This week on Playbook, Michael sits down with Adam Garfield, founder of SpeedETab, on what it really takes to build from zero.
Just don't die. That was his number one rule. It was his life savings on the line. No soft landing. No acquisition path. Just showing up, going to customers, and refusing to take no for an answer.
The only option was to make it work.
Episode 5 with @adamgar is now live. Catch it on YouTube. Link in bio
Special thanks to our sponsors at Airwallex — the all-in-one global payments platform built for fast-growing businesses. Whether you're paying international contractors, managing multi-currency accounts, or scaling across borders, Airwallex makes it seamless.
Follow them: @airwallex
Learn more: @airwallex
#B2B #Founders #Startups
Most founders are pitching the wrong hero.
It's not your product. It's not your company. It's the person sitting across the table.
Can you make me look good? Can you help me win? That's all your customer is asking.
Flip the script. Make them the hero. Watch what happens.
Episode 4 with @adamgar is now live. Catch it on YouTube. Link in bio
Raising capital can kill your company.
The more you raise, the narrower your exit options become.
When my guest @adamgar started, it was his life savings on the line. No board. No pressure to swing for the fences. Just one rule: don't die.
That's freedom. That's how you win
Episode 4 with @adamgar is now live. Catch it on YouTube. Link in bio
@peteryared on the one thing nobody tells you about building a company:
You have to actually enjoy getting punched in the face. The rejection. The sleepless nights. The grind never changes. If you can't find a way to love the pain, you're not built for this.
Episode 2 is live. Click link in bio
Is anybody actually coding anymore?
@peteryared says that question misses the point entirely. Every generation moves further from the machine. Vibe coding is just the next iteration of that evolution. You're not telling the computer exactly what to do. You're describing what you want.
Think logically. The rest is just tooling.
Episode 2 is live. Click link in bio
Not everything needs an immediate response, even when it feels like it does.
Wait a day. Talk to your co-founder. Let it settle. The right decision usually shows up when you stop reacting and start thinking.
Watch the full episode on YouTube with @peteryared . Link to episode
Attention is non-renewable. You get one shot at real consideration.
If the shelf is empty when they show up — they don't bookmark you for later. They recategorize you: not ready. Permanently.
Most founders optimize for the room before they've earned it. That's not strategy. That's anxiety in a growth costume.
Build the thing that commands the room. Then walk in.
Watch the full episode with @peteryared on YouTube. Link to episode
đź”— AgentCloak: /products/agentcloak
Special thanks to our sponsors at Newmark — the go-to commercial real estate team for fast growing companies.
đź”— Matt Himmelsbach: /people/matt-himmelsbach
đź”— Brandon Shores: /people/brandon-shores
Most founders build to impress investors.
Matthew Vega-Sanz @mateovegasanz built to not need them.
That is when everything changed. After 526 rejections and nearly running out of money, the investors started chasing him. Not the other way around.
Episode 2 of Playbook Miami is live.
Catch the full episode on YouTube. Link in bio
Thank you to our sponsors
/people/matt-himmelsbach
E: [email protected]
P: 413-847-6767
E: [email protected]
P: 305-350-0926
In 2014, Fred Voccola told investors he was building a multi-billion dollar software company in Miami. They said his employees would stare out the window and party all day.
Today Kaseya has 2,000+ employees in the city. $1.5B ARR. $15B valuation. Over 150 marriages between staff. Liquid millionaires—not paper, liquid—running to Fred’s office crying because they just bought their parents their first house. Brought their abuela over from Cuba.
Now Fred just relocated @simprosoftware —Australia’s most valuable native software company—to Miami as North American HQ. Chairman & CEO. $300M+ revenue. 450,000 users. Targeting $1B ARR. Hiring several hundred in South Florida in 18 months.
His former COO? Now CEO of WatchGuard. Moving it to Miami. His former CPO? CEO of UpShop. Same building as Fred. Miami.
This is The Playbook—18 episodes extracting the operational frameworks behind outcomes like these. No panels. No thought leadership theater. Just the math of how the machine actually runs.
We’re starting with Fred because the pattern is the point: find an industry running at 7-11% margins, collapse the cost structure, and change the unit economics of an entire workforce’s life. He did it for MSPs at Kaseya. He’s doing it now for the $150B global trades economy—plumbers, electricians, field crews—through AI-first infrastructure.
His talent thesis doubles as a city thesis: labor costs 50% below NYC/SF. An immigrant workforce that tolerates risk and pivots every four hours. Five hungry FIU grads over an Oracle VP riding a wave. A city where people actually have dinner together across political lines.
Fred built the proof before anyone believed the thesis. Now the thesis is obvious.
Episode 1 is live.
Capital One, a McLean-based financial services and payments company, acquired Brex, a San Francisco-based fintech platform for corporate cards and spend management, in a $5,150,000,000 acquisition led by Capital One. Founded by Pedro Franceschi, Brex built an AI-native finance platform combining cards, banking, and spend software in one system.
The acquisition accelerates Capital One’s push into business payments and modern finance infrastructure.
Brex will continue operating under its brand, with Franceschi remaining CEO. The transaction strengthens Capital One’s software-driven approach to serving businesses at scale.
FOUNDERS: Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi
INVESTORS: Capital One
ROUND: Acquisition
AMOUNT: $5,150,000,000
HQ: #SanFrancisco #California
#VentureCapital #Brex #PedroFranceschi CapitalOne TradedVC
