Something New

Chris Prucha grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, but after generations of his ancestors making their living in the American auto industry, Prucha took his desire to build something to Silicon Valley. After a two-year stint as a software engineer at Apple, Prucha channeled his desire to build a new company into becoming a co-founder at Notion (last valued at $10 Billion) , and then he co-founded Origin (which sold for $100 Million), a leader in the 3D printing industry.   On this episode of Something New, Prucha discusses lessons learned from taking the leap from Apple into the world of a startup founder, what he learned with Notion, and how he regrouped to start Origin on the way to a successful $100M outcome. Chris also gives more insight into the e/acc movement, the supporters and detractors behind it, and why "Effective aAcelerationism" has taken Silicon Valley by storm in 2023. Check out this early look from Notion in 2013.   Steph and Leeor also discuss how to think through continuing to fight or not when your startup isn't going your way.   Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.  

As a lifelong builder with dozens of side projects spanning crypto to music to crosswords, Omar Bohsali knew even at a young age he wanted to build things that helped other people build things. Now, as the Founder and CEO of Center, a company that raised $11M in seed funding from Founders Fund and Thrive, he and his team enable more crypto & NFT projects to get off the ground with their suite of API tools.    He founded the company in 2021 after years of building the self-confidence that he was ready to be a founder. He worked at several startups (including for Balaji at Coinbase) and then became an EIR at Paradigm, after which he finally took the leap into entrepreneurship full time for the first time to build Center. In this interview, Omar discusses building in both a bull market/bear market, and his advice for wannabe founders on how to build conviction that they're ready to take the plunge.   Leeor and Steph also discuss the pros and cons of Entrepreneur In Residence programs for prospective founders/the companies they found within them.   Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.

Up until three months ago, Sir Jack was an anonymous online personality and a legend in the WallStreetBets community, where he made millions by betting on meme stocks. Sir Jack was so successful that he turned $35,000 in more than $8 million in 21 months and found himself featured in an MSNBC documentary as the voice of, as he put it, "a very large group of idiots fed up with the world." Now, the man behind Sir Jack - a former Stripe and YouTube employee, Kevin Xu - is sharing his story and his secrets on this episode of Something New. He also discusses the genesis of his new company, AfterHour, which he's called "the social Bloomberg for Gen Z." Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.

Teddy Solomon was only a freshman at Stanford when he realized he could make a better social media platform for college kids. Three years later, Fizz is one of the hottest social networks on more than 80 campuses across the nation with a recent boost of $25 million in Series B funding by NEA, all because Solomon and his team improved on old ideas of what a social network can be.   On this episode of Something New, Solomon discusses why allowing students to contribute and comment anonymously makes them feel safer, why the company’s moderation system works where other companies’ have failed, and how Fizz catches on so quickly each time it’s introduced to a new campus.   Leeor and Steph also discuss why everyone should spend a Sunday afternoon deleting any embarrassing social media posts they made in college.   Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.

Dwight Churchill & Gaurav Misra, the co-founders of Captions, have built a company that has succeeded by defining its own path instead of following the "traditional" startup playbook. In a world where "consumer is dead" to VCs, the video editing app just announced their $25M Series B lead by Kleiner Perkins (with participation from Sequoia, A16Z, and SV Angel) at a $250M valuation. And despite building in an incredibly competitive space with lots of free alternatives, Captions has no freemium version, yet has 100,000 daily active users paying up to $10/month to use its product. On this episode of Something New, the duo discusses how they've been planning to become co-founders over drinks at a now-defunct bar in New York City, how they waited for each other’s schedules to align in order to become founders, and what it was like to watch their creation hit the top of the App Store the night it was launched. Leeor and Steph also dive deep on their thoughts about Y Combinator, the “best startup accelerator in the world.” Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.

