Building a company is equal parts grit, timing, and learning from those who have been through it. Whether it’s navigating a first fundraise, finding product-market fit, or scaling through the rise of AI, founders are constantly looking for honest perspectives from people in the same trenches.
Podcasts remain a valuable resource for stories and lessons straight from the builders themselves. For founders, being featured on a podcast is also a powerful opportunity. As we explored in our post on Founder-led Storytelling, long-form podcast interviews give founders the space to unpack nuance, emotion, and the context behind real decisions. The format has quickly become one of the highest-ROI channels for building executive visibility and credibility.
Whether you’re a first-time founder, an operator weighing your next move, or an investor looking to better understand the founder mindset, we’ve curated ten founder-focused podcasts to keep on your radar.
The Upstarts Podcast
Hosted by Alex Konrad, founder and editor of Upstarts Media, this show features breakout entrepreneurs challenging the status quo in AI, design, nuclear energy, space and more.
past guests: Melanie Perkins (Canva), Celine Halioua (Loyal), Ryan Petersen (Flexport)
Divot Podcast
Hosted by Derek Andersen, founder of Startup Grind and CEO of Bevy, Divot offers weekly conversations with founders, creators, athletes and visionaries.
past guests: Aaron Levie (Box), Trae Stephens (Founders Fund, Anduril), Jeremy Andrus (Traeger Grills), Waseem Alshikh (Writer), Shardul Shah (Index Ventures), Ali Ansari (Micro1), Neal Harmon (Angel), Ed Catmull (Pixar)
Silicon Valley Girl Podcast
Marina Mogilko, a founder and angel investor, hosts a weekly AI and technology show on career growth, AI tools and entrepreneurship. It started as a YouTube series and is now also a podcast.
past guests: Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI), Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity AI), Thomas Dohmke (GitHub), Greg Brockman (OpenAI), Grant Lee (Gamma), Edward Kim (Gusto), Mati Staniszewski (ElevenLabs)
This Week in Startups
Hosted by Jason Calacanis with co-hosts Alex Wilhelm and Lon Harris, This Week in Startups covers startups, tech, and markets, with interviews with founders, operators, and investors.
past guests: Brian Chesky (Airbnb), Justin Kan (Twitch), Gabe Pereyra (Harvey), Alex Atallah (OpenRouter), Vlad Magdalin (Webflow), Elad Gil, Doug Leone (Sequoia Capital), Katelin Holloway (Seven Seven Six)
20VC
Hosted by Harry Stebbings, founder of the 20VC fund, The Twenty Minute VC pairs conversations with top investors with weekly interviews with the founders behind some of the biggest (and upcoming) companies in tech.
past guests: Daniel Ek (Spotify), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Frank Slootman (Snowflake), Adam Foroughi (AppLovin), Eran Zinman (Monday.com), Josh Browder (DoNotPay), Shiv Rao (Abridge), Eno Reyes (Factory), Matteo Franceschetti (Eight Sleep)
Newcomer Pod
Eric Newcomer’s show is a top Silicon Valley podcast featuring interviews with the dealmakers and builders who matter. It mixes founder interviews with news and analysis of the venture landscape.
past guests: Parker Conrad (Rippling), Reid Hoffman (Greylock), Christina Cacioppo (Vanta), Ryan Petersen (Flexport), Immad Akhund (Mercury), Dylan Field (Figma), Danny Rimer (Index Ventures), Kareem Amin (Clay), Paul Klein (Browserbase)
TechCrunch Build Mode
Hosted by Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen, Build Mode is a survival guide for early-stage founders with no sugarcoating or hype. It replaced TechCrunch’s Found podcast.
past guests: Julia Hartz (Eventbrite), Sasha Orloff (Puzzle), Deon Nicholas (Forethought AI), Sarah Lucena (Mappa), Robhy Bustami (BioticsAI)
Masters of Scale
Hosted by Jeff Berman, with Reid Hoffman as co-host, Masters of Scale focuses on how founders grow their companies, with business leaders sharing the lessons and strategies behind scaling.
past guests: Brian Chesky (Airbnb), Luis von Ahn (Duolingo), Amjad Masad (Replit), Mike Salguero (ButcherBox), Matthew Pohlson (Omaze), Jeremy Levine (Underdog), Tom Hale (Oura)
Y Combinator Startup Podcast
Hosted by Y Combinator partners including Garry Tan, Jared Friedman, Diana Hu, Harj Taggar, and Gustaf Alströmer, this show brings builders talking about building, with tactical lessons from the earliest days of an idea through scaling, and a heavy focus on AI.
past guests: Paul Graham (Y Combinator), Patrick Collison (Stripe), Jeff Dean (Google), Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind), Amjad Masad (Replit), Eric Ries, Chelsea Finn (Physical Intelligence)
The Peel with Turner Novak
Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital, explores the founding stories of well-known startups. Episodes tend to dive deep into how a company’s industry works.
past guests: Wade Foster (Zapier), Tommy Nicholas (Alloy), Tyler Denk (Beehiiv), Sean Frank (Ridge), Ed Lando (Pareto Holdings), Charley Ma (Pathlight Ventures), Mahdi Raza (Pathlight Ventures)
Rounding up the top ten podcasts for founders right now just scratches the surface—there are so many great podcasts for founders. We also regularly track new and upcoming shows for our speakers including TBPN (a daily show focused on timely content), Fund/Build/Scale (check out our interview with the founder and host here), and many more.
All information is current as of November 2026.
Podcasts remain a valuable resource for stories and lessons straight from the builders themselves. For founders, being featured on a podcast is also a powerful opportunity. As we explored in our post on Founder-led Storytelling, long-form podcast interviews give founders the space to unpack nuance, emotion, and the context behind real decisions. The format has quickly become one of the highest-ROI channels for building executive visibility and credibility.