Stay ConnectedIn this weekly series, fellow startup founders Immad Akhund (Mercury) and Rajat Suri (Presto, Lima, and Lyft) explore current events in the world of tech, startup, and policy, offering insights from their distinguished careers and an array of expert guests.
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Eric Migicovsky is the Founder of Core Devices, and the original founder of Pebble, the pioneering smartwatch that raised $10 million on Kickstarter before being acquired. Eric has launched Core Devices to continue building the smartwatch platform he believes in, complete with Google's newly open-sourced Pebble operating system.
What you'll learn:
1. The Kickstarter phenomenon: How Pebble became one of the first massive Kickstarter successes, raising $600K in the first day with a $100K goal
2. Hardware's inventory trap: Why missing revenue projections by 20% ($80M vs $100M target) created a $20M inventory crisis that nearly sank Pebble
3. The sustainable hardware model: Eric's new approach of targeting profitability at 5,000 units and eliminating inventory risk through pre-orders
4. Inventor vs. founder mindset: The difference between building products you love versus building scalable companies
5. Fighting Big Tech: How Eric's Beeper Mini challenged Apple's iMessage monopoly and led to DOJ antitrust action
6. Getting software from Google: The surprising story of how Google open-sourced Pebble's operating system to enable Core Devices
7. Hardware manufacturing today: Why building smartwatches is easier now than in 2011, and what's still challenging
8. The artisanal hardware movement: Building premium, limited-run products for passionate niche audiences
9. Regulatory battles: Apple's API restrictions and how they limit third-party smartwatch functionality
10. AI integration: Adding ChatGPT and voice capabilities to modern smartwatches
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction and reconnecting with Eric
(01:18) The Core Devices relaunch and getting Pebble IP from Google
(02:33) Eric and Raj's Waterloo connection and early entrepreneurship
(04:48) From Pebble's precursor to YC and the smartwatch vision
(09:30) The legendary Kickstarter launch day and calling Raj at 2am
(14:00) Five years of overnight success and authentic marketing
(16:07) Inventor vs. founder mindset and product obsession
(19:21) The 2015 inventory crisis that changed everything
(27:20) Eric's new sustainable hardware model with Core Devices
(32:00) Using existing Pebble cases and Google's open-source software
(36:58) The artisanal approach: 3 people, no VCs, limited production runs
(41:14) AI integration and ChatGPT on the wrist
(49:36) Secondary markets and public company trading restrictions
Sahil Lavingia is the founder and CEO of Gumroad, a platform that helps creators sell digital products and has facilitated over $1 billion in creator earnings. After raising a $7M Series A from Kleiner Perkins, Sahil took the unconventional path of transitioning from venture-backed growth to a profitable, dividend-paying company—and even spent time as a software engineer with DOGE at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
What you'll learn:
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction and Sahil's early Pinterest days
(05:26) The decision to drop out of college for startups
(08:12) Building Gumroad and raising from Kleiner Perkins
(25:26) How AI is changing software engineering and hiring
(39:02) The 60-day DOGE experience at the Department of Veterans Affairs
(50:15) Transitioning from venture-backed to profitable company
(57:16) The Kleiner Perkins $1 buyback story
(1:02:45) Implementing dividends and radical transparency
(1:09:04) Why transparency makes you better at everything
Steve Huffman is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, one of the internet's most essential platforms with 100 million daily active users and a $20 billion public market valuation. Over 20 years, Steve has guided Reddit through multiple existential challenges, from early acquisition to content moderation crises to competing with AI-generated content.
What you'll learn:
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction and Reddit's 20-year milestone
(02:40) Early product-market fit signals and the $10M acquisition
(06:25) Steve's 9-year absence and return in 2015
(08:30) Content moderation challenges and building safety infrastructure
(14:10) Reddit's three evolutionary eras and strategic positioning
(16:40) The subreddit explosion and community self-organization
(18:08) Positioning as the human platform in an artificial world
(19:15) Human verification challenges and potential solutions
(25:22) AI partnerships, data licensing, and monetization strategy
(29:02) Search evolution and Reddit's role in the new ecosystem
(35:07) Leadership philosophy and staying true to company values
(37:43) The decision to go public and community ownership
(42:18) Managing public company pressures while maintaining long-term vision
(48:27) Steve's vision for Reddit's universal future
Rahul Sidhu is the co-founder and CEO of Aerodome, which was acquired by Flock Safety for a reported $300M in October 2024—just 17 months after founding. A reserve police officer turned serial entrepreneur, Rahul built his drone-as-first-responder platform by combining deep public safety expertise with cutting-edge technology to revolutionize emergency response.
