Biography

In this episode, Wouter sits down with Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom and the mind behind Fin, one of the fastest-growing AI products in SaaS history, approaching $100M in revenue less than three years after launch.

 

Before Fin, Des was a PhD dropout who walked out of university and never came back — not because he failed, but because the opportunity in front of him was too interesting to ignore. That instinct for making painful U-turns became the thread running through everything Intercom has done since.

 

In this conversation, Des talks about why Intercom gave back $50M in revenue on purpose, why most SaaS companies trying to survive AI are taking the path that'll kill them, why most AI products are broken because they shipped on time, and why the alternative to making painful decisions isn't safety, it's a peaceful, long, slow death.

 

If you're building with AI, leading a team through this era, or trying to make high-stakes decisions when nobody knows what's coming next, this one's for you.

 

This episode is presented by Rho, the all-in-one banking platform for startups. Thousands of startups like Perplexity, Product Hunt, and more use Rho. You get everything you need to manage your startup's cash. Exclusively for Biography Pod listeners and viewers, you'll get a $1500 statement credit plus a ton of exclusive perks when you manage your company cash with Rho. To learn more, visit https://rho.co/biography

 

This episode is also presented by AssemblyAI, the leading Speech AI platform. Their API gives developers access to production-ready models for transcription, speaker detection, summarization, and more. If you're building anything with voice or audio data, AssemblyAI is the standard. Check them out at
https://www.assemblyai.com/explore/biography-podcast?utm_source=biography&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=credit_grant

 

And by beehiiv, the newsletter platform built for growth. If you're thinking about starting or scaling a newsletter, beehiiv is what the best operators use — including Biography. Get started at https://www.beehiiv.com

 

Follow Wouter: https://x.com/WouterTeunissen

Follow Des: https://x.com/destraynor

Follow Intercom: https://x.com/intercom

Follow Fin: https://x.com/fin_ai

Biography Newsletter: https://biography.beehiiv.com/

In this episode, Wouter sits down with Connor Zwick, founder and CEO of Speak, to talk about building one of the most ambitious consumer AI companies in the world.

Before Speak, Connor built an app in high school that became #1 in the App Store. But instead of taking VC money at 17, he spent years going deep on AI research. He then flew to South Korea, where 1% of GDP was spent on learning English and nobody could actually speak.

That decision set the foundation for everything that followed.

In this conversation, Connor shares lessons on finding product market fit, the danger of magical thinking, building with AI before anyone cared, and why the consumer AI goldrush is just getting started.

If you're a founder building in AI, this one will hit hard.

This episode is presented by Rho, the all-in-one banking platform for startups. Thousands of startups like Perplexity, Product Hunt, and more use Rho. You get everything you need to manage your startup's cash. Exclusively for Biography Pod listeners and viewers, you'll get a $1500 statement credit plus a ton of exclusive perks when you manage your company cash with Rho. To learn more, visit ⁠rho.co/biography⁠

This episode is also presented by AssemblyAI, the leading Speech AI platform. Their API gives developers access to production-ready models for transcription, speaker detection, summarization, and more. If you're building anything with voice or audio data, AssemblyAI is the standard. Check them out at 
⁠assemblyai.com/biography⁠

And by beehiiv, the newsletter platform built for growth. If you're thinking about starting or scaling a newsletter, beehiiv is what the best operators use — including Biography. Get started at ⁠beehiiv.com⁠

Follow Wouter: ⁠@WouterTeunissen⁠
Follow Connor: ⁠@connorzwick⁠
Speak: ⁠speak.com⁠
Biography Newsletter: ⁠biography.beehiiv.com

In this episode, Wouter sits down with Shaan Puri, co-host of My First Million and serial entrepreneur, to talk about why grinding harder is often the wrong strategy—and what actually leads to outsized success. Before podcasts and exits, Shaan made a counterintuitive decision: he quit a $120k job, moved in with friends, and committed to a year of being strategically broke.

Not because it was easy, but because it maximised learning, adventure, and freedom. That decision set the foundation for everything that followed. In this conversation, Shaan shares stories from selling his company to Twitch/Amazon, lessons from his father, insights from people like Naval Ravikant, Warren Buffet, MrBeast, Derek Sivers, and hard-earned beliefs about choosing projects, partners, and environments that compound over time.

I really enjoyed this conversation because it is about choosing better games, increasing your odds, and designing a life where effort compounds instead of drains you. If you’ve ever felt stuck doing “the right thing” but sensing it’s the wrong path, this episode will hit hard.

As a reminder this episode is presented by Rho , the all-in-one banking platform for startups. Thousands of startups like Perplexity, Product Hunt, and more use Rho. You get everything you need to manage your startup’s cash.

Exclusively for Biography Pod listeners and viewers, you’ll get a $1500 statement credit plus a ton of exclusive perks when you manage your company cash with Rho. To learn more, visit https://rho.co/biography

 

Follow Shaan: https://x.com/shaanVP

MyFirstMillion:  @MyFirstMillionPod 

Follow Wouter: https://x.com/WouterTeunissen

Biography Newsletter: https://biography.beehiiv.com/

 

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:54 - Quitting a $120k job to be broke and live with 3 friends (Don’t linger on bad decisions)

00:08:31 - Fear is what holds people back more so than anything else

00:11:53 - How to get what you (actually) want.

00:15:04 - Most people are not serious

00:20:34 - Ask others and see what super power does that give me

00:27:04 - Who is the most important voice in your life?

00:29:57 - Why I decided to sell my company to Twitch & Amazon.

00:38:42 - The biggest waste of time is doing something that needn’t been done at all (Elon)

00:40:38 - “You can’t run an A/B test on life” (Act Accordingly!)

