Unicorn Builders

Sean Henry: How Stord Built a Commerce Enablement Platform ($1B+ Valuation) That Rivals Amazon's Logistics Network

Sean Henry founded Stord at just 18 years old to solve a critical pain point for e-commerce brands: competing with Amazon's logistics capabilities. What began as a network of third-party warehouses has evolved into a comprehensive commerce enablement platform that helps brands deliver Amazon-like customer experiences. In this episode of Centaur Builders, Sean shares how Stord grew from a bootstrapped startup to managing 11 warehouses with over 3 million square feet, serving leading brands like Athletic Greens, Seed Health, Native, Tula, and Fly by Jing.
Topics Discussed:
Starting Stord at 18 years old after a decade of e-commerce experience
Evolving from a third-party warehouse network to a full commerce enablement platform
Building and scaling physical infrastructure alongside sophisticated software
Expanding from B2B retail fulfillment to omnichannel e-commerce
Creating a new category in the commerce infrastructure space
Implementing executive-led sales as a growth driver
Developing a marketing strategy that showcases customer success
 
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Start with a wedge product, then expand: Stord began by tackling one critical component of the supply chain—warehouse placement—before expanding to a full-stack solution. Sean explains, "Day one, we kind of stepped back and said, what is the most unique element of [Amazon's] operation and their supply chain? And it's how they place inventory across a network close to consumers to mitigate shipping costs and enable fast speeds." B2B founders should identify a specific high-impact problem, solve it exceptionally well, and use it as a platform for broader expansion.
Turn cost centers into value engines: Stord's most effective pitch is showing brands how to transform an inevitable cost (shipping and fulfillment) into a competitive advantage. Sean shared, "Our best sales pitch ever to a brand is, 'You're going to spend 10 to 15% of your revenue on your end-to-end shipping, fulfillment, returns... Let us take that from you and take it from being a fragmented, clunky cost center where you are shipping too slow, spending too much... to a value engine.'" B2B founders should focus on transforming existing, unavoidable expenses into strategic assets rather than creating entirely new cost categories.
Evolve your ICP strategically: Stord initially cast a wide net to gain volume, then narrowed their focus as they scaled. Sean advises, "Let's actually start with a wide aperture... We want to handle anyone who agrees with the problem we're solving and can get volume flowing in our network." For flywheel businesses that depend on scale, B2B founders should consider prioritizing early volume over extreme ICP precision, then refine as they grow.
Commit to executive-led sales: Stord attributes much of their growth to founder and executive involvement in sales. "Every deal at Stord has a named executive sponsor... It doesn't feel the most scalable. But then you step back as a founder and you go, okay, if 50% of my valuation or my business is driven by growth, how much time am I really investing in growth?" B2B founders should institutionalize executive involvement in key deals rather than fully delegating this crucial function too early.
Map and measure customer ROI meticulously: Stord focuses intensely on documenting specific ROI metrics for each customer. Sean cautions, "If we don't have a specific ROI mapped out for them... if we don't know every time we look at them, this is the feature and ROI they're getting the most... we should consider them pre-churn because they will leave." B2B founders should develop robust ROI tracking systems that demonstrate their solution's specific value to each customer.

The Long Road to IPO: Randy Lipps' 30-Year Journey Building Omnicell

Omnicell pioneered automation technology in healthcare, transforming from a startup in Randy's house to a publicly traded company worth over $3B. In today's Unicorn Builders episode, Randy shares his journey from identifying a critical need in healthcare while his daughter was in the ICU, to building and scaling a company that has lasted over three decades.
Topics Discussed:
Building and launching a healthcare tech company in the 1990s
Going public during the dot-com crash after three attempts
The evolution from on-premise solutions to cloud-based systems in healthcare
Transitioning from product-focused to solution-based offerings with onsite expertise
The future of autonomous pharmacy and AI integration
Maintaining relevance and growth over a 30-year journey
 