Sam Poirier is co-founder/CEO of Mercantile, a credit card startup that offers rewards to small businesses, and recently raised $22M in funding led by Index Ventures and including First Round and Box Group. However, Sam is no stranger to being a founder - he's been a serial entrepreneur since he was 17 and has worked on startups in crypto to VR to cruises.   On this episode of Something New, Poirier discusses the framework he's developed for evaluating company ideas and whether they're worth pursuing. He also talks about the experience of dropping out of high school to become a Thiel Fellow (much to the chagrin of his parents back home in Montreal) and what makes that community special.   Steph and Leeor also discuss controversial opinions from their peers in tech, including why you shouldn’t bother marinating your steak, the future of fertility, and when it will be socially acceptable for men to wear makeup. Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.

Zach Lloyd considered a number of different paths before he decided on a career in tech, including philosophy, law, and aspiring late-night Stanford barbecue pit master. But once he settled on tech he made his name as a Principal Engineer at Google, co-founder and CTO at SelfMade, Interim CTO at TIME, and in 2020, he became the founder and CEO of Warp, a developer productivity company that just announced a $50 Million Series B from Sequoia.   On this episode of Something New, Lloyd discusses creating a premium product for developers, the lessons learned from the early days building Google Sheets, and why he wrote and publicly released Warp’s “How We Work” doc, focused on the company’s frameworks for decision-making and work/life balance.   Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.

Chris Jane was always a fan of the hit ABC series Shark Tank, but what was it like to actually wade into the waters? During Season 13 of the show, Chris and his sister and co-founder Jennifer pitched their 90-second meal company, Proper Good, to Mark Cuban and the rest of the sharks, donned in full British regalia and with adrenaline coursing through their veins. On this episode of Something New, Chris Jane recounts what it was like to appear on the show and reap from its rewards, get an offer from Cuban, and chats about the science around building in CPG. He looks ahead to what’s next for Proper Good, which recently raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by YETI Capital and expanded into more than 2,000 Walmart Supercenter stores nationwide.   Leeor and Steph also discuss their thoughts on how to create valuable investor updates.   Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.

Maddie Hall grew up in Seattle surrounded by nature and tech and with one fundamental idea about how to make the most of her talents: follow her heart. After interesting stints at well-known places (before they were cool) like YC, First Round, and OpenAI, she’s now the co-founder/CEO at Living Carbon, a company she co-founded in 2019 with the mission of rebalancing the planet's carbon cycle using the power of plants. They are, simply put, "Building Better Trees." Living Carbon has raised $36M+ to date from top investors including YC, Floodgate, Felicis, Lowercarbon, Temasek, and more.   On this episode of Something New, Hall discusses the origins of Living Carbon and the future of the biotech industry, working at Open AI before the world knew about LLMs, and becoming a non-PhD founder in a technical space.   Leeor and Steph also discuss the addictive video game Overcooked and why it might be a telling experiment for co-founders to play together, as well as how VC firms rate companies for a pre-seed or seed round of funding.   Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.

Founder and angel investor James Beshara knows a thing or two about startups. He co-founded the social payments company Tilt back in 2012 and quickly raised tens of millions of dollars from an all-star cast of investors including a16z. Despite that, the company never found true breakout success needed for VC before it was eventually acquired by Airbnb.   Since, Beshara has spent his days as a seed investors in startups worth over $50B in market cap an as the founder of Magic Mind, a productivity drink dubbed “Silicon Valley’s new morning elixir” by Forbes. In contrast to his previous experience, Beshara has done so raising an extremely limited amount of capital, achieving $10M in sales with just three full-time employees. On this episode of Something New, Beshara looks back on his days with Tilt, discusses why he can’t quit the life of a founder starting Magic Mind, and offers his thoughts on when companies need venture backing, and when it might be a problem.    Leeor and Steph also discuss the rapid rise of business-savvy TikTok creator PinkyDoll, and if there’s money to be made in the phenomenon of AI girlfriends.   Don’t forget to follow Leeor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lmushin and Steph at https://twitter.com/stephmui. Learn more about the Something New podcast at https://somethingnewpod.com.