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What does the statistics say about the best time to sell your startup? Matteo dives into the numbers to discover what the benefits are of waiting for an IPO compared to selling privately.

Anna remembers networking events as a waste of time, and goes into a study on the negative impacts of startup networking. TDLR: Networking is great, just do it with purpose.

Welcome back to the Two Founders Podcast where Anna Nilsson and Matteo Ghetti talk about startups and specifically about sales!

In this episode:

• 84% of startup exits leave founders with nothing
• The top 2% of founders capture 80% of exit wealth
• Is it better to sell your startup now or to wait for a bigger exit?
• The surprising career and income consequences of being a founder
• Why networking too much can actually hurt your startup
• The type of networking to build at each startup phase
• AI coding: is it trustworthy?
• Co-founder conflict and how to handle it

Latest startup news: Antropic’s IPO, AI shopping agents and Etched semiconductor startup is huge! (And Alex Karp bought 15,000 ha of land in Härjedalen).

Answer in the comments: Would you take an acquisition offer today, or wait for a bigger exit?

Watch full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JtQapnQP6eg

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-fm-nilsson/

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Follow Matteo:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-ghetti/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matteo_ghetti/

X: https://x.com/matteoghetti_

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Welcome back to the Two Founders Podcast!

Solo founding is on the rise, with numbers almost doubling from 18% in 2016 to 36% in 2025, but is it a good idea? Anna dives into this statistics and investigates the success rates of solo founding teams.

Matteo dives into the math behind VC decisions. If you succeed you need to multiply their investment by 20. So if you only triple you are not considered a success case for them. He also talks about bootstrapping vs VC founding. What is the better decisions for you and your startup today?

LinkedIn Nugget: You need to raise at least $2B to play if you want to join the AI game today.

Q&A: Our listener is doing a sale through a middleman contact, but the deal is not moving forward. What should they do?

Watch full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G3qISgdPrx4

Follow Anna: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-fm-nilsson/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna.fm.nilsson/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@anna.fm.nilsson

Follow Matteo: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-ghetti/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matteo_ghetti/

X: https://x.com/matteoghetti_

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Welcome back to Two Founders Podcast, today about the investor question “What if a large company copies your idea?”, and a review of the sales advice in Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross.

– Can you compete with Google? –

Many investor pitches have ended with the question “What if Google does it?” - Which is a question that has kept Matteo up many nights. We discuss it from many angles, going through case studies of Bing, Instagram, Snapchat Calendly and Lovable. Matteo is pushing for velocity, while Anna thinks it’s more about specificity.

– Review of advice in Predictable Revenue - 2011 –

It has been called "the sales bible of Silicon Valley", so is this one any good? Anna shares her favorite advice from the book, and gives it two thumbs up. Yes, for an experienced seller some advice is general, but as an inexperienced startup founder she likes how hands on the book is. It gives a great starting point. We discuss what is outdated and what can be reused today.

– LinkedIn Nugget –

Why are Exited Founders branding themselves online and selling sales courses? - If they’re so successful they don’t need to sell themselves like that.

00:00 – Intro

00:09 – The "What if Google does it?" investor question

19:24 – Sales advice review: Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross

42:51 – LinkedIn Nugget: Are “Exited Founders” scammers?

Watch full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8QwuNf93j3U?si=EuRbMen_eg4zMQEu

Follow Anna:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-fm-nilsson/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna.fm.nilsson/

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Follow Matteo:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-ghetti/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matteo_ghetti/

X: https://x.com/matteoghetti_

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Welcome back to the Two Founders Podcast. In today’s episode Anna talks about Jeff Dean leaving Google, and what that means, and Matteo expands on the advice of is “hire people smarter than you” really a good advice?

We also discuss the LinkedIn nugget to not go to investors to ask for advice when things aren’t going well - just show up with good news. Spoiler: We do not agree.

Q&A: My customer is asking me to send a proposal, should I? - No, the answer is always no.

The big question: Do you want to look stupid today, or stay stupid for another year?

🎙️ Two Founders Podcast Anna Nilsson & Matteo Ghetti

Watch full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OgfMPC7Hvn4

Follow Anna:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-fm-nilsson/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna.fm.nilsson/

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Follow Matteo:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-ghetti/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matteo_ghetti/

X: https://x.com/matteoghetti_

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Welcome back to Two Founders Podcast! Today we talk about the shocking acquisition of Airtable and the top three mistakes startups make when it comes to sales. Of course Matteo also brings a LinkedIn Nugget - should you have an AI on the board? And Anna has received a listener question - should I keep my day-job or jump and do the startup full time?

— Anna’s topic —

Anna gives her list of the top three sales mistakes startups do:

→ Don’t do a free pilot! - Well, it depends - what is the plan after that? What is your relationship 3 years later?

→ Put your price higher! - You don’t know this yet, but probably you can charge more.

→ Keep any material for yourself! - Don’t send any material, book a meeting instead.

— Matteo’s topic —

Matteo talks about the Milan company Bending Spoons’ acquisition of Airtable.

→ Why did Airtable go from a $11B valuation to finally selling for only $1.3B?

