266. Founder-Led vs. Product-Led Growth: how to pick the right path for your startup
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Release Date: 08/20/2025
270: Real People, Real Startups: Lessons from Our Alumni
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Most people think you need to be a Silicon Valley insider — or have millions in funding — to start a tech venture. That’s just not true. In this episode, Sophia Matveeva shares the journeys of four Tech for Non-Techies alumni who built products and startups without writing a single line of code. You’ll learn: How a dentist turned lockdown frustration into a healthtech app (and how you can spot opportunities in your own field). Why a fund manager realised he didn’t need to code — and the mindset shift that freed him to start building. How a CFO uses tech knowledge to make smarter...
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269: 4 Non-Technical Founders Who Built Billion-Dollar Tech Empires
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Most founders think you need to be technical to build a billion-dollar company. But some of the world’s biggest tech giants were started by people who never wrote a single line of code. In this episode, Sophia Matveeva unpacks the journeys of four non-technical founders who rewrote the rules of business. In this episode, you will hear: How Steve Jobs proved that design instincts can beat coding skills Why Jack Ma’s 30 job rejections became his unfair advantage in building Alibaba The broke rent payment that sparked Airbnb’s $80B global empire What Katrina Lake’s Stitch Fix IPO teaches...
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268: How to Align Founders and Investors (Before Things Go Wrong)
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Most founders think securing investors will solve all their problems. But fundraising often creates a new set of challenges—misaligned expectations, endless reporting requests, and pressure that pulls focus from building the business. The truth is, raising capital isn’t just about money. It’s about relationships, trust, and knowing when to push back. In this episode, you’ll learn from Jeffrey Fidelman, founder and managing director of Fidelman & Company, which is on Inc.’s list of America’s fastest-growing companies. Jeffrey has worked at Morgan Stanley, been a partner at...
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267: 7 Startup Lessons from BlackBerry’s Rise and Fall
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Most non-technical founders dream of building a game-changing tech product—without learning to code. But bridging the gap between vision and execution? That takes more than just a good idea. In this episode, Sophia Matveeva breaks down 7 essential lessons from the rise and fall of BlackBerry, a tech company that revolutionized communication, then lost it all. You’ll learn why great engineers aren’t enough, how clueless sales pitches kill trust, and why falling in love with your invention might be your biggest risk. Whether you’re planning your first app or scaling your second startup,...
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266. Founder-Led vs. Product-Led Growth: how to pick the right path for your startup
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Most founders dream of creating a product so good it sells itself. That’s the promise of product-led growth: customers discover, share, and adopt your product with little to no sales effort. Sadly that's rarely the reality. In the early stages, almost every founder has to do the hard, unglamorous work of founder-led growth: building trust, making offers and facing rejection. In this episode, you will learn from , author of . Vijay previously led portfolio value at 500 Global, a venture capital firm with $2.7 billion under management, where he supported...
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265. From vodka shots to Y Combinator: how a non-technical founder built a global tech company
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
If you’re a non-technical founder building your first product, this episode is for you. In today’s lesson, Robyn Exton shares the real story of how she went from branding agency employee to founder of a global tech company — without writing a line of code. She didn’t raise millions on day one. She learned by doing, made all the early-stage mistakes, and got her first users with vodka shots in nightclubs. Now, her app has millions of users and she’s been through Y Combinator. Robyn is the founder of HER, the dating app for queer women. Listen to this episode to learn: How to build a...
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264. The vacation strategy for people who can’t switch off
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
If you’re the kind of leader who is “on” all the time — even on vacation — this episode is for you. In today’s lesson, Sophia Matveeva shares a practical, honest approach to taking time off without pretending you’ll fully unplug. Because when you're in charge, not checking work emails is often a pipe dream. Listen to this episode to learn: Why inner peace isn’t realistic for early-stage founders How to structure your break without lying to yourself The one rule you must follow if you get a great idea mid-vacation Why learning to trust your team now...
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263. The feature factory trap: when output doesn’t equal progress
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Why do so many software teams feel busy — but deliver so little value? Fractional tech leader Thanos Diacakis shares why shipping more features doesn’t always mean progress. Drawing on 25+ years in software — from startups to scaling JUMP Bikes at Uber — he explains how to escape the trap of over-planning, feature overload, and technical debt. Listen to learn: Why planning more often leads to less progress What non-technical leaders need to ask their tech teams How to find your team’s bottleneck (and why that changes over time) The 4 stages of becoming a...
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262. Why the CEO is the most dangerous person in a tech startup
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Most startup CEOs think they’re the visionary. But in today’s episode, you’ll learn why the CEO is often the single biggest threat to team productivity — and how to avoid becoming one. Based on a real conversation with a seasoned CTO and a sales leader who’ve scaled startups to exit, this episode dives into the blind spots that trip up even well-meaning founders. Whether you’re a CEO, part of a startup team, or investing in one — this lesson will help you lead smarter, build better, and waste less time. Listen to learn: Why startup CEOs are more dangerous than corporate...
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261. AI won’t kill jobs — but short-term thinking will
Tech for Non-Techies - Practical app & AI strategy for non-technical founders.
Some CEOs are already replacing engineers and junior staff with large language models. But what if the real risk isn’t that AI replaces your team — it’s that it doesn’t, and you’re left without a talent pipeline? In this episode, Sophia Matveeva breaks down: Why cutting junior hiring today could sabotage your company in 3–5 years What IBM’s CEO gets right that others get very wrong How the hype around “AI-first” companies is creating poor decision-making What the S-curve of innovation tells us about the real pace of AI progress And why thinking...
info_outlineMost founders dream of creating a product so good it sells itself.
That’s the promise of product-led growth: customers discover, share, and adopt your product with little to no sales effort.
Sadly that's rarely the reality.
In the early stages, almost every founder has to do the hard, unglamorous work of founder-led growth: building trust, making offers and facing rejection.
In this episode, you will learn from Vijay Rajendran, author of The Funding Framework: Secure Startup Funding With Confidence.
Vijay previously led portfolio value at 500 Global, a venture capital firm with $2.7 billion under management, where he supported startups in more than 80 countries.
Vijay has helped hundreds of founders grow, scale, and raise capital.
Listen to learn:
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The difference between founder-led and product-led growth — and when each approach works best.
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How design partnerships and pilots can win your first customers (and even get them to fund product development).
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Why “influence” is a better mindset than “sales” — and how listening to customers creates trust.
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Stories from Airbnb to enterprise startups that reveal what growth really looks like behind the scenes.
Whether you’re launching your first product, leading innovation inside a corporate, or backing founders as an investor, this episode is for you.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini
- Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It, Chris Voss
Chapters
05:24 — The seductive dream of product-led growth (and why it rarely works early on)
07:52 — Design partnerships: how customers can fund your product
13:39 — The Airbnb toilet photos story: why every founder must talk to customers
18:55 — Stop pitching, start listening: turning sales into influence
23:23 — Empathy and persuasion: the human skills behind tech success
28:48 — When to move from founder-led growth to a professional sales team
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