Build Mode

Women and non-binary investors have doubled their share of partner seats at U.S. venture firms in less than a decade. But a title doesn't always come with power.

In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Paige Hendrix Buckner, CEO of All Raise, a national nonprofit helping women and non-binary venture capitalists grow their power and influence.

Paige shares how the share of women and non-binary people in partner-plus roles at U.S. VC firms grew from 9% to 18.8%, and why All Raise is now focused on a new measurement. She explains why a partner title doesn't guarantee check-writing authority, board seats, carry, or credit for deals, and how the attribution gap makes it harder for investors to build the track record they need to raise their own funds.

They get into:

What All Raise does and its strategy of community, data, and "lore"

The attribution gap and why credit for deals matters

Why sponsorship can make or break an investor's career

Why more women are leaving to start their own funds

How diverse VC firms change which founders get funded

What the $124 trillion wealth transfer could mean for women LPs

What good firm building looks like, from LP relationships to brand

How AI is helping emerging managers run lean firms

The different paths into a venture career



Subscribe to Build Mode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And watch the full videos on YouTube. New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday.

Hosted by Isabelle Johannesen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.

Venture capital is more concentrated than ever, making it increasingly difficult for early-stage founders to land their first check. So what does it actually take to stand out to investors?

In this special bonus episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Puneet Agarwal, managing partner at True Ventures, to discuss what VCs are really looking for in 2026.

True Ventures has backed companies including Fitbit, Peloton, and Duo Security, and evaluates thousands of startups each year while writing roughly 20 checks. Puneet breaks down what makes founders stand out, how to get in front of investors without an established Silicon Valley network, and the biggest mistakes founders make during fundraising.

Recorded as part of TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield masterclass series, the conversation also covers due diligence, term sheets, valuations, and why raising more money isn't always better.

For years, crowdfunding had a reputation as the place founders went when they couldn’t raise venture capital. Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor thinks founders should look at it very differently.

In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Everett to talk about crowdfunding as an alternative and sometimes a precursor to traditional venture funding.

Everette’s own path into entrepreneurship was unconventional. Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, far from Silicon Valley, he says he didn’t know what venture capital, SaaS, or ARR were when he started his first company. Instead, he threw parties to make enough money to fund the software he was building. He eventually sold that company at 21, an experience that taught him some hard lessons about understanding the value of what you’ve built.

Today, as CEO of Kickstarter, Everette is making the case that founders don’t necessarily have to choose between crowdfunding and venture capital. A successful Kickstarter campaign can help founders raise non-dilutive capital, find their first customers, test demand, and establish product-market fit—all before giving up a piece of their company. And for founders who eventually do want VC backing, Everett argues that traction can give them considerably more leverage at the negotiating table.

He also explains why Kickstarter is increasingly attracting established companies and creators, what makes hardware particularly well suited to crowdfunding, how AI is changing who can become an entrepreneur, and what founders need to have in place before launching a campaign.

They get into:

How Everette funded his first startup by throwing parties

What selling his first company taught him about understanding your value

The differences between donation, equity, and reward-based crowdfunding

Why Kickstarter can work particularly well for hardware startups

What crowdfunding can give founders that venture capital can’t

How Kickstarter can help founders find early adopters and test product-market fit

Why crowdfunding can give founders more leverage when they eventually raise VC

What founders need before launching a Kickstarter campaign

Why Everette says the stigma around crowdfunding is disappearing

How AI is pushing more people toward entrepreneurship

Why AI-powered hardware is growing on Kickstarter

Whether founders actually need venture capital after a successful campaign

The three things Everette thinks every Kickstarter campaign needs

How founders can build trust with backers

Why major brands are increasingly launching products on Kickstarter

What Oculus, Peloton, and Oura did differently

Why Everett believes ownership and creative independence matter for founders

Chapters:

00:00 — Why founders should consider crowdfunding

01:36 — Everette Taylor’s unconventional path to entrepreneurship

03:25 — Learning the value of what you’ve built

05:08 — How Everette became CEO of Kickstarter

07:11 — The different types of crowdfunding

10:32 — Equity crowdfunding vs. Kickstarter

13:01 — Can B2B startups use Kickstarter?

14:34 — What crowdfunding can offer that VC can’t

16:29 — What founders need before launching a campaign

17:36 — Is there still a stigma around crowdfunding?

18:56 — How AI is changing entrepreneurship

20:46 — Using Kickstarter as a path to venture capital

22:56 — Three tips for launching a Kickstarter campaign

25:19 — How early is too early for Kickstarter?

26:39 — Why big brands are coming to Kickstarter28:33 — Everette’s favorite projects to back

29:21 — What Oculus, Peloton, and Oura got right

31:15 — The case for ownership over venture capital

Join us at TechCrunch Disrupt October 13-15 in San Francisco. Use promo code: buildmode25 for 25% off your ticket.

Subscribe to Build Mode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And watch the full videos on YouTube. New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday.

Hosted by Isabelle Johannesen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.

Ashley Tyrner-Dolce spent more than a decade building FarmboxRx without taking a single dollar of venture capital and ultimately exited the company while still owning the majority of it.

In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Ashley to talk about what bootstrapping actually looks like when you don’t have money from a previous exit or a wealthy network to fall back on.

