S12 E19: Thomas Schlegel, Built

S12 E19: Thomas Schlegel, Built

Author: Noah Labhart - Startup Founder & CTO May 19, 2026 Duration: 38:06
Thomas Schlegel lives in Nashville, TN, but grew up in rural Virginia. He didn't have the internet for a large portion of his childhood - but, his friends did! So that meant he was spending more time at his friends place, and eventually when MySpace came around, he was the guy to build everyone's custom site. He's always been the wild idea guy amongst his friends, always the tinkerer. Today, he's married with twins on the way. He loves to run, either on the road or the trails. And when he gets the chance, he enjoys a good conversation with good people, contemplating or pondering the bigger things in life. In the past, Thomas was a lead engineer at a professional services organization in Tennessee. While at a conference, he met the CEO of his current venture, and they hit it off. He was intrigued by their company, and several years later, he started working for the company as an individual contributor - and quickly activated his entrepreneur DNA to solve ALL the problems. This is the creation story of Built. Our Sponsors: * Check out Cash App and use my code CASHAPP10 for a great deal: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/mt82fpxl #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Cash App Green, overdraft coverage, borrow, cash back offers and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. * Check out Plaud AI and use my code CODESTORY for a great deal: https://plaud.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Behind every successful software product is a story, often untold, about the pivotal choices and challenges that shaped its journey. Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders brings those narratives to the forefront, hosted by Noah Labhart, a startup founder and CTO who understands the terrain. This podcast moves beyond theory to focus on the real-world experiences of SaaS founders, engineers, and product leaders. You'll hear firsthand accounts of building an initial MVP, the grind of securing those crucial first customers, and the delicate process of finding true product-market fit. Conversations delve into the technical and strategic crossroads that define early growth, from foundational engineering decisions and pricing experiments to the unforeseen infrastructure bottlenecks that emerge when scaling accelerates. It’s a resource for technical founders in the trenches, offering practical insights into navigating the complexities of building, launching, and growing a software business. Each episode of this podcast serves as a candid case study, revealing the lessons learned behind the code.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders
Podcast Episodes
S12 Bonus: Tobias "Tobi" Konitzer, Growthloop [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:17
Tobi Konitzer was born in Germany, and studied cultural studies as an undergraduate student. Eventually, he went to Duke to get a PhD in political science. And that eventually changed to be a PhD in computational social…
S12 E11: Brian Carbaugh, Andesite [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:59
Brian Carbaugh has a non-standard path to being a CEO in the startup world. He was in the marine core for 5-6 years in active duty, before attending Georgetown for school. Eventually, he joined the CIA and spent 23 years…
S12 Bonus: Reannah Wyatt, The Real Time [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:23
Reannah Wyatt is from Bandera, TX, raised on a 4th generation cattle and horse ranch. Eventually, she went to West Texas for school, rodeoing for Howard University, specifically barrel racing. She eventually started sell…
S12 E10: Dane Witbeck, Pinwheel [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:28
Dane Witbeck grew up in Georgia, and has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. He was the kid selling ripped CD's in school, along with other odds and ends. He went to Georgia Tech to study engineering, and eventually we…
S12 Bonus: Martina Zrnec, Stacklist [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:36
Martina Zrnec is located in Croatia and grew up playing basketball, spending every minute she could on the court. And when I say every minute, I mean it - she would even skip the last few hours of school and hit the cour…
S12 E9: Mitesh Agrawal, Positron [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:39
Mitesh Agrawal has a background in Mechanical Engineering. He was one of the co-founders of Lambda, a company in the supercomputing space, where he spent 8.5 years working on everything under the sun. He's very grateful…
S12 Bonus: Ashwin Agrawal, MobiusEngine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:49
Ashwin Agrawal came to the US when he was 17, to Rochester for school. He now lives in the Bay Area, and admits he misses his friends on the east coast, as they all stayed back in that area - but he does NOT miss the win…
Developer Chats - Oleksandr Piekhota [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:33
Today, we are continuing our series, entitled Developer Chats - hearing from the large scale system builders themselves. In this episode, we are talking with Oleksandr Piekhota, Principal Software Engineer at Teaching St…
S12 E8: Satya Mishra, Waylit [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:08
Satya Mishra was born and raised in India, in one of the smaller tech hubs on the eastern coast. He came to the states 25 years ago on an H1B visa, working in semiconductors. In 2015, he decided he wanted to do something…
Founder Chats - Max Denevich [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:44
Today, we are dropping another episode in our "chats" series, but expanding the audience set to include more folks. This episode is Founder Chats - hearing from those scaling the companies themselves. In this episode, we…