Advertise on podcast: Startups Decoded

Most first-time founders treat angel money as the warm-up act before the real investors show up. Cheryl Kellond thinks that view is about five years out of date, and Play Money's data backs her up.  Buzzy AI companies are raising nine figures at seed. Meanwhile, she argues the signaling bias has flipped, and the strongest fundamentals now sit with founders raising from angels, syndicates, and small funds. We get into her three-stage approach to early fundraising. She explains why Play Money makes founders pull $30K to $50K from their own network before showing a deal to anyone else, and why she'd rather read a year of your monthly updates than open your data room. Maya, if you're about to raise, you walk away with a sequence to follow and permission to stop chasing strangers first. Episode outline Why Cheryl refused to start a fund and built Play Money insteadThe accredited investor math that could rival early-stage VCThree stages of early fundraising, from your own network to strangersHow an SPV turns a hundred small checks into one clean cap table lineWhat angels want to see: your pace of learning, not a polished data roomThe $5,000 angel who closed a million-dollar dealListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Cheryl Kellond - https://www.linkedin.com/in/c2kprofile/ Founder and CEO of Play Money, an angel investing platform that helps founders raise from strategic angels. She’s a concept-to-launch operator with more than $750M in revenue from version-one products. Her second company, Apostrophe, hit roughly $10M ARR in four years before Centivo acquired it in 2021. Andy Walsh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/Three-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast. Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Subscribe: Substack Connect: LinkedIn Web: startupsdecoded.com  Socials: TikTok || Instagram || X Music Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Angus Dobbie spent fifteen years inside corporate recruiting, then built JobPass because the job hunt had turned into AI talking to AI. Applicants use it to fire out resumes, companies use it to filter them, and the recruiters who used to read them got cut to pay for the software. What struck me is how closely this mirrors building a company. You’re a solo operator with no boss, several pipelines to keep moving, and a front door so crowded the only reliable way in is a side door someone holds open for you. Maya walks away with the order of operations: relationships first, applications second, and a system that forces you to act on both. Episode outline Perth to a Sydney trading floor to New York, then losing it all in 2008Why the job market always feels bad, and what AI changed for realRisk-averse hiring and the slide back to the average candidateFour opportunity pipelines, and why the spreadsheet dies in 24 hoursText roulette, dealer’s choice, and networking with no ask attachedThe post-launch flat spot and a note that says “I am not special” Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Angus Dobbie - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adobbie/  Angus Dobbie spent two decades in international financial markets, then fifteen years in corporate recruiting, hearing the same job search frustrations from almost every candidate he met. In 2026, he walked away from corporate life to build JobPass, a system that helps job seekers run their search like a sales pipeline. Being his own boss was a long-held ambition, and in his words, it sounds good and is hard. Andy Walsh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/Three-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast. Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Subscribe: Substack Connect: LinkedIn Web: startupsdecoded.com  Socials: TikTok || Instagram || X Music Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

James Oliver Jr. emptied a retirement account to build his first startup, got into an accelerator, then watched his twins arrive at about two pounds each, days before the program started. He spent the following weeks driving between the NICU and the pitch room while his savings, his marriage, and his mental health ran out. The company died, and for years the story was about the product. This conversation is about the founder. James thinks hustle culture is trash, that the wrong investor will make your life miserable, and that self-awareness is the skill nobody teaches you. Now he's relaunching the same company as a different person. If you're running on fumes, this one gives you permission to stop, and a plan for what to do instead. Episode outline Cashing out his retirement to build WeMontage, and the IVF twins nobody planned aroundAn emergency C-section, the NICU, and crying inside the acceleratorWhy three Today Show appearances didn't fix a customer acquisition problemHustle culture, misaligned investors, and knowing when your tank is lowWalks, meditation, journaling and the habits that actually stickWhy he's relaunching WeMontage, and why this time is differentListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube James Oliver Jr. - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-oliver-jr/ James is a Techstars and gener8tor alum, co-author of Burn Bright Not Out, and host of the Founder Exhale podcast. Through the Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund, he pays for therapy for founders who can't afford it. I joined James on his podcast, The Founder Exhale. Take a listen Andy WalshThree-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast.https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/ Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Subscribe: Substack Connect: LinkedIn Web: startupsdecoded.com  Socials: TikTok || Instagram || X Music Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Rob D. Willis once earned €3.50 for a three and a half hour walking tour of Berlin. He knew more history than most guides on the street, and that was the problem. The guides making real money told fewer facts and more stories, so Rob opened a spreadsheet, tracked every tour, and spent 3,000 tours and 100,000 people working out what moves a crowd to act. His take will sting if you've spent weeks polishing a deck.  School trained you to prove how much you know, to a reader who was paid to pay attention. Investors are paid to filter you out.  You'll walk away with three questions to answer before any meeting, a structure that gets a skeptical room to a decision, and a few simple exercises for finding the stories you already have. Meet the extremely talented Rob D. Willis, fresh off Simon Sinek’s podcast. Episode outline From €3.50 a tour to hosting 100,000 people, and what the best guides did differentlyWhy school taught you to communicate the wrong wayThe story that counts is the one that forms in your listener's headThree questions to answer before any pitchFinding your own stories: Homework for Life, the shape of stories, and "why do I X"AI gives you the average, so you need a point of viewListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Rob D Willis - has given over 3,000 presentations to 100,000+ people, and he built the IMPACT framework to know exactly what moves people to act. Now he helps senior leaders turn strategy into stories that survive contact with a skeptical room. https://www.linkedin.com/in/robdwillis/  Andy WalshThree-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast.https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/ Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Most founders treat exit readiness as a phase you enter later, something a banker packages once the numbers are big enough to matter.  Aaron Alpeter, founder and CEO of Izba Group, has helped founders realize more than $2.5B in exits, and he thinks that timeline is backwards. Buyers are grading the decisions you make at month six, from who makes your product and how it ships to whether the company still works when you step away. For a first-time founder, that reframe takes pressure off, because you don't need a banker yet. You need to know what a buyer would actually pay for, then stop making choices that quietly discount it. Aaron breaks down the three things every acquirer looks for, why an earnout is a signal of distrust, and why some of the leanest AI-run brands are close to unacquirable. Episode outline From Unilever to Hubble, The Flex Company and Lululemon Studio: how years inside scaling brands shaped Aaron's lens on operations.What buyers are really buying: profitability, a unique capability, and room left to grow, plus why the D2C-to-retail sequence matters.Earnouts, ego, and why smart companies bring in new leadership 18 months before a sale.The agentic trap: why tiny AI-run brands with big revenue scare off strategic buyers.M&A as R&D: what Hero Cosmetics, Poppi and LesserEvil tell you about who gets bought.The 2026 reshuffle: megadeals, boomer succession, and exits that stop short of a full sale.Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Aaron Alpeter - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-alpeter/ Aaron Alpeter is the founder and CEO of Izba Group, where he helps CPG brands start, scale, and exit through a portfolio of companies spanning sourcing, fulfillment, and M&A prep. He's guided over $2.5B in realized exits and currently advises brands and investors representing $3B in client enterprise value. Andy WalshThree-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast.https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/ Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Vanessa Larco went from shipping product at Microsoft, Twilio and Box to most of a decade as a partner at NEA, and now runs Premise VC. She assumed moving into venture meant shelving her product brain. It turned out to be her edge. Founders and investors stare at the same signals of product market fit, and they often read them in opposite directions. Her sharpest idea is product curiosity fit. AI has made it easy to sign customers who are spending experimental budget, and that revenue looks like traction right up until renewal. In this episode you will walk