Tech Startups Germany · 2025-10-14 · 48 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
65 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Stephen dives into the mechanics of achieving flow state through concrete, tested practices rather than theory. He illustrates how film screenwriters Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin bought a $5 million villa in Puerto Vallarta specifically because its physical environment eliminated distractions and enabled creative breakthroughs - a principle he applies to his own work by designating specific rooms for specific tasks, allowing the brain to condition itself into focus mode. Beyond space, he covers music selection (60 - 90 BPM ambient, non-vocal tracks work best for most people) and details how Suka users leverage playlists like Himalayan Dream Rain and Cafe Vienne to recreate nostalgic environments that trigger focus. On structure, he defends Tuesday as his core maker day using calendar blocking (Calendly) and explains how he routes all calls through Phonio, an Austrian startup that converts incoming calls to email, eliminating random interruptions. The episode also touches on how to manage family interruptions with clear signals (closed door = do not disturb) while remaining available as a parent.
Stephen's ritual includes: time blocking (sacred morning hours after the gym), working in a designated physical space (his office), playing 60 - 90 BPM ambient music, and eliminating digital interruptions through tools like Phonio for calls and restricted notifications on devices.
The villa's physical space and environment - specifically the sunlight over the pool - eliminated studio pressures and allowed Emmerich and Dean Devlin to focus on writing the movie they wanted to watch, not managing agent concerns or budget constraints; they returned with a script that became the third highest-grossing film in history at the time.
Research shows 60 - 90 BPM ambient, non-vocal, rhythmic music in certain key signatures works for most people, but Suka's data reveals personal nostalgia (rain sounds, coffee shop ambience, water) often matters more than the science - playlists like Himalayan Dream Rain outperform purely algorithmic choices.
Block one day per week (Stephen uses Tuesday) as nearly unmissable using Calendly, concentrate meeting days on other dates, route all phone calls through an AI system like Phonio that converts them to email, and set a 4-hour advance booking minimum to prevent ad-hoc interruptions.
Use a clear visual signal (closed and locked door) and establish the pattern consistently so family learns the boundary; this requires a few difficult early days of not opening the door even when kids knock, but the pattern eventually sticks and becomes automatic.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode contains solid, actionable insights on flow state and productivity - physical space conditioning, music selection (60-90 BPM), time blocking, task visibility reduction (hiding full task lists), and distraction triggers tied to specific obstacles. However, much of the content is anecdotal storytelling (Roland Emmerich villa purchase, film industry war stories) that, while entertaining, doesn't densely pack novel learnings per minute. The core productivity ideas are sound but not groundbreaking for operators already familiar with productivity literature.
When I come back from the gym in the morning, I go get up at 5, go to the gym, come back, I have a few hours of incredible quiet. Those are sacred to me.
Since we started that feature where we hide everything but your top three, our members are 77% more likely to finish three than before
The guest repackages well-known productivity concepts (time blocking, environmental design, music for focus, task prioritization) through the lens of his specific app and personal anecdotes. The distraction taxonomy (procrastination vs. mid-work obstacles) offers some useful framing, and the 77% completion metric from hiding tasks is data-backed. However, these aren't contrarian or first-principles challenges to the productivity industry - they're incremental refinements of established practices. The storytelling about film industry flow spaces is memorable but not original thinking.
there is a room there where in the morning the sunlight comes over the pool and inspires us... you have to understand... there is a relationship between your mind and physical spaces
the sweet spot is 60 to 90 beats per minute. Ambient, non vocal, certain key signatures, rhythmic music
Stephen is a legitimate operator with real pedigree: co-founded Syntropolis FX (acquired), worked on major films (Independence Day, Transformers), raised $21M+ across ventures, and is actively running Suka with meaningful metrics (94-96% retention). He's not a pure thought-leader or podcast circuit regular - he's building and iterating a real product. However, his primary expertise comes from film/VFX, not B2B SaaS or venture strategy, which slightly limits depth on the startup/fundraising questions. He's transparent about knowledge boundaries (e.g., refusing to speculate on remote vs. colocated trends).
I've raised over $21 million of venture for three companies. One successful exit with Roland and Dean, we did syntropolis effects
Our retention, if you sign up to pay, if you do your seven day trial... our retention is incredibly high. It hovers around 94 to 96% month over month paid retention
The episode includes concrete numbers: 77% task completion lift, 94-96% monthly retention, 5 a.m. gym wake time, 60-90 BPM music sweet spot, $5M villa purchase price, three-task limit, 168-hour free trial. However, much of the substance relies on anecdotal evidence (film stories, user feedback snippets) without systematic data. Claims about seasonality of distractions (sports sites, shopping holidays) are mentioned but not quantified. The AI roadmap is vague ("wrestling with hallucinations"). Named examples are sparse for a 50-minute episode - mostly just Suka, Centropolis, and film titles.
Since we started that feature where we hide everything but your top three, our members are 77% more likely to finish three than before
It's our third most popular playlist
The host (Jorn) asks solid setup questions and does follow up on specific metrics ("what KPIs do you optimize for?"), which is stronger than typical podcast fare. However, the interview often feels like gentle prompting rather than sharp interrogation. The host rarely pushes back or challenges claims - e.g., when Stephen says he can't predict colocated vs. virtual trends, Jorn accepts the deflection without drilling deeper. There are softball moments ("tell us about your ritual") and the host sometimes abandons promising threads (distraction data mentioned but not fully unpacked). The conversational flow is warm but lacks the edge that would elevate engagement and force deeper thinking from the guest.
Very few people ask me that because they're usually very curious about flow state. Welcome to startup radio.
