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
  • Human-Level Beats Demo-Level | Greg Rutty, CEO, Sign AI

    Human-Level Beats Demo-Level | Greg Rutty, CEO, Sign AI
    Oct 5 2026

    Why CEO Greg Rutty refused to ship “good enough” AI and made human-level quality non-negotiable. | Greg Rutty, Co-Founder & CEO, SignAI


    Greg Rutty didn’t set out to build “cool AI.”
    He set out to close the access and dignity gap millions of sign-language users face every day.

    Instead of building for the community, SignAI was built with it, putting Deaf team members in charge of product strategy, quality standards, and the roadmap itself. Drawing on lessons from publishing and Amazon, Greg rejected Silicon Valley’s instinct to hoard data. The real bottleneck wasn’t scale—it was trust, earned by leaning into the Deaf community’s tight-knit “small world” network.


    In this episode of Escape Velocity, Greg Rutty, Co-Founder & CEO of SignAI, joins Josh Linkner to argue for simplicity over sophistication and why human-level quality, not demo-level flash, is the new bar for AI innovation.

    In this episode, we jam on:

    1. Why “human-level” is the only bar that matters
      And why anything less fails the people it claims to serve.

    2. Community-led product development > founder-knows-best
      How making SignAI deaf-led unlocked better ideas and faster breakthroughs.

    3. Trust as the real data moat
      Why small-world networks beat data hoarding when you’re solving the hardest problems.

    4. Simplicity as a competitive advantage
      What Greg learned from publishing and Amazon about making complex technology usable—and human.

    5. Building AI that gives people a voice
      Not just access to information, but the ability to communicate back.


    Meet Our Guest

    Greg Rutty, Co-Founder and CEO of Sign AI, started his career as a children’s book editor at Scholastic before joining Amazon and working in a number of business and product roles. After Amazon he founded Perfect Loop, a tech-enabled recruiting service, then led product development at Karat, a technical interview platform.


    Sign AI is a deaf-led AI company building the world’s largest multimodal ASL models to enable real-time, bidirectional translation between sign languages and spoken and written language. SignAI recently launched its first paid pilot with Amazon Prime Video / MGM with the goal of validating quality and delivery ahead of scaling.


    Meet Our 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.

    Meet Mudita
    Website: muditavp.com
    Escape Velocity: muditavp.com/escapevelocity
    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MuditaVenturePartners

    Timestamps
    0:00 Introduction
    1:20 A Human-Level AI Sign Language Interpreter, Anytime Anywhere
    3:06 The Interpreter Shortage and the Cost of Isolation
    5:27 Profit and Purpose: Why Sign AI Is a Massive Opportunity
    6:27 From Real-Time Translation to Sign Language Avatars
    8:15 Unlocking Emergency Alerts, Conferences, and Movies for Deaf Audiences
    9:41 Building a Deaf-Led Company from Day One
    12:01 Human-Centric Leadership
    13:15 Servant Leadership Without Losing High Standards
    15:25 What Startups Can Learn from the Publishing World
    15:50 Crafting Products Like Books: Editing, Teamwork, and Quality
    18:17 Working Only with People You Truly Like and Respect
    19:37 Simplifying Complex Technology Without Dumbing It Down
    20:35 The Harsh Reality of Startup Roller Coasters
    21:07 Collaborating Without an Interpreter
    23:13 Using Technology to Deepen Human Connection
    24:23 A Future Where Deaf Children Never Start Life in Silence
    27:13 Gratitude, Impact, and the Promise of Sign AI at Scale
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    28 mins
  • Choose Your Hard | Wes Mathews, CEO, Stealth Consulting

