The Nichole Wischoff Podcast

Alan left Revolut to tackle one of the biggest problems of the next 25 years: energy In this episode, we break down how Fuse Energy scaled to $400M in revenue, raised $170M, and is rebuilding the power grid from scratch full-stack, global, and brutally efficient.We talk energy economics, AI’s power problem, why renewables alone don’t work (yet), and what it really takes to build a trillion-dollar company.00:00 Why energy is a trillion-dollar problem01:54 Being the 5th employee at Revolut04:19 Finding the right co-founder06:56 The 25-year bet: energy & AI09:52 Energy vs fintech regulation12:55 Why Fuse went full-stack13:18 Cutting power costs by 30%15:20 What customers actually buy16:56 $12B of energy wasted every year18:56 Why the grid is broken21:16 EVs, smart devices & demand control24:55 Why 100% renewables don’t work (yet)27:18 Nuclear: hype vs reality29:58 Equity vs debt in energy startups33:40 Hiring elite engineers globally34:30 The trillion-dollar visionRho Website - https://www.rho.co/PublicWebsite - https://public.com/Alan Chang  https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-changNichole wischoff https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/

DescriptionIn this episode, we sit down with Meltem, one of Deel’s earliest growth leaders, who joined when the company was sub-$250K in revenue and helped scale it into a $1B+ ARR generational company.00:00 — Joining Deel early & Andreessen backing03:10 — From agencies to growth in tech06:40 — Why paid ads break at SMB scale10:25 — Deel in 2020: sub-$250K revenue13:45 — What “Head of Growth” really meant16:20 — First customers: cold emails & Reddit20:05 — Non-scalable hustle vs long-term growth24:10 — Competing with PayPal & wire transfers27:40 — Sales ↔ Growth handoff that actually works31:15 — Product feedback in hypergrowth34:30 — First real inflection point38:10 — Back-to-back fundraises & momentum41:50 — Founder dynamics & execution speed45:30 — Deel’s intense culture explained49:20 — Hiring bar-raisers at scale52:40 — Growth bets that surprised them56:10 — Turning channels off to find truth59:30 — Why she didn’t start a company1:02:10 — The ideal stage to join a startupRho Website - https://www.rho.co/PublicWebsite - https://public.com/Meltem Kuran Berkowitz  https://www.linkedin.com/in/meltem-kuran-berkowitzNichole wischoffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/

In this episode, we sit down with Casey Handmer, founder of Terraform Industries, to break down one of the biggest challenges of the next decade: power.From solar’s insane cost curve to AI data centers overpowering utilities, Casey explains why cheap, abundant energy will decide which countries — and companies — win next.00:00 – Terraform’s mission: making fuel from sunlight & air01:00 – Casey’s background (physics, NASA, Hyperloop → startup)03:00 – Who Terraform’s customers actually are04:40 – Energy explained like you’re 5 (how the grid really works)06:50 – Why electricity changed human civilization09:40 – Solar + batteries permanently destabilize utilities11:40 – Why solar suddenly got insanely cheap12:50 – Solar’s 48% learning rate (this is wild)14:00 – Will solar dominate all primary energy?16:30 – Electrification myths (cars, heating, transport)18:30 – Batteries are about to explode in scale21:00 – Why Tesla is winning energy, not just cars23:00 – AI data centers are starving for power25:00 – Why utilities don’t want hyperscalers27:50 – Nuclear won’t scale fast enough (hard truth)29:20 – Why solar beats everything on speed & scale31:00 – Turning solar energy into fuels & materials34:40 – Mining metals using pure energy (basalt theory)38:10 – Will data centers replace utilities?41:00 – The real long-term energy future43:40 – Careers at Terraform & final thoughtsRho Website - https://www.rho.co/PublicWebsite - https://public.com/Casey Handmerhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-handmer/Nichole wischoffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/