Oh, okay, that is a really, really good question.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
What if your daily rituals could unlock peak founder focus - without hustle culture or burnout? In this episode, Steven Puri, CEO of The Sukha Company and former Hollywood VFX executive (Independence Day, Godzilla, Transformers Prime), shares the rituals, behavioral frameworks, and AI-powered systems he uses to help founders reach deep work in distraction-heavy environments. Steven’s journey from blockbuster sets to startup leadership reveals how flow state rituals can transform founder performance. Meet Our Sponsor EXCLUSIVE NordVPN offer Try it now for 30 days completely risk-free with a money-back guarantee! To get the best discount on your NordVPN subscription, just head over to nordvpn.com/startuprad. And here’s the kicker - with our link, you’ll get four extra months on the two-year plan. Totally risk-free, because you’ve got the 30-day money-back guarantee. And of course, you’ll find that link right in the episode description.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
WEBVTT 1 - > Foreign, 2 - > Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German 3 - > startup scene with news interviews and 4 - > live events. 5 - > Hey guys, welcome back to episode number two of my 6 - > interview with Stephen, which was originally planned just 7 - > as one episode one interview, but turned out 8 - > we were talking for nine questions for like 15 minutes. So here 9 - > are the next questions. You are the 10 - > founder of Suka, a flow app that helps you get 11 - > into flow.
Having other people online meeting 12 - > with you, being seen visually to work, which makes 13 - > a big impact. And you've been working 14 - > in the film industry in the past and for example, on stuff like 15 - > Independence Day, Braveheart, True Lies, Godzilla. 16 - > You worked for example on 17 - > Transformers prime and so on and so forth. Pretty awesome 18 - > stuff.
And we just picking your brain here 19 - > on, on more stuff on more productivity hacks. 20 - > What is your five minute trobbing ritual? 21 - > What are the exact steps and tools and environment 22 - > tweaks, like from your framework, your playbook? 23 - > Okay, that is a great question.
Okay, so I'm going to touch upon a number 24 - > of things for those listening. Some of these things are going to 25 - > be very prescriptive. Like here is something you can try. Some of 26 - > them will be illustrative to say, like, this is how it applies in my life.
27 - > Okay. So you can understand the context of it. So in 28 - > episode one, we talked a bit about time 29 - > blocking, right? So I'm not going to cover that here, but that is a very 30 - > important thing for me.
When I come back from the gym in the morning, I 31 - > go get up at 5, go to the gym, come back, I. I have a 32 - > few hours of incredible quiet. Those are 33 - > sacred to me. You can't even book it in my calendar.
And 34 - > when we were scheduling this podcast, this podcast is at this 35 - > time because I've already completed my focus work for the day, which 36 - > feels amazing to know that in those three, four hours, I did enough for 37 - > an entire day's work because I was not distracted. So listen to 38 - > episode one if you want to talk more about. Listen more about time blocking 39 - > and chronotypes. Right?
So here's another one 40 - > we didn't cover that helps me, which is 41 - > it is about the relationship between your mind 42 - > and physical spaces. And I will tell you 43 - > a story actually about Roland. So when we met, 44 - > it was interesting to me that 45 - > there was a house, this villa in Puerto 46 - > Vallarta, Mexico, where Roland and Dean, who wrote their scripts together, 47 - > Universal Soldier, Stargate, all the stuff they would 48 - > go to write, apparently it's this beautiful white marble villa in the hills 49 - > of Puerto Verita.
When Roland 50 - > and Dean needed to go write Independence Day, Roland told his assistant 51 - > Joey, he's like, Joey, go run the villa. And Joey came back 52 - > and said, it's rented because this is like pre Airbnb. But it was like an 53 - > Airbnb that you sort of vacation rental. And I asked 54 - > Dean why this was so important to them.
He said, you have to understand there 55 - > is a room there where in the morning the sunlight comes over the 56 - > pool and inspires us. We don't think about our agents. We don't 57 - > think about the budget of the movie studio notes, you know, what 58 - > cast is available. We just think about what's the movie we 59 - > would want to watch.
And we try and write that. 60 - > So when Joey told Roland Roland, the place is not 61 - > available, Roland called his entertainment attorney that Friday 62 - > and said, John, John Deemer is an amazing attorney. John, 63 - > buy the villa. By Monday, roland 64 - > owned a $5 million villa in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
I do 65 - > not know the current people who are renting that villa where they went. I'm sure 66 - > they were nicely paid to find another villa in Puerto Vallarta. 67 - > And they went down there. And six weeks later, 68 - > Roland and Dean returned with the script that became the third 69 - > highest grossing movie in film history.
At the time, that was 70 - > this important thing for their mental state to be in there. Now, it is 71 - > not that everyone listening to this has to go buy $5 billion villas. We're 72 - > not saying that later when I'm at DreamWorks, 73 - > right? So I was an executive vice president with Alex Kurtzman and Bob 74 - > Orsi, who are great guys.
And we had that 75 - > Amblin compound, the Dreamers compound is on the Universal Studios lot in 76 - > Hollywood. Directly across the street across 77 - > Lankershim is the Universal Hilton Hotel. 78 - > Now, I'm going to be kind. This is 79 - > the hotel where you stay with your three kids the night before you go to 80 - > Universal Studios theme park.
This is not a place you seek out in the world 81 - > as a great hotel, right? But when 82 - > Alex and Bob were in crunch time, oh, we have to finish 83 - > Transformers 2 in three weeks, right? Oh, we have to finish Star Trek 11. 84 - > They had their assistant rent a room over at the Universal Hilton.
And they would 85 - > go there every day like it was the Office for several weeks. And I 86 - > thought to myself, they're making a couple million dollars every script. 87 - > Like, they could buy a villa in Puerto Vallarta or they could go anywhere. Why 88 - > this?
And what I realized was this. They 89 - > met back in school and 90 - > that hotel room with, like, Kurtzman on the edge of the bed with his 91 - > laptop and Bob at the desk, that evoked dorm 92 - > room, that brought them back mentally to, 93 - > oh, we're These writers who have to prove that we're great, we have to pull 94 - > this off. And that was how they used mental 95 - > space. They knew that about themselves.
So why do I say this? 96 - > I made that mistake when I started working remotely. 97 - > In the morning, I'd be in the kitchen because you have breakfast, and my laptop's 98 - > there and the light is beautiful. I work from there, come upstairs, work from my 99 - > office at lunch, the sofa in the late afternoon.
