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What Founders Need to Know: About Generating Traction on a Budget
NOV
4
2026
RECORDEDPAST EVENT

Early traction does not have to come from a big budget. In this episode of What Founders Need to Know, StartStak Founder & CEO Elizabeth McCalley talks with Angeley Mullins, Founder & CEO of Aetheris Ventures and an AI go-to-market advisor who has helped scale eight companies, including Amazon, Intuit and GoDaddy. Angeley explains what traction really means for early-stage startups, how to choose which growth activities deserve limited time and money, and why she sees marketing as the revenue engine of the AI era. She also shares what she’d do in the first 90 days with almost no budget, how to build visibility that compounds, and how to spot the early signals that tell you when to double down, change direction, or stop.