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Episodes

David Haber of a16z: Building a Firm vs Fund + What a16z is focused on in 2026
March 10, 2026

David Haber of a16z: Building a Firm vs Fund + What a16z is focused o…

In this episode, Tyler and Sterling sit down with David Haber from a16z. David shares many important insights and tactics for both investors and operators, as well as his groundbreaking idea on the concept of "Firm over Fund"...

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Why The Second Decade Is The Best For Startups — A convo w/ Spenser Skates, CEO Amplitude Analytics
Dec. 16, 2025

Why The Second Decade Is The Best For Startups — A convo w/ Spenser S…

In today's episode, Tyler and Sterling sit down with Spenser Skates, Founder and CEO of Amplitude Analytics, the digital Analytics platform that helps thousand of businesses find ways to grow and improve. Spenser shares how h...

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Ex Navy SEAL: When To Quit Vs Persevere In Business + How I Started A Successful Venture Firm!
Oct. 14, 2025

Ex Navy SEAL: When To Quit Vs Persevere In Business + How I Started A…

A question every startup founder has is, "When do I know when to keep going or throw in the towel?" Today, Tyler and Sterling sit down with ex Navy Seal and Olympian, Larsen Jensen, to talk about just that. Larsen is the foun...

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Zero To $1 BILLION In Payments In Just One Year: How To Crush Product-Market-Fit w/ Joshua Silver
Sept. 30, 2025

Zero To $1 BILLION In Payments In Just One Year: How To Crush Product…

Usually small startups fail when trying to take on big companies. Rainforest, however, is a different story. In the payments space dominated by Stripe and PayPal, founder Joshua Silver saw a gap no one was paying attention to...

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$500M Founder: Avoid These Critical Mistakes When Competing With Incumbents - A convo w/ Daniel Simon, Coast CEO
Sept. 16, 2025

$500M Founder: Avoid These Critical Mistakes When Competing With Incu…

Are you a small startup trying to compete with the big dogs? Well then this episode is for you. Tyler and Sterling sit down with Daniel Simon, co-founder of Bread (sold for $500M) who is now working on his next big startup: C...

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Kapital: The Future of Latin-American Banking With Mexico’s Best Startup
Sept. 2, 2025

Kapital: The Future of Latin-American Banking With Mexico’s Best Star…

If you need some motivation as an entrepreneur, then this is the podcast episode for you. In today's video Tyler and Sterling sit down with Rene Saul, the CEO and co-founder of Kapital, the $1.3 billion-dollar startup from Me...

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Lessons From Building Utah's Next $10B Company — A convo w/ Adam Edmunds, CEO of Entrata
Aug. 12, 2025

Lessons From Building Utah's Next $10B Company — A convo w/ Adam Edmu…

If you haven't heard of Entrata yet, then you need to listen to this episode. Entrata is a sleeping giant of a company that has quietly been growing in the background...and is on track to be the biggest company to ever come o...

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Leading a $1B Revenue Startup AND $1.8B VC Firm – A convo w/ Arjun Sethi (Tribe Capital + Kraken)
July 29, 2025

Leading a $1B Revenue Startup AND $1.8B VC Firm – A convo w/ Arjun Se…

Hands-down, Arjun is the most interesting man in venture capital. He thinks differently than everyone else, and as a result, his VC Firm, Tribe Capital, and his startup, Kraken, are completely unique. In this episode, he shar...

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How The BEST Founders Go From Seed To Series A - a convo w/ Brett Berson of First Round
July 15, 2025

How The BEST Founders Go From Seed To Series A - a convo w/ Brett Ber…

What are the questions founders and VC firms should be asking when raising a Series A? How will AI impact things? What are the common pitfalls for Seed-stage startups? In this episode, Tyler and Sterling sit down with Brett B...

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From whiteboard idea to $7 BILLION…How Flock Safety catches 20% of US crime — w/ Garrett Langley
June 10, 2025

From whiteboard idea to $7 BILLION…How Flock Safety catches 20% of US…

How on earth do startup founders with zero experience in the security industry sell millions of dollars in contracts to police stations around the US? In this episode of Exceptional Startups, Garrett Langley, founder and CEO ...

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How Benchmark Capital finds EXCEPTIONAL startups in the age of AI — A convo w/ Eric Vishria
May 20, 2025

How Benchmark Capital finds EXCEPTIONAL startups in the age of AI — A…

With so many AI startups these days, how do you identify which will be home-runs and which will be flops? In this episode of the I/O Podcast, Tyler and Sterling sit down with Eric Vishria, a General Partner at the legendary B...

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How Great Founders SELL Before They BUILD — An Exceptional Startup Chat w/ The Founder of Wander
May 6, 2025

How Great Founders SELL Before They BUILD — An Exceptional Startup Ch…

How do you get paying customers...before you've even built your product? Time to find out! In this episode of Exceptional Startups, Tyler sits down with John Andrew Entwistle, Founder and CEO of Wander, the platform that's tr...

