Early Stage Journal
Claim This Podcastby Lisa Tanh
Podcast Overview
<p>Early Stage Journal (ESJ) was founded to provide original and in-depth reporting on early stage founders and the investors and communities behind them.</p><p>Through longform features, Q&As, and podcast episodes, ESJ goes beyond the results, valuations, and funding rounds to tell the deeper story behind each startup.</p><p>The gritty, raw, and intimate moments that often go untold but are crucial in how each founder started and grew their business.</p><p>Plus, get the rundown on what makes their product innovative and disruptive—minus the fluff and jargon.</p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
10/2/2025
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Recent Episodes
May 14, 2026
Synthetic: Ian Crosby
<p>Within six months of an exit, serial entrepreneur and investor Ian Crosby was already imagining what he could build next. The ideas, he says, kept swirling in the back of his mind that he started a spreadsheet.</p><p>It wasn’t until he found himself prototyping in his Airbnb instead of sightseeing while in Europe that he’d get closer to the answer. When a startup that he met with recommended that he try ElevenLabs—a platform that lets users build and launch AI agents that can talk, type, and take other actions across phone, web, and apps—he created his own with a British accent that started off as “hugely entertaining,” he says, until the idea hit him: an accounting system that’s fully autonomous. </p><p>An agent that does a software company’s bookkeeping from start to finish without any staff. It would connect to their bank accounts, payroll system, tools, and email so that it can gather context on their business and compare financial records across systems to verify the numbers match and flag anything that doesn’t. If it needs additional context or approval to complete a step, it’ll check in with the founder, who can respond through chat or accept or deny requests at the click of a button. At any time, the founder can access their financials and insights behind them and export records to hand off to their tax preparer for filing.</p><p>The platform would then evolve into becoming “the Shopify for software companies.” It would handle the website, incorporation, bank accounts, payments, accounting, and everything else in between. The reason: while AI now makes it faster than ever to build and ship products, there still isn’t a single place for software companies to build and run their entire business the way Shopify does for e-commerce companies.</p><p>That’s exactly what Crosby is building now with Synthetic, beginning with accounting where pricing will start at $49 per month. The company today <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260514241304/en/Synthetic-Raises-%2410M-Seed-Led-by-Khosla-Ventures">announced</a> it raised $10 million USD in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures. Participating investors include Basis Set Ventures, Shopify co-founder and CEO Tobi Lütke, Opendoor CEO and former Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian, Bridge co-founder Zach Abrams, whose company was acquired by Stripe for $1.1 billion, Accrual CEO and former Brex CTO Cosmin Nicolaescu, and Figure CEO and former Brex COO Michael Tannenbaum. </p><p>This is the story of a founder who created the largest company of its kind in the world, took what he learned from running Shopify’s banking division to start his next company that was acquired in less than a year and a half, and why he’s dedicating however many years it takes to build Synthetic, along with the moments in between that pushed him to dream bigger, from being repeatedly told his idea was doomed by a tech legend to having to step away from his first venture.</p>
March 12, 2026
Collabstr: Clayton Rannard and Kyle Dulay
<p>Late one night in their dorm, BCIT computer science students Clayton Rannard and Kyle Dulay were scrolling Reddit when they realized they should post about the latest product they built: an app that analyzed Instagram accounts for fake followers and engagement. </p><p>The next morning, they woke up to a spike in traffic and the start of a costly server bill. The thread went viral: 10,000 audits in seven hours. That’s when the two recognized there was a need for better tooling in the creator economy and that what they created was only one part of a much bigger gap. </p><p>Six years later, following that signal led to building Collabstr, the world’s largest influencer marketplace connecting brands with creators. It has over 900,000 registered users across more than 120 countries and is used by leading startups to organizations and Fortune 500 companies. And while fully bootstrapped, the company has grown to eight figures in revenue, 14 full-time employees, and an office in Vancouver’s Yaletown.</p><p>What’s been key to Collabstr’s success is its focus on accessibility. The platform aims to help brands grow without needing massive teams or budgets and give creators greater opportunities to turn influence into a livelihood. That’s led to brands successfully launching and releasing new products and creators turning side hustles into full-time careers. Some have earned the equivalent of an annual salary from a single deal. </p><p>In contrast to competitors today, Collabstr flips the traditional “closed off” approach. Many have websites that require filling out a form for information, then going back-and-forth with customer reps and account managers. In many cases, they’ll gatekeep access until a contract is signed, which can mandate five to six figures upfront and a long-term commitment. Hidden fees for onboarding, training, implementation, or core features often follow.