PODCAST · business
Startups Decoded
by Andy Walsh
Most startup podcasts are built for founders who've already figured it out. This one's for the founder still in the middle of it.Startups Decoded covers the full founder operating system — from idea to Series A. Brand, fundraising, marketing, operations, finance, culture, storytelling. Everything a first-time founder needs to actually run the thing, not just pitch it.Host Andy Walsh has been in it — 4x founder, 2 exits, bootstrapped $10M ARR. He brings in founders and investors who've built real companies and gets them to talk honestly about how they did it.New episodes weekly. If you're drowning in decisions and need a framework, not a pep talk — this is your show.
Episodes
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Ep#91: Burnout Isn't a Workload Problem. It's a pattern. James Oliver Jr.
James Oliver Jr. emptied a retirement account to build his first startup, got into an accelerator, then watched his twins arrive at about two pounds each, days before the program started. He spent the following weeks driving between the NICU and the pitch room while his savings, his marriage, and...
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EP#90: Why Most Founders Lose the Room Before They Walk In. Rob D. Willis
Rob D. Willis once earned €3.50 for a three and a half hour walking tour of Berlin. He knew more history than most guides on the street, and that was the problem. The guides making real money told fewer facts and more stories, so Rob opened a spreadsheet, tracked every tour, and spent 3,000 tours...
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Ep#89: Why Most Founders Wait Too Long to Think Like a Buyer - Aaron Alpeter
Most founders treat exit readiness as a phase you enter later, something a banker packages once the numbers are big enough to matter. Aaron Alpeter, founder and CEO of Izba Group, has helped founders realize more than $2.5B in exits, and he thinks that timeline is backwards. Buyers are grading…
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EP#88: Why Most Founders Misread Their Own Traction. Vanessa Larco - Premise VC
Vanessa Larco went from shipping product at Microsoft, Twilio and Box to most of a decade as a partner at NEA, and now runs Premise VC. She assumed moving into venture meant shelving her product brain. It turned out to be her edge. Founders and investors stare at the same signals of product…
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EP#87: Founders Obsess Over the Raise. Investors Care About This More. With Carina Cunha
Carina Cunha is an investment banker, founder, and advisor who's worked with over 100 companies from pre-seed to IPO. She helped build Crimson Education into a unicorn, then landed two offers on Dragons' Den UK for her own startup, Nosy, and pulled a billion views out of less than $5,000 in ad...
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Ep#86: Early Decisions That Define Your Startup Forever. With J.P. Morgan Asset Management
Founders treat early decisions like they're reversible. A board seat, a deal term, who gets hired first. None of it is as flexible as it looks. By the time a bad call costs you something, it's already baked in, and nobody tells you that on day one. Andy hosted a live panel in front of 60 plus...
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Ep#85: The Finance Skill Most Founders Never Learn - Brett Turner, Trovata
Brett Turner has built four companies and sold three of them for a combined $500 million plus. His sharpest insight has nothing to do with pitch decks or growth hacks, it comes down to cash. Most founders treat treasury as a back office problem, something you hand off the moment you can afford a...
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Ep #84: Why Most Founders Get Their Angel Round Wrong. With Vadim Gordin.
Vadim Gordin has looked at more early cap tables than most of us have had coffees. He built a data set most founders never see: hundreds of first-person fundraising accounts, cross-referenced against years running accelerators at NYU. His numbers say the friends and family round is not a…
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Episode #83: Why Founders Don't Actually Know Their Customer with Bryan Alston
Most founders can describe their customer. Age, income, job title, maybe a lifestyle detail. What they can't describe is why that person buys, what they almost bought instead, or what finally tipped them over. That gap is where growth lives, and most companies never go looking. Bryan Alston has...
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Ep#82: AI Was Supposed to Kill the Chief of Staff. It Made Them Indispensable. With Clara Ma.
