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Founders and Builders
Joe Wear
31 episodes
3 days ago
Founders & Builders is your go-to channel for in-depth conversations with the world's best startup founders and operators. Whether you’re an aspiring founder, a seasoned entrepreneur, or simply curious about the journey of building your own business, you'll find real-world experiences, and candid advice from successful entrepreneurs who have been in the trenches. Join us as we explore the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, uncover the secrets to startup success, and dive into the future of technology and business. Subscribe to be inspired, informed, and equipped to build something great!
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Entrepreneurship
Business
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All content for Founders and Builders is the property of Joe Wear and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Founders & Builders is your go-to channel for in-depth conversations with the world's best startup founders and operators. Whether you’re an aspiring founder, a seasoned entrepreneur, or simply curious about the journey of building your own business, you'll find real-world experiences, and candid advice from successful entrepreneurs who have been in the trenches. Join us as we explore the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, uncover the secrets to startup success, and dive into the future of technology and business. Subscribe to be inspired, informed, and equipped to build something great!
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Entrepreneurship
Business
Episodes (20/31)
Founders and Builders
The Real Way Investors Find Unicorns Before They Exist | Hussein Kanji, Hoxton Ventures

Hussein Kanji breaks down exactly how world-class investors spot billion-dollar companies before anyone else - from identifying new categories to understanding when technological, cultural, or regulatory shifts create once-in-a-generation opportunities.

👉 If you enjoyed this clip - make sure to watch the full episode with Hussein Kanji!

📌 Chapters

00:00 – How Hoxton chooses the right companies to back

00:25 – What creates new markets: cultural, tech, and regulatory shifts

01:18 – Predictive markets, Polymarket

02:37 – Why the bridge back to Silicon Valley really matters

03:15 – Europe vs US: can Europe produce the global winner?

03:35 – Winner-take-most markets (Bebo, Myspace, Meta)

04:39 – Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon — and why Spotify won

05:31 – Why European tech is the exception — and how winners emerge

05:52 – How Spotify actually cracked the market

06:23 – Where VCs get it wrong

06:49 – Relaxing constraints vs sticking to your framework

06:50 – The painful misses: Monzo and Revolut

07:08 – How pattern-matching can mislead investors

👍 Why subscribe? Real, unfiltered lessons from the world’s top founders and investors - no hype, no fluff, just what actually drives companies to break out.

🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss new episodes 🔔

#hoxtonventures #husseinkanji #startups #founders #venturecapital #europeantech

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3 days ago
7 minutes 49 seconds

Founders and Builders
AI Video Is Here. Most People Have No Idea How Fast It’s Moving!

Yaron Inger is a co-founder of Lightricks, the team behind Facetune and LTX Studio, the company that helped make highquality, mobile creative tools mainstream and is now building video foundation models.In this episode, Yaron explains how Lightricks went from a five-person garage team building Facetune to training LTXV, why they chose to open source their video model, the product principles that make creative tools feel delightful, and what the future of AI-generated video means for Hollywood, advertising and everyday creators.As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔Chapters00:00 Intro02:15 Yaron’s journey05:40 Early Lightricks vision09:10 Facetune breakthrough12:35 Creativity vs tech16:20 Scaling creator tools19:55 Product intuition24:10 Building LTXV27:45 AI video today31:20 The realism problem35:05 Open source moment39:30 Community collaboration43:15 AI in Hollywood47:50 Cost to create video52:30 The future of storytelling⭐ Listener Suggestion - Suno - https://suno.com/home👍 Why subscribe?If you build, create, make ads, or care about the future of storytelling and how generative video will change production, distribution and product design, this channel is for you.🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you when new episodes drop 🔔#startups #AI #generativeAI #video #founders #productdesign

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6 days ago
1 hour 8 minutes 26 seconds

Founders and Builders
Why the Only Startup Validation Is Money | YC Lessons & Selling Before Building

Leo Ubbiali breaks down the biggest founder traps - from false validation and startup hype, to learning the hard truth at Y Combinator: the only signal that matters is money in the bank.