00:51:15 - There are no bonus points for making things harder for yourself (location)

00:58:56 - The best people are 'down' (Buffet)

In this episode, Wouter Teunissen sits down with Job van der Voort, founder and CEO of Remote.com, to unpack how he built one of the most valuable startups and what the future of company building looks like in the age of AI.

Before Remote, Job studied neuroscience and psychology, then joined GitLab as one of its first employees, helping it scale into a multibillion-dollar company. But through that journey, he saw a problem few were solving: hiring globally was still a nightmare.

So in 2019, he and Co-Founder Marcelo Lebre started Remote.com to fix i and to make it easy for any company, anywhere, to employ anyone in the world. In this conversation, we talk about:

- Why every founder should “virtually integrate” their business.

- How to scale from 5 to 2,000 employees without losing focus.

- What studying neuroscience taught Job about luck, judgment, and decision-making.

- When to raise money (and when not to)

I really enjoyed this conversation, Job was incredibly kind and thoughtful. We talk about everything, from founder psychology to product design (a conversation topic I really enjoyed) AI, and the philosophy of building companies that last.

This episode is presented by Rho , the all-in-one banking platform for startups. Thousands of startups like Perplexity, Product Hunt, and more use Rho. You get everything you need to manage your startup’s cash. Exclusively for Biography Pod listeners and viewers, you’ll get a $1500 statement credit plus a ton of exclusive perks when you manage your company cash with Rho. To learn more, visit ⁠https://rho.co/biography ⁠

 

Follow Job: ⁠https://x.com/jobvo ⁠

Remote: ⁠https://www.remote.com⁠

Follow Wouter: ⁠https://x.com/WouterTeunissen⁠

Biography Newsletter: ⁠https://biography.beehiiv.com/⁠

Timestamps:

00:00:00  - Intro

00:01:16- The First Years of Remote . Com

00:02:26 - Founder Mode

00:05:49 - It's all your fault.

00:12:42 - Why you need to virtually integrate

00:21:19 - "In 2021, we grew from 50 to 650 people...."

00:30:25 - You should always be doing this...

00:35:37 - How do you build a valuable product?

00:42:52 - How Job manages a 2,000+ company from his attic

00:51:44 - Work life balance?

00:57:23 - Should you raise as much money as possible?

01:08:17 - Should you build a remote first company?

01:11:36 - Job's first work experience

01:13:26 - What Studying Psychology and Neuroscience teaches you

01:16:07 - The Luck Factor in Science is not in your favour

01:24:01 - When is it time to start a company?

01:25:36 - Borrowing money to start my first business

01:31:43 - Joining Gitlab ($6 Billion) as an early employee

01:34:30 - How Our Startup Won Apple as a client

01:36:42 - Focusing as you scale

01:41:29 - What makes a great product?

01:48:35 - When is it time to add features?

01:49:43 - Should you start a company in Europe or are we screwed?

02:03:52 - The future of company building in the age of AI

In this episode, Wouter Teunissen sits down with Harry Stebbings, founder of 20VC, to explore how he turned a teenage side project into one of venture capital’s most influential media empires. At just 18, Harry launched The Twenty Minute VC from his childhood bedroom. Within a few years, it became the go-to show for the world’s top investors and founders—from Sequoia to Stripe.

That momentum became the foundation for 20VC Fund, which has now raised more than $800 million to back early-stage startups. Harry’s story is one of relentless curiosity and consistency. He shares what he’s learned from interviewing thousands of founders, how he built trust with Silicon Valley’s elite before ever setting foot there, and why he believes the key to success isn’t speed—it’s stamina. Today, 20VC isn’t just a podcast. It’s a bridge between storytelling and capital allocation—an inside look at how the best founders think, decide, and build.

This episode is presented by Rho , the all-in-one banking platform for startups. Thousands of startups like Perplexity, Product Hunt, and more use Rho. You get everything you need to manage your startup’s cash. Exclusively for Biography Pod listeners and viewers, you’ll get a $1500 statement credit plus a ton of exclusive perks when you manage your company cash with Rho. To learn more, visit https://rho.co/biography

 

Follow Harry: https://x.com/HarryStebbings

20VC: http://20vc.fund/

Follow Wouter: https://x.com/WouterTeunissen

Biography Newsletter: https://biography.beehiiv.com/

Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro

00:00:57 - Falling in love with technology as a teenager

00:03:15 - The greatest founders have these two qualities

00:06:34 - Self belief is everything

00:08:41 - How to make sure you have a mediocre team

00:10:05 - How do you raise $800 Million for your fund?

00:14:05 - Fuck Vision. Be Micro-Ambitious

00:14:52 - You can manufacture luck

00:18:47 - Cold Emailing Marc Benioff from Salesforce

00:21:00 - The best founders make you ....

00:26:03 - In VC today, this is why a billion dollars is not enough

00:30:33 - Wiring $5 Million in less than 24 hours

00:34:15 - VC is becoming commoditised

00:40:24 - Focus on your winners

00:42:25 - What is your North Star Metric?

00:45:19 - Project Europe and Why Paul Graham is wrong

00:52:54 - I don't want to fucking brainstorm.

00:55:55 - The 3 things great founders do

00:59:04 - I look for deep trauma when hiring

01:00:51 - Be a Purple Cow.

01:05:41 - Why I didn't invest in Vanta or Deel at pre-seed (Mistake)

01:10:51 - How an investment led to the hospital.

01:13:50 - Everything in life comes from how you respond to hardship.

01:19:14 - Everyone is going through a battle you know nothing about

01:20:20 - You're never wrong to do the right thing.

01:22:01 - We spend too much time on culture.