BackStartups

Craft & teaching · Global & US

Lenny's Podcast

with Lenny Rachitsky

Product, growth and career interviews with operators — the most practical show on this list about how software companies actually get customers.

Why an angel should listen

This is an operator's show rather than an investor's, and that is exactly why it belongs on an angel's list. The questions an angel struggles with in diligence — is this growth channel durable, is this retention curve normal, is this pricing sensible — are the questions this show discusses in operational detail every week.

The guests are the people who did the work rather than the people who funded it, so the answers are specific. You get the actual mechanics of how a company found its first thousand customers, which is far more useful for evaluating a pitch than a strategic overview would be.

It is also the fastest way to become literate in the vocabulary founders use. If a pitch mentions activation, aha moments or net revenue retention and you are nodding rather than understanding, a few episodes here fix that permanently.

Where to begin

Start with these

  • Episodes on growth channels and how they saturate — directly applicable to consumer and SaaS diligence.
  • Anything on pricing, which founders get wrong more often than any other operational decision.
  • Interviews with people who ran growth at a company you have heard of, for the unvarnished version.

In short

Good for

Diligence literacyGrowth and retentionUnderstanding SaaS metrics
Listen at lennysnewsletter.com

Lenny's Podcast: common questions

This is a product podcast — is it relevant to investors?
It is one of the most relevant on the list. The questions an angel struggles with in diligence — is this channel durable, is this retention normal, is this pricing sensible — are exactly what the show discusses operationally each week.
What is the fastest way to use it before a founder meeting?
Two or three episodes in the specific category you are assessing, listened to the same week. Ideas absorbed shortly before a meeting turn into questions; ideas absorbed a year ago turn into vague unease.