Key Lessons for Startup Founders: Insights from the TechCrunch Found Podcast
Over the past two years, hosting nearly 100 episodes of TechCrunch’s now-concluded Found podcast has been a journey of discovery. Through conversations with countless startup founders, I’ve gleaned insights into their strategies for growth, hiring, and the pivotal moments that inspired them to take the entrepreneurial leap. Although I’m not a founder myself, several pieces of wisdom shared during the show have resonated deeply. Here’s a distilled list of five standout lessons for founders, combining both practical and philosophical angles.
- Embrace What You Avoid: Rippling’s co-founder and CEO, Parker Conrad, challenges the common startup wisdom of hiring to fill gaps in skills or interest. Instead, he suggests founders should tackle those daunting tasks head-on. Conrad asserts, “You should find the things that you hate within the company, and you should run towards them and bear hug them and just really take them on.” These uncomfortable areas are often critical to a startup’s success.
- Trust Your Vision Over Trends: When Ashley Tyrner launched FarmboxRx, VCs urged her to pivot to meal kits—a hot trend at the time. Ignoring this advice, she bootstrapped her company instead. Reflecting on this decision, Tyrner remarked, “Most of the meal kits have slowly died.” By sticking to her vision, FarmboxRx forged profitable partnerships with insurance companies to deliver produce boxes as part of patients’ prescriptions.
- Last Can Be Best: Caraway’s founder, Jordan Nathan, learned that being last to market isn’t necessarily a disadvantage. Launching his non-toxic cookware company later allowed Caraway to identify and address gaps in a crowded market. Nathan explained that this timing helped refine their product lineup and target unserved audiences effectively.
- Generate Revenue Early: While deep tech ventures may not monetize immediately like other startups, they can still establish revenue streams early. Joe Wolfel of Terradepth emphasized offering services manually or through a dashboard while developing their autonomous drones. He noted, “One thing you learn pretty quickly in combat is you can’t steer something that’s not moving.”
- Build the Company Around Your Product: Gavin Uberti from Etched shared a cautionary tale about neglecting company infrastructure. Focusing solely on product development led to missing critical employee benefits setup until it was too late. This highlights the importance of balancing product innovation with foundational company operations.
“You should find the things that you hate within the company, and you should run towards them…”
– Parker Conrad
