All Episodes
Idea to Startup — 281 episodes
The Daniel Tiger SOP - How to Regularly Do Hard Things (ITS Classic)
Starting a wine company in 17 minutes (ITS CLASSIC)
An Operating System to Help You Move Faster By Focusing On Less (feat. a monkey reciting Hamlet)
15 Min(ish) Skill: Script the Start and End (ITS Classic)
Thrust and Drag, Part 1: A System to Keep Momentum
A Framework to Make Sure You're Building Something Useful
Running a Concierge MVP Live (feat. the four-step Concierge MVP framework) ITS Classic
Three Shortcuts to Actually Help You Get Started On Your Idea
Start a Startup in Ten Days with Four Questions (ITS super-classic)
Giving Your Startup an Identity
How to Get Your First Customers (The Trust to Risk Ratio)
The One Thing That Matters - How to Find a Differentiator That'll Support Your Business (ITS Classic)
How to Identify and Kill Bad Startup Ideas Masquerading As Good Ones (ITS Classic)
The Three Pillars of Sales for Entrepreneurs Who Hate Sales (ITS Classic)
Three Ways to Create Trust (ITS Classic - top 1%)
The One-Inch Picture Frame
How to Find Your Customers In-Person (Even If You're SURE You Can't)
The Coffee Truck Idea I'd Start Tomorrow (Thanksgiving Mailbag)
How to Finally Get Your Ideas Into the World as a Right-Brain Founder
How to Pick Your First Customer
How to Niche if You're Afraid of Niching
How to Find and Solve Hard Problems (feat. a used car salesman and The Problem Hunters) ITS classic
Why You're Struggling with the Easy Stuff as a Founder
How to Engineer Luck (ITS classic)
An SOP for Testing a Startup Idea (ITS top 1%)
Customers Speak Problem, But You’re Speaking Solution (ITS Top 1%)
How to Nail One-Sentence Marketing (ITS Classic)
How to Name Your Startup (a No Whisper Ideas pod)
How to Run Customer Interviews with AI (Part 1)
A Four Part System to Generate Ideas (aka how to let your brain be a brain) - ITS Classic
How to Build a "Skeptical Startup" - $8k per month in 10 hours per week (ITS Classic)
Normal Brain vs. Entrepreneur Brain
How to Get Two Months of Work Done in One Weekend
A Startup Storytelling Framework for Non-Storytellers (top 1% classic)
How to Flounder Effectively
How to Stand Out in a Crowded Market - A Mouse Pod (encore)
Stop Beating Yourself Up
How to Get Your First 1,000 Customers (Encore)
The Four Questions that Kill Bad Differentiators (feat. The Rabbi, The Coffee Founder, and The Poison Ivy Guy)
The Vacuum Strategy - Letting Go to Move Forward (A No Whisper Ideas Post)
Mailbag! Beating Idea FOMO, The Best Stories for Founders, and Simple Startup Math
Testing an Idea's Potential Using the ERP Rubric: FODMAPs
A Startup Misogi (A No Whisper Ideas Post)
How to Pick Which (Of Your Many) Ideas to Pursue
Giving Your Startup an Identity
Extreme Quality
How I'd Start a Startup in 2025
Testing an Idea Live on the Pod, Part Two: AI for Parenting
A Live Idea Test: AI for Parenting
Thanksgiving Mailbag: Are all the good ideas taken? What should I do about AI? What single skill should I focus on?
Three Ways to Approach Your Startup Like a Pro (Encore)
How to Engineer Luck
How to Productize Your Customer's First Step (Encore)
A Thing That Always Works: The 5-Minute List
Three Types of Problems Worth Your Time to Solve
Another Lesson at 40: Three Shortcuts for Getting Started
Writing Persuasive Copy That Tests Your Startup Idea
A Lesson at 40: Happiness and Hard Things
Are You a Freelancer or an Entrepreneur?
