The Startup Podcast

Follow Applied Wizardry on its new feed to keep getting every episode. Dave Slutzkin, co-founder of Antiburn, joins Yaniv to break down what actually drives token costs in agentic development and how to bring them down. They cover how caching differs between Anthropic and OpenAI, when to reach for which model and thinking mode, and why the habit of compaction matters more than any other optimisation. If you're spending real money on AI-assisted development, you'll come away with concrete tactics for cutting token burn without cutting capability. Key takeaways Context window depth is the dominant driver of token cost; compacting actively at 200,000-300,000 tokens matters more than any other single action. Cache expiry behaviour differs materially between providers: Anthropic's cache expires at exactly 1 hour, OpenAI's Codex cache is best-effort and often drops in 5-20 minutes, but OpenAI subscriptions do not charge for cache writes while Anthropic subscriptions effectively do through quota. Using a frontier model with a simple prompt to delegate to cheaper subagents is a practical pattern that balances capability and cost without requiring complex harness engineering. High thinking modes often produce worse results than medium or low because models overthink, invent requirements, and fix unrelated bugs; the benchmark sweet spot is typically medium. Skills files, MCPs, auto-memories, and system prompts silently bloat context windows; regular clean-up every month or two reduces both cost and quality degradation. Fast mode costs 2.5x per token but can improve output quality through tighter interaction loops; it is best used deliberately rather than left on by default. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:38 The Token Burn Problem 03:12 Three Stages of Adoption 07:03 Model Choices Multiplying 11:14 The Cardinal Mistake: Depth 18:13 Worst-Case Usage Patterns 22:13 Picking Models by Feel 30:23 Thinking Modes and Overthinking 35:23 Fast Mode Trade-offs 48:46 Caching: Anthropic vs OpenAI 52:29 Context Window Ceiling 56:32 Cleaning Up Context Bloat 56:46 Where to Find Dave Links and tools mentioned Antiburn: https://antiburn.com Anthropic Claude: https://www.anthropic.com OpenAI Codex: https://openai.com/codex Harvey: https://www.harvey.ai Legora: https://legora.com About Dave Slutzkin Co-founder of Antiburn, a company that helps developers understand and optimise their token spend for AI-assisted coding. This episode is presented by SparkLaunch and Dam Secure. SparkLaunch ( https://sparklaunch.io/wizardry ): Applied Wizardry listeners get an extra 20% off. Dam Secure ( https://damsecure.ai/wizardry ): Applied Wizardry listeners get their first month free. Credits Justin McArthur, Executive Producer and Video Editor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur/ Steph Hefferan, Editor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/

After nearly 300 episodes of The Startup Podcast, Chris Saad is bringing everything he's learned about building world-class products and product strategy into a single tool: ScaleStudio. In what may be our final episode (unless a white knight sponsor appears), Chris walks Yaniv through the product that could fundamentally change how founders approach strategy; from problem statement all the way to positioning, roadmap sequencing, and org design. Chris demonstrates how this one AI tool, housing his vast knowledge of Silicon Valley startup strategy, can give an overwhelming process a navigable structure, allowing founders to plot a deliberate course through the chaos. In this episode, you will: Discover how Scale Studio turns Chris's 30 years of product strategy expertise into an AI tool that guides you from problem statement through to roadmap and positioning See the complete strategy development workflow in action: from mapping all possible problem domains and solutions, to building the org structure required to execute Learn why mapping the entire solution space upfront prevents the "thrash" that derails most startups when customer requests pull the team in conflicting directions Understand the customer terrain framework that reveals which customer segments are easy wins and which are death traps, allowing you to carve the narrowest viable wedge into your market See how Scale Studio integrates with your development workflow through exports and MCP connections, turning high-level strategy into actionable execution roadmaps Explore how AI can now handle the heavy lifting of strategy generation and iteration in around an hour, while keeping guardrails in place to maintain quality and coherence across every section Timestamps 00:14 On Today's Show: The Last Startup Podcast? 01:39 Turning Our Advice Into A Product (ScaleStudio) 03:18 Homepage And Templates 04:40 Problem Statement 05:36 Copilot And Collaboration 08:10 Solutions And Editing 09:49 'How It Works' Stage 11:22 Building Strategy From Seed 13:32 Mapping The Solution Space 18:53 Customer Segments and Personas 20:46 Wedges And Customer Terrain 23:07 Customer Roadmap View 26:32 Org Design 28:03 How Does AI Change Hiring? 31:18 Roadmap To Unlocking Cohorts 33:51 Market Sizing 37:25 Planning the Future of ScaleStudio… in ScaleStudio? 39:08 The Future of Agentic Orgs 42:11 Closing Thoughts: 4 Years of TSP Resources mentioned in this episode ScaleStudio (Chris’s AI-powered product strategy tool): https://scalestudio.io/ Vera (Yaniv's Startup): https://vera.guide The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us on YouTube for full video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@startup-podcast Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

A few weeks ago, Rob Snyder came on the pod to introduce his PULL framework for identifying real product-market fit. Now, Yaniv turns the tables and subjects his own startup, Vera, to the same scrutiny. Yaniv and Rob strip away the noise around Vera's mission to help adult children care for aging parents and get brutally honest about where the product actually has pull, where it doesn't, and what needs to change immediately. They identify a specific, unavoidable moment in the customer journey and pinpoint that is where the real business begins, and discuss more macro issues, such as AI vs. human expertise, founder blind spots, and more. In this episode, you will: Understand the difference between an aspiration and a project, and why this distinction is vital for PULL Learn how the PULL framework cuts through startup theory to identify the exact moment when customers will actually pull your product from your hands, before they have to wait for a crisis Discover why Vera's original problem was too abstract, and how narrowing to a specific market segment with intense, unavoidable need becomes your path to revenue and growth Hear the truth behind what really pushes your customers to adopt earlier: reality does the convincing, not your marketing Understand the challenge of reputation in AI: how do human-shaped applications build trust the way human experts do? Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up 01:38 On Today's Show: Yaniv Applies PULL to Vera 04:42 Defining PULL and Projects 05:54 Vera's Customer Goals 08:00 Unavoidable Moments and Crisis 11:25 Real Users and Traction 16:58 Mission vs Push Marketing 24:07 Why Isn't Google Enough? 28:21 Nailing the Specific Project 34:02 Testing Market With Ads 37:06 Bill Gates And AI Shift 38:47 Human Shaped Software Design 43:45 Trust And Reputation In Bots 48:48 About The Book Resources mentioned in this episode The Power of Pull by Rob Snyder: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Pull-Customer-Successful-Founders/dp/1541705955 Rob Snyder's website: https://www.robsnyder.org Vera (Yaniv's startup helping families care for aging parents): https://vera.guide Club Sandwich, Vera's podcast and community for the sandwich generation: https://clubsandwich.community What the sandwich generation is (and why it's Vera's market): https://clubsandwich.community/sandwich-generation The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us on YouTube for full video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@startup-podcast Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean and memorable name, go to https://⁠get.tech/tsp This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

This is a remastered Replay of one of our most popular episodes, "What Startups Can Learn From Poker", which was originally published on 21 December 2022. Enjoy! Original description: All season, Chris and Yaniv have talked about the mindset that is needed to succeed at venture-backed startups. For the final episode of Season 1, we tie it all together with an analogy: tournament poker. It is amazing how many things poker and startups have in common, so in this episode we use the lens of poker to discuss the big picture of how to approach building a successful startup. We dive into each of the following commonalities between poker and startup life: 01:56 Playing an iterative game 10:00 Burning cash 13:31 Making decisions based on uncertain information 18:46 Progressive learning 28:44 Avoiding 'resulting' 35:02 The relatively low probability of a successful outcome (and why that’s OK!) This episode was inspired by the book 'Thinking in Bets' by former pro poker player Annie Duke. The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us on YouTube for full video episodes: @startup-podcast Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean and memorable name, go to https://⁠get.tech/tsp The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/ #TheStartupPodcast #startups #poker #texasholdem #investment #venturecapital #resulting #probability #ChrisSaad #YanivBernstein

Is hiring a person still your default answer to a problem? For a growing number of startups, it shouldn't be. In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein is joined by returning guest Matt Cook, co-founder of Scouut, one of Australia's most respected engineering recruiters for early-stage startups, to unpack what's changed in engineering hiring since Matt's last visit. They cover ‘team debt’ (the AI-era sequel to tech debt), why AI is acting as an appetite suppressant for headcount, why the best engineers are now worth $400K+, and why the ‘software factory builder’ is becoming the most sought-after hire in tech. In this episode, you will: Understand "team debt", and why teams built to solve today's problems are already becoming obsolete Learn why "removing the crutch" (like scrapping a QA gating function) forces the kind of AI-native change that timid, incremental adjustments never will Discover why most startups were already overstaffed before AI, and why AI now acts as an ‘appetite suppressant’ for hiring rather than just an efficiency tool Hear why hiring should now be treated as a last resort, and what that actually means in practice for founders Understand why compensation banding and headcount-based budgeting are breaking down, and what smart companies are replacing them with Learn about the rise of the ‘software factory builder’: the rare, highly-paid engineer who uses their judgment to build airtight, AI-based infrastructure the rest of the team can lean on Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up... 00:58 On Today's Show: Matt Cook on 'Team Debt' 02:36 What is Team Debt? 05:12 Refocusing on AI Native Solutions 10:40 Unlearning Old Hiring Ladders 12:04 Why Companies Are Oversized 14:59 AI, the 'Corporate Ozempic' 19:25 Layoffs and Team Composition 24:02 Disrupting Yourself at Series B 28:12 The Salary Race for AI Engineers 34:01 Limitations of Headcount Budgeting 38:16 How Downsizing Can Help You Grow 41:13 ClickUp's 'Hail Mary' Pivot 44:26 Software Factory Builders and 'Forward Deployed' Automation 49:14 Maintaining Safe Internal Software 54:25 Closing Thoughts Resources mentioned Scouut (Matt Cook's engineering recruitment firm for early-stage startups): https://scouut.com.au/ Matt Cook on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewmarkcook/ 'Corporate Ozempic' by Scott Galloway — the essay behind the AI/hiring analogy Yaniv references: https://www.profgalloway.com/corporate-ozempic/ The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us on YouTube for full video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@startup-podcast Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean and memorable name, go to https://⁠get.tech/tsp This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Every startup pitch deck has a "why now" slide. Most of them are nonsense, barely considered, and only there to tick a box. But timing is more than a slide, it can make or break a company. It’s the difference between pets.com and the trillion-dollar company selling the exact same idea a decade later. In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein sits down with Paul Orlando, who has built four startup accelerators supporting over 300 companies, including Hong Kong's first accelerator and a program in Rome run in partnership with the Vatican, and has taught entrepreneurship at USC for over a decade, where he also runs one of LA's largest startup incubators. Paul has spent years obsessing over a single question: why do some ideas succeed while near-identical ones fail years earlier? The answer became his book, ‘Why Now? How Good Timing Makes Great Products.’ In this episode, you will: Learn Paul's framework of timing drivers, and the five that show up again and again: technology, social/behavioral change, regulation, installed base, and crisis Walk through the YouTube case study in detail to see how broadband penetration, digital camera adoption, and falling storage costs converged to make 2005 the right year, after the identical idea failed less than a decade earlier Discover why first-mover advantage is much narrower than founders assume, and the two specific conditions (locking in customers, locking out competitors) required for it to actually work Get a framework for balancing founder agency against timing, because you can't will your way into good timing, but you also can't wait passively for the perfect moment to arrive Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up... 01:04 On Today's Show: Why Timing Matters 01:44 Guest Intro: Paul Orlando 02:42 Is 'Why Now' Predictable? 05:40 Paul's Timing Drivers Framework 08:44 Case Study: YouTube's Market Timing 11:47 Business Model Shifts 15:16 Case Study: Pets.com Unit Economics 22:16 Case Study: AI Vibe Coding 24:11 What Are 'Sleeping Beauty' Startups? 27:46 Incorporating AI into Timing Drivers 28:52 Collapse of Build Costs 33:34 Case Study: Vera and Unit Economics of Voice 35:15 False 'Why Now' Risks 37:46 First Mover Reality 40:33 Reid Hoffman on Blitzscaling 41:49 Case Study: AT&T's Picturephone and Mobile Telephony 46:31 Lessons on Failure and Agency 54:09 Closing Thoughts Resources mentioned 'Why Now?: How Good Timing Makes Great Products' by Paul Orlando: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Now-Timing-Makes-Products/dp/B0CYXSNMT3 Paul's website, Startups Unplugged: https://startupsunplugged.com Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/porlando Paul on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/porlando The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us on YouTube for full video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

You’ve done all the research, implemented every startup strategy you could find, but your product just isn’t selling. Where do you start looking for the problem? And how do you identify and implement the solution? In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein sits down with Rob Snyder – serial founder, fellow at Harvard Innovation Labs, operating partner on the venture side, and now author of 'The Power of PULL' – to discuss why most founders have fundamentally misunderstood demand, and how to accurately pinpoint it. In this episode, you will: Understand why pain points and problems alone are not demand, and why customers can have them indefinitely without ever buying anything Learn the PULL framework (Project, Unavoidable, List of options, Limitations): the four conditions that must all be present before a customer will rip a product out of your hands Hear how startup Ruby went from 10 nodding sales calls with no closes to rapid growth, simply by identifying the specific moment when their ICP's project became truly unavoidable Get Rob's two-step pull-based sales script: how to get a prospect to monologue their own pull framework back at you, and how to pitch in a way that fits their world rather than your vision Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up... 00:51 On Today's Show: Rob Snyder on When Sales Works 03:24 Why 'Demand' Is More Than Pain 05:51 What Are Other Frameworks Missing? 12:36 'Vitamins vs. Painkillers' 16:12 What is the PULL Framework?21:07 Case Study: Data Migration (Ruby) 26:04 Case Study: Fundraising (Campground) 29:11 Where Interviews Go Wrong 35:19 Practice Exercise: Rob Sells Yaniv The Book 40:14 Debrief: Why Listening Wins 42:48 How to Spot Real Buying Signals 43:58 Reverse Engineering Fast Deals 47:58 Founder Mindset and Sanity 50:54 Closing Thoughts: "Get Out Of The Building" Resources in this episode The Power of Pull by Rob Snyder: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Pull-Customer-Successful-Founders/dp/1541705955 Rob's website: https://www.robsnyder.org Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1 Rob's Substack, 'The Physics of Startups': https://thephysicsofstartups.substack.com Eric Ries's TSP episode: https://youtu.be/HQ7cP1lGyiM April Dunford's TSP episode: https://youtu.be/QC4cKxlW81s Mark Roberge's TSP episode (also discusses product-market fit): https://youtu.be/j_UeeEn7p9o The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean and memorable name, go to https://⁠get.tech/tsp This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Founders are told that if they work hard, build the right product and hire well, the outcome will follow. It's motivating. It's clean. And according to today's guest, it's mostly wrong. Mike Grossman has been CEO of six venture-backed Silicon Valley companies. Across them, he tried 18 different business models. Twelve failed. Five required layoffs. Three lived in persistent existential crisis. And yet all six were eventually acquired. Mike's story is one that far more founders actually live, but almost nobody tells. In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein sits down with Mike to dig into his new book, Failure Is An Option: a candid 44-essay collection drawn from three decades in the trenches. They explore the uncomfortable truth that luck dominates outcomes more than skill, why your business model is not your business, and how radical honesty is the most underrated leadership tool in a founder's kit. In this episode, you will: Learn about 'resulting': why confusing luck for skill costs founders in both directions Hear how Mike pivoted Tempo from building a Visa/Mastercard competitor to partnering with Mastercard, only to have the entire model wiped out overnight by a Senate amendment Discover the 'dreamers vs soldiers' framework for building teams that hold together when adversity strikes Hear Mike's hard-won playbook for layoffs: why founders almost always cut too little, too late; what day two feels like; and why a smaller, denser team is often more productive Get a clear framework for staying accountable for the process when the outcomes aren't in your control Timestamps: 00:00 Coming Up... 00:34 On Today's Show: Mike Grossman on Managing Failure 02:02 The Role of Luck and Timing 03:41 Poker Strategy and 'Resulting' 08:55 "The Business Model Is Not The Business" 11:27 Tempo's Pivot 13:28 Why Values Matter In A Crisis 19:21 Talent Density and Layoffs: Cut Once, Cut Deep 28:15 How AI Changes Hiring Pace 32:15 Leading with 'Radical Honesty' 36:33 Dreamers vs. Soldiers 38:02 Managing Investors 41:43 Luck, Agency, Process 48:39 About 'Failure Is An Option' 51:29 Closing Thoughts Resources mentioned 'Failure Is An Option' by Mike Grossman: https://www.failureisanoption.com Mike Grossman's Substack: https://failureisanoption.substack.com Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke (the 'resulting' concept discussed): https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355 'Incorruptible' by Eric Ries: https://www.incorruptible.co/ Eric Ries's TSP episode: https://youtu.be/HQ7cP1lGyiM 'Powerful' by Patty McCord: https://www.amazon.com/Powerful-Building-Culture-Freedom-Responsibility/dp/1939714095 Patty McCord's TSP episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BefnNLBEmXA The Durbin Amendment (the legislation that killed Tempo): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durbin_amendment The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@startup-podcast Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