away knowing which signals seed investors trust, why the playbook that won you seed will lose Series A, and why constraints are an asset (with some help from Bluey). Episode outline Burning floppy disks at four: growing up in a family of foundersKinect, Facebook gaming, and the swing from pure qual to pure quantThe acqui-hire that felt like a breakup, and the secret plan behind joining NEAProduct curiosity fit, and why bookings stopped proving anythingSeed backs the founder, Series A backs execution: every round is a new gameWhat Bluey teaches founders about constraints and repairing conflictListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Vanessa Larco - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessalarco/ Vanessa Larco is co-founder of Premise VC, backing early-stage software founders after nearly a decade as a Partner at NEA investing in category creators like Robinhood and Mejuri. Before venture, she built product at Microsoft, Disney, Twilio, and Box, the resume Premise's whole thesis is built on. Andy WalshThree-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast.https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/ Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Carina Cunha is an investment banker, founder, and advisor who's worked with over 100 companies from pre-seed to IPO. She helped build Crimson Education into a unicorn, then landed two offers on Dragons' Den UK for her own startup, Nosy, and pulled a billion views out of less than $5,000 in ad spend. Favikon now ranks her a Top 3 LinkedIn voice for sales. Here's the tension. Founders treat a raise as the win. Carina treats capital as fuel, not proof. Fundraising is just another sale, and the real proof is traction. Capital should scale something that already works, not pay for finding out if it does. We get into running your own operating system instead of the market's default one. Why being told you're wrong feels personal, but being shown you're wrong is a gift. And what to say in a first meeting when you've got no traction and no leverage yet. Episode outline Personal systems first: you can't change rules you never stopped to seeCapital as fuel: traction is the proof, capital should scale what already worksFundraising is another sale: what investors are actually buyingIdentity and being wrong: why it stings, and why it's a giftCompress the failure cycle: hypothesis, failure, analysis, iterationThe first meeting: no traction, no leverage, and the move that still worksListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Carina Cunha - https://www.linkedin.com/in/carinacunha/ Carina Cunha is building an investment bank and writing a book on human consciousness. She structures capital raises across venture, debt, and private equity, work that showed her a broken system up close. She's advised over 100 companies from pre-seed to IPO. Andy WalshThree-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast.https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/ Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Founders treat early decisions like they're reversible.  A board seat, a deal term, who gets hired first. None of it is as flexible as it looks. By the time a bad call costs you something, it's already baked in, and nobody tells you that on day one. Andy hosted a live panel in front of 60 plus founders for Startups Decoded Live, presented by J.P. Morgan. On stage: Elizabeth Vincent (J.P. Morgan Asset Management), Emma Usich (Girl Math Capital), and Breen Sullivan (The Fourth Effect). Two exits taught Andy the same lesson twice: nobody warns you because the people around you usually haven't made these calls before either. Governance, fundraising structure, and the money decisions that show up after the term sheet, laid out by people who've sat on the other side of the table. Episode outline Boards and governance: why the timing of your first seat mattersAdvisors vs. investors: when to formalize the relationshipFundraising structure: how terms shape control before you feel itCap table strategy: trade-offs founders skip when defining termsAfter the term sheet: capital preservation and budget protocolLessons from SVB's collapse: why founders should bank early with a firm like JP MorganPresented by J.P. Morgan: Helping venture-backed founders navigate the financial decisions that come after the term sheet. From capital preservation to liquidity strategy, we help companies make the most of every dollar they raise. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube  Andy Walsh 2x exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (Top 2% globally). Andy helps founders sharpen judgment and integrate brand, product, and growth into a clear path to scale. Elizabeth Vincent: VP at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, advising founders on post-raise cash management. Emma Usich: Co-founder of Girl Math Capital. Previously M&A at Uber, investment banking at Bank of America. Breen Sullivan: Founder and CEO of The Fourth Effect, connecting startups with board-ready advisors after a decade as general counsel at high-growth tech companies. Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Brett Turner has built four companies and sold three of them for a combined $500 million plus. His sharpest insight has nothing to do with pitch decks or growth hacks, it comes down to cash. Most founders treat treasury as a back office problem, something you hand off the moment you can afford a CFO. Brett spent over a decade as a CPA at Deloitte, ran corporate finance inside Amazon, then worked Controller and CFO roles across a string of startups before he ever founded one himself. This episode traces that arc, from CPA to three time founder, and lands on Trovata, the AI native treasury platform he calls his last hurrah, now pulling stablecoins directly into corporate cash management. The takeaway is not to go learn accounting. It is that the boring disciplines, cash visibility, liquidity planning, financial literacy, are the actual infrastructure that lets founders survive long enough to get “lucky”. Skip them and speed is what kills you, not the market. Episode outline The accountant's apprenticeship: a dozen years across CPA, Controller and CFO roles at Deloitte, Amazon and early-stage startups, before he ever touched a company he owned.Amazon and the SEC grind: corporate finance discipline inside Amazon, the unglamorous training ground for the founder he'd later become.Four companies, three exits: the pattern connecting the lessons, and how it spawned Trovata, saving his best for last.From operator to founder: the shift from CFO to building and owning as CEO.Trovata: ten years building the treasury platform he wishes had existed for every company before it.Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Brett Turner - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-turner/ Founder and CEO of Trovata, an AI-native treasury platform bringing stablecoins into corporate cash management. This is his seventh startup, following three prior exits. Andy Walsh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/Three-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast. Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Vadim Gordin has looked at more early cap tables than most of us have had coffees.  He built a data set most founders never see: hundreds of first-person fundraising accounts, cross-referenced against years running accelerators at NYU. His numbers say the friends and family round is not a formality. It is where the mistakes that surface at Series A actually start. We walk through what a healthy angel funnel looks like stage by stage, why the shape of your earliest round predicts problems two years out, and what a messy F&F cap table costs you later. The goal is not just closing the round, it is closing it in a way that does not quietly sabotage you down the line. F or anyone staring down their first raise, this is the funnel math nobody hands you. Visit Healing Healthtech - Vadim's Substack. Episode outline: Why the F&F round gets treated as an afterthought, and why that is a mistakeInside the data: what a healthy angel funnel looks like stage by stageThe Mighty Middle thesis, and why $50M to $150M exits change the fundraising mathCap table mistakes that do not hurt until Series AReducing human suffering as an investment filterWhat to build before you are ready to raise from anyoneListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Vadim Gordin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vadimgordin/ Vadim ran a venture studio inside NYU Tandon that turned under $500K in deployed capital into hundreds of millions in enterprise value, working with teams like Ataraxis, Vital Audio, and CaroRhythm. He now runs Mighty Middle Ventures, a fund and studio backing healthtech founders building toward the $50M to $150M exits traditional VC ignores. Andy Walsh2× exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (750,000 downloads + Top 2% globally).https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/ Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Most founders can describe their customer. Age, income, job title, maybe a lifestyle detail. What they can't describe is why that person buys, what they almost bought instead, or what finally tipped them over. That gap is where growth lives, and most companies never go looking. Bryan Alston has spent 15 years finding the customers and growth opportunities brands overlook, driving breakthrough growth for consumer brands including Magic Spoon, Our Place, Clove Shoes, Best Day Brewing, and Greater Than. At Greater Than, that approach uncovered breastfeeding mothers as an unexpected customer for a CrossFit-focused sports drink, helping pioneer a new category worth $10M+ annually. Now, as founder and CEO of MOST, Bryan is turning that methodology into technology designed to systematically discover overlooked customers and new paths to growth. EPISODE OUTLINE The illusion of knowing your customer: why demographic data feels like insight and isn'tThe invisible buyer: how to spot customers who are already there but off your radarGreater Than case study: from sports hydration to a category for breastfeeding mothersThe triggers you're missing: what actually drives a purchase, versus what you assumeBuilding a discovery process: the practical method for testing adjacent customer groupsWhat changes when you find the real customer: repositioning, messaging, categoryListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube  Andy Walsh 2x exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (Top 2% globally). Andy helps founders sharpen judgment and integrate brand, product, and growth into a clear path to scale.  