A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

He sold his first 2 startups. His 3rd grew to $1M ARR in 3 months. | Chaz Englander, Founder of Model ML

Chaz has founded 3 companies. The first sold for over $40M. The second sold to GoPuff for even more. Now, he’s on his third act with Model ML, having just raised $75M Series A <2 years in. In this episode, Chaz breaks down the playbook behind his successes. He reveals how he raised his first million by pitching strangers on LinkedIn, why his delivery startup was just a text message system on the backend, and why speed is the only defensive moat left. Why You Should Listen * How to pitch strangers on LinkedIn for angel checks. * Why you should always say you're raising "a bit more" than you actually are. * Why "Product Market Fit" is no longer static in the age of AI. * How to launch a massive consumer business. * Why getting a paid design partner isn't enough. Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, serial entrepreneur, fundraising strategy, product market fit, rapid scaling, AI startup, exit strategy, MVP, fintech 00:00:00 Intro 00:04:46 Pitching Strangers for Angel Checks 00:07:51 The "Fake" Fundraising Strategy 00:23:28 Why MVPs are Dead in the AI Era 00:25:01 Selling to GoPuff While Running Out of Cash 00:32:25 The Origin of ModelML 00:38:30 The Design Partner Playbook 00:46:13 From $5k to $100k MRR in 3 Months Send me a message to let me know what you think! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1889238/open_sms]

He fired all his customers. Then built a $1B startup in 2 years. | Jay Madheswaran, Co-Founder of Eve

Jay was running a respectable AI startup with $3M ARR. But he knew it wasn't a venture-scale rocket ship. So, he decided to fire all his customers, pivot the entire company, and bet everything on a new vertical: legal AI for plaintiff attorneys. Eve went from zero to unicorn status in under two years, raising $100M at a $1B valuation.  In this episode, Jay breaks down the brutal reality of pivoting a revenue-generating company, how to achieve "demo shock" in an antiquated industry, and why 4-hour user sessions were the first sign that he had struck gold. Why You Should Listen * How threatening to shut down your product can reveal PMF. * Why firing all your existing customers might be the only way to scale. * How to achieve a 40% conversion rate from cold outreach to demo. * Why you should target mid market instead of enterprise if you want to deploy AI fast. Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, pivot, legal tech, AI startup, B2B sales, unicorn startup, Jay Madheswaran, Eve 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:27 From VC to Founder 00:08:42 The First Idea: RPA for NLP 00:16:52 The Hard Decision to Pivot at 3M ARR 00:24:26 Product Discovery While Still Supporting Old Customers 00:33:56 40 Percent Conversion from Cold Outreach 00:39:56 Firing Customers to Find True PMF 00:41:06 The 4-Hour User Session Signal 00:46:05 From 1M to 10M ARR in One Year 00:49:11 The Moment of True Product Market Fit Send me a message to let me know what you think! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1889238/open_sms]

He wrote the book on Account Based Marketing. Here are his GTM secrets for enterprise. | Bassem Hamdy, Founder of Briq

Bassem took Briq from a failed data idea to a Series B leader in construction financial automation.But the path wasn't linear.  In this episode, Bassem reveals how he pivoted to RPA bots, why he killed a high-growth fintech product to survive the 2023 cash crunch, and how he uses a relentless "Go-to-Market" strategy. He breaks down his exact ABM playbook, why he hates trade shows, and why he believes AI orchestration is a bigger shift than the cloud. Why You Should Listen * How to identify the "Challenger" who will kill your deal. * Why trade shows are a waste of money (and what to do instead). * The "1-Person Webinar" hack to close high-value accounts. * The brutal reality of cutting 50% of staff to survive. * Why selling "risk reduction" beats selling "time saved." Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, account based marketing, construction tech, go to market strategy, enterprise sales, finding pmf, robotic process automation, ai orchestration 00:00:00 Intro 00:06:23 The RPA "Aha" Moment with a Tech Giant 00:11:52 Selling Risk vs. Selling Time Saved 00:13:27 The "New CFO" Signal in Account Based Marketing 00:17:06 Identifying the "Challenger" in Enterprise Sales 00:23:22 The 1-Person Webinar Strategy 00:29:19 Killing the Fintech Product to Survive 2023 00:36:20 Why You Never Truly Have Product Market Fit Send me a message to let me know what you think! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1889238/open_sms]

He got rejected from YC—then grew to $1.8B in under 2 years. | Max Junestrand, Founder of Legora

Max went from a YC rejection to building a $1.8B company in less than two years. His company, Legora, is the fastest YC-backed company to become a unicorn in history.  His path to insane growth was not standard: after raising a massive Series A, Max told his board he was pausing all new sales for six months to rebuild the product infrastructure. In this episode, Max breaks down the "burn the boats" mentality that drove their growth, the specific demo tactics that convert 55% of prospects, and how to build an engineering culture that ships fast enough to beat incumbents like Thomson Reuters. Why You Should Listen * Why he shut down sales for 6 months immediately after raising $35M. * How a single live demo stunt at a conference generated 150 qualified leads. * The aggressive pitch strategy that turned a YC rejection into an acceptance. * How to close a $10M round with Benchmark after a single meeting. * Why you should encourage your enterprise clients to run bake-offs. Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, AI legal tech, Y Combinator, hypergrowth, enterprise sales, Benchmark Capital, fundraising strategy, rapid scaling 00:00:00 Intro 00:06:51 Getting Rejected by Y Combinator 00:15:37 Living on 50k Euros with Design Partners 00:30:19 The Live Demo That Booked 150 Meetings 00:34:06 Raising $10M from Benchmark in 30 Minutes 00:35:13 Shutting Down Sales After Raising Series A 00:46:36 How to Win 85 Percent of Competitive Deals 00:50:05 The Moment of True Product Market Fit Send me a message to let me know what you think! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1889238/open_sms]

He sold dog food from his condo. Now he does $100M+ a year. | Russell Breuer, Founder of Spot & Tango

Russell went from working in private equity to hand-delivering dog food on the NYC subway at 5 a.m. He didn't start with a VC check; he started with a studio apartment kitchen and a belief that dog food was broken. In this episode, Russell breaks down how he turned a side hustle into Spot & Tango, a direct-to-consumer giant doing over $100M in revenue.  He reveals the gritty reality of early-stage CPG, why he vertically integrated his own factory when everyone else outsourced, and how a simple "fresh dry" product innovation called UnKibble unlocked massive scale. Why You Should Listen * How to scale from a studio apartment kitchen to $100M+ revenue. * How a simple packaging choice created a premium brand identity. * Why your second product might become your biggest winner. * Why the best performing ad creative is often the cheapest. Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, DTC startup, CPG brand, direct to consumer, scaling a startup, founder stories, Spot and Tango 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:30 From Private Equity to Dog Food 00:07:36 Hand-Delivering to the First Customer 00:11:57 The Dark Ages: Cooking in a Shared Kitchen 00:19:17 Pricing Strategy Without Sales Data 00:22:50 The Pink Butcher Paper Brand Identity 00:26:26 Launching UnKibble: The 9-Figure Product 00:31:52 Why Vertical Integration is a Moat 00:40:54 The Best Ad Creative is a Sticky Note 00:47:09 Selling Out Inventory in 4 Days Send me a message to let me know what you think! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1889238/open_sms]