Join Mantle's Amar Varma for an incredible conversation with Farhan Thawar, a tech veteran who's been at the forefront of every major wave of innovation over the past three decades. From early days at Waterloo to leading engineering at Shopify, Farhan shares hard-won insights on building world-class products and teams.

Learn more about Mantle: withmantle.com

First-time founders: stop underpaying for top talent.

Adrian Camara learned this the hard way while building Athennian. When you're hiring a VP of Sales and one candidate costs 40-50% more than another, your instinct is to save the money.Adrian's take after raising $40M+ and scaling through COVID boom to tech winter:"The leverage they create over time, the quality of team they build around them—that incremental $100-200K you pay them amplifies into so much enterprise value."

Alex Norman, co-founder of TechTO and managing partner at N49P Ventures, joins Mantle Mondays to share his journey building one of the most vibrant startup communities while investing in 80+ early-stage companies. From the power of random collisions to what actually predicts founder success at pre-seed, Alex reveals why community must come first and why it's never been easier to start a company, but never harder to succeed.

Mike Cooke, co-founder and CEO of AmacaThera, joins Amar to share his journey building a biotech company that's tackling post-operative pain and the opioid crisis.

Mark MacLeod has seen it all—14 years as CFO at companies like Shopify and FreshBooks, founding partner at Real Ventures, ran a boutique investment bank that sold over $1B in companies, and now coaches CEOs of venture-backed startups while hosting The Startup CEO Show.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Mark shares hard-earned insights from his journey through the startup world, reveals what he's learned from coaching 100+ CEOs and interviewing 80+ more, and explains why the traditional Silicon Valley hustle narrative is actually destroying companies.

Mark's Newsletter: markmacleod.me

Limitless Community: limitless.ceo

The Startup CEO Show: podcast.markmacleod.me

Amar sits down with fellow serial entrepreneur, George Babu, founder and CEO of Aire Labs, as he shares his remarkable journey from working at BlackBerry during its $90 billion peak, to pioneering AI-powered robotics at Kindred, to now tackling the climate crisis with innovative software solutions.

Learn more about Mantle: ⁠⁠⁠withmantle.com

Cato Pastoll, co-founder and CEO of Loop, joins Amit to share his journey building a modern global banking platform for Canadian founders doing business across borders.In this episode, Cato discusses the challenges of pivoting from a lending company to a comprehensive banking solution, the importance of living in your customers' shoes, and practical advice on hiring, retention, and fundraising for early-stage founders.

Learn more about Mantle: ⁠⁠withmantle.com

Steven Trieu, CFO at 8090 Solutions, joins Amit to share his practical advice for early-stage founders navigating compensation, cap tables, and their first rounds of funding from a CFO's perspective.

Learn more about Mantle: ⁠withmantle.com