Early Access

About Early Access

Go behind the scenes with the people who built it first - the founders and early hires of today’s fastest-growing startups. We dive into the bets they made, the mistakes, the wins, and everything in between!

Publisher

Sarah Du

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

17 Sept 2025

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Inside Clay's Scale from 85 to 600 (with Julia Govberg, Chief of Staff)

   Join me in conversation with Julia Govberg, Chief of Staff at Clay. Julia joined Clay at ~90 people around their Series B. Almost two years later, the team is close to 600, and just raised a Series D from Wellington, Sequoia, Meritech, and First Round. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to Julia and Clay 01:53 Journey from First Round Capital to Clay 04:30 Understanding the Chief of Staff Role 06:32 Quarterly Planning and Cross-Functional Collaboration 08:57 Scaling Challenges 10:45 Talent Acquisition Strategies 10:52 Leadership Dynamics and CEO Insights 11:03 Time Management and Prioritization 14:29 Transitioning from PLG to Enterprise Sales 15:55 Leveraging LinkedIn for Brand Growth 17:31 Building a Passionate User Community 19:57 Learning and Adapting in a Chief of Staff Role 25:15 Embracing Negative Maintenance as an Operating Principle 28:55 Quickfire Insights and Advice

2. 

   2 Sept 2026

   Inside dbt Labs' Run to $100M ARR (with Kaitlyn Henry)

   Join me in conversation with Kaitlyn Henry, Chief of Staff at Motherduck. Prior to Motherduck, Kaitlyn was CoS at dbt Labs, where she helped the company grow past $100M ARR, build out its exec team, and execute its merger with Fivetran. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction to Kaitlyn Henry and Motherduck 02:39 Career Path: From Venture to Chief of Staff 04:48 The Role of Chief of Staff: Expectations vs. Reality 07:19 Prioritizing Projects as Chief of Staff 12:00 Measuring Success in the Chief of Staff Role 14:28 Scaling Companies: Lessons from dbt 17:00 Investing Insights: Operator vs. Investor Perspectives 19:31 Hiring Leaders: Building Effective Executive Teams 21:38 Post-dbt Fivetran merger 28:00 Transitioning to Mother Duck 29:49 Choosing the Chief of Staff Role 31:24 Lessons Learned from DBT 34:33 Building Trust with Executives 37:21 Navigating the AI Era at Mother Duck

3. 

   8 Jul 2026

   Building 0 to 1 AI Products at Nooks (with Alex Zhang)

   Join me in conversation with Alex Zhang, Nooks' first PM and now Group PM. Nooks is an AI platform building the agent workspace for GTM teams, backed by Kleiner Perkins and Lachy Groom. Alex joined as employee ~50 and is now a group PM, driving many of Nooks 0 to 1 product bets. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction to Alex Zhang and Nooks 02:15 Career Journey: From DoorDash to Nooks 03:43 Understanding Nooks: The AI Sales Platform 06:30 Human vs. AI in Sales: 09:04 Transitioning from SaaS to AI Native Products 10:52 Creative Solutions: Using AI for Sales Training 12:33 Debugging AI Features: Identifying the Issues 13:14 Exploring AI Interaction and Latency Challenges 14:54 Expanding Product Surface Area 16:54 Growth and Evolution: Alex's Journey at Nooks 18:40 Lessons from "Failed" Products 22:08 Rapid Fire

4. 

   3 Jun 2026

   Inside the first BizOps seat at Cogent Security (with Grace Hua)

   Join me in conversation with Grace Hua, head of Biz Ops at Cogent Security. Cogent is building autonomous cyberdefense and recently announced its $42M Series A led by Greylock and BCV. Grace joined as employee ~15 and has spent the last 9 months working across hiring, partnerships, fundraising, and more - essentially operating as an extension of the founders as the company scales. Timestamps: 00:00 Grace Hua's Journey: From McKinsey to Cogent 02:43 The Importance of People in Career Decisions 05:11 Navigating the Startup Landscape: Finding the Right Fit 07:06 Understanding the Cybersecurity Landscape 09:34 Building a Company from the Ground Up 11:43 The Role of Culture in Startup Success 13:59 Establishing Trust and Relationships in a New Role 16:31 Reflections on Time Management and Decision Making 17:46 A Week in the Life of a BizOps Leader at Cogent 21:28 Capitalizing on Opportunities with BizOps 22:47 Effective Interviewing Techniques 24:42 Closing Candidates in a Competitive Market 27:01 Key Qualities for Founding BizOps Roles 30:51 Leveraging AI for Enhanced Workflows 33:31 Rapid Fire

5. 

   2 Mar 2026

   Inside Braintrust: Scaling a Category-Defining AI Evals Platform (with Sarah Zeng)

   Join me in conversation with Sarah Zeng, who has gone from investing to operating at the forefront of AI - first as one of the first 50 employees at Character AI and now scaling Braintrust. Braintrust is a go-to platform for AI evals and observability. They recently announced their $80M Series B, led by ICONIQ and joined by returnees a16z, Greylock, Elad Gil, basecase and others. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction to Sarah Zeng and Her Journey 02:37 Transitioning from Investing to Startups 04:57 Joining Character AI 06:48 The Move to Braintrust 08:39 Effective Strategies for Chief of Staff Onboarding 10:03 Understanding Braintrust's Core Products 12:38 Navigating the Role of Chief of Staff 15:06 Growth in Consumer AI vs. Infrastructure AI 16:40 Braintrust's Rapid Growth and Market Position 19:20 Future of AI Evaluation and Observability 21:56 Rapid Fire

6. 

