Real founders.Real numbers.From zero to one.
Top startup founders break down — episode by episode — how they actually found product-market fit. By 
Mistral Ventures.
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He lost all 5 of his first deals—then built the next Looker and raised $250M. | Colin Zima, Co-Founder of Omni
- 02
He fired almost everyone, kept 2 engineers—then grew 12x and raised a $30M Series A. | Rafael Broshi, Co-Founder of Notch
Ep 47 · Aug 3, 2026
- 03
He worked out of a police department for free for a year—then built a $6.8B company. | Ben Rudolph, Co-Founder of Peregrine
Ep 46 · Jul 27, 2026
- 04
1st-time solo founder does 90 interviews in 90 days—closes a $25M Series A 2 years in. | Damien Lewke, Founder of Nebulock
Ep 45 · Jul 20, 2026
- 05
He tries 1,000 ideas a decade & kills nearly all—that's how X built Waymo & Google Brain. | Astro Teller, CEO of Moonshots at X (Alphabet)
Ep 44 · Jul 13, 2026
- 06
He raised $75M—but kept his team to 21 people & pays everyone the same salary. | Cos Nicolaescu, Co-Founder of Accrual
Ep 43 · Jul 6, 2026
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Deep-dives
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Every episode also lives as a written breakdown — the frameworks, quotes, and lessons in long form.
- Post 01·Aug 10, 2026
How Colin Zima Lost 5 Deals Then Raised $250M for Omni
Colin Zima lost every early Omni deal, then raised $250M. Learn his product-market fit playbook, LinkedIn outreach strategy, and how to hire for enterprise SaaS GTM.
Post 02·Aug 4, 2026Confidence as a Founder: Where Conviction Comes From
Post 03·Aug 4, 2026Leading Indicators Startup Founders Actually Track
Fig. 01The host
Pablo asks the questions you’d actually want to ask.
Pablo Srugo is a partner at Mistral, a seed-stage venture firm. Before VC, he co-founded Gymtrack (venture-backed FitTech) and an online tutoring platform that was acquired in 2014.
He’s interviewed 250+ founders — from the team behind Reddit to first-time builders shipping their first $100 in revenue. The result is a feed of conversations that skip the inspiration porn and dig into the spreadsheets, the dead ends, and the exact moments PMF clicked.
- 250+
- Founders interviewed
- $2B+
- Raised by guests
- 14yr
- Operator + investor