Realistic Early Gets
People already in Daniel's orbit or highly accessible cold reaches.
Podcast Guest Strategy
100 Ranked Guests for We Scale Startups
Warm leads · Authority builders · Hidden gems · Strategic partners
Authority Builders
Higher difficulty guests who lift credibility and audience growth.
Hidden Gems
Underexposed founders and operators with honest, useful stories.
Strategic Partners
Guests who can open doors, build partnerships, or support WSS pipeline.
Master Ranking
All 100 Guests
Ranked by overall priority: warm relationships, audience upside, and commercial potential for We Scale Startups.
| # | Name | Current Role | Suggested Episode Angle | Difficulty | Audience | Section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor Asemota | Founder, Keita Wealth Advisory / SwiftaCorp; Africa Partner, Alta Global Ventures | Building startups where the playbook doesn't exist: lessons from Africa's tech ecosystem | Easy | 8/10 | A - Early |
| 2 | Noah Adelstein | GTM Engineer Lab Founder + Rippling APAC/EMEA Growth Lead | GTM as an engineering problem: how to build a repeatable growth machine using AI and systems | Easy | 8/10 | A - Early |
| 3 | Holly Wright | Founder & CEO, Bridebook | From zero to marketplace: how Bridebook scaled without a traditional growth playbook | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 4 | Oren Cohen | Startup Operator & Strategic Referral Partner | The growth handoff: when and how founders stop being their own CMO | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 5 | Dawid Weideman | Founder, Kalium | Building Kalium: the unglamorous truth about pre-revenue GTM for technical founders | Easy | 6/10 | A - Early |
| 6 | James Gayle | Founder, Hampshire Podcast Studios & Straw Hat Social | Word of mouth at scale: how to build a business where every client sends the next one | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 7 | Sarah Finegan | Investor, Antler | What investors really want from founders pitching growth: an insider's guide | Easy | 8/10 | A - Early |
| 8 | Gabriella Bouchier | Founder, Scooch | The messy middle: what early-stage founders never tell you about building traction | Easy | 6/10 | A - Early |
| 9 | Levaughn Hall | Founder, PodVault | The podcast discovery problem: how PodVault is building the infrastructure for the creator economy | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 10 | Oren Greenberg | Growth Advisor & Consultant, London Startup Ecosystem | B2B growth in the AI era: what's working, what's dead, and what founders keep getting wrong | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 11 | Michael Louis | CEO & Co-founder, Cerebrium | AI infrastructure GTM from Cape Town: how Cerebrium generates millions in ARR without a sales team | Moderate | 8/10 | A - Early |
| 12 | Jeremy Goillot | Founder & CEO, Allo | Why PLG almost killed my startup, and how adding one salesperson tripled our ACV | Moderate | 8/10 | A - Early |
| 13 | Matthew Eisner | Head of Product & Growth; Operator & Advisor | Why your product and growth teams aren't aligned, and the systems that fix it | Easy | 6/10 | A - Early |
| 14 | Jonathan Baillie Strong | Founder & Operator, London Startup Ecosystem | The London startup advantage: why European founders build differently | Easy | 6/10 | A - Early |
| 15 | Alex Henneberg | Founder, Spear Sales | Founder to sales team: the exact playbook for your first outbound hire | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 16 | Nick, Liminal AI | Founder, Liminal AI | Building Liminal AI: what nobody tells you about GTM in the AI-native era | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 17 | Michael Cole | SVP Marketing, Everflow | How Everflow hit $28M ARR bootstrapped: the referral flywheel strategy most founders ignore | Moderate | 8/10 | A - Early |
| 18 | Bobby Samuels | CEO & Founder, Protege | $1M to $30M GMV in 12 months: the founder sales playbook nobody is talking about | Moderate | 8/10 | A - Early |
| 19 | Deboshree Das | Co-founder & CEO, Criya | From advisor to creator: how B2B consultants are building audiences that drive inbound | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 20 | Ben Glass | Founder, Advisory AI | How AI is transforming the consulting and advisory industry | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 21 | Fernando Fortini | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed based on conversation | Easy | 6/10 | A - Early |
| 22 | Agustin Rodriguez | Founder, Pleso | Building across borders: how Pleso is scaling a startup from Latin America | Easy | 6/10 | A - Early |
| 23 | Elias Ek | Entrepreneur & Investor, Taiwan Startup Ecosystem | The Taiwan startup advantage: AI, hardware, and the global opportunity most founders are missing | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 24 | Connor Riley | Founder, Farrow Agency | What agencies know that startup founders don't | Easy | 6/10 | A - Early |
| 25 | Sam Sturm | Interviewer / Partner, Founders Factory | Inside the accelerator: what Founders Factory looks for when helping startups scale | Easy | 7/10 | A - Early |
