Minimum Viable - Nov. 28, 2025

🎙️ Founder Friday with Mercury Podcasts Founder and CEO Liam Heffernan
🚁 Drone Photography Service for Insurance Claims
🇩🇰 Nordic Startups Are Taking Big Swings
🫧 49 US AI Startups Have Raised $100M+
📖 The Book that Rewrote How to Work
🧀 Stadium Grade Nacho Cheese Pumps for the Home

🚁 Drone Photography Service for Insurance Claims

IDEA: When disaster strikes, time is of the essence. Homeowners need claims processed and funds dispersed as quickly as possible. There are only so many insurance adjusters to go around which means that when there are many homes to inspect, the longer it takes for people to get the help they need. Driving to properties can also be difficult if floods cut off road access. There needs to be a way to greatly speed up the insurance process after natural disasters.

PRODUCT: Create a drone photography service and work directly with insurance companies to help with claim reviews after natural disasters. This product would serve as a third-party and send photos to the insurance company to be attached to claims. Drones can get to properties much faster than a human driving could, get better photo angles of damage, and road access is no issue. Plus, the drone could be controlled from a central command center and allow for more claims processed per day.

MVP: Obtain a photo capable, long distance drone and develop a portfolio of high quality photos.

REVENUE MODEL: Transactional, charge per property photographed and charge a retainer fee to be on standby when a natural disaster hits.

EXIT STRATEGY: Sell to a national insurance company for 4-6x revenue.

Check out Mercury Podcasts’ website and their full slate of shows.

Our founder this week comes to us from Medway, Kent, UK. I came across Liam and his podcast network while searching for something new to listen to and thought it was crazy that I had never heard of Mercury or their incredible lineup. Seriously, check out their site and find your next obsession.

Here is what CEO Liam Heffernan has to say about his founder journey and entrepreneurship:

What are you working on now? 

Mercury is still a baby podcast network, having launched in early 2025, so I've been working on building up our roster of shows while figuring out what our roadmap looks like for the next couple of years. Like any startup, year one is about survival, and part of that is not only making sure things are ticking over day to day, but creating the foundations for a sustainable business long term. I guess the short answer to this is... everything. I'm working closely with our podcasters to level up their content, grow their audience, and maximise their revenue, but I'm also developing some new things for next year, which I'm super excited about, and I hope will really establish Mercury as a champion and a voice of the independent podcasting world.

Why did you want to become an entrepreneur? 

I guess there's a couple of reasons that all coincided to make it a reality. Firstly, I was never particularly good at reporting to people. Maybe it's my neurospicy brain, or maybe I'm just an awful employee, but I never quite felt like I was able to do my best work unless I was working for myself. I always found the most joy in my projects, where I may not have been earning anything from it, but I had full autonomy. I'm definitely not great at communication of my vision to others - I'm more show than tell - but that's not ideal in a workplace; the only boss I was going to be truly happy answering to was myself. Secondly, there's something incredibly motivational about having kids. When we brought our daughter home in 2023, my mindset changed. It's like a switch was flicked and suddenly I had a purpose, a reason to succeed. But I don't consider income a marker of success - I think a lot of people earn a lot of money very dishonourably and/or very miserably. That's not the example I wanted to set for my daughter. I want to model to her that if you have an ambition to do something, you give it your all, because there are so many reasons beyond our control that determine if things work out, but we have full control over whether we choose to try. Most days I'm terrified about running my own business - the high stress, low sleep, zero income environment is not exactly ideal - but one day, whether I succeed or fail, I get to tell my daughter that I backed myself, and she should grow up never afraid to do the same.

The trigger to me taking the plunge and starting my own business, was losing three jobs in 10 months. At the time I was 36/37 and I'd never lost a job before in my life. It felt like karma - I left a secure career I hated for an insecure career I loved (I was a banking risk analyst for five years which is precisely as boring as it sounds). I don't regret it for a second, but after the third time I got a bit fed up of putting my fate in other people's hands, so I took charge of it myself and never looked back.

