Subscribe to my newsletter The Split for new episodes emailed every week: https://www.thespl.it/ Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Mike is currently a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Before Lightspeed, he spent five years building Anchor, which he sold to Spotify in 2020, and then led Spotify’s podcast, video, and live products for three years. It's probably safe to assume every podcast you listen to uses Mike’s product, and we go way back to the very beginning and talk through how the team at Anchor pulled it all off.Mike also shares his frameworks of “Doing the Dumb Thing” and "Super Goals," which are high-stakes, focusing goals with a clear and urgent time frame, open-ended method of achievement, and a single measure of success. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (4:22) Why AI makes consumer investing interesting again (8:05) Podcasting in the early 2010’s (14:03) The benefits and drawbacks of RSS (21:50) Building v1 “Instagram for audio” (25:53) Advice for building a close-knit community (29:28) Raising their first small round (31:38) Inside their splashy launch at SXSW (39:17) Why the first product failed, but allowed them to raise money to build Anchor (45:26) What makes a good product founder (47:39) Re-launching v2 a year later (53:51) What is a Super Goal (56:32) Finding Product Market Fit with months of runway left (59:02) Getting to a million podcast creators (01:02:09) Launching the first podcast ad network (01:04:10) Why anchor started sponsoring its own ad network (01:08:13) Spotify’s acquisition of Anchor (01:14:22) How Spotify won in podcast market share (01:16:34) Why the future of podcasts is video Referenced: Mike’s Podcast “Generative Now”: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXW6zY9x-gk1oPyjZ_qBCDEYKTbPpGa8S Mike’s blog posts: https://mignano.substack.com/p/the-standards-innovation-paradox https://mignano.substack.com/p/the-power-of-supergoals https://mignano.substack.com/p/startups-vs-incumbents-the-battle https://mignano.substack.com/p/all-podcast-roads-lead-to-video Where to find Mike: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mignano LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mignano Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Eric Newcomer is the founder of Newcomer, a publication he launched in October of 2020 to cover the business of startups and venture capital. He had just left Bloomberg after nearly six years, and was previously the first employee at The Information. — — — — Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:46) The current state of media (05:59) Anchoring his 4th grade newscast (07:21) Becoming the 1st employee at The Information (09:34) How reporters get stories (21:12) The moment he quit Bloomberg to start Newcomer (26:02) Why he writes for VC insiders (32:19) The VC top fund survey (34:01) The Founders Choice VC leaderboard (35:51) Why leaked documents grow his newsletter the fastest (39:45) When Eric knew Newcomer was going to work (43:31) How events become Newcomers most profitable business (51:56) Why Eric invested in Substack (57:42) Why its harder to cover tech’s downturn than boom times (59:10) How to pitch a story to a reporter (01:02:59) Why the internet incentivizes negative media coverage (01:06:06) Advice for starting a media company (01:10:33) Why media works so well to sell adjacent products (01:12:55) Newcomer Banking Summit (01:14:27) The $1.3B acquisition that happened at his first conference (01:20:05) New products Eric’s thinking about — — — — Referenced: Newcomer Passes $1m in Revenue: https://www.axios.com/2024/01/04/substack-writer-eric-newcomer-says-his-revenue-surpassed-1m-in-2023 Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/ Lenny’s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/ Mike Solana’s Pirate Wires: https://www.piratewires.com/ Mentioned Newcomer Articles: VC Survey: https://www.newcomer.co/p/sequoia-founders-fund-usv-elad-gil Founder's Choice: https://www.newcomer.co/p/founders-choice-vc-rankings-revealed Paywalled Bill Gurley Interview: https://www.newcomer.co/p/above-the-crowd SBF’s Leaked FTX Email: https://www.newcomer.co/p/exclusive-read-sam-bankman-frieds Eric’s first article on Sequoia: https://www.newcomer.co/p/sequoias-political-paradox — — — — Where to find Eric: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricNewcomer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericpnewcomer/ Newsletter: https://www.twitter.com/newcomer Email: newcomer@newcomer.co Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Siqi Chen shares his secrets to going viral, transforming B2B software, and building successful startups. From creating Facebook games to working on NASA rovers, his entrepreneurial journey is filled with twists and turns. He also delves into growth strategies, overcoming challenges, and empowering employees through business knowledge at Runway.

The podcast discusses automating the $80 billion compliance market with Secureframe's CEO, Shrav Mehta. He shares insights on recruiting, scaling teams, finding product market fit, and fundraising advice. Other topics include learning programming, joining early-stage startups like Lob and Scale, unconventional college experiences, hiring tactics, sending effective cold emails, and the never-ending search for product-market fit.

