Episodes

June 13, 2024

Navigating Career Pivots with Guest Host Kyle Hagge (Chief of Staff to the COO at Morning Brew & Co-Host of Per My Last Email)

Episode 137: This week, Kyle Hagge, chief of staff to the COO at Morning Brew and co-host of the podcast Per My Last Email is guest hosting Founder’s Journal to chat about career pivots. Kyle shares his own experience with c…
June 4, 2024

How to Become a Marketing Master (Noah Kagan, Appsumo & Million Dollar Weekend)

Episode 136: In today’s episode, I chat with marketing master Noah Kagan, the founder and CEO of AppSumo and New York Times bestselling author of Million Dollar Weekend . Noah shares his repeatable marketing playbook, and I …
May 28, 2024

How to Become Relentless as an Entrepreneur (Kian Sadeghi, Nucleus)

Episode 135: Today, I speak with Kian Sadeghi, one of the most impressive early-stage founders I have ever met. Kian's genetic testing company, Nucleus, has attracted investment from Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Alexis Oh…
May 21, 2024

How to Identify Top 1% Talent (Keith Rabois, Investor in Doordash, YouTube, Airbnb & Lyft)

Episode 134: Today, I speak to legendary executive and investor Keith Rabois about his ability to identify top 1% founders and employees. Keith has invested in a billion-dollar business every year for the last 20 years, incl…
May 14, 2024

How to Use Entrepreneurship to Propel Personal Growth (Jesse Pujji, Ampush & Gateway X)

Episode 133: In today’s episode I chat with Jesse Pujji ( @jspujji ), co-founder of Ampush and founder of startup studio Gateway X. Jesse has used entrepreneurship as a vehicle for personal and professional growth, and we ta…
May 7, 2024

How to Reverse Engineer Great Business Ideas (Sam Parr, The Hustle & Hampton)

Episode 132: To kick off Founder's Journal 's new episode format, I speak with Sam Parr ( @thesamparr ), founder of The Hustle and Hampton. Sam is an expert at reverse engineering business ideas, and we speak about the tools…
April 30, 2024

Founder’s Journal’s Next Chapter

Episode 131: On this episode, I discuss the future of Founder’s Journal and why I think it will be the best entrepreneurship show, full stop. Thanks as always for being on this journey with me, and can’t wait for what’s next…
April 23, 2024

My New Business

Episode 130: On today’s episode, I talk about refinding purpose post-exit and launching my new business, Storyarb. I share the full details on Storyarb with no details spared, including ideation, customer acquisition, early …
April 16, 2024

Why I Stepped Down As CEO

Episode 129: On today’s episode I discuss my decision to step down as CEO of Morning Brew. I chat about going from a Chapter 1 to a Chapter 2 CEO, the emotional journey after stepping down, and climbing out of the trough of …
April 9, 2024

Why We Sold Morning Brew

Episode 128: On today’s episode of Founder’s Journal , I talk through the sale of Morning Brew. I chat about how the opportunity came about, why we said no to previous potential deals, why I thought selling the business was …
April 2, 2024

Growing Morning Brew from 0 to 10,000 Subscribers

Episode 127: On this episode of Founder’s Journal , I break down the exact strategies we used to acquire our first 10,000 newsletter subscribers, and abstractable growth lessons you can apply to your business. Send us an ema…
March 29, 2024

Lessons from CMOs, Great Storytelling, Freelance vs. Full-time, Follow Your Energy

Episode 126: Today I discuss my biggest takeaways from a Fortune 500 CMO dinner I hosted, choosing between freelancers vs. full-time employees, lessons in storytelling from Shaan Puri, the importance of following your energy…
March 27, 2024

Feeling Unskilled, Curing Cancer, and Going All-In on Morning Brew

Episode 125: In today’s episode I chat about being in a content creation slump, making an impact as an entrepreneur, and why you never know if it is the right time to go all in on your business. Send us an email and let us k…
March 26, 2024

A Little Throwback

Episode 124: Today we’re throwing it back with a true journal-style episode. I talk about the joys of finding product-market fit, being a default-trusting founder, and understanding extrinsic vs. intrinsic drivers. Send us a…
March 22, 2024

Always Be Shipping

Episode 123: On this episode, I share a recent blog post by my friend and former colleague, Tyler Denk. Tyler is the co-founder and CEO of beehiiv, a high-growth email newsletter platform. This post outlines Tyler’s philosop…
March 20, 2024

Go Direct

Episode 122: Lulu Meservey is the former chief communications officer of Activision Blizzard and Substack. This episode, I read her recent manifesto, which details the importance of founders crafting their narrative, learnin…
March 18, 2024

The Opportunity Cost of Everything

Episode 121: Writer, Columbia Business School grad, and college athlete Jack Raines's essay, "The Opportunity Cost of Everything," forces readers to ask themselves the only question that really matters: If I was nearing the …
March 15, 2024

How I Lost $10,000,000

Episode 120: Andrew Wilkinson is the co-founder and CEO of Tiny, a publicly traded holding company trying to be Berkshire Hathaway but for internet companies. In 2007, Andrew started a Canada-based design agency called Metal…
March 13, 2024

The Dangers of LTV

Episode 119: LTV, or lifetime value, has become the gold standard for startups, specifically how they measure the effectiveness of their various marketing channels. LTV does have merit, and it is a helpful proxy to prioritiz…
March 11, 2024

7-Figure Business in 48 Hours

Episode 118: Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan, the founder and CEO of AppSumo, walks you through the step-by-step process for building a 7-figure business in 48 hours. I know it sounds too good to be true, and no, you’re…
March 8, 2024

Why Software is Eating the World

Episode 117: Just under 13 years ago, Marc Andreessen proclaimed that software would transform every industry. He couldn’t have been more right; software did eat the world. 7 of the 10 largest companies in the world today ar…
March 6, 2024

How to Hire Well

Episode 116: I found one of the best resources on hiring by one of the most well-respected founders and early-stage investors, Elad Gil. In this episode, I'll be reading highlights from the Hiring chapter of Elad’s startup b…
March 4, 2024

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy

Episode 115: Today’s essay breaks down one of the best business strategy books I’ve ever read. Startup founder Abi Tunggal breaks down 7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer, which is a book about the seven proven business strategies t…
March 1, 2024

Amp it Up

Episode 114: Yesterday, Snowflake announced that its CEO, Frank Slootman, was retiring. Slootman, former CEO of Data Domain and ServiceNow, is such a successful and well-respected CEO that Snowflake's stock was down 24.5%, o…