The Startup Podcast is back for its 300th episode – and it’s an absolute doozy. In today’s Reacts, hosts Chris Saad and Yaniv Bernstein break down how Anthropic became the new industry leader in AI, and why betting on coding as the 'meta domain' of AI turned out to be one of the most consequential product decisions of the decade. They also dig into Mythos and the newly released Claude Fable: what makes Fable different, whether it has something approaching genuine intelligence, and what the Anthropic 'strategy dividend' (per Ben Thompson of Stratechery) actually means for the industry. Then: SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO. With a reported valuation of around $1.88 trillion and a prospectus that talks more about AI than rockets, Chris and Yaniv ask the obvious question: is it worth it? In this episode: How product discipline and a bet on coding put Anthropic in front Strategy dividends: how Anthropic's genuine commitment to safety became both a real constraint and a powerful marketing asset at the same time Claude’s new models, Fable and Mythos: what's actually changed? Why Chris thinks the SpaceX IPO at ~90x revenue is a roll-up of Elon Musk's 'dead bodies' Liquidity risk: with SpaceX, Google and Anthropic all raising simultaneously, is there enough liquidity in the market? Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up... 00:39 On Today's Show: Chris returns, Anthropic’s Mythos/Fable, SpaceX IPO 02:30 Anthropic surges ahead of OpenAI 04:16 Why coding is a 'meta-advantage' for AI 07:24 OpenAI’s product turmoil 11:04 Are OpenAI competing with Anthropic, or Google? 13:25 Anthropic’s enterprise strategy 17:06 Mythos: ‘Safety marketing’ or ‘safety dividends’? 23:24 Are Anthropic the good guys? 26:32 Fable: “Mythos with a muzzle” 28:29 Does AI only need to beat the average human? 31:23 Yaniv’s experiences with Fable 32:46 Reasoning logs and self-correction 34:27 Is SpaceX over-valued? (Yes.) 39:32 SpaceX’s moats and growth potential 43:02 Why ‘second mover advantage’ sometimes wins 46:05 Will there be a crash? Chris predicts a liquiditycrunch 50:31 Closing Thoughts Resources mentioned in this episode Dario Amodei's essay, 'Machines of Loving Grace': https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace Ben Thompson's Stratechery: https://stratechery.com Project Glasswing (Anthropic's restricted Mythos access program): https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing Eric Ries on The Startup Podcast: https://youtu.be/HQ7cP1lGyiM The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us on YouTube for full video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@startup-podcast Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Every founder gets a version of the same advice: don't pick a fight with an entrenched industry. The incumbents have the relationships, the regulatory cover, the deep pockets - you'll bleed out trying. But some of the most interesting companies of the last decade were built ignoring that advice, winning over markets that were nearly impenetrable. In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein is joined by Brandon Weber - co-founder and CEO of Nava Benefits, a Series C-funded AI-powered health benefits brokerage. Before Nava, Brandon co-founded Hightower, a commercial real estate startup that merged with VTS and went on to run over half of all office buildings in the United States. Brandon has now done this twice in two completely different industries, and has developed a repeatable playbook for breaking into entrenched markets and using AI as a structural advantage. Yaniv and Brandon dig into what actually makes a market 'broken', why the entry point needs to be far narrower than most founders think, and how to build the conviction to keep going when a thousand people tell you it won't work. In this episode, you will: Understand the 'burning platform' signal - what makes a market 'broken', but worth spending a years breaking into Learn why your entry point needs to be far narrower than feels comfortable, and how Brandon went from targeting 'the health insurance market' to 'employers with 50-500 employees who can't afford a dedicated benefits team' Hear why 'disrupting from within' is often smarter than disrupting head-on - and how Nava built a broker-shaped entity that the industry's immune system couldn't reject Discover how to design a human-AI system (what Brandon calls a 'cybernetic' service model) where agents handle 80-85% of the work and licensed professionals operate at the top of their license Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up… 00:45 On Today's Show: Brandon Weber on Fixing Broken Industries 01:43 How To Spot Broken Markets 03:59 Why Most Healthcare Startups Fail (Distribution) 05:35 Lessons From Building Hightower and VTS 08:41 How Do We Think Smaller? Finding the 'Narrow Wedge' 10:57 What It Means To 'Disrupt From Within' 16:53 Choosing the ICP 18:35 The Innovator's Dilemma and Moving Upmarket 22:57 Scaling with AI: A Business in Two Phases 26:29 Service as a Software 34:02 Attract and Hire Industry Insiders 36:44 When to Acquire 39:06 Closing Advice Resources mentioned in this episode Nava Benefits (Brandon's company): https://www.navabenefits.com Gary Lo's previous TSP episode: https://youtu.be/jtMgd7Nv_HY The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen (framework discussed at length): https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-Business/dp/0062060244 The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@startup-podcast Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