100 - > And I realized I was not taking advantage of this thing where you say 101 - > to your brain, oh, I'm in this space. This is where I code 102 - > or this is where I write. And a lot of 103 - > the great writers, a lot of the great engineers use that technique. So 104 - > when you start to do this over time, your brain falls into that mode.
105 - > I walk into my office up here now, and my brain gives 106 - > up a lot of distractions around, should the laundry be done? Oh, did the 107 - > trash need to go out? I walk up here and I think, oh, you know 108 - > what, Let me open up my coding assistant. Let me open up, you know, my 109 - > blogging platform and do that thing.
So a very 110 - > simple part of my ritual to get into flow. Then, of 111 - > course, there is music. And by the way, a lot of research 112 - > shows for most people, the sweet spot is 60 to 90 113 - > beats per minute. Ambient, non vocal, certain 114 - > key signatures, rhythmic music.
We 115 - > all have some friend that gets into flow using 116 - > 90s gangster rap or Tchaikovsky or something. There are many 117 - > outliers. But for most people, this works. 118 - > And I'll tell you a couple things that I learned outside the science.
Because 119 - > when we designed Suka, we said, oh, I have a lot of friends who are 120 - > film composers. Write me a thousand hours of music that's basically like 121 - > lo fi beats or upbeat or down tempo sort of 122 - > stuff. We threw in some binaural beats, which I know when you have beautiful headphones 123 - > like you do, you probably have experimented with binaural beats. 124 - > Something I did not know was this.
One 125 - > of my friends does the sound for the 126 - > LucasArts games, like the Star wars games, lives up in Marin. 127 - > His high school graduation present to his son 128 - > was his son wanted to go to Nepal, so they went there. When he 129 - > came back, he said, stephen, this is going to sound weird, but when we were 130 - > in Kathmandu, this one day, it poured rain. 131 - > It was this beautiful, lush rain.
And I had some of my recording 132 - > equipment there, so I recorded two hours of it. Do you want it? 133 - > I was like, okay, that's kind of an odd offer, but sure, 134 - > kind of cool. So we threw it up as a playlist.
I didn't know it 135 - > was going to happen. I just said, let's call it Himalayan Dream Reign and we'll 136 - > just throw it in and see if people discover it. It's our third most 137 - > popular playlist. And when I asked some members that I saw 138 - > listening to, I was like, hey, do you mind?
I noticed you listen to this. 139 - > Can you tell me about that? They talked about how that worked for them. 140 - > Sort of like the physical space thing that we're talking about.
Oh, it reminds me 141 - > when I was little, I grew up in this part of the country where it 142 - > rained all the time and I'd be doing my homework to the sound of the 143 - > rain. So then I started asking, what other sounds 144 - > help you get into flow? And it's interesting, some people said, oh, 145 - > surf. I grew up by the water.
Oh, I grew up by this 146 - > lake. We had the sound of a stream 147 - > in Japan. And then a number of people said, and this brings 148 - > us back to the beginning of the episode. Number of people said, 149 - > oh, you know what?
Coffee shops, I can't go there anymore. Like, I have 150 - > little children. I used to, you know, when I was younger I would go to 151 - > a coffee shop and work from there. And, you know, now I can't do it 152 - > with kids.
But I loved that feeling of being there. So we found 153 - > someone who recorded a couple hours in a coffee shop in 154 - > Vienna, Austria, and we 155 - > threw it up with a little, you know, the sounds of the baristas, you know, 156 - > the plates clattering in this. And we called it Cafe Vienne. 157 - > It's become incredibly popular.
So it's weird the way people have their mental 158 - > tricks. Actually, I'll link here in the show notes. 159 - > I found a 26 second sample from 160 - > your company on YouTube with this 161 - > Himalayan dream brain and I'll link it down here in the 162 - > show notes. Okay.
Yes. So a long answer. 163 - > There are a lot of things that help. They're part of my flow practice.
But 164 - > there is music, there is time blocking, there is mental space tied to 165 - > physical space, and there are others we can talk about. But I know that was 166 - > a big chunk. 167 - > Give us the flow week operating system 168 - > rituals on Monday, Tuesday versus Thursday, Friday. 169 - > Meeting winners and how you defend.
Make your time. 170 - > Okay, so I will tell you this. I don't 171 - > have research and I don't have anecdotal evidence 172 - > of different days of the week. When I look at the distribution 173 - > of member usage of Sukha, 174 - > there are so many people in so many different time zones in so many different 175 - > countries that they have different rhythms.
176 - > So I would love to be an expert on things That I know and I 177 - > would love to be not an expert on things I don't know. So you just 178 - > asked. I have seen so many people use 179 - > suka in so many different times in so many different ways. 180 - > I can't tell you a pattern of Monday through Friday or even Saturdays and Sundays 181 - > because I know we have a lot of solopreneurs who are working 182 - > on Saturdays and Sundays because they can't do it during their day job during the 183 - > week.
So I don't have a great answer for you on that 184 - > one. I have some personal experience to share 185 - > here because I found a few things. 186 - > One, I need the recovery on the weekend. So 187 - > basically Saturday, Sunday, no working 188 - > unless it's absolutely necessary.
Sure. 189 - > And in times of maker time, actually 190 - > what I did is after first year of being solo 191 - > entrepreneur, I was just looking at, I was 192 - > analyzing like the data that I had and I found out 193 - > Tuesdays are the least booked days. So 194 - > basically I moved like everybody, we, we do 195 - > get 100 pitches per 196 - > interview slot. So you need to work through the emails, you need 197 - > to work through like the meetings with the people and then finally 198 - > condense them and get, get like a question list up like 199 - > we did here.
And so you need to have like different stages. 200 - > Plus of course I need to meet with potential 201 - > sponsors, partnerships. And so. And so I had 202 - > two days set up as meeting days and 203 - > in between I defend the time to be productive and 204 - > my main working day for my paying clients is my Tuesday.