    Choose Your Hard | Wes Mathews, CEO, Stealth Consulting
    Mar 10 2026
    How second-time founder Wes Mathews built conviction, traction, and momentum by deliberately choosing the hard that compounds. | Wes Mathews, Co-Founder & CEO, Stealth.Wes Mathews didn’t build his second company because the first one failed. He built it because success taught him what actually breaks founders.After scaling his first company to $20M+ and exiting, Wes hit a truth many founders quietly face: he fell out of love with his own business. So he did the harder thing—he started again from zero. In this conversation, Wes shares how that reset reshaped how he thinks about sales, leadership, leverage, and growth at the $1–$10M stage.In this episode of Escape Velocity, Wes breaks down the real work of scaling through chaos: why founder-led sales isn’t optional, why ego has to give way to systems, and why chaos isn’t a failure—it’s the tax on growth. He also opens up about choosing the “hard that compounds,” building teams that create capacity instead of burnout, and why business should fuel life—not consume it. In this episode, we jam on: 1. Why founder-led Sales is the unreplicable unlock. What actually breaks momentum when founders step out of sales too early, and why no hire, system, or playbook replaces founder conviction in the market.2. How to avoid ego sabotaging scaling.Why Wes stopped trying to be everywhere, do everything, and “prove” himself and how leverage only shows up once ego steps aside.3. Why chaos isn’t a leadership failure at $1–$10M.How growth creates disorder and what happens when founders design for chaos instead of reacting to it. 4. The trap of “I’ll deal with life later.”How Wes built rules around family, health, and energy and why burning your personal capacity eventually burns your business too.Meet the guest Wes Mathews is the CEO and Co-Founder of Stealth. He’s a founder, operator, and growth strategist who built his previous company, High Level Marketing, from scratch and helped scale it to over $20M before a successful exit. He’s now building again from zero with Stealth Consulting, approaching $3M in ARR in just two years by helping companies eliminate chaos through strategy, execution, and accountability. Wes is also the host of the Entrepreneur Intel podcast and a father of five who believes business should fuel life—not consume it.About Stealth Stealth Consulting is a marketing strategy and execution firm that provides CMO-led fractional marketing teams to growing businesses. Instead of acting like a typical agency, it integrates as a partner, taking full leadership of a company’s marketing—developing strategy, executing campaigns, and being accountable for measurable growth results.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 - Introduction01:30 - The origin story of Stealth04:45 -"The Stealth Way" and scalable IP08:15 - The meaning behind the "Stealth" name11:45 - The Wes of 2009 vs. the Wes of today15:00 - Surviving the brutal startup grind17:30 - The power of complementary co-founders20:45 - The future of Stealth and integrating AI into the business23:15 - Why "Pirate Energy" is the ultimate indicator of founder ...
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    35 mins
  • Build Space Ladders, Not Excuses | Alison Alvarez, Co-founder and CEO, Blastpoint

