Trailblazers is your favorite tech + VC podcast, hosted by Erica Wenger, GP at Park Rangers Capital. Each week, Erica sits down with founders, operators, and investors who’ve found conventional success in unconventional ways.
From billion-dollar exits to scrappy early pivots, Trailblazers brings you unfiltered stories of how the next generation of companies are really built. Guests share the hardest moments, the surprising wins, and the lessons that don’t make it onto LinkedIn.
This podcast is presented by Brex. New episodes every Tuesday.
All content for Trailblazers is the property of Erica Wenger 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.
Trailblazers is your favorite tech + VC podcast, hosted by Erica Wenger, GP at Park Rangers Capital. Each week, Erica sits down with founders, operators, and investors who’ve found conventional success in unconventional ways.
From billion-dollar exits to scrappy early pivots, Trailblazers brings you unfiltered stories of how the next generation of companies are really built. Guests share the hardest moments, the surprising wins, and the lessons that don’t make it onto LinkedIn.
This podcast is presented by Brex. New episodes every Tuesday.
This week, we chat with Des Traynor!
Des is the Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Intercom, the company behind Fin.ai, and he also sits on Intercom’s board of directors. Over the years, Des has led teams across Product, Marketing, Customer Support, and Content, playing a key role in shaping Intercom into one of the most influential customer communication platforms in the world. Today, he oversees Intercom’s R&D team, based in Dublin and London.
Before founding Intercom, Des was a UX consultant, a university lecturer in computer science, and a Ph.D. researcher focused on improving computer science education. He also previously co-founded Exceptional, a software company acquired by Rackspace.
Beyond his work at Intercom, Des is an author, speaker, and angel investor, sharing insights on startups, product strategy, and scaling companies through books, podcasts, and conferences. He’s also an investor in some of the most notable startups of our time — including Miro, Stripe, Notion, and Hopin.
✨ This episode is presented by Brex.
Brex: brex.com/trailblazerspod
This episode is supported by RocketReach, Gusto, OpenPhone & Athena.
RocketReach: rocketreach.co/trailblazers
Gusto: gusto.com/trailblazers
Quo: Quo.com/trailblazers
Athena: athenago.me/Erica-Wenger
Follow Us!
Des Traynor: @destraynor
Fin AI: fin.ai
@thetrailblazerspod: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
🐘 Learn more about Park Rangers Capital!
Trailblazers
Trailblazers is your favorite tech + VC podcast, hosted by Erica Wenger, GP at Park Rangers Capital. Each week, Erica sits down with founders, operators, and investors who’ve found conventional success in unconventional ways.
From billion-dollar exits to scrappy early pivots, Trailblazers brings you unfiltered stories of how the next generation of companies are really built. Guests share the hardest moments, the surprising wins, and the lessons that don’t make it onto LinkedIn.
This podcast is presented by Brex. New episodes every Tuesday.
