Fund/Build/Scale

From tech worker to tech founder: Lessons from Naveen Rao of Databricks

In 2014, Naveen Rao left his researcher job at Qualcomm to co-found machine intelligence platform Nervana. About two and a half years later, Nervana sold to Intel for more than $400 million.
After a few years at Intel, Naveen became CEO and co-founder of open source startup MosaicML, which helped companies build and train large AI models more efficiently and affordably.
Approximately two and a half years later, Databricks acquired that company for $1.3 billion and made him VP of Generative AI.
Naveen is a neuroscientist with multiple exits, so we spoke at length about shifting from engineering into entrepreneurship. If you have a technical role and are considering starting up, he shares his perspective on balancing day-to-day responsibilities while validating your idea, the importance of challenging industry assumptions, and finding your market niche. 
We also talked about who should — and should not — startup in stealth and addressed some of the current challenges facing the generative AI startup ecosystem, such as the rapid failure rates of companies due to high GPU costs and overinvestment in 2021-2022. 
Runtime: 51:16
EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(2:54) “Evidence is always less than you want. At some point you kind of have to take a leap.”
(5:37) “My journey with Nervana was, it was immediately clear to me that the world needed this.”
(11:52) “Get in the head of someone who's going to exchange money for your services and products.”
(14:54) Why he’s not a big fan of remote work.
(18:35) “It is on you as an adult to find balance that you can work with. It is not the company's duty to do this.”
(20:31) Why product companies should “probably not” startup in stealth.
(23:11) “It wasn't the right time to sell. I didn't look at it like that at all.”
(26:32) Hiring and retaining generative AI talent is “a hard problem right now.”
(30:16) “Companies are failing pretty fast because the GPU spends are so big.”
(35:04) Interacting with Databricks’ developer community.
(43:11) Naveen on accelerators: “I think there are actually faster ways to learn.”
(45:05) When it comes to angel investing, “I'm looking for creativity, honestly.”
(47:34) If you were interviewing for a job with an early-stage startup, what's one question you'd have to ask the CEO? 
LINKS
Naveen Rao
@NaveenGRao
Databricks
Databricks picks up MosaicML, an OpenAI competitor, for $1.3B
Intel is paying more than $400 million to buy deep-learning startup Nervana Systems
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, Jonathan Haidt
Ali Partovi
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Unlocking growth-stage VC: Insights from CapitalG's Jill (Greenberg) Chase and James Luo

In July 2024, I visited the Ferry Building in San Francisco to sit down with CapitalG partners Jill (Greenberg) Chase and James Luo.
As Alphabet’s growth-stage VC fund, CapitalG specializes in backing startups that have found product-market fit and are ready to scale with investments ranging from $50M to $200M.
We talked about the key signals that indicate a company is ready for growth-stage investment, how CapitalG leverages Google and Alphabet resources to boost its portfolio, and their frameworks for assessing risk and potential returns.
We also spent time talking about the importance of go-to-market strategies, team-building, and product partnerships.
Whether you’re an early-stage founder or curious about what it takes to scale a business to the next level, this conversation offers actionable insights into navigating growth-stage funding.
Runtime: 53:05
EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(1:57) A general overview of CapitalG and its relationship to Alphabet and Google.
(6:11) What are some of the early signals indicating that a company is at growth stage?
(8:33) James: “When you get to the later stages, you have a ton of different data points that you don't have at the Series B.”
(12:53) Jill: “We talk a lot about the concept of, “are you paid for the risk that you're taking?”
(18:53) Jill: “Our job when things aren't going so well is to remind them of the dream and to say, ‘no, we're not giving up.’”
(19:30) Which trends and technology are Jill and James following these days?
(25:25) James’ framework for sizing TAM for growth-stage startups.
(30:50) James: “TAM is a judgment call. It's as much art as it is science.”
(32:28) Jill on what separates a high-potential AI startup from the rest of the pack.
(38:29) Jill: “The way we approach investing at CapitalG is highly thematic and sort of thesis-driven.”
(44:50) Why growth-stage investing is similar to park rangers looking for forest fires.
(48:45) James: “You're basically never going to find somebody who's amazing at every possible thing that you need to do to run a business.”
(51:01) Jill: “It is a huge red flag for me when somebody can't say, ‘yep, I was wrong about this.’”
LINKS
Jill (Greenberg) Chasejillgreenberg@capitalg.com
James Luo
CapitalGRobinhood
Stripe
Magic
Rippling
San Francisco Ferry Building

