From No Idea to a $25M Raised in 3 Years | Mark Hughes co-founder Solidroad

Mark Hughes started Solidroad in Dublin in 2023 with his co founder Patrick Finlay.

There was just one problem.

They did not actually know what they were going to build.

Three years later, Solidroad has gone through Y Combinator, built offices in Dublin and San Francisco, landed major enterprise customers and raised a $25 million Series A.

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Mark breaks down exactly how it happened.

We go inside the early search for product market fit, how they got their first customers, founder led sales, getting into Y Combinator after multiple attempts, moving his life to San Francisco and the extraordinary speed at which Silicon Valley operates.

Mark also tells the story of meeting First Round Capital on a Saturday, meeting the partnership on Sunday and effectively having the investment agreed by Monday.

We then get into AI.

Mark explains how AI has completely changed the way he works as a CEO, why he believes repetitive work is most at risk, why customer support will remain a combination of humans and AI, and how he is effectively building an AI powered operating system around his company.

Finally, we talk about the biggest mistake he has made building Solidroad and the lesson he would give his younger founder self:

Move faster.

A fascinating conversation about ambition, fundraising, sales, AI, Silicon Valley and what it really takes to build a venture scale company.