Clara Ma was chief of staff to the CEO of Hugging Face back when it was a Series A company, years before most founders could spell LLM. She watched the role from the sharpest seat in the building, then built Ask a Chief of Staff, a 500-person community that has helped match CEOs with their right...
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Ep#81: Where Did $18.8 Billion in AI Robot Investment Go in 2026? John Frankel - ff Venture Capital
John Frankel has been funding this stuff since before it was fundable. He founded ffVC in 2008 after 21 years at Goldman, has backed more than 200 seed companies, and sits on over sixty boards. This year robotics pulled in $18.8 billion globally, already ahead of the $15 billion invested across…
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EP#80: Why Smart Founders Keep Making the Same Bad Call. Owen Fitzpatrick - Inner Propaganda
Owen Fitzpatrick has interviewed people in North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan, trying to answer one question. Why do we believe what we believe? Ten books and thirty years later, his answer is uncomfortable for founders. The story running your business decisions was never fact checked. It was…
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Ep#79: The Startup Dream That Wasn't Hers - Ella Cook
Andy Walsh sits down with Ella Molony Cook, exited founder turned investor and Founder of Time Rich, a community of ambitious women thriving in the new world of AI. One exit. Seven figures raised. Three companies she still holds equity in. Multiple failures, which she talks about more freely than...
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Ep#78: The Real Playbook for Scaling from $1M to $50M with Jordan DiPietro - Hiring OS
Most founders obsess over the first million. The real fight starts after it. Jordan DiPietro has scaled from every seat. Growth at The Motley Fool through several hundred million in revenue, The Hustle through its HubSpot acquisition, and Hampton from zero to $10M as CEO. Now he coaches founders...
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EP#77: The People Decisions That Built a $1B+ Sales Machine. Chris Lee — Deel
Chris Lee joined Deel when it was doing $1M ARR. Today it's past $1B+. He didn't just watch that happen, he made hiring, firing, and org design decisions that either cleared the path or slowed everything down. That's what this conversation is really about. Most founders build their sales team...
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EP#76: Your Network Has a Revenue Problem with Kyle Kane.
Founders do not know how to convert their network. Andy Walsh sits down with Kyle Kane, co-founder of onSpark AI, the world's first AI-powered partnership engine. Kyle Kane built $2B in partnership revenue for some of the biggest names in music and brands before realizing the same broken pattern...
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Ep#75: The World Is Your Talent Pool. Here's How You Thrive. Brad Bowery - Deel
Brad Bowery sat down with Andy Walsh to unpack what founders should be thinking about as they begin hiring, and why the global talent pool is more accessible than most realize. Brad has built local teams as a founder and global teams as an operator at Zendesk and now Deel, where he leads Global…
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EP#74: Your Brand Is Worth Stealing. Is It Protected? With Maria Sinatra (Venable) and Allison Luvera (Juliet)
Most founders think IP protection is something they'll sort out once the business gets traction. That's exactly backwards. By the time it feels urgent, the work already matters, and you're behind. This conversation cuts through the abstraction. Maria Sinatra is an IP attorney at Venable LLP who...
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Ep#73: The Digital Twin for Work — What Founders Don’t Understand with David Shim
Most companies believe they run on strategy. They actually run on conversations, and those conversations vanish the moment the call ends. David Shim watched this happen from the inside while running Foursquare, sitting in meetings where half the room was camera off, on mute, essentially absent.…
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Ep#72: Your Cap Table Is the Story of Your Company — Joris Delanoue, Fairmint
Every line on your cap table is a promise. Most founders don’t know what they’ve signed. Andy Walsh sat down with Joris Delanoue, founder of Fairmint, to unpack why equity, the core of startup ownership, is still managed through systems built for a different era, and why that matters more now…
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Ep#71: Launching at 21 With No Money and No Plan. Now 4 companies & 2 exits. With Taryn Williams.