    Build Space Ladders, Not Excuses | Alison Alvarez, Co-founder and CEO, Blastpoint
    Feb 24 2026
    How CEO Alison Alvarez built Blastpoint to democratize innovation where every member of the team sees obstacles as design problems to be overcome | Alison Alvarez, Co-Founder & CEO, Blastpoint.In this episode of Escape Velocity, Alison Alvarez, co-founder and CEO of Blastpoint, lays out a hard truth most AI leaders avoid: sounding smart about data is killing adoption—and revenue. With a background in computer science and business from Carnegie Mellon, Alison has spent her career doing the opposite of what most AI companies do: stripping complexity away until decisions become obvious.At Blastpoint, that philosophy is non-negotiable. The company works with industry leaders in energy and finance to predict human behavior and turn insight into action—red lights and green lights, not dashboards and spaghetti charts. Along the way, Alison learned (often the hard way) that empathy beats elegance, speed beats polish, and clarity beats cleverness—every time.In this conversation with Josh Linkner, Alison breaks down the real work of building a durable company: how to move fast without losing direction, why doing too much at once quietly kills momentum, and how to build a culture where obstacles aren’t debated—they’re designed around. She also reflects on how being a first-generation college student shaped her leadership style and her belief that innovation doesn’t live at the top of the org chart—it belongs to everyone.In this episode, we discuss:1. Sounding smart hurts revenue.Why Blastpoint ditched analytics theater for clear objectives, playbooks, and red-light / green-light decisions—and unlocked zero percent customer churn.2. Move fast enough to learn. Slow enough to aim.Alison’s framework for speed with direction—and why “mediocre fast” beats “perfect too late.”3. Avoid the Nike Shoe Trap.Why testing fewer things at once is the fastest way to compound progress and not choke on your own ambition.4. Empathy as a growth hack.How speaking your customer’s language—and designing for their reality—outperforms any data advantage.5. Build wormholes & space ladders.How Alison built a culture where innovation isn’t founder-owned and why her team sees every obstacle as a design problem. Meet the guestAlison Alvarez is the co-founder and CEO of BlastPoint, an AI-powered customer intelligence company. With a background in computer science and business from Carnegie Mellon, she’s spent her career making advanced data and AI tools more accessible and impactful for real-world decision making. BlastPoint is an AI-driven customer intelligence platform that helps businesses better understand and serve their customers through predictive, actionable insights. BlastPoint works with industry leaders in energy and finance to build a more customer-centric future.About BlastpointBlastPoint is an AI-driven customer intelligence platform that helps businesses better understand and serve their customers through predictive, actionable insights. BlastPoint works with industry leaders in energy and finance to build a more customer-centric future. 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 Partners Mudita 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/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp/posts/?feedView=all• X/Twitter: https://x.com/MuditaVp• This podcast on all platforms: https://muditavp.com/podcast/build-space-ladders-not-excuses/...
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    33 mins
  • Never Trust a Lead You Didn’t Earn | Dan Simon, Co-founder and CEO, Qwoted

    Never Trust a Lead You Didn’t Earn | Dan Simon, Co-founder and CEO, Qwoted
    Feb 10 2026
    How Dan Simon refused shortcuts—earning product-market fit manually before scaling Qwoted to a two-sided marketplace with 50% ARR growth | Dan Simon, Founder & CEO, Qwoted.Dan Simon has seen the media business from the inside—and from the bottom.Before founding Qwoted, Dan was a longtime media operator, former speechwriter to some of the biggest names on Wall Street, a published author, and a three-time founder. But when it came time to build Qwoted - a two-sided marketplace connecting journalists with experts, none of that pedigree mattered. What mattered was whether he was willing to do the unglamorous work—pounding the phones, manually matching sources, and acting as his own booking agency—to earn trust on both sides of the network.In this episode of Escape Velocity, Josh and Dan unpack what it really takes to build and scale the notoriously treacherous two-sided media network before the opportunity becomes obvious and attainable by the deeper-pocketed competition. Dan shares why Qwoted started as a concierge service, how humility and paranoia shaped the company’s early strategy, and why he treats Qwoted 50% ARR growth not as proof of arrival, but as a reason to move faster.In this episode,we discuss:1. Build the marketplace before the market shows up.How Dan put humility before pedigree, became his own concierge, pounding phones and packing boxes to earn trust and liquidity before scale.2. Earn product–market fit. Don’t declare it.Why Qwoted refused inbound hype and earned every match, validating real demand before automation or growth narratives.3. Win a corner before you win a category.How obsessing over one white-hot use case created speed, depth, and a defensible edge for Qwoted.4. Treat growth like a threat, not a trophy.Why Dan sees 50% ARR growth as something to defend—rebuilding Qwoted continuously to stay ahead of complacency.5. Outrun the competition before it exists.Why accelerating the flywheel early—while the opportunity is still misunderstood—can make a market uncatchable later.Meet the guestDan Simon is the founder and CEO of Qwoted, a two-sided network that connects journalists with experts in real time. A longtime media operator and serial entrepreneur, Dan is a former speechwriter to the biggest names on Wall Street, a published author, and a three-time founder. About QwotedQwoted streamlines this process by connecting journalists, podcasters, brands, and experts through a real-time marketplace for expertise. Reporters post source requests, and vetted professionals respond with quotes, commentary, and insights that can be directly featured in articles, podcasts, newsletters, and other media. The platform helps media teams move faster while enabling experts and brands to earn high-quality media coverage more efficiently and authentically. Meet Our 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 thelast 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 Partners Mudita 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/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/MuditaVp• This podcast on all platforms: https://muditavp.com/podcast/never-trust-a-lead-you-didnt-earn/Timestamps0:00 Introduction1:30 Dan’s Origin Story4:00 What is Qwoted? 7:00 AI in Nightclubs? 10:00 The Revenue Model13:30 Democratizing Access16:00 The Chicken & Egg Problem19:00 Starting Narrow in Financial Services 21:30 The "Concierge" Phase 25:00 How AI is Forcing Media to Adapt 28:30 The ...
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    40 mins
  • Plan Z: Build for Upside, Not Survival | Trevor Sumner, CEO, i-Genie