You will spend 95% of your time doing absolutely anything except the thing you started your company to do. Be prepared for that. Launching a business is incredibly rewarding, and the good days are incredible, but also the buck stops with you, and when bad or unexpected things happen, which they do every day, it's on you to sort it. So my advice to any new entrepreneurs would be to make time to celebrate the good moments, and I mean really enjoy them: they will be few and far between in the early days but it's the fuel that will keep you pushing through the bad.

Is entrepreneurship for everyone? And what is something people should be 100% sure about before they start?

No, entrepreneurship is not for everyone, and that's ok. I don't even think it's for me, if I'm being completely honest. I consider myself a podcaster, a creator, someone with a great idea that I genuinely believe nobody else can execute as well as I can. Being an entrepreneur is simply the means of realising that. Which kinda leads on to the second part, because if you think you're ready to start your own business because you want to be a business owner, or you want to make lots of money, or something else equally vague and corporate, then you're not ready. But if you're 100% sure about why, and I mean why are you creating this particular business? What is your goal, and how will starting a business help you achieve this? Then you're ready, because 'founder' and 'CEO' are just job titles, not ambitions.

Publication: TechCrunch

Link: Nordic founders are taking bigger swings, and it’s paying off

Summary: The article argues that Nordic-region startup founders are now scaling far more ambitiously than a decade ago. They note that just ten years ago, raising €1 million in Copenhagen was considered a major success. Today, companies like Lovable can hit $200 million in revenue within a year of launching. According to veteran founder Dennis Green‑Lieber of AI platform Propane, the region’s strong social safety net gives entrepreneurs room to take big risks without jeopardizing their personal lives — which encourages bold, long-term bets. The result: a startup ecosystem evolving rapidly, increasingly focused on deep-tech and AI, and capable of rivaling traditional hubs like Silicon Valley.

Spin: I have said it before and I will say it again: you do not need to be in Silicon Valley to be a successful tech entrepreneur. At this point, it may even be better since the region is so saturated and laser-focused on AI. The Nords are doing it the right way. Valuations are based on concrete factors and not hype. They are shifting their culture as well, making entrepreneurship even more accessible.

Publication: TechCrunch

Link: Here are the 49 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2025

Summary: In 2025, TechCrunch reports that 49 U.S. AI startups secured funding rounds of $100 million or more, matching the record number from 2024. Notable raises include Anysphere whose AI-coding tool Cursor pulled in a $2.3 billion round and others such as Hippocratic AI, Fireworks AI, Uniphore, Reflection AI, and OpenEvidence with rounds ranging from $100M to several billion. The data shows not just a large number of mega-rounds, but a rising trend of companies securing multiple such rounds in 2025 — a sign of sustained investor enthusiasm and growing confidence in U.S. AI ventures.

Spin: Do I even need to say it at this point? Investor enthusiasm is staying high and confidence is growing while we are still yet to see any kind of return from 90% of these companies. I am curious to know if any of them will be profitable within the next 5 years. Don’t get me wrong; some of these companies will go on to do great things and make a lot of money for investors. A great deal of them, however, will teach investors a very important lesson about hype.

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37Signals and BaseCamp, are two of the most influential voices in the workplace revolution. They do things differently and make a damn good case for why its better. Some of their ideas are paid vacations (not just PTO, they actually pay for your trip), month long sabbaticals every 3 years, reviewing pay scale every year to make sure their employees are in the top 10% of earners in their position, and my personal favorite, meetings as a last resort. Its a great book for entrepreneurs because it gives a framework for building culture and trust with employees.

I read it in an afternoon, give it a try:

IDEA: Nacho cheese (not talking about cheese that isn’t yours) is great. I am not even sure if it is real cheese, but, to be honest, I don’t care. Gimme some corn chips, a soft pretzel, some jalapeños, and I am set for first hour of any ballgame. That’s the problem though. I can only get the liquid gold at sporting events. I want it all the time. Sell dispensers in a style like stainless steel so it can always be on the kitchen counter.

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