The Startup Podcast

Burnout is an ever-present danger at a startup, and as times get tough it is more important than ever to spot the signs of burnout on your team. In this episode, Chris and Yaniv g talk through the things you need to do to avoid or recover from a team burnout situation. This episode covers: What is burnout? Sharing vision and plans. Holding people accountable. Keeping things fresh. Follow the Startup Podcast on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter Yaniv Bernstein @ybernstein Chris Saad @chrissaad Please rate and Review The Startup Podcast on your podcast app. Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-startup-podcast/id1612757016. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5C6oN1uFj29A4jHZn57lNO. Listen on Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84NjhlNWEwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw A bit about our hosts: Chris Saad: Independent Startup Advisor and Angel Investor, who helps startups and entrepreneurs fast-forward company’s growth. Chris consults on developer platforms & ecosystems, future of media, data portability, on-demand economy,  and the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Visit http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ or connect with Chris on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Yaniv Bernstein: Founder and COO of Circular, a subscription e-commerce platform with sustainability at its heart. By focusing on customer experience while reducing waste and underutilization, Circular provides subscriptions to premium devices at affordable prices and with unmatched flexibility. Visit Circular https://www.nowcircular.com/ and connect with Yaniv on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/

We are back with a fresh Listener Q&A episode! Chris and Yaniv dive deep on the following questions: When should you IGNORE advice? Is it ever too early or too late to start a startup? How important are strong sales skills for a founder? What is the Next Big Thing going to be? Follow the Startup Podcast on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter Yaniv Bernstein @ybernstein Chris Saad @chrissaad Please rate and Review The Startup Podcast on your podcast app. Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-startup-podcast/id1612757016. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5C6oN1uFj29A4jHZn57lNO. Listen on Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84NjhlNWEwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw A bit about our hosts: Chris Saad: Independent Startup Advisor and Angel Investor, who helps startups and entrepreneurs fast-forward company’s growth. Chris consults on developer platforms & ecosystems, future of media, data portability, on-demand economy,  and the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Visit http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ or connect with Chris on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Yaniv Bernstein: Founder and COO of Circular, a subscription e-commerce platform with sustainability at its heart. By focusing on customer experience while reducing waste and underutilization, Circular provides subscriptions to premium devices at affordable prices and with unmatched flexibility. Visit Circular https://www.nowcircular.com/ and connect with Yaniv on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/

Kyle Poyar joins Chris and Yaniv to dive deep into the world of Product-Led Growth (PLG) and how you can use its principles to drive growth at your startup. Kyle has done a huge amount to spread the gospel of PLG. His newsletter Growth Unhinged reaches many thousands of readers and provides deep insights for anybody who wants to learn about new ways to grow their SaaS business. In this episode, Kyle, Chris, and Yaniv discuss: What is Product-Led Growth? The long history of bringing customers closer to the value. PLG and The Innovator’s Dilemma Tailwinds. Why now? PLG Strategies How to build your business around PLG Raising capital as a PLG company Kyle’s Growth Unhinged newsletter https://kylepoyar.substack.com/ Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ – Follow the Startup Podcast on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter Yaniv Bernstein @ybernstein Chris Saad @chrissaad Please rate and Review The Startup Podcast on your podcast app. Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-startup-podcast/id1612757016. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5C6oN1uFj29A4jHZn57lNO. Listen on Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84NjhlNWEwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw A bit about our hosts: Chris Saad: Independent Startup Advisor and Angel Investor, who helps startups and entrepreneurs fast-forward company’s growth. Chris consults on developer platforms & ecosystems, future of media, data portability, on-demand economy,  and the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Visit http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ or connect with Chris on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Yaniv Bernstein: Founder and COO of Circular, a subscription e-commerce platform with sustainability at its heart. By focusing on customer experience while reducing waste and underutilization, Circular provides subscriptions to premium devices at affordable prices and with unmatched flexibility. Visit Circular https://www.nowcircular.com/ and connect with Yaniv on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/

