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Escape Velocity.

Escape Velocity.

By: Mudita Venture Partners
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Summary
 Strategies, mindsets, and tactics from hyper-growth founders. Learn what it takes to launch, scale, and win.© 2026 Mudita Venture Partners Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Finance
Episodes
  • A-Players don’t join chaos | Katy Aucoin, CEO & Co-founder, Curated For You

    A-Players don’t join chaos | Katy Aucoin, CEO & Co-founder, Curated For You
    Oct 27 2026
    Long before Curated for You was helping brands like Gap, Target, and Anthropologie drive millions in ecommerce revenue, CEO Katy Aucoin was obsessed with a deceptively simple question: why do people actually buy?While working with some of the world’s largest retailers in consumer privacy and data consulting, Katy noticed something most ecommerce companies were missing. Brands had endless data on clicks, traffic, and behavior—but very little understanding of why customers actually connect, desire, and buy.That insight became the foundation for Curated for You, an AI-powered contextual personalization platform helping retailers transform ecommerce from transactional browsing into emotionally intelligent shopping experiences. Today, the company is driving stronger engagement, higher conversion, and rapid enterprise growth on its path to $3.2M ARR.In conversation with Josh Linkner, Katy shares why empathy is a competitive advantage, how great brands create obsession instead of chasing attention, and why founders must be ruthless about protecting focus from the wrong customers. She also explains how Curated for You built a magnetic culture that attracts A-players, enterprise customers, and momentum at scale.In this episode, we discuss:1.Empathy isn’t soft. It’s infrastructure: Why Katy believes emotional intelligence creates stronger teams, sharper decisions, and faster growth. 2.Be ruthless about the right customer: How Curated for You scaled to $3.2M ARR without letting the wrong customers hijack the roadmap. 3.The future of retail isn’t search. It’s seduction: How Curated for You helps brands turn cultural moments and emotional connection into conversion. 4.A-players don’t join chaos. They join momentum: Why Katy believes elite talent is attracted to clarity, energy, ambition, and culture.The strongest brands don’t chase attention. They create obsession. 5.How Curated for You is helping retailers like Gap, Target, and Anthropologie drive higher conversion through emotionally irresistible shopping experiences.Meet the Guest Katy Aucoin started her career in consumer privacy regulation consulting, working alongside some of the world's largest retailers—and what she found underneath all that data was a burning question: why do people actually buy? That question, combined with a lifelong obsession with color, curation, and creating experiences that make people feel genuinely delighted, led her to build Curated For You. She'll tell you the obsession started at age eight, planning her first sleepover with the kind of intention most adults don't bring to their jobs. She hasn't stopped since.Meet the host Josh Linkner is a rare blend of business, art, and science. He's the New York Times bestselling author of four books, and widely regarded as one of the world's foremost innovation and leadership experts. On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million.He’s also the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā Venture Partners—an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies. Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion of investor returns.While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. He’s been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years and has performed nearly 2,000 concerts around the world.About Mudita Venture PartnersMudita Venture Partners is different by design.We invest in early-stage, post-revenue, AI-first B2B companies—backing founders who are building what’s next. About 80% of our capital goes directly into operating companies. The remaining 20% fuels Mudita Studios, where we turn bold ideas into venture-backable businesses from the ground up. We believe exceptional returns and meaningful impact can—and should—coexist.Beyond capital, we bring deep operator experience, a philosophy of co-creation, and a hands-on team committed to moving at founder speed. We don’t just fund companies—we help build them.This is venture built for the future.• Website: https://muditavp.com/• Escape Velocity: https://muditavp.com/escape-velocity/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MuditaVenturePartners• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/muditavp• This podcast on all platforms: https://muditavp.com/podcast/choose-your-hard/Timestamps0:00 Introducing Katie Aucoin 2:07 What is Curated for You? 2:54 How Curated for You Works 5:25 Efficacy and Contextual Personalization 7:10 The Founder Story and an Obsession with Curation 9:07 Building an Internal Culture 10:37 Using LLMs to Scale Culture 12:53 Congruence Between Internal and External Culture 15:46 Managing Investor Relationships 18:44 Empathy as a Leadership Trait 21:15 Balancing Empathy with Focus 25:54 Moving Beyond MVP and ...
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    33 mins
  • Lost Deals Make You More Dangerous | Dr. Tatiana Fofanova, CEO & Co-founder, Koda Health

