Why Great Founders Are “Angry at the Problem”

About this episode

Eugene Malobrodsky discusses the challenges and motivations of founders, particularly immigrant entrepreneurs, in the startup ecosystem.

For this episode, I interviewed Eugene Malobrodsky, partner at One Way Ventures and former founder of AnchorFree, the company behind HotSpot Shield, one of the first consumer VPN products to scale globally. Before becoming a VC, Eugene spent 15 years building and scaling a startup through the 2008 financial crisis, painful layoffs, difficult fundraising environments, and the long grind from idea to acquisition. Today, he backs immigrant founders building applied AI, deep tech, fintech, healthcare, and enterprise startups at the pre-seed and seed stage. Topics include: Why many founders become founders for the wrong reasons What venture capitalists really mean when they talk about “100x outcomes” How to think about fundraising runway and dilution Why technical founders often struggle with storytelling What makes a startup venture-backable versus a profitable lifestyle business The most common mistakes early technical teams make How investors evaluate first-time founders with no track record Why customer discovery matters more than building features too early Why the best founders are often “angry at the problem” they’re trying to solve He also spoke about what immigrant…

People in this episode

Host: Walter Thompson

Guest: Eugene Malobrodsky

Topics covered

• founder motivations
• venture capital
• fundraising
• startup evaluation
• immigrant entrepreneurship
• networking
• H-1B visas

Keywords

• founders
• venture capital
• fundraising
• startup
• immigrant entrepreneurs
• Silicon Valley
• H-1B visas
• customer discovery
• technical founders
• AI

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: One Way Ventures, AnchorFree

Products: HotSpot Shield

Places: Silicon Valley

More episodes of Fund/Build/Scale

• The 10x Rule: Turning a Research Paper into an AI Company · June 10, 2026 · 46 min
• Your First Marketing Hire Is Probably Not a CMO · June 5, 2026 · 45 min
• How AI-Native Startups Actually Get Built · May 20, 2026 · 52 min
• Before There Is Proof: Build a Startup Story That Shows You Can Execute · May 6, 2026 · 17 min
• How to Hire Your First Offshore Team Without Screwing It Up · April 28, 2026 · 32 min
• How Technical Founders Win the First 5 Minutes With Investors · April 18, 2026 · 43 min