Podcasts about Saas

Pour l'épisode de cette semaine, je reçois Pierre Guilbaud, le fondateur d'Alchie.Alchie est un SaaS qui aide les entrepreneurs à créer leurs posts LinkedIn grâce à l'IA. Plutôt que de générer directement du contenu à partir de quelques mots, Alchie mène une interview pour faire émerger les idées de l'utilisateur avant de les transformer en posts.La particularité de l'histoire ? Il y a encore quelques mois, Pierre ne savait pas coder et il ne prétend toujours pas savoir le faire aujourd'hui. Pourtant, il a construit seul Alchie, lancé le produit et commencé à générer du revenu.Au cours de cet épisode, nous sommes revenus sur le parcours de Pierre, son expertise dans la création de contenu et le ghostwriting LinkedIn, puis sur la naissance presque accidentelle d'Alchie. Parti d'un simple fichier HTML créé avec Claude pour répondre à son propre besoin, le projet devient en quelques semaines un véritable SaaS.Nous avons beaucoup parlé de vibe coding : comment construire et faire évoluer un produit sans profil technique, travailler avec Claude, contourner ses limites en s'appuyant sur d'autres SaaS et surtout apprendre à arbitrer entre ce qu'il est possible de développer et ce qui mérite réellement de l'être.Pierre partage également sa manière de construire sa roadmap directement avec ses clients, sa vision du build in public, son rapport à la concurrence et les enjeux qui arrivent désormais : améliorer le produit, augmenter le panier moyen et trouver les bons leviers pour accélérer la croissance.Vous pouvez suivre Pierre sur LinkedIn.Pour tester Alchie, Pierre offre 20% sur le premier mois avec le code SAAS20.Bonne écoute !Mentionnés pendant l'épisode :ClaudeNetlifyLe bootcamp IA de Marjolaine GrondinPour soutenir SaaS Connection en 1 minute⏱ (et 2 secondes) :Abonnez-vous à SaaS Connection sur votre plateforme préférée pour ne rater aucun épisode

Send us Fan MailWhat happens when you combine a decacorn founder at the heart of the crypto infrastructure revolution with the original entrepreneur in the family who quietly built software long before “cloud” and “SaaS” became buzzwords? In this special episode of Money Majlis, we sit down with the son–mother duo of Nikil and Usha Viswanathan to explore both the future of financial plumbing and the values that shape the people building it.Nikil is the co‑founder and CEO of Alchemy, often described as the “AWS of blockchain” – a web3 developer platform that powers a massive share of global blockchain activity, from NFT marketplaces and DeFi protocols to tokenization pilots and stablecoin rails used by major financial institutions. In just about 16 months from public launch, Alchemy went from zero to a multi‑billion‑dollar valuation with a tiny team, delivering a “team‑to‑impact ratio” that most banks and big tech firms can only dream of. Usha, meanwhile, is the president and co‑founder of Starnik, the cloud software company she built with her husband Balu while raising two children, bootstrapping through the dot‑com boom and bust and modelling resilience, curiosity and an almost “insane” work ethic that both Nikil and his sister Tara, former CEO and co‑founder of Rupa Health, now see as their core foundation.Across the conversation, we move from the big picture to the deeply personal. Nikil explains why he believes we are moving from a world shaped by governments and banks to a world shaped by platforms and protocols – and why crypto rails will replace much of today's antiquated financial infrastructure. He breaks down crypto's four core use cases – from store of value to global payments and AI‑native money – and offers a hard‑hitting message to bankers who still think of digital assets as “that thing my nephew trades at night”. We also unpack how Alchemy emerged from 16 prior “failed” products, what it really takes to build at extreme speed, and how banks can escape the proof‑of‑concept graveyard and move tokenization into production.Then we switch lenses to Usha's story: a journey from commerce in Chennai to MIS in Texas to building Starnik and raising two founder‑CEOs. She shares practical parenting hacks, the rituals that kept the family grounded, and how to raise curious, kind and courageous children in a world of hyper‑connected ambition. Together, Nikil and Usha reflect on family as a “startup incubator”, ethics at the edge of money and health, and why – whether you are running a family, a startup or a bank – your values remain the ultimate operating system.Produced by : PoddsterGiving partner : GoodworldVisit moneymajlis.com to join our giving movement and get your USD 50 complimentary GiveCard. 