    Lost Deals Make You More Dangerous | Dr. Tatiana Fofanova, CEO & Co-founder, Koda Health
    Oct 19 2026
    Growing up, Tatiana Fofanova often translated medical conversations for her immigrant family—giving her an early look at how quickly patients can lose their voice inside the healthcare system.That experience became the foundation for Koda Health, an AI-enabled platform helping patients, families, and providers make values-aligned care decisions during serious illness and end-of-life care. Today, Koda is approaching $2M ARR, proving 10–15x ROI for providers, and riding major regulatory tailwinds accelerating adoption across healthcare systems.In conversation with Josh Linkner, Tatiana shares why founders should treat rejection as iteration fuel, how her team’s “24-hour rage rule” transformed setbacks into momentum, and why the best AI companies will make healthcare feel more humanIn this episode, we discuss:1. Win or learn: Why Tatiana believes founders lose the moment they stop iterating and how Koda turned setbacks into momentum. 2. Every lost deal should make you more dangerous: How Koda’s ‘24-hour rage rule’ helped the team recover faster, learn faster, and scale faster.3. The hardest conversations create the biggest companies: Why Koda built its business around one of healthcare’s most avoided problems.4. AI should make healthcare more human: Why Tatiana believes the winners in AI will use technology to deepen trust and connection, not replace it.5. The cave you fear holds the treasure: Why Tatiana believes the biggest breakthroughs usually live inside the problems founders avoid confronting.Meet the guestTatiana Fofanova, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Koda Health, a venture-backed platform transforming how patients navigate serious illness. Born in Russia, Tatiana served as her family's medical translator upon moving to the states at just 8 years old. She went on to earn her PhD in Molecular Medicine at Baylor before joining Texas Medical Center (TMC) as a Founder-in-Residence. It was there that she and her co-founders identified one of the most overlooked yet critical gaps in healthcare: the lack of meaningful, accessible advance care planning for patients with serious illness.Tatiana leads with the conviction of someone who's lived both sides of healthcare: as a patient, a caregiver, and now as a builder working to ensure every person's healthcare wishes are known and respected.About KodaSome of the hardest moments in healthcare happen when patients and families are forced to make critical medical decisions without a clear understanding of the patient’s wishes. Advance care planning is meant to prevent this, but too often it remains buried in paperwork that is incomplete, inaccessible, or never revisited.Koda Health partners with health systems, hospitals, and physician groups to make advance care planning more accessible, compassionate, and actionable—particularly for geriatric and seriously ill populations. Its platform guides patients and families through meaningful care conversations that result in personalized, values-aligned care plans before a crisis occurs. For providers, Koda improves care coordination, strengthens documentation, reduces unwanted interventions, and supports more efficient use of healthcare resources while building deeper patient trust.Meet the hostJosh Linkner is a rare blend of business, art, and science.He's the New York Times bestselling author of four books, and widely regarded as one of the world's foremost innovation and leadership experts. On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million. He’s also the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā Venture Partners—an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies. Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion of investor returns.While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. He’s been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years and has performed nearly 2,000 concerts around the world.About Mudita Venture PartnersMudita Venture Partners is different by design.We invest in early-stage, post-revenue, AI-first B2B companies—backing founders who are building what’s next. About 80% of our capital goes directly into operating companies. The remaining 20% fuels Mudita Studios, where we turn bold ideas into venture-backable businesses from the ground up. We believe exceptional returns and meaningful impact can—and should—coexist.Beyond capital, we bring deep operator experience, a philosophy of co-creation, and a hands-on team committed to moving at founder speed. We don’t just fund companies—we help build them.This is venture built for the future.• Website: https://muditavp.com/• Escape Velocity: https://muditavp.com/escape-velocity/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MuditaVenturePartners• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp/...
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    31 mins
  • More Data Won’t Save You | Fahim Sheikh, CEO & Co-founder, Trellis

