space to become a neobank. Sebastian walks us through his European startup journey, breaking into the US market, how the importance of calm leadership through a market downturn, and what’s next for Klarna. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Jan 17, 2023 • 50min
Modernizing the live music industry with Mir Hwang from GigFinesse
Mir Hwang is the co-founder and CEO of GigFinesse. Mir talks about how his struggles to book music gigs as a teenager pushed him to launch the company that connects artists with venues for live shows. Mir also talked about how hard it was to steer the live music-focused business through the pandemic in an industry that was reticent to adopt tech to begin with. Plus, we learn about a fun venue that couldn't be more perfect for Darrell's future poetry residence.Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Jan 10, 2023 • 52min
Solving the looming lithium shortage with Sheeba Dawood from Minerva Lithium
This week we’re mixing it up on Found and welcoming special guest cohost, Neesha Tambe, the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Editor. And we happen to be talking with Sheeba Dawood, the co-founder and CEO of Minerva Lithium—the 2022 Startup Battlefield winner. Minerva Lithium is a clean energy technology that has developed a Nano Mosaic membrane filter system for critical materials extraction from non-traditional water resources. In this conversation, Sheeba speaks candidly about the struggles she’s faced as a woman of color trying to innovate in the mineral manufacturing industry and what’s next for the company coming off of several pitch competition wins.Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Jan 3, 2023 • 48min
Two CEOs are better than one with Henrique Dubugras from Brex
This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Brex co-founder and co-CEO Henrique Dubugras to chat about his corporate credit card and expense management startup. Henrique talked about what made him and his co-founder (Pedro Franceschi) decide to launch the company and why the friends, who met online as teenagers, decided to be co-CEOs. Henrique also talks about how Brex navigated changes at the startup this year, and how he personally handled layoffs, all while Darrell and Becca do a questionable job of hiding their disdain for Brex’s legacy competitor.Take our listener survey and let us know a bit about yourself and what you think of FoundSubscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
On Twitter
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Dec 27, 2022 • 46min
Checking back in with a few favorite founders (re-release)
Happy holidays! The found crew is taking a week off to relax so we are throwing it back to our anniversary episode. To celebrate our anniversary, we welcomed back four founders whose stories really stuck with us since we talked to them. In what Jordan called a “founder smoothie”, we talked with Brie Code from TRU LUV who was on our second episode, Earl Cole from SMART Tire Company who was on the following episode, as well as Aditi Shekar from Zeta, and Jelani Memory from A Kids Company About who joined us a few months later. They talk about perspective shifts they’ve experienced in the past year, their different takes on fundraising, and how they stay true to their respective core missions. Take our listener survey and let us know a bit about yourself and what you think of FOUND.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Call us and leave a voicemail at (510) 936-1618
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Dec 20, 2022 • 59min
Augmenting creativity with Alice Albrecht from re:collect
Welcome back to found, the Stories behind the startups. This week co-hosts Darrell Etherington and Becca Szkutak talk with Alice Albrecht from Re:collect, a software tool that augments creativity by helping people focus, recall, and connect their ideas. The conversation covered a lot of ground from how to hone your pitch when your product is so cerebral, how technology can help creativity but Alice argues will never replace it, and how developing AI requires building safeguards from the jump.Take our listener survey and let us know a bit about yourself and what you think of FoundSubscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Dec 13, 2022 • 47min
Trusting your gut microbiome with Cheryl Sew Hoy from Tiny Health
Take our listener survey for a chance to win a free year of TC+ at bit.ly/tcpodsurvey.When Ceryl Sew Hoy had her first child, she discovered the importance of the infant gut microbiome. As a research-driven entrepreneur, she learned everything she could about gut health and how to help infants avoid the chronic health issues that occur if they don’t receive the essential microbiomes from the mother. Tiny Health was started to fill a gap in OBGYN care and provide the first-ever gut health test for babies and toddlers along with educational materials needed to course correct and set up infants for optimal gut health. Darrell, Becca, and Cheryl also talk about being a product-focused founder, building customer trust, and Darrell’s constant tummy aches. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Dec 6, 2022 • 54min
Starting the tampon revolution with Valentina Milanova from Daye
We’re so excited to be back with new episodes of Found and to introduce you to our brilliant new co-host Becca Szkutak! In this episode, we talk with Valentina Milanova, the founder and CEO of Daye, a gynecological health company that’s working to close the gender pain gap and raise industry standards when it comes to women’s health products.While researching menstrual pain relief and tampon manufacturing, Valentina found there was a shocking lack of innovation, research, and health and safety standards in gynecological products. So she started Daye and created the most absorbent organic tampon on the market and the only one that uses CBD to relieve menstrual pain that was designed with women in mind. Within the company, Valentina is infusing her values into every aspect of the business from implementing a 4-day work week to improve mental health to hiring survivors of human trafficking to work in their manufacturing centers. In this episode, we also touch on the challenges of fundraising when your product requires you to say “vaginal canal” at least once in your pitch, why Valentina will not be a serial entrepreneur, and why they don’t keep any tampon trade secrets.Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com

Nov 1, 2022 • 31min
Tennis-star-turned-star-investor with Serena Williams from Serena Ventures
At last month’s TechCrunch Disrupt, Jordan sat down with Serena Williams and her co-founder Alison Rapaport Stillman to talk about their investment firm, Serena Ventures. The conversation was so interesting, we couldn’t help but share it on the Found feed. Serena, Allison, and Jordan talk about her approach to startup investing, how competitive she is both on and off the court, and how the French Open distracted her from the missed investment she regrets the most. And she shares how you can still expect to see her play tennis—if you’re able to snag an invite to come to her personal court. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com
Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each Connect with us:
On Twitter
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Via email: found@techcrunch.com


