Startup Stories - Mixergy

Business tips for startups by proven entrepreneurs

Episodes

#2280 Read.ai is adding 50k users per day

September 15, 2025

How can Read.ai keep growing when 1) there are loads of meeting note taking apps, and 2) platforms like Zoom keep adding note-taking features? That’s what I asked its founder David Shim

David Shim is the founder and CEO of Read.ai, the fastest-growing AI meeting ...

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#2279 How are there so many AI agencies?

September 10, 2025

I keep seeing AI agencies pop up everywhere, offering to AI-ify businesses. But what are they AI’ing? How are they doing it? Seems too general and unfocused to work. Still, they do. I wanted to understand how, so I interviewed Rob Howard, who teaches agency owners how to sell and deliver AI services.

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#2278 How to build a $15M/year AI company.

September 3, 2025

Pavel Doležal built Keboola to $15 million per year. How he did it: 1. Start with consulting, so clients tell you what they need 2. Build software that makes companies’ chaotic data accessible. NO agents yet. 3. Create agents that take action. That’s the hardest part. At the end of this interview, Pavel tells you how YOU should start an AI company and about the three successful companies that followed his advice.

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#2277 My Body Tutor: Remote Coaching as a Service

July 9, 2025

Ever wish someone would text you every day to make sure you stuck to your goals? That’s exactly what Adam Gilbert built — first for fitness, now for business. He’s the founder of My Body Tutor and DoneDaily, two remote coaching services powered by daily accountability. I invited him to share how he turned simple check-ins into a multi-million dollar company.

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#2276 Close: The $50 Million / Year CRM

June 18, 2025

How is Close doing so well in the CRM space against such big competitors? The answer: focus. Instead of chasing enterprise clients or trying to build a CRM that does everything from web hosting to calendaring, Steli Efti focused on sales teams at small and mid-sized businesses. And he built a product with a tight set of features focused on more client conversations and less data entry.

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#2275 He’s doing SEO on ChatGPT

May 12, 2025

Have you noticed how AI search results are now linking to websites? Today’s guest runs an SEO agency that helps his clients’ sites show up in those chat responses. I invited Chirag Kulkarni founder of Taco to talk about how he’s doing it and how he built his agency.

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#2274 1440: $20+mil / year newsletter

April 29, 2025

After closing a company that failed, Tim Huelskamp decided to keep it simple. He launched an email newsletter that briefed smart people about the day’s top news. Today his company, 1440, has over 4 million subscribers and generates over $20 million in annual revenue

Tim H...

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#2273 What happened to our partnership?

March 5, 2025

Before I partnered with Jesse Pujji, we were buddy-buddy. Texting all the time. When we got started, we got excited about the world of possibilities for our company. Now? Something is missing. I asked him about it. And about where he put his money, why he’s not launching more companies now, what he’s building with AI, and more.

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#2272 Aux: >$10mil advising private equity

February 21, 2025

When Kasey Grelle heard that private equity companies paid marketing agencies to evaluate companies they wanted to buy, she spotted a business opportunity. That realization became Aux Insights, the firm that’s become “the office of the CMO” for private equity companies. Listen to how they got clients & built their business.

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#2271 Tucker Max left & his business crashed

November 29, 2024

Tucker Max thought his business was worth $64 million. Then it nearly died. This is the story of how Scribe, the ghostwriting and publishing company rose, crashed, and rose again.

Tucker Max first became famous for his best-selling “fratire” books. He shifted to entre...

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#2270 Zillow laid him off, so he started his own company

November 22, 2024

Zillow laid him off. So John Doherty launched Credo a digital agency matchmaking firm. Exactly 7 years later — to the day — he sold the company. This is the story of how he built and sold Credo, and how he’s building his latest company, EditorNinja, which offers outsourced text editing.

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#2269 How the “My First Million” Guy Made his Money

November 15, 2024

Shaan Puri was exceptional at doing the Silicon Valley thing. Still, he says his newsletter was the fastest way he’s ever made money. Within a year of its creation, The Milk Road grew to 250k readers and a reported 8-figure exit.

Shaan Puri is perhaps most ...

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#2268 How is beehiiv making $15 mil per year?