Jarrette Schule is the Founder and CTO of TenFore Golf, a cloud-based, all-in-one management platform built for golf courses and recreational facilities. He founded the company in 2015 after recognizing the limitations of legacy golf management systems. As TenFore's lead architect, Jarrette directs its technology vision and product development, creating mobile-first tools that help single- and multi-course facilities streamline operations, increase revenue, and improve the golfer experience.  In this episode… Golf courses often juggle outdated systems for tee times, payments, food service, reporting, and customer engagement. What does it take to replace those fragmented systems with one platform designed around how modern facilities operate? Jarrette Schule, a lifelong software developer with decades of experience building technology, explains that successful golf management software must address the entire operation rather than solve one isolated problem. He highlights the importance of listening to course operators, validating recurring needs, and designing tools around real-world workflows. This customer-led approach helped transform an on-course beverage-ordering concept into a connected platform spanning tee sheets, point-of-sale, booking, payments, food and beverage, reporting, and self-service kiosks. By bringing an outside technology perspective to golf, Jarrette identified opportunities that legacy providers had overlooked. He also uses a "rule of three" to prioritize features that deliver value across multiple customers instead of reacting to every individual request. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz speaks with Jarrette Schule, Founder and CTO of TenFore Golf, to discuss building an all-in-one platform for modern golf operations. They explore the product's evolution, customer-led development, and growth through multi-course operators. Jarrette also shares lessons from SaaS pricing, payment integrations, and moving from CEO to CTO.

Today, a brief wrap of yesterday's equity market session in the US, which repeated some of the recent AI hardware vs. SaaS performance divergences. A couple of key AI-chip and hardware names reported with results that didn't satisfy the market. We also look at the US CPI release and the reaction across macro, noting a key US treasury auction up later today. Also, we read aloud a great email sent to us by a long-time SMC listener on the chaos that AI LLMs have unleashed on IT operations for companies and the internet. Today's pod hosted by Saxo Global Head of Macro Strategy John J. Hardy. Links Cory Doctorow again on AI model collapse, with a particularly interesting link to a Lauren's data Substack post wonderfully titled "Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same." Which makes us proud to produce a very non-AI generated podcast every day that doesn't try to be like anyone else. There has been a lot of overage of Bill Ackman's latest position changes from his Pershing Square 13F filing. Here's a useful X post that usefully pastes in the coverage from his letter to shareholders. The link from the email read on today's pod on the Hugging Face hack incident: the YouTube video link works, while the summary link Mr. O sent me did not contain the summary. Michael Burry on Palantir being worth less than a dollar/share. Read daily in-depth market updates from the Saxo Market Call and the Saxo Strategy Team here. Please reach out to us at marketcall@saxobank.com for feedback and questions. Click here to open an account with Saxo. Intro music by AShamaluevMusic DISCLAIMER This content is marketing material. Trading financial instruments carries risks. Always ensure that you understand these risks before trading. This material does not contain investment advice or an encouragement to invest in a particular manner. Historic performance is not a guarantee of future results. The instrument(s) referenced in this content may be issued by a partner, from whom Saxo Bank A/S receives promotional fees, payment or retrocessions. While Saxo may receive compensation from these partnerships, all content is created with the aim of providing clients with valuable information and options.

The episode highlights the shift toward AI-driven knowledge management within the MSP sector, revealing increased operational dependency on structured data and sophisticated integrations. Lexful, an AI-native documentation platform designed specifically for MSPs, represents this trend by positioning itself not as a simple add-on but as a replacement for legacy documentation tools—controlling critical record-keeping functions and interfacing with principal PSA and RMM systems. This development signals greater infrastructure dependence on AI-based documentation and the implications of technical integration across diverse operational tools. According to Lexful's CEO and statements made during the episode, the platform has completed integrations with major PSA and RMM tools and now handles data by employing a “context-engineered” large language model tailored specifically to the MSP context. Lexful claims its engine minimizes LLM hallucinations, supports record-level access control, and functions as a system of record rather than a direct action platform. Socializing its compliance trajectory, Lexful has achieved SOC 2 Type 2 and shipped its MCP server, but its listing in marketplaces like Pax8 and SureWeb has been delayed, with current status characterized as “coming soon” and full integration targeted before the end of 2026. Supporting developments underscore the complexity and risk of deploying AI-native platforms into MSP environments. The absence of public customer or partner counts persists, with the company attributing constrained accessibility to pending integrations rather than lack of market uptake. Pricing structures diverge from incumbents, moving from per-user to per-client models and establishing minimum contract terms—raising questions about justification of cost versus legacy alternatives. A key operational risk centers on access control and human-in-the-loop governance, with sensitive systems such as password vaults only accessible through layered permissions, and Lexful emphasizing the necessity of robust accountability frameworks to minimize harm from potential automation failures. Practical implications for MSPs include heightened need for rigorous governance of AI systems, especially around data access, role management, and auditability. Vendor dependency deepens as platforms like Lexful supplant multiple existing tools and drive uptake via deeper integration with distribution marketplaces and SaaS ecosystems. Pricing and contract structures require MSPs to reconsider value calculations, as cost is no longer purely user-driven but tied to client volume and operational breadth. The tradeoff is between purported efficiency gains from automation and the risk profile associated with delegating documentation and knowledge management to AI-based infrastructure, particularly as human oversight remains essential to mitigate errors and ensure regulatory compliance. Supported by: ScalePad

