Startups Decoded
Startups Decoded
Podcast Description
Startups Decoded is a podcast that provides real-world insights into startup strategy and growth, featuring expert-led content, insider stories, and actionable takeaways for founders and investors. We bridge the gap between theory and practice, offering practical lessons to help entrepreneurs thrive in today’s fast-paced ecosystem. More than just a podcast, it's a resource for innovators who dive deep into the strategies behind building and scaling successful startups.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on essential startup themes such as scaling operations, hiring strategies, and the impact of climate tech. Episodes include practical discussions like how founders can build high-performance teams and strategies for hiring the right marketers at critical times, as well as examining the perception and branding of climate tech in the investment community.
Most startup podcasts are built for founders who’ve already figured it out. This one’s for the founder still in the middle of it.Startups Decoded covers the full founder operating system — from idea to Series A. Brand, fundraising, marketing, operations, finance, culture, storytelling. Everything a first-time founder needs to actually run the thing, not just pitch it.Host Andy Walsh has been in it — 4x founder, 2 exits, bootstrapped $10M ARR. He brings in founders and investors who’ve built real companies and gets them to talk honestly about how they did it.New episodes weekly. If you’re drowning in decisions and need a framework, not a pep talk — this is your show.
Most first-time founders treat angel money as the warm-up act before the real investors show up. Cheryl Kellond thinks that view is about five years out of date, and Play Money’s data backs her up.
Buzzy AI companies are raising nine figures at seed. Meanwhile, she argues the signaling bias has flipped, and the strongest fundamentals now sit with founders raising from angels, syndicates, and small funds.
We get into her three-stage approach to early fundraising. She explains why Play Money makes founders pull $30K to $50K from their own network before showing a deal to anyone else, and why she’d rather read a year of your monthly updates than open your data room. Maya, if you’re about to raise, you walk away with a sequence to follow and permission to stop chasing strangers first.
Episode outline
- Why Cheryl refused to start a fund and built Play Money instead
- The accredited investor math that could rival early-stage VC
- Three stages of early fundraising, from your own network to strangers
- How an SPV turns a hundred small checks into one clean cap table line
- What angels want to see: your pace of learning, not a polished data room
- The $5,000 angel who closed a million-dollar deal
Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube
Cheryl Kellond – https://www.linkedin.com/in/c2kprofile/
Founder and CEO of Play Money, an angel investing platform that helps founders raise from strategic angels. She’s a concept-to-launch operator with more than $750M in revenue from version-one products. Her second company, Apostrophe, hit roughly $10M ARR in four years before Centivo acquired it in 2021.
Andy Walsh – https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwalsh/
Three-time founder with two exits who bootstrapped to $10M ARR, now host of Startups Decoded (top 2%, 850k+ downloads) and advising founders on growth through consulting and his podcast.
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Listen: Apple || Spotify || YouTube
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Web: startupsdecoded.com
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Music Credit.
“Neptuno” – Phondupe (Album: Onykia) https://phondupe.bandcamp.com/album/air-conditioning-vol-2
Disclaimer.
The views and opinions shared on Startups Decoded are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial or legal decisions.
Disclaimer
This podcast’s information is provided for general reference and was obtained from publicly accessible sources. The Podcast Collaborative neither produces nor verifies the content, accuracy, or suitability of this podcast. Views and opinions belong solely to the podcast creators and guests.
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