Introducing the Brick by Brick podcast

Learn how companies were really built directly from the people who built them

Building a startup of any kind is never easy, particularly when you’re just getting going. It’s chaos every day. There are people, let alone processes or systems. Fires, figurative and sometimes literal, are burning everywhere. It’s unglamorous, it’s blocking and tackling, and as many people often come to realize, it’s not for the faint of heart. 

I’ve experienced the distinct pleasure (and pain) of the early days of startup building, having spent seven years as an early employee and executive at two companies, Poynt and Legion. I know firsthand how much successful company-building is a team sport, with the founders, early employees, and early investors working together to lay the foundation for the business. Each day, this small group of believers works to justify its existence and navigate through the important early steps of company building: Build the team, build the product, sell the customers, and get revenue.

In my 15 years of working with startups, I have found the stories of early company heroics and the lessons they convey — the engineer who fixed bugs right up to the biggest sales demo in the company’s history, the lobby-squatting at a customer’s office waiting to ‘run into’ the decision maker, the fundraise that closed when the company had 6 weeks of cash left — to be the most informative and interesting. But in the sea of great startup content, these stories and their heroes, early employees, are often left untold and unsung.

We want to share more of those stories with you. So together with my Garuda Ventures co-founder Arpan, I am excited to introduce the Brick by Brick podcast.

Learn how successful startups were really built directly from the people who built them

Each episode will feature an early employee, founder, or investor sharing the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of building a startup brick by brick. Our goal is for you, whether you’re a founder, an early employee, or simply startup-curious, to leave each episode with new insights and tactics that accelerate your company’s growth, avoid potential pitfalls, and increase your odds of going from 0 to 1.

Please do me a favor and head over to YouTube or Spotify, subscribe to the show (it will help us boost our awareness), and check out our first episode featuring Aston Motes, employee #1 at Dropbox, which is already live (you’'ll get a separate note about that right after this).

And if you have ideas for a show, topics you’d like us to discuss, or any feedback, email us at brickbybrick@garuda.vc!