The smartest AI model may no longer be the biggest constraint on enterprise AI. In this episode of Technovation, Peter High speaks with Retool Co-Founder and CEO David Hsu about why the next frontier is the “harness” around the model: the context, tools, governance, and human approvals that allow AI to do meaningful work inside an enterprise. David explains why knowledge workers are still too often acting as the API for AI, how enterprises can democratize software development without sacrificing security, and why model flexibility matters as costs and capabilities change rapidly. The conversation also explores the future of SaaS, the growing cybersecurity implications of AI-generated code, and how David's background in philosophy shapes his thinking about intelligence itself. This episode is presented by ElevenLabs — Bringing technology to life. Learn more at elevenlabs.io

Welcome to The SaaS CFO Podcast! In today's episode, host Ben Murray welcomes Lyndon Stickley, CEO of Iplicit, and Rob Steele, CFO at Iplicit, for a lively exploration of SaaS, accounting software, and the dynamics of scaling a tech company. Lyndon, a seasoned entrepreneur with multiple exits, and Rob, a finance software veteran, share their unique backgrounds and how they teamed up to breathe new life into Iplicit—a cloud-first finance solution born from a deep understanding of complex ERP challenges in the mid-market. Listeners will hear the inside story of Iplicit's evolution, from humble beginnings and sizable personal investment to rapid growth—leveraging over $25 million in Series A funding and a people-centric, remote culture. Lyndon and Rob pull back the curtain on their fundraising process, explaining how clear vision and disciplined focus created high investor demand. They also dive into go-to-market strategies targeting CFOs and FDs, the pivotal role of partners and resellers, and how channel sales are poised to fuel their next phase of expansion. This episode is packed with real-world insights on the modernization of accounting platforms, the nuanced role of AI in finance, and the metrics that drive SaaS success. If you're interested in the intersection of SaaS, finance, and innovation—or curious about how to build, fund, and scale a company in a competitive software landscape—this conversation will leave you inspired and informed. Show Notes: 00:00 The origins of Iplicit software 06:20 Realizing broader customer demand 08:47 Open API for flexibility 10:50 Opening up to growth funds 16:12 Building Investor Relationships 19:47 Challenges in direct sales and marketing 20:36 Shifting to partner sales channels 26:41 Trust and adoption of AI solutions 28:00 Discussing AI native queries 31:06 Growth slowing as company scales Links: SaaS Fundraising Stories: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/iplicit-raises-29-7-million-in-funding/ Rob Steele's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-steele-686a21169/ Lyndon Stickley's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndon-stickley-bab38b78/ Iplicit's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iplicit/ Iplicit's Website: https://www.iplicit.com/ To learn more about Ben check out the links below: Subscribe to Ben's daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben's SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben's SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

In the summer of 2026, the SAS Innovate Tour arrived in Washington, DC, at Convene Hamilton Square. 50 years have gone by since SAS launched a contract from the Department of Agriculture just down the street. It seemed appropriate to sit down with Stu Bradley, VP, Fraud, Risk & Compliance, SAS, to discuss how SAS delivers trusted AI for the federal government. In a recent interview, Kim Brand from CMS stated they disburse one billion dollars a day in claims. If you have just a 1% fraud rate, that means $10 million a day of waste. Today, we asked how SAS can help. The discussion focused on the importance of robust fraud prevention in government programs, emphasizing the need for efficient data ingestion and decision-making. SaaS has a 50-year record of regulating $300 billion in transactions and saving $500 million in fraud. The conversation highlighted the significance of governance in AI, with organizations that prioritize trustworthy innovation generating 60% higher returns on AI initiatives. During the interview, Bradley details the importance of preventing fraud. Today, federal organizations should be asking "What do I need to do to be ready for whatever comes next?" The cost for a typical "pay and chase" approach is high, and the results are paltry. The speakers also discussed the critical role of data integration and real-time analysis in preventing fraud, noting that 5% of payments involve fraud. The importance of partnerships between federal and state agencies to combat fraud was also underscored.

