Ep#69: The VC Who Got Rejected by YC — Then Built a $300M Company. Rachel ten Brink

Ep#70 - Eric Ries. He wrote the rules. Now he's rewriting them.

Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, joins Startups Decoded to discuss his new book Incorruptible and why many successful companies slowly drift away from their founding ideals. Andy Walsh sat down with Eric to explore the forces that reshape organizations as they scale — from governance and incentives to leadership dynamics and investor pressure. Drawing on examples from companies like Costco and FedMart, Eric explains how culture, trust, and long-term thinking are often eroded by systems designed for short-term outcomes. This episode examines why success can quietly corrupt company purpose — and what founders must do to build organizations that remain principled as they grow. Presented by Deel: If you're making your first or fiftieth hire — and doing it across borders — Deel is worth knowing. They're supporting Startups Decoded this season for good reason. LEARN MORE. [https://www.deel.com/partners/sd/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=partner-sourced&utm_content=SD&utm_place=organic-community] Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] What We Cover • The legacy and influence of The Lean Startup  • Why companies drift away from their founding purpose  • The hidden forces that shape corporate culture  • The founder-to-CEO transition and shifting power dynamics  • Governance, incentives, and long-term decision making  • Lessons from Costco and the collapse of FedMart  • How founders can design companies that stay mission-driven Get Incorruptible: Order here [https://www.incorruptible.co/] Eric Ries Eric Ries is the author of The Lean Startup, one of the most influential books in modern entrepreneurship. His work has shaped how startups and large companies approach innovation, product development, and experimentation.  Andy Walsh [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] 2× exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (500,000 downloads + Top 2% globally). Access All Areas. Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] Subscribe: Substack [https://startupsdecoded.substack.com/] Connect: LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] Web: startupsdecoded.com [http://startupsdecoded.com/]  Socials: TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@startups_decoded] || Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/startups_decoded/] || X [https://x.com/StartupsDecoded] Music Credit “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia)  [https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2] The Studio [https://28thandpark.podyx.com/] Filmed on location at 28th&Park. A content & production studio for New York’s visionary Builders, Investors, Artists, Musicians, & Creators to amplify their voice & share bold stories. Use the code "Decoded" for 25% off your first booking.

Ep#69: The VC Who Got Rejected by YC — Then Built a $300M Company. Rachel ten Brink

Rachel ten Brink spent two decades inside Fortune 500 companies — P&G, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal — before co-founding Scentbird and scaling it past $300M in revenue. She got rejected by YC three times. Today, Scentbird is in their top 2% by revenue. Now she’s a GP at Red Bike Capital, investing in vertical AI, fintech, and digital health. This conversation is about what changes when you’ve been the client, the founder, and the investor — and why that sequence matters more than most people admit. We cover: * Why Fortune 500 experience is an underrated training ground for founders * What enterprise clients actually evaluate before they say yes — and it’s not your product * How Scentbird pivoted three times before hitting product-market fit * The real cost of fundraising too long — and what to do instead * How Red Bike Capital helps founders land their first enterprise clients If you’re building toward your first enterprise deal, thinking about raising, or just want to understand how operators think differently — this one’s worth your time. Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] Presented by Deel If you’re making your first or fiftieth hire — and doing it across borders — Deel is worth knowing. They’re supporting Startups Decoded this season for good reason. LEARN MORE. [https://www.deel.com/partners/sd/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=partner-sourced&utm_content=SD&utm_place=organic-community] Subscribe now [%%checkout_url%%] Rachel ten Brink [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-ten-brink-a08151/] Rachel ten Brink is General Partner and co-founder of Red Bike Capital, an early-stage VC fund investing in Vertical AI, Fintech, and Health & Wellness. Previously co-founder and CMO/CRO of Scentbird — a YC-backed subscription she scaled to $300M+ in revenue and top 2% of all YC companies — she spent two decades before that building billion-dollar brands at P&G, Estée Lauder, and L’Oréal. Andy Walsh [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] 2× exited founder, brand, growth, GTM, and host of Startups Decoded (500,000 downloads + Top 2% globally). The Studio [https://28thandpark.podyx.com/]  Filmed on location at 28th&Park. A content & production studio for New York’s visionary Builders, Investors, Artists, Musicians, & Creators to amplify their voice & share bold stories. Use the code “Decoded” for 25% off your first booking. Access All Areas * Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] * Subscribe: Substack [https://startupsdecoded.substack.com/] * Connect: LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] * Web: startupsdecoded.com [http://startupsdecoded.com/] * Socials: TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@startups_decoded] || Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/startups_decoded/] || X [https://x.com/StartupsDecoded] Music Credit “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia)

