Exploring the world’s greatest startup stories.
Get a behind the scenes look into the founding stories of your favorite companies. Learn how the industries the...
Unlocking AGI With Visual AI Agents | Joseph Nelson, Roboflow
Joseph Nelson is the Co-founder and CEO of Roboflow, making the world programmable by building computer vision tools for developers and enterprises.
We talk about how computer vision creates a new paradigm to program the world, and how visual AI is the missing piece of AGI.
Joseph also shares multiple live product examples, how computer vision unlocks new data sources, lessons from Stripe and Palantir, building business models in developer tools, his experience working with David Sacks, and developer marketing tactics and how Roboflow consistently gets to the front page of Hacker News.Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(03:34) Computer vision is the missing piece for AGI(05:59) Vision as a new paradigm to collect data(10:55) Live examples of computer vision(13:45) How a Magic Sudoku solver app led to Roboflow(18:13) Using computer vision for automation(24:49) Computer vision in sports(27:02) How vision unlocks new data sources(28:24) Inside developer tool business models(33:32) The "Collison Install" and hands-on customer service(36:45) When to adopt Palantir's Forward Deployed Engineers(43:44) Why AI companies need to combine PLG and enterprise sales(50:12) Advice on developer marketing(52:30) Roboflow's greatest hits on Hacker News(01:02:19) Benefits of David Sacks as AI & Crypto Czar(01:05:32) Why all new technology has bad actors(01:07:07) Why over-regulation holds back innovation(01:12:01) How to get on the front page of Hacker News(01:19:43) Multi modality, time recognition, and agentic vision(01:28:36) Image-to-image prompting(01:30:42) Growing up in Iowa(01:32:20) Making TI-84 calculator games in high school(01:36:32) Pioneer: hunger games for startups(01:40:16) Why Roboflow does weekly Ship Lists + Ship and Tell(01:42:46) Hiring former founders and "full stack people"(01:45:16) Designing a bottoms-up organization while scaling(01:50:35) Why candidates build with Roboflow in hiring process(01:55:08) Hiring someone to help with the podcastReferenced:Robowflow: https://roboflow.com/ Roboflow Universe: https://universe.roboflow.com/ Paint.wtf: https://paint.wtf/ Roboflows NeurIPS Presentations: https://blog.roboflow.com/neurips-2023-papers-highlights/ Careers at Roboflow: https://roboflow.com/careers Follow Joseph:Twitter: https://x.com/josephofiowa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephofiowa Follow Turner:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
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1:57:42
How Morning Brew Grew to 6 Million Subscribers and $70 Million Revenue in Six Years | Austin Rief, Co-founder & CEO
Austin Rief is the Co-founder & CEO of Morning Brew, building the Wall Street Journal for the next generation. They started the company in 2017, and grew it to 6 million subscribers and $70 million in revenue in six years.
We talk through the journey starting Morning Brew with Co-founder Alex Lieberman while students at the University of Michigan, and Austin's playbook for starting a new media company from scratch today. We get into the creator economy, early stage investing, ad based business models, being the first advertiser on Instagram Stories, advice for hiring, and his secret for sourcing remote talent in Sri Lanka.
Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(03:42) How to start a media company from scratch today(13:01) Future of the creator economy is niche products(14:42) Opportunity in B2B media today(17:05) Reflecting on investing during ZIRP(21:30) Why its starting to feel like 2021 again(23:16) Talking VC portfolio math(27:09) Starting Morning Brew with Wall Street interview prep(33:35) Being so dumb that they never pivoted from being a newsletter(35:29) How newsletter business models works(38:32) Morning Brew’s first viral Instagram post(40:37) Acquiring subscribers for two cents on Instagram Stories(42:29) Nik Sharma’s poor mans paid ads strategy(44:32) Landing Discover as their first big sponsor(46:06) How agencies and ad buying works(49:49) Why sales roles are so hard to hire for(53:04) Importance of offsheet references(57:43) Sourcing talent in Sri Lanka with Oceans(01:04:23) Austin and Alex’s unique co-founder dynamics(01:07:16) Dental plans, rotisserie chickens, and company laptops(01:10:00) Building WSJ for the next generation
Referenced:Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com Try Oceans: https://www.oceanstalent.com/ Kevin Espiritu episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FefGL-qPzDo Craig Fuller episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPPqO8eBq2M Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2019/02/07/morning-brew/
Follow Austin:Twitter: https://x.com/austin_rief LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-rief/ Newsletter: https://www.theaustinbrief.com/
Follow Turner:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
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1:13:03
The Startup Teaching 2-Year Olds to Read | Niels Hoven, Mentava
Niels Hoven is the founder of Mentava, building software to accelerate kids’ education, starting with teaching two year old’s to read.
We talk about how public education isn’t designed for ambitious kids, the power of hater marketing, product design from zero to one, how too much data leads to Frankenstein products, Seed stage fundraising advice, parenting hacks, why AI won’t have a big impact on education, and the future of elite higher ed.
For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/0a0869a7-c345-4974-ba2b-726bacf7a534
Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(03:49) Why schools don’t challenge overachievers(11:58) How a hater made Mentava go viral(18:14) The secret that teaches little kids to read(24:22) How people actually learn to read(27:35) 2/3 of 4th graders can’t read proficiently(29:29) The downfall of one-size fits all education(33:44) How California almost banned middle school algebra(40:41) SF’s lottery system and how it impacts low income families(42:41) How COVID changed education(47:41) Early prototypes and going all-in on Mentava(50:56) Best practices from gaming in education(55:10) Raising a party round from lots of angels(01:03:03) Designing business models in education(01:13:19) Being pro-tech + anti-screens for kids(01:18:04) Top parenting hacks(01:22:53) How data-driven product design leads to Frankenstein products(01:25:34) Why gaming’s the best industry to learn how to build product(01:27:46) The trick Niels used to find startup ideas for 20 years(01:31:03) Why AI won’t be that impactful in education(01:36:28) What happens to elite higher education over the next decade(01:43:15) Admiring Stripe
Referenced:Mentava: https://www.mentava.com/ Ryan Delk podcast episode: https://open.spotify.com/show/3QqtxGHqsPnKTG4CS7NgX5 | https://youtu.be/GTfsMEOIIxQ How Neils raised Mentava’s Seed round: https://www.mentava.com/blog/how-i-got-50-high-profile-angel-investors-to-join-our-seed-round Mentava’s Alphabet Book: https://www.mentava.com/alphabet-sounds-book | https://www.amazon.com/Mentavas-Alphabet-Sounds-Niels-Hoven/dp/B0DKTQ9FW4
Follow Niels:X / Twitter: https://x.com/NielsHoven LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nielshoven
Follow Turner:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak
Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
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1:45:58
How Nextdoor Grew to 100M Neighbors + Why Founding CEO Nirav Tolia Returned Six Years Later
Nirav Tolia is the co-founder and two-time CEO of Nextdoor. He started the company in 2011, stepped down as CEO in 2018, watched the company go public in 2021, and re-joined as CEO the summer of 2024. He also founded Epinions which IPO’d in 2004, and before that was an early employee at Yahoo. We go inside the decision to re-join the company after he thought he’d never come back, and how Nextdoor’s trying to act like a startup while running a public company. He also takes us back to the very early days of Nextdoor, the deliberate product decisions that made growth hard but led to 100M+ neighbors on the platform, the lessons learned operating his first company through the Dot Com Bubble, and what it was like being a guest shark on Shark Tank. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/d7bcd655-9b2f-47f7-a6e3-fdf3e109c97e
