TBC124: The Power of Helping When You Can (HBS Story)

04/24/25 • 8 min

In this episode, we explore how one small act of generosity can shape long-term relationships in venture capital. Jason shares a story from a recent trip back to Harvard Business School, where a simple coffee chat from a decade ago turned into a meaningful connection with a now-prominent VC. He reflects on what true network-building looks like—why helping others when it's easy can lead to unexpected returns years later.

Previous Episode

Alex Salazar on Taking Arcade from Zero to a $12M Round (Alex Salazar / Arcade - Ep 56)

Alex Salazar didn’t need to prove he could build a company. He’d already done that and sold it, then spent time as a VC, and had the kind of background that usually makes raising money the easy part. But when he started Arcade, he decided to do things differently. In this episode, we talk about what it means to go back to zero even when you don’t have to. Alex shares why he and his co-founder stayed in stealth, how they tested product ideas without writing a single line of code, and what it took to get real traction in a category moving as fast as AI. We get into opportunity selection, investor conviction, and what it actually looks like when someone gets preempted before they’re even out fundraising. Arcade eventually closed a $12M round... but the process behind that raise had very little to do with pattern-matching or momentum. It was all about building something that hit a nerve.