Startup Stories - Mixergy
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Elad Gil was an early investor in 40 unicorns, including major AI companies like Perplexity. I asked him what’s next for software companies now that AI can code better than humans, and what he’d invest in after AI. https://mixergy.com/interviews/elad-gil-backed-40-unicorns-this-is-next/ Elad Gil is the Founder & Investor at Gil Capital, his private investment firm. He has backed some of the most iconic technology companies of the past two decades, including Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Instacart, OpenAI, and SpaceX. A former executive at Twitter and Google, Elad is known for identifying major technology waves early — from social to SaaS to AI — and helping founders build category-defining companies. SPONSORED BY Zapier https://zapier.com/ More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Josh Mohrer is the model of the kind of company that can be built with AI. He’s not a developer, but he vibe coded Wave AI into a $7 million / year note taking company. This is how he did it. https://mixergy.com/interviews/the-7-million-vibe-coded-app/ Josh Mohrer is the founder of Wave AI https://wave.co/, an AI-powered audio note-taking app that records, transcribes, and summarizes conversations across meetings, phone calls, and real-world settings. Before Wave AI https://wave.co/, Josh was an early leader at Uber, where he served as New York General Manager during the company’s rapid expansion. Today, he runs Wave AI https://wave.co/ as a highly profitable, one-person SaaS business, using AI to replace entire teams while staying deeply hands-on with product and customers. SPONSORED BY Zapier https://zapier.com/ More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
When a new user signs up, most companies add them to a standard drip campaign. Ryan Carson found a better alternative: his AI agent sends customized drip messages to every new registrant. It helps his company close more business. It’s just one way he uses AI to act as his VP of marketing. In this interview, he breaks down how he automated his marketing. https://mixergy.com/interviews/ryan-carson-how-ai-does-my-marketing-for-me/ Ryan Carson is a three-time founder and longtime SaaS entrepreneur. He’s currently the founder of Untangle https://www.untangle-us.com/, an AI-powered platform designed to help people navigate divorce with clarity and less conflict. With over 25 years of startup experience, Ryan now focuses on building highly specialized AI agents that combine software, automation, and real-world business workflows. SPONSORED BY Zapier https://zapier.com/ More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
When YouTube kicked Pat Walls’ Starter Story channel off the platform, he spent a weekend getting Claude Code to build him a replacement. I wanted to see how it was done, so he walked me through it step-by-step. Turns out it was a mistake and he’s back on YouTube, but the site he made was so good that it’s his company’s new homebase. https://mixergy.com/interviews/he-claude-code-build-me-a-youtube-replacement/ Pat Walls is the founder of Starter Story https://www.starterstory.com/, a media and education company that helps entrepreneurs learn how real businesses get built. Starter Story https://www.starterstory.com/ generates over $2M a year through subscriptions, courses, and content, and its YouTube channel reaches millions of viewers each month. A former software engineer turned creator, Pat is known for experimenting publicly with new tools—most recently using AI to rebuild his own video platform when YouTube put his business at risk. SPONSORED BY Zapier https://zapier.com/ More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
My friend created an AI engineering firm and every time I see him, he tells me how much his business is growing. So I asked him to tell me all about it in this interview. This is the story of how Tarun Thummala created PressW, the Austin-based AI dev shop. https://mixergy.com/interviews/2-million-year-ai-engineering-firm/ Tarun Thummala is the founder and CEO of PressW https://pressw.ai/, an AI engineering firm that builds custom automation systems for real businesses in regulated, document-heavy industries. Instead of selling generic “AI transformation,” Tarun focuses on delivering specific workflow outcomes—often automating 90–95% of manual processes. Today, PressW generates over $2M in annual revenue by combining deep technical execution with a service-first approach to AI. SPONSORED BY Zapier https://zapier.com/ More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Yevgeniy Matsay was a real estate broker who hated making cold calls. So he built an AI automation to do it for him. It worked so well that he created an agency that created cold calling automations for other brokers. Today he’s turning his automation service into Rozera, a cold calling SaaS for real estate brokers. https://mixergy.com/interviews/ai-automation-that-makes-cold-calls/ Yevgeniy Matsay and Aidan Richards are the co-founders of Rezora https://rezora.io/, an AI-powered outbound calling platform built for real estate brokers. Yevgeniy is a former real estate agent with a background in computer science and cybersecurity, while Aiden leads sales, marketing, and operations. Together, they’re building AI voice agents designed specifically for real sales conversations—not generic chatbots—starting