E17: Bharat Vasan on Lessons from Raising $1B, Multiple Startup Exits and Hero's Journey for Founders

Feb 20, 2026

Bharat Vasan, serial entrepreneur and leader of Intangible building 3D communication tools with generative AI. He reflects on how a military upbringing shaped adaptability. They explore founder identity, culture as a tiny cult, co-founder dynamics, followership, resource allocation, and how to balance mission, people and storytelling in building companies.

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INSIGHT

Adaptability From A Military Upbringing

Military-style frequent moves taught Bharat adaptability to new cultures and rapid fit-in skills.
That adaptability helped him craft narratives and pivot quickly as a founder.

INSIGHT

Storytelling Is A Founder Superpower

Bharat links early love of writing to stronger storytelling as a founder.
He says authentic belief in your story sustains you through startup volatility.

ADVICE

Hire Missionaries, Not Mercenaries

Hire missionaries not mercenaries: pick people who believe in the mission, not just skill sets.
Make early hires feel ownership so they stick through hard times.

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Of all the guests I have had on the show, Bharat has probably had the most dynamic career. He has been an executive at public companies, been a venture capitalist, an investment banker and a founder.

Our story goes back to when I got David Friedberg (Cohost All-In Podcast, Cofounder Ohalo, The Production Board) for the Building Atoms Summit in Nov 2023. My internal champion was the Chief Brand Officer of The Production Board at the time, Rachel Konrad who has become a friend and mentor. She just found the story of how I just orchestrated running into Friedberg outside Starbucks really funny and gave it her all to make the event happen.

Since I have known Rachel, she has been telling me to meet Bharat and somehow knew that we would get along. After a couple of failed attempts over 2 years we finally got together over a dinner I hosted and have become friends ever since. She probably described him best as “lighthearted but not lightweight” and that will come across in our conversation.

We talk about our military upbringing and how that teaches adaptability, culture at companies and how startups are like little cults, how life is different at the abstracted management layer in corporates vs. startups, storytelling, resource allocation, time management, insiders vs. outsiders and the value of a network and more.

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Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction02:50 - Bharat’s career trajectory 07:36 - What military upbringing taught me 11:02 - Being authentic to yourself 19:47 - The co-founder dynamics and culture building28:57 - The navy vs. pirate team structure32:56 - What does follower-ship mean? 40:11 - What comes first? The mission or the people?43:20 - All startups are cults 48:15 - How Bharat allocates his time1:00:12 - Learning from Venture, Corporate and Startups01:12:24 - Resource allocation 01:22:03 - Developing a thesis and discarding an idea01:31:22 - An outsider becoming an insider01:42:52 - How should one build trust 01:47:48 - Building value over time 1:56:40 - Choosing What Not To Build2:03:00 - Why Canva & Figma Worked and the Future of Media02:15:45 - Distribution vs. Production2:25:40 - What Compounds as a Founder02:27:48 - Closing Rapid Fire

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