About this episode
This week on Build Mode, we’re joined by David Park, co-founder and CEO of Narada, an enterprise AI agent platform spun out of UC Berkeley AI Lab research. Narada uses large action models to automate complex, multi-step workflows across enterprise systems. After previously co-founding and exiting Coverity, Park is now building his second company with a different playbook: Stay lean, talk to customers, and don’t raise before you’re ready.
In this episode, he shares why Narada spent a year making nearly 1,000 customer calls before raising institutional capital, how the company reached 99.99% reliability in production environments, and why he believes too much funding too early can derail even the strongest teams. Park also reflects on his experience as a Startup Battlefield Top 20 company and the lessons he’s carried from his first exit into building Narada.
He breaks down:
Why customers won’t tell you your “baby is ugly” — but their wallets will
How Narada achieves enterprise-grade AI reliability
Why raising money before product-market fit can be dangerous
The discipline of building a lean, “mean building machine”
When to scale your go-to-market team (and when not to)
Why founders must stick to their values, even under pressure
Lessons from Startup Battlefield and building in public
Apply to Startup Battlefield: We are looking for early-stage companies that have an MVP. So nominate a founder (or yourself): techcrunch.com/apply. Be sure to say you heard about Startup Battlefield from the Build Mode podcast.
Founders Summit: If you want to take these conversations beyond the podcast, then come join us in person at a TechCrunch event on June 9 in Boston, we're hosting our founders Summit, which is essentially build mode in real life. It's a full day focused entirely on founders, builders and the conversations that actually move startups forward. It's also a great way to sharpen your story. Get your tickets.
TechCrunch Disrupt: If you're thinking about applying to Startup Battlefield, then October 13 to 15 in San Francisco, we're back for TechCrunch Disrupt, where the Startup Battlefield 200 takes th
