Built by Margin with Laurie Chen
Built by Margin is the podcast at the intersection of risk, numbers, and decision-making for founders, CEOs, and high performers. Hosted by CPA, fractional CFO, and author of the upcoming book Risk Worthy, Laurie Chen, CPA, MBA, the show explores how better decisions create better businesses, stronger leadership, and more meaningful long-term outcomes. From financial strategy and entrepreneurship to intelligent risk-taking and growth, each episode helps you think sharper and build with intention.
Built by Margin with Laurie Chen
Don’t Just Build the Product. Build the Business with Stephanie Musinsky
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In Episode 55 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen sits down with Stephanie Musinsky, founder and principal of VIA Product Development, to talk about what it really takes to turn technical ideas into viable products—and build a company around them.
Stephanie shares her path from biomedical and electrical engineering into entrepreneurship, including how early exposure to startups and her experience as a HealthTech Fellow at Harvard Medical School shaped the way she evaluates products, markets, and risk. Rather than focusing only on whether something can be built, she explains why founders also need to understand the customer, regulatory environment, business model, and path to market.
The conversation also explores how Stephanie thinks about risk as a founder. Her approach combines data, confidence in the team, and what she calls knowing “what is figureoutable”—recognizing when you may not have every answer yet but have the capability to solve the problems ahead.
Laurie and Stephanie dig into the operational side of entrepreneurship as well, including project estimation, prioritization, outsourcing, and determining the true value of a founder’s time. Stephanie explains why one of the hardest parts of owning a business is constantly deciding which task actually deserves your attention.
They also discuss how AI is changing both technical and business workflows. Stephanie shares how she uses AI for firmware development, proposals, dashboards, administrative automations, and repetitive processes, while Laurie emphasizes the importance of human expertise and fact-checking when using AI-generated financial or operational work.
Finally, Stephanie shares her long-term vision for VIA, including potentially incubating products and helping promising founders build early prototypes in exchange for equity, as well as the story behind Running Booth, her side venture that uses group runs to create more meaningful networking experiences at conferences.
This episode is a conversation about building beyond the prototype: making better bets, allocating your time intelligently, using technology without outsourcing judgment, and creating a business around the work you genuinely want to keep doing.