David J Phillips
@davj • 20,516 subscribers
Founder & CEO @fondocom – accounting & tax on autopilot for 1,000+ startups. Angel: Flexport, LiquidDeath, Rippling, 100+. Host: @thestartpod
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Introducing FREE TaxPass from Fondo.com We've helped thousands of startups like Legora, Cursor, ElevenLabs, and PostHog get their corporate taxes filed Startups shouldn’t have to juggle bookkeeping and tax filings with different providers Starting today, when you sign up for monthly bookkeeping, your first year of corporate taxes are filed for free (save $1,950+): • Delaware Franchise Tax • Federal Corporate Tax (Form 1120) • 1 State Corporate Tax filing We’ll also handle Form 5472 if you’re an international founder. All filed by our CPA-led team. If you’re a Delaware C-Corp and haven’t filed yet:
David J Phillips367,759 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
Speed to lead sounds like a sales tactic It's actually the whole game Ruben Harris knows this better than anyone He built a 300-person call center across 3 countries to reach 1M people a month ...and saw exactly where the ceiling was The problem isn't effort. It's physics. A working-class student fills out a form at 10 PM. Nobody's staffed at 10 PM So 90% of leads go cold Not because they weren't interested Because nobody got back to them fast enough Outrival's AI agents respond in under a minute They call, text, email, and follow up One client made $ 10M in new revenue from leads they already had The best outbound AI isn't replacing humans It's doing the work humans never had time to do 🎙️ Ruben Harris, CEO & Co-Founder, OutRival on Fondo.com START Huge thanks to Rippling for making this episode possible!
David J Phillips80,116 просмотров • 27 дней назад
The internet was the training set for intelligence Nobody has built the equivalent for the physical world Previously, Lucas Ngoo co-founded Carousell, scaled it $1B+ Now at CortexAI he's collecting the data robotics labs need to train foundation models Cameras, VR headsets, glasses on factory workers, retail workers, everyday people. Recording real-world manipulation work Not building the robot. Not training the model. Collecting what goes in 2026: scale data 2027+: start rolling robots out Initially 90% teleoperation, 10% autonomy While humans step in, the system keeps learning That's the flywheel toward full autonomy 🎙️ Lucas Ngoo, Co-Founder & CEO, CortexAI on Fondo.com Start (full ep in comments)
David J Phillips110,268 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
Today, I’m thrilled to share that has raised a $7M seed round to accelerate our mission of putting accounting on autopilot for startups. With Fondo, startups don’t need to worry about tax penalties, financial statement errors, or missing out on up to $500k in tax credits. Onboard in minutes then set & forget — taxes are filed on time, timely and accurate financial reporting is delivered, and cash back tax credits from the IRS (up to $500k per year) are claimed and received. Over 1,000 startups trust us to put their bookkeeping, taxes, and tax credits on autopilot and starting today any startup can try Fondo for $1: We are very grateful for our supporters in this round. The round is led by マネーフォワード (Sandy Kimura, 辻庸介/Yosuke Tsuji@マネーフォワードCEO) with participation from Y Combinator (Gustaf Alströmer, Michael Seibel, Dalton Caldwell, Arnav Sahu), @foolventures (Maggie Dorn, Brendan Mathews, Abigail Malin), Next Coast Ventures (Mike Smerklo, Michael Maloney, Kaitlyn DeBernardo), twenty two ventures (Katey Caldwell), a16z scout fund (Theo - t3.gg, Warren Shaeffer), Index Ventures scout fund (Nitzan Shapira), Costanoa Ventures scout fund (Todd Johnson), 1121.vc (Mike Rosengarten), Rho (Everett Cook), Capchase debt (Miguel Fernandez) and angels including Craig J. Lewis, Chris Bakke, james hawkins, Josh Cohenzadeh, Greg Castle, Loren Brill, Austen Allred, , Matt Doka, shell shock, Jason Levin, David Walker, Shail Patel , Reuben Torenberg, Danika Koenig, Bisla, & others.