Marty Cagan joins Chris and Yaniv to discuss what he sees as the biggest risk to building a successful product. It’s not choosing the wrong problem, it’s building the wrong solution! Marty is as close as the world of product has to a public intellectual: after decades spent building impactful products at Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, and eBay, Marty founded Silicon Valley Product Group to spread the best practices of product development in tech. His two books Inspired and Empowered have taught countless Product Managers and leaders how to build better products. In this episode, we discuss: Solution Risk and why it’s the biggest risk for most startups; Prototyping and the PM solution discovery toolkit; The Product Manager as CEO of the team; The power of including Engineers in product discovery; Empowered Product Designers; How to hire a PM; What to do if you find yourself in a feature team; The importance of coaching in developing Product Managers; Subject matter expertise and the Domain Dogma trap; This discussions in this episode were inspired by Marty’s blog post on solution risk:  https://www.svpg.com/the-biggest-risk/ Learn more about Marty here: https://www.svpg.com/team/marty-cagan/ Read Marty’s book Inspired: https://www.svpg.com/books/inspired-how-to-create-tech-products-customers-love-2nd-edition/ Read Marty’s book Empowered:: https://www.svpg.com/books/empowered-ordinary-people-extraordinary-products/ Want to connect with us? Follow the Startup Podcast on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter Yaniv Bernstein @ybernstein Chris Saad @chrissaad Please rate and Review The Startup Podcast on your podcast app. Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-startup-podcast/id1612757016. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5C6oN1uFj29A4jHZn57lNO. Listen on Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84NjhlNWEwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw A bit about our hosts: Chris Saad: Independent Startup Advisor and Angel Investor, who helps startups and entrepreneurs fast-forward company’s growth. Chris consults on developer platforms & ecosystems, future of media, data portability, on-demand economy,  and the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Visit http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ or connect with Chris on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Yaniv Bernstein: Founder and COO of Circular, a subscription e-commerce platform with sustainability at its heart. By focusing on customer experience while reducing waste and underutilization, Circular provides subscriptions to premium devices at affordable prices and with unmatched flexibility. Visit Circular https://www.nowcircular.com/ and connect with Yaniv on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/

Chris and Yaniv have worked in and advised many startups, scaleups and BigCos. There are 7 organizational sins they see over and over again. In this episode, they unpack and discuss each of these sins, discuss what causes them, and identify the key symptoms. Sin 1: Poor context setting by the leadership team; Sin 2: Poor operationalization of shared context; Sin 3: Poor planning; Sin 4: Poor org structure; Sin 5: Poor role design and ways of working; Sin 6: Poor risk-taking; Sin 7: Piecemeal attempts to rectify; This episode was inspired by Chris’s blog post on the same topic: https://www.chrissaad.com/startupsnippets/2022/6/the-7-deadly-sins-of-scaleups-and-bigcos Want to connect with us? Follow the Startup Podcast on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter Yaniv Bernstein @ybernstein Chris Saad @chrissaad Please rate and Review The Startup Podcast on your podcast app. Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-startup-podcast/id1612757016. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5C6oN1uFj29A4jHZn57lNO. Listen on Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84NjhlNWEwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw A bit about our hosts: Chris Saad: Independent Startup Advisor and Angel Investor, who helps startups and entrepreneurs fast-forward company’s growth. Chris consults on developer platforms & ecosystems, future of media, data portability, on-demand economy,  and the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Visit http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ or connect with Chris on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Yaniv Bernstein: Founder and COO of Circular, a subscription e-commerce platform with sustainability at its heart. By focusing on customer experience while reducing waste and underutilization, Circular provides subscriptions to premium devices at affordable prices and with unmatched flexibility. Visit Circular https://www.nowcircular.com/ and connect with Yaniv on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/

The founder of WeWork, Adam Neumann, spent countless billions of investor money on the way to a failed IPO that values the company at over $50 Billion. Now, it is worth just one-tenth of that amount. The WeWork story was presented as one of disgrace and faiure. Now Adam Neumann is back in the news, having raised $350 million from Andreesen Horowitz in what may be the largest Pre Seed capital raise in history. How did that happen? In this episode, we discuss: The external media narrative on WeWork vs. the Silicon Valley narrative Why Adam Neumann's failure at WeWork makes him so investable What this tells us about how venture capitalists view failure The need for boldness and risk-taking when running a startup and raising capital https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter @ybernstein @chrissaad ***Leave us a rating and review in your favourite podcast app***

