Top 5 Podcasts for Early Stage Founders

If you want to learn about startups nothing beats working for one or starting your own—just remember to launch quickly...

If you want to learn about startups nothing beats working for one or starting your own—just remember to launch quickly and cheaply. Next comes complementing that real-world experience with learning from other successful founders.

Here is a short list of the best podcasts for early stage startup founders (links here):

1. StartUp

A podcast about what happens when someone who knows nothing about business starts one. It’s an honest account of starting a startup as Alex Blumberg records unscripted conversations with investors, his team, and his wife. Make sure you start with the first episode of season one.

2. How to Start a Startup (Y Combinator)

This is the audio version of the wildly popular lecture series given by Y Combinator at Stanford University. Delivered by different founders each week they cover building products and talking to investors to less obvious discussions around creating the right culture and running user interviews.

3. Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman

Don’t be fooled by the title, I was sceptical this podcast by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman would be appropriate for early stage founders but it’s fantastic. They still spend significant time discussing lessons from the early days of successful startups like Airbnb, Facebook and Google not to mention they have a 50–50 gender balance for guests.

4. Startup School Radio (Y Combinator)

You’ll undoubtedly notice a trend by now. All of the podcasts involve founders and this one is no different. Each episode, Y Combinator partner Aaron Harris interviews two founders or investors and discusses how they got started, what went wrong, what surprised them, and what happened as their companies grew.

5. How I Built This

The host, Guy Raz, can get a little overexcited by the stories founders share but if you can get past that it’s a great listen. My favourite guest was Cathy Hughes, founder of Radio One—USA’s largest African-American owned broadcasting company. Raz showers Hughes with praise but she continually shuts him down with honest and down-to-earth statements.

Remember, nothing beats first hand experience and these resources should complement the hard work you’re putting into your own startup. Good luck!

Kish https://medium.com/@kishyt/top-5-podcasts-for-early-stage-founders-10b5300428de