🎧 START pod: Adil Mania, Founder & Host, Silicon Mania: “Make Tech Fun Again”

🎧 START pod: Adil Mania, Founder & Host, Silicon Mania: “Make Tech Fun Again”

Author: Fondo April 17, 2026 Duration: 24:31

Tech is the biggest story in the world and its media is somehow the least fun to watch

Adil Mania moved from Paris to SF to change that

Now he's building a full media company around one idea: tech doesn't need to be packaged like homework

A live night show. A print magazine. A weekly newsletter. An animated recap

Every major industry learned how to entertain

Now it's tech's turn

🎙️ Adil Mania, Founder, Silicon Mania, on Fondo START pod

01:48 — Moved from Paris to San Francisco two months before the recording

02:47 — Built a startup media company in France, then stopped when it became "boring"

04:00 — Silicon Mania began as a new, "bigger, better, bolder" media idea

05:23 — His philosophy: treat life like an experiment; iterate instead of chasing final wins

11:00 — The recap format started as an iteration on old YouTube-style yearly recaps

11:38 — First recap went from ~2K views to 50K overnight, then kept climbing

12:40 — Weekly recaps validated the format with roughly 250K+ impressions

13:40 — His thesis on media: people don't need automated slop; people need trust

16:14 — Expanding the format into a newsletter with frame-by-frame context

17:00 — Bringing back the monthly format in print through Silicon Mania magazine

18:16 — The night show is his favorite product: live, interactive, and built around the human side of founders

19:54 — His ambition: make tech media mainstream enough that "my mom" can enjoy it

23:03 — The long-term vision: build the "NBC for tech"


Behind every startup's big idea is the less glamorous, but utterly essential, work of building a real business. The Startup Growth Podcast, from the team at Fondo, digs into that reality. Fondo itself is an all-in-one accounting platform designed for startups, handling everything from closing the books to filing taxes and even helping secure cash back from the IRS. This practical experience informs every conversation. You’ll hear founders and operators talk not just about vision, but about the tangible systems, financial decisions, and marketing pivots that actually fuel growth. Episodes move beyond theory to explore the operational choices that separate promising companies from sustainable ones. It’s a resource for entrepreneurs who understand that strategy is meaningless without execution, and that a healthy bottom line is the truest measure of progress. Tune in for honest discussions that bridge the gap between entrepreneurial ambition and the business fundamentals required to make it last.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 48

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