Carl Fudge – From Boardroom to Lunchroom: The Winding Path to Presentation Mode | #297

Carl Fudge helps founders tell stories that investors can understand, remember, and act on. But as Carl points out early in this conversation, telling your own story is often much harder. His path to founding Presentation Mode wasn't a straight one. It moved through organizational psychology, management consulting at McKinsey, an early-stage innovation company, business school at MIT, eight years at IDEO, and eventually a turbulent startup experience that ended with an unexpected layoff. Along the way, Carl began discovering pieces of himself that weren't always obvious from a job title. At IDEO, a project redesigning San Francisco's school lunch experience took him, as he jokes, from the boardroom to the lunchroom. What looked like a step backward in prestige became a huge step forward creatively. He learned that he loved creating things that didn't exist, bringing different disciplines together, recognizing hidden strengths in other people, and helping quieter voices become part of the conversation. Then came the reset. After leaving IDEO for a promising technology startup, Carl found himself laid off and without the carefully mapped next step that had characterized much of his career. Freelancing gave him space to reflect, journal, and pay attention to what actually gave him energy. One small side business kept pulling him back: helping people with presentations and storytelling. That instinct eventually became Presentation Mode, where the lessons from psychology, strategy, design, leadership, and storytelling finally came together. Key Takeaways: ✔️ Your career doesn't need to move in a straight line to move forward. Experiences that look disconnected in the moment can become the raw material for what you eventually build. ✔️ Pay attention when other people recognize strengths you don't see in yourself. Sometimes the people around us notice our natural abilities before we understand their value. ✔️ Great teams make room for more than the loudest voices. Leadership can look a lot like conducting an orchestra: knowing when to amplify someone, when to create space, and how to help different strengths work together. ✔️ Creation and optimization require different kinds of energy. Carl eventually realized he was far more energized by building new products, services, businesses, and stories than by improving what already existed. ✔️ Culture is part of what you're building. The IDEO experience showed Carl that high standards, serious work, creativity, kindness, humor, and joy don't have to compete with one another. ✔️ Sometimes a setback creates the space to finally follow an instinct. Carl's layoff wasn't the beginning of his entrepreneurial desire, but it gave him the push to stop ignoring it and start building something of his own. Sometimes the winding path isn't a detour. It's the thing preparing you to build what's next. #TheBuildersPodcast #Entrepreneurship #CareerJourney #BusinessLeadership #Storytelling #PresentationSkills #EntrepreneurialJourney #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #CareerPivots #Founders