What if writing software became as easy as taking a selfie? This episode, Yaniv Bernstein sits down with Gary Lo - founder of OpenBA and one of the sharpest AI-and-startups thinkers Yaniv knows - to discuss the concept of 'selfie software': disposable, hyper-personal, AI-generated tools that anyone can create for themselves, with no hand-written code. AI-generated tools like these are changing the startup landscape. While founders now have more tools at their disposal, it's now necessary than ever to create a product that truly disrupts the market. Gary and Yaniv discuss all of this and more, likening Claude and ChatGPT to Windows and Mac, and exploring what this tech landscape means if you're building a software startup today. In this episode, you will: Understand the 'selfie software' concept: why AI is making software disposable, personal, and low-stakes, and what that means for the market you're building in Learn why AI platforms are forcing startups to rethink whether they should build on their own infrastructure or embed into Claude and ChatGPT instead Hear Gary's 'burn it down' exercise: how to identify which parts of your product are genuinely defensible, and which will simply catch fire in the next AI wave Understand why software engineering isn't dead, but the problems worth solving with it have fundamentally shifted Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up... 01:09 On Today's Show: Gary Lo on 'Selfie Software' 02:48 About Gary 03:16 How 'Hyper-Personalized' AI Is Like Photography 05:36 Gary's Real Estate Workflow (OpenBA) 07:29 Defining 'Selfie Software': Why Custom Tools Win 10:33 So... Is It Bad Software? 13:29 'Can’t You Just Add This One Thing...' 15:30 When Personalization Becomes Bloat 17:42 Working In-App with Anthropic and OpenAI APIs 20:29 Token Economics and Moats 25:28 Microsoft's Lessons in Platform Power 30:27 But What If Anthropic Comes For My Vertical? 32:48 How Open Source Keeps AI in Check 35:18 Unlearning and Rebuilding 39:05 Gary's 'Burn It Down' Test 44:01 Is Software Engineering Dead? (No.) 50:17 Closing Thoughts Resources in this episode Gary Lo's previous TSP episode (on OpenClaw and Claude Cowork): https://youtu.be/V3YFghiy8p0 Garry Tan's gstack: https://github.com/garrytan/gstack Andrej Karpathy on Software 2.0: https://karpathy.medium.com/software-2-0-a64152b37c35 Vera (Yaniv's startup, AI-supported guidance for people caring for ageing parents): https://vera.guide The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Most founders set out to build something that matters: a company that’s aligned with their mission, now and forever. But what if the very systems we use to build ‘real’ companies are the thing that corrupts them? In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein is joined by Silicon Valley legend Eric Ries author of the era-defining 'The Lean Startup', founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, and now the author of a provocative new book, 'Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great'. Eric makes the case that corruption is a structural problem, rather than a failing of the people themselves. He walks Yaniv through the ‘financial gravity’ that pulls good companies away from their founders' purpose, and the governance ‘fortresses’ that a small handful of outlier companies (from Costco to Novo Nordisk to Anthropic) have used to stay great. In this episode, you will: Understand ‘financial gravity’ - the force that degrades values, corrupts economic decisions, and reduces long-term outcomes Learn the legend of Sol Price (the father of modern retail behind Costco), and why treating margins as a liability rather than a virtue can be a source of enduring strength Explore the ‘industrial foundation’ model behind century-old giants like Novo Nordisk and Zeiss, and why companies with this structure are roughly 6x more likely to survive to year 50 Hear how Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust shaped its trajectory, and why in the age of AI, trustworthiness is the single most valuable corporate asset Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up... 01:06 On Today's Show: Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and Incorruptible 02:41 From 'The Lean Startup' to 'Incorruptible': Why Governance Matters 04:13 The Two Mysteries 05:45 Case Study: Sol Price and FedMart 08:58 The Shareholder Primacy Trap 14:04 Costco's Governance Fortress 16:50 Founder Control vs VCs 19:33 Why Markets Punish Your Mission 21:30 Novo Nordisk's Foundation Model 26:35 Anthropic and AI Trust 29:37 Governance in Action Today 31:54 Doing the Right Thing 33:27 Goodhart's Law and Customer Service Metrics 38:36 Why 'Harder Is Easier' 39:02 Costco's Hotdog Promise 41:55 Mission Lock Structures 43:32 Pitching Investors, Leverage and the Fundraising Decision Tree 49:33 HBO's Silicon Valley and 'Minimum Viable Product' 53:57 Closing Thoughts & Book Plug Resources mentioned in this episode 'Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great' by Eric Ries: https://www.incorruptible.co/ 'The Lean Startup' by Eric Ries: https://theleanstartup.com/book Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE): https://ltse.com/ 'Skin in the Game' by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: https://www.amazon.com/Skin-Game-Hidden-Asymmetries-Daily/dp/0425284646 Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs: https://costplusdrugs.com/ The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

This is a bonus feed drop from Dan Blumberg's podcast 'Future Around and Find Out' (FAFO), winner of the 2026 Webby Award for Best Technology Podcast. If you like what you hear, check out FAFO at https://www.futurearound.com/ Original description: Henrik Werdelin is one of my favorite entrepreneurs. He’s founded and incubated several unicorns, most notably BARK, the dog happiness company. Henrik himself is a pretty happy guy — an optimistic guy who likes to ask what could go right? — and on the day we recorded (a few months ago as I was squirreling away interviews for the podcast relaunch), he helped me see through some future of tech gloom I was feeling. I honestly can’t even remember what Trump+tech hellscape we were living through that week, but I do remember that Henrik put me in a better mood. I think he’ll do the same for you, no matter how you’re feeling. 🤗 Henrik believes AI could be a massive force for good. That it could bring forth a whole new — a better! — form of capitalism. He writes about this is in his latest book, Me, My Customer, and AI. He points to those (like Henry Ford) who took advantage of electricity by making drastic, not incremental, changes to how the build things. Our conversation pairs nicely with my recent episode with Azeem Azhar, who said the AI winners will “come from odd places”, as they have in previous tech transformations. Here’s more of what Henrik and I cover: His concept of "relationship capital"—the moat AI can't clone—and why the companies that win next will be defined by who they serve, not what they make The three components of relationship capital: intensity, community, and durability The "it sucks that" method for finding problems worth solving (he took it to a fifth grade class; the teacher was not thrilled) His vision for the "headless", agentic web, where your startup's MVP is a group of agents, not an app The wildly practical AI tools he's built just for himself: a custom CRM that searches by vibes not names, a newsletter bot tuned to his quarterly goals, and an agent that handled his visa paperwork while he was in a meeting Why entrepreneurial skills—agency, narrative, resourcefulness—are the ultimate career insurance, whether you start a company or not The absolutely ridiculous story of how a prank on a cruise ship led to him meeting his BARK co-founder in a heart-shaped bed Chapters (01:43) - Two Futures: AI Bad vs. AI Really, Really Good (05:44) - Why Positivity Is Actually the Riskier Bet (09:05) - Electricity, AI, and the Rise of Relationship Capital (11:12) - The Three Components of Relationship Capital (14:20) - "It Sucks That" — The Best Way to Find a Real Problem (19:22) - The Headless Future and Minimum Viable Agents (22:40) - N-of-One Software: Building Tools Just for Yourself (26:48) - Henrik's Custom Newsletter Bot and AI-Powered CRM (30:59) - Warp, Obsidian, and Letting Agents Loose on Your Computer (34:45) - Entrepreneurial Skills as Career Insurance (36:53) - The Heart-Shaped Bed: How Henrik Met His BARK Co-Founder Credits for The Startup Podcast: Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/