    More Data Won’t Save You | Fahim Sheikh, CEO & Co-founder, Trellis
    Oct 5 2026
    After 25+ years building and scaling technology companies, CEO Fahim Sheikh has seen firsthand how complexity, noise, and overconfidence can kill growth.At Trellis, that lesson shows up in how the company helps marketplace brands grow profitably. Instead of drowning teams in dashboards, Trellis uses AI and automation to focus on the signals that actually matter—optimizing advertising, pricing, promotions, and content in real time. Fahim explains why AI can’t be left on autopilot, why algorithms still need human judgment, and how constant iteration, not a fast launch, drives real traction.In conversation with Josh Linkner, Fahim breaks down the real work of building a durable company: how experience steadies teams through the inevitable ups and downs, why founders consistently overestimate speed and underestimate iteration, and how leaders earn trust by how they show up when things get messy. He also reflects on his evolution as a CEO—learning empathy, regulating emotion, and leading by example as the company scales.In this episode, we discuss:1. Iteration is the real speed: Why Fahim says founders chasing fast launches stall and how repeated iteration is what actually unlocks product-market fit.2. More data doesn’t mean better decisions: How Trellis helps brands cut through noise and focus on the signals that drive margin and growth.3. AI still needs a human in the loop: Why unguided automation hallucinates and how human judgment multiplies the impact of AI.4. Founders misjudge the real competition: Why future-state competitors matter more than today’s landscape and how to plan for what’s coming, not just what’s visible.5. Leadership shows up in the down cycles: Why Fahim believes teams take their cues from the CEO—and how calm, consistency, and confidence compound over time.Meet the guestFahim Sheikh is the Co-Founder and CEO of Trellis, where he leads the company’s mission to help marketplace brands grow profitably through intelligent automation and data-driven decisioning. With over 25 years of experience in startups, Fahim has built and scaled teams across the full customer lifecycle—from software development and sales engineering to account management, revenue leadership, and regional expansion. He has launched new markets from the ground up and understands firsthand what it takes to turn technology into real business impact. Fahim is deeply passionate about working with customers and sales teams, and is known for his hands-on approach, customer-first mindset, and relentless focus on helping brands succeed in an increasingly complex e-commerce landscape.About TrellisTrellis is a commerce intelligence and automation platform built to help marketplace brands grow profitably and predictably. Powered by advanced AI & automation and designed for today’s multi-marketplace reality, Trellis brings pricing, advertising, product content, and planning into a single intelligent control layer.Trusted by global brands across Amazon, Walmart, and emerging retail media channels, Trellis is redefining how e-commerce teams operate—shifting from optimization to orchestration, and from tools to a true growth platform.Meet the hostJosh Linkner is a rare blend of business, art, and science.He's the New York Times bestselling author of four books, and widely regarded as one of the world's foremost innovation and leadership experts.On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million. He’s also the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā Venture Partners—an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies. Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion of investor returns.While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. He’s been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years and has performed nearly 2,000 concerts around the world.About Mudita Venture PartnersMudita Venture Partners is different by design.We invest in early-stage, post-revenue, AI-first B2B companies—backing founders who are building what’s next. About 80% of our capital goes directly into operating companies. The remaining 20% fuels Mudita Studios, where we turn bold ideas into venture-backable businesses from the ground up. We believe exceptional returns and meaningful impact can—and should—coexist.Beyond capital, we bring deep operator experience, a philosophy of co-creation, and a hands-on team committed to moving at founder speed. We don’t just fund companies—we help build them.This is venture built for the future.• Website: https://muditavp.com/• Escape Velocity: https://muditavp.com/escape-velocity/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFo8TWXbXAx7Qh-m3awyYsQ• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/muditavpTimestamps1:00 Meet...
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    30 mins
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