205 - > There you go. I'm glad you structured it that way. I work 206 - > with an app most people know calendly and 207 - > basically on Tuesdays it's extremely hard to book with me. 208 - > Yeah, and I love that because what you're saying plays into a 209 - > theme that we've talked about in two episodes now, which is how do you get 210 - > in control of your life as opposed to be controlled by your life?
211 - > You brought up something when we were concluding the last episode 212 - > that I think we should talk about, which is 213 - > distractions, because I have a lot of data 214 - > on distractions and what happens with our members. 215 - > I can talk about it in a aggregated way. I'm not going to talk about 216 - > any particular person. Like Yorn, you have to get off.
You know, you're 217 - > watching CNN all the time, right? No, but I can talk about it in 218 - > aggregated way because I think this is very interesting and it helps us to craft 219 - > the platform. And by the way, you know the value of member feedback, 220 - > right? User feedback is golden.
Our group 221 - > chat is a fantastic place where people complain and we love it. We're like, oh, 222 - > we can fix that, we can make that, we can build that. Right. So 223 - > you brought up distractions.
Why don't you tell me, for 224 - > you, what do you think are the most distracting things and what do you perceive 225 - > are the most distracting things for others? I'd love to know those two answers. 226 - > So distracted things are random phone calls. I 227 - > turned to one of, one of the 228 - > startups I had here on Interview from Austria, they called 229 - > Phonio.
So what I do, 230 - > I only give up out landline and everybody on landline lands on my 231 - > phone or AI and system leaves them a message and 232 - > gets here on my email. That's it. And 233 - > what a great system. I completely eliminated.
234 - > Secondly, people only do like lengthy bookings. 235 - > They have to be like four hours 236 - > ahead of time. That's also fine. The only things 237 - > left for distracting me are actually my 238 - > family.
But that on the other hand is 239 - > basically something you can manage and something that is okay in 240 - > some cases. For example, I have like an unwritten rule with my 241 - > family, family, if the door is open, you can come in. If the door is 242 - > closed right now with the recording, no distractions. 243 - > I have a question about that, which is Henry is the son that I've met, 244 - > right?
Yeah. Right, yeah. So you use 245 - > headphones which have become very popular as a signal of don't 246 - > disturb me, especially in open offices. Do they also 247 - > perceive the headphones as a don't disturb dad?
No, 248 - > I'm the dad. I'm always available for them 24 7. Okay. 249 - > But for you it's the door.
It's. The door's closed. Yeah, it's a 250 - > door. I actually have a key, I lock it.
And when 251 - > my sons were very small, they had to learn they 252 - > stand outside, they're knocking. If the door is closed, that's it. That 253 - > is not going to open. They had to learn it.
It was a few very 254 - > tough days because they're outside. Daddy, Daddy. Hello. It breaks your 255 - > heart but then they've learned it and then you have the pattern 256 - > established.
Yeah. Okay, okay, please go on. 257 - > I'm sorry, I interrupted you. We talked about.
258 - > That was example number one and we were talking about 259 - > distractions. Question two is, what do you perceive as the biggest distractions 260 - > for other people? For other people? 261 - > I'm not sure.
I think 262 - > there are really different type of types of people. 263 - > For example, some of them are really 264 - > distracted by pop ups, by messages 265 - > and so on and so forth. That's actually a new thing that my smartphone 266 - > is not doing anything. It's my smartwatch and only very selected 267 - > apps that can ping me and in terms on my desktop, 268 - > there's barely any app, anything that can send 269 - > messages.
So everything I have on my cell phone is quiet. 270 - > And there are like two or three tools 271 - > on my desktop computer that can send me messages. That's it. Okay.
272 - > Would you like to know what we've discovered about distraction? Sure, 273 - > go ahead. Okay. So I 274 - > started, as many entrepreneurs do, solving a problem that I had, 275 - > right?
And for me, there are two 276 - > problems that were painful. One was 277 - > procrastination about getting started, the inertia of getting started, and how 278 - > easy it was to scroll through the news or return emails or do 279 - > something, as opposed to eat the frog, right? 280 - > So the second problem was about distraction during the 281 - > day. And I found that I was the most vulnerable when 282 - > I would be encountering an obstacle.
Oh, 283 - > I'm. I'm trying to get this, this bit of code done, 284 - > and the build keeps failing. What is wrong with this? You know, I'm writing 285 - > a blog post and I know that it's terrible.
286 - > Like, the muses are not singing to me, and I'm just reading it, going, I 287 - > wouldn't read this. Why am I writing this? Right? So in those moments of 288 - > frustration, I would then be very vulnerable to my hand 289 - > going, picking up the phone.
Well, you know, I'm just going to check and see 290 - > if, you know, you are in whatsapped me or, you know, who, who sent me 291 - > a message. I can just return that and that turns into then, oh, opening the 292 - > YouTube video or the TikTok or something. It's just nothing good 293 - > happens from that. Right?
So those are my two problems. Let me tell you 294 - > about how I solve that and let me expand to what I've seen in user 295 - > data. So with the first one getting 296 - > started, I realized I would procrastinate 297 - > because I was overwhelmed. There are too many things on 298 - > my to do list.
It's paralyzing, or 299 - > this thing I have to do is so big I can't make a dent in 300 - > it. But between now and the podcast that you and I are going to do 301 - > today, I can't write my book or something, right? So why get 302 - > started? And I realized the solutions to those were very simple.
303 - > When I organized my task list in Suka, as soon as I hit 304 - > play and the music starts, it hides everything but my 305 - > three top tasks. So it forces me to 306 - > prioritize and say, okay, what are the three important things to do today? And then 307 - > not think about the 14 other things that could 308 - > clutter my mind or make me multitask. Right?
309 - > So that was a very helpful thing for me to Say, oh, when I see 310 - > three things and I'm working, it seems very achievable. Can I tell you, 311 - > since we started that feature where we hide everything but your top 312 - > three, our members are 77% more 313 - > likely to finish three than before, when they could see 314 - > their entire task list and they would finish one or two. 315 - > Simple hack, nothing changed. The same tasks, the same members, 316 - > the same amount of time.