Taryn Williams started her first business at 21 with no experience and no capital. Twenty years later, she’d built four companies and exited twice. Taryn Williams doesn’t talk about the dream. She talks about what it actually costs. Andy Walsh sat down with Taryn Williams — serial founder and...
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Ep#70 - Eric Ries. He wrote the rules. Now he's rewriting them.
Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, joins Startups Decoded to discuss his new book Incorruptible and why many successful companies slowly drift away from their founding ideals. Andy Walsh sat down with Eric to explore the forces that reshape organizations as they scale — from governance and...
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Ep#69: The VC Who Got Rejected by YC — Then Built a $300M Company. Rachel ten Brink
Rachel ten Brink spent two decades inside Fortune 500 companies — P&G, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal — before co-founding Scentbird and scaling it past $300M in revenue. She got rejected by YC three times. Today, Scentbird is in their top 2% by revenue. Now she’s a GP at Red Bike Capital, investing in...
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EP#68: Why We're Lonelier Than Ever, And How to Fix It - Michelle Parsons
We’re more connected than ever. More lonely than ever. Along the way, something broke. Michelle Parsons left ed-tech to build Lora — a platform using astrology as a framework for genuine human connection. The twist? The tech isn’t the point. The vulnerability is. Andy Walsh sat down with Michelle...
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Ep#67: Stop Renting Attention — Why Founders Need to Own Their Platform. Nathan Gwilliam
Most founders spend years building audiences on platforms they don’t control. Nathan Gwilliam watched a guy go from $96M a year to zero — because Amazon changed its mind. The lesson wasn’t about Amazon. It was about whose land you’re building on. Andy Walsh sat down with Nathan Gwilliam — serial...
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Ep#66:Why Every Founder Is Already a Generalist — Milly Tamati
Everyone told Milly her résumé didn’t make sense. She turned that confusion into a global community of 800+ people who felt exactly the same. Turns out, being hard to define is your biggest competitive advantage. Andy Walsh sat down with Milly, founder of Generalist World — a community of 800+...
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Ep#65: The Identity Problem Behind Most Startup Brands — Jill Smith.
Most founders think branding is about what they look like. Jill Smith says it’s about how you behave, and most brands have no idea who they actually are. Fix that first. Everything else follows! Andy Walsh sat down with Jill Smith, CEO of Iris, one of the US’s most respected integrated brand and...
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#64: She Started a Brand Before She Started a Career — Sophie de Haën
Most founders try to build a company. Sophie de Haën built one by accident. And she did it while she was still in college. Andy Walsh sat down with Sophie de Haën, founder of SDH Paints, to unpack one of the most unconventional founder journeys we’ve seen on Startups Decoded. Sophie didn’t start...
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#63: Burn the Script — Alicia Teltz on Leaving the “Perfect” Life.
Alicia Teltz didn’t reinvent her life overnight. She made one decision. That step led to losing 84 pounds, leaving a 10-year relationship, walking away from a high-paying corporate career, and starting over. In this episode we unpack what really blocks people from change. Confidence rarely shows…
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#62: AI Predicting the Future. What Happens Next? With Vanja Josifovski
AI has already changed how we create, search, and automate. The next step is prediction. In this episode, Vanja Josifovski joins Andy Walsh to explore how enterprises can use their own private data to forecast future outcomes, automate decisions, and move from analysis to action. As CEO and...
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#61: VCs Don’t Take Power. Founders Hand It Over. With Itamar Novick
Power in startups is rarely where founders think it is. Itamar Novick, Founder and GP at Recursive Ventures, has worked both sides of the table as a founder, operator, angel, and VC. He’s backed 150+ early-stage companies and helped founders raise over $500M, while also building companies like...
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#60: Raising Smart Capital in 2026 — Discipline, Data & Control with Roei Samuel
The fundraising hangover is real. Capital returned in 2025, but investors are now far more selective. Traction, revenue clarity, and capital efficiency matter more than vision decks. In this episode, Roei Samuel joins Andy Walsh to share how he raised $23M+ without giving up board seats, and why...
