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 List with tactical advice from founders actively scaling their businesses. This season, we’re setting out to be the best podcast in the world for seed and Series A founders. Episode Highlights: 00:45 - The Big Change: Merging the Exceptional Startups List with the I/O Podcast We’re bringing on founders who are actively crossing key growth milestones—sharing real-time insights before they hit the mainstream. 02:35 - Solving a Major Founder Challenge: Hiring Exceptional Talent The Exceptional Startups List started as a resource for job seekers, but it’s also helping founders attract top-tier talent. 04:43 - Introducing I/O Podcast Snacks: High-Impact, Shorter Episodes In addition to our full-length episodes, we’re launching I/O Snacks—quick, tactical interviews with startup leaders making waves. This season is all about delivering actionable, high-quality content tailored for founders navigating their early-stage journey. If you’re looking for insights on scaling, hiring, and building a world-class startup, you won’t want to miss this. Exceptional Startups List Here: https://exceptionalstartups.com/ Follow the I/O Podcast Here: x: https://x.com/IO__podcast Web: https://www.investoroperator.io/…

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 takes to excel at the highest level. In this episode, Dr. Gurner joins hosts Sterling Snow and Tyler Hogge to explore the mindsets, strategies, and leadership styles that empower people to perform at their peak. Episode Highlights: 00:00 Meet Dr. Julie Gurner and her unique approach to executive performance 05:47 The fine line between "good crazy" and "bad crazy" in high achievers 08:44 Rule-bending: When it drives success and when it derails progress 15:16 How confidence and aggression play into leadership styles 18:56 Evolving roles: Adapting leadership from a startup’s early days to maturity 24:18 The power of vulnerability: Why CEOs should own their weaknesses to build balanced teams 27:43 Helping others lean into their unique strengths for maximum impact 33:17 Identifying "great" talent vs. "good" talent: What sets true excellence apart 40:23 The importance of positive self-talk and why leaders should never downplay themselves 47:01 Reframing failure: How top performers see setbacks as learning, not defining moments Whether you're a startup founder, entrepreneur, or aspiring leader, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways to help you break through personal and professional barriers. Dr. Gurner’s guidance is invaluable for anyone striving to reach the top in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment. Follow Dr. Gurner Here: X: https://x.com/drgurner Newsletter: drgurner.substack.com Web: drgurner.com…

"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 the multi-billion-dollar startup Lattice, and now a full-time investor with his $150 million venture fund, Alt Capital, Jack has successfully navigated both sides of the entrepreneurial journey. It’s clear he excels in every aspect, and we were thrilled to have him on the show. In this episode, we delve into Jack’s career trajectory, from his early days in tech to how he gained the insight to launch Lattice. Jack shares the invaluable lessons he’s learned from building and scaling Lattice to a Series F company, and how those experiences have shaped his approach to investing. Here’s a breakdown of what we covered: 1:20 – How Jack got into tech and landed at a fast-growing startup 5:30 – Joining an early-stage company vs. starting your own: which provides better learning? 11:30 – The launch of Lattice and pivoting to achieve product-market fit (PMF) 14:14 – How to recognize when you’ve found PMF 19:20 – Best practices for scaling companies: “If your product won’t be used 10 years from now, you’ll never build a lasting, valuable SaaS business.” 21:15 – Jack’s early fundraising mistakes and what he’d do differently 24:30 – The top three traits every founder needs 30:15 – Transitioning to investing: "My hobby is other startups" 39:20 – How being a founder prepares you to be an investor 42:40 – How to become a Level 6 investor ( Link to Tweet ) 46:20 – Why point solutions won’t cut it—compound startups will generate the biggest returns 51:45 – Investing in AI and the rise of ‘killer apps’ 58:54 – Investment strategies: should you aim to create returns by incubating or seed funding? 1:04:00 – Recap with Tyler & Sterling For more on Alt Capital, visit altcap.com . Check out Jack’s hierarchy of investors on X (formerly Twitter). Discover more insights from Investor-Operators on the IO Podcast: YouTube: @IO-Podcast X: @IO__podcast TikTok: @io_podcast…

