The IO Podcast: Investor + Operator
Episodes
David Haber of a16z: Building a Firm vs Fund + What a16z is focused on in 2026
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Tyler and Sterling sit down with David Haber from a16z. David shares many important insights and tactics for both investors and opera...
Why The Second Decade Is The Best For Startups — A convo w/ Spenser Skates, CEO Amplitude Analytics
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In today's episode, Tyler and Sterling sit down with Spenser Skates, Founder and CEO of Amplitude Analytics, the digital Analytics platform that helps...
Ex Navy SEAL: When To Quit Vs Persevere In Business + How I Started A Successful Venture Firm!
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A question every startup founder has is, "When do I know when to keep going or throw in the towel?"Today, Tyler and Sterling sit down with ex Navy Sea...
Zero To $1 BILLION In Payments In Just One Year: How To Crush Product-Market-Fit w/ Joshua Silver
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Usually small startups fail when trying to take on big companies.Rainforest, however, is a different story. In the payments space dominated by Stripe ...
$500M Founder: Avoid These Critical Mistakes When Competing With Incumbents - A convo w/ Daniel Simon, Coast CEO
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are you a small startup trying to compete with the big dogs? Well then this episode is for you.Tyler and Sterling sit down with Daniel Simon, co-found...
Kapital: The Future of Latin-American Banking With Mexico’s Best Startup
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you need some motivation as an entrepreneur, then this is the podcast episode for you.In today's video Tyler and Sterling sit down with Rene Saul, ...
Lessons From Building Utah's Next $10B Company — A convo w/ Adam Edmunds, CEO of Entrata
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you haven't heard of Entrata yet, then you need to listen to this episode.Entrata is a sleeping giant of a company that has quietly been growing in...
Leading a $1B Revenue Startup AND $1.8B VC Firm – A convo w/ Arjun Sethi (Tribe Capital + Kraken)
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hands-down, Arjun is the most interesting man in venture capital. He thinks differently than everyone else, and as a result, his VC Firm, Tribe Capita...
How The BEST Founders Go From Seed To Series A - a convo w/ Brett Berson of First Round
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What are the questions founders and VC firms should be asking when raising a Series A? How will AI impact things? What are the common pitfalls for See...
From whiteboard idea to $7 BILLION…How Flock Safety catches 20% of US crime — w/ Garrett Langley
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How on earth do startup founders with zero experience in the security industry sell millions of dollars in contracts to police stations around the US?...
How Benchmark Capital finds EXCEPTIONAL startups in the age of AI — A convo w/ Eric Vishria
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With so many AI startups these days, how do you identify which will be home-runs and which will be flops?In this episode of the I/O Podcast, Tyler and...
How Great Founders SELL Before They BUILD — An Exceptional Startup Chat w/ The Founder of Wander
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you get paying customers...before you've even built your product? Time to find out!In this episode of Exceptional Startups, Tyler sits down wit...
The Simple Tricks Founders Need To Build WINNING Teams — An IO Interview With Nakul Mandan
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the IO Podcast, Nakul Mandan (founder of Audacious Ventures) shares his tips and tricks for recruiting top talent, the most critica...
His Company Went Public At $1.8 BILLION...And His Next Idea Is Even Bigger
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Exceptional Startups, Brandon Rodman (founder of Weave and now Previ) breaks down how he’s quietly building a Costco for the mode...
Building the Sales Machine with Pete Kazanjy, Author of Founding Sales | IO Podcast
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Pete Kazanjy—author of Founding Sales and a veteran sales leader—joins hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow to share a crash cours...
The Best Podcast For Early Stage Founders - Season 2 of the I/O Podcast & the Exceptional Startups List
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do early-stage founders break through and build exceptional companies? In this upcoming season of the I/O Podcast, hosts Sterling Snow and Tyler H...
The Formula for Outlier Success with Dr. Gurner, a World's Best Executive Coach | IO Pod Ep 15
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do you become the best of the best—the top performer in your field? Dr. Julie Gurner, an acclaimed executive coach and once likened to Billions’...
Building Lattice & Alt Capital: Jack Altman On Investing & Operating
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Joining a company as early as possible, right after achieving product-market fit, offers the greatest career advantage." – Jack AltmanJack Altman e...
Leading a16z's Growth Fund: David George On Investing Now and In the Future | Ep 13, IO Podcast
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Tyler Hogge & Sterling Snow sit down with David George, General Partner at a16z, where he leads the growth investing practice. Si...
Emergency Episode of the I/O - Building Utah with Redo CEO Sterling Snow
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Current Investor and Divvy's Former CRO Sterling Snow is jumping back into an operating role, this time as CEO of Redo, a fast growing customer experi...
Here's Why Shopify Will Be A 100 Year Company | Kaz Nejatian, Shopify COO & Former YC Founder | Episode 12
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejat...
He Started A Business That Sold For $2.5 Billion. Here's What He Learned | Blake Murray, Divvy CEO | I/O Pod Episode 11
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Blake Murray came up with the idea of Divvy, it was because he had a problem: he couldn’t get real-time data on the financial health of his bus...
NEA's Scott Sandell May Have The Most IPOs Of All Time. Here's How He Did It | Ep. 10 I/O Podcast
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Sandell, Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at NEA is truly one of the great venture capitalists of our generation. With nearly thr...
The Kings of Fintech | How NerdWallet's Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot Are Funding The Next Generation | Ep. 9
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There may be no better pair of fintech investors than Better Tomorrow Ventures Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot. After successful exits in the industry --...
How Mercury's CEO Immad Akhund Changed the Startup Banking Experience And Got Into Investing || Ep. 8 IO Pod
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Immad Akhund had the idea for Mercury years before they started. In fact, he'd launched 3 other startups and been through YCombinator twice before eve...
From TrialPay, Affirm and a16z | Alex Rampell on Investing & Entrepreneurship | Ep. 7 IO Podcast
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Alex Rampell may be the most true version of an investor-operator. Alex's first entrepreneurial endeavor started a...
Going All In On OpenAI, Rippling and Others | Bedrock Capital's Geoff Lewis On How How He Makes Investments | Ep. 6, IO Pod
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Geoff Lewis is a titan in the VC world as both the lead investor and founder of Bedrock Capital, the firm backing some of the world best-known tech co...
How To Build A World-Class Revenue Org with Mark Cranney, Former a16z Partner | IO Podcast Ep. 5
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How did this small town farm kid go on to lead the revenue orgs for Silicon Valley's biggest companies? Mark Cranney credits his success to the lesson...
Henry Ward, CEO of Carta | How This Second Time Founder Built A $7.4 Billion Company | Episode 4
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This isn't Henry Ward's first shot at entrepreneurship. In fact, the first company he founded failed. But Henry says the things he learned were pivota...
How YC's Garry Tan Evaluates Startups | Episode 3 of the Investor + Operator Podcast
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
President and CEO of YCombinator Garry Tan sits down with Tyler & Sterling and recounts his time as an early hire at Palantir, starting his compan...
Keith Rabois, Founders Fund | The IO Podcast - Episode 2
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If there was a Mount Rushmore of Investors, Keith Rabois would definitely be on it.Over his decades long career as both an investor and operator, Keit...
Andy Rachleff from VC to Entrepreneur
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The IO podcast with Sterling and Tyler features Andy Rachleff, the founder of Benchmark Capital and unicorn startup Wealthfront, and explores the inte...