Podcasts by Sit Down Startup

[$100M+ raised] How to get product-market fit validation without an MVP from 2023-12-06T16:47:12

Sit Down Startup is back with Arjun Narayan, founder of Materialize, who shares how they nearly hit product-market fit before their MVP was ready! Host Adam O'Donnell dives into Arjun'...

[$217M raised] Stop convincing prospects and find the ones who get it: Sentry’s Founder, David Cramer from 2023-11-08T16:19:59

In this new episode of Sit Down Startup, Adam interviews Sentry's founder David Cramer, who shares insights from his illustrious journey that led to successfully raising $217 million. Tune in as...

Arc’s $181M Success: Unity-Led-Growth with Founder, Don Muir from 2023-10-25T15:15:18

In this week's episode of Sit Down Startup, get to know Donald Muir, the creator and driving force behind Arc, a digital bank crafted for the tech-savvy crowd. As an experienced business leader ...

Bootstrapped to $40M and then raised $125M? Slice’s Founder, Ilir Sela from 2023-10-04T15:57:57

Join us for the latest episode of Sit Down Startup! Anyone want to order a pizza? You're in luck. This week's guest Ilir Sela is the founder and CEO of Slice, a platform that "builds innovative ...

[$150M raised] OpenStore’s Co-Founder, Jeremy Wood: Building the Right Engine: Overcoming Doubts from 2023-09-06T16:16:07

Jeremy Wood's solution, OpenStore, offers these founders the option to sell their businesses or have OpenStore operate and run the stores on their behalf. This innovative approach has not only p...

[$200M+ Raised] Self-Doubt & Worry to Thriving Through Startup Challenges; Electric.ai's Founder, Ryan Denehy from 2023-08-24T19:48:35

Ryan Denehy discussed the importance of overcoming self-doubt in the early stages of a startup. He shares his own experiences, practical advice, and data-driven insights that can help founders n...

The Founder-led Content Formula; Atrium’s Founder Pete Kazanjy from 2023-08-09T16:14:55

Atrium, a software company co-founded by Pete Kazanjy in 2016, has achieved more business success with fewer Sales Development Representatives (SDRs). This accomplishment can be credited to thei...

[$1.2B Val] Epidemic Sound's Founder, Oscar Hoglund: Overcoming Gov Regulations & Launching A Marketplace from 2023-07-26T15:31:46

The success of Epidemic Sound, a platform for content creators and music artists, is a testament to the skill, and creativity of Oscar Hoglund and his team. Despite the numerous legal and financ...

Tailscale's $113M Success: Developer-Led-Growth from 2023-07-13T21:32:24

Tailscale has been a huge success, raising over $113 million and growing to 80 employees. They discovered that if developers love the product, they will tell their decision makers in their organ...

[$161M Raised] From Series A Struggles to 400 Employees: LinkSquares' Growth Strategies with Founder Vishal Sunak from 2023-06-21T15:17:08

Vishal Sunak, Founder of LinkSquares, shares his journey of building software for legal teams. Listen as he speaks to Sit Down Startup's host Adam O'Donnell about raising $161 million ...

Bootstrapped to $100M+ Exit: Pardot’s Founder, David Cummings' Startup Journey from 2023-06-07T16:16:27

Join Adam O'Donnell on Sit Down Startup as he sits down with David Cummings, the founder of Pardot, which eventually sold to Salesforce. In this episode, they discuss pivoting from unsuccessful ...

Instacart's Former Chief Growth Officer; Building a Successful ML Startup: Anomalo's, Founder, Elliot Shmukler from 2023-05-24T15:39:57

Adam O'Donnell sits down with Elliot Shmukler, former Chief Growth Officer at Instacart and co-founder of Anomalo, to discuss the challenges data teams face in detecting and solving data quality...

$0 to 100M ARR in 18-months: Revolutionizing Cloud Security With Base Thinking; Wiz’s Co-Founder, Ami Luttwak from 2023-05-10T15:22:30

Welcome to the Sit Down Startup podcast, where host Adam O'Donnell interviews entrepreneurs and startup founders about their inspirational stories.

In this episode, Adam brings in Listen

($155M raised) Glean’s Founder, Arvind Jain: How to close enterprise deals from day one from 2023-04-26T16:10:16

Glean was founded in 2019 as an AI-powered workplace search engine aimed at helping people browse through their company apps to find the information they need and boost productivity. S...

Bootstrapped to nearly $100M exit to Citrix; Jesse Lipson; knowing when to ignore the “smart” advisors vs. just building from 2023-03-29T15:09:59

Jesse Lipson initially thought he would become a philosophy professor — until he took a job with a startup that changed his career path. After founding his first company Sharefile in 2...

[$271M raised] Frubana’s Founding Engineer, now board member, Daniel Bilbao; GTM tactics for $0 - $1M from 2023-03-22T15:23:25

During Truora’s first year, they raised no money. Four years later, this customer-engagement and WhatsApp-first startup has come a long way, with 8M USD in ARR, 14M USD in revenue, and...

Backed by a16z, Virtually Human Studio’s Co-Founder, Chris Ebeling: Building with community, listening vs. letting them lead from 2023-03-08T16:25:12

When Chris Ebeling co-founded entertainment company Virtually Human back in 2018, Blockchain was just becoming popular. Since then, the company has raised $21M+ and their online horse ...

Zapier’s Founder: scalable growth strategies from 2023-03-01T16:27:10

Zapier has one mission: to help companies use automation to connect tools and apps so data can automatically move between them. The business was founded in 2012 and their remote team h...

[$0 - IPO] Braze’s Founder, Mark Ghermezian; knowing when to pivot & the power of persistence from 2023-02-22T16:22:24

Back in 2008, when mobile apps were the talk of the town, Mark Ghermezian had an idea: build a bridge between app developers and users. That was the seed for Braze, a customer engageme...

Talkdesk & Cleverly Co-Founder: Cristina Fonseca - Product obsessed, 5-min rule & not being distracted by competition from 2023-02-15T16:20:44

Cristina Fonseca, our very own VP of Product, knows a thing or two about being a founder. She has set up two companies specializing in CX: Talkdesk, back in 2011 (right after college!)...

[$396M Raised] Nailing pitch-market-fit? Eightfold AI’s CEO, Ashutosh Garg from 2023-02-09T16:51:41

When Ashutosh Garg founded talent intelligence platform Eightfold AI in 2016, he had one clear goal in mind: to help businesses hire and retain the best professionals out there. The co...

[0-IPO] Yext’s Founder, Howard Lerman: key to building a lasting company from 2023-01-25T16:29:17

Howard Lerman founded tech company Yext in 2006, recording revenues of $100M during his final quarter as CEO. In November 2022, he started building his next proje...

[$0-IPO] Shift’s Co-Founder, Toby Russell; knowing when to pivot DESPITE having product-market-fit?! from 2022-11-16T16:13:45

In 2013, e-commerce platform Shift set out with one simple mission: to make car sales and purchases a seamless experience. The company began accelerating in late ...

[$600M+ raised] Deel’s Founder, Alex Bouaziz: pivoting with conviction from 2022-10-26T15:16:36

Founded in 2019 with the goal of offering a simple solution for hiring freelancers and contractors internationally, Deel pivoted just a week before demo day. They...

[$1.6B val] Mercury’s Founder, Immad Akhund; rapid growth via word of mouth from 2022-10-19T15:06:24

Mercury, a banking service for startups, was launched in 2019 but their business idea had been brewing since 2013. Mercury has now grown to 357 employees and tens...

[$1.2B val] Pilot’s CEO, Waseem Daher; knowing where to stay in the weeds from 2022-10-12T15:29:29

Founded in 2017, Pilot is a platform that offers bookkeeping, tax and CFO services for growing businesses. From a team of 10 to now 400, Pilot helps thousands of ...

[Acquired by Apple] Beats by Dre’s Omar Johnson on building a brand and standing out from 2022-09-28T15:34:57

In 2010, Beats by Dre saw a huge opportunity to pivot and make a mark. They were able to uniquely combine the world of sports and music in a way people hadn’t see...

[$70M+ raised] Origin’s Matt Watson on finding clarity to target problems from 2022-09-21T15:45:22

In only three years, financial planning company Origin grew from 20 to more than 150 employees and raised over 70 million USD. While only beginning their journey,...

