Alex had $2,000 in his checking account when Microsoft acquired his last company. For years, he paid himself $30K while his friends made six figures at corporate jobs. He had only 2 months of runway for 18 straight months.
Then retail media exploded and everything changed—he went from grinding against the current to riding a wave.
After selling to Microsoft, he took 6 months off, got bored, and started Bluefish AI with the same team. This time they called Fortune 500 CMOs before building anything.
His #1 advice for early-stage founders: Get on the plane. And go meet your customers. You'll be shocked by how big a difference that makes.
Why You Should Listen:
- How to survive on 2 months of runway indefinitely
- How to validate your next startup before writing any code
- Why second-time founders often have more blind spots than first-timers
Keywords:
startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, PromoteIQ, Microsoft acquisition, Alex Bluefish, retail media, product-market fit, MarTech, enterprise sales, second-time founder
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:58 From management consulting dreams to startup world
00:04:44 Trying to return $200K to investors after 30 days
00:07:19 Pivoting through iterations to find retail media
00:12:13 Finding product-market fit like a river reversing
00:21:28 Microsoft acquisition with $2,000 in the bank
00:24:30 Post-exit sabbatical and starting Bluefish
00:35:08 Building for AI marketing with Fortune 500 design partners
00:43:12 Always get on the plane
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.