WITTELSPOD

About WITTELSPOD

Wittelspod is a founder-first show by Abhishek Pinninti, founder of Wittelsbach.ai (http://Wittelsbach.ai), where top founders and experts share real stories and actionable playbooks from building in e-commerce, D2C, and SaaS. The mission is simple: make the startup ecosystem smarter and more collaborative through honest conversations and practical knowledge.

Publisher

Abhishek Pinninti

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Jan 2026

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

38 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Oct 2026

   The Fundraising Mistakes Founders Make: Mar Della Greca

   Mar Della Greca is the founder of TBM Capital Communications, a New York–based firm that helps early-stage founders and investment-focused organizations prepare for fundraising. Her work centers on making businesses “investable” through stronger financial models, investor materials, positioning, and communications strategy. This conversation is a practical guide for pre-seed founders navigating fundraising. Mar explains what investors look for beyond a polished pitch: honesty about risks, evidence of demand, a viable product, clear financial thinking, and a founder who can execute.Key topics include: - When a startup is ready to raise pre-seed funding - Building traction before revenue through research, waitlists, and customer interest - Creating investor-specific decks and a credible financial model - Working backward from business goals to determine the right funding ask - Typical runway and profitability expectations for online and SaaS businesses - Founder salaries, burn rate, customer acquisition costs, and planning for risk - Choosing between angel investors, venture funds, debt, and equity - How to approach investors thoughtfully through outreach - Legal considerations around public fundraising offers and investor introductions - The misconceptions founders often have about investors—and how to build more open, confident conversations The episode closes with Mar sharing accessible resources for founders who can’t yet afford hands-on fundraising support, along with ways to connect with her.

2. 

   13 Oct 2026

   The Marketplace For Commercial Space: Molli Leoni Scout Marketplace

   What if finding a commercial space started with the business looking for one—not just a landlord posting a listing? Molli Leoni, founder of Scout Marketplace, is building a tenant-first marketplace to help businesses and property owners connect. If you’re building a startup or navigating commercial real estate, this conversation is for you. Molli and her co-founder saw a disconnect firsthand as Miami commercial brokers: tenants can struggle to find the right spaces, while landlords may not know which businesses are looking. Scout flips the process. Tenants post what they need, and landlords and developers can search for concepts that fit their properties. Brokers can post on behalf of clients, too. Molli shares how the team plans to grow Scout, starting locally in Florida and focusing first on bringing tenants onto the platform. She discusses bootstrapping, the marketplace’s subscription-based model for landlords, and why the founders plan to wait until they have deals closed before raising funds. She also reflects on her first brokerage listing—a $2 million office building deal that fell out of contract several times before closing. The conversation gets personal, too. Molli talks about putting herself on camera despite being private, moving past the awkwardness of starting with a small audience, and learning not to take rejection or tough negotiations personally. Host Abhishek shares how personal branding helped him build connections and generate business. Molli’s advice to young founders is direct: make time to work on the idea you can’t stop thinking about, rather than regretting that you built someone else’s dream. Hear how she’s building Scout and what it takes to keep moving through the uncertainties of entrepreneurship.

3. 

   13 Oct 2026

   The 53% RTO Problem: Ishmit on how RTO became her startup

   Most D2C brands are losing money long before the sale is completed. Ishmit Mehta breaks down the hidden RTO problem eating into order margins, and the AI system her team built to fight back before customers vanish, cancel, or refuse delivery. If you sell online, work in e-commerce, or build for Indian shoppers, this conversation will change how you think about delivery failures, address confirmation, and the real cost of cash on delivery. After running a tech gadget D2C business with 20-30 lakhs in monthly revenue and a 53% RTO rate, Ishmit saw firsthand how shipping partners, incomplete addresses, OTP misuse, and language barriers were quietly destroying profitable orders. She explains why WhatsApp failed, why human follow-up was exhausting at 70-80 orders a day, and how those painful operations became the blueprint for Era, her AI-driven solution. You'll discover: Why so many orders fail before they ever reach the customer The six to seven most common NDR reasons that trigger returns How incomplete addresses and OTP misuse create avoidable losses Why tier 2 and tier 3 customers need regional-language support How Era automates address confirmation calls within 60 seconds of checkout Why AI voice calls, Google Maps, and smart retries are making delivery verification faster and more scalable Ishmit also opens up about bootstrapping from Goa, building while balancing focus and freedom, and why she believes India is still massively underserved when it comes to Shopify apps and D2C infrastructure. She shares candidly about the realities of being a founder, from failed logistics partnerships to the emotional toll of chasing product-market fit with no easy playbook. This one is essential listening if you're a D2C founder, an e-commerce operator, or anyone trying to build in India's fast-moving startup ecosystem. If you've ever wondered where revenue really disappears after checkout, this episode has the answer.

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.