I have a confession.
I watch All-In every single week. Chamath, Jason, Sacks, Friedberg. 413 episodes deep, over a million YouTube subscribers, and I still show up for the poker-table energy.
But here's the problem.
The besties manage billions. They debate rate cuts, AI capex, and who should run the country. Great entertainment. Zero help when you're a founder at $12K MRR trying to figure out why churn ate your growth this month.
So I went looking for shows that scratch the same itch: smart people with strong opinions who actually argue. And I ranked them the way a bootstrapped founder actually would.
Full transparency before we start: number one on this list is my own show. I'll tell you exactly why I put it there, and you can judge for yourself.
1. Profitable Founder Podcast
Full disclosure: this one's mine.
Here's why it's number one anyway.
All-In tells you what four billionaires think about the economy. My show tells you how founders at YOUR stage actually make money. Every week I interview bootstrapped founders making $100K to $10M a year, and I make them open the playbook.
Not "we crushed it" stories. Real numbers and real mistakes.
A few recent episodes:
- Arnaud from Breakcold: stuck at $25K/month with a bootstrapped CRM, and how he fixed it
- Roman from Gojiberry: $3.5M a year with a LinkedIn AI agent
- Marie Martens: how Tally grew to $5M a year with a free-first form builder
- Yasser from Chatbase: $1M ARR in 117 days
- Nick from Sideshift: $8M a year, no VC money
42 episodes and counting. Every guest is someone you can copy, because they got there without a fund and without a personal brand from 2012.
If All-In is the view from the penthouse, this is the view from the trenches. You need both.
2. BG2 Pod
The closest thing to All-In that isn't All-In.
Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner. Two legendary investors, one bi-weekly conversation on tech, markets, investing, and capitalism. Around 44 episodes so far, and almost every one goes deep instead of wide.
The Jensen Huang episode alone is worth your commute: the NVIDIA founder walking through the $100B OpenAI partnership and what an "AI factory" actually is. They've had Sam Altman on to explain OpenAI's structure. This is the show where the guests can't hide behind talking points, because Gurley has seen every trick since the 90s.
Why it beats All-In on substance: two hosts going deep instead of four going wide.
Why it's number two and not one: nobody on BG2 is going to teach you how to get your first 100 customers.
3. My First Million
Sam Parr and Shaan Puri brainstorm business ideas every week. That's the whole premise, and it works.
Over 850 episodes in. Sam sold The Hustle to HubSpot, Shaan sold Bebo to Twitch, and the chemistry is the same "friends riffing" energy that made All-In huge. The difference is altitude: MFM talks about businesses you could actually start this quarter.
I broke down my favorite episodes in my podcasts-like-My-First-Million roundup, but the short version: if All-In is macro, MFM is micro. Frameworks, ideas, and the occasional guest breakdown that turns into a business you see launched six months later.
4. Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal tell the complete story of one great company per episode. Rolex. Costco. Visa. Hermès. Disney.
Episodes run three to four hours. I know that sounds insane. It's not. It's the most complete business education you can get for free, and the production quality embarrasses most paid courses.
All-In gives you this week's take. Acquired gives you the hundred-year pattern behind this week's take. I ranked their best episodes in my podcasts-like-Acquired guide if you want a starting point.
5. This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis is one of the four besties, so this is All-In's little brother by blood.
TWiST has been running since 2009 with over 5,000 episodes. Jason hosts with Alex Wilhelm and Lon Harris, and the focus is exactly what the name says: startup news, founder interviews, and angel investing, multiple times a week.
It's scrappier and more founder-focused than All-In. When Jason interviews an early-stage founder, you get tactical questions the main show never has time for.
6. Pivot
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, every Tuesday and Friday.
This is the show for the weeks when the All-In takes get a little too cozy. Kara has covered tech as a journalist since the 90s and pushes back harder than anyone on the billionaire consensus. Scott brings the NYU finance-professor energy plus jokes you can't repeat at work.
