Mitch Stein is Co-Founder & CEO of Pond, a software platform that brings together nonprofit organizations and technology providers. Their approach is unique, allowing nonprofit executives to be paid for taking meetings with vendors. The end goal is to help all 1.5 million nonprofits in the country get access to better software and tools.

In this episode, we discuss Mitch's background, his work at Goldman Sachs, perfectionism, what inspired him to be a founder, the mistakes he made building Pond (including the false starts along the way), and his advice to founders. We talk about the importance of talking to customers and focusing on the right solution, instead of trying to build a complex product from the beginning. This advice alone will save you months of time and tens of thousands of dollars.

GUEST

• Mitch Stein LinkedIn
• Pond Website

PODCAST

• Safa Mahzari
• Patreon
• Alluxo Website

TERMS

• VC = venture capital
• ARR = annual recurring revenue
• PMF = product market fit
• SaaS = software as a service
• CRM = customer relationship management
• B2B = business to business
• DTC = direct to consumer
• H2H = human to human

TIMESTAMPS

• 0:00 - Episode intro
• 1:06 - Culture and work styles
• 5:21 - Mitch's background
• 24:11 - Advice based on your startup stage
• 38:10 - Founding story of Pond 
• 53:18 - The problem with hero worship
• 1:07:18 - Aligning around a mission
• 1:15:43 - Advice to founders
• 1:23:09 - Wrap up and final thoughts