About
Founder's Field Guide is a series of conversations with founders, CEOs, and operators who are building great businesses.
Patrick is the Founder and CEO of Positive Sum. He founded Colossus in 2020 to build on the success of Invest Like the Best.
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Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.24
Building the Modern Restaurant
Jonathan Neman is the co-founder and CEO of Sweetgreen. We cover the origins of Sweetgreen and how it builds a direct relationship with its customers, how Jonathan thinks restaurants should work with marketplaces, and the economics of operating restaurants.
03.11.2021
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.14
The Growing Importance of Design
Dylan is the co-founder and CEO of Figma, a collaborative online design tool. We cover the principles that Figma is built upon, the growing importance of design as the world moves from consumption to creation, and what it takes to recruit effectively.
12.31.2020
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.38
Building the New Standard in Security
Christina Cacioppo is the founder of Vanta, a security and compliance software business founded in 2017. We cover the experiences that led her to launch Vanta, the strategy she took to build, price, and distribute the product, and we touch on her lessons from running a growing organization.
06.17.2021
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Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.56
Powering Emerging Markets Payments
Sebastian Kanovich is the CEO of dLocal. We cover dLocal’s playbook for facilitating payments in emerging countries, what Sebastian has learned about great API building, and how he challenges himself to improve personally.
02.24.2022
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.55
Simplifying Fund Closing
Tim Flannery is the co-founder of venture fund administrator Passthrough. We discuss the biggest frictions in investing, what achieving greatness in distribution and sales looks like, and the power of identity as a feature to build products around.
02.17.2022
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.54
One Foot in Front of the Other
Nick Saltarelli is the co-founder of Mid-Day Squares. We cover the importance of Mid-Day Squares’ $100 million revenue target, what’s wrong with the CPG industry today, and how to keep a long-term mindset while making the most of every day.
12.23.2021
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.53
An Everything Store for Digital Assets
Devin Finzer is the co-founder and CEO of OpenSea. We cover OpenSea's origin story, how Devin differentiates between the spectrum of NFTs in the market, and what he sees as the major risks and opportunities in the future of the industry.
10.07.2021
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.52
Making Better Loans
Dave Girouard is the co-founder and CEO of Upstart. We cover the past, present, and future of lending, the differences between public and private market investors from a founder’s perspective, and the lessons Dave has learned about building speed into a habit.
09.30.2021
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.51
Helping Creators Build Communities
Gina Bianchini is the founder and CEO of Mighty Networks. We cover the differences between leadership and management, the lessons Gina learned building a similar business in the 2000s with Marc Andreessen, and the elements that make up a thriving community.
09.23.2021
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.50
The Future of Social Gaming
Justin Waldron is the co-founder and President of Playco. We cover how Justin sees the future of gaming as social platforms evolve, how gaming may be the next tool for content creation, and how Playco has approached aligning incentives for game creators and players.
09.16.2021
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.49
Mapping the Metaverse Economy
Gabby Dizon is the co-founder of Yield Guild Games. We cover YGG’s decentralized structure, the unit economics of its business model, and how Gabby thinks about the volatility of crypto assets when trying to build a durable, long-term business.
09.02.2021
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.48
A Playbook for Startups
Mike Maples, Jr. is a co-founding partner at Floodgate. We cover Mike's early insights and secrets, value hypothesis testing, and how he found himself building businesses in Silicon Valley.
08.26.2021
Founder’s Field Guide
Ep.47
Redesigning the Home Buying Experience
Max Simkoff is the founder and CEO of Doma. We cover the history behind mortgage closings, where Title companies fall into that process, and what Max has learned from building a tech business in an antiquated industry.
08.19.2021