| 26 | Emily Kramer | Founder, MKT1 Newsletter & Dear Marketers Podcast | The new B2B marketing playbook for AI-native startups | Stretch | 10/10 | B - Authority |
| 27 | Elena Verna | Head of Growth, Lovable; former Amplitude, SurveyMonkey, Miro | Why the old growth playbook is dead, and what Lovable did to hit $200M ARR in under a year | Hard | 10/10 | B - Authority |
| 28 | Mark Kosoglow | CEO, Operator; ex-VP Sales at Outreach | Why outbound is broken and how to fix it | Moderate | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 29 | Alexa Grabell | Co-founder & CEO, Pocus | From zero to $1M ARR: how Pocus built a 4,000-person community | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 30 | Chris Walker | CEO, Passetto; Founder, Refine Labs | Why almost everything you know about demand generation is wrong | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 31 | Adam Robinson | CEO, Retention.com & RB2B | OLD WAY / NEW WAY: building B2B SaaS with LinkedIn as the primary growth channel | Moderate | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 32 | Guillaume Moubeche | CEO & Co-founder, Lemlist | Why I spend 70% of my time on personal brand | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 33 | Andrew Fennell | Founder, StandoutCV | 18 million visitors and $1M revenue with no investors | Moderate | 7/10 | B - Authority |
| 34 | Asia Orangio | CEO, DemandMaven | The SaaS growth diagnostic | Moderate | 8/10 | B - Authority |
| 35 | Patrick Campbell | Founder, ProfitWell; Paddle | The $200M pricing lesson | Hard | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 36 | Nathan Latka | Host, SaaStr & The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast | Inside 2,000 startup interviews | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 37 | Amanda Natividad | VP Marketing, SparkToro | Zero-click content and the death of the click | Stretch | 8/10 | B - Authority |
| 38 | Rand Fishkin | Co-founder, SparkToro; former Moz CEO | Lost, found, and built again | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 39 | Mark Roberge | Co-founder, Stage 2 Capital; ex-CRO, HubSpot | The Sales Acceleration Formula | Hard | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 40 | Thibault Louis-Lucas | Co-founder, Revid AI, Taplio, Tweet Hunter | Building 5 products to $100K MRR with no employees | Moderate | 8/10 | B - Authority |
| 41 | Wes Bush | CEO, ProductLed | Is product-led growth right for your startup? | Stretch | 8/10 | B - Authority |
| 42 | Maggie Hott | GTM Lead, OpenAI | Why OpenAI doesn't pay sales commissions | Hard | 10/10 | B - Authority |
| 43 | Tomer Chernia | VP GTM, Cursor | How Cursor went viral without paid ads | Hard | 10/10 | B - Authority |
| 44 | Corey Haines | Founder, SwipeWell | The swipe file strategy | Moderate | 7/10 | B - Authority |
| 45 | Dave Gerhardt | Founder, Exit Five; ex-CMO Drift & Privy | From CMO to community founder | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 46 | Raph Parker | First GTM hire at Segment; Founder, Mandolin | From first GTM hire to $3.2B exit | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 47 | Kyle Parrish | ex-Head of Sales, Figma | Inside Figma's early sales | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 48 | Kathleen Estreich | Partner, Pear Ventures; Co-founder MKT1 Capital | From Stripe to VC | Stretch | 9/10 | B - Authority |
| 49 | Sangram Vajre | Co-founder, Terminus; founder, GTM Partners | ABM is not dead, it evolved | Stretch | 8/10 | B - Authority |
| 50 | April Dunford | Positioning consultant; author, Obviously Awesome | Why your startup's positioning is probably wrong | Stretch | 10/10 | B - Authority |
| 51 | Sharath Keshava Narayana | Co-founder, Sanas & Observe.ai | India to the US: building enterprise SaaS from India | Moderate | 8/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 52 | Andrii Yasinetsky | Co-founder / Leadership, Diadia Health | Building a health tech startup | Easy | 6/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 53 | Aisha Raheem | Co-founder & CEO, Farmz2U | Building for a billion: agri-tech across Africa | Easy | 7/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 54 | Leroy Yau | Entrepreneur & Investor, Taiwan Startup Ecosystem | Taiwan beyond semiconductors | Easy | 6/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 55 | Joseph Buchanan | Founder, Fracti.onl | The fractional economy | Easy | 7/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 56 | Cem Dedeaga | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed based on company focus | Easy | 5/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 57 | Laszlo Balazs Szatmari | Founder / Operator | Building from Central Europe | Easy | 5/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 58 | Anton Borvanov | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed after conversation | Easy | 5/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 59 | Adwoa-Alexsis Mintah | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed, strong personal story focus | Easy | 6/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 60 | Ifeanyi