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Walter Thompson

EN113 episodes
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After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned:1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck.2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge.3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it.There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re...

Episodes (113)

PR Advice for Founders in the AI Era

Fund/Build/Scale

Apr 3, 202549:49pending

The Hard Tech Hustle: Building and Selling Industrial AI

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Apr 1, 202546:18pending

Inside a VC’s Playbook for Capital-Intensive Startups

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Mar 28, 202548:59pending

Building a Market from Scratch: Generative Music for Enterprise Customers

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Mar 27, 202530:47pending

How a Broke College Student Co-founded a VC-Backed Edtech Startup

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Mar 19, 202559:59pending

Is AI Compute Broken? Tim Davis on Modular’s $130M Bet

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Mar 18, 202546:27pending

Scaling European Startups: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Changing

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Mar 12, 202553:08pending

What Journey’s Pivot from B2C to B2B Reveals About Enterprise Sales

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Mar 12, 202538:28pending

What Your CEO Won't Tell You About Your Stock Options

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Mar 7, 202541:54pending

Why PR Comes Before PMF

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Feb 26, 202531:28pending

Investor Insights for African Startups with Capria Ventures’ Mobola da-Silva

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Feb 15, 202546:19pending

KarmaCheck CEO Eric Ly on Customer Discovery + Early Product Development

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Feb 12, 202540:20pending

Inside Acceldata: CEO Rohit Choudhary on Building a Leading Data Platform

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Feb 3, 202537:37pending

Vouch CEO Sam Hodges on Mitigating Startup Risk and Maximizing Growth

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Feb 1, 202544:36pending

Navigating Blue Oceans: Key Insights for Emerging Founders from Vectara CEO/co-f...

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Jan 23, 202552:43pending

2025 Cybersecurity Trends, Insights and Storytelling Advice from YL Ventures' An...

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Jan 9, 202544:15pending

Lessons from Operant AI's Startup Journey: “ We're not wasting time on wheel spi...

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Jan 3, 202548:14pending

Mercury Raise 2024 Survey: Founder Challenges, Fundraising Trends, and the AI Hy...

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Dec 19, 202444:44pending

Rusty Ralston and Jay Patil of Swell VC: A Hands-on Approach to Building Startup...

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Dec 17, 202442:09pending

Seed-stage Valuation Insights from Lightspeed's Nnamdi Iregbulem

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Dec 15, 202433:24pending

Dan DeGolier: How Fractional CFOs Become a CEO's 'Strategic Teammate'

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Dec 9, 202427:21pending

MaC Venture Capital’s Marlon Nichols Offers Seed-stage Insights for Future CEOs

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Dec 5, 202445:44pending

From PhD to CEO: Sahil Agarwal of Enkrypt AI Shares Essential Lessons for Aspiri...

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Dec 4, 202433:04pending

Transforming Practical Wisdom into Iconic Brands with David Placek

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Nov 22, 202444:10pending

From concept to Series A: How Inversion got its space-based cargo platform off t...

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Nov 20, 202456:15pending

How to run a board meeting in 60 minutes

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Oct 28, 202424:58pending

Starting up in stealth: A conversation with TigerEye co-founder/CEO Tracy Young

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Oct 27, 202423:09pending

“Talent has no ZIP code:” Laura González-Estéfani on building startups outside S...

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Oct 19, 202445:01pending

“Cultural fit” is a polite way to say “personal bias”

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Oct 16, 20245:05pending

Shaping the future of work and care: Courtney Leimkuhler + Elana Berkowitz of Sp...

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Oct 14, 202439:53pending

Crafting influence: Early-stage PR strategies from Chikodi Chima of Moonshot

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Oct 6, 202437:34pending

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

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Sep 27, 202451:15pending

Unlocking growth-stage VC: Insights from CapitalG's Jill (Greenberg) Chase and J...

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Sep 25, 202453:05pending

How Dovetail CEO Benjamin Humphrey scaled an Australian startup to global succes...

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Sep 16, 20241:03:59pending

Startup PR 101: Essential tips from SISU founder Jenna Birch

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Sep 13, 202443:46pending

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

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Sep 12, 202442:21pending

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

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Sep 5, 202425:39pending

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

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Aug 28, 202431:56pending

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

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Aug 26, 202442:55pending

TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage on building successful deep tech startups

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Aug 25, 202443:31pending

Entrepreneurial insights for tech workers + immigrants with Stoovo CEO Hantz Fév...

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Aug 22, 202436:23pending

Understanding product-led growth with Laura Schaffer, VP of Growth at Amplitude

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Aug 4, 202444:44pending

Addressing pain points + exploring early-stage trends with Kevin Weber of Amex V...

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Aug 4, 202442:12pending

SnapLogic CTO Jeremiah Stone on overcoming AI adoption barriers

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Jul 29, 202429:43pending

S2 E5: From the ground up: Building startups with Deb Kemper of Golden Seeds Ven...

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Jul 22, 202438:28pending

S2 E4: VAST Data CEO/founder Renen Hallak: “When we started, AI wasn't a thing.”

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Jul 20, 202421:46pending

S2E3: Felicis' Viviana Faga on early-stage AI brand development and investment t...

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Jul 13, 202424:21pending

S2E2: Capital-efficient growth and discovering diverse talent with Drew Glover o...

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Jul 11, 202452:08pending

S2 E1: Inside Intel Ignite with VP & GM Tzahi Weisfeld

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Jul 9, 202441:31pending

Fund/Build/Scale season 2: Why I'm doing this podcast (and why you should listen...

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Jun 27, 20241:52pending