→ Was the issue growing too slowly, being overvalued or not reacting quick enough to the vibe-coding entering the market?

— Linkedin Nugget —

Should you have an AI-board member?

Matteo brings the new Linkedin hot topic of letting AI have a seat at the board.

— Listener Question —

Should I keep my day-job or jump and do the startup full time?

Listener Casper has just raised, and is wondering if he should quit his current full time job and go all in for the startup he is building. Matteo pushes for staying, and Anna is definitely team leave.

— Timestamps —

00:00 Intro

01:14 Why you shouldn’t do a free pilot

05:29 Why startups price too low

09:45 Why you shouldn't show your demo too early

13:47 Bending Spoons & the Airtable acquisition

16:18 How Airtable went from $11B to $1.3B

21:34 What startups can learn from Airtable

26:06 Should AI have a seat on your board?

30:31 AI as the memory of a company

34:08 Should you quit your job to build a startup?

38:02 The final verdict: go all-in?

Subscribe to the Two Founders Podcast, we talk about startups and specifically about sales, based on our own experience of building a startup from 0-1, and finally landing an acquisition.

#Startup #Entrepreneurship #Sales #B2BSales #AI #SaaS #Founders #VentureCapital #Airtable #BendingSpoons

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

In this episode of The Two Founders Podcast, Anna Nilsson and Matteo Ghetti unpack some of the biggest stories shaping startups, AI, sales, and venture capital.

They discuss Google’s massive stock drop and its $200B AI spending plan, the pressure on Gemini to catch up with ChatGPT and Claude, and what the semiconductor market might tell us about the future of AI.

They also dive into the booming defense startup ecosystem: how companies can sell to the military, why government contracts take so long, why domain expertise matters, and what founders should know before entering the space.

Plus, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is back with Atoms, a bet on physical AI, automation, mining, and kitchens. The conversation explores why robotics could be the next major frontier—and why automating the final 20% is much harder than it looks.

And finally: AI-generated content on LinkedIn, why “AI slop” is becoming a problem, and a founder question about whether you should ever offer a free pilot to a potential customer.

A conversation about AI, startups, venture capital, defense, robotics, sales, and the realities of building companies.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CNunws5iKPg

Follow Anna:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-fm-nilsson/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna.fm.nilsson/

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Follow Matteo:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-ghetti/

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Microsoft just lost $650 billion in market value after investors questioned whether the company is actually delivering on its AI promise. But what does Microsoft’s story have to do with startups?

In this episode of the Two Founders Podcast, Anna and Matteo discuss:

• Why Microsoft’s AI narrative may have gotten ahead of reality

• What the market expects from Microsoft, Copilot, Azure and OpenAI

• Why startups need to deliver on the promises they make

• Who the world’s top angel investors are and what they have in common • Why many successful angel investors were operators and founders themselves

• Whether you should start selling your startup before your product is finished • Why talking to customers early can be more valuable than building the “perfect” MVP

• How to structure pilots and payments when your product is still evolving

• Why branding and building an online presence can make startup sales easier

The big lesson? A compelling story can get you attention—but eventually, the story has to match reality.

And for founders: go out there and sell.

🎙️ Welcome to Two Founders, where we talk startups, sales, company building, investors and the lessons we learn along the way.

Subscribe: https://dashboard.rss.com/podcasts/twofounderspodcast/

Follow Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-fm-nilsson/ https://www.instagram.com/anna.fm.nilsson/

Follow Matteo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-ghetti/

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

This week we're diving into three of the biggest stories in tech and startups.

🚨 Anthropic under fire: We unpack the controversy around Anthropic's latest AI model, why the US government stepped in, Amazon's surprising role in the story, and what it means for AI safety, regulation, and the company's upcoming IPO. We also take a closer look at Anthropic founder Dario Amodei, his journey from OpenAI to building one of the fastest-growing AI companies in history, and why enterprise customers are flocking to Claude.

🚀 SpaceX becomes a $2 trillion company: Anna finally bought a SpaceX share (despite knowing it's probably terrible timing 😅), which leads us into a discussion about Elon Musk, SpaceX's astonishing valuation, Starlink, Mars, and why investors keep betting on Musk's vision. We also explore whether SpaceX's valuation is justified or simply "the Elon Musk multiplier."

🤖 Jeff Bezos enters the AI race: While everyone is focused on chatbots, Bezos is quietly building Prometheus AI—a company aiming to revolutionize robotics, warehouses, and logistics. Could physical AI become the next trillion-dollar opportunity?

💰 We also debate:

• Will AI create the world's first €1M-per-year employees?
• Why is Sam Altman worth less than Dario Amodei?
• Can AI ever balance innovation with safety?

❓Listener Q&A: Matthias asks whether posting on LinkedIn is actually worth the effort if your customers aren't there. We share our thoughts on personal branding, sales, investors, and why an active LinkedIn profile can still pay off.

If you're interested in startups, AI, entrepreneurship, investing, and the biggest stories shaping the future of technology, this episode is for you.

👍 Like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments: Would you rather own a share of SpaceX or Anthropic?