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Artwork for Knuckle Up with Nakul

Knuckle Up with Nakul

Nakul Mandan
Artificial Intelligence
Culture
Rubrik
Decagon
Workos
Leadership
High-Growth Companies
Product Market Fit
Ashwin Sreenivas
Notion
Nominal
Entrepreneurship
Recruiting
Rubrik Agent Cloud

Knuckle Up is about the HOW of building iconic companies. Recruiting, culture, intensity, the inner game of being a founder CEO. The stuff that actually separates great companies from good ones. Hosted by Nakul Mandan (GP, Audacious Ventures), each episode goes deep with founders who’ve done it at the highest level. Not highlight reels. Operating playbooks, straight from the best of the best. www.... more

PublishesWeeklyEpisodes8Founded2 months ago
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TechnologyBusinessEntrepreneurship

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Artwork for Knuckle Up with Nakul

Latest Episodes

Most founders get more stressed as the company gets bigger. Immad Akhund has spent years engineering the opposite. “I’ve tried to make it so that the pressure kind of goes down as success goes up, which I think is relatively rare,” he says. “If you’r... more

Cameron McCord spent 484 days underwater. As a submarine officer in the US Navy, he learned to run a reactor in a space where the crew sees you 24/7, even brushing your teeth, and where there is no "later" to sort out a disagreement. He still calls t... more

Akshay Kothari has spent most of his time at Notion trying to put himself out of a job. His move, repeated for years, is to run at whatever the company's biggest unsolved problem is, build the system around it, hire someone great to own it, and then ... more

Ashwin Sreenivas spent his childhood in India waking up at 5am and studying until 8:30 at night. History, geography, physics, chemistry, math. Every day, from 4th grade through 12th grade, through the Olympiads and the National Talent Search Exam. He... more

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Recent Guests

Cameron McCord
Co-founder of Nominal, former Navy submarine officer
Nominal
Episode: Startup lessons Silicon Valley won’t teach you | Cameron McCord (Co-founder of Nominal)
Akshay Kothari
Co-founder of Notion
Notion
Episode: Business used to be go karting. Now it's Formula 1.
Ashwin Sreenivas
Co-founder of Decagon, immigrant from India, former Palantir and Scale AI alumnus
Decagon
Episode: Behind the curtain of a $4.5b AI-native powerhouse
Michael Grinich
CEO of WorkOS
WorkOS
Episode: $50M ARR With 3 sales reps, no CRO, and one PM | Michael Grinich (CEO, WorkOS)
Bipul Sinha
Founder of Rubrik, former VC at Lightspeed
Rubrik
Episode: Nobody knows anything, product market fit is dead, and there's only one moat | Bipul Sinha
Qasar Younis
CEO of Applied Intuition, former YC CEO, former Google/YouTube engineer
Applied Intuition
Episode: Battle-tested playbooks for recuriting, reading the market, and adapting to AI
Frank Slootman
CEO of multiple enterprise software companies (Data Domain, ServiceNow, Snowflake)
Snowflake, Data Domain, ServiceNow
Episode: Frank Slootman on what most CEOs get wrong

Host

Nakul Mandan
Host of Knuckle Up with Nakul; GP at Audacious Ventures; frequent focus on building and scaling iconic companies, culture, and leadership.

Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars from 3 ratings
  • Excellent podcast!

    Frank is the OG force of nature CEO being interviewed by a force of nature investor! Great insight and timely with how AI is changing the world!

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    CRS UT
    United States2 months ago

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Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Startup lessons Silicon Valley won’t teach you | Cameron McCord (Co-founder of Nominal)
Q: What does Nominal do differently in recruiting and culture to sustain mission-driven talent at scale?
He emphasizes that Nominal interviews deeply (three layers deep) to understand what motivates people, prioritizes low ego and collaboration, and uses friction in interviews to gauge composure. The company also distributes offices globally while maintaining a strict emphasis on clear communication and accountability.
Startup lessons Silicon Valley won’t teach you | Cameron McCord (Co-founder of Nominal)
Q: How did your path through Navy, Capitol Hill, Anduril, Saildrone, and Lux Capital shape Nominal's culture and growth strategy?
The Navy imparted discipline and a direct, mission-focused mindset; Capitol Hill exposed him to large-scale governance; Anduril injected customer obsession and rapid execution; Saildrone and Lux Capital provided operational and investment perspectives. These experiences converge at Nominal to prioritize speed with discipline, a strong mission, and a culture that values low ego and high performance.
Behind the curtain of a $4.5b AI-native powerhouse
Q: What was the recruiting philosophy as you scaled to ~450 employees in three years?
There is a strong emphasis on cultural alignment and barraisers who ensure new hires embody Decagon's values. The founders remain involved in interviewing and emphasize hiring people who can operate across teams, move quickly, and deeply understand customer problems.
Behind the curtain of a $4.5b AI-native powerhouse
Q: Can you talk about how you and Jesse decided to work on this idea for Decagon? How did you go through the idea maze?
We started by avoiding long-term plans and focused on what customers care about today, validating problems with buyers, and iterating quickly. This buyer-centric, bottom-up approach determined the product, GTM, and configuration, leading to a scalable yet bespoke enterprise offering.
$50M ARR With 3 sales reps, no CRO, and one PM | Michael Grinich (CEO, WorkOS)
Q: What scares you the most about the next two years?
The biggest concern is whether the company can fully shed remnants of the pre-AI era and adapt its operating model to a new physics of AI-driven growth, staying flexible and avoiding dinosaur-like complacency.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Knuckle Up with Nakul

What is Knuckle Up with Nakul about and what kind of topics does it cover?

This show centers on the practical, hard-won playbooks used to scale iconic startups and maintain high-velocity culture under pressure. Across episodes, guests discuss lean org design, ambitious hiring practices, and leadership mindsets that keep a CEO and their team accountable during rapid growth. Topics frequently weave together recruiting, culture, decision-making speed, AI-driven product and engineering shifts, and the personal journey of founding and scaling companies. The conversations tend to favor actionable strategies over hype, with anecdotes that emphasize speed, radical transparency, and intentional branding as a business driver. Listeners likely include founders, operators, and investors seeking concrete frameworks to improve ... more

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Knuckle Up with Nakul launched 2 months ago and published 8 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Knuckle Up with Nakul?

Recent guests on Knuckle Up with Nakul include:

1. Cameron McCord
2. Akshay Kothari
3. Ashwin Sreenivas
4. Michael Grinich
5. Bipul Sinha
6. Qasar Younis
7. Frank Slootman

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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