November 1, 2024

They feel like the millionth company to offer email newsletter publishing. How are they growing so fast despite the competition? Tyler Denk is a big reason. A former Morning Brew employee, he took their growth techniques and turned them into a software company: beehiiv.

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#1559 Cameron Herold coaches me on hiring (so I don’t collapse at my desk)

February 14, 2018

Hiring has been a huge issue for me. And in a past interview with Cameron Herold, I brought it up because he’s the founder of the COO Alliance, the world’s leading network for the second in command. I don’t get embarrassed by a lot of stuff. If you heard my interviews, you hear me get pretty frank about my flaws, my mistakes. But this issue is something I was embarrassed about. I think if I don’t hire somebo...

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#1524 When does a startup founder need a COO?

November 22, 2017

A topic we don’t talk about on Mixergy is how to actually manage a company. I remember when I was in NYU as an undergrad I loved all my business classes, but management just didn’t feel like me. I always thought of the guys in Dilbert but entrepreneurs were the ones who were creating, the ones who were doing. Mixergy’s grown and I’ve been running it, but I have to be honest, I’m not doing a great job ...

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#1453 The future of chat (and interacting with your customers)

May 26, 2017

About a year ago I realized that no matter how much effort we’ve put into my email list, I could never double the response rate. We kept growing it, but people were not using email much. So I started looking around for solutions and I started looking at bots. Bots are basically software that communicates with humans via a chat app. I came across one company that looked too good to be true. It’s called ManyChat. And I sa...

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#1417 How Sam Ovens is helping everyday people start their own consulting businesses

March 3, 2017

I’ll be honest with you. I felt guilt about an interview that I did years ago with today’s guest. This was back in, let me see here, 2013. I interviewed Sam Ovens about how he built up this consulting business and was teaching people how to do consulting. I thought maybe I got taken for a ride. It was too good to be true. Then I started hearing people who were in his program talk about how big the program is. Then I sta...

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#1050 How a former lawyer built a multi-million dollar company that teaches social skills – with Jordan Harbinger

August 13, 2014

How does a former lawyer build a multi-million dollar company that teaches social skills. Jordan Harbinger is the co-founder of The Art of Charm, a company that teaches confidence and emotional intelligence.

Jordan Harbinger is the co-founder of The Art of Char...

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#1001 The 1,000 interview celebration

April 9, 2014

On August 4, 2008, I posted a video up on Mixergy where I looked up into the web cam on my computer and I said “I failed.” And I said that I was going to shut down my invitation business and start doing interviews with entrepreneurs and people in general who I admire so I can learn from them and take back what I’ve learned from them to build a more successful company in the future. And I said that along the way yo...

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#990 Andrew’s process for overcoming entrepreneurial stagnation – with Samantha Alford

March 10, 2014

A few weeks ago, Andrew was interviewed about his inner doubt by Samantha Alford of WomeninBusinesspodcast.com. I (Arie Saint) thought it was too good not to share with our audience, so I’m publishing it on Mixergy. Check it out and let’s talk about it in the comments.

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Startup Stories - Mixergy

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#2280 Read.ai is adding 50k users per day

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}#2279 How are there so many AI agencies?

#2278 How to build a $15M/year AI company.

#2277 My Body Tutor: Remote Coaching as a Service

#2276 Close: The $50 Million / Year CRM

#2275 He’s doing SEO on ChatGPT

#2274 1440: $20+mil / year newsletter

#2273 What happened to our partnership?

#2272 Aux: >$10mil advising private equity

#2271 Tucker Max left & his business crashed

#2270 Zillow laid him off, so he started his own company

#2269 How the “My First Million” Guy Made his Money

#2268 How is beehiiv making $15 mil per year?

#1559 Cameron Herold coaches me on hiring (so I don’t collapse at my desk)

#1524 When does a startup founder need a COO?

#1453 The future of chat (and interacting with your customers)

#1417 How Sam Ovens is helping everyday people start their own consulting businesses

#1050 How a former lawyer built a multi-million dollar company that teaches social skills – with Jordan Harbinger

#1001 The 1,000 interview celebration

#990 Andrew’s process for overcoming entrepreneurial stagnation – with Samantha Alford

Popular Podcasts

#2280 Read.ai is adding 50k users per day

#2279 How are there so many AI agencies?