with real estate and expanding to other industries. SPONSORED BY Zapier https://zapier.com/ More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Over a decade ago, Joe Apfelbaum was on the podcast, telling me how focusing on SEO helped him grow his agency. That was hard for the idea-a-minute founder. Now he’s back. And AI is enabling him to create more businesses. He broke down the 5 types of companies anyone could make https://mixergy.com/interviews/he-keeps-launching-ai-businesses/ Joe Apfelbaum is the founder of Ajax Union https://www.ajaxunion.com/, a digital marketing agency, and EvyAI https://evyai.com/, an AI-powered sales and social media assistant used by thousands of businesses worldwide. A longtime Mixergy guest, Joe previously grew Ajax Union into an Inc. 500 company before rebuilding it with AI-first systems after COVID. Today, he focuses on creating scalable AI services, software, and education products that help entrepreneurs grow without growing headcount. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
On the surface, it looks like Ricardo Vice Santos is selling AI-created books for your kids. But he’s aiming for something much bigger: a world where TV, movies, and every other media will be customized to you, using AI. He’s starting with children’s books because that’s what people will buy and what AI can do well today. This is the story of how he’s building DreamStories and how you can build a similar company. https://mixergy.com/interviews/hes-building-an-ai-media-empire/ Ricardo is the founder of DreamStories https://dreamstories.ai/?srsltid=AfmBOopNrIvMxGZBbnhO6TIbDV66CghQm2qIW2y3XDjV7upaAqvMauso, a company creating AI-powered, personalized children’s books tailored to individual families. Previously, he worked in consumer media and was an early team member at Spotify, where he developed a deep understanding of long-tail content and personalization. Drawing on that experience, Ricardo is now building toward a future where books, videos, and even movies are generated uniquely for each person. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Zapier used to be the software that connected all your other software. But it’s AI has become so powerful that people are using it to build software companies. Founder Wade Foster joined me to talk about and show how they’re building on it. https://mixergy.com/interviews/building-companies-using-zapiers-ai-automations/ Wade Foster is the co-founder and CEO of Zapier https://zapier.com/, the automation platform used by over 350,000 customers to connect more than 8,000 apps. He started Zapier https://zapier.com/ in 2011 with just $1.2M in seed funding and grew it into a profitable company generating hundreds of millions in revenue. Today, Wade is leading Zapier’s evolution into AI-powered automation and agent-based workflows that help businesses move faster with fewer people. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Helen Hastings wanted to create better accounting software. To figure out what to build, she had humans do the work. This is the story of how she created Quanta, the accounting software that’s taking on QuickBooks with a more modern human+software approach. https://mixergy.com/interviews/she-had-people-do-ais-work/ Helen Hastings is the founder and CEO of Quanta https://www.usequanta.com/, an AI-powered accounting platform built for modern software and services companies. Before Quanta https://www.usequanta.com/, she was a software engineer at Affirm, where she specialized in building financial ledgers and systems of record. She’s also worked at Google and NerdWallet, bringing deep fintech and infrastructure experience to one of accounting’s hardest problems. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Ben Tossell used to listen to Mixergy interviews as he hunted for a big idea to launch. Then he nailed it. MakerPad, an educational company for people who wanted to build using no code. It did so well that he sold it for life-changing money. Then he started coding. Because of AI. This is his story. https://mixergy.com/interviews/ai-made-a-no-code-founder-into-a-coder/ Ben Tossell is the founder of Makerpad, the no-code education platform he sold to Zapier. Today he’s the Head of Developer Relations at Factory https://factory.ai/, where he helps shape the AI coding agent used by developers worldwide. When he’s not working, he’s hanging with his twins. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Pepper is creating content for clients like Shopify, Adobe and Instacart. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of posts & videos. And this is content that leads to sales. In this interview, founder Anirudh Singla tell us how they do it by using AI and humans. https://mixergy.com/interviews/pepper-ai-people-10-million/ Anirudh Singla is the founder and CEO of Pepper https://www.pepper.inc/, a global content marketing platform that blends AI and human creativity to produce content at scale. What began as his side hustle on Upwork has grown into a company serving Fortune 500s —recently crossing $10M in annual recurring revenue. Pepper now operates across writing, design, video, and localization, helping brands drive measurable growth through AI-powered content systems. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Ethan Smith runs Graphite, the SEO & AEO company that helps brands like Webflow show up on Google’s page one and ChatGPT’s first answer. This is how he does it https://mixergy.com/interviews/aeo-how-to-make-chatgpt-promote-you/ Ethan Smith is the founder and CEO of Graphite https://graphite.io/, a growth and SEO firm that’s now pioneering Answer Engine Optimization—helping brands rank inside AI-generated responses. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