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 companies like Coinbase, Databricks, Figma, Robinhood and Instacart. Prior to a16z, David was at General Atlantic, where he invested in iconic brands like Airbnb, Opendoor, Slack, Crowdstrike, and Uber. David shares his unique insights into growth investing and his predictions for the future. Chapters: 01:15 David's Path to Venture 05:30 What Makes Andreessen Horowitz Different 10:30 What He Looks For When Making Growth Investments 21:15 Focus On Inputs Not Outputs 29:30 How They Source Investments 35:10 "On TAM, Ignore the Research Reports". Here's What To Look For Instead 44:30 What It Takes To Go Public: The Three Things A Company Needs 48:56 Where AI Is Going And How He's Investing 1:01:23 Episode Takeaways Connect With David & a16z https://x.com/DavidGeorge83 https://a16z.com/growth/…

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 him to take on the job and how together they're building a company everyone in Utah can root for. Chapters: 01:03 Why The Investor Operator Podcast Was Started 03:45 How Sterling Started Talking With The Founding Team At Redo 05:12 Why Redo May Be The Next Divvy 09:41 What Is Redo & How It's Going 16:30 Why You Should Join Redo 23:30 Join An Excellent Startup For Faster Career Growth…

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 tech and an unconventional thinker shaping the the product culture of Shopify. He shares his story of growing up in Iran, experiencing the Iran-Iraq war, and eventually immigrating to Canada at age 12. In Canada, Kaz gets even deeper into his fascination with computers and goes onto found a YC company, run a product line at Meta and now acts as the COO and Product Evangelist at multi-billion dollar company Shopify. Tyler and Sterling find out why Shopify employees have no meetings, how big tech companies are doing product wrong, and why Shopify's unique culture will create a 100 year company that just keeps getting bigger. Chapters: 01:50 - Kaz's Childhood in Iran and Fleeing to Canada 06:49 - Hot Takes on Current Protests on College Campuses 07:55 - Early Exposure To Computers and Path To Tech 11:17 - The Best Product Managers Are Weird People 13:30 - "I Cannot Take An Average Person And Train Them To Be A PM" 21:25 - How Shopify Is Different Than Other Big Companies 31:00 - How Kaz Killed Meetings At Shopify 37:30 - Write Code And Talk To Users, Do That Over And Over Again 43:39 - Why Getting Married Will Be Your Best Career Accelerant 50:00 - Wrap Up questions 57:25 - Tyler & Sterling's Recap _________________________ Connect With Kaz https://x.com/canadakaz Kaz@shopify.com Connect With Tyler & Sterling https://x.com/thogge https://x.com/sterlingmsnow Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly) https://x.com/IO__podcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609 https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG…

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 none. Blake spent the next several years building what would become one of the fastest-growing startups in history—a platform combining expense management software and a corporate card to help businesses of all sizes manage their finances. Blake, along with Tyler and Sterling—Divvy’s SVP and CRO—break down why this startup was such a remarkable success: a world-class team, a world-class product and a performance culture that pushed Divvy and it’s people to the top. Chapters: 01:38 - How Blake Knew Divvy Would Be A Big Idea 07:17 - The Insight: No Real-Time Financial Information For Businesses 09:20 - The Idea: Blake Lands A 7-Figure Deal With Only A Deck 14:15 - Sell, Design, Build: How Divvy Built First Then Sold To Solve GTM 24:30 - Hire Like-Minded People Instead of People Who’ve Done It (Culture vs Acumen) 37:00 - ’Nobody’s Coming, It’s Up To Us’. How To Do More With Less 42:27 - Founder Advice: Have A Short Memory 43:45 - Founder Advice: Build A Performance Culture 49:52 - Work-Life Balance Myth: Big Sacrifices Are Required for Asymmetric Upside 59:00 - Investor Advice: Founders Want Investors Who Will Be Loyal To Them 1:04:45 - Tyler and Sterling’s Recap _________________________ Connect With Blake https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-murray-79655665 https://x.com/blakemur Connect With Tyler & Sterling https://x.com/thogge https://x.com/sterlingmsnow Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly) https://x.com/IO__podcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609 https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG…

