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 turned off a product with 20M users and went from 70 people to 7—then raised a $47M Series A. | Keith Peiris, Co-Founder & CEO of Lightfield
- 02
VCs chased crypto and passed on his “boring” startup—then he raised $385M at a $2B valuation. | Aaron Schumm, Founder & CEO of Vestwell
Sep 7, 2026
- 03
He sold his 8-figure business to bet on a side app—then grew it to 20x in a year. | Andrew Antos, Co-Founder & CEO of Within
Aug 31, 2026
- 04
He spent $0 on marketing for 2 years—then raised $400M at a $3.25B valuation. | AJ Loiacono, Co-Founder & CEO of Judi Health
Ep 50 · Aug 24, 2026
- 05
He spent $150K on brand before he had a product—then closed $1.5M ARR in 1 month. | Niklas Lindgren, Co-Founder & CEO of Endra
Ep 49 · Aug 17, 2026
- 06
He lost all 5 of his first deals—then built the next Looker and raised $250M. | Colin Zima, Co-Founder of Omni
Aug 10, 2026
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Deep-dives
Read the founder playbooks.
Every episode also lives as a written breakdown — the frameworks, quotes, and lessons in long form.
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Post 02·Sep 14, 2026MobileIron Went From $1M to $80M ARR in Four Years: Bob Tinker on the IPO, the $872M Exit, and Building BlueRock for the AI Wave
MobileIron went from $1M to $80M ARR in four years and IPO'd in 2014. Bob Tinker on go-to-market fit, the $872M Ivanti exit, and his new startup BlueRock.
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Pylon is the B2B customer support platform replacing Zendesk. Marty Kausas raised $17M from a16z in 14 days after YC told him the idea never works.
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