business
Hosted by Katie Whitcraft and Maria Pienaar · business · EN-US
Ops or Die is the no-fluff podcast where ScaleSpark’s Katie Whitcraft and Maria Pienaar get real about the operations chaos that kills startups—and how to fix it. Hear unfiltered takes, practical tips, and interviews with founders, VCs, and ops pros who know what it takes to scale smart and stay alive.
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
29%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchOps or Die is the no-fluff podcast where ScaleSpark’s Katie Whitcraft and Maria Pienaar get real about the operations chaos that kills startups, and how to fix it. Hear unfiltered takes, practical tips, and interviews with founders, VCs, and ops pros who know what it takes to scale smart and stay alive.
Ops or Die! is hosted by Katie Whitcraft and Maria Pienaar. The show has published 17 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "When the Job Disappears, Who Are You? Tonya J. Long on Identity Beyond Work" (28 October 2026, 70 minutes), "Legal Is a Growth Engine: Why the Smartest Founders Lawyer Up on Day One" (30 September 2026, 55 minutes), and "You Can't Call a CEO's Baby Ugly: The Messaging Truth Founders Avoid" (17 September 2026, 63 minutes).
Ops or Die! publishes roughly every two weeks, with episodes averaging 59 minutes across 17 episodes.
Booking probability for Ops or Die! is 29%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. Ops or Die! requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. Ops or Die!'s contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for Ops or Die! are Business & Management Consulting. Ops or Die! has a business audience.
Katie Whitcraft and Maria Pienaar hosts Ops or Die!, a business podcast with 17 episodes published.
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Episode #18
Tonya J. Long is the managing partner of Daymaker Ventures, which works alongside early-stage founders to raise their first million through deal-by-deal SPVs (special purpose vehicles) and builds a community of...
Episode #16
Most founders treat legal as the paperwork you handle once a deal is on the table. Business and technology attorney Morvareed Salehpour makes the opposite case: legal architecture is part of building the product, and...
Episode #15
You Can't Call a CEO's Baby Ugly: The Messaging Truth Founders Avoid Most founders never hear the truth about their own messaging, because nobody wants to tell a CEO their website is bad. Greg Rosner built a business...
Episode #14
He lost his events and production company to the pandemic. The internal tool he built to stop wasting his own time became the product strangers emailed him to pay for, four days after it launched. Ilai Szpiezak is a...
Episode #12
Most founders treat patents as paperwork for later. That delay can cost them the asset itself. In this episode of Ops or Die, Maria Pienaar and Katie Whitcraft sit down with Shem Lachhman, managing partner and...
Episode #11
<p><b>She got FDA clearance for a transparent surgical mask in March 2020. Two months later, ClearMask was shipping worldwide — and her four co-founders still had day jobs.</b></p><p><b>Elyse Heob is the founder behind...
Episode #11
She got FDA clearance for a transparent surgical mask in March 2020. Two months later, ClearMask was shipping worldwide — and her four co-founders still had day jobs. Elyse Heob is the founder behind two healthcare...
Episode #10
<p><b>What if the culture problem you keep chasing is actually a signals problem?</b></p><p><b>Nathalie Brochstein has spent over a decade inside Fortune 100 companies untangling the mess that happens when leaders say...
Episode #10
What if the culture problem you keep chasing is actually a signals problem? Nathalie Brochstein has spent over a decade inside Fortune 100 companies untangling the mess that happens when leaders say one thing and teams...
Episode #9
<p><b>This week on Ops or Die, Katie Whitcraft and Maria Pienaar sit down with Lenica Stephen, founder and CEO of IBOSS (Interactive Business Optimization Services), to talk about the thing most founders avoid until...
Episode #8
<p><b>Most people think fundraising is the "fun" part of building a company. Christopher Hussain knows it's actually 50% of the job at early stages.</b></p><p><br/></p><p><b>He was #1 mortgage originator in the U.S. for...
Episode #7
<p><b>Most people treat operations like a back-office problem. Kerstin Lynam learned the opposite the hard way: thirty-plus years running medical research nonprofits, including a run as CEO of the Lundquist Institute...
Ops or Die!
<p><b>Which comes first—process or roles? It’s the chicken-and-egg question every growing company faces, and most get it wrong.</b></p><p><br/></p><p><b>In this episode of Ops or Die, hosts Maria Pienaar and Katie...
Episode #5
<p>In this episode of Ops or Die, hosts Katie Whitcraft and Maria Pienaar sit down with Sean Flynn, Chief Legal Officer & Co-Founder, and Stacy DeLong, Director of Marketing at SingleFile, to talk about the least sexy...
Episode #4
<p>Ready to flip the script on how you think about intellectual property? In this episode of Ops Or Die, we dive into the world of IP with Paul Kallmes—yes, the guy who turns “paperwork” into power moves. Whether you’re...
Episode #3
<p>Think ops is just paperwork? Cute. In this episode of Ops or Die, Tomika Anderson-Smith sets the record straight: operations isn’t overhead—it’s the engine that turns chaos into compounding growth. She spills what...
Episode #2
<p>Your brand isn’t your logo — it’s your startup’s first impression, emotional footprint, and a growth engine hiding in plain sight. In this episode, Maria and Katie sit down with brand strategist Esteban Arroba Del...
Episode #1
<p>Business Operations isn’t some boring back-office buzzword—it’s the backbone of your entire company. In this premiere episode, Katie Whitcraft and Maria Pienaar tear into what business ops really means, why most...
Recent guests on Ops or Die!. Study who booked and why before you pitch.
President and Lead Consultant, Belleview Consulting
National Magazine Award-winning reporter, Dakota Wesleyan University
Salehpour Legal
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