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Dr. Tom Elliott has spent more than four decades at the forefront of diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolic health. He is the founder and medical director of BC Diabetes, an associate professor at UBC, and has been involved in more than 20 pharmaceutical clinical trials exploring the future of obesity, diabetes, and GLP-1 therapies. In this episode, Dr. Elliott breaks down why obesity, insulin resistance, and prediabetes have exploded across modern society, and why many founders and high perform...
Julia Klim is redefining what it means to live and perform well in a high-pressure world. As former Head of Strategic Partnerships at Equinox Group, she helped transform the brand from a luxury gym into a full-spectrum healthspan platform. She launched Optimize by Equinox, an elite longevity program that pairs members with doctors, trainers, nutritionists, and sleep coaches using deep biometric data. Julia writes the Substack “ In Search Of” , where she challenges the idea that health can be “ha...
Caroline Mundell has been competing at the highest levels of Olympic weightlifting while running two gyms and raising three kids. She is a 7x Provincial Masters Olympic Lifting Champion, 2x National Champion, Bronze medalist at the 2018 World championships Barcelona, and most recently the 2025 National Functional Fitness Gold Medalist. Her background in behavioral neuroscience and sports science is what makes her framework different, she understands both why your brain resists change and exactly...
Mark MacLeod, founder of Limitless.CEO, has sat with some of the most consequential founders in tech. As Ex-CFO of Shopify and FreshBooks, GP at Real Ventures, Canada's largest seed fund, and founder of a leading SaaS investment bank, he has personally overseen over $1 billion in exits. He has seen exactly what ends a founder's run, and it is rarely the market. After studying 11 founders who built a combined $6.4 trillion in enterprise value, Mark rebuilt his entire philosophy around one idea: y...
Peter Danenberg has spent his career at the edge of what humans and machines can do. As a senior software engineer at Google DeepMind, he leads development on Gemini. Before tech, he co-founded CrossFit Crown City, scaling it to 450 members across two locations. He holds degrees from Harvard and USC spanning computer science, philosophy, classics and piano, and has spoken at Davos, the House of Lords, and MIT. His belief is simple: peak performance, human or artificial, is as much a philosophica...
Jim Donnelly knows how to build health empires. As the founder and former CEO of Restore Hyper Wellness, he scaled a cryotherapy and wellness franchise to hundreds of locations before stepping away. Then life forced him to start over. A near-fatal car accident, the loss of his father, and his own regenerative medicine journey completely changed how he thought about health. Today, he leads Humanaut Health, a network of advanced preventive clinics combining deep diagnostics, regenerative therapies...
Jason Syversen has spent more than 25 years operating at the highest levels of cybersecurity, venture capital, and applied technology. As a Program Manager at DARPA, he managed a $100M cybersecurity portfolio focused on advanced national security systems. He later founded and exited Siege Technologies, building a profitable cyber company in a highly competitive market. Since then, he has invested in more than 45 early-stage companies across AI and cybersecurity. After his exit, Jason donated the...
Silicon Valley legend Ed Baker, CPO at WHOOP and ex growth chief at FB and Uber, is our guest on this episode of Traction. Ed helped Facebook cross one billion monthly active users, joining after scaling and selling his 25-million-user startup, Friendly, to the company. He then became VP of Product and Growth at Uber, where he set weekly trips as the north-star metric and helped take the company's valuation from $17 billion to about $70 billion during his tenure. In 2017, Ed left Uber to rebuild...
What if the reason most high-performance careers end early isn’t effort, but how performance is managed over time? In this episode, Dr. Wayne Diesel, elite sports physiologist and long-time performance leader across the NBA, NFL, Premier League, and international rugby, and Ray Walia explore how founders can apply elite athlete principles to build sustainable, long-term performance. After decades inside the world’s most demanding sports organizations, Wayne has seen firsthand why even the most t...
What if you could extend your healthspan, sharpen your focus, and increase your stress resilience by decoding your DNA? In this powerhouse episode, Dr. Matt Dawson, ER physician and early longevity pioneer turned health tech founder, and Lloyed Lobo discuss how startup founders can optimize their health span while scaling high-impact companies. After years of watching patients suffer from avoidable conditions, Matt left traditional medicine to build companies that keep people healthy before thin...