Who is Allen?Allen Kopelman is the seasoned founder of a forward-thinking payments company, with an impressive professional career spanning over 25 years in the payments industry. Previously involved in the hospitality sector as a restaurant owner and chef, Allen transitioned to the payments industry with a resolve to help business owners optimize their transaction processes. His deep understanding of both sides of the payment equation empowers him to create client-centric solutions that enhance business growth and efficiency. Allen is a problem solver at heart and a respected voice in the industry, also contributing as a writer for the Green Sheet magazine.Episode Summary:Welcome to It's Not Rocket Science: Five Questions Over Coffee, where Stuart Webb engages with Allen Kopelman, the innovative founder of a successful payments company. In this enlightening episode, Allen delves into the intricacies of payment solutions, outlining how tailored payment software can significantly reduce costs for business owners. Through sharing his rich experience, Allen illustrates the transformation from traditional payment setups to today's software-centric approaches. The conversation touches upon key elements that businesses need to consider when scaling their payment operations, with insights into common challenges faced by startups and how his company provides resolute solutions.The discussion highlights practical advice on leveraging payment technologies to maintain cash flow, avoiding the pitfall of becoming a financial buffer for clients. Allen underscores the importance of invoice automation and understanding interchange in order to enhance business operations. His valuable insights and real-world anecdotes underscore the critical role of payment strategies in ensuring business viability. Business owners and payment professionals alike will find this conversation both informative and inspirational, offering actionable strategies for optimizing payment processes and fortifying cash flow.Key Takeaways:* Understanding your payment system is crucial to effective business operations, especially when considering scalability and customer service.* Automated billing systems can significantly improve cash flow and free up resources for core business functions.* Business owners should avoid negotiating long-term payment terms, thereby mitigating cash flow issues by effectively utilizing credit options for customers.* The importance of understanding interchange rates in optimizing payment transactions, particularly as businesses expand.* Transitioning from traditional business approaches to embracing software solutions can improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.Notable Quotes:* “Payments is all about software...using the proper technology based on whatever business it is that you have.”* “Your customer already has a bank. You shouldn't really be doing that as a business owner.”* “Cash flow is king...you shouldn't really be doing that as a business owner.”* “You have to make decisions, you can't just wallow around.”* “Don't be the bank. Your customer already has a bank.”Resources:* Allen Kopelman: LinkedIn Profile [Not explicitly mentioned but relevant]* The Green Sheet: Industry magazine where Allen contributes.* Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, a recommended book.* The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins, another highly recommended book.* Visit It's Not Rocket Science: Five Questions Over Coffee for free resources and more insights from the episode.Dive into the full episode to grasp the depth of Allen's expertise and stay tuned for more discussions that demystify complex topics with simplicity and p

