{"podcast":{"title":"Fund/Build/Scale","slug":"fund-build-scale-6723964","podcast_index_feed_id":6723964,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/fundbuildscale/feed.xml","website_url":"https://fundbuildscale.substack.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/17670315/new_FBS_1400_x_1400_tile_ggrhbt.jpg","author":"Walter Thompson","episode_count":120,"summary":"After working for years in early-stage startups and as a journalist, here are three hard truths I’ve learned: 1. Success in Silicon Valley hinges on connections, hard work and luck. 2. Startups often fail because founders lack fundamental business knowledge. 3. Real, actionable advice comes from those who’ve actually done it. There’s no such thing as “founder DNA.” If you’re willing to take on risk and invest years of your life in something that has maybe a 10% chance of paying off — less if you’re a woman or person of color — you can be a startup founder. Here’s why I founded Fund/Build/Scale: 1. To help founders make fewer mistakes. 2. To share successful strategies that can accelerate your go-to-market journey. 3. To inspire more people to see themselves as potential founders. There’s a lot of overlooked talent out there, and we are missing out. This podcast is for anyone who’s interested in learning the basic skills required to launch a startup, secure initial funding and transform an idea into a sustainable business. I’m talking to guests about everything: finding a co-founder, conducting customer discovery, recruiting early employees, developing a PLG strategy, fundraising w…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-07T10:21:25.778921+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/fund-build-scale-6723964"},"episode":{"title":"Is the Defensible Moat a Myth in AI?","slug":"is-the-defensible-moat-a-myth-in-ai","published_at":"2026-01-23T22:40:34+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/fund-build-scale-6723964/is-the-defensible-moat-a-myth-in-ai","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/fund-build-scale-6723964","url":"https://fundbuildscale.podbean.com/e/is-the-defensible-moat-a-myth-in-ai/","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/ci8p88rcebmfjdp8/Is_the_Defensible_Moat_a_Myth_in_AI7yz96.mp3","summary":"For years, founders have been told to build a defensible moat. But in AI, where platforms, models, and capabilities can shift overnight, that advice is starting to feel outdated. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, Simular CEO and co-founder Ang Li talks about what it actually means to build a company when the underlying technology won’t sit still. Rather than evangelizing agents or predicting the future of work, Ang gets unusually candid about fragility, speed, judgment, and how founders should think when technical advantages may be temporary by default. The conversation digs into small-team execution, founder productivity, decision-making under uncertainty, and the uncomfortable question many AI founders avoid: what if the next platform update eats your product? Note: This interview was recorded before Simular closed its $21.5M Series A in December 2025. RUNTIME 56:44 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:52) What is Simular, and how does it work? (6:11) How Ang and co-founder Jiachen Yang connected (9:00) How much time passed between Day Zero and serving their first customer? (13:54) The moment Ang realized \" this is gonna be like something huge.\" (17:21) How he approaches founder-led sales and what he looks for in a GTM hire (26:34) Maintaining cohesion when you're leading a distributed team (32:23) Should you hire a new employee, or build a new agent? (34:50) Why Ang made talking AI gorillas part of Simular's GTM strategy (38:20)\"If everyone becomes too cautious there, that actually prevents the innovation part.\" (43:55) \"There's never a moat on anything.\" (51:16) The final question LINKS Ang Li Jiachen Yang Simular Meet the AI Agent with Multiple Personalities, Wired, 4/16/2025 Simular Raises $21.5M to Build Autonomous Computer Agents, 12/2/2025 What is Robotic Process Automatio…","meta_description":"For years, founders have been told to build a defensible moat. But in AI, where platforms, models, and capabilities can shift overnight, that advice is st…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3404,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/fund-build-scale-6723964/episodes/is-the-defensible-moat-a-myth-in-ai/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/fund-build-scale-6723964/is-the-defensible-moat-a-myth-in-ai.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}