Jude GomilaCEO and Cofounder, Ultrametric

Jude Gomila shares advice for first-time founders | Startup Foundations

6 Apr 2021 · 3 min

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In this episode of the Startup Foundations Podcast, host Greg Miaszkiewicz interviews serial entrepreneur and angel investor Jude Gomila, founder of Golden and former seller of HazeApp to Fiverr. Jude reflects on his entrepreneurial journey and offers practical guidance for aspiring founders, especially in the context of an upcoming recession that historically spurs new company formation. He emphasizes the importance of building a product you genuinely want to work on—citing the Paul Graham principle that true belief sustains effort through tough conditions. Jude warns against the bias of assuming everyone shares your perspective, urging founders to assess whether their idea serves a niche of a few users or a broader market of millions. He recommends gaining situational awareness, empathizing with early users, creating prototypes, and iterating through a feedback loop to achieve product‑market fit. The conversation concludes with a reminder to keep building and innovating.

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Hello, founders and entrepreneurs. Welcome to the Startup Foundations Podcast. I'm your host, Greg Miaszkiewicz, and today on the show, I speak with Jude Gomila, who is CEO and founder of Golden, a startup mapping the world's knowledge. Jude is a serial entrepreneur who sold his last company, HazeApp, for $45 million to Fiverr in 2015. In addition, he's a prolific angel investor who has invested in hundreds of startups over the years. In our conversation, we discussed Jude's journey as an entrepreneur and investor. There's probably gonna be a lot of new companies forming in the next year to 3 years, in large part driven by the recession. At least that's the historical data from past recessions, that company formation and innovation increases. It's like, what advice do you have for founders that are just getting started or people who are thinking about starting a company?
Yeah, there is one piece of advice of building something that you really want yourself, and that is a Paul Grahamism. But I genuinely believe that to build something you fundamentally really believe in, that you're willing to work on when it's raining and the lights are out and it's cold, you're still willing to keep working on it. And if you want it, there probably is a group of people that want it as well. That's not always the case. There are, yeah, some things that like, you know—
There is a bias of assuming, you know, everyone thinks like you and you might just—
Oh, absolutely.
You might just be the weirdest freak out there and there's not a lot of other people who might use it.
You might be, but you're building a product. So try that and then also try to then relate it and say, well, who else are these people that also want what I wanted to build? Is it like 10 people? Is this esoteric or is it actually 10 million people? And I think if you can get the situational awareness but still build something that you really were into, then I think that's a great premise because you're going to be able to empathize better and you're going to be able to build the prototype to show them to do the feedback loop of product market fit.
All right, awesome, Jude. Thanks for joining us and thanks for the valuable advice you've shared.
It's great to see you, man. I hope you're well.
All right. All right, awesome, Jude. Thanks for joining us and thanks for the valuable advice you've shared.
It's great to see you, man. Um, I hope you're well.
Thanks for listening to the Startup Foundations Podcast, the podcast that tells the stories of startup founders and how they built their companies from the ground up. Until next time, keep building and keep innovating.