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Build trust through personal connection and domain expertise: Randy's background in healthcare and industrial engineering, combined with his personal experience in hospitals, helped him build credibility with early customers. He emphasized the importance of personally visiting customers and sharing his story to create trust in a conservative industry.
Find the right milestone that creates value: Randy's team built a working prototype with just $75,000, which immediately attracted VC interest. He notes, "The key in winning in any of these games is get to the right milestone that creates value. It's not the ultimate finished product... but it's a milestone someone can look at and say, 'Wow, this company is going to make an impact.'"
Make complex technology accessible through familiar comparisons: When marketing their solution, Omnicell found success by comparing themselves to established players: "Because we compare it to their story, to our story, that just allowed people to easily understand." While Randy didn't love referencing competitors in his pitch, it helped quickly establish credibility and understanding.
Evolve your service model based on customer outcomes: Omnicell discovered that having their experts onsite led to twice the productivity compared to customer-operated systems. This insight drove their evolution from a pure product company to a solutions provider: "Many of our products today come with experts and people on site to help you get the outcomes you want."
Think in decade-long horizons while executing in three-year cycles: Randy emphasizes the importance of having both short and long-term vision: "If you only think in two to three year increments, you're going to get to the end of one of those nodes and then you'll have nowhere to go. You need to at least have some thesis on what 5 and 10 years looks like."
Embrace constant reinvention: Randy attributes his longevity to continuous personal and professional development: "You really have to reinvent yourself every three years. What's got me to this point isn't going to do for the next three years." He recommends seeking feedback from board members and advisors who will challenge you to improve.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
 

Joshua Motta: How Coalition Created the "Active Insurance" Category ($5B Valuation)

Coalition has revolutionized the cyber insurance industry by creating an entirely new category called "active insurance." From its founding in 2017, Coalition has grown to become North America's largest cyber insurance provider, surpassing incumbents who had been in the market for over 20 years. In this episode of Category Visionaries, Joshua Motta shares how Coalition transformed from a startup to a $5B+ company by shifting demand away from traditional insurance products and establishing leadership in a new category they created.
Topics Discussed:
The evolution from cyber security as a technology problem to a risk management challenge
Creating and defining the "active insurance" category
Building and scaling distribution through existing insurance broker channels
The role of education and storytelling in category creation
Coalition's expansion beyond cyber insurance to protect digital businesses' intangible assets
International expansion strategy and future growth plans
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Create categories, don't compete for existing demand: Instead of fighting for market share in an existing category, Coalition created a new category of "active insurance." This allowed them to shift the conversation from product comparison to category versus category, where they could define the rules and measures of success.
Focus on education over pure product marketing: Coalition recognized that their core challenge was an education problem - helping businesses understand cyber risks, insurance coverage, and the value of active risk management. This informed their go-to-market strategy across all channels.
Leverage existing distribution channels effectively: Rather than building their own distribution network, Coalition convinced independent insurance brokers to adopt their new category of insurance by demonstrating 10x improvement over traditional products.
Build category awareness through multiple channels: Coalition deployed a comprehensive strategy including webinars, in-person sessions, broker training, marketing materials, website content, and executive storytelling to establish their category.
Ensure your category definition enables growth: When creating a new category, ensure it's either sufficiently broad to accommodate future expansion or intentionally narrow to drive focus. Coalition chose "active insurance" to allow expansion beyond cyber while maintaining their core differentiation.
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co

Oren Kaniel: The GTM Story of AppsFlyer ($400M in ARR)

Welcome to another episode of Unicorn Builders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Oren Kaniel, CEO & Co-Founder of AppsFlyer, a mobile attribution and marketing analytics platform that has raised over $300 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Inception of AppsFlyer: Oren shared how his first experience with an iPhone in 2011 led him to realize the potential of mobile technology, sparking the idea behind AppsFlyer.
Early Days and Challenges: He discussed the early challenges of convincing people about the growth potential of mobile, especially in a market still dominated by desktop and Blackberry users.
Focus on Data Privacy: From the beginning, AppsFlyer was built with a strong emphasis on data privacy, which Oren recognized as a critical need for the future of mobile marketing.
Bootstrapping Before Funding: Oren mentioned how the company was bootstrapped for its first few years, which instilled a strong discipline in the team and shaped the company's culture.
Navigating Fundraising: The fundraising journey wasn’t straightforward. Oren shared key insights into how they strategically positioned AppsFlyer to attract significant venture capital investment.
Building a Global Presence: Oren emphasized the importance of thinking globally from day one, highlighting how AppsFlyer expanded its operations to over 20 offices worldwide, ensuring a strong local presence in key markets. ​​
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co

