Dani Grant, CEO of Jam and former product manager at Cloudflare, dives into the essence of building a startup from a place of passion. She shares her innovative approach to team dynamics, replacing mundane meetings with engaging daily demos to boost collaboration. Dani emphasizes the need for authentic relationships with users and balancing quality with the speed of product development. She also discusses the psychological challenges founders face and offers solid hiring strategies to build a stellar team, all while advocating for genuine communication with investors.

👉🏼 About the Guest:Derek Sivers is an author of philosophy and entrepreneurship, known for his surprising quotable insights and pithy succinct writing style. Formerly a musician, programmer, TED speaker, and circus clown, he sold his first company, CD Baby, for $22 million and gave all the money to charity. Sivers' books (How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want, Useful Not True) and newest projects are at his website: sive.rs👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one, as well as running Founder Gigs, a resource to discover flexible gigs while building your dream business.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Derek discuss taking scary leaps, why beliefs are better than truths, how to pick your next move, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight01:00: Shoutout to Acquire.com03:27: Introduction to Derek Sivers - founder, musician, programmer, TED speaker, and circus clown04:30 Why Derek wears a daily uniform (and no, it's not to imitate Steve Jobs)15:51: Why is Derek obsessed with change?19:06: How to pick your next move22:43: How to move on from what you love32:15: What Americans can learn from traveling the world39:30: Derek's bucket list of countries44:04: Derek on parenting53:10: Turning a hook into a book1:01:13: Useful beliefs vs the truth1:13:10: Derek's beliefs that take him to action1:18:10: The philosophies that drive Derek to create1:20:43: Derek's first scary moment1:27:00: Deleted scenes from "Useful Not True"1:34:33: What Derek is struggling with right now1:38:09: Derek's practices to improve consistency1:43:40: Rapid Fire 5: From favorite city to best recent read1:45:32: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/"Playful Parenting": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/160909.Playful_Parenting"The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22925205-the-eternal-pursuit-of-unhappyness"Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Bitches": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60653.Cows_Pigs_Wars_and_Witches"City of Gold": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1588793.City_of_Gold👉🏼 Where to find Derek:Website: https://sive.rsDerek's book, "Useful Not True": https://sive.rs/uTwitter: https://twitter.com/siversYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dereksiversLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewrea1996/Contact Derek: https://sive.rs/contact👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest:Andrew Rea is the founder of TaxWire which automates SaaS sales tax compliance across your finance stack. He accidentally started Taxwire when he was doing fractional work. Previously he played key roles and led growth at On Deck and Party Round. He also built and sold an EV company that made golf carts. 👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one, as well as running Founder Gigs, a resource to discover flexible gigs while building your dream business.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/This episode is brought to you by Sunset. They handle all the legal, tax, and operational burdens when shutting down — making sure founders and investors avoid penalties, reduce liabilities, and immediately move on to what's next. If you're interested in learning more, visit sunsethq.com to meet with a representative for their team. And make sure to mention the Undefeated Underdogs Podcast to get $2K off of your dissolution.👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Andrew discuss building health, conviction in yourself as a founder, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight00:34: Shoutout to Acquire.com and Sunset03:50: Introduction to Andrew Rea - founder of Taxwire and fan of rotisserie chicken05:38 Why Andrew is a fan of rotisserie chicken12:50: Why founders need conviction22:40: The first breakthrough for Andrea and his transition to being a founder31:06: Why we need to take more bets on people38:45: When founders should focus on growth45:20: Patterns of unconventional growth at startups49:25: How to find the problem only you can solve59:23: Why you should or should not apply to an accelerator1:01:08: Why founders should pay attention to boring problems1:07:06: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/Link to Sunset: https://www.sunsethq.comRegina G. - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpgbxCapital: https://capital.xyz/👉🏼 Where to find Andrew:Twitter: https://x.com/andrew__reaLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewrea1996/Newsletter and Blog: https://blog.andrewrea.xyz/👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest:Mehul Nariyawala is the founder of Matic, where he is building fully autonomous home robots. He previously worked at Nest as a Lead PM for Nest Cams Portfolio and founded Flutter, a company that develops gesture recognition technologies, and was eventually acquired by Google for $40M. Mehul Nariyawala attended The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one, as well as running Founder Gigs, a resource to discover flexible gigs while building your dream business.