The Undefeated Underdogs

👉🏼 About the Guests: Business Insider dubbed Andrew Yeung as The Great Gatsby of startups. Andrew moved to the US as an immigrant in 2020 and after a brief stint at Facebook, Google he founded his events company Fibe, generated millions of dollars in revenue, hosted more than 40K tech folks, became a partner at Next Wave NYC, grew his personal brand - all this happened in the last 4yrs. 👉🏼 About the Host: Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 24,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. He recently sold his second SaaS product, GuestLab, and he is working on a startup idea while hosting this show. 👉🏼 Sponsor Corner: Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ 👉🏼 Description: Listen in as Sharath and Andrew discuss networking, succeeding in America as underdogs, why NYC is awesome, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps: 00:00: Episode Highlight 00:46: Shoutout to Acquire.com 03:14: Intro to Andrew Yeung - the Great Gatsby of startups 04:30: Why Andrew chose NYC and events over San Francisco and product-building 09:00: How Andrew entered tech 10:47: How Andrew built his network in tech 13:34: How to network as a founder vs a VC 17:31: Building a network in 2025 19:37: Cold Outreach 101 21:43: Andrew's favorite cold outreach template 24:41: Navigating cultural shock as an immigrant 29:10: How Andrew found gaps to build his business around 31:07: How to build a business for people's needs 34:06: Andrew's playbook on how underdogs can succeed in America 36:16: Behind the scenes of Fibe - Andrew's event-hosting business 41:12: What's next for Fibe 43:55: How to host better events 46:28: Andrew's favorite event-hosting format 47:15: Outro and closing thoughts 👉🏼 Resources: Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ 👉🏼 Where to find Andrew: Website: https://www.andrewyeung.co/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyeung Twitter: https://x.com/andruyeung 👉🏼 Where to find Sharath: Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath Website: https://5harath.com/ Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/ Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guests: Julian Weisser is a prominent entrepreneur, investor, and musician, best known as the co-founder and CEO of ODF/On Deck, a platform designed to support startup founders in launching and scaling their companies. Under his leadership, On Deck facilitated the launch of over 1,000 startups, significantly impacting the entrepreneurial landscape by providing resources and networking opportunities for aspiring founders. Julian is currently building Merge for microgrants, Stamp List to help job applicants who require visa sponsorship, and Builders Who Run, a run club based in SF. With a background in Music and Management from Berklee College of Music, Julian entered the startup world, co-founding Within Health, a company focused on using behavioral science to improve the lives of individuals with chronic conditions. In addition to his entrepreneurial endeavors, Weisser is an active angel investor, having backed over 50 startups across multiple industries, including decentralized finance and health tech. He is passionate about supporting innovative projects that aim to solve significant societal challenges. 👉🏼 About the Host: Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 24,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. He recently sold his second SaaS product, GuestLab, and he is working on a startup idea while hosting this show. 👉🏼 Sponsor Corner: Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ 👉🏼 Description: Listen in as Sharath and Julian discuss building for people who make things, building community in 2025, how to work at a hypergrowth startup, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps: 00:00: Episode Highlight 00:44: Shoutout to Acquire.com 03:09: Intro to Julian Weisser - Co-founder and CEO of ODF/On Deck 04:51: How Julian fell in love with startups 10:43: What founders can learn from musicians 15:01: How Julian built his very first startup 20:41: How On Deck went from a dinner series to a $20M Series A startup 27:07: Lessons from a hypergrowth startup 34:49: How can we build community in person in 2025? 37:33: Julian's project for people with big ideas: Merge 47:11: Julian's project for immigrants: Stamp List 51:17: How Julian started a run club in SF 55:45: Julian's projects in 2025 1:00:44: What should founders focus on? 1:06:13: Outro and closing thoughts 👉🏼 Resources: Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ 👉🏼 Where to find Julian: Website: https://weisser.io Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/julianweisser Twitter: https://x.com/julianweisser Newsletter and Podcast: https://textswithfounders.com/ On Deck: https://www.joinodf.com/ Merge: https://merge.club/ Stamp List: https://landing.club/stamplist Builders Who Run: https://weisser.io/runners 👉🏼 Where to find Sharath: Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath Website: https://5harath.com/ Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/ Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guests: Prakash and Lionello are the co-founders of Defang, a radically simpler way to develop, deploy, and debug production-ready cloud apps. Lionello is CTO at Defang, as well as an engineering lead and community organizer with EE and CS background and 20 years of international industry experience doing software and hardware. He has lived in Eindhoven, Bucharest, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and recently moved to Vancouver BC. In 1997, he founded a virtual-reality software company, acquired by a multinational company for their real-time 3D rendering technology. In 2019, Workday acquired Trusted Key, the blockchain digital identity startup he helped found. Lio is active in the local maker communities, having been a staff member in China's first makerspace Xinchejian since its founding. Prakash serves as CEO at Defang. He co-founded & served as Chief Technology Officer, President & Board Member at Trusted Key Solutions. He brings experience from previous roles at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Workday, and Trusted Key. 👉🏼 About the Host: Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 24,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. He recently sold his second SaaS product, GuestLab, and he is working on a startup idea while hosting this show. 