Satyen Sangani: The GTM Story of Alation ($1.7 Billion Valuation)

Welcome to another episode of Unicorn Builders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Satyen Sangani, CEO & Co-Founder of Alation, a data intelligence platform that has raised over $340 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Category Creation Challenges: Alation’s journey involved building a brand-new category from scratch, which took nearly five years to be recognized. The process was long and required articulating a problem customers didn’t realize they had — data understanding and accessibility.
The Search for Product-Market Fit: Early on, the company focused on user interviews and trials, identifying that customers struggled more with writing SQL queries than data discovery. This discovery led to the development of their first product.
Resisting Temptations to Fit into Existing Categories: Although Satyen considered repositioning Alation under the emerging “data governance” category, the team chose to stick to their vision, focused on enabling data consumption, which paid off in the long run.
Building the Go-to-Market Motion: In the early days, marketing drove 90% of the company’s leads, while sales focused on enterprise deals. This inbound-heavy approach allowed them to grow without significant outbound efforts initially.
The Evolution of Data Intelligence: Alation’s positioning evolved from a data catalog to “data intelligence” as competitors emerged and the need for a broader vision became apparent. This shift helped the company compete at a higher level.
Fundraising as a Storytelling Exercise: Satyen emphasizes the importance of balancing the proof of success with the dream during investor pitches. Storytelling and the articulation of the long-term vision have been key to securing over $340 million in funding.
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
 

Robert Nishihara: The GTM Story of Anyscale ($1+ Billion Valuation)

Welcome to another episode of Unicorn Builders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Robert Nishihara, Co-Founder of Anyscale, an AI compute platform that has raised over $250 Million in funding.
 
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Anyscale's Origin Story: The company began as a commercialization effort for Ray, an open-source project tackling AI compute challenges.
AI's Early Days: In 2012, AI was still experimental until deep learning breakthroughs rapidly expanded the field, driving demand for scalable compute solutions.
The ChatGPT Inflection Point: The release of ChatGPT in 2022 turned AI into a top priority for businesses, validating Anyscale’s bets on scalable AI infrastructure.
Scaling AI for Business Impact: Many businesses are still in the experimentation phase of AI, needing rapid iteration and productionization to fully unlock AI’s potential.
AI Flexibility Is Key: Companies seek platforms like Ray that can support diverse AI workloads, from deep learning to generative AI, to future-proof their infrastructure.
Community-Driven Marketing: Anyscale’s marketing strategy revolves around growing its open-source community through events like Ray Summit, converting users into loyal customers.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co

Dimitri Sirota: The GTM Story of BigID ($1.25 Billion Valuation)

Welcome to another episode of Unicorn Builders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Dimitri Sirota, CEO & Co-Founder of BigID, a data security and compliance platform that's raised $350 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
BigID's Origin Story: Dimitri shares how the company was founded during the nascent stages of the internet and how the evolution of browsers like Mozilla sparked early excitement in the tech industry.
Data Privacy as a Market Opportunity: The idea for BigID emerged from identifying a gap in the market for data privacy and compliance, which was becoming increasingly crucial due to regulatory demands.
Securing Major Funding: The company's ability to raise $350 million is tied to its strong value proposition in the data security space and the growing importance of compliance in enterprise environments.
Early Challenges and Growth: Dimitri discusses the challenges faced in the early days of BigID, including convincing companies of the importance of data privacy and navigating the complexities of the regulatory landscape.
Market Expansion and GTM Strategy: The conversation dives into how BigID expanded its market presence, focusing on a global go-to-market strategy that involved strategic partnerships and a strong emphasis on customer success.
Future of Data Security: Dimitri offers insights into the future of data security, highlighting emerging trends in AI and automation that are set to reshape the landscape.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co

