Scaling Nerds | Startup Marketing, Fundraising and Sales

Claude for founders only pays off when it keeps working while you don't. Jake Berber's setup chased me five or six times, every three business days, to reschedule this very recording, in a voice that sounded exactly like his. I knew Claude wrote those messages and it still felt like the most on-top-of-it guest I've ever had. What would you do with three or four extra hours every day?
Jake is CEO and co-founder of Prefer, a Singapore startup that makes coffee and cacao alternatives through fermentation. He leads sales, and he walks you through the Claude Cowork setup behind it: a second brain that merges email, CRM and meeting notes, a daily morning briefing, scheduled follow-up drafts and an NDA redlining agent. You also hear how he turns a stack of conference business cards into follow-ups in about an hour, built a financial model in 90 minutes, and why LinkedIn beats cold email for his outreach.

LINKS
Could use a strategic advisor on your communications and founder branding? Work with Marina at https://www.scalingnerds.com/
Marina Schmidt (host) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/
Jake Berber (guest) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakeberber/
Prefer (Jake's company): https://prefer.coffee/
Claude Cowork: https://claude.com/product/cowork
Wispr Flow (voice dictation): https://wisprflow.ai/
Supabase: https://supabase.com/
Airtable: https://www.airtable.com/
Wikipedia, Signs of AI writing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Claude for founders: how to get 3 to 4 hours back every day
02:39 - Claude Cowork setup: second brain, skills and scheduled tasks
11:15 - Founder sales with Claude: morning briefing, NDAs, follow-ups
20:12 - LinkedIn posts with Claude: hooks, tone of voice, AI patterns
25:08 - Fundraising with Claude: due diligence Q&A, financial model, pitch deck
32:27 - Claude usage tips: token limits, model choice, team adoption

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
A practical startup podcast episode on Claude for founders. Jake Berber, CEO of Prefer, shows how he uses Claude Cowork for startup marketing, sales follow-ups and fundraising. You get his approach to LinkedIn content and founder branding, plus how he handles due diligence questions, a financial model and a pitch deck with AI. If you are one of the deep tech founders short on time, this episode helps you automate admin and spend your hours on customers, investors and storytelling.

KEYWORDS
claude for founders, claude cowork, ai for startups, founder sales, sales follow-ups, linkedin for founders, ai fundraising, financial model, pitch deck, due diligence, startup marketing, startup podcast, deep tech founders, founder branding, fundraising

Customer discovery is the one piece of startup advice everyone repeats, and it can still steer you straight into the iceberg. You spend dozens or even hundreds of hours talking to customers, find a burning problem and build the fix. Then nobody pays. What if the problem was never the point, and the real question is who would be weird not to buy from you?
Rob Snyder is a Harvard Business School grad, former McKinsey consultant and author of The Power of Pull. He teaches and advises founders at Harvard. You get his PULL framework (Project, Unavoidable, List of options, Limitations) and learn why polite feedback like "this is really impressive" is a soft no. You hear how an eBay security chief said a tool would save $40 million a year and still did not buy, how Wiz began by asking CISOs what they would pay for, and how Rob's own company hit $1M ARR on spreadsheets. Plus the four questions that turn a discovery call into a demand diagnosis, and why deep tech founders should pre-sell before the lab work is done.

LINKS
Could use a strategic advisor on your communications and founder branding? Work with Marina at https://www.scalingnerds.com/
Marina Schmidt (host) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/
Rob Snyder (guest) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/
Rob Snyder's website: https://robsnyder.org/
The Power of Pull by Rob Snyder: https://robsnyder.org/book
The Heart of Innovation: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Heart-Innovation-Navigating-Authentic-Demand/dp/152300570X
Wiz: https://www.wiz.io/
Clay: https://www.clay.com/
Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857086197

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Customer discovery vs the PULL framework
03:34 - How to sell to corporates: find the internal champion
06:05 - Buying signals: why polite feedback is a no
10:46 - Why customer discovery interviews fail and how to pre-sell deep tech
31:42 - From failed product to $1M ARR: Rob's story
38:52 - Sales call questions that replace customer discovery interviews

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This startup podcast episode shows deep tech founders how to run customer discovery that ends in a sale, not in polite feedback. Rob Snyder explains the Pull framework, why interviews create the illusion of knowledge, and how to pre-sell before your product exists. You learn how to find the internal champion in a corporate account, read real buying signals and ask the Hail Mary question. Useful for anyone working on startup marketing, founder branding, startup storytelling, fundraising or a pitch deck that needs proof of real customer demand.

KEYWORDS
customer discovery, customer discovery interviews, pull framework, the power of pull, rob snyder, product market fit, pre-selling, sales calls, startup marketing, startup podcast, pitch deck, fundraising, deep tech founders, founder branding, startup storytelling

Most investors skip your market sizing slide. Not because the number is too small, but because a $5 billion figure pulled off Statista tells them nothing about how you get your first customer. And when you claim 1% of a huge market, you quietly undercut the entire deck you just spent ten slides building. So what does a market slide that actually sells the business look like?
Otto Pohl helps deep tech founders tell better company stories, with a focus on university spinouts. Former journalist, serial entrepreneur, head of communications for startups, and he has taught entrepreneurial communications at USC. In this episode he and Marina take apart the TAM SAM SOM habit and rebuild the market slide from the bottom up. You will hear why the same blood-analysis technology needs three completely different market pitches depending on whether you are talking to a medtech VC or to SoftBank, how a data center cooling startup found its one number by anchoring on PUE instead of the total market, why conquering Belgium can be a more convincing first move than claiming the world, and what changes in your market narrative between pre-seed and Series A. Plus the reason academic founders keep showing up to the beach in a tuxedo.

LINKS
Could use a strategic advisor on your communications and founder branding? Work with Marina at https://www.scalingnerds.com/
Marina Schmidt (host) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/
Otto Pohl (guest) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ottopohl
Otto Pohl's website & biweekly newsletter: https://www.ottopohl.com/
Otto's consulting, Core Communications: https://www.ottopohl.com/services

CHAPTERS
00:00 - What the market sizing slide is actually for
14:27 - Bottom-up market sizing: the numbers investors believe
41:02 - Picking your wedge: why a small first market wins
49:34 - Academic vs business communication: the tuxedo at the beach
54:15 - How market sizing changes from pre-seed to Series A
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
A practical guide to market sizing for startup pitch decks, built for deep tech and university spinout founders. Otto Pohl and Marina Schmidt cover TAM SAM SOM and its limits, bottom-up market sizing, how the market slide connects to your go-to-market strategy, choosing a beachhead market, and how investor expectations shift from pre-seed to Series A. Scaling Nerds is a startup podcast on communications, storytelling and PR for VC-backed founders raising their next round.
KEYWORDS
market sizing, tam sam som, pitch deck, market slide, bottom-up market sizing, go-to-market strategy, beachhead market, investor pitch, deep tech startup, university spinout, fundraising, startup marketing, startup storytelling, founder branding, startup podcast

28.10. - changed the title (M)

The Future of Media, AI & Founder Visibility
Guest: Steven PerlbergLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/sperlberg/⁠ · Merantix Capital: ⁠https://www.merantix-capital.com⁠Head of Communications at Merantix Capital — Berlin-based VC investing in early-stage AI. Former reporter at WSJ, BuzzFeed News, and Business Insider covering media, tech, and politics. Happy to connect with journalists exploring life after reporting.
Host: Marina SchmidtLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/⁠ · Website: ⁠https://www.scalingnerds.com⁠Communications advisor helping science and tech founders get seen, heard, and backed — on stages, podcasts, and in the press.