How Dovetail CEO Benjamin Humphrey scaled an Australian startup to global success

In this episode, Fund/Build/Scale host Walter Thompson interviews Benjamin Humphrey, CEO and co-founder of Dovetail, a customer insights hub based in Sydney, Australia.
They discuss the challenges of hiring for a bootstrapped company, early customer acquisition strategies, and the impact of local networking when starting up far from major tech hubs like Silicon Valley.
Benjamin shares his journey from being a lead designer at Atlassian to founding Dovetail, emphasizing the importance of building strong customer relationships and adapting products to solve real-world problems.
The episode also explores managing distributed teams, transitioning from bootstrapped to funded, and leveraging AI to enhance business operations. Lastly, Humphrey offers advice on maintaining focus and managing expectations in a startup environment, particularly for those starting up outside the traditional tech hotspots.
EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(03:26) How Dovetail’s customer insights hub works.
(05:14) “I’d always wanted to start a company.”
(9:19) “I got permission to basically start hacking on this little startup idea that I had in my spare time.”
(13:55) “We tossed around with the idea of co-CEO for a while.”
(14:24) “Being kind of at the arse end of the world means that you're forced into being this no-touch PLG business." 
(23:24) “The design team is the best-placed team to figure out what the holistic solution is that's gonna solve for the requirements of individual customers.”
(26:50) How he promotes a cohesive culture across widely distributed teams.
(30:01) Relocating teams between Sydney and SF, annual retreats.
(33:47) “We only started doing paid ads about six months ago.”
(36:28) “I'm actually our Australian sales rep at the moment.”
(39:10) How hiring challenges led Benjamin to revisit his stance against VC funding.
(43:40) Tall poppy syndrome is real in Australia, but “you just have to develop a thick skin as a founder.”
(48:29) “And then you realize if you start hiring people, you have to do management.”
(52:39) His future plans for Dovetail.
(56:30) How AI integrates into his vision for the company.
(1:00:26) What he’s looking for as an angel investor, final thoughts.
Runtime: 01:03:59
LINKS
Benjamin Humphrey
Dovetail
Blackbird VC
Atlassian
Just Ask!: 7 simple steps to unlock the power of clients, generate referrals and double your business, Graham Eisner
Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users, Jakob Nielsen
Putting a Bolder Face on Google, The New York Times
Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale
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🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fund-build-scale/id1719488387
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0EbC8PTUSfpZ4USPC9ErnN
Thanks for listening!
– Walter.

Startup PR 101: Essential tips from SISU founder Jenna Birch

Jenna Birch is the founder of SISU, a PR firm that serves early-stage startups and VCs. She’s also a partner at Kaya Ventures.
We talked about how to recognize when it’s time to engage PR services, the importance of a founder’s personal branding and the path that led her from journalism into venture-backed tech.
She also shared her methodologies for assessing clients, setting realistic expectations, and creating impactful media strategies.
There are a lot of misconceptions around PR and comms, so I was glad to get her perspective on earned media, personal branding for founders, and tips for navigating the earlier stages of a startup's lifecycle with optimal PR strategies. 
“PR is not meant to make up for a lack of something in your business, it can't fix the thing that you really need to fix, for instance, finding product market fit,” she said.
“PR is not the gateway to do that. You have to have that figured out before you get PR.”
We also talked about how to interview a comms firm, her ballpark estimates for monthly fees, and which red flags to look for when a PR professional wants to rep you.
“You want to learn everything you can. So I'd also just ask about the transparency and how they're going to guide you through, because I think having a look behind the curtain — having someone that's willing to give you that look — is important.”
43:46 minutes
 
EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(1:55) “SISU is a very good startup word. It means ‘enduring grit.’”
(4:14) Her transition from journalism into being a comms professional/VC.
(7:26) Inside the process Jenna uses to assess potential clients.
(8:55) “PR is not meant to make up for a lack of something in your business.”
(12:08) SISU’s onboarding process: “I like to craft things in three-month sprints.”
(14:47) “Ultimately, you're the steward of your company's story. So I need you to be involved in that process.”
(19:14) How founders can identify/leverage news hooks and trends.
(22:10) When it comes to thought leadership, “most founders and most investors are not immediately good at that.”
(24:59) Why she thinks LinkedIn is more valuable than Twitter/X for business leaders.
(27:32) Which signals and metrics indicate you should hire outside PR help?
(31:16) The framework she uses to decide whether your startup is ready to hire her.
(32:27) “Anyone that promises you press is probably not the right partner for you.”
(35:05) Jenna ballparks a monthly cost for professional PR services.
(38:10) How she became a partner at Kaya Ventures/how to pitch her.
LINKS
Jenna Birch, founder, SISU
SISU
Kaya Ventures
NFX
Paid vs. Owned vs. Earned Media: What’s the Difference? (Harvard Business School)
Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale
📓Substack: https://fundbuildscale.substack.com
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fund-build-scale/id1719488387
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0EbC8PTUSfpZ4USPC9ErnN
Thanks for listening!
– Walter.