👉 Watch the full conversation to understand why distribution beats product in the early days and why founders need to stop overthinking and start selling.

📌 Chapters

00:00 – The trap of overthinking as a founder

00:57 – Why “this is so cool” is a red flag

01:38 – The only validation that matters: money

02:51 – Understanding incentives in startup advice

03:59 – The problem with startup hype culture

04:39 – Selling before building vs. building before selling

05:20 – Why founders must do things that don’t scale


👍 Why subscribe? Real, unfiltered lessons from founders who’ve built, failed, and learned what actually drives startups forward — without the hype.

🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss new episodes 🔔

#ycombinator #leoubbiali #business

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1 week ago
6 minutes 7 seconds

Founders and Builders
How Hoxton Ventures spots Billion-Dollar Startups Before Everyone Else

Hussein Kanji is one of Europe’s most influential tech investors.As the founder of Hoxton Ventures, he’s backed companies like Deliveroo, Darktrace, and UiPath long before they were household names.

In this episode, Hussein explains how to spot breakout founders before the rest of the world sees their potential, why Europe’s startup scene is only just getting started, and what it really takes to build generational companies from zero to $300 million and beyond.

As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔

Chapters

(00:00) Intro

(00:52) The birth of Hoxton Ventures

(02:47) Europe’s first wave of VC funds

(05:17) Why Europe is just getting started

(05:41) Finding the next breakout founder

(07:54) The bridge back to California

(08:52) Winner-take-all markets

(11:40) What great outcomes look like

(12:26) The deals that got away

(13:24) Deep tech and rare earth minerals

(17:20) How to spot change before it happens

(18:57) Building networks and expert circles

(22:38) Interlude: n8n

(23:36) How AI is changing venture investing

(28:13) Lessons from 12 years of VC

(29:41) Why founders must expand to the US

(30:59) What UiPath got right

(34:39) Don’t sell too early

(35:22) What early-stage founders get wrong

(38:16) Building for customers, not VCs

(41:29) How to build a fund

(42:52) Why social signalling matters

(45:25) The balance between conviction and consensus

(47:53) Fundraising is social engineering

(51:13) The biggest regrets

(54:45) How to make better decisions as a fund

(56:33) Book recommendation: Careless People

(58:51) What it was all for


⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week: https://n8n.io/


👍 Why subscribe?If you build, invest in, or advise startups — or just care about how billion-dollar companies are spotted before they’re obvious — this channel is for you.


🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you when new episodes drop 🔔

#startups #venturecapital #AI #deeptech #founders

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1 week ago
1 hour 1 minute 51 seconds

Founders and Builders
The End of the Services Business?! Steve Phillips on AI and the Future of Agencies

Steve Phillips, CEO of Zappi, breaks down the evolution from a traditional services business to a scalable product company - and what AI means for the future of agencies, consultancies, and insights firms.

He explains why services businesses are “fun to work in but awful to run,” how valuation multiples differ between people-based and product-based models, and why agentic AI systems could reshape the entire industry by making teams exponentially more productive.

👉 Watch the full conversation for why the next generation of agencies will look more like SaaS companies than service providers.

📌 Chapters

00:00 – Building a services vs product business

00:57 – Why services businesses are hard to scale

01:38 – The valuation gap between services and SaaS

02:51 – Why tech companies are valued higher

03:59 – How AI agents will transform service models

04:39 – The future of hybrid teams: humans + AI

05:20 – Why “bread and butter” agency work will disappear


👍 Why subscribe? Real stories and insights from founders and innovators redefining how technology reshapes business models and the future of work.

🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss new episodes 🔔


#AI #Startups #Innovation #BusinessTransformation #SaaS #Entrepreneurship #AgencyLife #FutureOfWork #Automation #ProductStrategy #Zappi

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2 weeks ago
6 minutes 17 seconds

Founders and Builders
The YC Rule That Saved My Startup: Sell Before You Build - Leo Ubbiali

Leo Ubbiali has built AI and data systems at Babylon Health, MoonPay, and Y Combinator. Now he’s the founder of Visum Labs, helping companies use AI and data to drive real business outcomes.

