Today, the sort of honest founder-to-founder conversation you won't find anywhere else – it's me and my friend Dan Pantelo, the founder and CEO of Marpipe. He's raised $10M to build an adtech company, and we'll get to that, but this conversation is more important and more interesting than either of our startups.

Because we get to some of the hard stuff of being a startup founder. Dan opens up about company layoffs that still haunt him to this day, and how they're holding him back from being his best self. As he put it, he needed the therapy session. And I share about my own struggles as a leader and CEO, and the ways in which disgruntled employees can make a founder feel trapped.

We talk about venture capital, and why Dan plans to never take it again in his next company-building journey. We talk about how to hire honestly, and the work environments required to build the next big thing.

But we do begin by covering Marpipe – his startup building an operating system for Dynamic Product Ads (also known as catalog ads). They power catalog ads for the biggest brands in the world, including Nike, Paramount, Crocs, Ann Taylor, Champion, Hanes, DSW, Bloomingdales, Revolve, Kate Spade, and many more. It's an ad unit that feels basic on the surface, but powers more of the web and commerce than any of us might imagine from the outside. We talk about the use of AI in advertising, Marpipe's role in evolving catalog ads, and so much more.

This is Three Course Founders, Episode 006: Delivering Stakeholder Value, with Dan Pantelo of Marpipe.

A special thank you to Kyma in Flatiron in NYC – they were gracious hosts, the staff was awesome, and the chefs kept us fed with delicious Greek food.

My mission with this show is to have deeper conversations with people trying to change the way the earth spins -- to follow my own curiosity, and help me and you better understand how the world works and how to move with more intention. I'm Sherveen Mashayekhi, founder and CEO of venture-backed Free Agency, and I'm an angel investor & startup super-nerd.

Follow: https://x.com/sherveen

Follow Dan: https://x.com/danpantelo

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Inspired by Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and all of the bad startup podcasts out there.

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