Mantle Mondays

Hosted by Amar Varma and Amit Jethani, Mantle Mondays brings you authentic conversations with builders, founders, and funders every other Monday.

Mantle Mondays is a business podcast hosted by Amar Varma and Amit Jethani, with 28 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Amar Varma and Amit Jethani hosts Mantle Mondays, a business show with 28 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #28

  Arif Bhanji on Lazer Technologies, the YC Playbook, and Hiring A+ Engineers

  Sep 28, 202657 minS1

  In this episode of Mantle Mondays, Amar Varma sits down with Arif Bhanji (co-founder of Lazer Technologies) to share his entrepreneurial journey, insights into AI and product development, and the importance of culture, speed, and founder-led vision in building successful tech companies. 00:00 Introducing Arif Bhanji 04:52 The timing of entering the tech and AI space 08:21 The mindset shift12:05 Building Fiix 20:23 The impact of YC 24:29 Operating at Silicon Valley speed in Canada 30:47 Understanding the role of an FDE and team composition 37:11 Hiring strategies and building a strong team 43:42 Rapid fire & closing

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  Episode #25

  Selling Outcomes, Not Software | Robert Saunders (OwnRight)

  Sep 14, 202654 minS1

  Robert Saunders grew up building iOS apps in high school, worked on Shopify's platform and Shop App teams, then left a comfortable job to bet on a problem he'd just lived through: a slow, confusing, paper-based real estate closing on his first condo. That bet became Ownright, a digital real estate law firm that handles residential property closings, sales, and refinances across Ontario. In this episode, Amar Varma talks with Rob about his path from engineer to founder, and the growth journey since: The bad condo closing that became the idea for Ownright Scaling from one closing a day to 50 Where Ownright is headed next Learn more about Ownright: https://ownright.com Manage your cap table with Mantle Equity: https://www.withmantle.com/equity Follow Mantle Mondays for weekly conversations with founders building through the AI shift. 00:00 - Meet Rob Saunders 08:28 - Building Ownright 20:45 - Building inside a regulated industry 36:35 - Scaling in the AI world 44:12 - Support as a founder 47:39 - The future of Ownright 52:50 - Rapid fire & closing

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  Episode #25

  From Steve Jobs to Stealth AI: One Founder's 20 Year Journey Through Every Wave of Tech

  Jul 6, 202643 minS1

  Twenty years ago, Raj was in a room with Steve Jobs and a group of nervous AT&T executives. Jobs ended the tension by offering to hand them a billion dollars in cash on the spot. Raj watched that and spent the next two decades building companies of his own. He co-founded Localytics in 2008, two weeks before Lehman Brothers collapsed, bootstrapped it through the financial crisis, scaled it past $25 million in revenue, raised $60 million, and eventually sold it. Then built a second company acquired by Snapchat. Then spent a year at AWS as GM of Generative AI watching Fortune 500 companies build AI demos that never shipped. Now he's building again. In this episode, Raj traces the full arc. What it was like to work directly with Jobs multiple times a week before the iPhone launched. What that experience modeled about founder conviction. And how he carried it through every wave of tech that followed, mobile, analytics, cloud, and now AI. The new company is coming. This is the story of everything that led here. Follow Mantle Mondays for weekly conversations with founders building at the edge.

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  Episode #24

  The AI Coverage Gap: Why Your Insurance Policy Won't Save You

  Jun 22, 202637 minS1

  Your current insurance policy has a gap in it. Your AI system is probably sitting right in it. Karthik Ramakrishnan, CEO of Armilla AI, has spent 15 years at the frontier of machine learning. From building prediction platforms for the New York Times and Kobo, to working alongside AI godfather Yoshua Bengio at Element AI, he's seen the full arc. Now he's solving the problem enterprises won't say out loud: they're terrified of deploying AI because nobody can tell them what happens when it goes wrong. In this episode, Karthik breaks down exactly where the coverage gaps live. Why 50+ US insurers have quietly added AI exclusions to general liability policies. Why your cyber insurance won't trigger when your own AI causes a privacy breach. And what the Air Canada chatbot lawsuit means for every company deploying AI today. He also gets into the practical side. How one fintech startup used a warranty on their AI model to win banks that competitors couldn't. Why a perfect demo is no longer enough to close enterprise deals. And what Y Combinator pushed him to do that changed everything for Armilla.

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  Episode #23

  The Finance Mistakes Founders Notice Too Late with Rebecca Skvorc (ODAIA)

  May 18, 202640 minS1

  <p>Most founders obsess over growth. But Rebecca Skvorc, CFO at ODAIA, says the real question is whether your company has the foundation to survive it.</p><p>In this episode of Mantle Mondays, Rebecca joins Amar Varma to unpack what founders need to understand before the curve starts pointing up: ARR vs. CARR, net and gross revenue retention, cap table complexity, smart resource allocation, remote culture, and why finance should be treated as a strategic partner from day one.</p>

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