Ashley started the company after experiencing food insecurity herself. Years earlier, while pregnant with her daughter, she relied on food stamps and lived in a rural food desert where getting fresh food could mean a 30-minute drive. She eventually launched Farmbox Direct as a direct-to-consumer produce delivery company before pivoting the business into healthcare and building what became FarmboxRx.

Along the way, Ashley tried to raise venture capital, but investors pushed her to turn the company into a meal-kit business, a direction she believed would take it away from the customers she wanted to serve. Instead, she kept bootstrapping. That meant cutting expenses, reinvesting money into the company, negotiating longer payment terms with vendors, using credit card points for travel, and at times stopping her own salary to make payroll.

Now an investor herself at HLM Investments, Ashley explains what bootstrapping signals to a VC, why founders should think carefully about when they raise outside capital, and why she believes traction can put founders in a much stronger position before they take a check.

They get into:

How Ashley started FarmboxRx without venture funding

Why early VCs wanted her to turn the company into a meal kit

What bootstrapping looks like when you don’t have a financial safety net

How she stretched cash flow and negotiated vendor payment terms

Why she sometimes stopped paying herself to make payroll

How cold calling helped land FarmboxRx’s first healthcare customers

Why founders should stay involved in sales

What bootstrapping signals to Ashley now that she’s a VC

Why she walked away from term sheets and acquisition offers

The financial upside of maintaining ownership through an exit

Why she wouldn’t raise a seed round if she started another company today

When founders should consider taking venture capital

Why bootstrapping after a previous exit is a very different experience

How founders can build investor relationships even when they aren’t raising

Chapters:

00:00 — The case for bootstrapping01:42 — How Ashley started FarmboxRx03:50 — Bootstrapping without a financial safety net07:16 — Why VCs struggled to understand the business10:21 — Proving the investors wrong12:34 — Building a network without VC backing15:24 — Getting advice from VCs without taking their money17:36 — Why Ashley refused to change her vision20:14 — Walking away from term sheets and acquisition offers22:32 — What bootstrapping signals to a VC25:08 — Getting creative with cash flow27:09 — The upside of bootstrapping28:54 — What Ashley would tell a founder starting with $50K30:26 — How to land your first customers34:44 — Would Ashley take VC money today?35:55 — Why founders should wait longer to raise36:55 — Not all bootstrapping is the same39:30 — The difference between bootstrapping with and without money

Join us at TechCrunch Disrupt October 13-15 in San Francisco. Use promo code: buildmode25 for 25% off your ticket.

Subscribe to Build Mode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And watch the full videos on YouTube. New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday.

Hosted by Isabelle Johannesen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.

Building flying taxis takes billions of dollars. So instead of relying on traditional venture rounds, Archer Aviation went public just a few years after it was founded.

In this episode of Build Mode, host Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer Aviation, to talk about the unconventional fundraising strategy behind building one of the most capital-intensive startups around.

Archer is building electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, designed to turn trips that can take 90 minutes by car into flights of 10 or 15 minutes. The company is developing the technology for both commercial air taxis and defense applications and has been selected as the exclusive air taxi provider for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

But developing and certifying an entirely new category of aircraft requires enormous amounts of capital. Adam explains why he realized early on that raising $50 million or $100 million at a time wouldn’t be enough and why he decided to take Archer public when the company had fewer than 100 employees. Since then, Archer has raised nearly $4 billion.

Adam breaks down how he prepared Archer to take advantage of the public markets, why timing matters so much when pursuing an IPO, and how retail investors and online communities have changed the equation for companies building ambitious hardware. He also explains why he thinks the window for earlier-stage companies to access public markets may be opening again.

They get into:

Why Archer is building electric air taxis

How eVTOLs could change airport-to-city transportation

Archer’s plans for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

Why hardware startups need dramatically more capital than software companies

Why Adam decided to take Archer public so early

How Archer raised nearly $4 billion

Why founders need to prepare for an IPO long before they actually pursue one

How retail investors have changed the public markets

Why liquidity became an important part of Archer’s fundraising strategy

What founders need before considering an early public-market debut

Why strategic partners can help validate an early-stage company

The risks of going public too soon

How capital helped Archer catch up with more established competitors

Why founders should choose a problem they’re willing to spend decades solving

Join us at TechCrunch Disrupt October 13-15 in San Francisco. Use promo code: buildmode25 for 25% off your ticket.

Chapters:

00:00 — Why Archer went public so early

01:36 — What Archer Aviation is building

02:21 — Air taxis, defense and the future of eVTOLs

04:05 — Adam’s journey from finance to founder0

6:25 — Why electric aviation became possible

09:29 — Will people actually ride in flying taxis?

11:27 — Archer’s plans for the 2028 LA Olympics

13:50 — Why building hardware requires billions

16:54 — Was going public the right decision?

17:40 — How retail investors changed the public markets

21:46 — How Archer prepared to go public early

24:50 — Is the early IPO window opening again?26:42 — What a startup needs before going public

28:09 — Why Archer chose a SPAC

29:57 — Should first-time founders consider going public?

30:55 — How Archer attracted talent before it had the money

32:48 — Why capital became Archer’s competitive advantage

33:39 — What comes after the exit?

35:25 — Adam’s advice for founders building capital-intensive startups

Subscribe to Build Mode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And watch the full videos on YouTube. New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday.

Hosted by Isabelle Johannesen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.