🚀 “Entire software categories are up for grabs.”

Investor Akash Bajwa explains why the next wave of AI‑native startups will rewrite today’s playbooks and how first‑time founders can ride it.

What you’ll learn

• The three‑layer stack (AI chips → models → apps) and the product & data flywheel that lets tiny startups punch above their weight.
• A clear framework for deciding “AI‑native or AI‑assist?” for your startup. Why 2025 feels like a 1994‑style inflection point for builders—and how timing alone can hand newcomers a huge edge.
• Talent‑density tactics: hire “heat‑seeking missiles” and design org charts that scale themselves.
• The coming surge of autonomous agents and micro‑transactions, plus the strange new business models they unlock.
• Five bold 2035 predictions that will reshape product, funding, and daily work.

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⏱️ Chapters

0:00 Intro

5:23 What “AI‑native” really means

10:34 Designing lean, taste‑driven teams

20:30 The vertical stack playbook

26:29 Evals as the hidden moat

34:57 Agents 101 and the Model Context Protocol

39:47 Micro‑payments, macro impact

45:22 2035 outlook for founders

56:41 Hiring, culture, and rebellious opinions

1:04:15 Rapid‑fire takeaways

Why subscribe? If you sketch business ideas on napkins, obsess over product‑market fit, or dream of disrupting incumbents with AI, this channel is for you. 🔔 Hit subscribe so Spotify tells you the moment new episodes drop 🔔

Keywords: AI startup, entrepreneur tips, venture capital, SaaS, Earlybird Venture Capital, Akash Bajwa interview, AI‑native products, vertical integration, talent density, autonomous agents, evals, Founders and Builders podcast, build with AI, startup playbook, how to start a tech company, seed fundraising, product strategy, software innovation.#AI #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Software #VentureCapital

💊 90% of drugs fail. Clinical trials take years. And billions are lost every time.

In this episode of Founders & Builders, I sit down with Dr. Olga Kubassova, a mathematician turned biotech investor, and founder of Image Analysis Group — a company using AI-powered imaging biomarkers to reinvent how we measure whether a drug is actually working.

We cover:

🧠 Why clinical trials are broken — and what needs to change

📉 How AI biomarkers let us see disease earlier and treatment faster

⚙️ What makes a billion-dollar drug fail — and how we can spot it sooner

💡 Olga’s journey from math PhD to advising governments and top pharma

🏥 The future of precision medicine and data-driven trials

One of my favorite moments:“If you can see disease earlier and measure treatment faster — that’s the difference between a failed drug and a billion-dollar success.”

This is a conversation about the future of medicine — and how AI is changing everything.

🧬 Most new medicines are billion-dollar bets made in the dark.Charm Therapeutics is changing that — using AI to design drugs that actually work.Laksh Aithani, co-founder and CEO, joins the Founders and Builders podcast to break down how AI is transforming drug discovery — and why Charm raised $50M from Nvidia, General Catalyst, and Khosla Ventures to do it.We talk about:– The wild science behind protein folding– Why most drugs still fail in trials– How Charm slashes R&D timelines using DragonFold– What it really takes to build a biotech company at 27This episode is a window into the future of how medicine gets made.

He built a product from $0 to $1B+ at Google.

Now he’s building the integration layer for the AI-first future of SaaS. In this episode of Founders & Builders, I sit down with Romain Sestier, CEO and co-founder of StackOne — the next-gen platform unlocking 3,000+ actions across 200+ SaaS tools for AI agents and enterprise software.

We dive into:

🧠 Why integrations are now table stakes for SaaS success

⚙️ How StackOne is reinventing how AI agents interact with real enterprise tools

💥 The biggest problems with today's APIs — and how AI changes everything

💡 What Romain learned from scaling billion-dollar SaaS inside Google and Oracle

📈 How StackOne raised $20M from GV (Google Ventures), Workday Ventures, XTX, and angels from OpenAI and DeepMind

Whether you're building in SaaS, AI infra, or developer tools — this conversation is packed with insight into where software is heading next.

What if banks weren’t built in the 1800s? What if we could start again?David Brear, CEO and founder of 11:FS joins Founders & Builders to unpack what it really means to build digital financial services from scratch—and why most of what exists today is just a “digital facade.”David shares: • The origin story of 11:FS and how they scaled globally • How he spots broken systems ripe for disruption • His lessons on building products that actually matter • Why most corporate innovation labs are failing • The real traits that define world-class founders and teamsWhether you’re a startup founder, product leader, or just fascinated by how financial systems can be reimagined, this episode will shift how you think about building.

Will, Co-Founder of Workflow shares with us his perspective on:Finding the right problems to solve, how to define your vision as a founder, placing the right bets when building your startup and more.Will previously founded Rota, the UK's fastest growing on-demand staffing platform.Follow Will on X/Twitter: x.com/willrftaylor

🎙 Sebastiaan Debrouwere — From VC to Founder: The Future of AI-Powered E-commerceIn this episode of Founders & Builders, we sit down with Sebastiaan Debrouwere, founder of Genie, the engine behind over 150 of Shopify’s fastest-growing brands.Seb shares a rare founder’s perspective shaped by both operating and investing — previously in Balderton Capital, the fund behind Revolut and Depop.We explore: • His unconventional take on product-market fit (hint: it’s more like surfing a wave than climbing a mountain) • Why selling to procurement is brutal — and what that taught him • The mindset shift from VC to builder • How Genie is helping e-commerce brands optimize 40–60% of their operating costs with speed and intelligenceIf you’re a founder, operator, or just curious about where AI meets e-commerce — this one is packed with hard-earned insights and founder honesty.

Mahdi, Co-Founder of Humble AI shares with us his perspective on: Building AI startups, the importance of creating meaningful relationships, how to define your vision as a founder, the opportunity ahead in the AI revolution and more. Mahdi has also angel-invested in early-stage startups and funds, including Tiny.VC, Aire.io, Purple.AI, Pathao, Sheetgo, Silkfred, Noty.AI & JustPark. Timestamps: 00:00 - intro 10:50 - optimizing for learning early on 21:00 - building a vision of the future 21:28 - product vs. technology 24:30 - speaking to customers 29:50 - how to spend your first 30 days 42:41 - the four types of luck 53:07 - identity and realising your potential 01:00:00 - taking life level by level 01:07:30 - surrounding yourself with the right people 01:10:20 - poetry and the importance of play 01:19:01 - the history of computing and the opportunity ahead 01:25:51 - LLMs and the challenges building AI products Follow Mahdi on X/Twitter - x.com/mahdishariff // Mahdi's Motto to live by: "Smile at the world, and the world will smile back" //