In this episode, Nicole breaks down how No Crumbs went from a side project to one of the most in-demand cookie drops in San Francisco  selling out weekly with 250+ people waiting, all powered by Instagram, community, and engineered scarcity.This isn’t a food story.It’s a distribution, demand, and systems story.00:00 – How This Cookie Business Accidentally Started00:50 – Both Working Tech Jobs… Then This Happened02:35 – The Market Gap in SF Nobody Was Serving06:45 – Why She Obsessed Over Cookies (Not Cakes)08:50 – One Base Recipe = Infinite Flavors (Product Moat)10:55 – The “Cookie Draft” That Changed Everything13:30 – Growth Hack: Engagement Pods on Instagram16:35 – Why She Didn’t Sell Anything for Months18:45 – First Drops: Selling Cookies via DMs20:55 – Hot Plate: The Inflection Point23:55 – TikTok Reviews That Exploded Demand (No Ads)26:45 – Engineering Scarcity on Purpose29:45 – Running a Bakery From a 1-Bedroom Apartment33:15 – The Numbers: 70 Boxes / Week, 250 Waiting36:05 – When Exclusivity Becomes a Problem38:35 – Scaling Beyond the Apartment (What’s Next)Rho Website - https://www.rho.co/PublicWebsite - https://public.com/Nocrumbs  (Nicole)https://www.instagram.com/nocrumbscookies/#Nichole wischoffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/

Construction is one of the least productive industries in the world — slower, more expensive, and more broken every year.In this episode, we sit down with Alex, founder of an AI-native construction company that just raised a $12M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, to talk about why traditional construction fails  and how AI can finally fix it.00:00 – $12M seed round & why this company came out of nowhere01:30 – Alex’s background: from software to heavy industry03:30 – Why building large projects in the US keeps getting worse05:00 – How industrial construction actually works (developers, EPCs, GCs)06:40 – The real problem: incentives, finance, and cost-plus contracts09:20 – Why change orders are where construction companies make money11:00 – How AI removes risk instead of just “adding software”13:30 – Automating design to eliminate ambiguity before construction starts16:00 – Why doing 10,000 design iterations changes everything18:30 – Why selling software to GCs doesn’t fix productivity21:00 – Why this company chose to be the GC, not a tool vendor23:30 – Lessons from failed vertical construction startups (Katara, prefab)26:30 – Who their customers are: data centers, mining, manufacturing29:30 – How fast AI-native construction could actually get32:30 – Why construction should be treated like a software problem35:00 – Hiring plans & building a multidisciplinary team37:30 – The long-term vision: rebuilding the physical world fasterRho Website - https://www.rho.co/PublicWebsite - https://public.com/Alex Modonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alexmodon/Nichole wischoffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/

Meet Paces, the startup building the largest permitting and power-availability dataset in the United States — enabling developers, data-center builders, and renewable-energy players to move faster than ever.From automating 80%+ of the energy-development workflow to unlocking hidden power on the grid, Paces is quietly shaping trillions of dollars worth of energy infrastructure.00:00 – Why America Has 28,000 Permitting Jurisdictions01:12 – How Paces Began: The Origin Story03:40 – Early Problems in Renewable Development06:30 – Why Paces Joined YC08:55 – Building the Largest Permitting Dataset in the US11:20 – Scraping, Cleaning & Using LLMs for Zoning Laws14:05 – Finding Power on the Grid (and why it got harder)16:50 – Transformer Shortages & Multi-Million-Dollar Deposits19:40 – Data Centers vs Utilities: The New Reality22:15 – Can Clean Energy Actually Power AI?24:30 – Solar + Batteries vs Gas vs Nuclear for Speed27:00 – The True Bottleneck: Capital & Supply Chain Timing29:10 – How Startups Can Innovate in Energy Hardware32:45 – The One-Person Billion Dollar Power Company36:00 – Automating 80% of Energy Development38:10 – Future of Energy, AI & Infrastructure40:00 – How to Contact Paces / HiringThe Electric Slidehttps://www.notboring.co/p/the-electric-slideRho Website - https://www.rho.co/PublicWebsite - https://public.com/James McWalterhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmcwalter/Nichole wischoffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/