Staria on kasvattanut itsensä suomalaisesta tilitoimistosta Euroopan johtavaksi NetSuite-taloksi ja kansainvälisen taloushallinnon toimijaksi, joka palvelee asiakkaitaan jo 50 maassa. Mutta mitä tapahtuu, kun 550 hengen asiantuntijaorganisaatio — noin 300 kirjanpitäjää ja yli 200 muun alan osaajaa — kohtaa tekoälyn, service-as-software-ajattelun ja kansainvälistymisen yhtä aikaa?Vieraana on Artti Aurasmaa, Staria Oyj:n toimitusjohtaja. Artilla on pitkä historia kasvuyhtiöiden johtamisesta: hän on toiminut toimitusjohtajana muun muassa 3 Step IT:ssä ja Ropo Capitalissa, Martela Oyj:n toimitusjohtajana sekä Vincitin hallituksessa. Starialla hän johtaa yrityksen matkaa kohti skaalautuvampaa, teknologiavetoista liiketoimintamallia — käytännön päätösten, ei teorian kautta.Jaksossa pureudumme:- Mitä ongelmaa Staria ratkaisee ja miksi kansainvälinen taloushallinto on aito oma ongelmansa- Miten asiantuntijayritys kansainvälistyy asiakkaiden ja kumppaneiden kautta, ei pelkästään suoralla myynnillä- Mitä service as software tarkoittaa käytännössä taloushallinnon kontekstissa- Miten StariaMind rakennettiin sisäiseen käyttöön ja miten sen käyttöönotto eteni läpi organisaation- Miksi muutosta on helpompi johtaa kasvuympäristössä kuin stabiilissa organisaatiossa- Miten asiantuntijatyö siirtyy menneisyyden raportoinnista tulevaisuuden rakentamiseen- Artin oma ura: mitä tarkoittaa olla "kakkosvaiheen mies" — toimitusjohtaja, joka ei perusta yrityksiä mutta vie ne seuraavalle tasolle- Pörssi, pääomasijoittajat ja kasvuyhtiöiden rahoitusympäristö Suomessa ja RuotsissaAsiantuntijapalveluissa on pitkään ajateltu, että henkilöstöintensiivisyys on skaalautumisen este. Tämä jakso käsittelee sitä, millä edellytyksillä se ei enää pidä paikkaansa — ja mitä muutoksen johtaminen vaatii käytännössä, kun organisaatiossa on satoja ihmisiä, hajautettuja prosesseja ja pitkä historia räätälöidyissä asiakaskohtaisissa toimintatavoissa.Sisällysluettelo:00:00 Johdanto ja jakson teemat01:18 Mitä Staria tekee: CFO-office, global accounting, NetSuite ja Navilog03:25 Kansainvälisen taloushallinnon erityisongelmat05:36 Kasvun kompleksiteetti: 30, 150 ja 550 hengen organisaatioissa09:34 Starian historia: Supercellistä Euroopan johtavaksi NetSuite-taloksi13:17 Service as software -ilmiö ja taloushallinnon automatisointi20:14 Artti Aurasmaan ura: kakkosvaiheen toimitusjohtajuus23:45 Pääomasijoittajat, pörssi ja kasvuyhtiöiden rahoitusympäristö31:40 Suomalainen kasvuekosysteemi ja klusteriteoria37:09 Asiantuntijabisnes kansainvälistyy: asiakkaat ja kumppanit avaimena43:03 Palveluliiketoiminnan skaalautuvuus ja AI:n vaikutus49:00 StariaMind: miten AI otettiin käyttöön 550 hengen organisaatiossa56:30 Tuotteistus, hinnoittelu ja siirtyminen aikaan perustuvasta laskutuksesta arvopohjaiseen01:06:00 Asiantuntijaharha ja asiakaskokemus01:13:00 Miten asiantuntijatyö muuttuu: operaattorista rakentajaksi01:24:00 LopuksiMenestystä Etsimässä on podcast suomalaisesta ohjelmisto- ja SaaS-liiketoiminnasta. Keskustelut käsittelevät kasvua, kansainvälistymistä, liiketoimintamalleja ja päätöksiä, joita harvoin avataan julkisesti. Jakso on katsottavissa YouTubessa ja kuunneltavissa kaikissa podcast-palveluissa.Tutustu myös Artti Aurasmaa (LinkedIn) Staria (website) Antti Pietilä (LinkedIn) Kasvuvalmennus SaaS-yrityksille Loyalistic Loyalistic Studio SaaS FinlandPodcast tehdään yhteistyössä Loyalisticin ja SaaS Finlandin kanssa.

Today's guest is Vinodh Kumar Balaraman, Founder & CEO at CyberCheck360. In an era where cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated, email security remains a critical line of defence for organisations worldwide. In today's episode, Vinodh talks us through the evolving landscape of email security and his company's innovative solutions to protect against cyber attacks.Topics include:0:00 How CyberCheck360 protects users from sophisticated AI-powered email attacks7:42 Using sandboxed browser isolation to safely open email links remotely8:39 Building a hybrid SaaS platform for secure email link isolation11:35 Targeting regulated organisations with scalable email security for all sizes14:33 Continuously evolving their platform using AI to detect phishing16:50 How email security evolving towards AI-powered threat isolation19:13 Working with Enterprise Ireland for validation, mentorship and growth support20:38 Advice for entrepreneurs to start early, validate, adapt and evolve