In this episode, Leo explains how the best startups think about data, why most AI projects fail before they start, and what YC taught him about building fast, selling early, and quitting smarter.

As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔

Chapters

(00:00) Intro

(00:51) The AI moment

(02:18) Inside Babylon Health

(04:52) Scaling telehealth

(06:05) MoonPay and the crypto boom

(08:13) Turning data into revenue

(10:09) Pricing and elasticity

(11:14) What data really means

(15:54) YC and the bias for action

(19:17) Sell before you build

(23:14) Stop overthinking

(31:41) Knowing when to quit

(34:12) Metrics that matter

(38:31) Building Visum Labs

(42:39) Why AI projects fail

(49:39) Services vs software

(53:17) The next big AI opportunity

(59:25) Whose advice matters

(01:02:38) What it was all for

⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week: https://elevenlabs.io/

👍 Why subscribe?If you build products, lead teams, or care about scaling real businesses with AI, data and ruthless decision making - this channel is for you.

🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you when new episodes drop 🔔

#startups #AI #data #founders #YC #bootstrapping #consulting #product #fintech #healthtech #quitting

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2 weeks ago
1 hour 3 minutes 47 seconds

Founders and Builders
Why CROs Are Slowing Down Medical Discoveries - And How Lindus Health Fixes It

Michael Young, co-founder and CEO of Lindus Health, explains why traditional CROs (Contract Research Organisations) are slowing down medical progress — and how Lindus Health is redesigning the system to make research faster, smarter, and more efficient.He breaks down how the old incentive model keeps costs high and timelines long, why Lindus Health calls itself an “anti-CRO”, and how their integrated platform aligns incentives, automates workflows, and brings a SaaS-style mindset to biotech.👉 Watch the full conversation for how Lindus Health is helping founders build agile, data-driven biotech companies.📌 Chapters00:00 – What CROs actually do01:12 – Why CRO incentives are broken01:58 – How Lindus Health began03:05 – Why they chose not to become a CRO04:37 – The “anti-CRO” model explained05:38 – Selling research as a product06:16 – Making biotech work like SaaS07:59 – The agile future of biotech👍 Why subscribe?Real stories and insights from founders and innovators redefining how science moves faster and how technology is reshaping the future of health.🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss new episodes 🔔#Biotech #Startups #Innovation #HealthTech #LindusHealth #Entrepreneurship #Agile #CRO #MedicalResearch

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3 weeks ago
8 minutes 22 seconds

Founders and Builders
Building A $100M AI Company For Non Technical Founders: Steve Philips

Steve Phillips is the founder of Zappi - a consumer insight platform used by Pepsi, McDonald’s and Vodafone to test ideas before they launch.Zappi has raised over $170 million to transform market research from a slow, manual service into a scalable, automated product. What started as a simple idea has grown into one of the leading data-driven insight platforms in the world.In this episode, Steve shares how he built a tech company without being technical, the hard lessons from raising venture capital too early, and why he believes simplicity and culture beat complexity and control.As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔Chapters:(00:00) Intro(03:07) The idea that started with a bottle of wine(04:32) Turning a service into software(08:26) Building without being technical(10:10) Finding the right co-founder and merging companies(13:15) Early product decisions that created lasting value(15:23) Building culture and staying close to the team(18:07) Why simplicity scales(19:00) From services to product — and why margins matter(23:00) How AI agents are changing the insights industry(26:48) The painful mistakes: custom code, early investors and burnout(30:10) Raising capital - and what went wrong(33:36) Strategic investors and the VC treadmill(35:33) The difference between VC and PE(38:48) Bringing in a new CEO and finding your zone of genius(42:25) Can you build a business if you’re not “technical”?(43:48) Where restless ambition comes from(47:52) Building an ADHD app with his daughter(50:17) The AI revolution in product creation(55:01) From SaaS to Data-as-a-Service(56:34) Why big companies struggle to use AI(58:53) The next generation of founders(59:30) What it was all for⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week: https://riverside.fm/👍 Why subscribe?If you build products, lead teams, or care about scaling big ideas through tech, data and culture — this channel is for you.🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you when new episodes drop 🔔#startups #AI #data #founders #marketresearch #SaaS