Ukwu | Founder / Operator | Building global from Nigeria | Easy | 6/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 61 | Peep Laja | CEO, Wynter; Founder, CXL Institute | Why your startup's messaging is wrong | Stretch | 8/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 62 | Gina Bianchini | CEO & Co-founder, Mighty Networks | Why community is the most defensible growth moat | Stretch | 8/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 63 | Andrew Gazdecki | CEO, Acquire.com | Build to sell | Moderate | 8/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 64 | Kieran Flanagan | HubSpot alumnus; fractional advisor & creator | What I stole from HubSpot's content machine | Stretch | 8/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 65 | Steph Smith | Partner, a16z; author, Doing Content Right | Doing content right | Stretch | 8/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 66 | Noya Kremer | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed after conversation | Easy | 5/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 67 | Jake Steiner | Entrepreneur / Operator | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 68 | Martyna Karas | Google for Startups Network | What Google for Startups sees that founders don't | Easy | 7/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 69 | Alex Embery | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 70 | Harry Gadsby | Founder / Growth Advisor | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 71 | Sara Pion | VP Marketing, Metadata.io | B2B demand gen at every budget | Moderate | 7/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 72 | Anthony Pierri | Co-founder, Fletch PMM | Why your startup's homepage is losing you customers | Moderate | 8/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 73 | Ben Leonard | UK Dept. for Business & Trade | Startup support resources you're leaving on the table | Easy | 6/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 74 | Shihao Ko | Investor; Startup Ecosystem | What investors really look for | Easy | 7/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 75 | Jeremy Basset | Strategic Contact | To be confirmed based on current focus | Easy | 6/10 | C - Hidden Gem |
| 76 | Lenny Rachitsky | Creator, Lenny's Newsletter; Host, Lenny's Podcast | Behind Lenny's Newsletter | Hard | 10/10 | D - Strategic |
| 77 | Harry Stebbings | Founder, 20VC | Building the most influential VC podcast from scratch | Hard | 10/10 | D - Strategic |
| 78 | Ben Davies | Founder, SearcHive | SEO-first growth | Easy | 6/10 | D - Strategic |
| 79 | Kalyani Wadehra | NUS Entrepreneurship Ecosystem | Singapore's startup edge | Easy | 6/10 | D - Strategic |
| 80 | Karina Karn | Growth Professional | The growth mentor effect | Easy | 7/10 | D - Strategic |
| 81 | Nick Malekos | Growth Professional | What 100+ growth mentoring sessions taught me | Easy | 6/10 | D - Strategic |
| 82 | Vishal Gohel | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | D - Strategic |
| 83 | Gus Ferguson | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | D - Strategic |
| 84 | Stacy Ennis | Book coach; Thought Leadership strategist | The authority book | Moderate | 7/10 | D - Strategic |
| 85 | Ross Simmonds | CEO, Foundation | Create once, distribute forever | Moderate | 8/10 | D - Strategic |
| 86 | Kipp Bodnar | CMO, HubSpot | The future of inbound | Hard | 9/10 | D - Strategic |
| 87 | Brendan Hufford | Founder, Growth Sprints | Content as a growth sprint | Moderate | 7/10 | D - Strategic |
| 88 | Jay, Hustle & Hive Marketing | Founder, Hustle & Hive Marketing | The campaign that worked | Easy | 6/10 | D - Strategic |
| 89 | Joanna Wiebe | Founder, Copyhackers | Words that convert | Stretch | 8/10 | D - Strategic |
| 90 | Hiten Shah | Co-founder, Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics, FYI | 3 SaaS companies and counting | Stretch | 8/10 | D - Strategic |
| 91 | Andrew Birt | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | D - Strategic |
| 92 | Darius | Operator / Founder | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | D - Strategic |
| 93 | Anthony Gale | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | D - Strategic |
| 94 | James Lethem | Founder / Operator | To be confirmed | Easy | 5/10 | D - Strategic |
| 95 | Peep Laja | CEO, Wynter; Founder, CXL Institute | Message-market fit before product-market fit | Stretch | 8/10 | D - Strategic |
| 96 | Lloyed Lobo | Co-founder, Boast.ai | Grassroots to greatness | Moderate | 8/10 | D - Strategic |
| 97 | Nate Nasralla | Founder, Fluint | Selling without a salesperson | Moderate | 7/10 | D - Strategic |
| 98 | Sarah Tavel | GP, Benchmark | The hierarchy of engagement | Hard | 9/10 | D - Strategic |
| 99 | Katelyn Bourgoin | CEO, Customer Camp | Why buyers actually buy | Moderate | 8/10 | D - Strategic |
| 100 | Elena / Eli, Diadia Health | Co-founder, Diadia Health | From chaos to compounding | Easy | 7/10 | D - Strategic |
Final Strategy Layer
The 15 Guests To Invite First
Lead with warm relationships. Record fast, publish fast, and use early clips to unlock harder guests.