The Exciting Part - Building a Product and The Test (Part 4 of Starting a Startup Live)
Running a Concierge MVP (Part 3 of Starting a Startup Live On The Pod)
Starting a Startup Live On The Pod, Part 2
Testing a Healthcare Startup Idea Live On The Pod, Part 1
How to Spot Promising Startup Ideas (feat. the Hard Startup Myth and the Hassle Premium)
How to Choose The Right Quest
How to Find Juicy Problems (ITS Classic)
The Daniel Tiger SOP - How to Regularly Do Hard Stuff
A System to Help You Become Wildly Creative
How to Use One-Person Landing Page Tests to Find Your Differentiator (ITS Classic)
How to Not Screw Up Pricing For Your Startup
A Podcast Figuring Out Your Value (ITS Classic)
How to Prioritize as an Idea-Stage Founder (ITS Classic)
Things That Always Work and Things That Never Work
How to Create Useful Content (for people who don't think they can create content)
A Mouse Pod (How to Stand Out in a Crowded Market)
A Weekly Prioritization and Audit Framework for Entrepreneurs (ITS Classic)
Running a Concierge MVP Live (feat. the four-step Concierge MVP framework)
How to Start the Business You’re Not Quite Ready to Start
How to Take Yourself Seriously feat. The Entrepreneurship Handbook (ITS Classic)
A Startup Storytelling Framework for Non-Storytellers
When to Pivot and When to Stick (aka what to do with all your startup ideas) ITS Classic
How to Pick Your Startup's First Customer
A System to Do Hard Things (ITS Classic)
How to Build the First (Magical) Version Of Your Product This Weekend (ITS Classic)
A System to Generate Ideas (aka how to let your brain be a brain)
20-ish Minute Skill: The Concierge MVP (ITS Classic)
How to Create a Strategy For Your Startup
How to Build a "Skeptical Startup" - 8k per month in 10 hours per week
What if the problem you're solving isn't "painful" or "urgent"? What if it's just something you think people will want? Should you still pursue it? (feat. Linguini)
The Magic of One-Sentence Marketing
Designing a System to Actually Prioritize Your Startup This Year
Seth Godin and Brian Go Through Startup Ideas (ITS Classic)
How to Think Bigger (feat. The Problems and Opportunities Method)
How to be Different, Part 1 (feat. The Personal Venn Diagram Method)
Testing Another Startup Idea Live Part 1: Picking the Idea, Nudging the Boulder
The Quest for an Identity
How to Find a Differentiator (ITS Classic)
Customers Speak Problem, But You’re Speaking Solution
An SOP for Testing a Startup Idea
Two Ways to Approach Your Startup Idea Like A Pro (ITS Classic)
Writing Persuasive Copy to Test an Idea
How to Embrace Risk, Uncertainty, and Chaos
The Three Types of Problems Worth Your Time to Solve
How to Find Your Wedge, feat. Bleeding Neck Problems (ITS Classic)
Are you a Freelancer or an Entrepreneur?
A System to Relish the Uncomfortable Stuff
How to Identify and Kill Bad Startup Ideas Masquerading As Good Ones
A System to Test and Build Your Startup (Part III - Implementing Your System This Weekend)
An Operating System to Help You Move Faster By Focusing On Less - Part 2 (feat. a monkey reciting Hamlet)
A Weekly System to Keep Entrepreneurs With Jobs Moving Fast (Part 1 - Strategy)
The One Thing That Matters - How to Find a Differentiator That'll Support a Business
How to Stop Being Your Startup's Bottleneck
A Framework for Building Wildly Useful Startups
Four Characteristics of Great Startup Ideas
The Organic Growth Equation - Why People Share and How to Pick Ideas that'll Grow
A System to Help You Become Wildly Creative
Ep. 165 - Should You Niche?
