logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2023
1h 9m

20VC: "How Being a Founder Almost Killed...

Harry Stebbings
About this episode

Christian Lanng is the Founder and Former CEO @ Tradeshift, a company he took from garage to unicorn raising over $900M for with a latest price of $2.7BN in 2021. Just last month, Christian stepped away from the company and is now Chairman @ Beyond Work, building a better work experience through AI native software.

In Today's Episode with Christian Lanng We Discuss:

1. Burnout: When it Hits:

  • How did Christian know when something was really seriously wrong? What were the signs?
  • How did being a founder literally almost kill Christian? How was that not a wakeup moment?
  • How does being a founder make you so out of touch with reality?

2. The Things We Are Never Told:

  • Why does Christian think one of the biggest crimes is the myth that everyone can be a founder?
  • What are the single biggest things about VCs that founders are not told?
  • Why does Christian believe fundraising is absolutely a game? What are the rules to win it?
  • What makes the best VCs? What makes the worst VCs?
  • Why does Christian not like to take a discount for a brand name VC?

3. The Chaos That Happens Inside a Company:

  • Why does Christian believe politics should not be discussed within companies?
  • What are Christian's biggest lessons on working with friends? Why after 14 years does Christian only have 3 friends that still talk to him?
  • How did Christian fire 50% of his leadership team and productivity not change at all?
  • Why does Christian believe US startups are inherently better than European ones?

4. Parenting and Relationship to Money:

  • Does Christian regret not being a present father for his child when building Tradeshift?
  • What are the two options as a founder you have when bringing up kids?
  • Was Christian scared to leave Tradeshift? How does he reflect on his relationship to money?

5. AI: Co-Pilot is BS, The Future Business Model and more...

  • Why does Christian believe co-pilot is the last dying breathe attempt from incumbents?
  • Why does Christian believe that per-seat pricing will die? What will replace it?
  • Why does Christian believe that AI will negate the importance of consumer-facing brands?
  • In what way does Christian believe that UI is total BS? How does it change over time?

Up next
Yesterday
20Growth: The Death of Growth Teams? | How Hubspot Use AI to Triple Email Conversion | The Future of AI SEO | Why Prompt Engineering is the New Coding | What Every CMO Needs to Know About AI in 2025
Kieran Flanagan is the CMO at HubSpot, where he’s led the transformation of their growth strategy from SEO-led to multi-channel and AI-powered. Formerly SVP of Marketing, he helped scale HubSpot’s user base to millions and revenue past $2B. Before HubSpot, he drove breakout growt ... Show More
1h 15m
Jul 10
20VC: Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman: Acquired by Meta | OpenAI’s SBC Bombshell: More Stock Comp Than Revenue | Privat Equity is Back: Olo Bought for $2BN | Microsoft Lays Off 9,000 People: Is This Just the Start | Will Sequoia Part with Shaun Maguire
Agenda: [00:00] The AI Talent Crisis No One’s Ready For [03:00] Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman: Why Two Legendary VCs Walked Away From $1B to Join Meta [12:00] Meta’s AI Talent Magnet: Will It Actually Work? [15:00] Cursor Is Breaking the Market: Can Anyone Compete? [18:30] OpenAI ... Show More
1h 7m
Jul 7
20VC: Scott Galloway on Are Billionaires Happy & The Impact of Money on Psychology and Self-Worth | Becoming a Better Father & Husband | Why We Should Drink More and Not Work From Home | The Tinder Effect & How it Makes Young Men Radical
Scott Galloway is a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern, where he’s taught for over two decades. He’s the founder of several successful companies, including L2 (acquired by Gartner for over $150M), Red Envelope, and Prophet. He’s a New York Times bestselling author of four books ... Show More
1h 10m
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2022
4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Disruptive Innovation
In the 1980s, Clayton Christensen cofounded a startup that took over a market niche from DuPont and Alcoa. That experience left Christensen puzzled. How could a small company with few resources beat rich incumbents? It led to his theory of disruptive innovation, introduced in the ... Show More
45m 28s
Sep 2018
SaaStr 192: Why Multi-Year Deals Are Not All Good, What Whatever Funding You Think You Will Need Double It & The Challenges of Building A Company and A Category Simultaneously with Michael Katz @ mPar
Michael Katz is the Founder & CEO @ mParticle, the customer data platform that integrates all of your data and orchestrates it across channels, partners and systems. To date, Michael has raised over $75m in funding with mParticle from the likes of Social Capital, Greylock Partner ... Show More
29m 51s
May 2024
The Top 3 Reasons Why Christians Should Be Involved in Politics | with Tony Perkins
Should Christians get involved with politics, or should we just stay out of the way because "religion and politics don't mix"? While some Christians have the tendency to idolize political influence, others have gone to the opposite end of the spectrum, choosing to completely shy ... Show More
48m 18s
Aug 2021
When Entrepreneurs Distort the Truth
Kyle Jensen, associate dean at the Yale School of Management, has seen firsthand just how tempting it is for entrepreneurs to lie. As a startup founder himself, he says they have to be always "on" and ready to promote their venture. Another reason they’re incentivized to exaggera ... Show More
23m 31s
May 2019
Recode Decode: Facebook’s former security boss Alex Stamos and Twitter co-founder Ev Williams (Live)
Alex Stamos, the former Chief Security Officer at Facebook, and Ev Williams, the co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Medium, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher in these live interviews from the 2019 Collision conference in Toronto, Canada.In the Stamos interview: Is Facebook misunderst ... Show More
49m 51s
Jun 2020
E1073: The Power of Accelerators E8 Mike Jones, CEO of Science shares insights on what makes a great Direct-to-Consumer Founder, investing early in Dollar Shave Club, economics of a venture-studio & m
0:32 Jason speaks on current events and intros Science CEO Mike Jones, how they met after selling their companies to AOL 6:02 What is Science and how has it evolved since being started in 2011? Why did they pivot away from the startup studio model? 12:43 What are the economics of ... Show More
1h 12m
Apr 2018
SaaStr 171: How To Figure Out Your Pricing Strategy: The Diminishing Role of The Per Seat Model, Why Open Source Is The Only Way To Get In Front of Today's Developers & Why Capital Efficiency Is Alway
Chetan Puttagunta is a General Partner @ NEA, one of the world’s largest venture capital firms in the world with over $3Bn in their latest fund and a portfolio including the likes of Mulesoft, Jet.com, Uber, Houzz and many more incredible companies. As for Chetan, Chetan focuses ... Show More
26m 10s
Mar 2021
The Contrarian Cash Flow Blueprint For Living A Legendary Life | Codie Sanchez
In this episode of the Millionaire Mindcast, we have a wonderful guest Codie Sanchez who shares her interesting origin story, insights, and values on understanding more about the risks, and opportunities, the significance of money and power, the good thing about curiosity and ask ... Show More
46m 32s
Jul 2018
Why do companies do bad things?
Social media giants mishandle data, banks mis-sell PPI insurance, engineers arrange for cars to cheat emissions tests. Why do companies sometimes do bad things? Evan Davis and guests discuss whether it's by accident or deliberate. Coverage of business wrongdoing often focuses on ... Show More
28m 1s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami