E19: Overcoming Self-Doubt to Become a Founder with Erik Bernhardsson Artwork

Zero Prime Podcast

The Zero Prime Podcast with Pete Soderling explores the early stories of top startups as seen through the eyes of their engineer-founders. In each episode we uncover insights on what it takes to start a company as an engineer in the words of the founders themselves. From the most cutting edge infrastructure companies to the newest trends in developer tooling, we introduce you to the engineer-founder personalities behind the up and coming software startups that you can’t afford to ignore.

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Zero Prime Podcast

E19: Overcoming Self-Doubt to Become a Founder with Erik Bernhardsson

December 28, 2023 • Data Council • Episode 19

0:00 | 23:48

In this episode, I chat with Erik Bernhardsson, co-founder and CEO of Modal, about his journey from Spotify engineer to startup CTO to startup founder. Erik takes us back to his early days as a software engineer and shares how his transformative years at Spotify ignited his startup mindset. We discuss the challenges he faced during his transition from engineer to founder, including overcoming self-doubt and stepping into a leadership role. Erik also talks about his experience building open source projects and what he's built so far at Modal, outlining challenges they've encountered and what he's most proud of to-date. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in tech entrepreneurship and personal growth.

Highlights:
[00:40] - Erik shares about his early jobs and how they shaped his career and future desire to be a founder
[2:05] - When Erik realized he wanted to be a founder (or gained the confidence to be one)
[3:55] - Diving into the people management side of building founder confidence
[5:50] - How open source projects can aid in building your technical leadership skills
[7:55] - Erik shares his thoughts on what can be done with data and how data is key to successful consumer products
[10:15] - Paradigms and pitfalls about the open source world
[13:52] - Digging into Modal, why Erik started Modal and what he’s most proud of so far
[17:30] - Figuring out where the MVP line is in startup engineering
[21:33] - Differentiating yourself with stronger moats
[22:17] - Erik shares the most surprising thing about becoming a CEO

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Pete Soderling

Host