Building a startup rewards intensity, not longevity. In this episode of Traction, Alex Bruyn joins Lloyed Lobo to challenge the founder playbook. Drawing from repeated burnout and serious health failures, Lloyed argues that hustle is not a badge of honor, it’s a structural flaw in how entrepreneurship is practiced. They examine how stress compounds over time, why founders are treated nothing like elite athletes, and how chasing momentum degrades performance. The conversation reframes success aro...
Most startup stories focus on the win. Very few talk about what it costs to get there. In this episode, Lloyed Lobo sits down with Alex Bruyn, co-founder of Karak Creative, for a candid conversation about the realities founders rarely say out loud. From taking an unconventional path into tech to building a fast-growing company under constant pressure, Lloyed shares the parts of the journey that don’t show up on pitch decks or LinkedIn posts. They talk about momentum, stress, and the habits that ...
The talent market has shifted in ways that make hiring harder for early-stage teams. In this episode, Melissa Kwan and Lloyed Lobo talk about why salaries jumped, why interviews often look better than the work that follows, and how these gaps slow companies down. They share what they’ve learned from hiring mistakes, how expectations changed after the unicorn wave, and what founders should pay attention to when building teams that can actually deliver. TIMESTAMPS: 00:56 The current state of the t...
Fake it till you make it is a phrase founders hear early and often. Ambition can drift past honesty faster than most founders realize. This episode looks at how pitching and fundraising expectations shape the stories founders tell and the pressure to appear further along than reality. Lloyed Lobo and Melissa Kwan unpack the pressure behind projections, user claims, and the instinct to present a version of the company that is not fully real yet. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Fake it till you make it and wher...
Building a startup together tests everything you believe about trust. In this episode, serial entrepreneur Lloyed Lobo and Melissa Kwan, CEO at eWebinar, unpack the cofounder confessions founders whisper but rarely admit: love turned liability, handshake deals gone wrong, and the quiet resentment that kills partnerships faster than failure itself. From equity fights to emotional burnouts, they dissect why cofounder breakups feel worse than divorces, and the principles that keep the right ones fr...
Building a startup is like jumping off a plane and assembling the parachute mid-air. In this episode, serial entrepreneur Lloyed Lobo and Melissa Kwan, CEO at eWebinar, break down the reality of scaling: the discipline constraints create, the myths founders chase, and why too many companies lose sight of customers in pursuit of hype. From the unicorn bubble to billion dollar collapses overnight, they explore how venture capital’s incentives shape companies, for better and for worse, and why grea...
Most founders don’t need venture capital — they just need the truth about their options. In this episode, Greg Head , Founder of Practical Founders and Gregslist , shares why most founders don’t need to follow the venture capital path to succeed —and how alternative strategies often lead to better outcomes. Greg draws on three decades of software industry experience and his deep network of over 500 founders and investors to challenge the funding-first mindset. Specifically, Greg shares: 00:00 In...
If you're building before validating the market, you're not a founder — you’re a hopeful builder. In this episode, Bocar Dia , Partner and GM at Forum Ventures , shares how to build a capital-efficient, scalable sales motion in B2B SaaS, from idea to product-market fit and beyond. Drawing from his early days at Hootsuite and advising 30+ founders annually, Bocar unpacks the frameworks and mindsets for growing to $100M ARR without chasing inflated valuations. Specifically, Bocar covers: (03:13) B...
Scaling without losing speed is harder than it looks — especially when you're chasing enterprise customers and building an AI-native platform. Lindsey Scrase , Chief Operating Officer of Checkr, Inc. , reveals how her customer-first mindset, forged during her tenure at Google Cloud, is driving Checkr’s transformation into a core hiring infrastructure platform while scaling AI across operations. With a track record of building high-velocity GTM motions and a strong commitment to second-chance hir...
In the AI era, traditional GTM playbooks relying on brute force and volume fail. Anthony Enrico, founder of LeanScale, advocates for a lean, efficient approach focused on revenue per FTE. He outlines building GTM foundations, micro-niching, prioritizing brand and content over early sales hires, and leveraging AI tools like AmpleMarket, Clay, and Default for data, sequencing, and automation, while emphasizing human oversight and tracking key leading indicators for repeatable, scalable growth.