Kevin Espiritu is the founder and CEO of Epic Gardening, which is, by multiple measures, one of the largest brands in gardening on the planet.What started in 2013 as a blog has since evolved into a gardening empire spanning YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, 4,500 gardening stores, and three gardening books. Epic raised a $17.5m Series A from The Chernin Group in 2021, and according to external sources did $27 million in revenue in 2022. — — — — Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM. It’s powerful, flexible and easily configures to the unique way your startup runs, whatever your go-to-market motion. The next era deserves a better CRM. Join OpenAI, Replicate, ElevenLabs and more at https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel — — — — Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (04:03) Sponsor: Attio (05:09) A deep dive on the history of YouTube (12:04) The YouTube algorithm and meta game (40:17) Using Reddit to drive initial blog traffic (46:56) How creator-led businesses have negative CAC (47:12) Why creator businesses must be very small or very large (49:38) How YouTube is changing today (50:00) Acquiring a gardening blog for $1k from an Indian VC (52:43) His process for doing acquisitions (53:38) Launching his first product (57:54) His biggest mistakes launching new products (58:30) Buying his own warehouse (59:04) Non-intuitive ways a product can influence your cost structure (1:03:00) Kevin’s approach to hiring (1:04:40) Why he raised a Series A as a YouTube creator (1:05:27) How to approach investing in AI (1:19:53) Why Kevin wrote three books (1:23:26) Why more people will grow food at home (1:25:20) How he approaches celebrity partnerships — — — — Referenced: Epic Homesteading: Your Guide to Self-Sufficiency on a Modern, High-Tech, Backyard Homestead https://www.amazon.com/Epic-Homesteading-Self-Sufficiency-High-Tech-Homestead/dp/0760383766 MrBeast https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast MrBeast's Feastables https://feastables.com/ Logan Paul x KSI PRIME https://drinkprime.com/ MatPat of @GameTheory https://www.youtube.com/channelUCo_IB5145EVNcf8hw1Kku7w Michelle Phan https://www.youtube.com/user/michellephan Ipsy: https://www.ipsy.com/ by Michelle Phan Matthew Beem https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR_J_SntqJh5eXw66d5hJxA The Chernin Group https://tcg.co/ — — — — Where to find Kevin / Epic Gardening Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevinEspiritu YouTube 1: https://www.youtube.com/user/kevinmespiritu YouTube 2: https://www.youtube.com/@epicgardening Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Kirsten Green is the founder of Forerunner Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on understanding the mindset of the modern consumer. Kirsten started Forerunner in 2010, and was an early investor in companies like Faire, Chime, Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club, Hims, Glossier, Jet, Bonobos, HotelTonight, and The Farmer’s Dog. This episode takes us behind the scenes of Kirsten’s two decade journey building Forerunner from scratch. She talks about her biggest mistakes, wins, and lessons learned along the way. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:50) Doing market research at the mall  (08:00) Her journey from public markets to venture (18:30) Lessons from her first investment going to $0 (28:51) How she raised her first $5m angel fund (31:11) Transitioning to a $41.7m institutional fund (43:20) Why she almost didn’t invest in Dollar Shave Club (sold for $1.1 billion) (51:05) How Forerunner thinks about fund size (57:05) How she led Faire’s Series A with a small fund (58:46) How Kirsten builds relationships with LPs (01:02:10) Is consumer investing dead? (01:15:00) Her unfair advantage as an investor Where to find Kirsten Twitter: https://twitter.com/kirstenagreen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstengreen Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Craig Fuller, Founder and CEO of FreightWaves, discusses the importance of logistics and supply chains, the rise of deglobalization, US manufacturing benefits for Colombia, the changing supply chain function, the US labor availability problem, why AI won't fully replace humans in media, the early days of FreightWaves, predicting recessions, logistics as a barometer of the global economy, surviving COVID, how FreightWaves became a media business, the arbitrage opportunity in media, buying print magazines, and building a flying community.

Danielle Cohen-Shohet is the CEO and Founder of GlossGenius, the all-in-one booking, payments and POS solution that helps beauty and wellness professionals drive bookings and grow their business. Danielle started the company in 2016 and has since grown it to a $510 million valuation. This is while taking a disciplined approach to fundraising, raising roughly $70 million throughout the life of the company. — Topics include: A crash course on the $160 billion beauty, health, and wellness market How the industry's shifting to time-based billing and upfront payments Why GlossGenius spends so much time on customer experience Surviving a 90% drop in revenue during COVID Why she credits talking to and listening to customers to GlossGenius success A look inside each funding round, and why Danielle kept them small How she learned to delegate as the company scaled Why the big picture is often made of little details Danielle’s secret for running a capital efficient business GlossGenius’ Hiring and Interviewing Manual Why most companies aren’t good at hiring Danielle’s favorite interview questions — Where to find Danielle: Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/dcohenshohet LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcohenshohet — Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://bananacapital.vc — Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io —For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform

Cristina Junqueira is the co-founder of Nubank, the largest neobank in Latin America – and in the world – with more than 80 million customers. She is also the second self-made female billionaire in Brazil. Cristina and her co-founders David Vélez and Edward Wible launched Nubank in 2013, essentially building the fintech category in a market where it was nonexistent, and went on to release a no-fee credit card, app, and other banking products across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Cristina takes us through the rise of Nubank, from the scrappiest days building in a house in Sao Paulo to being backed by investors like Sequoia, Founders Fund, DST, TCV, Tiger Global, and Warren Buffett, and then on to their IPO in December 2021. We also touch on the impact of Nubank’s distinctive brand choices, how they navigated government regulations that nearly shut them down, and how they were able to spend $0 on marketing throughout most of their history. — — — — TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Preview(02:38) Fintech and the preconditions for disrupting financial services in LatAm(05:38) Educating investors on the opportunity for fintech in LatAm(07:35) The scale of unbanked and underbanked populations in Brazil, Mexico, and other countries; and why expanding access to these products increases NuBank's market share(08:21) Expanding the pie and just how profitable banks can be in LatAm(15:37) Starting NuBank and the lessons Cristina learned from incumbent banks(18:11) The biggest hurdle to starting NuBank(19:33) Navigating Nubank’s first product from inception to successful credit card(21:08) Spending $0 CAC in an industry with hugely expensive marketing pushes(22:32) $0 on marketing and scrappy ethics(26:40) The crazy circumstances around Nubank’s Series A fundraise(36:54) Cristina’s reflections on the IPO in December 2021 (39:31) How Nubank navigates a changing macro environment(40:40) The importance of Nubank’s distinctive brand(42:57) Surviving an existential threat from Brazil’s government(46:28) Scaling from a small scrappy team to a multinational global publicly traded company(49:02) Personal growth and maintaining strong co-founder relationships Referenced: Nubank: ⁠https://nubank.com.br/en/ Nubank's IPO mints Cristina as a billionaire: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2021/12/09/ Where to find Cristina: Twitter: https://twitter.com/junqueira_cris LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisjunqueira/ Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://bananacapital.vc

Sid Yadav is the Co-founder and CEO of Circle, the all-in-one community platform trusted by creators like Tiago Forte, David Perell, and Miles Snider. Sid started the tech blog Rev2 when he was a teenager in New Zealand, writing about the launch of YouTube and the iPhone. He was the founding engineer and designer of Teachable, which he helped scale to +25m+ in ARR before it was acquired in 2020. He started Circle in 2019 with co-founders Rudy Santino and Andrew Guttormsen, which they scaled to $16m in ARR by December of 2023. Circle has since raised $31m from Investors like Tiger Global, Notation Capital, Bungalow, Todd Goldberg, Rahul Vohra, Scott Belsky, Josh Buckley, Ankur Nagpal, Wade Foster, and Dharmesh Shah. Sid immigrated with his family from India to New Zealand as a teenager and to the US after college. His story is a perfect encapsulation of the American Dream, and I’m excited to share this conversation. — — — — Brought to you by Deel, the global HR + payroll platform used by 20,000+ teams. Deel’s in-house immigration team gets you and your team worldwide visas without the legwork. Book a Demo: bit.ly/thepeelxdeel — — — — Topics discussed include: (03:53) Why the creator economy is booming despite negative sentiment (13:22) Writing a popular tech blog as a teen in the mid 00’s (23:16) Joining Teachable as the 2nd employee (40:30) Why Teachable CEO Ankur Nagpal invested 90% of his liquid net worth in Circle’s $1.7m Pre-seed round (48:44) Sid’s inside view at the creator economy before, during, and after COVID (52:50) The magic of Lenny Rachitsky’s creator flywheel (56:10) The reason Sid raised a Seed from lots of investors instead of one large check (01:14:30) Inside raising a Series A from Tiger Global in 2021 (01:22:19) Why Sid writes an investor update every month (01:25:15) Going from Zero to $16m ARR in four years (01:27:28) How Circle approaches its product roadmap (01:29:20) Building a community around your product (01:37:03) Advice for running a remote-first team (01:46:54) How Sid convinced the founder of Zapier to be his CEO coach (01:54:20) Why founders need to deal with reality Referenced: https://circle.so/ https://www.teachable.com “Cost of a meeting” tweet: https://twitter.com/0xgaut/status/1620815168921038850 Tiago Forte Building a Second Brain: https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/foundation PARA Method: https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/ Lenny’s interview with Brian Chesky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ef0juAMqoE Turner’s interview with Wade Foster, Co-founder and CEO of Zapier:  https://youtu.be/NJMjuYt9jEc Myles Snyder: https://mylessnider.com/ Where to find Sid: Twitter: https://twitter.com/sidyadav LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidyadav Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://bananacapital.vc