After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned:
1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck.
2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge.
3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it.
There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder.
Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale:
1. To help founders make fewer mistakes.
2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey.
3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out.
This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business.
I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising when you’re outside a major tech hub — all of it.
Interested? Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on all major platforms and follow the podcast on LinkedIn or Substack to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.
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After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned:
1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck.
2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge.
3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it.
There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder.
Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale:
1. To help founders make fewer mistakes.
2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey.
3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out.
This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business.
I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising when you’re outside a major tech hub — all of it.
Interested? Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on all major platforms and follow the podcast on LinkedIn or Substack to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.
Frontier tech startups don’t fail because the science is bad — they fail because no one needs what they’re building.
In this episode, Roadrunner Venture Studios CEO/co-founder Adam Hammer explains how to avoid that fate.
We talk about why the U.S. struggles to turn research into startups, why being right isn’t enough, and what it really takes to cross the Valley of Death between lab science and real-world demand.
Along the way, Adam shares practical insights for first-time founders, including:
How to test whether your problem is painful enough to sell
What the studio model offers that VCs and accelerators can’t
Why most technical founders struggle with pitching — and how to fix it
And what scientists need to unlearn to become CEOs
If you’re building something deep, hard, or new — don’t skip this one.
RUNTIME 41:11
EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(2:32) How a career spanning national labs, venture capital, and startup leadership led to Roadrunner Venture Studios.
(7:46) “ Our goal is to compress all the mistakes that you would make in a three-year period into a year.”
(8:50) The three frontier tech sectors Roadrunner focuses on: advanced energy, advanced manufacturing, and advanced compute.
(10:28) Why it’s so hard to translate lab science into sustainable, venture-scale businesses.
(13:49) Adam shares ideas for bridging America’s structural gap in commercializing frontier tech.
(16:38) “ Roadrunner serves as a de-risking mechanism for ideas and for people.”
(21:12) “ In science, you win by being right. But in startups, you win by being useful.”
(24:23) What Adam looks for in a pitch deck.
(27:15) When it comes to sourcing founders and ideas, “ we are as early as it gets.”
(31:54) Why Roadrunner Venture Studios set up shop in New Mexico.
(34:16) If he could fix one common founder misconception, what would it be?
(36:26) “ There's nothing innate that predetermines whether somebody can or cannot be a founder.”
LINKS
Adam Hammer
Roadrunner Venture Studios
The Engine
Overcoming the Valley of Death: A New Model for High Technology Startups
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Thanks for listening!
– Walter.
Fund/Build/Scale
After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned:
1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck.
2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge.
3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it.
There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder.
Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale:
1. To help founders make fewer mistakes.
2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey.
3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out.
This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business.
I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising when you’re outside a major tech hub — all of it.
Interested? Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on all major platforms and follow the podcast on LinkedIn or Substack to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more.