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3 weeks ago
1 hour 15 seconds

Founders and Builders
How GPUs, Cloud & the Internet Power the Next Generation of Intelligence

Mahdi Yahya is the founder and CEO of Ori Industries, a company building the infrastructure behind the AI revolution.

From the invisible cables connecting continents to the GPUs driving today’s most advanced models, Mahdi breaks down how the internet really works - and how AI is reshaping the very foundations of computing.

He explains the rise of GPU clouds, the shift from traditional data centres to decentralised infrastructure, and why the future of AI depends on who controls the world’s compute power.

👉 Check out the full episode for the complete conversation.

📌 Chapters

00:00 – How your Instagram like travels the world

00:34 – The unseen cables beneath the ocean

01:08 – What is edge computing?

02:00 – The rise (and fall) of edge infrastructure

02:44 – How AI became the defining use case

03:42 – The GPU Cloud explained

04:40 – Why GPUs became essential for AI

06:09 – Training vs inferencing

07:11 – The global AI compute race

08:31 – The cloud business model powering AI

09:03 – Why faster compute means smarter AI


👍 Why subscribe? Real stories and insights from founders, engineers, and visionaries building the backbone of tomorrow’s technology and redefining how the world connects, computes, and creates.


🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss new episodes 🔔


#AI #GPUs #CloudComputing #EdgeComputing #StartupStories #TechFounders #MachineLearning

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1 month ago
9 minutes 24 seconds

Founders and Builders
Clinical Trials Are Broken! Michael Young On Reinventing How We Create New Medicine

Michael Young is the co-founder of Lindus Health and a former Special Advisor to the UK Prime Minister on life sciences.

Lindus has raised $55 million to redesign clinical trials from the ground up - building what Michael calls an “anti CRO” that treats the trial as the product, not a service.In this episode, Michael explains why the real bottleneck in medical progress is the way we test new treatments, how hourly-billed CRO incentives slow everything down, and what a world of real-time, adaptive trials looks like.

He also shares the 10% decisions that created 90% of the value, how to keep investors truly aligned, the hiring trade-offs in a regulated industry, and why founders should resist building a “faster horse” and instead change the paradigm.

As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔

Chapters:

(00:00) Intro

(02:24) What went wrong during COVID trials

(03:48) The CRO incentive problem and rising costs

(04:55) What a CRO actually does

(06:05) When overruns get rewarded

(07:02) Founding story, Negronis, and first principles

(08:16) Why “anti CRO” and not just another vendor

(09:29) End-to-end partner: integrated tech and fixed pricing

(11:10) Make biotech feel like SaaS: agile, parallel, fail fast

(14:26) AI discovery vs the clinical bottleneck

(15:59) Picks-and-shovels for the AI-biotech wave

(16:24) Start simple, then scale complexity and customers

(17:58) Choosing customers: digital health vs big pharma

(19:05) Why digital health cooled and what still works

(20:29) The 10% decisions: end-to-end, adaptive trials, geo setup

(21:51) Why start in the UK: trial talent and product hiring

(24:49) The pain points: services + tech and hiring fit

(26:55) Investor alignment and avoiding SaaS-metric traps

(28:41) Running a tight fundraise: time-boxing and intros

(31:11) Updates, boards, and radical transparency

(32:46) Growth can hide sins: product and ops complexity

(34:04) If you were the VC, what would you ask

(34:55) 10-year vision: more biotechs, more adaptive trials

(35:58) Mental health

(36:56) Ethics of speed and shutting down weak arms early

(37:30) Don’t build a faster horse: change the trial paradigm

(39:02) Big bet inspiration: Palantir, Anduril, Wave

(40:18) Switching off

(47:45) What was it all for


⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week: https://attio.com/

👍 Why subscribe?