The media landscape is shifting fast — and as a founder, understanding that shift is no longer optional. Steven Perlberg, Head of Communications at Merantix Capital and former tech journalist at the Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed News, and Business Insider, joins Marina to unpack what AI, fragmentation, and the death of the "mushy middle" mean for how founders should think about visibility, PR, and media strategy.
Warning: this one gets philosophical.
US vs. European tech media — The fundamental difference is size and reach. US outlets skew toward covering Silicon Valley companies, making it harder for European seed-stage startups to break through without a strong narrative hook, major fundraising news, or a US expansion angle. Steven's rule: define your goal first, then pick the outlets that match it.
Why founders should pitch journalists directly — When Steven was a reporter, a direct email from a founder saying "I cover your space, want to grab coffee?" always got a yes. Today's version of the five-reporter shortlist might include a Substack writer or LinkedIn creator. Build those relationships personally, not through agencies.
The AI slop problem — Faceless, generic AI content is flooding every channel. The counter-move: a growing premium on human faces and authentic voices. OpenAI's acquisition of tech news show TBPN for reportedly hundreds of millions signals exactly this.
LLMs as the new search — If your audience is getting their news via AI tools instead of clicking TechCrunch, the tier of the outlet matters less than it used to. What matters is that your company and point of view exist across enough credible sources to be surfaced by LLMs. GEO is becoming as important as SEO.
Opinions as the new gold — As information becomes a commodity, what becomes scarce and valuable is judgment, taste, and a distinctive point of view. Founders who show up consistently with a genuine perspective are positioned to become trusted, parasocial key opinion leaders in their space.
The 10-80-10 rule for AI-assisted content — 10% you → 80% AI → 10% you again to edit, humanize, and make it sound like yourself. Prompt it to use your actual language from transcripts and speeches. Don't let it default to "momentum" and bullet points.
Trust Me, I'm Lying — Ryan Holiday
TBPN — live tech news show acquired by OpenAI
ETN — European equivalent of TBPN

Make your investor updates the highest-leverage tool to unlock intros, hires, and your next round.
In this episode, you get a full, practical breakdown of how to write investor updates that actually work. We cover how to keep them fast and simple, what to include (and what to leave out), how to structure wins, losses, and asks, and how to turn a simple email into a system that builds trust, momentum, and fundraising advantage over time.
Why investor updates are one of the most underused growth tools

How to use updates to activate your investors (not just inform them)

The ideal structure: reflection, highlights, metrics, wins/losses, asks

How to balance transparency with confidence when things go wrong

What changes from pre-seed → Series A and beyond

How to keep updates short, readable, and high-signal

When and how often to send them (and why consistency matters more than length)

How to use updates during a live fundraising round to create momentum and FOMO

Common mistakes: radio silence, overdesign, inconsistent formats, and bloated content

Investor updates are not newsletters—they are operating tools

“Radio silence is a kiss of death” → consistency builds trust

Investors want both wins and problems—and how you handle them

Short, structured, and regular beats long and sporadic

Your asks are the leverage point—don’t bury them

A strong update builds a track record over time, not just a snapshot

Daniel Ruben’s article on investor updates (Solvable Syndicate):
https://www.solvablesyndicate.com

Newsletter platforms:
https://www.beehiiv.com
https://mailchimp.com

Writing reference:
On Writing Well by William Zinsser

FoodTech Weekly newsletter:
https://www.foodtechweekly.com

Solvable Syndicate:
https://www.solvablesyndicate.com

LinkedIn:
(link in episode description)

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
marina@wearekinetik.com
Could use some help with your comms?
Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.wearekinetik.com/⁠

Scaling Nerds helps science and tech founders master the communication skills behind fundraising, hiring, and growth—so you can scale faster without relying on luck.

Keywords
Investor updates, startup investor communication, founder communication strategy, fundraising strategy, startup fundraising tips, venture capital communication, investor relations startups, startup growth strategy, founder updates, startup metrics reporting, pre-seed startup advice, seed stage fundraising, Series A preparation, startup storytelling, founder transparency, startup email strategy, investor engagement, startup accountability, startup communication systems, scaling a startup, deep tech founders, startup leadership communication