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/This episode is brought to you by Sunset. They handle all the legal, tax, and operational burdens when shutting down — making sure founders and investors avoid penalties, reduce liabilities, and immediately move on to what's next. If you're interested in learning more, visit sunsethq.com to meet with a representative for their team. And make sure to mention the Undefeated Underdogs Podcast to get $2K off of your dissolution.👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Mehul discuss the future of hardware, the immigrant founder experience, how hardware and software are similar, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight00:49: Shoutout to Acquire.com and Sunset04:04: Introduction to Mehul - founder of Matic, fully autonomous home robots06:21: Why Mehul loves robots18:00: How to find a boring, unsexy, and profitable problem25:30: How Y Combinator startups have changed from 2012 to 202430:40: Mehul's funniest story from Y Combinator34:11: How Mehul transitioned from Flutter to Google to Matic40:51: The story of Google Glass43:55: What Tony Fadell, founder of Nest, taught Mehul46:10: What software and hardware have in common49:45: Mehul's immigrant journey54:23: The importance of Silicon Valley in building the future58:14: Taking Matic Robots from 0 to 11:05:07: How to manage anxiety and panic as a founder1:11:30: The future of Matic1:16:15: Where hardware is heading next1:20:45: Advice for hardware founders1:22:32: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/Link to Sunset: https://www.sunsethq.comPaul Graham: https://www.paulgraham.com/Tony Faddell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_FadellGusto: https://gusto.com/Rescale: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/rescaleAmplitude: https://amplitude.com/John Collison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_CollisonPlanGrid: https://construction.autodesk.com/products/plangrid/Meta Raven: https://www.meta.com/experiences/pcvr/1173079702739172/Scott Belsky: https://www.scottbelsky.com/Notion: https://www.notion.so/Figma: https://www.figma.com/Dylan Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield👉🏼 Where to find Mehul:Matic: https://maticrobots.com/Twitter: https://x.com/mehul?lang=enLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehulnariyawala/👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest:Philip Lakin is the co-founder and CEO of NoCodeOps, a community and automation management platform (Operator) dedicated to supporting operations professionals that are reimagining the future of internal innovation with no-code. He was previously the Solutions Architect for National Operations at Compass where he built the onboarding program for over 15,000 real estate agents across the United States. He has more than 8 years of experience in operations, internal system implementation, field marketing, and onboarding.👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one, as well as running Founder Gigs, a resource to discover flexible gigs while building your dream business.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/This episode is brought to you by Sunset. They handle all the legal, tax, and operational burdens when shutting down — making sure founders and investors avoid penalties, reduce liabilities, and immediately move on to what's next. If you're interested in learning more, visit sunsethq.com to meet with a representative for their team. And make sure to mention the Undefeated Underdogs Podcast to get $2K off of your dissolution.👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Phil discuss how to the best nocode tools, how to sell your company, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight01:25: Shoutout to Acquire.com and Sunset04:43: Introduction to Phil Lakin - co-founder and CEO of NoCodeOps10:22: How acting led Phil to the world of no-code15:30: What Phil would tell his beginner no-code self19:30: Phil's 0 to 1 journey to building NoCodeOps and raising $5M+26:00: Why Phil loves no-code31:10: How no-code fits into today's tech stack37:10: Predictions for the future of no-code and the best no-code tools45:25: The downsides of AI and no-code52:55: The journey: going from founding NoCodeOps to being acquired by Zapier56:16: What's next for Zapier with Phil as Head of Enterprise Innovation?59:49: Advice for younger founders1:04:31: How to balance being a parent and a founder1:08:59: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/Link to Sunset: https://www.sunsethq.comButternut AI: https://butternut.ai/Butternut AI Podcast Episode: https://undefeatedunderdogs.com/60👉🏼 Where to find Phil:NoCodeOps: https://www.nocodeops.com/about-usTwitter: https://x.com/philiplakinLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-lakin👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest:Blake Emal is the CEO and founder behind Pagetear. He is the 10-year marketer behind Marketing Monday and has been an SEO Specialist, agency manager, marketing leader at a $10B tech co, and ex-CMO of Copy.ai. 👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one, as well as running Founder Gigs, a resource to discover flexible gigs while building your dream business.