Most founders treat 'scale' like a switch you flip after raising a round: hire 14 reps, 10x the ad spend, and pray. About half scale too early and burn the runway, while the other half scale too late and get caught by a more aggressive competitor. Almost nobody can tell you, in measurable terms, when they're actually ready. In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein is joined by Mark Roberge - founding CRO at HubSpot (where he scaled the company from $0 to $100M ARR), senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, cofounder of Stage 2 Capital, and author of the new book 'The Science of Scaling'. Mark walks Yaniv through his impressive data-driven framework for scaling that he's spent a decade refining, covering how to objectively define product-market fit, why customer retention is the only honest measure of PMF, and how to instrument a Leading Indicator of Retention you can act on in week one. In this episode, you will: Learn why retention is the only honest measure of product-market fit, and why most founders are flying blind without it Discover Mark's framework for building a Leading Indicator of Retention (LIR) you can measure in week one, using Slack, HubSpot, and Facebook as worked examples Hear Mark coach Yaniv through Vera's LIR in real time, and pick up a repeatable method for designing one for your own business Learn the 'Stay/Go/Slow' model for pacing hires and spend post-raise, and why startups should reassess monthly or quarterly rather than locking in an annual plan Get Mark's take on why 'paranoid optimism' is the trait that correlates most strongly with founder success, and the link between that trait and founder mental health Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up 00:26 On Today's Show: The Science of Scaling 01:47 Guest Intro: Mark Roberge 02:31 Why Scaling Needs Data 04:20 Eric Ries and Product Market Fit 06:56 Retention as a North Star 10:15 What Makes a Good Leading Indicator? 15:00 Case Study: Vera (Yaniv's Startup) 17:41 Choosing Frequency and Event 23:55 Instrumenting and Unique Value 31:12 Blitzscaling and Defining PET 34:41 ICP Denominator Rules 37:28 Segmenting By Product 40:40 Go To Market Fit 45:25 Dealing with Revenue-Focused Investor Pressure 50:33 The Pace of Scaling 56:07 About the Book, The Science of Scaling 57:45 Founder Mental Health 01:02:28 Closing Thoughts Resources in this episode: Mark Roberge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markroberge/ ‘The Science of Scaling: Using Data to Decide When — and How Fast — to Scale Revenue’ by Mark Roberge: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Scaling-Revenue-Mark-Roberge/dp/1394319428 Stage 2 Capital (Mark's B2B SaaS-focused venture firm): https://www.stage2.capital/ Vera (Yaniv's startup): https://vera.guide/ The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Follow us on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@startup-podcast Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean and memorable name, go to https://⁠get.tech/tsp This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

In 2026, startups age like milk. Josh Foreman's solution is a radical one - step down as CEO, go back to basics, and refound the whole company. Yaniv Bernstein discusses this decision with Josh, founder and (for now) CEO of InDebted - the AI-native debt resolution business he scaled to an $80M revenue run rate, a Series C raise, and operations across 8 markets. Just days before recording, Josh publicly announced he's hiring a new CEO so he can step back into the business as a hands-on operator and refound the company for the agentic AI era. In this conversation, Josh and Yaniv discuss 'refounding' in practice, what it takes to rebuild the company's processes from the ground up, and why technical founders who don't go back on the tools right now are setting themselves up to be outbuilt by a smaller, faster, leaner version of themselves. In this episode, you will: Learn why Josh believes the highest-leverage role for a technical founder in 2026 is no longer CEO, and how to structure a founder-CEO partnership that actually works Understand why 'feature patching' an established business is a losing strategy, and what it really means to rebuild your company function-by-function from a clean slate Discover how revenue-per-employee has become the metric that matters most when raising capital and competing with AI-native upstarts Hear why services-as-software and performance-fee models are suddenly the bull case for investors who hated them 12 months ago - and why the SaaS seat fee is on the way out Find out what it looks like to unbundle your product into agent-ready primitives, and why owning the eval for a narrow domain may be a bigger moat than your full-stack UI Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up: Refounding 00:41 Josh Foreman, CEO (for now) 01:41 What Refounding Means 04:53 Rebuilding the Factory 07:38 Bringing the Team Along 10:51 No Choice but Change 14:56 Aligning the Board and Investors 16:52 Putting Founders Back on the Tools 26:24 'Corporate Ozempic' Shrinking Teams 32:57 Unbundling and Products for Agents 38:39 Hiring a CEO When Refounding 44:11 Closing Thoughts Mentioned in this episode Josh Foreman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshforeman/ InDebted: https://www.indebted.co/ Scott Galloway on 'Corporate Ozempic': https://www.profgalloway.com/corporate-ozempic/ Surviving the AI SaaSpocalypse with Scotty Allen: https://youtu.be/j84LF4aru8I 'Paranoid Optimism' with Yaniv: https://youtu.be/FGqbdzr0-PM The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Many AI startups funded in the last 18 months won't last three years - so what makes a business durable today? Yaniv Bernstein is joined by Marlon Nichols, co-founder and managing general partner of MaC Venture Capital - one of the most active seed-stage AI investors in the market, having scaled MaC to over $600M AUM across three funds in just four years. Marlon's portfolio includes Pipe, Stoke Space, Thrive Market, Chef Robotics, and exits like Wonder Dynamics to Autodesk and Gimlet Media to Spotify. In this conversation, Marlon uses his industry experience to explain the biggest