If you build products, care about evidence, and want the operator’s view on scaling hard things in health and tech, this channel is for you.

🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔


#Biotech #ClinicalTrials #HealthTech

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1 month ago
49 minutes 50 seconds

Founders and Builders
How To Build Your Dream Business Without Burning Out!

Steve Peralta is the co-founder of Unmind, a leading workplace mental health platform valued at over $130 million, used by global organisations including Uber, Major League Baseball, and British Airways.

Steve opens up about an unexpected period in his life. What began as a sudden feeling of complete disconnection led to months of mental and physical struggle ultimately reshaping how he thinks about wellbeing, balance, and success..

👉 Watch the full episode for the complete conversation.


📌 Chapters

00:00 – The founder who broke down

00:13 – The moment everything changed

01:11 – Out-of-body experiences and panic attacks

02:44 – Searching for answers and uncovering toxicity

03:20 – What happens when your body can’t detox

05:07 – Health anxiety and losing control

05:30 – Reconnecting through nature and stillness

05:53 – Redefining wellness and balance

06:49 – Journaling, mindfulness, and reflection

07:20 – Writing his own eulogy to rediscover purpose


👍 Why subscribe?

Real stories from founders, creators, and thinkers who’ve hit breaking point - and what they learned rebuilding themselves from the inside out.

🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss new episodes 🔔

#founders #burnout #resilience

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1 month ago
8 minutes 16 seconds

Founders and Builders
Rebuilding the Internet in the age of AI: Mahdi Yahya on Supercomputers and GPU Clouds

Mahdi Yahya is the founder of Ori, the operating system for AI factories - building the invisible layer between artificial intelligence and the physical world.

With over 20 years in data centres and internet infrastructure, Mahdi explains how the “content internet” is evolving into the AI internet, why we’re building GPU megaclusters on land and underwater, and how compute itself is becoming modular, sovereign, and global.

He also shares the lessons learned from scaling Ori, the people decisions that defined the company, and why the best founders make time to think instead of rushing for growth.

As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔

Chapters:

(00:00) Intro

(01:20) What’s changing under the internet’s surface

(02:25) From the “content internet” to the AI internet

(03:17) Supercomputers at unprecedented scale

(05:28) Power math: kW → MW → GW

(06:39) Mahdi’s path: data centres → theatre → storytelling

(08:35) Filmmakers, craft & learning to see

(11:01) Founding Ori: the connective tissue between apps & compute

(12:42) Edge computing, CDNs, and why “edge” stalled

(15:34) Betting on AI: training vs. inference, why it stuck

(17:31) Why GPUs (really): parallelism & accelerated compute

(20:24) GPU clouds: CapEx vs. OpEx for AI

(22:41) What buyers actually need beyond “just GPUs”

(25:34) Rethinking cloud for AI engineers

(27:21) Modular cloud & sovereignty

(31:55) NVIDIA’s lead, diversification & what’s next

(34:55) Where the compute lives today (US → global)

(36:13) Privacy, on-prem, and protecting interaction data

(39:40) The 10% decisions

(42:03) People bets, healthy disagreement & vision custody

(47:51) Slow down to think: resisting the growth trap

(50:27) Deep tech realities

(52:28) “What was it all for?”


⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week: https://claude.ai

👍 Why subscribe? If you sketch product ideas on napkins, obsess over infrastructure choices, or dream of building humane, high-performance teams, this channel is for you.

🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔

#gpu #mahdiyaya #techpodcast

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1 month ago
53 minutes 42 seconds

Founders and Builders
Are You Building for Customers or Your Investors? (Most Founders Get This Wrong)

In this clip, Kevin Costa, founder of Belief Capital, shares why most venture capital funds don’t actually serve founders, how incentive structures create misalignment, and why the future belongs to small, technical teams building at speed.