A listener is trying to decide how to price a new online service. Should she use the common SAAS (“software as a service”) model, or are there alternatives? Side Hustle School features a new episode EVERY DAY, featuring detailed case studies of people who earn extra money without quitting their job. This year, the show includes free guided lessons and listener Q&A several days each week.Show notes: SideHustleSchool.comEmail: team@sidehustleschool.comBe on the show: SideHustleSchool.com/questionsConnect on Instagram: @193countriesVisit Chris's main site: ChrisGuillebeau.comRead A Year of Mental Health: yearofmentalhealth.comIf you're enjoying the show, please pass it along! It's free and has been published every single day since January 1, 2017. We're also very grateful for your five-star ratings—it shows that people are listening and looking forward to new episodes.

Software stocks are swinging wildly amid growing debate over whether AI is cannibalizing traditional SaaS business models—a phenomenon some are calling the 'SaaSpocalypse.' We explore the structural risks to software sector valuations and what a shifting tech landscape means for investors with heavy tech exposure.Today's Stocks & Topics: Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR), Market Wrap, Barrick Mining Corporation (B), Heidelberg Materials AG (ETR:HEI), Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (AEM), The SaaSpocalypse Debate: Are AI Stocks Disrupting SaaS in 2026?, General Motors Company (GM), Veeva Systems Inc. (VEEV), European Stocks, Appian Corporation (APPN), The Yen and Bond Markets.Our Sponsors:* Check out Anthropic and use my code Claude.ai/invest for a great deal: https://www.anthropic.com* Check out Quince and use my code quince.com/INVEST for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Anish Acharya is joined by Garry Tan, President and CEO of Y Combinator, for a conversation about how AI is rewriting the startup playbook, why founders should be more ambitious than ever, and what two decades of Silicon Valley booms, busts, and missed opportunities have taught Garry about building what's next. Garry reflects on turning down an early opportunity to join Palantir, why chasing what's "hot" is often the wrong strategy, and why the best ideas tend to begin with people pursuing strange, earnest obsessions outside the mainstream. They also explore how AI changes the economics of company building, why traditional SaaS may be losing its advantage, and how tiny teams equipped with hundreds of agents can build businesses at a scale that once required entire organizations. The conversation goes deeper into agentic companies, taste and agency, why "a markdown file is an employee," and how AI could remove layers of bureaucracy that have historically limited organizations. Garry and Anish also discuss the future of consumer AI, the coming "harness wars," why AI adoption may take longer than Silicon Valley expects, and what the next generation of founders can build with intelligence that was unimaginable just a few years ago.   Resources: Follow Garry Tan on X: https://x.com/garrytan Follow Anish Acharya on X: https://x.com/illscience Follow Y Combinator on X: https://x.com/ycombinator Stay Updated:Find a16z on YouTube: YouTubeFind a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen to the a16z Show on SpotifyListen to the a16z Show on Apple PodcastsFollow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A two-hour wait in the summer heat. Overpriced churros. A parking lot that takes 45 minutes to escape. And yet - you remember every single ride, every firework, every detail. That's not an accident. That's Disneyland. Disney doesn't create magic through one big moment. They create it through thousands of tiny, intentional details working together. And in this episode, we dig into what that means for B2B marketers with our special guest Kris Lande, CMO at OutSystems. Together, we explore how to design end-to-end customer experiences that people actually remember, why the last impression is the lasting impression, and how to build community into your content strategy in a way no AI-generated campaign can replicate. About our guest, Kris Lande Kris Lande is Chief Marketing Officer of OutSystems, where she leads global marketing strategy and brand growth. With more than two decades of experience driving marketing for high-growth SaaS companies, Kris brings deep expertise in product marketing, category creation, and community-led growth. Before joining OutSystems, Kris spent over 13 years at Salesforce, where she led teams across product marketing, developer relations, and Trailhead. Earlier in her career, she led marketing at Escapia, a SaaS startup later acquired by Expedia. Kris holds a degree in Business Administration and International Business from Washington State University. About OutSystems OutSystems is the Agentic Systems Platform for companies who need to build governed AI apps and agents, fast. Global brands like Heineken and Bosch trust OutSystems every day to build everything from mission-critical life-saving apps to  AI agents that can automate their oldest, clunkiest legacy processes. Essentially, OutSystems gives our customers comprehensive AI tools under one secure roof, turning IT into a fast-moving innovation engine. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Disneyland: The last impression is the lasting impression. Disney doesn't just nail the opening - they engineer the ending. Kris applies this directly to her event strategy: at OutSystems ONE, their annual conference in Amsterdam, the closing session ended with a full spirit tunnel - staff lining the exit with music, dancing, and high fives. "I want them to walk away feeling gratitude and feeling celebrated and feeling energized as they walked out that door." In B2B, most experiences just... end. The brands that create magic are the ones that design the goodbye. Identify friction points - then design around them, not away from them. Disney doesn't eliminate the wait. They make the queue part of the experience. Kris takes the same approach to events: knowing that European attendees tend to arrive late, her team put a mobile DJ, a saxophone player, and stroopwafels outside the doors before the morning keynote. "We made it a party outside because we knew that was going to be a friction point." The lesson: don't pretend friction doesn't exist. Find it, name it, and design something remarkable around it. Everyone's in marketing - culture is how you deliver on the brand promise. Disney's magic doesn't live in one department. It lives in every cast member, every queue, every trash can placement. Kris ties this to a principle she carries into every team: "Brand is a promise to the customer, and culture is how you actually deliver on that promise." That culture comes through in the SDR call, the webinar, the email copy - everywhere. "I believe everyone's in marketing. As employees, we are representatives of the culture." Quote"When you care and you're passionate about the details, your customers are gonna feel that. They can feel when you care about something. They can feel when you brought fun into something. And if you care, they will care." - Kris Lande Time Stamps [1:35] Meet Kris Lande, CMO at OutSystems [2:08] Why Disneyland? A Non-Disney Adult Makes the Case [4:06] What Is Disneyland? A Brief History of Intentional Experience Design [9:21] The Details That Make the Magic - And What Marketers Can Learn [13:42] Evolving Without Losing What Makes You, You [18:40] The Last Impression Is the Lasting Impression [22:11] Designing Around Friction Points [24:07] Building for the 10th Version, Not Just the First [28:31] Disney's Weenies - And Why Marketers Need Them Too [40:14] Community as Content Strategy [42:38] Authenticity in the Age of AI [45:48] Top Tips for Better Events [48:10] Final Thoughts and Takeaways LinksConnect with Kris on LinkedInLearn more about OutSystems About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why This Conversation Matters Most conversations about AI in sales are really just conversations about speed. This one isn't. Marcus sits down with Dave Pender and Dan Simmons, co-founders of YourSalesEdge, to ask a harder question: is AI making salespeople think better, or just making their existing thinking louder? The answer, it turns out, depends entirely on how you use it. About the Guests Dave Pender has spent 27 years in sales and sales leadership, building business development, account management and key account teams across SaaS businesses globally. Dan Simmons has spent roughly 15 years working alongside Dave, with a similar background leading SaaS sales teams.  What They Discuss The conversation opens with a genuine disagreement. Dave argues that sales has always been, and remains, a numbers game. Marcus pushes back hard, arguing it's more accurately an evidence game, and that volume without qualification just produces expensive noise. They find common ground: quality of conversation matters more than count, but only once a minimum bar of relevance is met. From there the conversation moves into how AI is actually being used, and misused, in sales. Dan is blunt about the obvious failures: AI-flavoured emails with the prompt still attached, people asking AI to think instead of asking it to help them think. Dave describes voice-dictating full context into AI rather than typing short prompts, and setting a permanent "critical friend" instruction so the tool never simply agrees with him. Marcus introduces the idea of a human-AI-human loop, building on something Dan describes: start with human intent, bring in AI to assist, run an evidence check, and return to human accountability before anything is acted on. It becomes the spine of the episode. They cover the danger of triangulating across multiple AI models and mistaking agreement for proof, given that most large models are trained on overlapping data and carry similar cultural assumptions. And they discuss the discipline of deliberately switching AI off, in Dan's case for days or weeks at a time, to protect the ability to think independently. Practical Takeaways Feed AI full context by talking to it, not typing at it. A voice memo produces richer, more usable output than a rushed prompt. Set a standing instruction telling AI to challenge you, not flatter you. Most tools default to agreement unless told otherwise. Use the human-AI-human loop. Start with a person, bring in AI to assist and stress-test, then return to human judgement before deciding anything. Ask AI what you missed, both before and after a call. That question does more work than asking it for answers. Triangulating across multiple AI tools is not the same as evidence. Most models share training data and similar biases. Run weekly red-teaming exercises with your team, one side attacking a call, one side defending it, to surface what a seller alone never would. Build in deliberate AI-free periods to keep independent thinking sharp. Memorable Quotes Marcus challenges the framing of sales as a volume exercise, arguing instead that it's about the quality of evidence gathered before a conversation ever happens. Dan is candid about the risk of overreliance, warning that people are using AI to do their thinking for them rather than to sharpen it. Dave admits that at this point, his AI tool knows more about his working life and thinking than the people closest to him do, a comment that says as much about the pace of adoption as it does about the tool itself. Resources Mentioned YourSalesEdge, Dave and Dan's company: yoursalesedge.co Dave Pender and Dan Simmons on LinkedIn YourSalesEdge on YouTube Guest Biographies Dave Pender has led business development, account management and key account teams in SaaS environments globally over a 27-year sales career. He is co-founder of YourSalesEdge and Blind Spots. Dan Simmons has spent around 15 years working alongside Dave in SaaS sales leadership. Based in London, he describes himself as endlessly curious, particularly about how AI can genuinely improve people's working lives rather than simply speed them up. Listen to More If this conversation challenged how you think about AI in your own sales process, explore more episodes of TheInquisitor Podcast, where Marcus Cauchi questions conventional thinking about selling, buying and leadership.