threats to new AI startups, and what the key components of successful startups in the industry will be. In this episode, you will: Hear why Marlon thinks niche or mid-size foundational models are now prime acquisition targets for OpenAI Discover why misreading traction is the #1 mistake VCs are making right now Learn why Marlon is more excited about manufacturing-line prediction and grid-scale batteries than humanoid robots Explore why founder unit economics need a complete rewrite when token costs replace SaaS-style marginal cost Understand why software is no longer a moat — and why data access, deep customer integration, and speed are the only three durable advantages left at the application layer Learn the difference between AI-native companies and AI-bolted-on companies, and what a 5-year-old startup should do if it's on the wrong side of that line Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up 01:07 On Today's Show: Durable Tech 02:33 Meet Marlon Nichols 03:25 Defining 'Durable' AI Startups 05:23 Moats for Foundation Models 07:15 Chef Robotics and AI Native vs AI Enabled 09:24 Upgrading Legacy Startups 10:55 Pipe’s AI Pivot Case Study 13:19 Winning at the App Layer 15:56 Speed and Workflow Stickiness 17:51 Investment Checklist and Team 20:30 Automotive Digital Twins and Regulatory Testing 24:27 Why Physical AI? 26:09 Robotics In Manufacturing 26:55 Energy Storage And Batteries 28:30 Why Cheaper Builds Still Need Talent 30:19 Where Traction Can Be Misleading 33:41 Token Costs And Unit Economics 36:46 Closing Thoughts Mentioned in this episode MaC Venture Capital: https://macventurecapital.com/ Marlon Nichols on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marloncnichols/ 'The Bitter Lesson' by Rich Sutton: http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html Vera (Yaniv's startup, AI-supported guidance for people caring for ageing parents): https://vera.guide/ The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Being a founder has always meant dreaming big while keeping a close eye on potential trip-ups, and in the age of AI, finding and maintaining that balance is more important than ever. Today, Yaniv Bernstein talks about the importance of getting that balance right. Using deep insight and decades of industry experience, he discusses why now is the time for founders to be more ambitious than ever before - while identifying threats to success and keeping a keen, near-paranoid eye on them. In this episode, you will: Understand why ‘paranoid optimism’ has always been the founder superpower, and why AI has made it more essential than ever Learn why tokens are ‘the new oil’ and how the ‘token OPEC’ is already exerting price and product leverage over every AI-native startup Explore Garry Tan's ‘boil the lake’ concept and why early-stage founders can now afford to be more ambitious in scope than ever before Find out why startups have a bigger speed advantage over incumbents than at any time in history, and how to actually use it Discover how foundation model providers like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google can wipe out entire startup categories without ever deliberately competing with you Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up 00:59 On Today's Show: Paranoid Optimism 01:27 Surviving as a Baby Turtle 03:00 Risks of Pure Optimism 05:24 A Herd of Thundering Elephants 07:44 Magic Elephants 09:50 3 Shifts: Compression, Leverage and Startup Advantage 12:54 YC's Garry Tan & 'Boiling The Lake' 15:38 Why Be Paranoid? 15:52 AI Risks Category Collapse 18:13 Anthropic, Google and OpenAI: The OPEC of Tokens 19:51 Identity Collapse 21:54 How to Operate As Paranoid Optimist 21:59 1. Holding Strong Priors and Updating Fast 23:31 2. Architecting For Escape 25:57 3. Stay Closer To The Problem Than The Solution 28:13 Closing Thoughts Resources mentioned in this episode 'Same As Ever' by Morgan Housel: https://www.amazon.com/Same-Ever-Guide-Never-Changes/dp/0593332709 Last week’s episode - Same As Ever: 7 rules that HAVEN'T changed about building great startups (w/ Amir Shevat): https://www.tsp.show/same-as-ever-7-rules-that-havent-changed-about-building-great-startups-w-amir-shevat/ Previous episode - 'Unlearning' with Yaniv: Why founders need to rewrite outdated, radioactive mindsets: https://www.tsp.show/unlearning-with-yaniv-why-founders-need-to-rewrite-outdated-radioactive-mindsets/ Garry Tan’s 'Boil the Ocean' blog post: https://garryslist.org/posts/boil-the-ocean Vera, Yaniv's current startup: https://vera.guide/ The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Between AI shaking up the industry, geopolitical upheaval, and unpredictable capital, being a founder has never been more confusing. So what advice, if any, is still relevant? In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein is joined by Amir Shevat (Silicon Valley developer platform veteran and now General Partner at Darkmode Ventures) to answer exactly that. Focusing on what isn't changing rather than what is, Amir walks through seven truths of startup building that have become more important in the age of AI. In this episode, you will: Discover why AI-generated sales outreach is backfiring, and why authenticity, proof of effort, and in-person events are becoming the gold standard Explore the "founder tar pit" of bad markets, and the simple questions that reveal whether yours is one to run from Learn why design in 2026 is about putting positive interactions and emotions first, and how to prioritize these effectively Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up… 01:07 Guest Intro: Amir Shevat 02:36 On Today's Show: 7 Timeless Truths 04:34 Jeff Bezos and the 'Same As Ever' Mindset 08:19 Rule 1. Hire The Right Team 10:15 How AI Raises The Bar 14:26 Rule 2. A Delightful User Experience 16:27 Conversational Interfaces 18:07 Why You Should Design For Emotions 24:20 Rule 3. Hustle Still Wins 26:05 The Return of Authentic Selling 28:09 Landing Your First Customers 28:50 Rule 4. Build Real Moats 30:48 Mongol Hordes: Is 'Execution Speed' A Moat? 33:00 'Thick' Product Advantage 33:39 Rule 5. Vision Beats TAM 38:07 Rule 6. Choose Great Markets 42:34 Rule 7. Build An Unfair Advantage 47:10 Recap and Closing Thoughts Resources in this episode: Darkmode Ventures (Amir's early-stage fund): https://www.darkmode.vc/ Amir Shevat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirshevat/ Designing Bots: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-bots/9781491974810/ Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595 Same as Ever by Morgan Housel: https://www.amazon.com/Same-Ever-Guide-Never-Changes/dp/0593332709 2012 re:Invent Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4MtQGRIIuA The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Subscribe to the TSP Mailing List to gain access to exclusive newsletter-only content and early access to information