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#59: Early-Stage GTM And The Modern Growth Engine with Brendan Tolleson.
In a world of shifting algorithms and AI noise, winners aren’t the teams with the most tools, but the ones with the best orchestration. Andy Walsh sits down with Brendan Tolleson, CEO of RevPartners and founder of Southbound. Brendan is focused on democratizing Revenue Operations (RevOps)…
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#58: “Founder” is a status; “CEO” is a skill you’re ignoring - Alisa Cohn.
Alisa Cohn has spent decades coaching CEOs through the moments that define their leadership: rapid growth, board pressure, and the quiet isolation of the role. Named the #1 Startup Coach in the World by Thinkers50, Alisa has advised leaders at Venmo, Etsy, and Pfizer. In this episode, we explore...
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#57: AI Without the Lawsuits - How to Build Without Burning Your IP.
AI is moving fast, but durable businesses aren’t built on models alone. In this episode of Startups Decoded, Andy Walsh sits down with Frank Paz (Partner, Morrison Foerster) and Craig Alberino (Founder & CEO, LangSmart) to unpack what actually makes an AI company defensible and safe, as it…
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#56: The Diligence Mirror: Truth, Data, and Post-Acquisition Reality with Dr. Denise Bronner.
In this episode, Andy Walsh sits with Dr. Denise Bronner, a scientist-turned-strategist who has spent 15 years bridging the gap between the lab bench and the boardroom. As the founder of Empactful Ventures, Denise deconstructs the high-stakes reality of due diligence, transforming it from a “pop...
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#55: Built, Sold, Burned Out. What Comes After a $60M Exit? With Xaver Lehmann.
Xaver Lehmann built two AI startups, sold one for $60M, and paid the price most founders don’t talk about until it’s too late. Burnout. Identity loss. The quiet crash after the win. In this conversation, we unpack the part of the founder journey that usually gets skipped in pitch decks and...
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#54: Specialists Optimize. Operators Build Companies. With Casey Woo (FOG Ventures + Operators Guild)
Casey Woo has spent over two decades inside the engine room of real companies, scaling startups as a 6x CFO and 2x COO across SaaS, marketplaces, hardware, eCommerce, and beyond. After walking away from a successful career in public markets, Casey chose the harder path: joining early-stage...
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#53: The Intro Economy: How Trust Moves Deals — With Mike Adams
Mike Adams has spent 30 years doing what most founders underestimate and then desperately need. Connecting people. Lead generation From HP to Apple to Zoom, and across 1,000+ events, Mike has built his career by understanding how trust, reputation, and introductions actually move deals forward....
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#52: Advice Before Money: The VC Model Founders Actually Want — With Mike Ma.
Mike Ma doesn’t invest in decks. He invests in people. As Managing Partner and Head Coach at Sidecut Ventures, Mike works with what he calls “coachable superheroes”, early-stage, mission-driven founders tackling real problems in economic mobility, healthcare, climate, and education. In this...
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#51: Stop Running Your Startup Like a Hobby. Build It to Sell. With Luke Tobin
Startups Decoded - Presented by Morrison Foerster - mofo.com. Luke Tobin has built seven businesses across hospitality, e-commerce, and agencies. Three exits. One of them: an eight-figure agency sale that started with £100, no funding, and a healthy dose of imposter syndrome. Today, Luke sits at...
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#50: Nervous to Become a Founder? Start Here (Before You Quit) — With Niluka Kavanagh
Niluka Kavanagh left Big 4 consulting with a simple question: Can I work for myself, and can I do it from anywhere? That question turned into an experiment, then a business, then ImagineThat, a global club for first-time founders who are trying to build something without losing themselves in the...
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#49: Angel Money Isn’t ‘Play Money’. It’s a Major Advantage - with Katie Dunn.
