Through personal anecdotes and well-articulated frameworks, Sarah sits down with Rippling’s Chief Product Officer Matt MacInnis for a candid conversation on what startups ought to know about business on their first day of building. 

They discuss:

• When you should be worried about the foundation labs vs. when to feel confident 
• The corporate finance basics that she tells every founder on day one
• What really drives VCs to talk about founders behind closed doors 
• Why ambition is in short supply

And so much more.

Get exclusive insights left on the cutting room floor in our newsletter → https://www.rippling.com/first-principles?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_program=evergreen-engagement&utm_campaign=first-principles-ep-01-desc 

CHAPTERS

0:00 welcome to first principles
1:30 investing when every assumption is out the window
6:48 the half-life of opportunities in ai
9:00 will the labs eat your company?
11:04 you're not competing with their a-team
13:56 why building enterprise software is still hard 14:44 name a less efficient way to sell
19:16 the number one thing i look for in founders 22:03 "we'll figure it out" never wins
24:43 the advice sarah wishes every founder heard earlier
29:23 when the net present value is negative
30:03 the seed-stage corporate finance checklist 32:20 the product game vs. the business game
34:28 why ambition is in short supply
38:30 the death of "do one thing really well"
43:20 the investor-entrepreneur dance
49:14 what vcs talk about behind closed doors
52:42 where the social cost lives
59:29 what happens when the music stops
1:02:31 the elon musk principle on capital
1:04:15 how conviction built its brand in four years 1:08:52 you won't get far being vanilla
1:10:51 what founders should know about conviction