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Finding The Right Idea, Co-Founder, and Early Employees with Sean Linehan

A Request for Startups Throwback

Today’s episode of Request for Startups features

A Request for Startups throwback! In this week’s episode, Sean Linehan, CEO at Exec and Squad, then-founder of Placement, joined Erik Torenberg for a live On Deck talk back in 2021 to discuss his journey from Flexport to navigating the idea maze and founding Placement. Sean shares valuable insights about burnout, taking strategic breaks, the critical importance of finding the right co-founder, and advice on hiring at the earliest stages.


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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro

(00:49) Navigating the Idea Maze: From Flexport to Placement

(07:18) Evaluating startup ideas and early-stage hiring

(11:40) Building Placement

(14:52) Art of Co-Founding: Compatibility and skills

(18:11) Sponsor: Brave

(21:03) Early-stage startup hiring strategies

(26:29) Compensation philosophy in startups

(30:47) Decoding product-market fit

(34:03) Challenges and opportunities amid COVID-19

(37:38) Acquiring customers in competitive markets

(39:33) Entrepreneurial strategies for uncertain times

(43:33) Framework on business defensibility

(47:08) Labor market trends and predictions

(50:42) Future of remote work

(53:21) Local politics and the impact on San Francisco's future

(56:33) TLDR: Healthcare, education, and housing

(58:36) Wrap

Discussion about this podcast

"Request for Startups"
"Request for Startups" with Erik Torenberg
Request for Startups is a show with tech insiders about products and companies that should exist, but haven’t yet. A rotating lineup of tech founders and investors join Erik Torenberg to share their requests for startups they want to exist in the world, and also share their stories of navigating the idea maze in different sectors so founders don’t have to reinvent the wheel anymore. Listen first, then build.
Guests in season 1 include Talia Goldberg, Greg Isenberg, Romeen Sheth, Aashay Sanghvi, Imran Khan, Qiao Wang, Gagan Biyani, Nick deWilde and more
Request for Startups is part of the Turpentine podcast network. Learn more: www.turpentine.co