Coming into this interview I wasn’t even sure what “AI Transformation” was, let alone why so many companies pay for it. Here’s the deal: Tenex, the company founded by Alex Lieberman & Arman Hezarkhani, goes into companies hunting for ways to save or making them money using AI. Once they find that, it becomes a no brainer for companies to hire them to build it. But Tenex does more than AI Transformation. They also run a dev shop where their developers use AI to build super fast for clients. https://mixergy.com/interviews/why-is-morning-brews-founder-selling-ai-transformation/ Alex Lieberman and Arman Hezarkhani are the co-founders of Tenex https://www.tenex.co/, a company blending high-performance engineering with AI transformation consulting. Their model aligns incentives around output rather than time, helping enterprises and startups build software faster and integrate AI across people, processes, and tools. Together, they’re building what they call the “McKinsey for AI”—a hybrid of dev shop, consultancy, and innovation lab helping companies thrive in the post-AI era. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
“Why did you launch yet another voice dictation app?” I asked Dan Shipper, founder of Every. I thought he’d tell me that there was some kind of research that showed people needed another one. Nah. It came down to his team’s taste and personal preference. They just wanted something different. So a single creator on the team built it. AI makes it easier for more people to create apps. So what’s the differentiator? From what I got in this interview — over and over — it’s the creator’s taste. https://mixergy.com/interviews/how-dan-shipper-uses-ai-to-build-artisanal-ai-apps/ Dan Shipper is the founder and CEO of Every https://every.to/, a hybrid media and software company creating AI-powered tools for productivity and creativity. The company publishes one of the most widely read newsletters on technology and builds products like Monologue (AI dictation), Spiral (AI ghostwriting), and Cora (AI email assistant). More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
I’ve been talking with founders who used AI to build companies, but aren’t getting enough customers. I found the perfect person to show them how to grow. Neil Patel has been on the cutting edge of AI marketing. He’s going to show us what’s working for his customers and his company. At the end of the conversation, you’ll see the exact process his company, NP Digital, is using AI to scrape yellow pages, create custom offers, and get clients. https://mixergy.com/interviews/neil-patels-insanely-powerful-ai-sales-machine/ Neil Patel is the co-founder of NP Digital https://npdigital.com/, a global marketing agency serving clients such as Intuit, Canon, and Cartier. He’s also the creator of the SEO platform Ubersuggest and a leading authority on digital growth, named a top marketer by Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. Through his work, Neil helps businesses combine AI, data, and marketing strategy to drive measurable revenue. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
AI changed everything. During their time at Y Combinator, startups typically grew revenue weekly by 2-4%. Now? 10-20%! PER WEEK. YC President Garry Tan told me the reason is simple: AI transformed software from a “nice to have” into an urgent necessity. “Before it was like, ‘Yeah, I know I need to replace my software.’…Today it’s becoming, ‘Oh. I see a demo. It’s really impressive… I need it right now. When can you start?'” https://mixergy.com/interviews/garry-tan-y-combinator-startups-growing-5x-faster-heres-what-changed/ Garry Tan is President and CEO of Y Combinator https://www.ycombinator.com/, the world’s most successful startup accelerator. He previously co-founded Posterous, which was acquired by Twitter. Beyond the startup world, he’s a YouTuber with an eye for great design and understanding that three-act narratives aren’t just for movies. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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 https://mixergy.com/interviews/read-ai-is-adding-50k-users-per-day/ David Shim is the founder and CEO of Read.ai https://www.read.ai/, the fastest-growing AI meeting assistant with millions of users worldwide. Previously, he was CEO of Foursquare following its acquisition of his location analytics company, Placed, which had earlier been acquired by Snap. Today, David is building Read https://www.read.ai/ into the central hub where businesses capture, analyze, and act on every meeting, email, and message. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/how-are-there-so-many-ai-agencies/ Rob Howard is the founder of Howard Development & Consulting (HDC.net) and the creator of Innovating with AI https://innovatingwithai.com/, a program that has helped over 1,000 people start and grow AI consulting businesses. With a background in software development and WordPress, Rob has built and shipped projects for clients for more than 20 years. Today, he’s focused on teaching others how to combine no-code tools, automation, and AI to create profitable, sustainable agencies. