The Idea Maze

This episode of The Idea Maze, we're joined by Aaron White, co-founding CTO of multiple venture-backed startups and now CEO of Appy People. He's also spent time as the VP of VC firm Venrock and as the co-founder of Boundless. Rob and Aaron discuss everything from the role of a CTO in the idea maze, what working in VC taught him, and how he is thinking through this era of AI.

This episode of The Idea Maze, we have a very different conversation. Rob is joined by Ariel Diaz, 4x Founder/CEO (most recently of Blissfully), to dive into his unique and fascinating approach to start-ups. They discuss everything from unpacking how ideas are spread -- or are "memetically fit" -- and how leading with a right-brain first approach can transform entrepreneurship to take on a much more artistic approach. Show Links: Rick Rubin's The Creative Act: A Way of Being Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way

After our first year of The Idea Maze, we wanted to share five key takeaways that we have distilled from these conversations. Listen to host Rob Go break down the most significant lessons he learned from past episodes.

Welcome back! These next several episodes will feature terrific founders that are still in the midst of the idea maze themselves. We'll explore how their prior founder experiences have shaped their approach and the things they are looking to repeat and avoid as they traverse the idea maze for the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time. In this episode we're joined by Brad Hargreaves, co-founder of the popular professional education company, General Assembly. He also started Common Living, a community driven residential real estate company, and most recently launched Thesis Driven, a newsletter diving into the intersection of real estate and innovation. As he navigates the idea maze for the fourth time, Brad gives us a glimpse into his own thought process and mindset as he begins this new journey. Show Link: Chesterton's Defense Parable

On our sixth episode of The Idea Maze, Rob sits down with Brian Long, a serial entrepreneur who started two venture funded companies so far. TapCommerce scaled quickly and was sold to Twitter for $100M, and Attentive is a large scale independant business generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Brian is also the author of Problem Hunting: The Tech Startup Textbook, from which he shares extremely tactical advice for entrepreneurs at all stages of the idea maze. Show link: Problem Hunting by Brian Long

On this episode of The Idea Maze, Rob is joined by Jesse Pujji, co-founder of Ampush and founder of Gateway X - focused on launching startups that can become self-sustaining businesses without the need of venture capital. They dive into Jesse's criteria for launching companies, his best advice for second-time founders, and the two types of entrepreneurs. Show link: Zone of Genius

On this episode of The Idea Maze, Rob sits down with Mike Salguero, CEO and founder of ButcherBox. It's unlike any other story we've heard so far, a bootstrapped business that all started from a side project. With over $600 million in revenue already, it's a story of wild, surprising success. Show link: The Lean Canvas Tool

In this episode, Rob is joined by Zach Shefska, the founder of CarEdge. This is a story of a "distribution first" startup created by a father-son team. Zach set out to reshape the consumer experience in the auto industry but started first with building an audience in this highly competitive category. CarEdge has quickly become a top 50 automotive website and developed a media arm that generates millions of monthly views, even as its core product is still taking shape.

On our second episode, Rob Go is joined by ianacare Co-Founder, Jessica Kim. Jessica shares her experience as an EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) before pivoting to care for her mom. Jessica's grief and frustration inspired her to tackle the inadequate system of support for caregivers together with her co-founder, Steve Lee.

Welcome to the first episode of the Idea Maze, where our host Rob Go sits down with Stu Wall. Stu is the CEO and cofounder of Setpoint.io, a residential fintech platform. A repeat founder, he walks us through starting Setpoint, grappling with finding the right idea, and the stress of holding on to your founder identity.

Welcome to The Idea Maze. Stay tuned for our first episode, dropping on June 1. The Idea Maze is a podcast that asks the question: where do great entrepreneurial ideas really come from? Many of us have heard the origin stories of larger-than-life successes, but by the time a company becomes a household name, these stories have been revised to sound more like legend than history. In this podcast, we will be speaking with founders who are still very much in the Idea Maze, and are willing to share the mistakes, false starts, u-turns, and reboots that led from having zero idea to where they are today. Hosted and created by Rob Go, founding partner of NextView