[$194M raised] Bizzabo’s Alon Alroy on pivoting early and fast from 2022-09-14T15:18:27

In March 2020, everything stopped for events company Bizzabo. So they quickly pivoted and designed a new product for the times we were living in — pairing in-pers...

[3M+ users] BharatAgri’s Founder, Sai Gole: micro influencers as a GTM channel from 2022-09-07T15:40:42

BharatAgri began as a college project back in 2015 and came to reality when they launched in 2017. Since then, the company has stuck to their mission of being the...

[$98M raised] Paystand’s Founder, Jeremy Almond; meet them where they are > selling a cool tech idea from 2022-08-31T15:42:54

When digital B2B payment service Paystand launched in 2013, it had one mission: to democratize commercial payments. Today, the company has over 400,000 businesses...

[$164M+ Raised] Aisera’s Muddu Sudhakar on fundraising the right way from 2022-08-24T15:36:52

Since launching in late 2017, AI service experience startup Aisera successfully raised over $164M from VCs such as Zoom, Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital and N...

[Ukrainian Founder] Fuel Finance’s Alyona Mysko; growth during a war from 2022-06-29T15:40:36

It’s been a rocky two years since Ukrainian cloud-based financial company Fuel Finance opened their doors. In 2022, they faced the toughest challenge yet — the in...

[$LFLY] Leafly’s Founder, Cy Scott - don’t hack everything & knowing which battles to fight from 2022-06-22T15:49:42

This week Adam sat down with Cy Scott, Co-Founder of Leafly — think Yelp, but for cannabis — now a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ ($LFLY).  Listen

[$73M+ Raised] Pair Eyewear’s Nathan Kondamuri - customer discovery & GTM wins from 2022-06-15T15:24:48

When Pair Eyewear first started, their focus was on making glasses a fun and dynamic accessory for kids. Today, they provide frames for everyone and employ over 9...

Carrot Fertility’s Tammy Sun on knowing your business inside and out from 2022-06-08T16:44:54

Tammy Sun co-founded Carrot Fertility in 2016 with a mission to provide personalized fertility benefits for everyone, regardless of age, race, sexual orientation,...

Swag.com’s Jeremy Parker on targeting the top from the get-go from 2022-06-01T16:09:35

Jeremy Parker made the unusual switch from documentary filmmaker to entrepreneur in 2007 and hasn’t looked back. Since then, he founded promotional product platfo...

[$6.5B Exit] Auth0’s Founder, Eugenio Pace on prioritizing people over segments from 2022-05-25T15:37:08

At the age of 42, Eugenio Pace was a late bloomer in the startup game. But he more than made up for lost time when he built up identity authentication platform Au...

Modern Health’s Alyson Watson on staying focused when navigating changes from 2022-05-18T15:27:33

Modern Health first opened its virtual doors in 2017 and has since grown to 400 employees — experiencing a surge in demand as a result of changing perceptions tow...

[$4.2B Valuation] Outreach’s Founder & CEO, Manny Medina on nailing the basics from 2022-05-11T17:48:24

When sales software company Outreach began back in 2014, there were three people making the amount of sales a team of 20 would. Today, they have 1,000 employees a...

DocSend’s Russ Heddleston on the importance of getting product pricing right from 2022-05-04T16:25:10

Since launching at New York’s TechCrunch Disrupt back in 2014, DocSend was acquired by Dropbox in March 2021 and has brought on over 20,000 customers. In our Seas...

Jane Technologies’ Socrates Rosenfeld on industry building from 2022-03-30T23:11:57

Since 2015, Jane Technologies has been revolutionizing the world of e-commerce, providing a channel for cannabis businesses to get their product directly to consu...

Sense360’s Eli Portnoy on getting the most from your data and the power of cold-reach email from 2022-03-16T19:03:35

Founded in 2014 and acquired by Medallia in September 2020, Sense360 offers businesses clearer insights on customer behavior through data. We met for a virtual ch...

OLO (NYSE) Founder&CEO Noah Glass talks about segmentation&the demonstration effect from 2022-03-09T20:35:08

After 16.5 years in business and a half a billion-dollar IPO, Olo still has that “day-one energy” and lives by its original vision: to enable restaurants to meet ...