Casey Winters joins Yaniv and Chris this episode for a very special discussion on Growth. Casey is currently CPO at Eventbrite and instructor at Reforge, Casey has a ridiculous CV spanning leadership roles at GrubHub and Pinterest, as well as key advisory roles at unicorns like Canva and Thumbtack. Even more importantly, Casey is one of the clearest thinkers in the world when it comes to the topic of Growth. In this episode, Casey, Chris and Yaniv discuss: What is Growth? Why is “Growth Hacking” such a distasteful term? How to build a Growth team at a startup. Should you hire a VP of Growth? Building the Growth “muscle” The art and science of running effective experiments When to build an MVP (hint: less often than you think!) How to “graduate” successful experiments Resources: Casey’s blog Article on MVP Mindset Join the discussion on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter @ybernstein @chrissaad ***Leave us a rating and review in your favourite podcast app***

As a newcomer in Silicon Valley, Chris was awed by the kindness shown to him by influential insiders and tech luminaries, people he had never met and for whom he could provide little in return. From mentoring, warm intros, couches to sleep on, and more, Chris built lifelong friendships by receiving—and then giving. The concept of “pay it forward” is profoundly ingrained in Silicon Valley culture. But what is it exactly? How did it take root so deeply in an individualistic culture full of immigrants and blow-ins? And why is it so fundamental to the success of the ecosystem? In this episode, Chris and Yaniv unpack the magic of pay it forward, by way of game theory and the marvellous Robert Scoble. ***Become a True Fan of The Startup Podcast and help build our audience! DM Yaniv on LinkedIn to find out more*** 👉 Join the discussion on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter @ybernstein @chrissaad Leave us a rating and review in your favourite podcast app

Chris and Yaniv talk with Christine Nguyen, founder of ReciMe. ReciMe is a social cooking app that is building a two-sided marketplace of inspirational recipe creators and dedicated home cooks. In this very first Office Hours episode, we dive deep on: How to think about solving the marketplace “cold start” problem. When and how to monetize. Focusing on user experience. Targeting a specific market niche. High profile angel investors and celebrity endorsements Being global from day one. This isn’t your typical interview: Office Hours is live-on-air consulting, where we dissect a startup and provide actionable advice and feedback that will help make it stronger. Listen as we take all the building blocks from previous episodes and apply them to a real, live startup. Join the discussion on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter @ybernstein @chrissaad People Engineering Newsletter: newsletter.peopleeng.com Startup Newsletter: www.chrissaad.com/startupnewsletter ***Leave us a rating and review in your favourite podcast app***

Chris and Yaniv have seen the three key things that lead to success in startups: momentum, hustle, and an understanding of opportunity cost. In this episode, they’re diving deep into all three of them. Chris and Yaniv discuss why momentum, hustle and opportunity cost are the critical concepts to operationalise not just in your business but life in general. There are some long-awaited rants on bureaucracy in start-ups, and great practical advice for anyone working at a startup right now drawn straight from both of their early-career experiences. Timestamps: 1:45 Why momentum is critical to startup success 4:12 Defining momentum 7:00 Why it’s important to compare your momentum to the global benchmark 8:40 How to know if you have the momentum you need to succeed 9:23 Why you need to be both patient and impatient 9:42 What hustle really means 12:55 Why you need to understand opportunity cost 19:23 How to use opportunity cost and impatience to drive momentum 21:50 Why replicating big company processes at a start-up is bad business Join the discussion on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-startup-pod/ Follow us on Twitter @ybernstein @chrissaad People Engineering Newsletter: newsletter.peopleeng.com Startup Newsletter: www.chrissaad.com/startupnewsletter ***Leave us a rating and review in your favourite podcast app***