He also explains the opportunity he sees in backing undiscovered talent outside the usual Stanford/Silicon Valley bubble - where some of the most exciting founders of the next decade will come from.

👉 Enjoyed this? Watch the full episode for the complete conversation.

📌 Chapters

00:00 – Are founders building two businesses?

01:15 – Why most VC returns are concentrated

02:30 – The incentive alignment problem in venture

03:20 – Why Kevin started Belief Capital

03:50 – Why the best founders are young and technical

05:15 – The power of small, lean teams

06:20 – Talent is everywhere, but capital isn’t

07:10 – The opportunity in “underpriced” talent

08:00 – Why the next unicorn might not come from Stanford


👍 Why subscribe? If you’re building a startup, thinking about raising capital, or just want a front-row seat to how the next generation of founders will change the world, this channel is for you.

🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss new episodes 🔔


#venturecapital #BeliefCapital #founders #startups #entrepreneurship

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1 month ago
8 minutes 57 seconds

Founders and Builders
How a 20-Year-Old Founder Won Clients Like Pepsi and the United Nations

At 19, Erifili Gunari built Z-Link, a Gen Z-led agency helping brands like Pepsi, IKEA, and the United Nations actually talk to young people 🚀

In this episode of Founders and Builders, Erifili shares how to start before you feel “ready,” turn cold outreach into major press, and use intuition (not permission) to build a life you actually want.

We dig into Gen Z behaviors, UGC that performs, and why inbound beats outbound when you’re authentic online.

As always, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔

Chapters:

(00:00) Intro

(00:59) Why waiting to be “ready” holds you back

(01:26) Starting Z-Link at 19: no funding, no playbook

(02:50) Spotting the Gen Z agency gap

(04:43) What really defines Gen Z (global nuances)

(07:00) From brands → people: authenticity and trust

(08:49) Increase your surface area for serendipity

(10:02) Month 1–12: press hacks that drove inbound

(13:53) The cold DM template that got journalists to reply

(16:58) Building an inbound magnet with personal brand

(18:57) Ideal clients: why “vibe check” beats industry

(19:44) ⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week

(20:24) UGC 101: why “real” converts

(22:06) Smart UGC collabs: Hinge x Substack writers

(23:46) Performance UGC & giving creators freedom

(24:54) Scaling UGC: in-house vs. specialist partners

(26:20) Repurposing content across platforms (when & how)

(28:02) Testing, then boosting: TikTok as the proving ground

(29:28) Crystal Clear: starting a blog that resonates

(31:58) The theme: distilling complexity into clarity

(33:22) Stop outsourcing decisions: trusting yourself

(37:30) Intuition vs anxiety: how to tell the difference

(41:42) Body signals, big choices, and living your own life

(45:36) Getting unstuck: engineer inspiration & momentum

(48:28) Find your inspiration triggers (journaling, fitness, space)

(49:47) Make it fun: environments that fuel focus

(50:56) 30 years from now: what was it all for?

⭐ Listeners Suggestion – Software of the Week: https://superpower.com/

👍 Why subscribe?If you sketch business ideas on napkins, obsess over product-market fit, or dream of building with creators and community, this channel is for you.

🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔

#GenZ #Marketing #UGC #Startups #Founders #Entrepreneurship

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1 month ago
55 minutes 25 seconds

Founders and Builders
How Steve Peralta Turned Burnout Into a $140M Company

Steve is the co-founder of Unmind, a workplace mental-health platform that’s raised $80M and scaled to serve companies worldwide.

With a background as both a musician and entrepreneur, he’s now helping leaders design cultures where wellbeing and performance go hand in hand.

In this episode Steve opens up about the morning his life short-circuited, the five-month breakdown that followed, and what it really takes to build a company without breaking.

As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔

Chapters:

(00:00) Intro

(00:59) The morning everything changed

(03:01) “Not burnout — a full systems breakdown”

(04:30) From musician to startup founder

(06:37) Identity vs. the role: Who is Steve beyond “co-founder”?