Why You Didn't Build a Product Last Weekend (feat. A Framework to Seek Out Discomfort)
How to Build the First (Magical) Version of Your Product This Weekend
Choose The Right Quest
INTERVIEW: Seth Godin Thinks Through Startup Ideas in Real-Time
When to Pivot and When to Stick (aka How Pros Deal w/ Distractions)
How to Use Landing Page Tests to Find Your Beachhead Customer (feat. the One Person Landing Page and the ELU Framework)
Ideation, Finding a Wedge, Seeding a Marketplace and How to Scale Yourself with an EA - with Jonathan Swanson, cofounder of Thumbtack, Athena, and Powerset
The Law of The Startup Wedge (feat. circadian rhythms and trust transactions)
How to Separate Yourself from Your Idea (feat. the five immutable laws of cold emails)
Testing a Startup Idea Live, Part 2: An Organizing Principle and A Structure to Move Fast
Testing a Startup Idea Live, Part 1: The Idea, The Goldfish Cleanse, J.O.A.S.
When to Quit on your Startup Idea, and When to Stick It Out (feat. the systemic vs. solvable checklist and the idea growth curve)
How to Find and Solve Hard Problems (feat. a used car startup and The Problem Hunters)
How to Build Trust in Six Seconds (Thrust + Drag Part 2, feat. an elephant and the bus stop exercise)
Thrust and Drag Part 1: A System to Keep Momentum
What if the problem you're solving isn't "painful" or "urgent"? What if it's just something you think people will want? Should you still pursue it? (feat. Linguini)
How to Create Useful Content (feat. the "creating content by not creating any content" method)
How to stack risk early, tackle the cold start problem, and compete by understanding incentives with Jareau Wadé
15 Min(ish) Skill: Script the Start and End aka How to Consistently Do Uncomfortable Things
Three More Ways to Approach Your Business Like a Pro (feat. anti-marketing, Frank Sinatra, and an Uber comedian)
The Trust to Risk Ratio (feat. Soona + a four-step risk framework)
Two Ways to Approach Your Startup Idea Like A Pro (feat. an interior designer + Zapier)
Testing an AI Coaching Tool in a Month (feat. The 5 Startup Idea Non-Negotiables)
How to Build a Product People Will Share
A Regret Minimization Framework (feat. Alone + The Big Reveal)
HOLIDAY CLASSIC: The Three Characteristics of a Startup Idea That's Worth Your Time
Holiday Classic: Four Questions to Help You Start Your Idea (Feat. Penne Vodka Pete 🐐)
How to Take Yourself Seriously feat. Your Entrepreneurship Handbook
Build a System to be Different in 2023 (feat. pessimistic squirrels and majestic lions)
How to Test the Startup Idea You Had Over Thanksgiving in 7 Minutes
How to Productize Your Customer's First Step (feat. The Family Operating System and a 3am Pitch)
Two Frameworks to Help Find Your Differentiator (feat. Inversion and the Before and After Method)
How to Think Bigger (feat. Mattress Mack and Asymmetric Upside)
20(ish) Min Skills: How to Find Your Wedge (feat. Bleeding Neck Problems)
Start a Startup in an Hour a Day (Part 3 of 3): Taking the System for a Spin (feat. You've Got Mail and Curious Ruby)
Start a Startup in an Hour a Day (Part 2) - Founder Archetypes and a Two-Week Sprint Rhythm
Start a Startup in an Hour a Day (Part 1 of 3) - Reflection + A Lifestyle Debt Audit + Finding a Free Hour
20(ish) Min Skills: How to Write Direct, Persuasive Copy (feat. The Four Keys to Writing)
How to Start a Community-Based Startup - or Tack a Community Onto Your Existing Business (feat. Monks and Lonely Dads)
20(ish)-Minute Skills: The Concierge MVP
How to Spot Promising Startup Ideas (feat. The Hard Startup Myth and The Hassle Premium)
How to Raise Money from Angel Investors with Angela Lee (37 Angels, Columbia Business School) ((And we start a $100mm taco company the last 15 minutes))
How to Get the World to Work For You (feat. pickleball and the greatest marketing campaign of all time)
Three Ways to Build Trust (feat. parking valets and a cure for baldness)
A 20(ish) Minute Startup: Airbnb Referrals
What Kind of Company Do You Want to Build? (feat a 3-part framework to help you figure it out and Shaggy)
A Podcast Figuring Out Your Value (featuring an aperol spritz startup and a magician)
A Mental Model to Reduce Complexity: The River (featuring a papaya)
How to Start a Startup Accountability Group
The Three Pillars of a Startup That's Worth Your Time (feat. Markets, The 4x Rule, and Level Jumping)
A 20(ish) Minute Startup: An App That Cures Chronic Pain
A Framework to Get You Unstuck (featuring an Airstream startup)
20(ish)-Min Skills: Sales 101 For Entrepreneurs That Hate Sales
A Weekly Prioritization and Audit Framework to Help Entrepreneurs Make Great Things
How to Test If Your Idea Can Grow Before You Build It (featuring a meeting agenda startup)
What Makes a Great Product?