Recommended Podcast:🎙️Unpack Pricing Dive into the dark arts of SaaS pricing with Metronome CEO Scott Woody and tech leaders. Learn how strategic pricing drives explosive revenue growth in today's biggest companies like Snowflake, Cockroach Labs, Dropbox and more.Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1765716600 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/38DK3W1Fq1xxQalhDSueFg Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(02:39) Leaving Nextdoor in 2018(07:30) Coming back in 2024(10:31) The importance of family in career decisions(17:37) Why you have to listen to learn(24:47) The Founders Mentality(26:45) “Develop and Deliver”(32:03) Local, the last remaining consumer opportunity(36:58) Why being a founder is so hard(39:21) Going to the high school from Friday Night Lights(42:07) What Nirav learned at Stanford(46:22) Working at Yahoo from $500m to $100B(49:37) Starting Epinions with Naval in 1999(51:11) Operating through the Dot Com Bubble(56:34) How Bill Gurley’s challenge led to Nextdoor(58:16) Early product experimentation(01:05:19) Why early growth was so hard, and scaling to 100 million neighbors(01:10:10) The opportunity in local news(01:12:14) Being a Shark on Shark Tank Referenced:Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/ The Founder’s Mentality: https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Mentality-Overcome-Predictable-Crises/dp/1633691160 Follow Nirav:Twitter: https://x.com/niravtolia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niravtolia
Follow Turner:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Subscribe to get new episodes + transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
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1:20:19
Recruiting From Zero to One with Nakul Mandan, Co-founder of Audacious Ventures
Nakul Mandan is the founder of Audacious Ventures. Prior to Audacious, he was a partner at Lightspeed, joining from Battery, which he joined in ‘09 in the middle of the financial crisis while living in India.
This conversation explores his journey immigrating to Silicon Valley and building an early stage venture firm from the ground up.
We get into why most VCs aren’t helpful with recruiting at the zero to one stage, his thesis on starting an early stage venture firm to help founders hire A+ teams, a crash course on early stage recruiting and building a sales team, and how COVID hit right after he left Lightspeed to raise Audacious Fund 1.
Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(03:43) Evolution of VC platform teams(09:53) How Audacious runs in-house recruiting processes(15:16) The reason large firms can’t help with Seed stage recruiting(17:06) Immigrating from India to the US mid-financial crisis(21:59) Silicon Valley's secret weapon(25:59) The opportunity to start a recruiting-focused Seed firm(30:14) Raising Audacious $90m Fund 1 in April of 2020(36:58) The new guard of Seed firms(39:23) Why $50-75m is the minimum viable institutional fund size(41:48) How to work with the best founders(45:30) Navigating deal dynamics, term sheets, and valuations(52:24) The two hardest parts about starting your own fund(54:32) Lessons applied raising Audacious $125m Fund 2 in 2023(58:46) Evolving from a PMF-first to Founder-first investor(01:02:09) Five traits of force of nature founders(01:07:05) How to build an A+ team(01:11:46) The importance of backchanneling(01:13:54) Why everyone thinks they’re a good people reader(01:14:35) Two most common mistakes in recruiting(01:20:59) Determining urgency of a customer’s problem(01:22:55) Hiring and scaling your first sales team(01:25:55) Why marketing is the hardest role to hire for(01:31:59) What good sales people look like(01:35:43) How to move up market + how to do pilots(01:43:40) Why Nakul admires Rafael Nadal
Referenced:Audacious: https://www.audacious.co/ Nakul’s immigration journey: https://www.nakulmandan.com/blog/2024/an-immigrant-living-the-american-dream Force of nature founders: https://www.nakulmandan.com/blog/2024/traits-i-look-for-in-founders Early GTM hiring: https://www.nakulmandan.com/blog/2023/initial-gtm-hiring-for-saas-startups Follow Nakul:Twitter: https://x.com/nakul LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nakulmandan Follow Turner:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it
Exploring the world’s greatest startup stories.
Get a behind the scenes look into the founding stories of your favorite companies. Learn how the industries they operate in actually work, and learn playbooks and tactics you can use to launch and scale your own business.
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