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/how-to-build-a-10m-year-ai-company/ Pavel Doležal is the co-founder and CEO of Keboola https://www.keboola.com/, a cloud-based data platform used by over 21,000 companies worldwide. Before Keboola https://www.keboola.com/, he helped build Atlas https://atlas.centrum.cz/?lp=1, one of Eastern Europe’s leading internet portals, and went on to found several data-focused companies. Today, Pavel leads a global team making it easier for businesses to integrate, analyze, and automate their data—with clients ranging from fast-growing startups to global enterprises. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/my-body-tutor-remote-coaching-as-a-service/ Adam Gilbert was a personal trainer who was frustrated by seeing clients not follow through on the diet and exercise programs they committed to. So he offered to be their accountability buddy by text. The service he created, My Body Tutor https://www.mybodytutor.com/, was profitable from its first month and continues to generate millions 18 years later. His latest company, DoneDaily https://donedaily.com/, offers a similar accountability and coaching program for entrepreneurs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/close-the-50-million-year-crm/ Steli Efti is the co-founder and CEO of Close https://close.com/, a CRM platform designed to eliminate manual data entry and make sales more human and efficient. Before launching Close, he co-founded Elastic Sales (a sales-as-a-service agency) and SwipeGood (a charitable micro-donation startup) Fun fact—he once said he spent six years following up twice a year to finally buy the domain close.com. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/hes-doing-seo-on-chatgpt/ Chirag Kulkarni is the founder and CEO of Taco https://taco.co/, an AI-powered SEO firm helping brands dominate emerging search platforms. Chirag and his team are building Taco into the go-to partner for companies navigating the shift from Google to generative search. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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 https://mixergy.com/interviews/1440-20mil-year-newsletter/ Tim Huelskamp is the co-founder of 1440 https://join1440.com/, the fact-focused daily newsletter. Tim and his team are building 1440 into a trusted source for intellectually curious readers who want an inch-deep, mile-wide view of the world. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/what-happened-to-our-partnership/ Jesse Pujji is the founder of Gateway X https://www.gateway.xyz/, the venture studio. Jesse & Andrew are building Bootstrapped Giants https://bootstrappedgiants.com/, a resource for ambitious, unfunded founders. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/aux-10mil-advising-private-equity/ Kasey is a former reporter who founded Aux Insights https://www.auxinsights.com/, a global advisory firm that acts as the office of the CMO for private equity firms, specializing in digital growth strategy and marketing diligence. When she’s not scaling businesses, she’s up before dawn at 4 AM, savoring the quiet magic of early morning work before the chaos of her three-kid household kicks in. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/tucker-max-left-his-business-crashed/ Tucker Max first became famous for his best-selling “fratire” books. He shifted to entrepreneurship when he launched Scribe https://scribemedia.com/, a book ghostwriting and publishing company. Today he spends time on his ranch where he grows his own food, and runs Tell Your Story Memoir Academy https://www.tellyourstory.academy/, which helps authors document their truth. SPONSORED BY beehiiv https://www.beehiiv.com/partners/bootstrapped-giants?via=mixergy?utm_source=x&utm_campaign=11272024 – The best email newsletter publishing platform because they’ll grow your audience faster than any other service. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/zillow-laid-him-off-so-he-started-his-own-company/ John Doherty is the founder of Credo https://getcredo.com/, which matches digital agencies with clients. After an exit in 2022, he built his professional editing/SEO service EditorNinja https://editorninja.com/. When he’s not doing that, he disconnects from everything tech and goes skiing. SPONSORED BY Gusto https://gusto.com/mixergy – The HR platform so well designed that your team will thank you for using them. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/how-the-my-first-million-made-his-fastest-money/ Shaan Puri is perhaps most famous for co-hosting the My First Million podcast https://www.mfmpod.com/ with Sam Parr, which has garnered over 200 million YouTube views since it started in 2019. Some of his additional projects include Bebo (sold to Twitch in 2019), Blab (live-streaming service with ~4 million users), a venture fund, and his newsletter The Milk Road https://milkroad.com/ (250K readers in https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
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. https://mixergy.com/interviews/how-is-beehiiv-making-15-mil-per-year/ Tyler Denk was the second-ever employee at Morning Brew. After growing it to the reported biggest exit of any newsletter business, he started building beehiiv https://www.beehiiv.com/. Now, they’re doing $15 million in ARR as a growing underdog. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