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The Simple Tricks Founders Need To Build WINNING Teams — An IO Interview With Nakul Mandan
April 22, 2025

The Simple Tricks Founders Need To Build WINNING Teams — An IO Interv…

In this episode of the IO Podcast, Nakul Mandan (founder of Audacious Ventures) shares his tips and tricks for recruiting top talent, the most critical assets for successful companies. He also shares his story of how he becam...

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His Company Went Public At $1.8 BILLION...And His Next Idea Is Even Bigger
April 8, 2025

His Company Went Public At $1.8 BILLION...And His Next Idea Is Even B…

In this episode of Exceptional Startups, Brandon Rodman (founder of Weave and now Previ) breaks down how he’s quietly building a Costco for the modern workforce — one that’s already grown from 300K to 1.5M users in 3 months, ...

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Building the Sales Machine with Pete Kazanjy, Author of Founding Sales | IO Podcast
March 25, 2025

Building the Sales Machine with Pete Kazanjy, Author of Founding Sale…

In this episode, Pete Kazanjy—author of Founding Sales and a veteran sales leader—joins hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow to share a crash course in founder-led sales, explaining why early-stage founders must take charge of...

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The Best Podcast For Early Stage Founders - Season 2 of the I/O Podcast & the Exceptional Startups List
Feb. 20, 2025

The Best Podcast For Early Stage Founders - Season 2 of the I/O Podca…

How do early-stage founders break through and build exceptional companies? In this upcoming season of the I/O Podcast, hosts Sterling Snow and Tyler Hogge unveil a new approach—combining insights from the Exceptional Startups...

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The Formula for Outlier Success with Dr. Gurner, a World's Best Executive Coach | IO Pod Ep 15
Nov. 12, 2024

The Formula for Outlier Success with Dr. Gurner, a World's Best Execu…

How do you become the best of the best—the top performer in your field? Dr. Julie Gurner, an acclaimed executive coach and once likened to Billions’ Wendy Rhoades by The Wall Street Journal, shares her insights on what it tak...

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Building Lattice & Alt Capital: Jack Altman On Investing & Operating
Oct. 1, 2024

Building Lattice & Alt Capital: Jack Altman On Investing & Operating

"Joining a company as early as possible, right after achieving product-market fit, offers the greatest career advantage." – Jack Altman Jack Altman epitomizes the true "Investor-Operator." As the co-founder and former CEO of ...

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Leading a16z's Growth Fund: David George On Investing Now and In the Future | Ep 14, IO Podcast
Sept. 9, 2024

Leading a16z's Growth Fund: David George On Investing Now and In the …

In this episode, Tyler Hogge & Sterling Snow sit down with David George, General Partner at a16z, where he leads the growth investing practice. Since joining in 2019, David has been at the forefront of investments in companie...

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Emergency Episode of the I/O - Building Utah with Redo CEO Sterling Snow
Aug. 20, 2024

Emergency Episode of the I/O - Building Utah with Redo CEO Sterling S…

Current Investor and Divvy's Former CRO Sterling Snow is jumping back into an operating role, this time as CEO of Redo, a fast growing customer experience platform. Sterling shares how Redo's founder Taylor Brown approached h...

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Here's Why Shopify Will Be A 100 Year Company | Kaz Nejatian, Shopify COO & Former YC Founder | Episode 12
July 10, 2024

Here's Why Shopify Will Be A 100 Year Company | Kaz Nejatian, Shopify…

How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify in their Toronto HQ. Kaz is a fascinating mind in t...

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He Started A Business That Sold For $2.5 Billion. Here's What He Learned | Blake Murray, Divvy CEO | I/O Pod Episode 11
June 4, 2024

He Started A Business That Sold For $2.5 Billion. Here's What He Lear…

When Blake Murray came up with the idea of Divvy, it was because he had a problem: he couldn’t get real-time data on the financial health of his business. So in 2016, Blake set out to find a solution and realized there was no...

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NEA's Scott Sandell May Have The Most IPOs Of All Time. Here's How He Did It | Ep. 10 I/O Podcast
May 7, 2024

NEA's Scott Sandell May Have The Most IPOs Of All Time. Here's How He…

Scott Sandell, Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at NEA is truly one of the great venture capitalists of our generation. With nearly three decades at NEA he leads the field with a track record of dozens of succe...

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The Kings of Fintech | How NerdWallet's Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot Are Funding The Next Generation | Ep. 9
April 10, 2024

The Kings of Fintech | How NerdWallet's Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot …

There may be no better pair of fintech investors than Better Tomorrow Ventures Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot. After successful exits in the industry -- Jake as the co-founder of NerdWallet, one of the OG consumer fintech compa...

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