Doug Winter: The GTM Story of Seismic (Nearly $400M ARR)

Welcome to another episode of Unicorn Builders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Doug Winter, CEO & Co-Founder of Seismic, a sales enablement platform that has raised $450 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Early Vision of Sales Enablement: Doug describes how Seismic identified the gap in content management for sales and marketing, focusing on building a cloud-based solution when the market was still hesitant about the cloud.
Riding Salesforce’s Wave: Seismic leveraged the trust and groundwork laid by Salesforce to gain customer confidence in cloud-based solutions, especially in the early days when skepticism was high.
Category Creation Challenges: Doug highlights the lengthy and patient process of defining and popularizing the sales enablement category, a journey that took over five years to gain widespread industry recognition.
Large Enterprise Focus: From the outset, Seismic targeted large enterprises instead of smaller startups, a strategic decision that shaped their growth trajectory and helped secure substantial deals, including their first million-dollar customer.
Customer-Centric Growth: The company's growth strategy is rooted in a deep focus on customer satisfaction, leading to increased cross-selling opportunities and long-term partnerships with enterprise clients.
Strategic Marketing Evolution: Although the founding team was more sales-focused, Seismic invested in brand building and targeted events to establish a strong presence, eventually leading to significant milestones like the Forrester Wave recognition.
 
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
 

Jason Zintak: The GTM Story of 6sense ($5.2 Billion Valuation)

Welcome to another episode of Unicorn Builders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Jason Zintak, CEO of 6sense, the world's leading revenue AI platform that has raised over $500 in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Evolution from Predictive Scoring to Revenue AI: 6sense transitioned from a black-box predictive scoring tool to a comprehensive revenue AI platform, addressing both sales and marketing needs with transparency and actionable insights.
Critical Early Challenges: Early on, 6sense faced high churn due to a lack of context behind predictive scores, which led to a strategic pivot towards providing clear explanations and actionable workflows, ultimately regaining customer trust.
Data-Driven Decision Making: 6sense leveraged its own platform to identify its ideal customer profile (ICP), streamline sales territories, and build marketing segments, fueling rapid growth and refining its go-to-market strategy.
Building a Ubiquitous Brand: Jason emphasized the importance of branding and awareness, especially when expanding beyond tech markets. Tailoring content to different verticals was key to 6sense's success in financial services, manufacturing, and more.
Surviving Financial Strain: During a critical period, 6sense secured a bridge round under challenging conditions, ensuring the company had enough runway to demonstrate sustained sales momentum and secure a successful Series C.
Dreaming Big and Scaling Fast: Jason joined 6sense with a clear vision to build a multibillion-dollar company. The company's growth trajectory, from $5 million in ARR to $250 million, and a $40 million valuation to $5 billion, exemplifies this ambition.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
 

Rich Liu: The GTM Story of Navan ($9 Billion Valuation)

Welcome to another episode of Unicorn Builders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Rich Liu, CEO of Navan Travel, part of Navan, a global travel and expense management platform that's raised over $1.5 Billion in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Company Evolution: Navan evolved from TripActions, focusing on end-to-end travel and expense solutions, combining technology with real support to provide seamless global service.
Strategic Focus: The decision to initially target mid-market and commercial segments before scaling to enterprise was crucial for avoiding resource spread and ensuring sustainable growth.
IPO Insights: Rich shared experiences from Mulesoft's IPO, emphasizing the importance of building a durable business solving significant pain points for customers.
Market Narrative: Reframing the narrative from "cool travel tool" to "strategic lever for CFOs" helped Navan penetrate mainstream markets and diversify its customer base.
Global Scale: Navan manages billions in travel budgets, serving customers worldwide with offices and teams across multiple continents.
Marketing Evolution: Navan's marketing strategy evolved from guerrilla tactics to sophisticated growth marketing, focusing on brand awareness, demand generation, and a burgeoning product-led growth (PLG) strategy.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co