A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

Casey Ellis, founder of Bugcrowd, created a pioneering cybersecurity marketplace that raised over $180M. He shares how he turned hackers into allies and validated a two-sided marketplace with minimal resources. Casey tested his pitch on Uber drivers to refine his messaging and emphasizes the importance of product-market fit. He reveals how early marketing tactics, like giving away t-shirts, sparked growth and how landing Google early boosted credibility. His journey highlights the emotional rollercoaster of category creation and the value of community support for founders.

Zach Lloyd, a former Google principal engineer who led Google Docs, shares his rollercoaster journey from a failed photo-sharing app to the groundbreaking Warp.dev. He discusses the disillusionment of transitioning from Google’s user base to the stark reality of startup struggles. Zach emphasizes the importance of documented operating principles and building a product-focused team. He reveals how their pivot to AI-driven agentic development led to accelerated growth, achieving $1M ARR every 10 days and successfully navigating the competitive developer tools landscape.

In this engaging discussion, Alex Sherman, Founder and CEO of Bluefish AI and former founder of PromoteIQ, shares his rollercoaster journey through the startup world. He reveals how he nearly returned $200K to investors just months in and how surviving on minimal runway taught him resilience. Alex emphasizes the power of meeting customers face-to-face, successfully pivoting to retail media, and the strategic moves that led to his company's acquisition by Microsoft. His insights on AI marketing and the unique challenges faced by second-time founders are particularly enlightening.

Brett Carlson, Founder and CEO of ServiceUp, shares his wild journey from a failed auto shop to creating a $50 million ARR marketplace for fleet maintenance. He recounts a harrowing story of receiving death threats while managing a drug dealer's car. Discover how pivoting from B2C to B2B skyrocketed their average order value and why work-life balance is a myth for ambitious founders. Brett also discusses raising $12 million during a market downturn and lessons learned from a challenging partnership with DoorDash.

In this engaging talk, Doug Scott, Founder and CEO of Ethic, shares his journey from investment banking in Australia to leading a values-based fintech with $7B AUM. He discusses the challenges of building technology without traction and the pivotal moment when Ethic's focus on helping advisors win clients skyrocketed their growth from $5M to $250M AUM in just a year. Doug emphasizes the importance of pitching to over 100 investors and the invaluable insights gained from customer-driven product development. His candid reflections on the struggles of entrepreneurship make it a must-listen.

Discover why speed is the only true advantage for early-stage founders, as one founder turns an idea into customers in just three weeks. Delve into the importance of maintaining an MVP mentality post-launch, ensuring continuous iterations. Learn from Twitter's journey to success through 300 small changes. Unravel the reasons why teams slow down over time and how to combat this decline by fostering a culture focused on rapid experimentation. Stay in that 'day one' mindset to keep the momentum alive, even at $10M ARR.

Aviv Leibovici, co-founder of Buildots, a construction-tech innovator, shares his journey from intelligence work to construction. He emphasizes the importance of working directly with customers to truly understand their challenges. Aviv reveals how a simple change transformed Buildots from near failure to rapid growth, highlighting the pitfalls of underpricing and the necessity of validating value before coding. With tens of millions in revenue, his insights are a goldmine for founders navigating product-market fit.

Shensi Ding, the founder and CEO of Merge, shares her journey from coding whispers to a booming $10M+ ARR. She brazenly cold-messaged 50,000 engineers and offered initial customers two free months to build trust. Shensi emphasizes the importance of outbound sales, detailing her relentless demos and hiring in-office during COVID. Discover why she decided to hold off on revenue collection until hitting $1M ARR and how she regained a lost major client. Her raw, determined spirit proves that sheer grit can lead to remarkable success.

Eldon Sprickerhoff, co-founder of eSentire, risked his home to launch a cybersecurity venture when no VCs would support him. After seven grueling years, they finally hit $1M in revenue. The turning point? Bringing in a seasoned CEO who pivoted the business strategy, skyrocketing revenue from $1M to $10M in just three years. Eldon shares how they creatively outperformed competitors and the emotional resilience needed to thrive in the startup landscape. His journey is a testament to bootstrapping success against all odds.

Soham Ganatra, founder of Composio, shares his whirlwind journey of turning an AI agent integration idea into a thriving platform with 100,000 users and a $30M Series A funding in just a year. He discusses the pitfalls of relying on friendly customers and his strategy of relentless outreach to strangers for brutally honest feedback. Soham reveals his innovative Discord and SEO tactics that sparked early user adoption, emphasizing that in AI, it’s more effective to build and surprise users than to merely ask them what they want.