Women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ founders still get boxed out of capital, but Katie Dunn has built her angel investing thesis to do the opposite, and she’s doing it with actual reps (29 investments) and serious financial scar tissue (25+ years in banking with $10B financed). Subscribe now In this...
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#48: We Need To Scale Angel Investing — with Cheryl Kellond, Play Money.
Startup investing used to be gated, exclusive networks, complex diligence, and full-time fund managers. But what if anyone could build a startup portfolio the same way they’d shop online? In this episode, Cheryl Kellond, serial founder and CEO of Play Money, shares how her platform is…
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#47: When AI Chases Invoices Better Than You Do – Mihir Deo, Founder - Invoice Butler.
As AI moves from clever tool to “virtual teammate,” nowhere is the shift more real than in finance. In this episode of Startups Decoded, Invoice Butler founder & CEO Mihir Deo joins Andy Walsh to explore what happens when AI agents start doing the unglamorous work humans have always done—chasing...
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#46: From Fundraise to Exit: What Every Founder Needs to Know — Jennifer Lewis, Exited Founder - Lex
In this episode, Andy Walsh sits down with Jennifer Lewis, former Founder CEO of queer social app Lex, to unpack the full arc from first fundraise to exit. Jennifer shares what really happens behind the scenes when you’re raising as a queer female founder, how she navigated a co-founder departure...
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#45: There Is No Perfect Pitch Deck - What You Actually Need, with Robert Harary, CEO and VC - Decko
Robert Harary found his first venture deal while in high school detention, and hasn’t looked back since. Today, he sits at the center of the venture ecosystem as both an investor and founder, with a decade-plus obsession for making access to capital more transparent, efficient, and equitable....
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#44: Use Banks, Not VCs: Non-Dilutive Capital for Founders with Ashley D. Bell & Redemption Bank.
Attorney, entrepreneur, and policy leader Ashley D. Bell is building Redemption Bank, a modern Minority Depository Institution designed to give founders something Silicon Valley rarely does: non-dilutive capital that preserves ownership. With experience spanning the SBA, the White House, and...
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#43: The FemTech Edge: Build and Train by Your Menstrual Cycle - Lizzy Palmer (Founder, SyncN).
94 percent of sports-science research excludes female physiology. The result? A $10 billion fitness industry that burns women out, leads to injury, and disrupts hormonal health. Lizzy Palmer, Founder and CEO of SyncN, is changing that. SyncN is the first cycle-aware fitness and nutrition platform...
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#42: From Peter Thiel’s Fellowship to 1517 Fund — The VC Who Funds Rebels (Michael Gibson)
Forget Ivy League. Build Your Own Startup Empire. From Peter Thiel’s Fellowship revolution to building the 1517 Fund, Michael Gibson has made a career out of betting on outsiders. In this episode, he reveals how Thiel’s philosophy, back people, not pedigrees, shaped his mission to fund dropouts,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Most startup podcasts are built for founders who've already figured it out. This one's for the founder still in the middle of it.Startups Decoded covers the full founder operating system — from idea to Series A. Brand, fundraising, marketing, operations, finance, culture, storytelling. Everything a first-time founder needs to actually run the thing, not just pitch it.Host Andy Walsh has been in it — 4x founder, 2 exits, bootstrapped $10M ARR. He brings in founders and investors who've built real companies and gets them to talk honestly about how they did it.New episodes weekly. If you're drowning in decisions and need a framework, not a pep talk — this is your show.
HOSTED BY
Andy Walsh
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Startups Decoded have?
Startups Decoded currently has 91 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Startups Decoded about?
Most startup podcasts are built for founders who've already figured it out. This one's for the founder still in the middle of it.Startups Decoded covers the full founder operating system — from idea to Series A. Brand, fundraising, marketing, operations, finance, culture, storytelling. Everything a...
How often does Startups Decoded release new episodes?
Startups Decoded has 91 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Startups Decoded?
You can listen to Startups Decoded on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Startups Decoded?
Startups Decoded is created and hosted by Andy Walsh.
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