EP#68: Why We're Lonelier Than Ever, And How to Fix It - Michelle Parsons

We’re more connected than ever. More lonely than ever. Along the way, something broke. Michelle Parsons left ed-tech to build Lora — a platform using astrology as a framework for genuine human connection. The twist? The tech isn’t the point. The vulnerability is. Andy Walsh sat down with Michelle Parsons, co-founder of Lora, to unpack one of the most uncomfortable truths in tech: we built tools for connection and ended up more isolated. Michelle is a product leader (Kayak, Netflix, Spotify) who spent years watching personalization shape content discovery — and started asking why we weren’t applying that thinking to how people find each other. Lora is her answer. Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] Subscribe now [%%checkout_url%%] Presented by Deel: If you’re at the stage of making your first or second hire — and doing it across borders — Deel is worth knowing about. They’re supporting Startups Decoded this season for good reason. → LEARN MORE [https://startupsdecoded.com/deel] ← What We Cover: * Why social media broke the promise of connection — and why it’s structural * Astrology as an onboarding framework for vulnerability (yes, really) * The difference between shallow engagement and meaningful relationship * How Lora uses personalization to facilitate depth, not just retention * What community impact looks like when you measure connection, not clicks Michelle Parsons [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michcparsons/] A product leader who’s built and scaled at Kayak, Spotify, Netflix, and Hinge — where she served as CPO and tripled both the user base and revenue. Most recently, she co-founded Lex, a queer-first social platform named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies. Now she’s building Lora, a platform for deeper, more authentic human connection. Andy Walsh [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] 2× exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (500,000+ downloads + Top 2% globally). Access All Areas. * Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] * Subscribe: Substack [https://startupsdecoded.substack.com/] * Connect: LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] * Web: startupsdecoded.com [http://startupsdecoded.com/] * Socials: TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@startups_decoded] || Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/startups_decoded/] || X [https://x.com/StartupsDecoded] The Studio  [https://28thandpark.podyx.com/] Filmed on location at 28th&Park. A content & production studio for New York’s visionary Builders, Investors, Artists, Musicians, & Creators to amplify their voice & share bold stories. Use the code “Decoded” for 25% off your first booking. Music Credit “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia)

Ep#67: Stop Renting Attention — Why Founders Need to Own Their Platform. Nathan Gwilliam