Bryan Alston spent fifteen years finding the customers other brands ignore, working with Magic Spoon, Our Place, Clove, Best Day Brewing, and Greater Than. He built that process into software with his company, Most, helping consumer brands turn overlooked segments into profitable growth.  Access All Areas.  Subscribe: Substack Connect: LinkedIn Socials: TikTok || Instagram || X Web: startupsdecoded.comMusic Credit "Neptuno" – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Clara Ma was chief of staff to the CEO of Hugging Face back when it was a Series A company, years before most founders could spell LLM.  She watched the role from the sharpest seat in the building, then built Ask a Chief of Staff, a 500-person community that has helped match CEOs with their right hand ever since. AI was supposed to make executive support obsolete. Instead, chief of staff postings more than doubled last year, salaries are hitting $400K, and the number of people holding the title has tripled since 2021. More automation created more chaos, not less, and one human who can synthesize across every team just got more valuable, not less.  We get into what the role actually does day to day, why it's splitting into admin work AI eats and strategic work AI can only amplify, and how the best chiefs of staff are quietly becoming the AI adoption engine inside their companies. For founders who can't afford the hire yet, Clara breaks down exactly which parts to automate and which parts still need a human in the room. Episode outline: What a chief of staff actually is, and why the org chart still can't agree on itInside Hugging Face: what Clara learned running the role at an AI unicornThe split: admin chief of staff versus intelligence director, and which side survivesThe tools the best chiefs of staff run daily, and where AI stops being usefulThe matchmaking problem: why pairing the right chief of staff with the right CEO is so hardWhen to hire one, and what to build yourself before you can afford toListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Clara Ma - https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarama/ Founder of Ask a Chief of Staff, the go-to community and placement platform for the role, with 500+ members worldwide and 50+ CEO matches made. She was previously Chief of Staff to the CEO of Hugging Face, where she saw the AI wave from the inside before most of us knew it was coming. Andy Walsh2× exited founder, advisor, and host of Startups Decoded (850,000 downloads + Top 2% globally).https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/ Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

John Frankel has been funding this stuff since before it was fundable.  He founded ffVC in 2008 after 21 years at Goldman, has backed more than 200 seed companies, and sits on over sixty boards. This year robotics pulled in $18.8 billion globally, already ahead of the $15 billion invested across all of 2025, and Frankel has a clear map of where that money actually landed, and where it hasn't. Value Add Pulse His answer isn't the humanoid story most people assume. Only 12% of Tesla owners with the hardware use supervised self-driving, even after 380,000 autonomous miles logged. Home robots are stuck behind a comfort problem, not a capability one. Meanwhile, the practical stuff, farm carts, factory totes, drone delivery, is already deployed and already making money. The episode traces the actual path of the capital, what's working today versus what's still a bet, and what that split means for anyone building in physical AI right now. Episode outline From Goldman's trading floor to founding ffVC in 2008, and why he stopped marking his angel bets to market.The $18.8B robotics headline, and a real map of where the money is going.Tesla's numbers: 380,000 autonomous miles logged, and only 12% of drivers who actually use it.Home robots versus factory robots, and why comfort sets the real timeline, not capability.The point solutions already working: Borough's farm and factory carts, Manna's drone deliveries at a dollar a drop.Reshoring the physical world: labor is now 15% of cost, not 70%, and what that changes for hardware founders.Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Andy Walsh: 2x exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (Top 2% globally). Andy helps founders sharpen judgment and integrate brand, product, and growth into a clear path to scale. https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/ John Frankel: John Frankel founded ff Venture Capital in 2008 and has backed more than 200 seed-stage companies, taking board seats at over sixty, after a long career at Goldman Sachs. He invests early and with a tight filter, funding less than 0.5% of the 3,000 deals ffVC sees a year, with a current focus on applied AI across drones, robotics, and financial services. Access All Areas.  Subscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInSocials: TikTok || Instagram || XWeb: startupsdecoded.com Music Credit "Neptuno" – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer: The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Owen Fitzpatrick has interviewed people in North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan, trying to answer one question. Why do we believe what we believe? Ten books and thirty years later, his answer is uncomfortable for founders. The story running your business decisions was never fact checked. It was just repeated enough times that it started to feel true. His framework is simple and brutal. A belief has to feel right, fit your identity, and only then does it need to make sense. Founders think they're reasoning their way to decisions. Most of the time, they're defending a conclusion their gut already reached under pressure. Pause, ask what would have to be true, and only then move. Episode outline What inner propaganda is and why your brain runs it without asking permissionFeels Right, Fits In, Makes Sense: the three gates a belief has to pass before it changesWhy culture and identity fusion make people defend beliefs that hurt themThe Petrov story: how one engineer avoided nuclear war by pausing to ask "does this make sense"The belief audit: the one question that actually tests whether a belief is serving youEmotional granularity: practical tools for founders under pressureListen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Presented by Deel If you're at the stage of making your first or fiftieth hire — and doing it across borders — Deel is worth knowing about. They're supporting Startups Decoded. LEARN MORE. Inner Propaganda: Stop letting your brain talk you out of your success.  Order now Owen Fitzpatrick Owen has spent thirty years studying why we believe what we believe. His book Inner Propaganda, argues the biggest threat to any leader isn't strategy or execution, it's the unconscious beliefs running every call they make. Andy Walsh Three-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast. Access All Areas. Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTubeSubscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInWeb: startupsdecoded.com Socials: TikTok || Instagram || XMusic Credit. “Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia)  Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.

Andy Walsh sits down with Ella Molony Cook, exited founder turned investor and Founder of Time Rich, a community of ambitious women thriving in the new world of AI. One exit. Seven figures raised. Three companies she still holds equity in. Multiple failures, which she talks about more freely than the wins. She dropped out of high school, built a retreat business in Australia before she knew the word startup, and sold to the buyer who could grow it rather than the one with the highest number. Then came the raise she calls the most punishing experience of her life, and the realization that the company she was grinding toward was her business partner's dream. We cover capital, secondaries, the liquidity nobody plans for, and the thesis behind Time Rich Club: women should hold 20% of the capital table, not 2%. Episode outline Bali to an exit at 23 — a passion project turns into a business, then an acquisition on her terms.The validation trap — accelerators, VC approval, and why permission drains founder energy.What the raise cost — the punishing version of fundraising, and the case for family offices.Liquidity nobody explains — secondaries, fake buyers, equity employees cannot move.The mask — identity collapse after an exit, and building someone else's ambition.Time Rich — health, community, AI, and the 20% thesis.Presented by Deel If you're making your first or fiftieth hire — and doing it across borders — Deel is worth knowing. They're supporting Startups Decoded for good reason. LEARN MORE.  Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube Andy Walsh 2x exited founder and host of Startups Decoded (Top 2% globally). Andy helps founders sharpen judgment and integrate brand, product, and growth into a clear path to scale. Ella Cook 4x companies founded, one bootstrapped exit, seven figures raised, and four years building across the US market. She founded Time Rich Club, a community for women. Her work sits at the systems layer: helping founders, family offices, and GPs run better pipelines, source smarter deal flow, and keep the human layer that makes private capital actually work. Access All Areas.  Subscribe: SubstackConnect: LinkedInSocials: TikTok || Instagram || XWeb: startupsdecoded.com Music Credit "Neptuno" – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2 Disclaimer. The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.