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/This episode is brought to you by Sunset. They handle all the legal, tax, and operational burdens when shutting down — making sure founders and investors avoid penalties, reduce liabilities, and immediately move on to what's next. If you're interested in learning more, visit sunsethq.com to meet with a representative for their team. And make sure to mention the Undefeated Underdogs Podcast to get $2K off of your dissolution.👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Blake discuss how to convert your landing page visitors into buyers, the art of landing pages, how to blend AI and design, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight01:00: Shoutout to Acquire.com and Sunset04:18: Introduction to Blake Emal - landing page whiz and CEO and founder behind Pagetear!05:38: How SaaS landing pages have evolved08:13: How to differentiate yourself in landing page design14:21: How websites can use AI for better copy and design17:21: How to bring the human touch to copywriting21:00: How to make the best first impression with your landing page25:19: The best landing page triggers to purchase for a customer29:04: How to balance SEO and emotional writing on your landing page31:46: Blake's secret tips to improve landing page conversions34:05: How to organize your landing page to increase conversions40:13: What Blake is going to recommend to his next client45:33: How Blake balances being a founder with being a copywriter51:11: What is working for people trying to build their personal brands on social media?58:55: The next iteration for growing on social media59:43: If Blake started Pagetear again, what would he change?1:02:30: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/Link to Sunset: https://www.sunsethq.com👉🏼 Where to find Blake:Website: https://blakeemal.com/Pagetear: https://pagetear.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/heyblakeLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uxblake👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest:Pritika Mehta is the founder of Butternut AI, an AI-based website builder. After having earned her first dollar on the internet when she was 14, Butternut is her third startup, having built Mindbatteries (acquired), and SockSoho (YC S20), which went from 0 to millions in ARR in 18 months. She is also a TEDx speaker, having spoken at Wilmington Women about focus, failure, and the future of work. In addition, she is an advisor to Innovation Mission Punjab ($30M Startup Seed fund), has built  Kiddycoders to bring young kids into STEM, and is running a merit scholarship program for underprivileged girls in India. Her other projects include a 10,000+ member community of pet parents over WhatsApp. 👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Pritika discuss the AI wave, going from D2C to software, being an immigrant founder, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight00:16: Shoutout to Acquire.com02:42: Introduction to Pritika Mehta - founder at Butternut AI, TEDX speaker, scholarship creator, and more!07:22: The common traits of founders08:45: Going from software to D2C to software13:45: Destroying self-doubt in a new industry15:45: How to validate your product idea17:45: Getting into Y Combinator with a sock company19:15: The impact of Y Combinator21:10: The story of Butternut AI25:07: Pritika's favorite website built on Butternut AI25:40: Behind the scenes at Butternut AI28:00: The future of Butternut AI30:26: The ultimate vision for Butternut AI32:31: Which domains will remain untouched by AI?33:30: Pritika's backups if she wasn't working on Butternut AI38:02: Where is the Indian startup ecosystem heading?41:34: What Pritika looks for in founders she's investing in43:37: Lessons learned from SockSoho45:55: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Magic: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/magic-2PartnerHQ: https://www.partnerhq.com/Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Where to find Pritika:Website: https://pritikamehta.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pritika_mehtaLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritikam/Butternut AI: https://butternut.ai/SockSoho: https://socksoho.com/Kiddycoders: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/india-coding-children-opportunity/TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APPRZcGkFIUBBC: https://wspartners.bbc.com/clip/p07sr603TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/31/fashion-brand-socksoho-is-using-data-science-in-a-bid-to-become-the-uniqlo-of-india/The Hindu: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/are-children-being-introduced-to-coding-too-early-in-life/article62106966.eceWEF Economic Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91KzyE6V5So👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest:Hiten Shah (268K followers on Twitter!) has been building and writing about SaaS businesses for 20+ years. He is currently the CEO and Co-founder at Nira and is the ex-founder at CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics.👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Hiten discuss the AI wave, figuring out your niche, launching a podcast, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight00:43: Shoutout to Acquire.com03:08: Introduction to Hiten Shah - multi-founder for 20 years!04:32: Creating your own podcast and what to keep in mind09:56: Advice to people starting their own podcasts14:17: "Record the show and they will come" - how this can work and how it can go terribly wrong22:00: How to figure out your audience22:46: How to create a startup in a crowded market31:54: Where to create your AI startup in 202434:24: Reality vs deepfakes: when will we be unable to distinguish between the two?48:17: How Hiten's father influenced his life philosophy53:17: How to decide your identity56:10: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Airchat: https://www.air.chat/Devin: https://www.cognition-labs.com/introducing-devinLink to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Where to find Hiten:Website: https://hitenism.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/hnshah?Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hnshahNira: https://nira.com/👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest:Marie Martens is the co-founder of Tally, the simplest way to create forms. With a background in marketing, she co-founded a travel marketplace, Hotspot, and pivoted to Tally during the pandemic. Between 2020 and 2024, Tally's lean team has bootstrapped Tally to a $1M in ARR!👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Marie discuss juggling parenthood and startup life, hockey stick growth, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight1:10: Shoutout to Acquire.com03:34: Introduction to Marie Martens - the co-founder of Tally.so!05:50: How does being a mom keep Marie motivated?09:22: Why Tally refuses to hire or raise funds20:35: Tally's original mission in 202024:03: Secrets of hockey stick growth30:32: Ways to get over burnout38:04: Why Marie founded Tally in an over-crowded market44:10: How Notion influenced Tally47:30: How no-code tools and AI could have changed Tally's growth52:24: Marie's Plan B in case Tally didn't work out55:10: How building Tally differs from Marie's previous startup56:36: Tally's tactics that led to hockey stick growth59:08: What's next for Tally?1:03:25: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Where to find Marie:Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarieMartensLinkedin: https://be.linkedin.com/in/mariemartensTally: https://blog.tally.so/author/marie/👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest:Peer Richelsen is the co-founder and co-CEO of Cal.com. Peer has also previously served as the head of product at On Deck and as the founder and CEO of Lean Hire, as well as attending Y Combinator as an alumni in the winter of 2019. for Mage App, Inc., where they raised $880K in funding over three years and served over 50k customers across Europe and the USA.Today Peer and the team launched their newest product of Cal.com called Platform and Atoms. Go support the launch here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/cal-com-platform👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Peer discuss the future of open-source software, intellectual property in an age of AI, sales as a first-time founder, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight00:54: Shoutout to Acquire.com03:19: Introduction to Peer Richelsen - the founder of Cal.com!06:10: The origins of Cal.com: Going from being an operator to a founder11:06: How to stand out in a crowded market14:40: How to differentiate your product19:15: How to make your product strategy22:43: Why open-source is Cal.com's superpower27:33: The importance of IP in a post-AI world30:00: Where to get product inspiration32:10: Transitioning from being a bootstrapped founder to a VC-backed founder39:45: The ultimate aim of every founder44:31: What would Peer work in, if not scheduling?47:40: How to approach sales as a first-time founder50:52: How to get in front of big clients52:15: Approaching the chicken-egg traction problem in fundraising56:30: How did Y Combinator change Peer as a founder?58:18: Dealing with self-doubt59:50: What drives Peer as a founder?1:06:04: Peer's beef with Supabase1:07:44: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Support Cal.com Platform on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/cal-com-platformSeven Seven Six: https://sevensevensix.com/Founders Podcast's episode on Jay Z: https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/63997262/senra-jay-z-decodedSupabase: https://supabase.com/👉🏼 Where to find Peer:Twitter: https://twitter.com/peer_richLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peer-richelsen-221233138👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/