The only thing that changed was, it 317 - > seems achievable I can do three. 318 - > When I thought about, oh, you know, 319 - > this task, I have to go create the new website, write the book. 320 - > Those are not tasks, those are goals. So you can ask your smart 321 - > assistant, hey, help me break this down and it'll be, you know what?
You aren't. 322 - > I saw you already wrote the outlines for chapters one and two of your book. 323 - > What if today's task, it's just outline chapter three and you 324 - > can do that in 30 minutes? I've been watching you.
You do your outlines in 325 - > about 30 minutes. Suddenly your task list seems achievable, right? So that 326 - > was a way of getting over that inertia, that procrastination at the beginning of the 327 - > day. That's a problem for me.
And in terms of distraction, 328 - > I didn't want to download. I mean, there's some great apps, don't get me wrong, 329 - > that block your phone. They lock it. They're physical hardware devices like 330 - > Brick you can buy that bricks your phone.
Like, there are many ways to do 331 - > that. But I realized, you know, I'm not a child. 332 - > What I actually need is I just need the friend sitting next to me 333 - > that says, hey, Steven, like, what are you doing? 334 - > So when I hit the play button in Suka, a QR code comes 335 - > up.
Tap with my phone, start work. 336 - > If I pick up my phone, the little voice 337 - > comes and says to me, hey, Stephen, it seems like you picked up your phone. 338 - > Is that distracting you? And that 339 - > gives me that one moment to say, who do I want to be?
340 - > And that's sometimes all I need. Just say, you know what? I'd rather be done 341 - > earlier and do better work than stay up later 342 - > tonight. Exact same thing with websites.
I can declare my custom 343 - > list of what distracts me and say if I open one of 344 - > these websites, more than five seconds, not just tab surfing, but 345 - > I stop on it, give me a modal that says, 346 - > hey, is this distracting you? And then I just get that moment like a friend 347 - > was sitting with me to say, who do I want to be Now? I'll tell 348 - > you what's interesting is I have seen now running this for years, the 349 - > seasonality of distractions. There are 350 - > so many people with very specific sports sites, for example, 351 - > that come and go, I'm telling you.
Yeah, and 352 - > it's the same thing as, you know, across the world. Whether it 353 - > is, you know, football, soccer, we, you know, call it here, American football, 354 - > whether it's baseball, whether it's ESPN in general, there 355 - > is a huge amount of seasonality to. Oh, the 356 - > thing that's distracting me is this. Whereas with the shopping 357 - > sites that is also very holiday based, 358 - > right?
So you see like for us, Amazon and the 359 - > Etsy and those before the Labor Day sales, 360 - > which is our fall holiday, before the Christmas, before the spring Memorial 361 - > Day sales, those spike and some people 362 - > now in advance toggle them on, say please the next 363 - > month, stop me if I open up Amazon. And 364 - > I love that people are starting to get to know themselves because again, that's a 365 - > signal of I want to be the best version of myself. 366 - > I want to be in control of my life.
So that's something 367 - > that I am very passionate about is just saying, you know what, find 368 - > the tools and it does not have to be suka. You can find 369 - > freedom. You can find so many of these tools that 370 - > help you or get a box. I don't 371 - > think I ever showed you this.
This is something I experimented with. 372 - > See this? 373 - > Yes. There's your logo on it and it's action box.
It's a 374 - > little phone coffin. So I can put my phone in there 375 - > and I put it down and you know what, it's just the energy 376 - > of trying to like open it and get my phone out that stops me 377 - > from picking up sometimes. And it's just a bamboo 378 - > box by the way. I have a bunch of these.
So 379 - > things like that, if you get to know yourself, you say, you know what I 380 - > need is this. Because ultimately what we want is 381 - > we want to do the thing we're capable of and we want to feel in 382 - > control of our life. And that's what I love. And I love how 383 - > many people come to you because they are in the startup scene and 384 - > they are saying help me, teach me, give me tools, help me to 385 - > do this thing.
And that's awesome. 386 - > I would now move a little bit away from the productivity 387 - > tips more a little bit into 388 - > because you're a startup in an investor view. 389 - > When an investor asks 390 - > why you are in a crowded category, 391 - > what's your differential thesis versus 392 - > focus? Music, apps and co working cameras.
Well, I'll tell you two 393 - > things. I have been very proud of the fact that we 394 - > bootstrapped this. I've 395 - > raised over $21 million of venture for three 396 - > companies. One successful exit with Roland and Dean, we 397 - > did syntropolis effects and two failed startups where I raised about 398 - > 3 million for each.
So I have learned a lot 399 - > of the ways in which you raise venture money. In doing 400 - > this, I said to myself, you know what? I have seen 401 - > how sometimes raising venture 402 - > obscures the unit economics. You think, oh, we have 403 - > $4 million in the bank, we can be giving away our services or giving away 404 - > the thing below what it costs us 405 - > to create this.
And I went into this and I said, 406 - > you know what, if we're not delivering a product that people want to pay 407 - > for, then we have to ask ourselves, what's wrong with the product? 408 - > And that has been really helpful with Suka 409 - > because I can tell when I see cancellations and we just shipped a 410 - > release that had a new feature or took away a feature, 411 - > that is the most honest user feedback you will ever get. 412 - > When someone cancels, you know, people will be nice to you 413 - > all day long.
Oh, Yoern, I love your app. Really? Because you never use it. 414 - > Oh, no, it's so good.
No. And when people tell their 415 - > friends when referrals go up, that is 416 - > a great signal of, okay, we just shipped something that people are like, oh, my 417 - > God, Stephen, check this out. This is a really cool app I use. And 418 - > for that reason, with this company, I didn't raise outside 419 - > venture.
It is all me. 420 - > And I think with other startups 421 - > that, who knows, friends are doing, there are great reasons to raise 422 - > venture. But I love the discipline of saying, 423 - > if we can't afford that because members are willing to pay, 424 - > then is it really that valuable? 425 - > Makes total sense.
