First Builders
First Builders
Podcast Description
The First Builders Podcast from The Council dives into the stories of those who go first—founders, funders, and early operators who helped build category-defining companies before they were household names. Hosted by General Partner Amber Illig and Partner Rachel Tsui, each episode brings a candid, practical conversation with someone who has helped shape companies before there was a playbook.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on themes of entrepreneurship, product development, and startup culture, covering topics such as the founding stories of startups, building ideas in public, and navigating early product market fit. Episodes feature stories like Nathan Baschez discussing virality and writing as leverage, and Rohini Pandhi on identifying opportunities in startups, highlighting how personal narratives shape entrepreneurship.
The First Builders Podcast from The Council dives into the stories of those who go first—founders, funders, and early operators who helped build category-defining companies before they were household names. Hosted by General Partner Amber Illig and Partner Rachel Tsui, each episode brings a candid, practical conversation with someone who has helped shape companies before there was a playbook.
In this episode of First Builders, hosts Amber Illig and Rachel Tsui sit down with David Apple, founder and CEO of Shark Tooth Biotech, to explore purpose-driven building, rare disease innovation, and what it really takes to start over in an entirely new industry.
David helped scale two of the most iconic SaaS companies of the last decade—Typeform and Notion—as an early go-to-market leader. Today, he’s bringing those same first-principles instincts to biotech, building Shark Tooth Biotech to develop treatments for CMT1A, a rare, progressive neurological disease affecting his young son and more than a million people worldwide. He shares how his son’s diagnosis reshaped his definition of success, why rare diseases remain underfunded despite impacting 1 in 10 people globally, and how AI, drug repurposing, and unconventional paths can accelerate progress in a traditionally slow field—while reflecting on scaling early teams, building with personal stakes, and why curiosity, retention, and purpose matter more than ever for founders.
- Why early-stage building starts with first principles, not optimization
- Lessons from scaling Typeform and Notion from zero to global adoption
- Why retention—not acquisition—is the foundation of sustainable growth
- What most tech founders misunderstand about biotech fundraising
- How AI is accelerating drug discovery and repurposing
- The emotional highs and lows of building a company for your child
- Why founders should prioritize purpose alongside commercial outcomes
This conversation is a powerful look at building not just for scale, but for impact.
FOLLOW DAVID APPLE
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/appledavid/
Twitter/X: @davidcapple
https://www.sharktooth.bio/
FOLLOW THE COUNCIL & FIRST BUILDERS
YouTube: @firstbuilderspod
Instagram: @thecouncilcapital
Twitter/X: @first_builders_
TikTok: @firstbuilderspod
LinkedIn: The Council
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