Have you ever been shocked by something a founder revealed on Mixergy (like revenue numbers) and asked yourself, “Why on Earth did he just say that?!”

I’ve wondered about why guests open up too, so when the interview is over, I often ask them about it.

Increasingly, the answer I get back is that the interviewee is being open so he can lay the groundwork for future partnerships, buyouts and other deals with founders who listen to his story.

It’s not usually a 2-step process (step 1, do an interview, and step 2, get a deal) but sometimes it is. Like today.

Max Teitelbaum of WhatRunsWhere told me that he he sent so many messages to the team at AppSumo about getting them to offer subscriptions to his ad spying service but didn’t get the go ahead.

Then, Max did a Mixergy interview and BAM, he got a message from AppSumo asking if they could sell subscriptions to WhatRunsWhere.

I asked him why that happened, and he said, “Those guys all listen to Mixergy over there.” They heard his interview and thought his company would be a good fit.

WhatRunsWhere is today’s AppSumo featured deal.

I hear stories like this a lot, but I don’t usually have permission to talk about them publicly. (Even my friend Doug of SpringMetrics recently swore me to secrecy before revealing what happened when his company was on Mixergy.)

I do hour-long, in-depth interviews. Instead of promoting myself (the way mainstream interviewers seem to), my goal is to help my audience learn about my interviewee. Good things come out of that.

If you’re a founder who wants to be featured on Mixergy, here’s our interviewee suggestion form.

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