Most founders spend years building audiences on platforms they don’t control. Nathan Gwilliam watched a guy go from $96M a year to zero — because Amazon changed its mind. The lesson wasn’t about Amazon. It was about whose land you’re building on. Andy Walsh sat down with Nathan Gwilliam — serial entrepreneur and founder of PodUp — to pull apart one of the most dangerous assumptions founders make: that reach equals ownership. After building Adoption.com into the world’s most visited adoption platform and watching founders lose everything to platform policy shifts, Nathan has spent two decades on one question: what does it actually mean to own your audience? Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] Subscribe now [%%checkout_url%%] Presented by Deel If you're at the stage of making your first or second hire — and doing it across borders — Deel is worth knowing about. They're supporting Startups Decoded this season for good reason. LEARN MORE. [https://www.deel.com/partners/sd/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=partner-sourced&utm_content=SD&utm_place=organic-community] Insight Most founders think about distribution as a growth problem. Nathan reframes it as an ownership problem. This conversation covers first-party data, passion-based community, and why the next big shift in marketing isn’t AI — it’s credibility. What We Cover * Why third-party platforms are rented land * Toyota’s Five Whys applied to audience and ICP * Passion-based vs. brand-based marketing * First-party data as a strategic asset * The credibility marketing shift replacing ads Nathan Gwilliam [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/] A serial entrepreneur, platform strategist, and founder of PodUp, an AI-powered podcasting platform. Over the past two decades he has built and sold multiple ventures, created Adoption.com, the world’s most visited adoption site, and helped media brands grow audiences into the hundreds of millions. Today, he helps entrepreneurs and business leaders build platforms they own. Andy Walsh  [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] 2× exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (500,000 downloads + Top 2% globally). Access All Areas. * Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] * Subscribe: Substack [https://startupsdecoded.substack.com/] * Connect: LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] * Web: startupsdecoded.com [http://startupsdecoded.com/] * Socials: TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@startups_decoded] || Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/startups_decoded/] || X [https://x.com/StartupsDecoded] The Studio [https://28thandpark.podyx.com/]  Filmed on location at 28th&Park. A content & production studio for New York’s visionary Builders, Investors, Artists, Musicians, & Creators to amplify their voice & share bold stories. Use the code “Decoded” for 25% off your first booking. Music Credit “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia)

Ep#66:Why Every Founder Is Already a Generalist — Milly Tamati

Everyone told Milly her résumé didn’t make sense. She turned that confusion into a global community of 800+ people who felt exactly the same. Turns out, being hard to define is your biggest competitive advantage. Andy Walsh sat down with Milly, founder of Generalist World — a community of 800+ operators, founders, and career-builders who’ve stopped apologising for doing too many things well. This one’s for anyone who’s ever struggled to answer “so, what do you do?” without a paragraph-long explanation. Milly grew up milking cows on a farm in New Zealand. She was supposed to become a teacher. Instead, she became a tour guide, a wine tour co-founder, a hostel co-owner, a writer for Tourism Japan, a film producer in Canada, and the Director of Miscellaneous at a tech company — before eventually landing on a remote island in Scotland, wondering why she felt like she didn’t fit anywhere. That feeling became a LinkedIn post. That post became a community. That community now spans 800 members, 150,000 social followers, and 60,000 email subscribers — built entirely without a cent of paid marketing. The twist? She started with 300 LinkedIn connections and absolutely no plan. Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] What We Cover: * Why generalism is a return, not a trend * The “top 10% in three things” framework for positioning yourself * How Milly built Generalist World from a LinkedIn post * Why resumes are becoming obsolete — and what replaces them * The real reason communities are about to have their moment * Why every founder must be willing to sell (yes, even you) * How AI is accelerating the case for breadth over depth Milly Tamati [https://www.linkedin.com/in/milly-tamati/] Milly is a New Zealand-born founder and community builder behind Generalist World, a global network for builders, operators, and curious career generalists. After 15 years as both an early employee and founder across multiple startups, she now helps 100,000+ people design unconventional, interesting careers beyond traditional paths. Andy Walsh [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/]2× exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (500,000 downloads + Top 2% globally). Access All Areas. Listen: Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startups-decoded/id1791857722] || Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/220mqWlx20TABn7wzCPCeu?si=1c6e91af36d34c92] || YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@startups_decoded] Subscribe: Substack [https://startupsdecoded.substack.com/] Connect: LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/] Web: startupsdecoded.com [http://startupsdecoded.com/] Socials: TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@startups_decoded] || Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/startups_decoded/] || X [https://x.com/StartupsDecoded] Music Credit “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia)  The Studio  [https://28thandpark.podyx.com/] Filmed on location at 28th&Park. A content & production studio for New York’s visionary Builders, Investors, Artists, Musicians, & Creators to amplify their voice & share bold stories. Use the code “Decoded” for 25% off your first booking.