Navigating the coming Series A crunch with Point72 Ventures' Sri Chandrasekar

Before Sri Chandrasekar became managing partner at Point72 Ventures, he was a Senior Vice President at In-Q-Tel, the non-profit VC firm that invests in startups on behalf of the CIA and other national intelligence agencies.
That work cultivated his interest in AI and ML a decade ago, which led hedge fund Point72 to recruit him to join its then-new venture arm in 2017. Fast-forward to 2024, Sri takes around 300 first-call meetings with founders each year.
While we had an extended discussion about his investment thesis and the types of opportunities he's targeting, he also offered key insights into the current early-stage fundraising environment and spoke about the growing difficulty for startups seeking Series A funding, compared to the relative ease of raising seed rounds.
AI-related startups need more capital than ever to launch a MVP, leading to larger seed rounds without increasing dilution for founders. However, this drives up valuations, and when startups reach the Series A stage, investors hesitate to pay high prices for companies with limited traction.
“I think a lot of seed-stage founders are going to see this in the next year or two,” he said. “They're going to raise a Series A and they're going to be not up rounds, they'll be flat rounds.”
42:21 minutes
Episode breakdown
(1:45) “In-Q-Tel is the best place in the world to learn about venture.”
(3:53) “Machine learning and AI is gonna be the most transformative force to our economy since the steam engine.”
(8:55) “I think we're six to twelve months away from the trough of disillusionment.”
(11:52) “It's easier than ever to build a prototype of anything… and the hardest that's ever been, in my opinion, to raise a Series A.”
(15:27) The differences between working with technical and non-technical founders
(19:23) “I'm starting to think that Herman Miller Aeron chairs probably hold their value longer than GPUs.”
(21:16) “Returns are getting compressed, and something's got to give, right?”
(24:21) What real repeatability actually looks like.
(27:33) “It's really important to not get ahead of yourself in terms of marketing and branding until you have clarity around, ‘do I have product-market-fit?’”
(31:26) Sri breaks down the “triple-triple-double-double-double” growth framework.
(34:39) Advice for founders who need help de-risking themselves.
(37:43) “I don’t know what the point of being in stealth is.”
(40:47) What would Sri ask an early-stage CEO if he were interviewing for a job?
Links
Sri Chandrasekar
Point72 Ventures
Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale
📓Substack: https://fundbuildscale.substack.com
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fund-build-scale/id1719488387
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0EbC8PTUSfpZ4USPC9ErnN
Thanks for listening!
– Walter.

Using an AI co-pilot to kickstart your business with Nicholas Thorne of prehype/Audos

Nicholas Thorne is a partner at prehype, a venture development firm that helps large companies create startups by acting as an incubator.
He's also the founder of Audos, an AI co-pilot designed to assist entrepreneurs in conducting customer interviews, creating slide decks, and potentially investing in their ideas.
According to Nicholas, Audos can even write code and identify freelancers, functioning as a virtual technical product manager. I interviewed him to explore how this co-pilot supports entrepreneurs, particularly those in the “conceptual stage,” to locate — and eventually exploit — what he calls ‘founder-customer fit.’
He outlined the ideal user profiles for Audos, which range from small business owners to corporate innovators and also explained how Audos leverages AI to tackle various tasks for entrepreneurs and discussed the investment opportunities he's pursuing.
Finally, Nicholas shared some of the resources he's using to deepen his understanding of AI.
Runtime: 25:39
Episode breakdown
(1:31) How Audos works, and who's using it.
(4:33) "It's just about trying to do the best thing you can to create more information with which you can make progress."
(9:12) Audos' ideal customer is a "conceptual stage" founder.
(11:40) Helping entrepreneurs "find and then nurture, and over time, exploit what we call 'founder-customer fit.'"
(15:36) Using AI to shorten the customer discovery process and speed time to market
(19:30) "I think you would probably consider it a family or suite of GPTs that are all trained in extremely specific jobs."
(22:00) What kinds of investment opportunities he’s looking for (and how to reach him)
(24:12) How Nicholas fills in the gaps in his AI knowledge
Links
Nicholas Thorne, partner, prehypenicholas@prehype.com
prehype
Audos
Ethan Mollick, Ralph J. Roberts Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Associate Professor of Management, Co-Director, Generative AI Labs at Wharton, Rowan FellowOne Useful Thing (Substack)
@emollick
Dan Shipper, co-founder/CEO, Every@danshipper