- Victor Asemota
- Oren Cohen
- James Gayle
- Noah Adelstein
- Holly Wright
- Michael Louis
- Jeremy Goillot
- Emily Kramer
- Deboshree Das
- Ben Glass
- Alexa Grabell
- Levaughn Hall
- Alex Henneberg
- Oren Greenberg
- Elena / Eli, Diadia Health
Most Likely To Create Inbound Consulting Leads
- Emily Kramer
- Asia Orangio
- April Dunford
- Mark Kosoglow
- Alexa Grabell
- Dave Gerhardt
- Kathleen Estreich
- Peep Laja
- Anthony Pierri
- Lloyed Lobo
Most Likely To Grow The Audience Fastest
- Emily Kramer
- Lenny Rachitsky
- Elena Verna
- Harry Stebbings
- Rand Fishkin
- Chris Walker
- Maggie Hott
- Tomer Chernia
- Dave Gerhardt
- April Dunford
Execution
30-Day Guest Booking Plan
Warm Network Activation
Confirm Victor, reach out to James Gayle and Oren Cohen, ask Elena / Eli for Diadia guests, and pitch Fernando, Agustin, and Ben Glass from live meetings.
CRM Warm List Outreach
Message Noah Adelstein, Oren Greenberg, Jonathan Baillie Strong, Matthew Eisner, Deb Das, Leroy Yau, Elias Ek, Karina Karn, Nick Malekos, and Ben Davies.
Strategic Warm Cold Outreach
Pitch Emily Kramer, Michael Louis, Jeremy Goillot, Asia Orangio, Andrew Gazdecki, and Mark Kosoglow with specific content hooks.
Authority Pitches + System Setup
Record the first warm episodes, pitch Alexa Grabell, Chris Walker, and Adam Robinson, create the tracking doc and media kit, and ask each guest for two referrals.
Outreach
Templates
Use these as starting points. Personalise every bracketed detail before sending.
Warm relationship
Quick idea: would love to have you on the pod
Really enjoyed our conversation a few weeks back. The point you made about [specific thing] has stayed with me. I'm building a podcast for startup founders and operators focused on how companies actually grow: practical, no fluff. I'd love to have you on to talk about [specific episode angle]. The format is relaxed: 35-45 minutes, recorded remotely, and I'll handle editing. Would you be up for it?
Warm cold
Big fan of your work - podcast invite
I've been a subscriber to [newsletter/community] for [X months]. Your piece on [specific content] changed how I think about [topic]. I run a podcast for startup founders and operators at We Scale Startups focused on practical growth, GTM strategy, and real case studies. I'd love to have you on to discuss [specific angle].
Cold aspirational
[Podcast name] - would love your perspective on [specific topic]
Quick cold intro. I host a podcast for startup founders and operators called [Podcast Name]. I've been following your work on [specific thing], particularly [specific content or achievement]. If you're open to it, I'd love to send over a few questions first so you can see where I'd take the conversation.
Intro request
Intro request - [Name] for podcast
I'm building a podcast for startup founders and would love to have [Guest Name] on. Their work on [specific topic] is exactly the kind of practical insight my audience needs. Would you be comfortable with a short intro?
Social DM
Hi [Name], longtime follower. Your [tweet/post/thread] on [specific topic] is one I keep coming back to. I host a podcast for startup operators and founders. Would love to have you on to unpack [specific angle]. 35 mins, remote, no prep needed. Worth it?
Key Principles For Guest Booking Success
- Start warm, go cold with proof.
- Make it easy to say yes: no prep, 35-45 minutes, remote, recording provided.
- Reference their specific work in every pitch.
- Ask for referrals in every conversation.
- Build in public to create visible booking momentum.
- After 10 published episodes, use proof to lift pitch success rates.
- Protect the niche: operators and founders, not generic celebrity interviews.
- Use cross-promotion as the fastest growth channel.
Built for Daniel Johnson and We Scale Startups, May 2026.