Ariel Renous (CEO of Augment) on democratizing access to business education

Welcome to yet another episode of the Build In Public Podcast! 🎉 Today's episode features Ariel Renous, co-founder and CEO of Augment.org.   Augment is a modern online alternative to the traditional MBA program. Augment's approach is to reshape education by leveraging online tools to offer high-quality business knowledge straight from the minds of the brightest business leaders. Partnering with experts in business education and world-class entrepreneurs from companies like Wikipedia, YouTube, Waze, and Shazam, they crafted an innovative MBA program. The fast-growing startup based out of Paris raised a $6 million funding round from top tier investors in 2023. In this episode, Ariel and KP discuss the founding story of Augment, the evolution of business education over the years, the power of cold emailing influential people in Silicon Valley, lessons from building in public and more.  The list of topics covered and relevant timestamps are: 00:00  Introduction 03:09  Origin Story of Augment 08:35  Cold Emailing Everyone in Silicon Valley 12:20  The Power of Mission and Storytelling 29:45  The Upside of Building in Public 30:04  Lessons from Fundraising 33:07  Building Augment 36:14  Non-Zero Sum Game 39:45  Finding the Right Idea 45:09  Challenges Before Starting Augment 52:04  Building a Team and Managing Challenges Relevant links: Ariel's handle on X: https://twitter.com/ArielRenous Augment's website: https://augment.org/ KP handle on X: https://twitter.com/thisiskp_ KP's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/KarthikPuvvadaKP Past guests on the Build In Public podcast include Gary Vaynerchuk (CEO of Vayner Media), Sahil Lavingia (CEO of Gumroad), Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), Gina Bianchini (CEO of Mighty Networks), Adam Draper (MD of BoostVC), Arvid Kahl (Author of Zero To Sold), Tiago Forte (author of Building A Second Brain), Mariam Hakobyan (CEO of Softr), Kat Cole (COO of Athletic Greens) and more. Other episodes you might enjoy: Episode 4 with Gary VaynerchukEpisode with Alexis Ohanian (Co-Founder of Reddit and 776 Fund)The Must-Have Qualities For You To Become A Successful Entrepreneur (feat. Sheel MohnotEpisode 10 with Kat ColeLife After One Of India's Biggest Startup Exits (feat. Phanindra Sama)