Strategies for a Crowded Market: Breaking Down Three Coffee Startups
How to Build The Right Thing (Introducing the Product Pyramid Framework)
A Thing To Do This Weekend If You're Working on a Startup
How to Become a Startup Idea Machine
How to Evaluate and Choose an Idea Worth Pursuing with Alex White
How to Write Great Copy for your Startup
INTERVIEW: Jonathan Hunt-Glassman, founder @ Oar Health
Start a Startup in 7(ish) Minutes: Solving Parking in NYC 🚕
Episode 100 🔥: How to Design Your Life to Support Building a Startup on the Side
How to Stand Out: Differentiate your Startup with Categories
How to Guarantee Word of Mouth Growth for Your Startup
The Three Pillars of an Idea That Can Grow Huge
Start a Startup in Ten Days using Four Questions: Kitchen Organizer Edition
Perfect is the Enemy of the Good: Startup Product Edition
How to Conquer Irrational Fear as a Startup Founder
The Most Interesting Startups are Boring (and how to make sure yours is, too)
How to Build a Startup in a Crowded Market
A Formula for Creating Moments Your Customers Will Share
Don't Bail On Your Startup Idea Right When It's Getting Interesting
Startup Practice
Storytelling 101 for Entrepreneurs
BONUS STORY: The Monster and The Girl
The Secret Pod
Sell the Position (Brian's favorite episode of the year)
How to Not Waste Your Life (most listened to episode of the year)
How to Find Problems Worth Solving (and a request for a startup)
You need a bouncer
How to get counterintuitive startup ideas
Three Things Entrepreneurs Should Do Over Thanksgiving Break
How to create your own MBA in entrepreneurship
Story 3: How to sell wood for $10 when everyone else sells it for $5
Story 2: How to motivate people
Three Stories To Get You Unstuck - Story 1: Sell The Position
How to Quit Your Job and Pursue Your Startup Idea
How to Motivate Customers (and People) feat. Airstreams
MAILBAG PART 2: Testing a pasta startup, how niche is too niche, and a structure for dealing with founder stress
MAILBAG: Listener questions on a startup ethos, great marketing, a travel company for couples, and nootropics (sorta)
A Treading Water Startup (feat. Scorpions and Frogs)
Hidden Lottery Tickets
Vertical Farms, Robert Frost, and Growth
INTERVIEW: Jeff Sheldon, Founder @ Ugmonk
How to Not Waste Your Life
Inertia - The Only Thing That Matters
INTERVIEW: Tom Eisenmann (HBS) on Why Startups Fail
How to Choose the Right Customer (ITS Classic)
Is Your Startup Idea Good? (ITS Classic)
How To Be A Great Storyteller (ITS Classic)
How to Prioritize and Build a Personal Operating System (ITS classic)
How to lose 1.8 billion dollars in 10 days
Curiosity and Space
Survivorship Bias, Base Rates, and Librarians
Let It Go
This Too Shall Pasta (Vision + Part II of Problems vs. Opportunities)
Problems and Opportunities
The Case For Now
What To Do About Competition (The Gift of "Which")
How to Sell A Protein Bar in Seven(ish) Minutes
Mini Series Ep 3: A Bunch of Tests and an Epiphany
Mini Series Ep 2 - We're Starting a Startup - Making Customer Interviews Doable
Mini Series Kickoff - Picking The Startup Idea We'll Start
How To Get Your First 1,000 Customers (feat. Pizza)
The Sasquatch Problem (Are You Passionate Enough About Your Startup Idea?)
Three Stories for People Starting Startups in 2021
Make A Billion Dollars
Make $1,000 Today
The Holiday Mailbag
The Counterintuitive Way To Get Your First Customers
How Will I Know?
Do The Thing (Motion vs. Action)
Are You Good Enough?
How to be Resilient (feat. IOUs)
How to Differentiate Your Startup (feat. Crabs + Running Shoes)
Start a Wine Company in 17 Minutes
Whisper Ideas
How to test a startup idea in 7 minutes
How to get a customer to choose you (and bagels)”
INTERVIEW: Daina Trout on building Health-Ade from a kombucha-making operation in her kitchen to one of the fastest growing beverage brands in the U.S.
How to lose $1.8 billion dollars in 10 days
INTERVIEW: Jennifer Goggin on building Startle, a tech studio that bridges the gap between research and impactful companies.
INTERVIEW: Marc and Ashley Merrill on building Riot Games and Lunya, the role of a leader during times of uncertainty, and their perspectives on how to build a business.
INTERVIEW: Christoph Bertsch on building Vejo (and multiple other startups) and how to manage the long-game of entrepreneurship.
Ladders and Lobsters
INTERVIEW: Agatha Kulaga on building Ovenly, turning your creative outlet into a scalable business, and baking the best cookies I've ever tasted.
How to Evaluate a Startup Idea
INTERVIEW: Brian Linton on building United By Blue, removing millions of pounds of trash from the ocean, and scaling a purpose-driven brand.
The Selfish Score: How to build a great customer acquisition funnel
INTERVIEW: Rob Petrozzo on building Rally Rd, how to test startup ideas before you quit your job, storytelling, leveraging personas for brand and marketing, raising money, and differentiation.
Two mental models that'll make or break your startup + a mystery company that can't stop growing because of them
INTERVIEW: Ashley Merrill on building Lunya, the beauty of capital-constrained businesses, true differentiation, and self-doubt
The Secret Formula to Hot Ones' Success
INTERVIEW: Marc Merrill on building Riot Games (League of Legends), prioritization frameworks, and focused growth
You Should Start a Startup in 2020
Idea to Startup Season 2: Build Your Startup in 2020
INTERVIEW: Dave Idell on building Croissant, a flexible coworking company competing with giants.
INTERVIEW: Rich Fulop on Building Brooklinen, the Internet’s Favorite Sheets
How to Leverage Storytelling Archetypes for Your Startup
INTERVIEW: Kim Kaupe on Building Superfan with No Funding
INTERVIEW: Leo and Oliver Kremer on Building a Burrito Empire at Dos Toros
How Do You Find Founder/Startup Fit?
INTERVIEW: Elizabeth Yin, founder & GP @ Hustle Fund, where they invest in “hilariously early founders”
How to Prioritize as an Early-Stage Startup
INTERVIEW: Ben Conniff on Building Luke’s Lobster
How to Choose the Right Customer
INTERVIEW: Katherine Krug on Building BetterCo
Is Your Startup Idea Good?
INTERVIEW: Joey Cofone on Building Baron Fig
Start Here
Idea to Startup Teaser