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 successful investments including unicorns like Salesforce, Plaid, Workday, Robinhood, Cloudflare and Tableau. How has he done it? Scott shares his investment philosophy influenced by other greats like Dick Kramlich and John Doerr: understand an individual's life story, decision-making process, and future goals as key in making successful investment choices. Chapters: 00:02:17 What Are The Characteristics Of Unicorn Founders? 00:10:16 "I Look For Passion-Driven Missionaries" 00:16:05 Building Tableau's Success: Lessons in Slow, Purposeful Growth 00:27:13 Make Your Investors Your Partners. Navigating Board Relationships 00:40:55 The Era of Decreasing LP Commitments 00:52:39 Tyler and Sterlings Recap Connect with Scott and NEA Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottdsandell YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTU3mQDqk3QyB4WeDQwZ1YQ Connect with IO Pod Twitter: https://twitter.com/IO__podcast Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ Website: https://www.investoroperator.io/ This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners https://pelionvp.com/…

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 companies, and Sheel with FeeFighter and Innovative Auctions, Jake and Sheel saw a gap in the market and started a fund to help fintech companies at the earliest stages. And they've already had some big wins, counting Ramp and Unit as Portcos. Jake and Sheel joined us on the pod to tell us how they built their previous companies and talked to the future of fintech and the the trends they're seeing across the industry. We cover the pandemic-induced surge in fintech interest and how their big bet is on embeddable fintech, where financial services are seamlessly integrated into non-financial platforms. Chapters: 00:00:35 Tyler & Sterling's Intro 00:07:05 Starting NerdWallet during the 2008 Financial Crisis 00:12:34 How Jake Gamed Google SEO To Grow NerdWallet 00:19:08 How Better Tomorrow Ventures Started 00:24:17 Early Support from Andreessen Horowitz for Fund 00:30:08 Fintech Investment Opportunities During The Pandemic 00:37:38 Embedded Fintech Is The Future 00:45:52 The Durbin Amendment & Changing Bank Profit Pools 00:55:47 Jake And Sheel's Nominees for Best Operators & Investors Connect with Jake And Sheel Twitter (Sheel) : https://twitter.com/pitdesi Twitter (Jake): https://twitter.com/iamjakestream Website: https://www.btv.vc/ Learn More About The Mint https://www.themint.vc/ Connect with IO Pod Twitter: https://twitter.com/IO__podcast Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ Website: https://www.investoroperator.io/ This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners https://pelionvp.com/ #StartupLife #StartupMentality…

Immad Akhund had the idea for Mercury years before they started. In fact, he'd launched 3 other startups and been through YCombinator twice before even starting initial validation on what would become the beloved neobank of startups everywhere. And opinions were mixed. Immad himself recognized the need for a simpler and more efficient banking service while while operating Heyzap his previous company. But when he shared the concept with other startups, not everyone grasped its potential. Today, Mercury dominates in the neobank industry. Immad walks hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow through the early days of Mercury, shares advice on how to operate and his strategies on investing. Chapters: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:56 Immad's Entrepreneurial Journey - Previous Companies & Learnings 00:08:27 What Does Mercury Do? 00:11:24 How He Launched Mercury 00:14:35 The Neo Bank Industry and Launch Timing 00:21:50 The SVB Fallout & How That Led To Big Growth For Mercury 00:32:50 Operating Advice: The Six-Year Vesting Plan 00:43:35 Immad's Hot Takes & Predictions: AI Is a Hype Cycle 00:57:17 Rapid Fire & Wrap-up Things to Check Out: Immad's Memo - How to Not Be A Bottleneck as a CEO Immad's Podcast - Curiosity Podcast Immad's Advice on Operating - @immad on X ___________________ This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Connect on X Follow on Tiktok Hear Other Episodes on Our Website…

Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Alex Rampell may be the most true version of an investor-operator. Alex's first entrepreneurial endeavor started as a child when he built and sold shareware out of his parent's house. Eventually he added more businesses to his portfolio before launching the payment platform TrialPay after college and eventually Affirm. Today, Alex invests in some of the largest companies at Andreessen Horowitz and he shares with Tyler and Sterling what he looks for in entrepreneurs and shares tactical advice from his days building. Chapters: (00:03:00) How Alex Started His First Company in Middle School (00:14:46) Investing in People: The Key to Startup Success (00:18:33) Building Relationships for Business Success (00:21:23) The Advantage of Naivete in Entrepreneurship (00:26:41) Interconnected Attributes for Building a Successful Business (00:28:44) Building a Strong Entrepreneurial Framework (00:36:04) Mitigating Risk of Overdependence on Initial Customers (00:42:20) The Battle for Market Dominance (00:46:05) The Crucial Role of Distribution for Startups (00:57:17) The Challenge of Convincing Buyers (01:00:38) Leveraging fear to drive successful acquisitions…