In today’s episode, we sit down with Jacob, co-founder & CEO of NewLimit, a company that has raised $247M to push the frontier of aging science  from epigenetic reprogramming to AI-driven drug discovery.We dive deep into how NewLimit plans to restore youthful function in human cells, what’s actually possible with aging reversal, how AI accelerates drug discovery, why GLP-1s changed the game, and whether there’s a real chance that none of this works.If you're curious about biology, longevity, AI in drug discovery, or what it takes to build a $1.5B+ biotech startup from scratch this episode is a must-watch.Timestamps00:00 – 00:58 How epigenetic reprogramming works & why aging might be reversible00:58 – 01:03 How big AI models changed biotech01:03 – 02:21 NewLimit’s origin story — Jacob, Brian Armstrong & Blake Byers02:22 – 05:20 Early breakthroughs, skeptical experiments & why results surprised them05:20 – 08:25 Choosing the first targets: liver, immunity & where aging hits hardest08:25 – 11:35 AI in drug discovery — protein language models, predicting experiments, and cutting years of R&D11:35 – 14:10 What medicines could actually make us “feel” younger?14:10 – 16:15 Diseases of aging vs. problems that hit everyone after 2516:15 – 19:10 How biotech actually works — discovery → development → commercialization19:10 – 21:00 Why Eli Lilly invested & how a drug goes to market21:00 – 23:30 How close NewLimit is to human trials23:30 – 25:50 What needs to happen before a drug ever touches a human25:50 – 27:45 Phase 1, 2, 3 trials explained simply27:45 – 29:20 Building the team: from 5 scientists to a world-class 40-person biotech29:20 – 31:20 Why staying small is a superpower in biotech31:20 – 33:10 Fundraising: why aging reversal needs $200M+ instead of $5M33:10 – 35:10 Is there a chance they discover nothing? Startup-like risk in drug discovery35:10 – 38:02 What Jacob is most excited about: GLP-1s, diagnostics, AI & the future of health38:02 – 38:30 How to get in touch + final thoughtsRho Website - https://www.rho.co/PublicWebsite - https://public.com/Jacob Kimmelhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-kimmel/Nichole wischoffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/

Today’s guest is Max, the founder & CEO of Superpower, one of the fastest-growing AI-driven healthcare companies in the U.S.His journey started with years of unresolved health issues insomnia, migraines, surgeries, and doctors who couldn’t find the cause. That experience exposed him to elite $100,000+ precision medicine and eventually sparked the idea behind Superpower: Using AI to bring world-class healthcare to everyone for just $199/year.In this episode, Max breaks down how Superpower is building a parallel healthcare system, why 100 million Americans are pre-diabetic, how hormones are collapsing for both men and women, and why AI can now outperform doctors in creating personalized health protocols00:00 — Intro: Max’s mission & America’s health crisis01:05 — Max’s personal health struggles & early obsession with medicine03:40 — Discovery of elite doctors & the $100k healthcare model05:10 — ChatGPT moment: AI unlocking elite healthcare for all07:50 — Meeting co-founders & building the company10:20 — Early days, early mistakes & 2022 origin story13:05 — What Superpower does today: 100+ biomarker tests16:40 — AI protocols vs. doctors19:00 — Common issues: metabolism, hormones, lipids23:00 — Integrating CGMs, wearables & real-time insights25:40 — Behind the scenes: full-stack healthcare infrastructure29:50 — Marketing: Meta ads, virality & the “Healthiest Hoodie”33:05 — Why competitors help their growth35:10 — The hard part of healthcare + regulations41:20 — Two healthcare systems: sick care & optimization45:30 — Seed & Series A fundraising story48:00 — What customers get today for $19950:10 — Hiring insanely brilliant talent52:10 — Market size: building a $300B company55:00 — Closing thoughtsRho Website - https://www.rho.co/PublicWebsite - https://public.com/Superpower.comWebsite - https://superpower.com/Max Marchione https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxmarchione/

