From $100 to a Top B2B Agency: Entrepreneurship, Sales and Business Growth | 177: Vlad Podoliako

Vlad Podoliako is an entrepreneur, investor, and Founder & CEO of Belkins, a B2B sales and lead generation company he co founded in 2017. Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in 2025, Vlad has spent the past decade building businesses across sales, marketing, technology, and AI. Alongside Belkins, he is behind Folderly, an email deliverability platform, and continues to build and experiment with products across different industries. A radio engineer by education, Vlad is a builder at heart, driven by curiosity, new technology, and the opportunity to turn ideas into something real. Listen to this episode to discover how Vlad and his co founder started Belkins with around $100 in their pockets and grew the company over the years. We explore the principles behind its growth, how AI is changing the way Vlad builds, and his process for turning ideas into real products. Vlad also shares how he manages multiple ventures, approaches work and life, builds his personal brand, and still makes time for his health, hobbies, and life outside business. Connect with Vlad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiefdata/ https://www.vladsnewsletter.com/ https://vladyslavpodoliako.com/ https://linktr.ee/vladyslav.podoliako https://belkins.io/ https://folderly.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 - Why Belkins Wins in a Crowded Market 01:10 - Meet Vlad and What Belkins Does 02:59 - From Gaming to Entrepreneurship 04:26 - Starting Belkins With $100 08:03 - How Belkins Stands Out in B2B Sales 12:25 - What Keeps Belkins Ahead 14:37 - How AI Is Changing the Agency 17:18 - Building Products Beyond Belkins 20:09 - How Vlad Builds Multiple Companies at Once 21:23 - Prove Revenue Before You Scale 24:07 - Rethinking Work Life Balance 28:44 - Building a Personal Brand on LinkedIn 31:34 - Why Vlad Started a Newsletter 34:00 - Keeping Up With AI 35:03 - Life Outside Entrepreneurship 38:18 - Why He Avoids Personal Development Books 39:26 - His Vision for Building Multiple Companies 40:29 - What Belkins Is Building Next 42:15 - Just Keep Building Connect with Tomas: Stan: https://stan.store/Tommen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠ Unproduced: Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotes Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIW More: Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠ Patreon: https://patreon.com/tomasloucky Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠ The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/ Tools & gear that support the show: Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZK Favikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommen Riverside: https://riverside.partnerlinks.io/2752q1ai767z Ra Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19 JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bf Some links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.