The BD Podcast
The BD Podcast
Podcast Description
Candid conversations with bold thinkers, seasoned founders, and business leaders who’ve built, stumbled, and scaled.
Designed for SMB CEOs, entrepreneurs, and ambitious operators, this podcast cuts through the noise to bring you insights you can act on — to launch stronger, lead smarter, and stay ahead.
A Horizon Search production.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores topics such as entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing strategies, and personal growth, with episodes focusing on actionable insights like overcoming procrastination, creating effective business models, and understanding employee retention in modern workplaces.

Builders & Doers is where founders, operators, and investors get practical about building. Each episode unpacks one decision that mattered, the options on the table, and the evidence behind the choice. Clear lessons you can use to launch stronger, lead smarter, and stay ahead.
A Horizon Search production.
Get The Searchlight newsletter: https://www.thesearchlight.com/subscribe
Mike Wu’s résumé looks like the classic prestige path: USC, investment banking, Sony, Harvard Business School, BCG, and then entrepreneurship. But in this conversation, he explains why that neat story looked much cleaner on LinkedIn than it felt in real life.
We talk about career searching versus status chasing, what his failed search fund taught him about risk and timing, how HireFrame emerged from a real hiring problem, why offshore staffing succeeds or fails on context, how founders should think about delegation, and what AI is changing in global work.
This is a sharp episode for founders, operators, hiring leaders, and anyone trying to build something real behind the optics.
00:00 LinkedIn vs reality
01:00 Meet Mike Wu
02:00 USC, parental pressure, and choosing business
05:30 What elite résumés can hide
07:41 Search funds explained
11:10 When the search fund failed
14:35 How HireFrame started
17:21 The real gap in offshore staffing
21:11 Athena, AI, and executive assistants
23:41 Training global SDR talent
26:41 Delegation with Loom + LLMs
30:08 Trust and remote hires
31:42 Scaling HireFrame in the AI era
33:44 What founders have to unlearn
35:47 Risky bets that changed the company
37:33 The hardest thing in business
38:29 The future of global work in 2030
40:41 Where to find Mike
Connect with Mike:

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.
For a complete disclaimer, please see our Full Disclaimer on the archive page. The Podcast Collaborative bears no responsibility for the podcast’s themes, language, or overall content. Listener discretion is advised. Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for more details.