    Plan Z: Build for Upside, Not Survival | Trevor Sumner, CEO, i-Genie
    Jan 29 2026
    How proven CEO Trevor Sumner and i-Genie’s domain legends turned early chaos into conviction and scaled to $5M+ ARR with 180% NRR | Trevor Sumner, CEO, i-GenieFrom catching the first internet boom out of Princeton, to taking a company public early in his career, to founding and exiting a venture-backed business acquired by Blackstone, Trevor Sumner has lived nearly every chapter of the startup journey. Now he’s doing something rare: stepping in as a professional-grade CEO at an early-stage company that already had world-class domain founders and real enterprise traction.In this conversation, Josh Linkner sits down with Trevor Sumner to unpack what it really takes to scale in an emerging AI category: the operator and domain legend partnership dynamic, how to run an elite fundraising process without becoming a hype merchant, and Trevor’s Plan Z to make i-Genie’s oversubscribed Series A, 28% quarter over quarter growth and 180% net revenue retention the new standard in a $35B market.In this episode, we discuss:1. How to “de-risk” a CEO transition and make the partnership a force multiplier.What it takes for an operator-grade CEO to partner with legendary domain founders and turn tension into trust, speed, and momentum2. Surveys are broken. Consumer reality isn’t.Why surveys are slow, biased, and increasingly gamed—and how i-Genie turns real-world signals into decision-grade insight3. Fundraising is a process, not a prayer.Practical tactics to create momentum, generate FOMO, and turn your “gaps” into strengths without becoming a hype merchant.4. Alignment creates speed—and speed needs time.The counterintuitive truth: speed requires alignment—and alignment takes time. Trevor shares what he pushed too hard, too early, and how he recalibrated.5. Plan Z Thinking: Win the category, then rewrite the rules.A blueprint for what happens when everything goes right: win the enterprise, set a new industry standard, and use an agentic layer to scale distribution into a machine.Meet the guestTrevor, CEO of i-Genie.ai, is a NYC-based entrepreneur, product and marketing executive and recognized startup advisor and angel. His core specialty is understanding technology, what it is now and what it could be, and then driving its evolution and market delivery to maximize corporate value. His passion is in building high performing teams and organizations. Trevor has been published and is regularly cited in industry media such as Mashable, TechCrunch, Inc, Forbes, Business Insider and VentureBeat. About i-Geniei-Genie.ai AI-powered platform transforms unstructured consumer feedback into real-time, actionable intelligence for global brands. By analyzing signals across channels, the platform helps companies identify emerging trends, uncover product issues, and understand what consumers actually think and want. The result: insights teams can move from backward-looking reporting to faster, data-driven product and brand decisions. 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 thelast 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 Partners Mudita 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/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp/posts/?feedView=all• X/Twitter: https://x.com/MuditaVp• This podcast on all platforms: https://muditavp.com/podcast/plan-z-build-for-upside-not-survival/Timestamps0:00 Introduction 0:50 Trevor’s Origin Story3:00 The Search for the Next Big Thing 4:05 The Unicorn Opportunity 06:...
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    34 mins