Host Ian Hathaway interviews Joe Petsick, co-founder of Proxibid and co-founder and CEO of Auctic, about building technology companies from Omaha before there was much of a startup ecosystem to support them. Petsick traces his path from finance and the early dot-com era to launching online auction technology at a live sale in France, where the software had never been tested in the real world and he had never attended an auction before. After LeftBid collapsed during the dot-com downturn, he and three partners started Proxibid in 2001, building a company around empowering auctioneers rather than replacing them. Petsick shares what it was like to raise capital and scale a startup without an established local playbook, why he and his co-founders eventually hired a CEO with the authority to fire them, and how customer feedback changed the way they thought about product development. He also discusses leaving Proxibid after nearly two decades, helping strengthen Nebraska's startup ecosystem through the University of Nebraska and Open Range, and returning to entrepreneurship with Auctic. They explore the dangers of scaling too quickly, why Auctic deliberately shut down sales to prepare for growth, how Petsick evaluates early-stage founders, and why he believes the best way to win is often to make the people around you stronger.

Show Notes:

(02:00) How To Tell If You're Early Or Just Wrong
(04:00) Discovering An Entrepreneurial Mindset In Omaha
(08:00) Launching Auction Software Before Knowing If It Would Work
(12:00) What The Dot-Com Bust Taught Him About Capital
(13:00) Building Proxibid Without A Startup Ecosystem
(18:00) Why Proxibid Empowered Auctioneers Instead Of Replacing Them
(22:00) The Three Questions He Uses To Evaluate Early-Stage Startups
(29:00) Hiring A CEO Who Could Fire The Founders
(32:00) Leaving Proxibid And Returning To The University Of Nebraska
(34:00) Building A Stronger Startup Ecosystem Through Open Range
(37:00) Why He Started Auctic
(47:00) Winning By Making The People Around You Better
(48:00) Beyond The Bio with Joe Petsick

✅ Host: Ian Hathway - Co-Founder & Managing Partner, FOVC

✅ Guest: Joe Petsick - Co-Founder of Proxibid & Auctic

Produced by Spellbinder Media. Executive Produced by Bridge Five Ventures. Copyright ©️2026, Bridge Five Ventures, LLC, All rights reserved.

Listen & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or at outsiderinc.substack.com.

Host Ian Hathaway interviews Pierpaolo Barbieri, founder and CEO of Ualá and founder of early-stage venture fund 17Sigma, about leaving a successful career on Wall Street to build a new kind of financial institution in Argentina. Growing up during Argentina's 2001 financial crisis sparked Barbieri's interest in economic history and eventually took him to Harvard, Cambridge, and a career in global finance. But after seeing how many people in his home country lacked access to basic financial services, he returned to Buenos Aires to build Ualá. Barbieri discusses his reluctance to become CEO, the challenges of building a fintech company through years of economic turmoil, and why those conditions pushed Ualá to expand across products and countries. He also shares how he manages imposter syndrome, builds teams that challenge him, and works to preserve Ualá's technology-driven culture as the company grows. They explore the balance between expanding access to credit and managing risk, Barbieri's efforts to support the next generation of Latin American founders, the personal cost of entrepreneurship, and the responsibility he still feels toward the country that gave him his start.

Show Notes:

(02:00) Leaving Wall Street To Build Ualá in Argentina

(04:00) How Argentina's Financial Crisis Shaped His Path

(06:00) Debate, Harvard, And Betting On Himself

(09:30) From Economic Historian To Fintech Founder

(13:30) Becoming The CEO He Never Planned To Be

(15:30) Building For Customers Traditional Banks Overlooked

(18:30) How Argentina's Economic Turmoil Made Ualá More Resilient

(20:30) Managing Imposter Syndrome As A Founder

(23:30) Keeping Your Ego In Check And Hiring Better People

(25:30) Becoming A Bank Without Losing Your Tech DNA

(29:30) Expanding Access To Credit While Managing Risk

(31:30) Investing In The Next Generation Of Latin American Founders

(35:30) The Personal Cost Of Building A Company

(41:30) Beyond The Bio with Pierpaolo Barbieri

✅ Host: Ian Hathway - Co-Founder & Managing Partner, FOVC

✅ Guest: Pierpaolo Barbieri - Ualá Founder & CEO

Produced by Spellbinder Media. Executive Produced by Bridge Five Ventures. Copyright ©️2026, Bridge Five Ventures, LLC, All rights reserved.

Listen & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or at outsiderinc.substack.com.

Host Ian Hathaway interviews Chris Heivly, entrepreneur, investor, author, startup community builder, Build the Fort creator, and early MapQuest pioneer, about what founders and startup communities can learn from a career spent building things from zero. Heivly shares how a love of geography led him into computer mapping, from the U.S. State Department to R.R. Donnelley, where work on computerized trip routing eventually helped create MapQuest, the first major commercial web mapping service. He discusses leaving MapQuest before its public offering and AOL acquisition, the complicated emotions of watching something he helped build become famous without him, and how he came to understand himself as a zero-to-one person. They also cover the Build the Fort framework, why founders need to socialize ideas early, the trap of imagining the payoff before the path, building Raleigh-Durham's startup ecosystem through The Startup Factory and Raleigh-Durham Startup Week, what ecosystem builders often get wrong, why startup communities need founder-first support, and why anyone starting a company should find their tribe.

Show Notes:

(02:30) Build the Fort And Why Adults Complicate Everything
(06:00) Why Your Idea Needs To Leave Your Head
(09:00) Geography, Computer Science, And Doing New Things
(11:00) The Early Work That Became MapQuest
(17:00) Leaving MapQuest For Venture Capital
(19:00) Watching MapQuest Take Off From The Sidelines
(24:30) Building The Raleigh-Durham Startup Community
(29:30) The Startup Factory And Founder-First Mentorship
(39:00) What Startup Communities Get Wrong
(42:00) Building Startup Week To Thrive Without You
(44:00) Writing Fiction About Founder Psychology
(49:30) Beyond The Bio with Chris Heivly

✅ Host: Ian Hathway - Co-Founder & Managing Partner, FOVC

✅ Guests: Chris Heivly - MapQuest Co-Founder, Build the Fort Author

Produced by Spellbinder Media. Executive Produced by Bridge Five Ventures. Copyright ©️2026, Bridge Five Ventures, LLC, All rights reserved.

Listen & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or at outsiderinc.substack.com.