David J Phillips118,162 просмотров • 1 год назад
“I hate CRMs” (so he built one you don’t log into) Octolane = self-driving CRM Gmail · Calendar · Meeting summaries · 1-line JS → captures deals, drafts follow-ups, updates stages & more The origin wasn't a pitch. It was a product: • One shipped daily • Fixed bugs live • Let the market watch Built in public 👉 $2.6M raised in <1 week (no deck) 👀 Free plan launches Jan 27 🎙️ Coffee with One 🇺🇸, CEO/Co-founder Octolane AI on Fondo.com Start 00:30 Self-driving CRM; no login 01:50 Auto-updates; drafts follow-ups 04:05 1-line JS IDs visitors 04:45 Connect Gmail; 30-day scan 05:34 Pricing: free; $49/seat; Jan 27 06:28 Webhooks/APIs; AI chat Q2 07:54 Duke→Mintlify→YC 09:30 Salesforce Tower moment 11:30 $2.6M; no pitch deck 12:13 Focus ≠ tunnel vision 13:45 Build in public 14:50 Character over credentials 17:03 Better models = better product 20:39 "We already have AGI" 22:24 SF is back; Mayor Lurie 24:19 Public now; PLG; Jan 27 launch
David J Phillips29,079 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад
The internet is getting agentified Winners make agents deployable. Routable. Trusted. New distribution is agent-first Your audience isn’t developers It’s their agents Dedalus Labs = Vercel for AI Agents What it does (so you ship): • Hosts your MCP servers on their cloud • Autoscaling + load balancing handled • Idea → production in one click • OpenAI-compatible SDK = one clean API for orchestration • Route any LLM, connect any MCP tool from the hosted marketplace • Ship in minutes Host MCP. Autoscale. Load balance. Click - you’re in prod. 🎧 Cathy Di Co-founder & CEO Dedalus Labs on Fondo.com Start 00:23 Dedalus: hosts MCP; ship fast 01:07 Users: weekend hackers → early founders 01:39 Break-In: 3-week sprint, credits, demo day 03:40 MCP: tools as capabilities 05:22 APIs vs MCP: overlap, reliability, auth 07:05 Open vs closed: agents route around walls 07:57 Marketplace 08:19 Private servers: benchmarking; web agents, APIs 11:27 Follow Cathy & Dedalus
David J Phillips27,396 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад
Stop begging a model for magic. Start directing. Koyal is an agentic AI filmmaking platform It turns a script - or even raw audio - into a film you can cut, recut, and release It starts where filmmakers start: performance Then agents do what a crew would: scenes, shots, retakes Multilingual script → audio → video Agentic lip-sync with believable motion Characters that stay themselves across scenes Because real directors don’t “prompt” a movie They write. Perform. Reshoot. Koyal brings AI to that century-old workflow 🎙️ Mehul Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO koyal.ai (YC F25) on Fondo.com Start 00:00 Intro to Mehul and Koyal “Agentic AI filmmaking platform” 01:10 Most exciting videos on the platform 01:34 Music video and filming at a UNESCO site with AI 02:55 Origin story from text-to-3D gaming startup to AI filmmaking 03:24 The early days of Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and the AI image explosion 04:22 Why the gaming industry is a "thankless" place for startups 04:50 "why isn't this a startup?" moment 05:15 meme pages, standup comedy, and scriptwriting 07:08 How Koyal works: the "Pixar process" without a camera 08:30 Launching the first video hackathon at YC 10:47 Where to follow and try Koyal
David J Phillips25,753 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад
ANNOUNCEMENT: We finally did it Years of negotiation One perfect domain @tryfondo is now 100x easier to find us, log in, and get your taxes filed — with up to $500k back from the IRS ⏰ 9 days left to file (October 15) Comment “ for FREE AirPods when you sign up for the upcoming tax deadline by Friday
David J Phillips39,933 просмотров • 7 месяцев назад