👉🏼 Sponsor Corner: Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ 👉🏼 Description: Listen in as Sharath, Prakash, and Lio discuss building for builders, how frustration helped them create Defang, growth tactics, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps: 00:00: Episode Highlight 00:44: Shoutout to Acquire.com 03:10: Intro to Lio and Prakash - co-founders of Defang, a radically simpler way to develop, deploy, and debug production-ready cloud apps. 05:29: Why Defang's mission is to help builders move faster 09:19: How frustration led to building Defang 15:01: Why big brands like AWS don't focus on builders 17:02: How to go from idea to MVP for a complex product 23:09: How Defang launched in the market and iterated using feedback 28:40: Defang's growth tactics to reach users 32:33: What made Prakash go from being a technical and engineering lead to a CEO? 34:55: Defang's Product Hunt launch 38:10: How Defang harnesses the power of AI 44:22: How to differentiate yourself from the competition 48:00: Important lessons from corporate and startups 50:56: Where is the app-creating environment going? 53:55: Outro and closing thoughts 👉🏼 Resources: Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ Defang's Product Hunt Launch: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/defang 👉🏼 Where to find Defang: Product Hunt Launch: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/defang Website: https://defang.io Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/defanglabs/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DefangLabs Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DefangLabs Discord: https://discord.com/invite/nNjaJcJ25v Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DefangLabs/ Github: https://github.com/DefangLabs 👉🏼 Where to find Prakash: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prakashsundaresan/ 👉🏼 Where to find Lio: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lionello/ Twitter: https://x.com/LioLunesu 👉🏼 Where to find Sharath: Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath Website: https://5harath.com/ Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/ Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest: Brett Goldstein is the founder of Micro, an email-CRM blend so you can stay on top of your communications. He is also the co-founder of Launch House, which is a community built to connect and support the world's most ambitious entrepreneurs and creators. Launch House brings together emerging leaders in the startup and entertainment worlds to live in illustrious mansions around the world. Previously, he worked at Clearbit, Google, and Accenture, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. 👉🏼 About the Host: Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 24,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. He recently sold his second SaaS product, GuestLab, and he is working on a startup idea while hosting this show. 👉🏼 Sponsor Corner: Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ 👉🏼 Description: Listen in as Sharath and Brett discuss building in a crowded market, the origin of Launch House, blending ambition and relationships, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps: 00:00: Episode Highlight 00:42: Shoutout to Acquire.com 03:09: Intro to Brett Goldstein - founder of Micro, an email-CRM blend so you can stay on top of your communications. 04:33: Where Brett found his passion for startups 08:40: What inspires Brett to create? 10:10: Brett's first projects before Google 12:14: Why Brett chose startups and not music as a career 16:22: How Launch House turned from a reality show to a hacker house 20:28: How Brett went from a random tweet to building a network of founders at Launch House 22:43: How Brett pushes founders towards ambition AND relationship-building 25:20: How Brett took advantage of the crypto wave 27:59: What do most founders miss really easily? 33:02: Why Brett is choosing to reinvent email 40:12: How to avoid the downsides of a crowded market 43:01: Why Micro is creating an email-CRM blend 48:30: The problem-solving frameworks Brett used to build Micro 50:15: Brett's criteria for finding cofounders 52:43: Brett's cheatsheet to building a network in tech 54:30: How will AI impact the rise of startups and creative projects? 58:30: What Brett would build if not Micro 1:00:03: Outro and closing thoughts 👉🏼 Resources: Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ 👉🏼 Where to find Brett: Micro: https://www.micro.so/ Launch House: https://www.launchhouse.com/ Twitter: https://x.com/thatguybg Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bgoldstein3/ Website: brettgoldstein.com Newsletter: https://socialstudies.substack.com/ 👉🏼 Where to find Sharath: Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath Website: https://5harath.com/ Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/ Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

👉🏼 About the Guest: Chrys is the co-founder at Rosebud, an AI-powered personal growth journal. He is a 6-time founder, founding Curio NFT Intelligence, Ikaria (social wellness), and Secret (social media). Prior to Secret, Chrys was a Product Manager at Google where he launched the photo-sharing community Photovine and contributed to Google+ and YouTube. He has built and launched several mobile social products such as Fliggo, TwitVid, Vidly and Treehouse. Chrys was born and raised near Boston and is a Y Combinator alumni. 👉🏼 About the Host: Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 24,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. He recently sold his second SaaS product, GuestLab, and he is working on a startup idea while hosting this show. 👉🏼 Sponsor Corner: Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ 👉🏼 Description: Listen in as Sharath and Chrys discuss building in a saturated market, using AI as a thought partner, designing original apps, and more! 👉🏼 Timestamps: 00:00: Episode Highlight 00:45: Shoutout to Acquire.com 03:11: Intro to Chrys Bader - co-founder at Rosebud, an AI-powered personal growth journal 07:07: The experience of building a consumer app in mental health 11:14: How is Rosebud different from other AI companionship apps? 15:43: Where Chrys' love for mobile apps comes from 21:45: Why Chrys prefers building for consumers 25:43: Chrys' design inspiration for Rosebud 30:16: Building Rosebud as a designer and as a founder 33:10: How Chrys refuels himself after hard times in startup world 47:43: Chrys' advice for founders building consumer ideas and consumer apps 56:12: Fundraising vs bootstrapping in 2024 1:01:49: How Y Combinator changed Chrys as a founder and why he didn't go back 1:05:45: How Chrys went from social wellness to photo sharing to mental health apps as a founder 1:08:12: Rosebud's AI origin story 1:10:35: Where Rosebud is going next 1:14:42: Outro and closing thoughts 👉🏼 Resources: Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/ Tyson Rosage: https://teamtreehouse.com/library/how-to-make-design-decisions-tyson-rosage 👉🏼 Where to find Chrys: Rosebud: https://help.rosebud.app/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrysb Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrysb Website: https://chrysbader.com/ 👉🏼 Where to find Sharath: Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath Website: https://5harath.com/ Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/ Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/