Fund/Build/Scale

• Why Conviction Matters More Than TAM: The Seed-Stage Litmus Test

  Uncork Capital Partner Amy Saper shares practical advice for early-stage founders building AI-enabled tools for engineering, product, and design teams, or as she describes them, "products that make you not want to quit your job." Drawing on her experience in product marketing at Twitter, Uber, and Stripe, she explains why storytelling is an underrated founder skill, how to refine your ideal customer profile, and why it’s good to reverse-engineer a roadmap from your Series A goals. She also shares tips for assessing founder/investor fit, when (and when not) to launch, and why she cares more about your conviction than your TAM slide. If you're a technical founder looking to pitch smarter, launch better, and scale leaner, this episode is for you. RUNTIME 40:46 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (3:46) How Amy’s product marketing background informs her investor perspective (8:45) Storytelling skill (and coachability) “ separates the mediocre founders from the exceptional ones.” (12:02) “ I do tend to gravitate towards very technical teams. Sometimes they're all engineers.” (15:16) A few questions Amy would ask a VC if she were an early-stage founder (17:25) How she defines founder conviction — and the traits she looks for (22:56) Identify your goals and targets, then work backwards from there (26:55) “ I have a funny but also kind of real sub-thesis, which is products that make you not want to quit your job.” (28:50) Thanks to new AI tools, “ we're seeing the rise of small lean teams that are achieving early profitability.” (33:45) “ I am a sucker for a great deck or a beautiful presentation.” (36:30) “ I care less about the overall TAM than how you're defining what's addressable.“ (39:27) The one question Amy would have to ask the CEO if she were interviewing for a job with an early-stage startup LINKS Amy Saper Uncork Capital SUBSCRIBE 📓 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/   Thanks for listening! – Walter.

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• How (and How Not) to Pitch a Cybersecurity VC

  Ten Eleven Ventures CTO and Operating Partner Scott Lundgren shares practical advice for early-stage cybersecurity founders. He explains why founder-market fit matters more than product polish, how teams should think about TAM in fragmented markets, and the signals he looks for in technical pitches. He also breaks down how Ten Eleven’s network helps with diligence and customer development — and why “cool tech” often misses the mark. Plus: his take on the AI hype cycle, and why building credibility starts with listening, not pitching. RUNTIME 38:06 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (3:37) How founding an ISP as a teenager led Scott to a career in tech. (6:06) Why he decided to join Ten Eleven Ventures as CTO/operating partner. (9:53) Scott breaks down the essential elements of a cybersecurity pitch. (14:31) Inexperienced founders, “as a general rule, have no idea about the TAM.”  (17:21) On AI hype: “ I'd like to see some more rigor with how we feel like we can start to quantify some of the benefits.” (20:20) Having a global network of security professionals is “ a really great resource for us as a firm, but also for our founders.” (21:51) Lessons learned from being on Carbon Black’s founding team. (23:59) “ You need both of these things that are intertwined: the luck, and the the hard work.” (26:08) Do customer discovery face-to-face, not over Zoom. “It isn't always productive, but there's no substitute for it.” (30:57) Developing and promoting a startup mindset outside of Silicon Valley. (35:30) “ If you build really cool tech to solve a pretty simple problem, then that probably was over-engineered.” (36:11) How to build investor and future customer relationships — when you still have a job. LINKS Scott Lundgren Ten Eleven Ventures Carbon Black SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/   Thanks for listening! – Walter.

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• Deep Tech Without Stealth: Inside Dusty Robotics’ Origin Story

  Construction workers spend hours on their hands and knees snapping chalk lines to mark where walls, plumbing and utilities should go. It’s painstaking, back-breaking labor. And that’s how it’s been done for centuries. Tessa Lau saw an opportunity — and built a robot that does it faster, safer, and with surgical precision. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, the Dusty Robotics founder and CEO shares some of what she's learned about transitioning from a researcher to a deep tech founder, including: How she turned past startup mistakes into a rigorous customer discovery process The structured approach Dusty used to land its first paying customer Why she says stealth mode is overrated — and how building in public gave them a head start How “cool tech” can lead you astray if you’re not solving a real problem Smart ways to pivot and iterate based on actual user feedback What it takes to build a mission-driven team that scales with you If you’re interested in robotics, deep tech, or why some concepts fall into the valley of death while others sail over it like a Red Bull stunt team — listen in. RUNTIME 43:10 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (3:00) “ I always thought I would be a professor someday, and that was my planned career path.” (5:39) How a home renovation project led Tessa into making construction robots (9:16) “ We thought we were going to build a vacuum cleaning robot.” (12:24) “You have to establish that someone is willing to pay for the technology and that it's doable.” (14:15) “ We needed to build something that was 10x better than the status quo in order to scale at venture speed.” (15:41) Finding a deep tech TAM is “ a hard problem, especially when you're creating a new category.” (19:16) “ You can't try to be everything for everyone.” (21:00) Their first prototype “could barely do anything,” but fast pilots helped them iterate quickly. (26:08) How Tessa figured out their pricing *before* they went to market (29:24)  Why marketing and branding are table stakes for a deep-tech startup (33:11) “ As the CEO, you are the face of the company whether you like it or not.” (37:06) “ Our marketing team doesn't need to be very technically savvy.” (38:22) “ I have yet to see a good reason to be in stealth, ever.” (40:53) The one question she’d have to ask a deep tech CEO before accepting a job offer LINKS Tessa Lau Dusty Robotics Philipp Herget, CTO IBM Research Willow Garage, Wikipedia “Savioke is now Relay Robotics,” 5/2/2022, The Robot Report Crossing the Chasm, 3rd edition, Harper Books SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/   📸 Follow FBS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/   Thanks for listening! – Walter.

