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Fund/Build/ScaleAuthor: Walter Thompson
After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths Ive learned: 1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck. 2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge. 3. Real, actionable advice comes from those whove actually done it. Theres no such thing as founder DNA. If youre willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off less if youre a woman or person of color you can be a startup founder. Heres why I founded Fund/Build/Scale: 1. To help founders make fewer mistakes. 2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey. 3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. Theres a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out. This podcast is for anyone whos interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business. Im talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising when youre outside a major tech hub all of it. Interested? Subscribe to Fund/Build/Scale on all major platforms and follow the podcast on LinkedIn to get articles, excerpts, transcripts and more. Fund/Build/Scale is a production of Truth and Soul Media LLC. Language: en Genres: News, Tech News, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Building an Enterprise AI Startup from Day Zero
Episode 86
Tuesday, 6 January, 2026
Lexi Reese has scaled companies at every stage — from building Google’s programmatic advertising business, to helping Gusto grow revenue from $10M to $300M. Now she’s co-founder and CEO of Lanai, an enterprise AI startup tackling a problem most companies don’t even realize they have: they can’t actually see how AI is being used inside their organizations, or whether it’s driving real outcomes. In this episode, we unpack what it really looks like to build a company from scratch in the AI era. Lexi walks through how she ran more than 200 customer interviews before committing to a product direction, why product-market fit isn’t real until someone is willing to pay, and how she’s building a 14-person team — plus AI “teammates” — without losing focus or trust. We also talk about fundraising in a tougher 2025 market, why early founders need to resist the urge to build comprehensive solutions too soon, and how organizational design is already changing as AI flattens hierarchies and reshapes work. If you’re thinking about starting a company — or you’re in the messy middle of finding product-market fit — this conversation offers a practical roadmap for what actually matters. RUNTIME 51:45 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:01) What Lanai does (5:05) Lexi’s customer discovery process — “definitely 200 interviews” (12:03) Why customer delight should be a founder’s obsession metric (15:36) What “AI productivity” actually means (19:12) Lexi’s framework for managing small, early-stage teams (26:23) Her take on seed-stage fundraising in late 2025 (31:54) How to integrate customer feedback into product strategy (38:00) The most meaningful proof a first-time founder can show an investor (40:53) Why “trust has a code” when it comes to teamwork (44:08) How Lexi stays obsessed with customers in every meeting (48:15) The final question LINKS Lexi Reese Lanai Steve Herrod Juxtapose General Catalyst Splunk Datadog Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person, Alain de Botton SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ Thanks for listening! – Walter.
