Fund/Build/Scale

Before you raise money, hire a team or start building, how much should you already know?

Vineet Edupuganti, co-founder and CEO of Cogent Security, joins Fund/Build/Scale to break down the work his team did before committing to the company: talking with roughly 100 potential customers, studying previous attempts to solve the problem, mapping buyer pain and budgets, and identifying the assumptions that could derail the business.

We also talk how Cogent recruited its first employees, landed early design partners, decided when customer interest was strong enough to move forward, and learned to distinguish real demand from polite enthusiasm.

If you’re not sure how to recognize when it’s time to stop researching and start building, listen to this episode.

📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xVOcBgsuU2U

RUNTIME 44:19
(2:02) Pick a Problem That Survives an 80% Budget Cut

(9:11) Build Conviction Before You Build the Company

(19:28) How to Recognize When You’ve Learned Enough to Start

(27:52) Why Early Customers Take the Risk

(34:23) The Signals That Demand Is Real

(38:41) Would You Invest $1 Million in Yourself?

LINKS
Vineet Edupuganti

Cogent Security

Are you building something that’s hard to explain?
If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities.

I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen.

If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher.

👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com

SUBSCRIBE
📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/

↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/

📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

Why do some startups get taken seriously while others struggle to earn attention, even when they're solving similar problems?

Beck Bamberger, founder and CEO of startup communications agency BAM, joins Fund/Build/Scale to discuss how early-stage founders establish credibility before they have much traction.

We explore why conviction matters but can't substitute for evidence, what investors look for when customers and revenue are scarce, and why founders who've raised millions sometimes struggle to explain what their companies actually do.

Beck also explains the concept of narrative capital, how investors, customers and journalists evaluate startups differently, and what founders can do to earn trust and media attention without an established track record.

A practical conversation about confidence, customer validation, clear communication and giving people real reasons to believe in your business.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE
https://youtu.be/yqdmd7S7jR4

RUNTIME 35:29
 

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(1:50) Meet Beck Bamberger, Founder and CEO of BAM

(4:36) Why Some Founders Earn Belief Before Proof

(10:50) What Makes an Early-Stage Startup Credible?

(18:45) Your Startup Story Shouldn’t Take 17 Minutes

(24:35) Who Needs to Believe in Your Startup First?

(28:08) How to Get Journalists to Take You Seriously

(31:01) Practical Advice for Building Startup Credibility

LINKS
Beck Bamberger, PhD

BAM

Are you building something that’s hard to explain?
If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities.

I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen.

If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher.

Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com

👉🏾 Learn more

SUBSCRIBE
📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/

📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

“Follow your dreams and quit your day job” is terrible advice.

That’s not me saying it. That’s Jon Keidan, founder and managing partner of Torch Capital, where he’s backed companies including Sweetgreen, Acorns and Zocdoc.

He has a better suggestion: before you blow up your life for a startup idea, find some proof that people actually want what you’re planning to build.

The bar may be lower than you think.

In this conversation, we break down how Jon evaluates consumer startups from the pain point up, what makes founders credible before there’s much traction, why he initially passed (twice!) on Sweetgreen, and how to tell the difference between focus and distraction.

We end with a 30-day experiment you can run while you still have a paycheck to find out whether strangers care about your idea before you go all in.

📺 WATCH ON YOUTUBE
https://youtu.be/1VvBiLhvd_g

RUNTIME 37:14
 

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(2:39) Is the problem painful enough to build a company around?

(7:01) Start with a niche, but think bigger

(19:02) Don't quit your day job just yet

(24:17) The deli test: How to tell if your consumer product is venture-scale

(26:57) How much proof does a pre-seed investor need?

(28:43) AI is not a business model

(32:09) Where are the opportunities AI hasn't swallowed?

(35:04) Jon's 30-day experiment for consumer/CPG founders

LINKS
Jon Keidan

Torch Capital

Sweetgreen

Acorns

Zocdoc

DigitalOcean

Ro

Are you building something that’s hard to explain?
If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities.

I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen.

If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher.

👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com

SUBSCRIBE
📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/

↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/

📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

Most of us learn culture by adapting to one that already exists. We join a company, figure out what gets rewarded, who has power, what people say in meetings, and what they say after the meeting ends.

Founders don’t have that luxury. They’re not fitting into a culture. They’re creating one, whether they mean to or not.

SnapLogic President Molly Matthews has a more practical way to think about it: culture is what gets repeated. It shows up in who you hire, what you build, and how you treat customers.

“For me, it’s the ethos,” she said. “It’s the energy in which you exchange details with colleagues. It’s how you show up to work.”

We get into the first five hires, why “culture fit” is often the wrong frame, what to do with the talented-but-toxic employee, and we’ll end with a self-diagnostic you can run to see if your company is becoming the kind of place you meant to build.

📺 Watch this episode on YouTube

RUNTIME 49:56
 
EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(1:58) Molly Matthews on scaling through people

(4:29) What company culture actually means

(19:09) Why waiting for the perfect hire backfires

(26:56) When grit turns into burnout

(32:06) The Captain America problem: when talent hurts the team

(38:37) Morale and culture are different problems

(40:14) Choosing advisors and investors

(44:47) What to look for in your first five hires

LINKS

Molly Matthews

SnapLogic

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth

Radical Candor, Kim Scott

Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Are you building something that’s hard to explain?
If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities.

I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen.

If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher.

👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com

SUBSCRIBE
📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/

↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/

📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

What makes a startup worth backing if it has no product, revenue or meaningful traction to evaluate?

Paige Craig, founder and managing partner of Outlander VC, invests at the idea stage, which means much of his job involves assessing founders before the usual signals exist.

In this episode, Paige explains what he looks for instead: obsession with the problem, time spent with prospective customers, learning velocity, judgment, character and the ability to execute under uncertainty.

We also get tactical about what founders can do before they have a product. Paige explains how to distinguish polite customer interest from an actual commitment, what early execution should look like, how to tell whether an idea has venture-scale potential, and how co-founders can pressure-test whether they’re actually working well together.

If you’re still figuring out whether you have a startup, a venture-backable business, or just an interesting idea, this conversation offers some self-diagnostics you can run before you start worrying about a pitch deck.

RUNTIME 39:40
 
EPISODE BREAKDOWN
(1:46)  "We aim to be the very first check into a founder, as early as possible."

(8:01)  Real problem versus interesting idea

(14:53)  Intelligence as learning speed

(17:24)  Knowing when to course-correct

(23:13)  "Character is the hardest thing for us to get right."

(27:07)  What execution looks like when there's no product, customers or revenue

(34:58) Customer discovery: " What you want is someone who will commit clearly in the short term."

(26:32)  How to test how well your founder team is performing 

LINKS

Paige Craig

Outlander VC

How Learning Velocity Can Make or Break a Startup

Are you’re building something that’s hard to explain?
If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities.

I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen.

If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher.

👉🏾 Visit my info page to learn more or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com

SUBSCRIBE
📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/

↔️ Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/

📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw