The Social Radars

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**The Social Radars**

Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy are The Social Radars. Carolynn and Jessica have been working together to help thousands of startups at Y Combinator for almost 20 years. Come be a fly on the wall as they talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.

Latest Episodes:

Jessica & Carolynn Announce Season 5! Dec 23, 2025

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Jessica & Carolynn Announce Season 5 of The Social Radars

Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic Dec 08, 2025

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In today’s episode, we talk to Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic. Building a supersonic airliner sounds hard, and it is: startups often have dramatic ups and downs, but Boom’s are among the most dramatic we’ve heard. His story was a gripping series of last-minute saves.

Founder Mode: Sajith Wickramasekara, Founder & CEO, Benchling Oct 17, 2025

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In today's Social Radars, we talk to Sajith Wickramasekara of Benchling. For Sajith, founder mode means a pervasive feeling of responsibility for everything at the company. Nothing can be bad at Benchling.

Founder Mode: Jen Herbach, Founder & CEO, Adventris Pharmaceuticals Oct 07, 2025

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In the latest Social Radars, we talk to Jen Herbach of Adventris, which is working on a cancer vaccine. She was in the audience of Brian Chesky's famous founder mode talk, and immediately went home and started changing things.

Founder Mode: Andy Lapsa, Founder & CEO, Stoke Space Sep 29, 2025

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In this episode we talk to Andy Lapsa of Stoke Space. This startup is literally doing rocket science, because they're building fully reusable rockets. Anyone who meets Andy is struck by the depth of his expertise, and in this company that's what founder mode means: a deep understanding of all the engineering problems.

Founder Mode: Emmett Shear, Founder, Softmax & Twitch Sep 23, 2025

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In this Social Radars episode we talk to Emmett Shear, who told us about an interesting founder mode technique he developed when he was running Twitch. He wanted people there to be able to answer the question "What would Emmett do?" and he found the best way to ensure this was via the weekly all-hands, which he'd spend hours preparing for.

Founder Mode: Christina Cacioppo, Founder & CEO, Vanta Sep 16, 2025

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In today’s episode, Christina Cacioppo gives us her take on founder mode, which is becoming more important now that Vanta has 1000 employees around the world. She told us about a new variant of the idea: founder mode in fundraising. Christina delayed fundraising till after Vanta hit $100m ARR, which caused some investors to dismiss her, but she ended up net ahead.

Founder Mode: Kashish Gupta, Founder and co-CEO of Hightouch Sep 12, 2025

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In this episode we talked to Kashish Gupta of Hightouch, who made an important point about founder mode: one of the most important things founders can do that employees can't is to take big risks.

Founder Mode: Paul Gross, Founder & CEO of Remora Carbon Sep 08, 2025

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In this episode we talk to Paul Gross of Remora Carbon, a startup that does carbon capture right out of the exhausts of trucks and trains. Paul has a unique take on founder mode: once a quarter he decides what the three top risks to the company are, and for that quarter, those three things, whatever they are, are the main things he works on.

Founder Mode: Chris Best, Founder & CEO, Substack Sep 04, 2025

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In this episode, taped in front of a live audience, Chris Best tells us the story of Substack. He reminisces about his adventures with Elon Musk, and explains how he persisted in bringing to market a component of Substack that he knew was critical to their vision, even though any non-founder CEO would have killed it after years without any growth.

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