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• Leveraging Founder-Market Fit to Win Over Risk-Averse Buyers

  What happens when a team of legal veterans decides to rebuild the dispute resolution process from the ground up?  To find out, I interviewed Rich Lee, co-founder and CEO of New Era ADR, a platform designed to resolve legal disputes faster, at lower cost, and with less friction for both companies and individuals.  We talked about building a team that had enough credibility to sell into one of the most risk-averse industries, how they approached trust-building with both customers and investors, and how they're scaling a capital-efficient business in a category that’s been largely unchanged for decades. Thanks for listening! – Walter. RUNTIME 39:46 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:59) “ I'm an early adopter of, you know, anything.” (10:03) “ The core problem: why does it cost so damn much to resolve a legal dispute in this country?” (13:05) How Rich and his co-founders divided roles and responsibilities (17:15) Hurdle #1: “ Challenging the underlying assumption that litigation and a legal dispute doesn't have to be two-plus years.” (22:32) In the early days, New Era ADR developed multiple personas to overcome customer objections (25:50) “ Fortunately, we didn't have to do a lot of POCs.” (29:40) “ Our market's comically big.” (30:03) Finding your SAM and SOM when the TAM is $350 billion (32:22) Which came first: the pitch deck, or the revenue model? (35:50)  One question Rich would have to ask the CEO if he were interviewing for a role with an early-stage startup. LINKS Rich Lee New Era ADR The Future of ADR? New Era Bags $6.3m While Still at Seed Stage, Artificial Lawyer, 3/16/2022 SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

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• From Side Project to API Powerhouse: How Postman Went Global

  Before Postman became a category-defining platform used by millions of developers, it was a personal side project. In this episode, co-founder and CEO Abhinav Asthana shares how he went from hacking on API tools in Bangalore to leading a global company with nearly 900 employees across three continents. We talk about: Building a developer-first product that spread through word of mouth Choosing a CEO when everyone on the founding team is an engineer How to reach U.S. customers before you have a U.S. presence Why authenticity beats thought leadership when you're building in public Going from “ramen profitability” to Series A in just 17 months Whether you're an engineer who’s thinking about starting something of your own, a founder operating outside of Silicon Valley, or just curious how Postman actually works, this episode is packed with tactical insights. RUNTIME 49:19 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:39) “ Being a developer who loved to hack and also design, I just decided to try my hand at this.” (4:00) “ We had a hypothesis, but we didn't have a company.” (6:08) Abhinav built goodwill with the developer community by being helpful (9:26) How they settled on the name “Postman” (11:51) On a team of engineers, how do you decide who should become CEO? (15:00) Who was their first key hire outside of the founding team? (20:15) Why he thinks early-stage startups should seek “ramen profitability” (23:23) “ Our first marketing hire was about two years in.” (25:18) What it was like to go from a seed round to Series A in just 17 months (30:02) “ At that point, it kind of became clear that this is a new kind of category.” (32:15) How Postman’s branding dovetails with the platform’s underlying technology (36:13) One thing he would have done differently in the run-up to the Series A (38:48) Managing cross-border growth when you’re based in Bangalore (40:56) “ Building the company in two different places… it's just incredibly hard.” (44:47) “ Don't skimp on two things ever in starting a venture-funded company: your lawyer, and your accountant.” (45:52) One question he’d have to ask the CEO if he were interviewing for a job with an early-stage startup. LINKS Abhinav Asthana Postman Postman raises $50 million to deliver its API collaboration platform to more partners, 6/19/19, VentureBeat SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/  📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ Thanks for listening! – Walter.

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