Allie Garfinkle of Fortune's “Term Sheet” talks reporting, startups and AI

I met Fortune Senior Finance Reporter Allie Garfinkle in February 2024 at an event for comms professionals. 
She had just taken over the Term Sheet daily deals newsletter covering startups, venture capital, M&A, trends and pretty much anything tech-related.
When news broke right after our panel that Reddit was filing to go public, she didn’t have a desk or a chair, so she grabbed her laptop, sat on the floor with her back to the wall and began drafting her next column.
She wasn’t stressed out — she seemed excited and laser-focused.
Term Sheet comes out five times each week which means she’s up and reviewing reader tips between 4am and 6am. “I actually write every day because I want it to feel urgent. It's sort of this odd equivalent of being journalistically naked,” she said.
A lot of tech reporters use their platforms to make predictions, pick winners and embroider their opinions, but Allie tends to play it right down the middle. 
“The thing that I probably excel at is sort of being somewhere between neither being a cheerleader nor being an incredibly harsh critic,” she said. “I actually try to approach every person in front of me on their terms, like, “okay, who are you?”
Episode breakdown
(3:49) “I started at Fortune in January. New year, new job. I'd actually never written a daily newsletter before, ever.”
(7:00) “I think there are great hot takers in this business. But I don't think I will ever be one of them.”
(9:27) “What's the bar for including things? I try to put myself in the position of the readers.”
(11:57) “The Reddit IPO — actually the day we met — I had another story in the can. I recall this.”
(14:40) “There's a certain kind of conventional story of success I find incredibly boring.”
(16:53) “There's sometimes stories where I don't know if I'm the right person.”
(17:13) Why Elon Musk just isn’t that interesting to write about.
(19:07) How Allie really feels about writing tech trend pieces.
(21:44) She explains how Stephen Sondheim’s rules for songwriting also apply to tech reporting.
(25:04) Allie’s advice for early-stage founders who are fundraising in 2024.
(29:04) “I don't want to work with jerks. This is something that I've had to learn the hard way over time.”
Links
Allie Garfinkle, Senior Finance Reporter, Fortunealexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
Fortune articles by Allie GarfinkleReddit’s S-1 paints the picture of a company with a complicated past, present, and future
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger 
 
Thanks for listening!
– Walter.
fundbuildscale@gmail.com

Lessons for early-stage AI founders from Pryon CEO Igor Jablokov

Before Igor Jablokov was CEO and founder of Pryon, he worked with Apple on a prototype of Siri. He also founded a speech recognition company that Amazon acquired to develop its Alexa AI and Echo devices.
He joined me on the podcast to talk about the evolution and challenges of building AI technologies and companies, different phases of startup growth, and how AI is transforming enterprise software procurement. 
Igor also offered his insights on the current AI hype cycle, explained the concept of “knowledge friction,” and shared some personal anecdotes and observations about achieving enduring entrepreneurial success in the AI domain.
Runtime: 42:55
Episode breakdown
(2:42) “We were their first AI-related acquisition that birthed what many people know as Alexa.” 
(6:44) What happens when you can’t commercialize the technology you’ve created?
(9:11) How Pryon originated the concept of “knowledge friction.”
(14:33) Igor deconstructs the three main types of founders working in AI today.
(18:38) Where he thinks we are in the current AI hype cycle.
(21:14) “Before ChatGPT, it was a desert and very few of us survive in the desert with a small amount of water.”
(23:06) Inside Pryon’s September 2023 $100M Series B round.
(25:26) Why early-stage AI startups have a major advantage over legacy tech companies.
(28:07) Founders need “practical experience in an industry that eventually you're going to be a part of.”
(35:00) “Tech is as perishable as fruits and vegetables you can procure from Trader Joe's.”
(38:58) Questions Igor would ask the CEO if he was interviewing for a role with a startup.
Links
Igor Jablokov, CEO, Pryon
Pryon
Pryon Closes $100 Million Series B Round Led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund
Amazon.com Acquires Voice Recognition Start-up Yap
Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Substack
Thanks for listening!
– Walter.
fundbuildscale@gmail.com
 

TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage on building successful deep tech startups

If you're building a first-to-market solution using emerging technology that could meaningfully contribute to society and generate a 50x return, TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage wants to hear from you.
I invited him on the podcast to learn about TDK Ventures’ approach to corporate VC, which uses backcasting to identify ideal future technologies and then invest in entrepreneurs who are working towards those goals. 
Portfolio companies include startups that make things like flying taxis, batteries from reclaimed materials and technology for nuclear fusion.
“There's no doubt in my mind that no one can forecast the future,” said Nicolas. 
“But what we can do, all of us, is to dream of an ideal future, then backcast from there, and look at what are the gaps to get to this ideal future.”
Runtime: 43:31
Episode breakdown
4:50: “The origin story of TDK Ventures was three interactions in classes from a Stanford executive program in 2018.”
7:59: Nicolas explains TDK Ventures’ investment scope.
9:14: “No one can forecast the future,” which is where backcasting comes in.
11:39: “Right now, we deploy through two different funds.”
14:07: Inside TDK Ventures’ deal flow and investment thesis.
16:14: “For any megatrends, we're looking at $10B+ TAM. It could be zero TAM today.”
20:31: How do you calculate TAM for emerging technology?
22:17: When it comes to due diligence, “we are prepared. We know what to look for.”
25:23: Why he’s open to revisiting pitches he rejected once their technology matures.
29:59: Common misconceptions about corporate venture capital.
33:40: “How do we judge when is the right time? That really depends case by case.”
36:09: How TDK supports early-stage deep tech founders with academic backgrounds.
42:06: “I like to see entrepreneurs coming with a superpower; something that they're exceptional at that no one else is.”
Links
Nicolas Sauvage, president, TDK VenturesEntrepreneurship: A superhero’s journey
Corporate VC is booming, but is it what your startup needs?
TDK VenturesDeep Explorations
Autoflight
Ascend Elements
SPAN
Divirod
TypeOne Energy
Starship Technologies
AM Batteries
Metalenz
Jesper Sorenson, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Ilya Strebuleav, professor, Stanford University Graduate School of BusinessThe Venture Mindset: How to Make Smarter Bets and Achieve Extraordinary Growth 
Paul Holland, corporate venture practice managing director, Mach49
Thanks for listening!
– Walter.
fundbuildscale@gmail.com
 

Entrepreneurial insights for tech workers + immigrants with Stoovo CEO Hantz Févry

In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, host Walter Thompson engages in a comprehensive discussion with Hantz Févry, co-founder and CEO of Stoovo, an AI-based geospatial data company.
Hantz shares invaluable insights into separating one's identity from their job, the importance of rapid execution in startups, and the journey from working at Google to launching his own company.
This episode targets tech workers aspiring to start their own businesses and immigrants in the U.S. on worker visas, highlighting the unique challenges and strategies for achieving entrepreneurial success. Hantz speaks on redefining success, Stoovo's pivotal evolution post-pandemic, and the critical importance of profitability and investment strategy.
Tune in to gain practical advice and inspiration for your startup journey.
Runtime: 36:23
Episode breakdown
2:26: “We realized that when it comes to the last hundred meters, there's a big gap.”
6:34: “I don't like to call it a pivot. I like to say that Stoovo evolved.”
8:35: “I do not think pivoting is a bad word. Actually, I think it's a sign of resilience.”
10:55: “By working together, it was very natural for the whole team to transition.”
15:07: “I was working at a company called Google, but I am Hantz, I'm not a Googler.”
17:10: “You might get there. You might not, but at least you were courageous enough to try.”
18:36: How Hantz defines work-life balance
22:20: Before he could launch Stoovo, “I had to wait until I had my green card.”
25:16: “I didn't have a uncle here, I do not have that famous garage where I can just sleep”
27:37: How Hantz and his co-founder Pierre connected with early investors
29:19: His framework for assessing founder-investor fit
33:38: Fundraising advice for Black and immigrant founders  
34:32: Why “you don't need to be in Silicon Valley to build a business.”
Links
Hantz Fevry, CEO/co-founder, Stoovo
Stoovo (website)
Stoovo app (Google Play)
Stoovo app (Apple
500 Global
Le labyrinthe des égarés: L'Occident et ses adversaires, Amin Maalouf
Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fund-build-scale/id1719488387
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0EbC8PTUSfpZ4USPC9ErnN
Follow Fund/Build/Scale on LinkedIn
Thanks for listening!
– Walter.
fundbuildscale@gmail.com