This week’s episode explores one of the most pressing challenges early-stage startups face: competing against well-funded incumbents. We cover how startups can beat giants by focusing on niche markets, iterating fast, building emotional brands, and providing world-class customer experiences. This is the ultimate guide for founders navigating a David vs. Goliath scenario. Whether you’re bootstrapping or just closed your seed round, these tactics will give you the edge. A friendly heads up - this episode is our season closer before we take a pod break for the summer. Thanks for listening and enjoy your summer - we’ll be back from a new studio, recharged and ready to roll.

⏱️ Chapter Markers

00:00 – Intro and Summer Break Announcement

01:00 – Why Competing with Big Players is Tough But Doable

02:30 – Foundational Assumptions Before Competing

04:00 – Strategy #1: Own Your Niche

06:00 – Strategy #2: Move Fast and Iterate Faster

08:30 – Strategy #3: Build a Brand People Want to Root For

10:00 – Emotional Branding Examples: Slack, Duolingo, Superhuman

12:00 – Strategy #4: Win on Customer Experience

13:30 – Recap of the Underdog Playbook

14:00 – Final Thoughts and Farewell Until After Summer

Links

• Interplay: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter
• Book: The Fundraising Rules
• MPD: LinkedIn, Twitter

Outsourcing isn't new — but the way startups can use it today has radically changed. On this week’s ep, I sat down with Shaun Walker, CEO of Spoke, to unpack what business process outsourcing (BPO) can look like for high-growth startups in 2025.

Let me say this upfront: most early - stage founders are missing out. Outsourcing isn’t just about slashing costs - it’s about building operational leverage and unlocking global talent pools in a way that accelerates your entire business.

Spoke’s model stands out because it focuses on fully embedded, dedicated teams that feel like extensions of your startup - they're engaged team members motivated to help you hit your milestones.

Whether it’s customer support, finance, data operations, or even engineering, there’s a strategic opportunity here. Especially in today’s hybrid and AI-enhanced world, Shaun argues that outsourcing can be a “bionic” function — letting you scale up or down with flexibility, access talent faster, and focus your internal team on what truly matters.

If you're a founder thinking about how to stretch your funding and build operational leverage, this is a must-listen. Hope it helps you navigate your own growth journey.

🕒 Chapter Markers

00:00 – Intro & Welcome

01:10 – What Spoke Does Differently in BPO

03:00 – Human-Centric Approach to Outsourcing

05:00 – Why Not Hire Offshore Directly?

07:00 – Building Embedded Global Teams

08:00 – Why Founders Miss BPO Opportunities

10:00 – When to Consider Outsourcing

12:00 – How Spoke Supports Startups

14:00 – The Cost vs. Strategic Advantage Debate

17:00 – Global Talent Quality and Motivation

19:00 – BPO as a Bionic Growth Function

21:00 – Helping Startups with U.S. Hiring Too

22:00 – High-Skill Roles & No Upper Limit

26:00 – AI’s Role in the Future of Outsourcing

28:00 – When Outsourcing Doesn’t Work

32:00 – Final Thoughts & Wrap-Up

• Shaun Walker: LinkedIn
• Spoke: Website
• Interplay: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter
• Book: The Fundraising Rules

How do you determine if your idea is truly worth pursuing? In this week’s episode, we dive into a practical framework that breaks down the evaluation process into four critical components: the pain point, the market size, the defensibility of your product, and how you plan to monetize and scale.

Whether you're just brainstorming or already building, these criteria will help you gut-check your concept and avoid wasting time on ideas that aren’t big - or painful - enough. We also discuss market sizing (TAM/SAM/SOM), moats, and why competitive advantage isn’t always what it seems. This is a must-listen for any founder looking to go from “cool idea” to real business.

Links:

• Interplay: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter
• Book: The Fundraising Rules
• MPD: LinkedIn, Twitter

Chapter Markers:

00:00 – Intro: Why Idea Validation Is So Hard

02:00 – The Real Question: Do You Have a Big Idea?

03:00 – The 4-Part Framework for Validating an Idea

03:45 – Step 1: Pain Point – Is This a Must-Have?

06:00 – Step 2: Market Size – TAM, SAM, SOM Explained

09:40 – Step 3: Product – Is It Defensible?

12:10 – Step 4: Monetization – Can It Scale?

15:10 – Final Thoughts: Gut-Check Your Idea

16:30 – Outro: Still Learning After Decades in the Game