What you'll learn:
Matt Loszak is the co-founder and CEO of Aalo Atomics, building factory-manufactured small modular nuclear reactors designed to power AI data centers. In just 18 months, Aalo has grown from 2 people to 50 employees with a 40,000 square foot factory and a completed full-scale non-nuclear reactor prototype.
What you'll learn:
Severin Hacker, co-founder and CTO of Duolingo, joins Immad Akhund and Raj Suri to unpack how Duolingo became the world’s most engaging education platform.
They explore how Duolingo leverages AI to personalize learning, the company's obsession with retention, and why relentless experimentation is at the heart of its product strategy.
Severin also shares insights on building a mission-driven culture, the immigrant founder advantage, and how to scale design thinking without losing your edge.
In this founders-only episode of Founders in Arms, Immad Akhund and Raj Suri analyze Meta's aggressive acquisition playbook alongside other major tech developments reshaping the industry landscape.
The conversation begins with how Zuckerberg's "buy or get crushed" approach to acquisitions leaves founders with an impossible choice: accept a lucrative buyout or face ruthless competition. They note how "every founder who comes out of Meta regrets selling their company," yet Meta's willingness to clone features makes rejecting their offers extremely difficult.
The founders then dissect the Epic vs. Apple lawsuit ruling that ended Apple's 30% App Store monopoly and examine antitrust actions against tech giants, questioning whether surgical regulation targeting specific practices might be more effective than breaking up companies entirely. The discussion highlights how AI foundation models have rapidly commoditized, making monopoly concerns in that space less pressing.
The episode concludes with Immad's sobering economic prediction that Trump's tariffs will trigger a recession by late 2025, creating a market where only AI companies secure funding while other promising startups struggle despite solid fundamentals - potentially creating opportunities for contrarian investors and resilient founders.
In this episode of Founders in Arms, Immad Akhund and Raj Suri speak with Dan Hobbs, co-founder and CEO of Protex AI, a company using computer vision to identify safety risks in warehouses and factories before accidents happen. Dan shares his journey from bootstrapping his first startup (where he survived on store-brand Rice Krispies for three weeks) to building a 70-person team serving Fortune 500 clients like Amazon and DHL.
The conversation explores how Protex leverages existing CCTV infrastructure to detect dangerous behavior patterns, the advantages of being "outsiders" disrupting traditional industries, and how the AI boom has transformed both fundraising and customer conversations. Dan offers insights on navigating enterprise sales, building trust-based relationships with clients, and managing an international team across Ireland, Boston, and London.
From pivoting through multiple startup ideas to selling multi-million dollar contracts, this episode provides valuable perspectives on computer vision applications, scaling an AI company in today's market, and the unique challenges of leadership growth. Whether you're interested in AI applications, enterprise sales strategies, or the founder journey, Dan's candid experiences offer practical wisdom for entrepreneurs at any stage.
In this episode, Jay Shah joins Immad and Raj to talk about his new startup, Poppy—a screenless, AI-native phone designed for kids. He shares what led him to pivot from enterprise SaaS to building hardware in his basement, why he believes kid-first tech needs a rethink, and how intentional design can create healthier relationships with technology.
Jay reflects on lessons from BufferBox, the realities of manufacturing and tariffs, and the power of network effects in consumer hardware. The conversation spans everything from AI in education to emotional resilience as a second-time founder, the state of Canadian tech, and how Y Combinator continues to shape founder journeys.
In this episode of Founders in Arms, Immad Akhund and Raj Suri speak with Ryan Petersen, co-founder and CEO of Flexport, about the recent implementation of 104% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Ryan shares insights on how businesses are responding to this trade crisis, strategies for supply chain adaptation, and the broader implications for US-China commerce.
The conversation explores how Flexport is helping customers navigate these challenges, the economic impact of protectionist policies, and Ryan's personal journey as a founder.
From global trade dynamics to startup leadership wisdom, this episode offers valuable perspective on managing through economic uncertainty.
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