(07:23) Panic, A&E visits, and derealisation

(09:54) Heavy metals, genetics & detox pathways

(12:14) Healing: nature, rest, and reconnecting

(13:23) Foundations: sleep, movement, journaling, morning pages

(14:29) The eulogy exercise & values work

(16:16) Play, inner child, and curiosity over comparison

(18:25) “Not a machine”: Taylorism and the modern workplace

(21:09) The two strands that led to Unmind

(24:18) Toxic leadership, real costs & the spark to act

(26:25) Meeting Nick Taylor and spotting the gap

(27:41) Launching Unmind: proactive, stigma-breaking mental health

(28:35) Mission vs. growth capital: naming the tension

(29:52) Culture quadrants: clan, market, hierarchy, adhocracy

(33:41) Polarity mapping: results & wellbeing as co-KPIs

(35:12) Trust, visibility & psychological safety from leadership

(37:00) Evidence: leadership wellbeing drives performance

(38:15) Coaching founders: reconnecting to humanity

(39:31) Escaping comparison; widening your sources of meaning

(40:38) Steve’s sacred place: the woods and the tree

(42:12) “What was it all for?” — honoring life

⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week: Granola (AI meeting notes) - https://www.granola.ai/

👍 Why subscribe?If you sketch business ideas on napkins, obsess over product-market fit, or dream of building humane, high-performance teams, this channel is for you.

🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔

#Startups #Founders #MentalHealth

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1 month ago
42 minutes 47 seconds

Founders and Builders
How Kevin Costa Turned $0 Into a $20M Fund Backing Young Founders

At 21, Kevin Costa bet his own savings on overlooked founders 🚀That blueprint became Belief Capital, a $20M fund backing young technical teams before the world notices.

In this episode of Founders and Builders, Kevin reveals how to spot the next iconic founders, why the future belongs to disagreeable builders, and where the most undervalued talent is hiding.

As always, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔

Chapters:

(00:00) Intro

(00:59) Kevin’s path into startups and investing

(03:51) The blueprint for Belief Capital

(04:51) Why founders need peer VCs they can trust

(06:48) Institutional vs. peer capital explained

(07:54) Why the future belongs to young technical founders

(09:49) Talent is global but capital isn’t

(13:48) Backing underdog founders: Zilin’s story

(15:46) Raising your first round - how to think about it

(21:26) What Kevin looks for in great founders

(24:56) Why disagreeability and strong worldviews matter

(36:59) Legacy, family, and the meaning of it all


⭐ Listeners Suggestion - Software of the Week: https://superpower.com/


👍 Why subscribe?If you sketch business ideas on napkins, obsess over product‑market fit, or dream of disrupting incumbents with AI, this channel is for you.


🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔

#Startups #VentureCapital #Founders #Entrepreneurship

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1 month ago
38 minutes 13 seconds

Founders and Builders
The AI Shift That Will Change Every Industry!

Is AI really that powerful? Short answer: yes. Long answer: watch this.

In this clip, Dev explains how spotting AI’s real superpower - pattern recognition - led to the creation of NPLAN, an AI company transforming how mega-projects get delivered.

What You’ll Learn 👇

1. Why most people underestimated AI back in 2016

2. The real superpower of AI: pattern recognition at scale

3. How “unlimited experience” could change entire industries

4. The insight that sparked the creation of NPLAN


👉 If you enjoyed this, check out the full episode for the complete conversation.

⭐ Listeners Suggestion - Software of the Week: https://www.granola.ai/

👍 Why subscribe?If you sketch business ideas on napkins, obsess over product‑market fit, or dream of disrupting incumbents with AI, this channel is for you.

🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔


#constructionai #devamratia #nplan #foundersandbuilders

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2 months ago
8 minutes 6 seconds

Founders and Builders
The Future of Pricing: Bounty Pricing vs Revenue Share!