426 - > Let's go a little bit into, 427 - > into, into some, some other pieces of the story. 428 - > Because you co founded Centripolis FX with 429 - > Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. 430 - > Yeah. And sold it.
How do you translate 431 - > that deal craft into startup fundraising and 432 - > business development today? You know what, 433 - > when we, you know, when you 434 - > win an Academy Award, it helps with 435 - > fundraising. Let me just say that. Right?
So, 436 - > yeah, makes sense. Having produced the digital effects for Independence Day. And I 437 - > want to be very humble, a thousand people are responsible for that 438 - > visual effects. Like, that was a huge number of people who worked very hard.
439 - > So it is not any one person. But having 440 - > been the guy very close with Roland and Dean doing that, of 441 - > course we went out to raise that. People said, oh, you have credibility in this 442 - > field. You seem to be a subject matter expert.
You have insights 443 - > into why this can be done the way you did it, and it 444 - > worked. So that was A very different experience 445 - > than my later fundraising. And my later 446 - > fundraising people didn't care that 447 - > I had done independence pay. People didn't care that I'd sold Syntropolis.
448 - > Investors were very critical of, well, you haven't done this before. 449 - > And that is when I learned the power of 450 - > storytelling, even in fundraising. Now, there are 451 - > fantastic people who write great advice on fundraising. 452 - > Do your research on the investors you want.
One of the things 453 - > that I think is very important that some young founders don't 454 - > realize is don't accept 455 - > dumb money. 456 - > There are people who will give you money, and they do not 457 - > contribute anything to the company. They don't have relationships where it's like, 458 - > oh, I need. I'm doing a shopping app, and this person happened to be part 459 - > of Amazon.
They have insights in how the business should run, or they have contacts, 460 - > right? You want to bring 461 - > people in who have smart money. They can give you 462 - > knowledge, expertise. They can tell you where the potholes are on the road 463 - > ahead of you.
Right? And importantly, those 464 - > seed investors that are smart, not dumb, 465 - > their names send a signal to later investors. 466 - > Because when they say, oh, you got Joran, who is VP of Europe 467 - > for Amazon, in your shopping app, in your seed round, 468 - > that's a really great signal you're going to succeed. As opposed to Steven, who has 469 - > a bunch of, you know, real estate guys in the United States in his 470 - > seed round, right?
So that I learned to be very 471 - > important. You want to accept smart money, not dumb money. It 472 - > is about storytelling, especially at the early stages. When you are selling the 473 - > dream, you're like, we don't have 10 years of ARR to 474 - > model.
We can't. We're not, you know, we have an idea. We have 475 - > market research. But more than anything, we have a strong thesis and we can 476 - > explain why we think we are the ones to execute on it.
And then 477 - > you start to deal with, how do we overcome what you brought up, Jorn. 478 - > Hey, it's a crowded field, Steven. There are a lot of other apps that 479 - > do whatever you do, right? And that is 480 - > where you say, it's a crowded field because there's 481 - > a huge market for it.
These other companies are 482 - > not our competitors. They were the ones who proved out 483 - > that there is a market. What we are going to do is, is take it 484 - > to the next level. We are going to build on their shoulders and say, we'll 485 - > do it better now that you've shown, people will pay for this.
486 - > And that's something where investors go, oh, so you're right. The crowded market actually 487 - > makes you more attractive, not less Attractive. Okay, well, tell me how you're better. 488 - > That totally makes sense.
I 489 - > was wondering. We're talking such a lot about 490 - > your tool, but you also partner with tools. 491 - > If you partner with tools like Notion, Linear, 492 - > Slack or something. Yes.
What native integration best 493 - > boosts flow without adding any noise. 494 - > You know what we do is this is we believe 495 - > there are some beautiful tools out there and some people 496 - > use todoist, they use asana, they use Jira, they use, you know, 497 - > slack or whatever. And we don't really 498 - > want to replicate that. If those are the fantastic tools 499 - > that someone uses, what we want to say is great.
So continue to use todoist 500 - > or linear when you want to work. 501 - > Wouldn't it be easier for you if you could just integrate 502 - > that task list and just pull from it so you never have to retype a 503 - > task or copy and paste a task. You can just simply choose from 504 - > your linear and just work on that. Today, Today I'm going to close these 505 - > three, you know, linear tickets.
Oh, I'm going to pull in these tasks from todoist. 506 - > And that's our point of view. One thing we're working on right now, and I'll 507 - > tell you, this is hard. We have not solved this yet.
We 508 - > switched to clerk. Do you know the. The auth platform, Clerk? 509 - > It's become very popular here in the United States.
Right. So 510 - > alternative, like we move it off Firebase. So 511 - > we used to offer the ability to connect your slack 512 - > and the reason we did that is when you hit play, it would 513 - > set your slack to away mode. So people knew, oh, you're in a focus 514 - > session, you're not going to respond instantly.
And it took the pressure off you 515 - > to be talking back to people so they would see a 516 - > message. Hey, I'm in a flow session, I'll get back to you. And people really 517 - > loved that. I'll tell you something, and this is, I'm working 518 - > on this.
We've not solved this yet and it bugs me is 519 - > so when we move to clerk, one thing that clerk has 520 - > not gotten to work yet is the 521 - > multiple auth thing where people use 522 - > Slack. Yarn. Yes. Sometimes.
Yeah. How 523 - > many workspaces do you have connected? I would need 524 - > to check, but it's got so distracted that it's 525 - > out of my. 526 - > Out of my auto start.
And I'm only checking 527 - > when I do have some time. 1, 2, 3, 4, 528 - > 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 529 - > I would say somewhere in the area of 2022, 530 - > but you have to see there. Also, 531 - > since I'm involved in different startup communities, I also like to look 532 - > around.
There are slacks on startup communities. For example in 533 - > Lyon, France, in New York City, where I'm still a member, 534 - > I don't have like to contribute a lot. It's more to get a feel 535 - > and to be connected. If I go there, I write, hey guys, I'm coming.