ZoomInfo’s CEO, Henry Schuck; Prioritizing Go-to-market-fit&Getting to $800M ARR from 2022-03-02T11:26:02

Over the past five years, ZoomInfo has grown 10X to an $800 million dollar run rate business with over 3,000 employees and 25,000 customers. We sat down with Founder...

ZFW’s Madhav Kasturia on pandemic pivots from 2021-11-16T14:57:05

Going from a small takeout store to a hyperlocal fulfillment platform in 6 years, ZFW Hospitality has a story to tell. We spoke with their Founder, Madhav Kasturia — one of India’s youngest seri...

Accion’s Matt Schaar on building a financially inclusive world from 2021-11-09T10:26:09

Accion Venture Lab provides support to early-stage startups looking to tackle financial exclusion around the world. Zendesk’s Adam O’Donnell sat down with Accion’s Senior Director Matt Schaar fo...

Guava’s Kelly Ifill on helping Black owned businesses to close the wealth gap from 2021-11-02T07:00

Guava is a banking hub for Black entrepreneurs, aimed at closing the wealth gap. CEO & Founder, Kelly Ifill has a virtual coffee chat with Adam about: 

• Authenticity in startups
...
Listen

$469M Raised, Capchase’s CEO, Miguel Fernandez on funding startups with future revenue from 2021-10-26T09:57:24

Rapidly expanding Fintech company, Capchase, partners with startups to help them tap into upfront capital in order to grow. Zendesk’s Adam O’Donnell and Capchase CEO & Co-Founder Miguel Fernande...

ERA’s Jonathan Axelrod on prioritizing the customer for growth from 2021-10-19T09:05:49

Combining seed capital and hands-on support, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator has gained the title of NYC’s top technology accelerator and early-stage venture...

Ada’s Mike Murchison on scaling customer experience from 2021-10-12T20:43:16

Using AI as fuel, Ada equips companies with everything they need to make personalized customer experiences at scale. And all without the help of an engineer. Co-F...

Pachama’s Diego Saez Gil on building startups that make a true difference from 2021-10-05T15:11:18

Pachama is on a mission to remove carbon from the atmosphere — with the aim of pro...

Lang.ai’s Jorge Peñalva on powering customer experience with AI from 2021-09-28T16:04:43

Lang.ai is a no code AI platform designed to help CX teams automate repetitive tasks. This startup is breaking the stereotype that AI is built for engineers by en...

Highlights episode: Making it through a pandemic from 2021-07-28T11:27:45

In this episode, we reflect on how two startups navigated a rocky year. Our hosts, Pedro Muller and Tara McCann, handpick their favorite moments with past guests ...

Live episode: Creating the future of skin health from 2021-06-22T06:00

In our first episode recorded on Clubhouse, we invited the Co-Founders of OneSkin onto the show. OneSkin develops products ...

Product School’s Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia on unifying product with customer experience from 2021-05-25T10:18:02

Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia is the CEO and Founder of Product School, the global leader in product management training. Since 2014, the community has grown t...

Kaizo’s Christoph Auer-Welsbach on hacking Zendesk Marketplace from 2021-05-18T07:00

Christoph is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of performance management platform, Kaizo. An entrepreneur and investor with a passion for ecological innovation, he’s also...

Atman’s Pedro Sorren on inevitable founders from 2021-05-11T07:00

Pedro Sorren is the founder of Atman, an early-stage venture capital firm. The firm has seeded category-defining companies, like Coinbase, Instacart, GitLab, and ...

Finimize’s Max Rofagha on becoming your own financial advisor from 2021-05-04T07:00

Finimize is working on making finance a breeze. The London-based startup gives people information and tools that empower them to make smarter decisions about fina...

Alexis Ohanian on the reality of venture from 2021-04-27T19:41:42

Alexis Ohanian is best known as the co-founder of Reddit. But his impact goes far beyond the iconic website. He was an early stage investor in Coinbase, a partner at Y combinator, and is now the fo...

bud.com’s Justin Hall on making it in a fresh industry from 2021-04-20T06:30

In 2019, legal cannabis business sales hit an all-time high of $12 billion. In this episode, get insights on being the first in a fresh industry. Hear Justin Hall...