   3 Feb 2026

   Designing the Standard for AI Detection (with Olivia, GPTZero's First Product Designer)

   Join me in conversation with my friend Olivia Kusio, the first and founding product designer at GPTZero — one of the breakout AI companies of the last two years. Olivia joined as the 5th employee. Two years later, GPTZero has grown to millions of users and $25M+ in revenue. We cover: 🎨 Designing for trust in AI products 🧠 How students and teachers are really using AI 💬 Building culture inside a rocketship startup & more Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to GPTZero and Olivia's Journey 01:51 The Role of a Product Designer at GPTZero 03:42 Building a Team and Initial Projects 05:22 Designing for Speed and Quality 06:49 The Evolution of Design Tools 08:26 Design Principles for Trust and Credibility 09:06 User Interaction with AI in Education 12:36 The Responsible Use of AI in Education 15:28 Scaling Company Culture at GPTZero 19:06 Moments of Realization and Responsibility 20:58 Lightning Round: Insights and Inspirations

7. 

   6 Nov 2025

   Inside the First BizOps Seat at Column (with Charlie Liao)

   What does it look like to be the first BizOps hire at a company rebuilding banking from the ground up? In this episode, I chat with Charlie Liao, who joined Column - founded by William Hockey, one of Plaid's co-founders - when the team was around 70 people. We talk about what drew him from fintech investing to operating, how he’s defining the BizOps function at one of the most technical startups in fintech, and his advice for founders hiring their first BizOps person. Enjoy! Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to Column and Charlie 01:05 Transition from Investing to Operations 02:53 Joining Column: The Decision Process 05:50 Navigating Startup Risks and Responsibilities 08:39 Defining Success in BizOps 10:41 Handling Ambiguous Projects 12:00 BizOps and Cross-Functional Collaboration 12:41 Importance of Documentation and Processes 14:00 Balancing Speed and Structure 14:42 Setting Boundaries in a Utility Role 15:49 Scaling the BizOps Team 16:54 When to Hire Your First BizOps Person 18:06 Qualities of a Great First Hire 19:46 Mindset for Quick Decision Making 20:23 Rapid Fire Questions and Closing Thoughts

8. 

   14 Oct 2025

   Building Clay’s Marketing Engine from Zero (with Matt Maiale, Clay’s First Marketing Hire)

   When Matt Maiale joined Clay, the go-to-market platform helping sales teams find, enrich, and personalize outreach at scale, there were just five people and no marketing playbook. Clay now serves thousands of customers and recently raised a $100M Series C at a $3.1B valuation. In this conversation, we talk about how Matt chose Clay at the seed stage, built the company’s growth flywheel, and developed a bottoms-up marketing approach that scaled organically. 00:01 — Intro 00:55 — Matt’s path before Clay 01:56 — Finding & evaluating Clay 02:53 — How Clay closed him 04:06 — Week 1 as first marketer 05:04 — Building the growth flywheel 05:28 — Fixing conversion 06:14 — ICP & vertical focus 07:47 — Simple wins (Buy button, funnel fixes) 07:47 — Waitlist as a lever 10:08 — Messaging: startups vs. enterprise 11:40 — Defining the role 12:29 — “Bottoms-up marketing” 14:11 — Referrals & community 15:57 — Spend philosophy 17:07 — Compounding growth channels 18:30 — Product education 20:07 — Emojis to describe Clay 21:45 — Culture bits 23:16 — Misconception: growth at all costs 24:18 — Hiring your first marketer 25:06 — Post-Clay travel 25:59 — What he’s building now To learn more about Matt and what he’s working on: https://instantdomainsearch.com/ (https://instantdomainsearch.com/) https://mattmaiale.substack.com/ (https://mattmaiale.substack.com/) https://x.com/maiale (https://x.com/maiale)

9. 

   17 Sept 2025

   Lessons & Early Days Inside Climate Unicorn Watershed (with Tammy Tseng)

   In this conversation, I get to talk with Tammy, climate unicorn Watershed's 25th employee and second data hire. We discuss Tammy's journey from Quora to Watershed, how founders can attract and retain early talent, the evolution of data roles in startups, and more. Enjoy! Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction to Tammy and Watershed 01:21 Choosing Watershed 03:28 Recruitment Insights: What Watershed Did Right 04:11 Transitioning from Quora to Watershed 05:20 First Days at Watershed: The 'First Day Ship' Tradition 06:34 Advice for Early Function Roles 08:01 Early Decisions and Their Long-Term Impact 09:15 Recognizing the Need for More Data Talent 10:17 Growing with Watershed: Retaining Early Talent 11:46 Navigating Career Transitions 13:35 Unlearning as the Company Scales 14:47 Key Moments in Watershed's Journey 15:55 The Role of Culture in Team Dynamics 16:18 Navigating Climate Challenges as a Company 17:50 Hiring for Data Roles: Insights for Founders 19:20 Evolution of Data Science Roles in the Industry 21:10 Advice for New Employees in Startups 23:06 Lightning Round 25:29 996 Startup Work Culture More on Watershed: https://watershed.com/ (https://watershed.com/) More on Tammy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammytseng/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammytseng/) More on Sarah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-du/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-du/)

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

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