536 - > Who's up for coffee? Or something like that. Yes. So 537 - > you are like many people that have multiple Slack 538 - > workspaces.
Clerk has not launched that yet. You can't do 539 - > multiple auths with Slack. So we used to offer the ability where when you 540 - > started, you hit play, the music starts, everything's blocked. 541 - > Your Slack, all your workspaces would automatically say, hey, 542 - > Jorn's in a flow session, I'm in flow, I'll get back to you.
And 543 - > we don't do that right now. And it bugs me every day. And we've been 544 - > talking to the devs at Slack at Clerk to say, could you 545 - > prioritize this? Because that's a big one.
That is a big distraction. 546 - > All little Slack messages, they come in. So 547 - > got to work on that. And 548 - > when I saw your startup, what are you guys doing?
I was 549 - > wondering what KPIs do you actually 550 - > optimize for like flow hours per 551 - > user, per week, task completion velocity or 552 - > something else? And why? Oh, okay, that is a 553 - > really, really good question. Very few people ask me 554 - > that because they're usually very curious about flow state.
Welcome to startup radio. 555 - > No, no, it's a fantastic question, right? So many people want to go deep into 556 - > flow states and mental techniques and all that. I'll tell you this 557 - > because of other startups that I've done and I've been part of, 558 - > there are a lot of the downstream engagement metrics that I used to be 559 - > very focused on.
Like you said, okay, how many tasks are people inputting, how many 560 - > are they completing, how much time are they spending? And I'll tell you, 561 - > I've been very focused on top of the funnel recently and I'll tell you why. 562 - > Our retention, if you sign up to pay, if you do 563 - > your seven day trial and you say, oh, I get it, I want to pay, 564 - > our retention is incredibly high. It hovers around 565 - > 94 to 96% month over month paid retention, which 566 - > is insane because the reason for that is 567 - > when you experience a flow state and you look up and it's three o' clock 568 - > and you're done and you feel good, you're like, why would I work any other 569 - > way, right?
Here's the problem. Here's 570 - > the problem. What we noticed was 571 - > we would get unique visitors, like first Time users 572 - > who would come to the app and try it for five minutes or 10 minutes 573 - > and leave. And it was a very clear bifurcation.
574 - > If they came, hit play, listen to music for five minutes, 575 - > they go, oh, it's a music app like Brain FM or Endel, and 576 - > leave. They never got into a flow state. They didn't come with a task 577 - > so they could have the experience of like wow, man, what happened? 578 - > That's awesome.
I want more of this. Right? And 579 - > I gotta tell you, it was black and white, that metric. When we figured out 580 - > where it was, we were losing people in, you know, first time user experience 581 - > was so clear.
I have been focused on that one 582 - > metric. How do we move that needle? 583 - > So someone has to say, I want to come back tomorrow and develop 584 - > a habit and I'm come back on Wednesday and it's free for a week. 585 - > You can use it 168 hours in a row if you want without ever 586 - > putting in a credit card.
And I wanted people to say, 587 - > oh, I'm going to do this a few times, I want to have that experience. 588 - > So if you notice when you sign up now, there are a couple times in 589 - > the first time user flow in the onboarding where I say, hey, 590 - > don't go to the next step unless you have a 591 - > task you need to do. Because I know 592 - > that if you just hit play, you listen to music, you'll bounce in one minute. 593 - > You're like, oh, okay, it's music, whatever.
And that's not the 594 - > magic. Yeah. And the selection is not as good as on platform X 595 - > and Y. And that's actually not what you're competing on.
Exactly. 596 - > Right. So that is, there are many metrics you brought up, but I'm going to 597 - > tell you that is the only metric right now that I'm caring about is how 598 - > many people have a first session that's over 60 minutes 599 - > because that is a determinant if they will end up signing up or not. 600 - > Let's talk a little bit about 12 to 24 month 601 - > roadmap.
Where does the AI assisted 602 - > facilitation fit? Like not just break time as 603 - > pairing. Oh, another great question. 604 - > I will tell you my vision and this is the thing that we are working 605 - > on because we are wrestling with the hallucinations 606 - > and every day we're getting closer to this, but we're not there yet, 607 - > which is where we have the design.
608 - > Our goal with the smart assistant is that in the morning your 609 - > smart assistant greets you. It's familiar with your task list. It 610 - > suggests Joran, you know what I've Been watching what you've been doing every 611 - > day. Here are the three most important things 612 - > in my point of view.
Are these the right three to start with? And you 613 - > can say yes or no, you can adjust it. By the way, I noticed you're 614 - > starting work today at 8 o', clock, which is right in your sweet zone, your 615 - > flow state zone. You work 616 - > 20% faster when you listen to this playlist in the morning.
Can I put on 617 - > sonic caffeine for you? And you're like, oh, I appreciate 618 - > that you're paying attention to me. It's not a bio wearable sort of thing. It 619 - > is a, you complete your tasks on time, you complete them under 620 - > time.
I've been watching. Here's what you do. Would 621 - > love for that smart assistant to say, hey, and by the way, I looked at 622 - > your task list like we were talking about before and there's 623 - > something on here that's not a task. Would it be okay if I broke that 624 - > down for you into actual like tasks 625 - > and that sort of companion that's looking at like, what are you listening 626 - > to?
What kind of breaks really recharge you? What time of 627 - > day should be working? Like, by the way, Joran, I know that right now you 628 - > put on the list you want to do write some 629 - > code, but this is not actually your sweet spot. Can I put that on the 630 - > list for later tonight maybe when the kids go to bed.
And then right 631 - > now let's do this other thing that you're good at doing at 11 in the 632 - > morning. Right, that level of 633 - > personalization. That is where I'm going. 634 - > I see.
So basically your own 635 - > habit forming AI assistant. Yes. Okay, 636 - > prediction. Will remote makers 637 - > swing to co located micropods or even 638 - > better virtual rooms?