Geoff Lewis is a titan in the VC world as both the lead investor and founder of Bedrock Capital, the firm backing some of the world best-known tech companies. Geoff joins Tyler and Sterling on the podcast to share his insights on venture capital and what it takes to consistently make money for LPs. Geoff discusses the unique decision to raise Bedrock's fund size in a time when other funds are downsizing, the importance of assessing founders and their unique qualities, and the challenges and rewards of starting a venture capital firm. He also shares his thoughts on the future of social media, the venture capital industry, and the power of authenticity in building strong partnerships. Chapters 00:04:10 - Why Bedrock Is Upsizing Their Fund Structure. 00:06:54 - How Geoff Assesses Entrepreneurs and Raises Capital. 00:10:10 - Building Relationships Brings Smart Investments 00:14:13 - Achieving Work-Life Integration For Entrepreneurs. 00:17:49 - Why The Best Founders Are Authentic 00:21:29 - Different Investment Styles in VC 00:26:44 - When To Double Down 00:38:04 - The OpenAI Situation 00:40:37 - Geoff's Hot Takes 00:57:08 - Rapid Fire and Wrap-up We think you'll love this conversation. Don't miss hearing from one of the industry's top investors and operators.…

How did this small town farm kid go on to lead the revenue orgs for Silicon Valley's biggest companies? Mark Cranney credits his success to the lessons he learned growing up: work hard and run things efficiently. Mark shares the playbook he's used to build billions in pipeline through his career as an executive, sales leader and most famously as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. If you're a founder, there's no better person to learn from than Mark. Chapters 00:37 Introducing Mark Cranney 04:45 Find Sales Leaders Who Can Perform 07:03 What To Look For In Potential Hires 13:03 Find Courageous People To Join Your Team 17:07 The Sales Playbook - Are You Running It Or Can You Put It Together? 22:51 Putting Together The Revenue Org At SignalFx 25:15 How Mark Uses Company Bootcamps To Build Cohesion 31:47 Getting Everyone To Buy Into the Vision 37:25 Common Mistakes First Time Founders Make With Their Sales Org 48:27 Wrap up and Takeaways Read 'Hard Thing About Hard Things' Connect With Mark Follow us on X Find Highlights from the show on TikTok Check out our website Brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners…

President and CEO of YCombinator Garry Tan sits down with Tyler & Sterling and recounts his time as an early hire at Palantir, starting his company Posterous and becoming an investor of dozens of well-known startups. The companies Garry has worked with are worth a combined $226 billion. Garry gives valuable advice on cofounder dynamics, doing your inner work, and startup strategies for both Investors & Operators. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 05:55 Garry's $200 Million Mistake 13:00 Why Posterous Stopped Growing 14:30 Why You Should Pay Attention To The Competition 21:10 A Healthy Cofounder Relationship Means Having Conflict 29:38 Adverse Childhood Experiences & Why You Should Heal Them 32:45 A 'B' is an 'F' in Startups 37:07 Users Lie To You Until They Are Paying For Something 43:40 Culture Radiates From The Founder 49:30 Startups Fail Because They Build Something People Don't Want 54:30 Why SF Is The Best Place to Find PMF 1:03:45 Tyler & Sterling's Takeaways Connect with Garry: YT: https://www.youtube.com/@GarryTan LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrytan X: https://twitter.com/garrytan More on Garry: Current President and CEO of YC, Garry was a partner at Y Combinator from 2011 to 2015, where he built key parts of the YC experience for founders including Bookface and the Demo Day website. Garry is the co-founder of Initialized Capital and Posterous (YC S08), a blog platform acquired by Twitter, and prior to that, he was an early designer and engineering manager at Palantir (NYSE:PLTR), where he designed the company logo. Garry holds a BS in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford.…