Crises aren’t just setbacks — they’re strategic moments to elevate customer experience. In this episode, Jeff Titterton , Chief Marketing Officer of Stripe , breaks down why investing in customers during uncertain times is the most resilient path to long-term growth. Drawing from his time as COO at Zendesk and insights from scaling through economic downturns, Jeff highlights how modern businesses can align product, service and marketing to unlock customer loyalty and profitability. Specifically,...
Innovation is the driving force behind unlocking better patient experiences and improving access to quality care. In this episode, Derek Streat , Co-Founder and Former CEO at DexCare , shares his journey of transforming healthcare access through innovative technology solutions. Derek dives into how DexCare optimizes the way health systems manage digital demand, making healthcare more accessible and efficient for both providers and patients. Specifically, Derek discusses: (03:09) The inspiration ...
The venture capital landscape is evolving fast, and founders who don’t adapt will be left behind. Roy Luo , General Partner at ICONIQ , shares insights on the shifting dynamics of startup funding and what it takes to scale in 2025. With investments in companies like Figma, Canva and Ramp, Roy breaks down key trends in fintech, AI-driven business models and the future of venture capital. Specifically, Roy discusses: (06:46) TCV provided key lessons in investing, founder relations and tech disrupt...
Is generative AI rewriting the rules for how startups scale, hire and grow? In this episode, Brian Rothenberg , Partner at Defy.vc , explores how the resurgence of the Bay Area, the rise of generative AI and the future of marketplaces are reshaping the startup landscape. We revisit Brian’s 2017 talk on scaling marketplaces and analyze which lessons still hold true. Specifically, Brian discusses: (02:54) Why defy backs early-stage founders with a strong operator mindset. (03:59) How the Bay Area ...
Building a thriving SaaS community isn’t just about content — it’s about creating real, in-person connections that people keep coming back to. Alex Theuma , Founder of SaaStock , shares how he transformed a simple blog into one of the most influential SaaS conferences in the world. He unpacks the highs and lows of scaling a global event, from bootstrapping early growth to navigating expansion challenges. Specifically, Alex discusses: (05:02) Turning a simple blog into a SaaS community. (10:51)A ...
Scaling a company requires more than just great ideas — it demands execution, urgency and adaptability. In this episode, Dan Rogers , CEO of LaunchDarkly, shares how he has built high-performance teams and driven sustained success, drawing from his experience leading growth at Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce and ServiceNow. Specifically, Dan covers: (03:24) Dan’s passion for technology led to an early start and a journey to Silicon Valley. (06:01) Why owning a number early in a career builds stron...
The companies that win the next decade won’t just adopt AI — they’ll redesign how work gets done from the ground up. Daniel Saks , CEO and Co-Founder of Landbase , returns to share lessons learned from scaling two companies across two major technology waves. Daniel explores how the path from SaaS to agentic AI is not just a shift in tools, but a complete rethinking of how businesses operate, compete and grow. Specifically, Daniel discusses: (03:35) Daniel had early conviction in SaaS and saw it ...
Venture capital isn’t just about funding — it’s about making the right bets at the right time. Nick Washburn , Senior Managing Director of Intel Capital , shares insights on founder-investor dynamics, venture capital strategies and the evolving landscape of AI-driven business models. Specifically, Nick discusses: (03:34) The move from law to venture capital. (10:46) Companies are bought, not sold — startups must plan ahead for acquisition. (15:47) Product-market fit sparks growth, but scaling is...
The most valuable asset in business today isn’t technology — it’s data. Those who control it, refine it and protect it will dominate their industries. SC Moatti , Managing Partner of Mighty Capital , shares insights on the evolving role of product managers, the impact of AI on product development and how businesses can leverage data to drive innovation and market leadership. Specifically, SC discusses: (2:50) Mighty Capital invests in top startups and connects them with 500,000 product managers....
Building wealth isn’t just about working harder — it’s about working smarter. In this episode, Scott D. Clary , Founder and Host of Success Story Podcast , shares his journey in entrepreneurship, personal branding and wealth creation. He explains how building a personal brand can serve as a competitive advantage in an era where AI is reshaping industries and commoditizing work. With a social media following of over 1.7 million and an extensive email subscriber base, Scott breaks down the framewo...