on upcoming episodes: https://thestartuppodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by Vanta. Vanta helps businesses get and stay compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in demand compliance frameworks. With over 200 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. For a limited time offer of US$1,000 off, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://⁠www.vanta.com/tsp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get your question in for our next Q&A episode: https://forms.gle/NZzgNWVLiFmwvFA2A The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Will AI kill your startup? For a lot of startups, probably yes. But which ones? And more importantly, how do you make sure yours isn't one of them? Yaniv Bernstein is joined by returning guest Scotty Allen (bootstrapper, founder of The Product Bus, and startup strategist extraordinaire) to reason through one of the most pressing questions of 2026: how do you build a startup to survive the SaaSpocalypse? They discuss why this AI wave is more of a threat to tech startups than Google and Facebook ever were, and why the B2B/B2C distinction has never mattered more. Along the way, Yaniv discusses why making your software 'headless' will be a key survival strategy, and the pair explore what it means to build products that cater to agents. In this episode, you will: Learn why the best B2B SaaS strategy is to strip the UI and invest everything in defensible, thick capability that agents want to use Hear why the B2B/B2C split has sharpened dramatically, and why deep user empathy and design remain incredibly important Find out what "agentic engine optimisation" means, and why creating an agent-centric tool could be your most powerful growth channel Understand why your tolerance for ambiguity may be the single most important skill you can develop as a founder right now Timestamps 00:00 Coming Up… 00:54 On Today's Show: Will AI Kill Startups? 01:32 Is This Different to Google/Facebook? 05:15 The Threat to 'MD-able' SaaS 10:49 Headless SaaS Advantage 15:19 Thin and Thick Wrappers 18:19 Bottom Up Disruption 20:34 Platform Fragility Risks 22:22 When DIY Systems Backfire 24:46 B2B vs B2C Distinction 28:53 Tools Agents Prefer 30:56 Claude 'Skills' As Distribution 32:05 Platforms Are Dead 34:09 Tool Use As An Inflection Point 35:42 Managing Agents Like Staff 38:55 B2B Headless vs. B2C Design 41:48 Who Pays In B2C? 44:10 Why Vera Is A 'Guide', Not An Agent 45:39 Embrace Ambiguity And Build 46:30 Closing Thoughts Resources mentioned in this episode: The Product Bus (Scotty Allen's startup validation and product strategy firm): https://theproductbus.com/ Scotty Allen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thescottyallen/ The Bootstraps Podcast (Scotty's own podcast, 'Straight Up From Scratch'): https://thebootstrap.tech/ Vera (Yaniv's startup, AI-supported guidance for people caring for ageing parents): https://vera.guide The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Subscribe to the TSP Mailing List to gain access to exclusive newsletter-only content and early access to information on upcoming episodes: https://thestartuppodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. Get your question in for our next Q&A episode: https://forms.gle/NZzgNWVLiFmwvFA2A The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/ Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Assistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/ Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/ #SaaS #SaaSpocalypse #Startups #TechStartups #Founder #TechBusiness #TheStartupPodcast

You may have spent years (or even decades) building your expertise. But is any of it still relevant? And how much of it is an active detriment to your startup? In this special solo episode, Yaniv Bernstein delivers a no-guest monologue on the most critical skill any founder can develop right now: ‘unlearning’. Drawing on Morgan Housel's ‘Same as Ever’; real-world examples from his own startup, Vera; and frameworks for rebuilding beliefs from the ground up, Yaniv makes the case that obsolete knowledge is as bad as radioactive waste actively distorting your decisions. In this episode, you will: Understand why AI is making the half-life of expertise shorter than ever before Learn how the sunk cost fallacy stops founders from discarding knowledge that’s causing more harm than good Discover why the identities you've built around your craft ("I am a programmer", "I am a copywriter") may be the single biggest barrier to adapting in 2026 Find out what skills are actually worth holding onto, and how to combine them with the meta-skill of rapid adaptation Learn three practical mental models for unlearning: belief audits, first principles thinking, and systems thinking Timestamps: 00:00 Coming Up 00:42 On Today's Show: Unlearning 02:03 Morgan Hausel's Same as Ever 04:13 When Knowledge Turns Toxic 07:00 What Unlearning Means 07:42 Why Unlearning Is Hard 08:32 Sunk Cost Fallacy 12:32 Identity Threat 17:17 Redefining Expertise 18:15 Meta Skills For Experts 21:55 Auditing Your Beliefs 24:14 First Principles Thinking 25:21 Systems Thinking 27:24 You Should: Make Time To Adapt 28:14 You Should: Embrace Discomfort 29:01 Closing Thoughts Resources mentioned in this episode: 'Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes' by Morgan Housel — the book Yaniv references throughout this episode on timeless principles of human behavior: https://www.amazon.com/Same-Ever-Guide-Never-Changes/dp/0593332709 Naval Ravikant on identity — Yaniv attributes the idea of being cautious about taking on identities to Naval. Naval's writing and podcast appearances are a good starting point: https://nav.al The Pact Honor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please: Follow, rate, and review us in your listening app Subscribe to the TSP Mailing List to gain access to exclusive newsletter-only content and early access to information on upcoming episodes: https://thestartuppodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe Secure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/ Follow us here on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjm1MTdjysRRV07fSf0yGg Give us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media following Key links This episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar. Get your question in for our next Q&A episode: https://forms.gle/NZzgNWVLiFmwvFA2A The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/Learn more about Chris and Yaniv Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/ Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/ Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/ Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthur Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/ #unlearning #psychology #Startups #TechStartups #Founder #TechBusiness #TheStartupPodcast