Phil Jacobson, former Head of Operations at Tensor Labs, breaks down what startup ops actually looks like when the stakes are high: legal, finance, hiring, cap table cleanup, and acquisition readiness. The biggest takeaway: the systems founders delay early are often the same systems that matter most when it’s time to raise, scale, or sell.

In this Mantle Mondays episode, Phil shares how he went from founder to operator, why he joined Tensor Labs, what he learned running ops in crypto, and why getting the cap table out of a spreadsheet was one of the first things he tackled before Tensor’s acquisition by Coinbase.

Most people treat networking like a volume game: more DMs, more intros, more meetings.

Andrew D’Souza (Boardy, ex‑Clearco) argues it’s actually a trust + memory game—and AI finally makes a true “trust bridge” possible.

In this episode, Amar Varma (Mantle) and Andrew D’Souza (Boardy) break down:

• Why paid referrals can kill trust (even when the intro is great)
• What product-market fit feels like in real life (“stumbling in the desert” → inflection)
• The CEO moment nobody talks about: knowing when you’re not the right operator
• Why Boardy exists: perfect memory + growing imagination + a principled network
• 2026 go-to-market: what AI makes possible that humans never could (or never would)If you’re building something ambitious and want better opportunities to find you, listen to Andrew’s framework and then get on Boardy’s radar by telling your “why you, why now.”

Subscribe for more founder/operator conversations on Mantle Mondays.

Take a call with Boardy: www.boardy.ai

Create your cap table with Mantle: www.withmantle.com

In this episode of Mantle Mondays, Amar Varma sits down with Mark Gilbert, co-founder and CEO of Zocks, to talk about what it really takes to build a product people can’t live without.

Mark's journey is anything but linear: from programming at Canada Post as a teenager, to interning at Elon Musk's first company Zip2, to building global infrastructure at Microsoft and scaling Twilio through COVID, Mark brings a rare combination of deep technical credibility and hard-won founder instincts.

Learn more about Zocks: zocks.io

Learn more about Mantle: withmantle.com