Unstack’s Grant Deken on helping businesses be digital-first from 2021-04-13T07:00

Unstack is a no-code marketing platform for startups. It aims to replace systems like WordPress with all the tools that teams need to win in the digital economy. ...

Defy’s Madison McIlwain on breaking into venture capital from 2021-04-06T07:30

Defy is an early-stage focused venture fund based in Silicon Valley. In this episode, Madison McIlwain, a Partner at Defy, ...

Vindi’s Rodrigo Dantas on finding success in emerging markets from 2021-03-30T07:30

Vindi is a leader in payment solutions in Brazil. The startup was one of the first SaaS businesses in Brazil, and was recently acquired when it hit $33 million in...

Mary Louise Cosmetics’ Akilah Releford on following good ideas from 2021-03-23T07:30

Mary Louise Cosmetics is a natural and organic skincare brand. Founded in 2017, CEO, Akilah Releford, was inspired by many of the homemade beauty remedies used by...

Dispatch Goods’ Lindsey Hoell on building sustainable solutions from 2021-03-16T07:30

Dispatch Goods is a zero-waste alternative for restaurant delivery. The startup provides reusable to-go containers for rest...

(Live episode) How to find your product market fit from 2021-03-09T07:30

Everyone knows the value of understanding your product market fit. But getting there is never straightforward. For this live episode, we’re delighted to share a r...

Wavy’s Victor Lebeau on helping beauty services scale from 2021-03-02T07:30

Wavy aims to bring simplicity to hair and beauty salons. It’s a simplified cash register app and booking app solution that gets to the heart of what counts: savin...

LeaseQuery’s George Azih on making accounting easy from 2021-02-23T07:30

LeaseQuery is a cloud-based lease accounting software. Its CEO and Founder, George Azih, took the idea from a one-person startup to a thriving company with 180 em...

Freshly’s Michael Wystrach on the future of food from 2021-02-16T07:30

Freshly is a meal delivery service that not only provides nutritious meals, but cares about reducing the food waste caused by the grocery supply chain. In this ep...

TravelNest’s Rebecca Moore on strong leadership in times of flux from 2021-02-09T08:46:33

TravelNest is on a mission to reinvent the way hosts market their rental properties. The Edinburgh-based startup solves the problem of low occupancy by improving ...

Ameelio’s Uzoma Orchingwa on changing the future of prison communications from 2021-02-02T08:00

In 2020, a couple of bright and compassionate Yale students decided to do something about the captive $1.2B prisons telecommunications industry. They founded tech...

Raheem’s Brandon D. Anderson on using AI to end police violence from 2021-01-26T08:00

In the United States, 93% of people who experienced police brutality, but did not report it. The independent service, Raheem, is working to change that. Raheem bu...

Novo’s Michael Rangel on building a customer-centric Fintech from 2021-01-18T16:40:46

Listen

Code for America’s Amanda Renteria on bringing startup values to government from 2021-01-12T15:50:30

Code for America believes the two biggest levers for improving people’s lives at scale are technology and government. Since 2011, the non-profit organization has ...

Software taking over the world: (Bonus live episode) from 2020-10-22T09:32:14

In 2020, Forbes Cloud 100 list is at its most impressive, with a record 87 companies valued at $1 billion or more. In this episode, we sit down (virtually) for a ...

Software taking over the world: (Bonus live episode) from 2020-10-22T09:32:14

In 2020, Forbes Cloud 100 list is at its most impressive, with a record 87 companies valued at $1 billion or more. In this episode, we sit down (virtually) for a ...

Lessonly’s Max Yoder on doing better work from 2020-08-28T12:30:20

Lessonly is powerfully simple software that helps teams learn. Co-Founder and CEO Max Yoder chats with Zendesk’s Tiffany Apczynski  on all things empathy. They ex...

Lessonly’s Max Yoder on doing better work from 2020-08-28T12:30:20

Lessonly is powerfully simple software that helps teams learn. Co-Founder and CEO Max Yoder chats with Zendesk’s Tiffany Apczynski  on all things empathy. They ex...

Mindler’s Magnus Pettersson on scaling a fast-growth startup from 2020-08-28T12:30:07

Mindler believes that everyone should have access to mental health services. In this episode, Mindler COO, Magnus Pettersson sits down with Zendesk’s Warren Levit...

