Fund/Build/Scale

Before Sri Chandrasekar became managing partner at Point72 Ventures, he was a Senior Vice President at In-Q-Tel, the non-profit VC firm that invests in startups on behalf of the CIA and other nationa…

Nicholas Thorne is a partner at prehype, a venture development firm that helps large companies create startups by acting as an incubator.

He's also the founder of Audos, an AI co-pilot designed to a…

I met Fortune Senior Finance Reporter Allie Garfinkle in February 2024 at an event for comms professionals. 

She had just taken over the Term Sheet daily deals newsletter covering startups, venture c…

Before Igor Jablokov was CEO and founder of Pryon, he worked with Apple on a prototype of Siri. He also founded a speech recognition company that Amazon acquired to develop its Alexa AI and Echo devi…

If you're building a first-to-market solution using emerging technology that could meaningfully contribute to society and generate a 50x return, TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage wants to hear f…

In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, host Walter Thompson engages in a comprehensive discussion with Hantz Févry, co-founder and CEO of Stoovo, an AI-based geospatial data company.

Hantz shares inva…

Enterprise companies like Salesforce, Oracle and Cisco use sales-led growth to drive revenue and build relationships with potential customers.

Early-stage startups can't afford to rely on traditional…

In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I interviewed Amex Ventures Managing Director Kevin Weber about some of the nuances between traditional VC and corporate venture capital.

It’s quite a mix: he’s l…

Everyone's looking for ways to implement AI solutions, but integrating them into existing systems means entering uncharted territory. 

Despite the hype cycle, a majority of enterprise customers “are …

Deb Kemper is a managing partner of Golden Seeds Ventures, a firm that focuses on backing early-stage, women-led companies.

She joined me on the podcast to share tactics with founders who want to bui…

One of the first interviews I did for the podcast was with Renen Hallak, CEO and founder of AI infrastructure company VAST Data. 

The company launched in 2019, and three years later, it was ranked No…

Viviana Faga is general partner at Felicis, a venture firm that invests in seed to Series B startups in several sectors. Since its founding in 2006, the company has backed breakout companies like Ady…

Fiat Ventures General Partner and co-founder Drew Glover fits the textbook definition of an emerging investor, but we had so much to talk about, the term itself never came up during our interview.

Fo…

Early-stage deep tech founders working in AI and ML, or sectors like mobility, robotics and semiconductors are generally better off raising funds, seeking mentorship and connecting with potential cus…

I’m Walter Thompson. After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned:

1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck.
…

The average failure rate for a tech startup is 90%. 

Around one-fifth will flame out in the first year, and the overwhelming majority of the ones that make it past that mark will never be acquired or…

For this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I interviewed Dipanwita Das, CEO and co-founder of Sorcero, about the journey of taking an AI startup from research to reality. She shared her experience of inte…

Going from zero to $1M in annual recurring revenue is worth celebrating, but it’s no guarantee that your startup is on a path to success.

How long did it take to reach this milestone? How much did y…

Successful entrepreneurs must translate their personal visions into something tangible enough to attract employees, investors, and eventually, customers. 

There are best practices for product managem…

In part two, Armon explained why he initially resisted investor advice to raise a Series A and spoke frankly about the challenges involved with stepping up into a leadership role, which led to some i…