Build Before You Burn Out — Chris Davis on What Startups Keep Getting Wrong About Tech

What does it really take to build a tech startup that scales — and how do you avoid the costly mistakes most founders make? In this episode, I sit down with Chris Davis, a seasoned startup operator, strategist, and former CEO of multiple venture-backed companies, to talk through the gritty, unglamorous parts of launching a tech business that actually works.

From his early years navigating sports tech and recruiting startups to his current role at Intucia Labs, Chris has helped dozens of founders move from vision to viable product — without wasting months (or millions) trying to reinvent what already exists.

Chris shares:

• His journey from football captain at Duke to CEO and product strategist
• Why most startup founders fail at product design (and how to fix it)
• How to think about “second launches” when your MVP wasn’t built right the first time
• The rinse-and-repeat tech systems that cut costs and increase speed to market
• What great founders do differently (spoiler: it starts with writing things down)

We also get into the real conversations founders need to have with investors, why many MVPs are built backwards, and how to avoid becoming the startup that hemorrhages cash because the backend is a mess.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

• Ingenuity beats investment. Hustle, resilience, and resourcefulness still matter more than fancy pitch decks.
• Design isn't just colors. User experience design = mapping out the entire customer journey before you write a single line of code.
• Don’t build from scratch. 80% of most products are the same — focus on the 20% that makes you different.
• Fix the foundation before scaling. Tech debt will cost you more in time and money than investing in the right setup early.
• Know your flame. If you don’t have traction, a waitlist, or a working prototype — you’re not ready for investors.

Whether you’re a non-technical founder figuring out product for the first time, or you’re ready for a second shot at building it right — this episode gives you a framework to think smarter and build faster.

📌 Learn more about Chris’s work at Intuitio Labs
📌 Connect with Chris on LinkedIn

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