E19: Overcoming Self-Doubt to Become a Founder with Erik Bernhardsson

In this episode, I chat with Erik Bernhardsson, co-founder and CEO of Modal, about his journey from Spotify engineer to startup CTO to startup founder. Erik takes us back to his early days as a software engineer and shares how his transformative years at Spotify ignited his startup mindset. We discuss the challenges he faced during his transition from engineer to founder, including overcoming self-doubt and stepping into a leadership role. Erik also talks about his experience building open source projects and what he's built so far at Modal, outlining challenges they've encountered and what he's most proud of to-date. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in tech entrepreneurship and personal growth.

Highlights:
[00:40] - Erik shares about his early jobs and how they shaped his career and future desire to be a founder
[2:05] - When Erik realized he wanted to be a founder (or gained the confidence to be one)
[3:55] - Diving into the people management side of building founder confidence
[5:50] - How open source projects can aid in building your technical leadership skills 
[7:55] - Erik shares his thoughts on what can be done with data and how data is key to successful consumer products
[10:15] - Paradigms and pitfalls about the open source world
[13:52] - Digging into Modal, why Erik started Modal and what he’s most proud of so far
[17:30] - Figuring out where the MVP line is in startup engineering
[21:33] - Differentiating yourself with stronger moats
[22:17] - Erik shares the most surprising thing about becoming a CEO

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Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025.

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