Podcasts
Conversations about entrepreneurship, building in public, and the journey of creating impactful ventures.
Ian Gatzke | Implement GPTs
I joined Ian Gatzke’s podcast to unpack the idea behind FishTank: turning fundraising into something founders can do in public—through short-form content, real progress updates, and honest iteration. We get into why convincing a crowd is harder (and more validating) than convincing a single VC, and why “people paying” is the only signal that truly matters—whether that payment is a pre-order, a waitlist deposit, or an investment. We dig into what’s broken in the current fundraising system: the buddy-network dynamics, credibility gatekeeping, and the pitch-deck treadmill where founders get judged on fonts and slides instead of distribution and execution. I share the moment that clicked for me—crowdfunding platforms rejecting non-VC-shaped companies—and why the TikTok/Instagram “scroll model” is a better interface for discovery than reading 999 PDF decks to find one winner. We also explore a bigger shift in the entrepreneur archetype. Real estate acumen → engineering talent → now, in an era where building is getting cheaper every day, the differentiator becomes bringing the product to market. We break down what makes content work (topic + delivery), why conviction shows up naturally when you genuinely care about the problem, and how FishTank’s “keeping up” model is designed to let investors judge the founder, the journey, and the ability to ship—not just the idea. Finally, we zoom out on what’s coming next: a massive wave of new entrepreneurs as jobs shift and AI accelerates the need to create your own value. My long-term vision is for FishTank to become a “meta layer” of entrepreneurship—from a shower-thought to traction, community feedback, early capital, and scale—powered by iteration and transparency. If there’s one line that sums up the philosophy behind it all: failure is success.
Podcast with The Undiscovered Entrepreneur
I sat down with The Undiscovered Entrepreneur to tell the story of how I got across the start line—and what I’m building now. It starts with a TikTok: a founder in the UAE talking about sixteen failed businesses before one hit. That flipped a switch for me—entrepreneurship isn’t a straight line to “winning,” it’s a game of failing enough times that success stops feeling like luck. From there I leaned into AI and tools like Cursor and Lovable, built WebNixo (web, CRM, Meta ads), and automated the whole pipeline from cold-call form to shipped site and invoice. When the sales team kept hitting the same wall—hang-ups with no feedback—I built Prospector as an internal AI cold-calling coach. They loved it, pushed me to take it to market, and I ran straight into the real problem: traditional crowdfunding felt broken—boring decks, logo grids, and platforms that behaved more like a VC filter than a crowd. That pain became FishTank. I walk through why today’s crowdfunding UX trains you to “judge a book by its cover” and then punishes you with long pitch decks—so only people paid to read decks stick around. The alternative I believe in is the same motion people already do all day: scroll short video, skip what’s weak, lean in when something’s real. Pair that with building in public—founders posting progress, demos, and the messy middle—and let supporters “keep up” with a company over time instead of betting on a single PDF. The goal isn’t to make fundraising more corporate; it’s to make it human, discoverable, and actually fun. We go deep on what I think separates people who start from people who stop: raw persistence. When you’re told no, does it shut you down—or fire you up? I also talk about why I chase criticism (including ending calls with “name one thing I could improve”) and why validation, to me, shows up when people put money behind belief—not just when they politely say they like an idea. We connect that to community: spaces where founders can share problems, learn from someone who’s already been burned, and invite real teardowns before they waste six months building the wrong thing. Toward the end I share a pitfall I’m proud of: I used to worry the “TikTok for fundraising” angle looked unprofessional. The more I spoke about it, the more I realized that’s the point—people are hungry for realism, not polished AI slop. I also share the advice I’d give a brand-new founder: identify the thing you’re most scared of, do it now, and fail fast enough to learn while you still have runway. If you care about crowdfunding, Gen Z risk-taking, or why I think the next wave of founders will be judged on distribution as much as product, this episode is for you.