4.2 stars from about 8,000 ratings on Apple Podcasts, and the bickering is the feature, not the bug. If you like All-In because the hosts actually disagree, Pivot does that twice a week with sharper elbows.
7. Prof G Markets
Scott Galloway again, this time with Ed Elson, and this time daily.
Prof G Markets is a no-fluff briefing on whatever moved markets: earnings, geopolitics, Big Tech, AI. Episodes are short enough to stack with your coffee, and the Scott-and-Ed dynamic (60-year-old professor, 20-something co-host) keeps it from feeling like CNBC.
This is the one I'd pick if you want the "markets literacy" half of All-In without the two-hour runtime.
8. The a16z Show
Andreessen Horowitz rebranded the long-running a16z Podcast into The a16z Show, hosted by Erik Torenberg with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz showing up regularly.
Recent 2026 episodes: Travis Kalanick with Ben Horowitz on Uber's early days, Marc Andreessen on physical AI, and Steven Sinofsky on AI and math breakthroughs.
It's the most "VC brain" show on this list, which is exactly why it's last. Incredible access, world-class guests, and almost nothing about running a small profitable company. Listen for the vision, not the playbook.
How I ranked these
Simple filter: what does a bootstrapped founder actually get per hour of listening?
→ Shows that interview founders at your stage ranked highest.
→ Shows with real disagreement beat shows with polite consensus.
→ Pure macro and VC content ranked lower, no matter how good the guests are.
I paid $13,000 for a mastermind when I was doing $15-20K a month, and six months later I was at $75K. The lesson stuck: advice from people two steps ahead of you beats advice from people two hundred steps ahead. Same rule applies to podcasts. That's also the whole reason I run mine, and why my list of the best podcasts for SaaS founders looks different from everyone else's.
The cheat sheet
Eight shows is seven too many to actually follow, so here's the honest matchmaking:
- You're pre-revenue or under $10K MRR: Profitable Founder Podcast plus My First Million. You need playbooks and idea flow, not macro takes.
- You're $10K to $100K MRR: Profitable Founder Podcast plus BG2. You're big enough that the market context starts to matter.
- You raised money (or want to): This Week in Startups plus The a16z Show. That's where the VC brain lives.
- You have 20 minutes a day: Prof G Markets. Done.
- You miss arguing with someone: Pivot. Kara and Scott will argue for you.
- You have a 4-hour drive: One Acquired episode. Exactly one.
When I was grinding from $15K to $75K a month, my podcast diet was two shows. One tactical, one macro. Every founder I know who listens to eight shows ships nothing on Mondays.
FAQ
What podcast is most similar to All-In?
BG2 Pod. Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner cover the same territory (tech, markets, investing, capitalism) with the same insider access, but with two hosts instead of four and more depth per topic. If you want the group-of-friends format specifically, My First Million is the closest match in energy.
Is All-In still worth listening to as a founder?
Yes, with a caveat. It's the best window into how the people who fund and shape tech actually think, and that context matters. Just don't confuse it with operating advice. The besties haven't bootstrapped anything recently, and their problems are not your problems.
What's the best podcast for bootstrapped SaaS founders specifically?
The shows that put operators at your revenue stage on the mic. That's the gap Profitable Founder Podcast fills: weekly interviews with founders doing $100K to $10M a year, walking through exactly how they got there. Start there, then add one macro show (BG2 or Prof G Markets) for context.
Is BG2 better than All-In?
Different jobs. All-In is four hosts covering everything in two hours, politics included. BG2 is two investors going deep on one or two topics per episode, roughly every two weeks. If you found All-In through the market analysis and stayed despite the politics, BG2 will probably become your favorite show. If you're there for the bestie banter, stick with All-In and add BG2 for the big interviews.
How many of these should I actually follow?
Two or three, max. One founder-level show for tactics, one macro show for context, one wildcard for fun. Podcasts are input. Your product is output. If your queue has 40 unplayed episodes, that's not learning, that's procrastination with extra steps.
Want the founder-level one handled? New episode every week. Steal the playbooks.