In this clip, Dev Amratia, co-founder and CEO of NPLAN, breaks down why traditional pricing models don’t capture true value and shares his vision for a future built on ‘bounty pricing.’

👉 If you enjoyed this, check out the full episode for the complete conversation.

⭐ Listeners Suggestion - Software of the Week: https://www.granola.ai/

👍 Why subscribe?If you sketch business ideas on napkins, obsess over product‑market fit, or dream of disrupting incumbents with AI, this channel is for you.

🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔

#constructionai #devamratia #nplan #foundersandbuilders

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2 months ago
6 minutes 23 seconds

Founders and Builders
Why 6 in 7 Construction Projects Fail and How AI Fixes It - Dev Amratia NPlan

“If you build billion-dollar projects on gut feel, you’ll burn billions.”


In this episode, Dev Amarati, co-founder of Nplan - explains how AI trained on hundreds of thousands of construction schedules can finally fix why mega-projects run late and over budget.


From Shell and Crossrail to grids, hospitals, and railways, Dev breaks down the human biases that wreck timelines and how Nplan’s AI (yes, the assistant’s called Barry) helps teams decide faster, de-risk earlier, and unlock capital for critical infrastructure.


What You Will Learn! 👇

1. Why humans are bad at forecasting (availability, optimism, salience) and how that snowballs into 40–100% delays

2. The Shell story: when uncertainty ruins billion-dollar decisions

3. Nplan’s origin: 200+ interviews, The Mom Test, and the data everyone said “you’ll never get”

4.. Pattern recognition at scale: what AI actually does for construction

5. Replacing the services layer: the painful product decision that unlocked scale

6. Pricing the unpriceable: toward “bounty” pricing tied to value created

7. Public infrastructure focus: why Nplan chose the hardest buyers - and won

8. The 10-year view: de-facto risk standard for the built world + more bankable projects


EPISODE CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Introduction

(10:01) Seeking Allies and Valuable Insights

(13:28) Caring and Valuable Insights in Business

(22:28) Reducing Uncertainty to Drive Decision-Making

(30:50) Building a Successful Software Product

(42:50) Innovative Pricing Models for Consulting

(48:56) Legacy of Inspiration and Industry


⭐ Listeners Suggestion - Software of the Week: https://www.granola.ai/


👍 Why subscribe?If you sketch business ideas on napkins, obsess over product‑market fit, or dream of disrupting incumbents with AI, this channel is for you.


🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔


#constructionai #devamratia #nplan #foundersandbuilders

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2 months ago
50 minutes 58 seconds

Founders and Builders
The Hardest Part of Scaling Any Startup!

In this clip, Stephen Whitworth, co-founder of incident.io shares the two biggest decisions that shaped the company’s success - and the hardest challenge every founder eventually faces.

He talks about building a revenue-focused product team, ruthlessly dogfooding their own platform, and why hiring remains the most irreducibly complex part of scaling a startup.

👉 If you enjoyed this, check out the full episode for the complete conversation.

⭐ Listener Suggestion – Software of the Week: https://elevenlabs.io/

👤 About StephenStephen Whitworth is the co-founder and CEO of incident.io, a platform that helps teams manage incidents with speed and clarity.

A former engineer at Monzo, he’s passionate about customer-centric product building, scaling teams, and solving complex problems through culture and technology.

👍 Why subscribe?

If you sketch business ideas on napkins, obsess over product-market fit, or dream of disrupting incumbents with AI, this channel is for you.

🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔

#foundersandbuilders #incidentio #startupgrowth

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2 months ago
7 minutes 22 seconds

Founders and Builders
Founders & Builders is your go-to channel for in-depth conversations with the world's best startup founders and operators. Whether you’re an aspiring founder, a seasoned entrepreneur, or simply curious about the journey of building your own business, you'll find real-world experiences, and candid advice from successful entrepreneurs who have been in the trenches. Join us as we explore the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, uncover the secrets to startup success, and dive into the future of technology and business. Subscribe to be inspired, informed, and equipped to build something great!