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Zack Peng, founder and CEO of Seel, discussing the company's remarkable journey from a software engineering background to building an eight-figure revenue AI-enabled service platform. The discussion explores Seel's evolution in the e-commerce returns management space, tackling the significant problem where merchants spend 25% of GMV on returns, refunds, and post-purchase services. Zack shares candid insights about early technical challenges, operating at -200% contribution margins, discovering surprising behavioral signals like the impact of human models in product images on return rates, and the strategic transition from SMB to enterprise clients. The conversation covers founding philosophy, product-market fit discovery, the advantages of AI-enabled services over traditional SaaS models, scaling from minimal revenue to approaching nine figures with a lean team of 30 people, and contrarian views on the future of agentic shopping in e-commerce. Zack discusses how Seel uses proprietary underwriting algorithms with hundreds of signals to predict return probability, enabling merchants to offer risk-free shopping experiences while protecting their margins.00:00:00 - Intro00:00:42 - Pre-Seel career and algorithmic underwriting origins00:01:29 - Early experimentation and proof of concepts00:02:25 - Discovery of e-commerce returns opportunity00:03:21 - Early algorithm development and behavioral insights00:05:22 - Business model evolution and AI-enabled services00:07:20 - Building vertical-specific applications at scale00:09:21 - Growth strategy: SMB to enterprise transition00:11:46 - Founder-led sales and learning enterprise motion00:13:29 - Building with modern technology and lessons learned00:15:13 - Current product offering and value proposition00:18:22 - Team growth and hiring across functions00:20:30 - Ideal customer profile and market positioning00:21:42 - Future of e-commerce and agentic shopping00:24:50 - Closing thoughtsSEELWebsite - https://www.seel.com/Zack PengLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zackpeng/

Malory McLemore, Co-Founder and CEO of Stell Engineering, discusses her career path from aerospace engineer at Airbus and Raytheon to founding a venture-backed defense technology startup that is revolutionizing the way the aerospace and defense industry manages digital engineering requirements.In this episode, Mallory reveals:- The frustrations that led her from the factory floor to Harvard Business School- How Anduril inspired her to start Stell Engineering- Navigating government contracts and achieving Authority to Operate (ATO)- Why developer tools for hardware engineering is a $10B market opportunity- Building a dual-use strategy serving both DoD and prime contractors00:00 - Introduction & Welcome00:31 - Background and Origin Story00:45 - Early Career in Aerospace Engineering01:27 - Challenges in the Defense Industry01:54 - Decision to Pursue Business School02:26 - Discovering Defense Tech Startups02:51 - Internship Experience03:16 - Meeting the Co-Founder03:51 - Working at a High-Growth Defense Company04:35 - Starting Stell Engineering06:13 - The Problem They're Solving07:15 - Product Vision and Strategy08:29 - Navigating Government Sales08:51 - Going Enterprise and Dual-Use Strategy09:10 - Current Customer Base10:13 - Marketing Strategy10:50 - Sales Cycle Timeline11:00 - Team Structure and Hiring11:30 - Go-To-Market Strategy12:09 - Product-Led Growth Approach12:17 - Cybersecurity Requirements12:40 - Major Milestone Achievement14:25 - AI in Regulated Industries15:30 - Building Practical Solutions17:25 - Company Culture18:15 - Hiring and Open Positions19:52 - Key Roles Hiring For20:11 - Future Hiring Plans20:37 - Future Market Outlook21:11 - Industry Predictions21:32 - Investment Thesis22:00 - Closing Thoughts & Contact InfoSTELL ENGINEERINGWebsite - https://www.stell-engineering.com/Malory McLemoreLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/malorymclemore/