Suds raised his first VC fund after making 80 angel investments by the age of 25 65 were first money in Greptile Browserbase Superpower Composite Delphi Railway Extropic The journey: > South Carolina party promoter > Gen Z founder community > Wildfire drone startup > CA's largest fire hits 10 days later > Drops out > Heads west > Pivots to sales automation Pipeline > Profitable in year 1 > 80 angel investments > $10M VC fund backed by the top investors & founders in SF All by 25. A pattern he’s noticed: Two things that matter most are product differentiation & distribution differentiation We cover: • His 4-sentence cold email formula that actually works • What "right to win" means when you're evaluating founders • Why "can I pick your brain" kills your credibility instantly • How he helps founders get first revenue, build teams, and sustain momentum beyond just capital sudarshan full story on Fondo.com START 00:20 SF1 one-liner 00:33 Check size, ownership targets, flexibility 01:03 SC → Bay: community, drones, withpipeline 03:27 80 angel bets by 25; 65 first checks 03:57 Founders & funds who backed him 04:42 The 4-line cold email that gets a “yes” 07:33 Evaluating “right to win”: product & distribution
David J Phillips25,385 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад
From queries to decisions Software should deliver the answer Eragon is an AI operating system for your company A reasoning engine that understands, learns, and acts across your entire organization. Understands your language Returns the answer - fast and accurate A "command and control center" Smaller teams. More decisions per person. Faster action. That shift requires a new layer... 🎙️ Josh Sirota, CEO & Founder Eragon on Fondo.com Start 00:57 “AI operating system” 01:20 1977 + Oracle context; “the original RAG” 04:42 CRMs: tomorrow’s CDs 05:02 Reimagining the org chart 05:47 Take action → Operate faster 06:37 Workflow/ontology
David J Phillips22,427 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад
Founders ask all sorts of questions, but one comes up more than almost any other “How much should I pay myself?” It sounds like it should be easy to answer It isn’t If you’re up for it, join 400+ founders who have already taken this short 8-question anonymous survey It takes less than 30 secs, and will help us build something you and founders everywhere can use to make better decisions:
David J Phillips28,297 просмотров • 6 месяцев назад
Microsoft has 3 million followers Their posts get a couple hundred likes Satya Nadella posts product updates and gets 20,000 People buy from people, not logos If you're a founder and you're not posting, you're leaving distribution on the table Jameson Zaballos was an AI engineer and left Microsoft's on-call grind to build Napa with Chris Bakke (who told his last startup to Elon after going viral every day for a year) How founders can start creating content: > Start with memes - humor drops people's guard > Turn passive scrolling into active scrolling (bookmark everything) > Remix viral formats for your ICP > Test for 2-4 weeks. Cull the misses. Compound the winners. If posting feels cringy, keep going Your competitors won't That's your moat 🎙️ Jameson Zaballos, CEO & Cofounder, Napa ( on Fondo.com Start 00:08 Satya vs. Microsoft account: why founder posts win 01:16 “Go direct” defined 02:30 Engineering > direct-response copy 03:42 Talk to pain; ignore the cringe reflex 05:11 Turn scrolling into capture 06:53 Volume for 2–4 weeks; iterate by data 08:05 Memelord Technologies; meet your ICP where they are 08:42 You’re not boring 09:43 Three-line, ~30K-like LinkedIn post 10:41 Templates; off-days are normal
David J Phillips14,795 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад
They had 1.5M users on an AI ad network Then mid-YC, they pivoted To what? Chad IDE. The BrainRot IDE: Scroll TikTok, swipe Tinder, gamble on Stake - all while you code Mid-batch at YC Richard Wang & Kevin Le realized: the largest use case of AI is in the application layer. In code generation. So they pivoted And in a red ocean, something is becoming increasingly obvious: you need distribution, and you really need good marketing to break through the noise So, they set a forcing function: 1 week to go viral or “it's not even worth it” And yes, they went viral Post-YC, they're staying in SF 00:33 What is Clad Labs ? 01:01 The intentional “controversial” launch + building in public 01:32 Pivot: AI ad network → Chad IDE 02:12 Why the application layer wins 02:14 Unit economics: margin-positive codegen 03:15 Post-YC focus in SF
David J Phillips13,498 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
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