The Further, Faster Podcast – How Vivek Sodera Builds Iconic Companies

In this episode of the Further, Faster Podcast, Vivek describes his journey from founder to investor. He shares must-have advice for early-stage founders along with some critical takes on startup culture, and the “epidemic of ‘wantrepeneurs’”.

Vivek’s career epitomises the rollercoaster ride of building startups and he opens up about the reality of this experience. LiveRamp went public with a valuation of nearly $5bn, but his next endeavour, a developer platform, had no such luck. He ground away at it for three years, before deciding to pull the plug. “I was looking at myself in the mirror in tears,” he says. “But I would not change that for the world. It was an incredible moment of self-realization. Every founder needs to go through this rite of passage of failure.”

Just as failure is an inherent part of business, opportunity is always around the corner. Vivek tells Bede how the very next day after closing the company, he reconnected with a friend who pitched him an idea. It led to a Superhuman – an AI-native email platform that has become a household name. 

Vivek is also an investor, and he drills into the attributes that he looks for and common mistakes that founders make. These include pulling in investment and expanding too fast. “Your job at the 0 to1 stage is to get to product market fit and nothing else matters,” he says. “So raise the minimum viable amount to get to PMF.” 

Sometimes, Vivek points out, less is more.  “Having that minimum viable amount of capital, it forces constraints, it forces focus,” he says. “Having an abundance of capital…corrupts the path.”

For more tips and insights, listen to the full episode.