Mindler’s Magnus Pettersson on scaling a fast-growth startup from 2020-08-28T12:30:07

Mindler believes that everyone should have access to mental health services. In this episode, Mindler COO, Magnus Pettersson sits down with Zendesk’s Warren Levit...

CodeSignal’s Sophie Baik on hiring with less bias from 2020-08-17T09:53:07

CodeSignal is the first company to build an objective skills-based platform for recruiters and employers. In this episode, Co-Founder, Sophie Baik, chats with Rya...

CodeSignal’s Sophie Baik on hiring with less bias from 2020-08-17T09:53:07

CodeSignal is the first company to build an objective skills-based platform for recruiters and employers. In this episode, Co-Founder, Sophie Baik, chats with Rya...

Zenni Optical’s Bai Gan on how customers influence product from 2020-08-17T09:52:51

Zenni Optical’s Chief Product Officer, Bai Gan, sits down with Kristen Durham of Zendesk—from their remote home offices in California. The pair chat about Zenni O...

Zenni Optical’s Bai Gan on how customers influence product from 2020-08-17T09:52:51

Zenni Optical’s Chief Product Officer, Bai Gan, sits down with Kristen Durham of Zendesk—from their remote home offices in California. The pair chat about Zenni O...

Lemlist's Guillaume Moubeche and why CX is everyones job from 2020-07-24T08:33:30

Lemlist is an email outreach platform helping sales teams, agencies, and B2B businesses stand out in a crowded inbox. Speaking across the pond, France-based CEO a...

Lemlist's Guillaume Moubeche and why CX is everyones job from 2020-07-24T08:33:30

Lemlist is an email outreach platform helping sales teams, agencies, and B2B businesses stand out in a crowded inbox. Speaking across the pond, France-based CEO a...

Glofox’s Anthony Kelly on the rise of the Chief Customer Officer from 2020-07-24T08:33:09

Anthony Kelly is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Glofox, an intuitive gym management software solution, which enables entrepreneurs to grow their own...

Glofox’s Anthony Kelly on the rise of the Chief Customer Officer from 2020-07-24T08:33:09

Anthony Kelly is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Glofox, an intuitive gym management software solution, which enables entrepreneurs to grow their own...

Episode 3: Tymeshift’s Elisa Reggiardo on the value of support leaders from 2020-06-30T17:59:47

Tymeshift’s Chief Brand Officer, Elisa Reggiardo, sits down with Zendesk’s Senior Director of Content and Event Marketing, Sarah Reed. While continents apart, the pair catch up on: 

Why su...

Tymeshift’s Elisa Reggiardo on the value of support leaders from 2020-06-30T15:59:47

Tymeshift’s Chief Brand Officer, Elisa Reggiardo, sits down with Zendesk’s Senior Director of Content and Event Marketing, Sarah Reed. While continents apart, the...

Episode 2: Startup Grind’s Derek Andersen on virtual C2C strategy from 2020-06-30T10:23:29

Derek Andersen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Startup Grind, a global community for educating and connecting entrepreneurs. He chats with Marcio Arnecke, Zendesk’s VP of Regional Marketing AMER, on t...

Startup Grind’s Derek Andersen on virtual C2C strategy from 2020-06-30T08:23:29

Derek Andersen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Startup Grind, a global community for educating and connecting entrepreneurs. He chats with Marcio Arnecke, Zendesk’s ...

Episode 1: Aura’s James Gutierrez on empathy as secret sauce from 2020-06-26T16:52:32

Aura Founder and CEO, James Gutierrez, sits down with Zendesk CFO, Elena Gomez, to share Aura’s mission to provide affordable, credit-building loans to working families in America.

Aura’s James Gutierrez on empathy as secret sauce from 2020-06-26T14:52:32

Aura Founder and CEO, James Gutierrez, sits down with Zendesk CFO, Elena Gomez, to share Aura’s mission to provide affordable, credit-building loans to working fa...

Aura’s James Gutierrez on empathy as secret sauce from 2020-06-26T14:52:32

Aura Founder and CEO, James Gutierrez, sits down with Zendesk CFO, Elena Gomez, to share Aura’s mission to provide affordable, credit-building loans to working fa...