Pujun Bhatnagar dropped out of Stanford, Harved, and MIT to build startups. He decided to build in an unsexy industry and it worked. He doubled Kintsugi’s valuation to $75M in 3 months.

📚 1,800 Pitch Decks (Free) → deck-database.carrd.co

Follow Pujun’s journey:
🐦 X → x.com/pujun_ai
💼 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/pujun
🚀 Startup → trykintsugi.com

Follow us:
🔔 Subscribe → youtube.com/@callmehouck?sub_confirmation=1
📝 Newsletter → join.foundingjourney.com
📈 Founder Membership → upgrade.foundingjourney.com
💼 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/michael-houck

In this conversation we discuss:

Kintsugi

• (00:00 ) — Intro
• (00:57 ) — What Kintsugi does & why it's successful
• (14:22 ) — What Kintsugi means

Founder Mode

• (03:15 ) — Why Pujun did an "unsexy" business
• (09:40 ) — AM frequency vs. Pujun's FM frequency
• (12:29 ) — What happens to ambition when success comes
• (26:20 ) — Pujun's mindset shifts over time
• (32:20 ) — Pujun's toughest situation with co-founders
• (59:10 ) — Dropping out of academia 3x
• (1:07:20 ) — What Pujun does when not performing at his best
• (1:10:00 ) — Pujun's spices

AI & Technology

• (05:36 ) — What problems AI can solve
• (19:44 ) — Successfully building AI PLG
• (21:44 ) — The future of AI models
• (51:14 ) — Differences between the ML & LLM gold rush
• (54:46 ) — How to identify AI snake oil

Growth & Strategy

• (17:06 ) — Focusing on building good software
• (24:31 ) — Tradeoffs that come with scale
• (34:51 ) — Having conviction & discipline
• (36:11 ) — Who Pujun & Kintsugi looks for in teammates
• (38:09 ) — Doubling valuation in 3 months time
• (42:04 ) — Optimizing for minimal dilution
• (43:53 ) — Ruthless prioritization when scaling

Rapid Fire

• (1:12:09 ) — Who is one investor you’d recommend?
• (1:13:33 ) — One thing you'd change about startups?
• (1:16:22 ) — Advice for first-time founders?
• (1:16:55 ) — Something you believe that most disagree with?