Founders & Builders podcast

What if Europe’s next billion-dollar startup isn’t born in Silicon Valley, but in London, Berlin or Stockholm? 🎧 Full episode with Hussein Kanji is out now on Founders and Builders. Links in comments 👇 #startups #venturecapital #AI #deeptech

@larsras went from being a broke founder after the dot-com crash to co-founding @googlemaps, one of the most important products on the modern internet. Today, billions of people use Google Maps every day without thinking twice! In this episode, Lars shares: • How Google Maps accidentally went viral before launch and nearly overwhelmed @Google infrastructure • Why speed, not features, was the real unlock that changed everything • How a failed VC raise directly led to selling the company to Google • What it was like building on the web before smartphones, APIs or modern tooling • Why founders today have more leverage than ever, yet still feel late • His shift from builder to ecosystem builder and why he’s now creating @PanatheneaFest, a major founder conference in Athens Chapters: - The Google Maps Story - Larry Page Discussion - How Widely Google Maps is Used - Growth Challenges - 10 Millions Users on Day One! - Panathenea - Advice To Young Founders ⭐ Listener Suggestion Of The Week – Canva canva.com 👍 Why subscribe? If you build companies, invest in startups, or care about technology shaping the future, this channel is for you. 🔔 Subscribe and turn notifications on so you never miss an episode. @foundersbuilder #GoogleMaps #LarsRasmussen #Startups #Founders #TechHistory #Entrepreneurship

This year Lukas Biewald sold @wandb to @CoreWeave for $1.7 Billion. I’ve spent the last 4 years inside W&B, and in this special episode shot in SF we go behind the curtain on how it all happened. Lukas sold his first company, CrowdFlower, then joined @OpenAI as an unpaid intern back when they were only 20-person nonprofit. After that, he founded Weights & Biases, the toolset used by every top AI lab/company in the world. Chapters: 00:00 Intro – The gold rush of AI 01:18 From CrowdFlower to OpenAI 02:54 The insight: data beats algorithms 04:47 Joining OpenAI as an unpaid intern 07:57 The origin story of Weights & Biases 09:03 Getting the first 100 users 11:00 “You think you're late, but you're probably early” 12:56 Fundraising: CrowdFlower vs W&B 16:45 Building for builders, not platforms 17:22 Why seeding researchers made W&B win 22:10 Advice most founders get wrong 37:15 Breaking through ‘paper walls’ 44:56 What it was all for ⭐ Listener Suggestion – CoreWeave - coreweave.com 👍 Why subscribe? If you build, code, invest or care about the future of AI, startups or developer tools, this channel is for you. #AI #startups #wandb #founders #machinelearning #openai

Super excited for this special episode of Founders & Builders. @yanda is 4x founder, sold his company to LinkedIn before becoming an early angel + exec at @wandb (acquired by @CoreWeave for $1.7B). Today he’s at B Capital with Eduardo Saverin, leading investment into awesome companies like Perplexity. I was lucky to work with Yanda for 2 years, I’ve always admired his perspective from both sides of the founder/investor table. In this episode, he shares: 1.⁠ ⁠How to build a business (and a life) around what comes naturally to you 2.⁠ ⁠How to pick the right ideas and co-founders when the world is full of options 3.⁠ ⁠The real pattern behind every new technology wave (Yanda calls them sneaky big markets) 4.⁠ ⁠Why every startup is really just a series of experiments to see if a company deserves to exist Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:10 What gets founders through dark times 05:40 Trend-chasing vs authentic problems 09:15 Effortless work and founder-market fit 12:50 The “Cheesecake Factory” problem of choice 16:05 How to pick the right market 19:20 Yanda’s founder journey 23:40 Quitting Google to build his first startup 27:50 Becoming an investor 31:10 Investing early in Weights & Biases 35:00 Sneaky big markets 38:45 AI agencies to in-house teams 42:20 Meditation and founder mindset 46:15 Permissionless leverage in 2025 50:30 What it’s all for #ai #yandaerlich

Companies that win are the ones who master go-to-market faster than anyone else - even if it feels uncomfortable, risky or counterintuitive. Mirko Novakovic is the co-founder & CEO of @dash0hq - the platform helping engineering teams ship faster by eliminating the complexity and noise around modern software observability. Before Dash0, Mirko built and scaled multiple high-growth companies. Today, he’s applying those lessons to a new category and teaching founders why revenue is the only real feedback that matters. From understanding sales math, to hiring ahead of growth, to pushing against the safety-first mindset many founders default to, Mirko breaks down why speed wins, how to be your own salesperson #1 and what it really takes to get to that first million in revenue. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:45 The sales math every founder must know 03:10 Why you must hire 12 months ahead 04:32 The burn + risk problem in high growth 06:00 Why founders must sell early 07:20 Conversations vs real revenue 08:42 How to ask questions that close deals 10:05 Getting to the first $1M in revenue 11:32 When to hire sales and add fuel to the fire 13:12 The mindset shift every technical founder needs Huge thanks to Mirko for making the time! #dash0 #mirkonovakovic

