Adam Renklint - How should founders navigate through VC and grow a startup with intention!

👉🏼 About the Guest:Adam Renklint is the co-founder, CEO, and prev CTO of Pitch (allowing teams to create compelling stories in the blink of an eye). Adam was previously the founder of Wunderlist, and before that, a senior software engineer at Microsoft, where they led a cross-platform team that developed the task suggestion algorithm that powered Microsoft To-Do. Prior to that, they were a full stack developer at 6Wunderkinder.👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one.👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:Shoutout to Acquire.com for being the first sponsor of The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/👉🏼 Description:Listen in as Sharath and Adam discuss the AI wave, growing a startup with intention, playing the long game, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps:00:00: Episode Highlight00:37: Shoutout to Acquire.com03:02: Introduction to Adam Renklint – CEO at Pitch!05:25: Entering 2024 full of intentionality for a startup10:40: What does success look like for Pitch?13:45: How to downsize your goals17:02: Facing fear when finding a path20:00: Shift from CTO in 2018 to CEO in 202425:15: The philosophy of playing the long game in startups28:27: Setting expectations as a CEO & founder32:58: Creating a company with 8 co-founders41:03: How Pitch started45:34: How much of Pitch comes from Adam's experience at Microsoft?51:12: How does Pitch go from idea > feature > product?1:00:02: Where does the inspiration for Pitch come from?1:04:33: Which products are points of inspiration for Pitch?1:09:49: How to choose your own entrepreneurship path1:16:21: What's next for Pitch1:21:25: Outro and closing thoughts👉🏼 Resources:Have your product acquired: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/Christian Reber: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianreber/Linear: https://linear.app/👉🏼 Where to find Adam:Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamrenklintLinkedin: https://de.linkedin.com/in/adam-renklintPitch: https://pitch.com/about👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/