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In this episode of Startup Strategies, Juliana sits down with Casey Woo, the reformed Wall Street finance professional who went from corner office overlooking Central Park to building one of Silicon Valley's most exclusive operator communities. After feeling miserable despite having everything Wall Street promised, Casey made the leap to startups and discovered he "loved eating glass" - but Silicon Valley had other plans. When a $100 billion company told him he couldn't get hired for free because he neither coded nor sold, Casey found eight other finance refugees feeling equally lost and started meeting monthly in coffee shops.
That group of nine lonely operators is now the 1,100-member Operators Guild, which has invested in 70+ companies through FOG Ventures with zero salespeople and 100% organic growth. Casey reveals why AI is eating specialists from the bottom while generalists who can orchestrate multiple AI agents across departments are becoming invaluable. He breaks down the operational mistakes that kill companies scaling from $1M to $10M ARR, from the $50 million valuation trap that creates impossible growth pressure to the hiring death spiral where founders burn through runway trying to reach Mars when they just need orbit.
Casey explains why the world is moving toward "multidisciplinary builders" who speak accountant, engineer, narcissist CEO, and marketing fluently - like Jedi mind tricks for business functions. He shares how tech is becoming commoditized while brand, distribution, and trust become the new competitive advantages, and why the future belongs to horizontal thinkers who can see across entire businesses rather than specialists stuck in single departments.
This conversation challenges everything you think you know about hiring, scaling, and building teams in an AI-first world.
Casey shares:
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