What breaks the tie? 639 - > What breaks the time? What do you mean by that? Yeah, 640 - > what breaks the tie?
Where does one win? Where does one lose? 641 - > Oh, what breaks the tie. You know what, I will tell you this.
I have 642 - > seen such strong use cases for solo work, 643 - > virtual co working where you may be in a zoom room, maybe 644 - > in some sort of group co working and then physical coworking. I couldn't tell 645 - > you which one will win. I wish I had an answer for you, but again, 646 - > I only wanted to be an expert on things where I should be an expert. 647 - > And this is one where I don't know how it's going to turn out.
648 - > A little bit contrarian to what we heard from 649 - > you before. Hustle culture kills innovation. Do you agree? 650 - > And if you could be like Stephen Almighty, like 651 - > for one day ruling all the world like 652 - > the movie Bruce Dalmatian do you agree with?
Yeah, Bruce Almighty. 653 - > Exactly. And would you agree? And with what 654 - > would you replace it?
Okay, I'm going to give you 655 - > two answers to your one question, right? Because 656 - > the direct answer to question is if you're saying, 657 - > hey, Steven, is hustle culture anathema to creativity? 658 - > No, it's not. Smart productivity, like healthy 659 - > productivity, is a thing.
And great leaders know how to 660 - > create greatness without enforcing the sleeping 661 - > bag under the desk. You're here, I'm going to burn you out and kill you. 662 - > And here are some stock options. Go.
Right. 663 - > There's a certain kind of leader that just doesn't understand how great 664 - > work is done. So they only understand grinding it out. Like they're drawing blood out 665 - > of you.
And they do get blood, but at what 666 - > cost? So there are ways in which you can do very healthy productivity. Say this 667 - > is. How am I going to manage the team now?
When you said, if I 668 - > were Stephen almighty and for one day I could 669 - > change everything, 670 - > the thing I would change is not hustle culture. If people really want 671 - > to spend more time than they need to on something, okay, we'll let them. If 672 - > someone wants to be efficient, they can do their thing. The one thing I would 673 - > change is this.
I 674 - > would change everyone so they were slightly more empathetic. 675 - > And how that would change the nature of the world, including the nature of work, 676 - > I think would be profound. Interesting 677 - > thoughts here. Interesting thoughts 678 - > for our audience.
I would love to know what's 679 - > one ritual you'll try this week to 680 - > protect 90 minutes of deep work? Tell us in the comments 681 - > below, tag us on social media, will reshare it 682 - > advice and close Stephen, we are now talking for 1 683 - > hour, 44 minutes and a few seconds. It's been great, though. 684 - > I've really enjoyed this.
Yeah, me too. Let's get to the last two 685 - > questions and then there will be a few more questions in our founders 686 - > world published later. 687 - > What single environment change yields 688 - > the fastest productivity lift for solo founders? 689 - > I would say the oral environment.
And by oral, I mean au oral, 690 - > like what you're doing with sound. Sound has a deep 691 - > influence on the brain's ability to focus. So if you're in an environment 692 - > where there are sound distractions, bings of your phone, 693 - > you know, children running by the doorbell, it's 694 - > a horrible way to break focus. So if there were one thing I had to 695 - > say about the environment, it's easy to say, oh, declutter your desk 696 - > or go work in this particular space.
But I would actually say 697 - > work out your sound environment, your oral environment. 698 - > What's Your boldest closing insights about 699 - > creativity, resilience and building through 700 - > uncertainty. Well, about creativity, we talked about the other 701 - > thing. That is something that every time I've been blocked on 702 - > something, I go back to what Jeff said to me 20 years 703 - > ago.
You have to be doing the other thing to have 704 - > the back of your mind say, and here's the solution you've been waiting for. So 705 - > if I'm blocked, I will go for a walk, I'll go downstairs, 706 - > I'll take a shower, I'll do something, and then let the back of my mind 707 - > do that. So that is my biggest hack in terms of creativity. 708 - > And did you all say mental focus or energy?
What was the 709 - > other part of your question? The 710 - > boldest closing insights about creativity, resilience 711 - > and building through uncertainty. Resilience. Okay, so 712 - > creativity, it is about the other thing, about resilience.
713 - > It is that every role model you have has failed 714 - > miserably. Period. 715 - > Everyone. So you can look up to whomever you want.
716 - > And just when you have that moment of like, oh, my God, this thing happened, 717 - > we didn't close the round, or we lost users this month or whatever, 718 - > everyone you look up to has had a worse loss than you. 719 - > And I'll tell you this. The Austin Film Festival was recently here 720 - > in Austin, and a number of people that I know from my 721 - > film days, which is over a decade ago, were here 722 - > with premieres of their movies, their TV series. So they 723 - > invited me.
They're like, hey, I'm in Austin. I know you live here now and 724 - > you're in tech, but, you know, do you want to come to my premiere? I 725 - > will tell you this, Joran. 726 - > If you asked me 15, 20 years ago, who are the 727 - > people that are going to be having premieres, 728 - > I would have guessed wrong, because I thought the 729 - > determinant was talent.
It is not. 730 - > It is tenacity. The people who were here 731 - > a month or two ago and were like, come to my premiere. I had come 732 - > to this.
They are not the ones that my friends and I all 733 - > thought, oh, my God, that's the best director ever. Oh, it's the most amazing writer. 734 - > They're the ones who could take no to their face 735 - > and still get up and say, okay, I'm going to try again. 736 - > Very, very true.
737 - > Stephen, it has been a big pleasure talk to 738 - > you. It's been wonderful. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much.
It 739 - > was now the final recording time will be around 740 - > one hour and 50 minutes, I would say. 741 - > It's a long movie, right? 742 - > Yes. Awesome.
Great. With such a 743 - > pleasure having you hope to have you back in some time. Thank you very 744 - > much. All the best.
Okay, bye. 745 - > That's all, folks. Find more news streams, 746 - > events and 747 - > interviews@www.startuprad.
IO. 748 - > remember, sharing is caring. 749 - > Sam.
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