Yesterday at @SlushHQ 2025, we sat down with one of the most seasoned investors in the global venture landscape. @eliaw is a General Partner at IVP - the multi-billion-dollar firm behind companies like @coinbase, @supercell, @Snapchat and @zynga . Since joining @IVP in 2011, Eric has partnered with some of the world’s most exceptional founders, backing category-defining businesses across consumer, B2B, infrastructure, gaming and more. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:25 Big Tech copying your startup 01:58 Foundation models vs real startups 03:01 How enterprise startups stay strong 04:05 Eric’s journey and wins 05:20 What great founders share 06:14 Sectors Eric watches now 07:09 Pitch mistakes founders often make 08:08 Why seed rounds are harder 09:03 Smart fundraising process advice 10:15 Advice to younger self Huge thanks to Eric for making the time! @foundersbuilder #slush2025 #foundersandbuilders #ericliaw #ivp #venturecapital

Today on @foundersbuilder we’re joined by someone right at the centre of one of the most influential AI companies in the world. @gabepereyra is the co-founder and President of @harvey - the legal AI powerhouse now used by more than 700 customers across 58 countries. Gabe comes to us straight off the back of a major announcement here at @SlushHQ: a new partnership with @elevenlabs , unveiled on stage with Harvey investor Ilya Fushman, who led their Series B. If you want to find out more about what Gabe and the team are doing at Harvey, click here: harvey.ai Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 00:08 – The Origin of Harvey 00:55 – Why Legal? 01:47 – Landing the First 100 Users 02:31 – How the Product has Evolved 03:53 – Lessons from DeepMind & Meta 05:07 – The Future of Law Firms 06:05 – Scaling Harvey: Biggest Surprises 07:17 – Fundraising Journey 07:57 – Advice for Founders 08:25 – Advice to His Younger Self 09:30 – Harvey are hiring! #slush2025 #foundersandbuilders

Next up on our 10-minute Founders & Builders specials👇 Guest: @eliaw Main topics discussed: 1. How to raise for first time founders 2. The secret behind finding unicorns like @coinbase @RobinhoodApp #slush2025

Next up on our 10-minute Founders & Builders specials 👇 Tom Wehmeier @atomico #slush2025

Who should join us next? Drop your suggestions below 👇

Awesome to chat with @gabepereyra on the future of AI in legal at @SlushHQ @harvey @Joewearofficial #slush2025

@Joewearofficial 👉 Do you think we’ll ever fully crack realistic human AI? In this clip, you’ll hear: 1. The science behind the Uncanny Valley 2. Why ‘almost perfect’ feels worse than unrealistic 3. The biggest challenge in creating digital humans

Will AI rewrite the future of film? 🎬 Yaron Inger is the co-founder and CTO of Lightricks - the company behind FaceTune, one of the most downloaded creative apps in history, now evolving into AI video with LTXV, an open-source foundation model for filmmakers and creators. In this episode, Yaron breaks down what it really takes to build products people love, why video AI is accelerating so fast, and where the future of storytelling is headed. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:15 Yaron’s journey 05:40 Early Lightricks vision 09:10 Facetune breakthrough 12:35 Creativity vs tech 16:20 Scaling creator tools 19:55 Product intuition 24:10 Building LTXV 27:45 AI video today 31:20 The realism problem 35:05 Open source moment 39:30 Community collaboration 43:15 AI in Hollywood 47:50 Cost to create video 52:30 The future of storytelling Enjoy the episode! #ai #aifilm #tech

@Joewearofficial The unfair advantage every founder wants In this clip, you’ll hear: 1. Why a founder intro hits different to a VC intro 2. The power of getting industry insiders in your corner 3. Why strategic alliances open doors cold outreach never will

Hussein Kanji backed Deliveroo at seed, before they had any riders He backed Darktrace before AI security was a trend ... and took both to IPO In this episode of Founders & Builders, we cover how to find generational startups before anyone else does 👇 – How to see what others miss (before the press and the hype) – AI, regulation & trillion-dollar deep tech bets – The brutal lessons from his biggest misses Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:52 The birth of Hoxton Ventures 02:47 Europe’s first wave of VC funds 05:41 Finding the next breakout founder 08:52 Winner-take-all markets 11:40 What great outcomes look like 12:26 The deals that got away 13:24 Deep tech and rare earth minerals 18:57 Building networks and expert circles 28:13 Lessons from 12 years of VC 29:41 Why founders must expand to the US 35:22 What early-stage founders get wrong 41:29 How to build a fund 42:52 Why social signalling matters 45:25 The balance between conviction and consensus 54:45 How to make better decisions as a fund The latest Founders & Builders episode with @hkanji and @HoxtonVentures 👇

@Joewearofficial Full episode with Hussein Kanji out now on all platforms. 👉 Be honest, are too many founders chasing investors over impact?

@Joewearofficial The European Founders Who Cracked The US Market🇺🇸 In this clip, you’ll hear: How UiPath, Hugging Face, and Darktrace scaled globally Full episode with Hussein Kanji out now on all platforms. 👉 Which European startup do you think will be next to go global? #tech

YouTube 👉 youtu.be/yyQOhMl0cKM?si… Spotify 👉 open.spotify.com/episode/4XHN4T…

What if Europe’s next billion-dollar startup isn’t born in Silicon Valley, but in London, Berlin or Stockholm? 🎧 Full episode with Hussein Kanji is out now on Founders and Builders. Links in comments 👇 #startups #venturecapital #AI #deeptech

What if starting a biotech company felt like starting a SaaS company? 👉 Do you think biotech should be run like software?

Why validation without sales is a dangerous trap ⚠️ 👉 Do you agree that the only true validation is money in the bank?

What if you could validate your startup idea in days, not years - and know if it’s worth building before you waste your time (and sanity) on it? #startups #AI #data #founders #YC #consulting