</p><p>Collabstr eliminates this friction with an open model. Everything is made public and users can get started right away with a subscription. There are three tiers—basic, which is free, pro at $299/mo, and premium at $399/mo—and any can be cancelled at any time. The only other fees outside its plans come from deal transactions. Depending on which plan is selected, the platform charges brands 5 or 10% of the amount, while 15% is taken from what creators receive.</p><p>Now, Collabstr’s working toward becoming the “operating system” for influencer marketing," diving deeper into creator management and ROI tracking and toward developing AI-driven content generation.</p><p>This is the story of two classmates-turned-co-founders, driven by the pursuit of financial freedom on their terms, who pivoted and iterated over and over again to turn a viral moment into a business and went from sending countless cold DMs and emails to becoming a leader in their industry.</p>
February 10, 2026
Cache Depot: Ivan and Kaya Yiu
<p>When Ivan and Kaya Yiu went looking for storage, they never imagined they’d end up reinventing an industry where little has changed since the 1950s.</p><p>After overpaying $300 a month to store a single couch, the couple realized how broken the self-storage model was, especially in Vancouver. For decades, the city has followed a system that sets the highest prices in Canada with hidden fees and builds on land that could otherwise be used for housing or employment. It had become such a problem that the City of Vancouver amended its zoning bylaws. But new reports show that the regulations didn’t curb development in Vancouver. It pushed it into the city’s southern neighbourhoods—where many facilities already existed—adding to B.C.’s supply far exceeding demand.</p><p>So Ivan and Kaya tested an idea: what if people only paid for the space their belongings actually take up, instead of being forced to pay for units with unused space? To find out, they created a simple landing page and posted ads on Craigslist. That experiment became Cache Depot, a self-storage service that operates from a renovated climate-controlled warehouse.</p><p>Imagine IKEA: extremely organized, clean, and modern, but private from the public and equipped with security cameras and sensors throughout the space. Every item is categorized, QR-coded, and placed on industrial shelves, racks, or pallets, then wrapped if needed. Customers can choose between paying per item, starting at $30/mo, or for the space their belongings actually take up, starting at $100/mo. </p><p>This is the story of a former warehouse director for brands like Canada Goose and Arc’teryx and a game designer behind a top 10 App Store hit are reinventing the storage industry, and their journey of having to find customers on Craigslist and convincing them to meet in back alleys, to now growing its users by over 150% and monthly revenue by over 152% compared to last year, while maintaining five-stars across all its Google Reviews.</p><p><strong>00:00–4:14:</strong> Show, episode, and guest intro</p><p><strong>4:15–5:00:</strong> What is Cache Depot?</p><p><strong>5:00–7:40: </strong>The aha moment that inspired Cache Depot</p><p><strong>7:41–10:47: </strong>How Ivan and Kaya Yiu’s career pivots prepared them to start Cache Depot</p><p><strong>10:48–15:34: </strong>How Ivan and Kaya Yiu created and tested their MVP before going all in on the idea</p><p><strong>15:35–16:47:</strong> How Cache Depot’s first customers helped them identify what was needed to build trust</p><p><strong>16:48–19:30:</strong> How Cache Depot has garnered and maintained five-stars across all its Google Reviews</p><p><strong>19:31–21:22: </strong>How exactly does Cache Depot differ from traditional self-storage providers?</p><p><strong>21:24–23:17:</strong> Why the City of Vancouver investigated self-storage facilities and what its amended zoning bylaws entail</p><p><strong>23:18–23:58: </strong>The hidden fees imposed by traditional self-storage providers</p><p><strong>23:59–25:12: </strong>Why Ivan and Kaya Yiu believe no one had yet to provide an alternative like Cache Depot</p><p><strong>25:13–26:54:</strong> Nearly 70% of Cache Depot customers are first-time storage users who say they wouldn’t have used storage otherwise</p><p><strong>26:55–28:41: </strong>The trial-and-error process of developing a pricing structure that was simple and easy for customers</p><p><strong>28:42–30:41:</strong> How exactly Cache Depot’s system works once customers bring in their items</p><p><strong>30:42–35:02: </strong>The biggest problems that Cache Depot is solving for cities, customers, and even businesses</p><p><strong>35:03–39:45: </strong>Early lessons pivotal to Cache Depot’s growth, from driving website traffic to finalizing branding</p><p><strong>39:46–42:08:</strong> Cache Depot’s development plans for its app and expansion throughout Vancouver</p><p><strong>42:09–43:41:</strong> Advice for other early stage founders</p>
6 total episodes available
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Frequently asked questions
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- What is Early Stage Journal?
<p>Early Stage Journal (ESJ) was founded to provide original and in-depth reporting on early stage founders and the investors and communities behind them.</p><p>Through longform features, Q&As, and podcast episodes, ESJ goes beyond the results, valuations, and funding rounds to tell the deeper story behind each startup.</p><p>The gritty, raw, and intimate moments that often go untold but are crucial in how each founder started and grew their business.</p><p>Plus, get the rundown on what makes their product innovative and disruptive—minus the fluff and jargon.</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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