OCR has been around for more than 40 years. So why do the world's biggest banks still have thousands of people reading documents by hand? When Dan Maloney became CEO of Landing AI in 2024, as Andrew Ng stepped back from the day-to-day, he was returning to a problem he had first worked on at SAP back in 2001. When he looked closely at it again two decades later, he was struck by how little it had actually moved. Landing AI's mission is to make the world's documents computable. Instead of growing up from OCR and patching its limits with templates and heuristics, Landing AI came at the problem from visual AI, blending purpose-built models, an intelligent router, and agentic reasoning into a single system that reads a document the way a person does. Today that system extracts structured data from the messiest documents enterprises have, the scanned pages, the tables inside tables, the handwritten forms, at accuracy levels they can build on. Before every enterprise had an AI strategy... Before "agentic" became a boardroom word... Before the industry spent a year token maxing... There was a quieter, more stubborn problem: The world's data was trapped in documents, and no one could read it at scale. In this episode of the Future of Data & AI Podcast, Dan Maloney, CEO of Landing AI and a two-decade veteran of enterprise software and AI, joins Raja Iqbal for a grounded conversation about what it actually takes to move visual AI from an impressive demo into production. Dan is candid about where the hype outruns reality, why the model is the smallest part of the equation, and how a company earns the trust of a compliance team, not just an engineering one. What You'll Discover

Raveesh Dewan is the President and CEO of Joget Inc., a technology company that provides an open, AI-powered low-code platform for building, automating, and integrating enterprise applications. Under his leadership, Joget has continued to expand as a global enterprise platform used by Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and organizations across more than 100 countries. Before joining Joget, Raveesh held executive roles at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, helping shape its business and technology roadmaps. His work centers on digital transformation, open innovation, and responsible enterprise AI adoption. In this episode… Organizations face a critical challenge: modernizing legacy systems without sacrificing speed, security, or flexibility. As AI transforms enterprise software development, how can businesses accelerate digital transformation while staying in control? For Raveesh Dewan, an engineer, open-source advocate, and enterprise technology leader, the answer lies in combining low-code development with AI while keeping organizations in control of their technology. He highlights that simply automating inefficient processes only creates faster inefficiencies, making process improvement just as important as automation. From helping a telecommunications company replace a legacy ERP system in under nine months to enabling a hospice to digitize patient records and improve patient care, he demonstrates how visual application development can solve complex business challenges. Raveesh also explains the rise of "vibe composition," the advantages of open-source platforms, and how reusable applications help organizations innovate more quickly without sacrificing governance or scalability. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, host Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Raveesh Dewan, President and CEO of Joget Inc., to discuss building AI-powered enterprise application platforms. They explore how to avoid the pitfalls of automating broken processes, replace legacy ERP systems with low-code solutions, and use AI-driven visual app composition to accelerate innovation. 

Wasim Osman: When a Scrum Team's Silence Becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "No team is interested in deliberately destroying their outcome or their team. Nobody does that on purpose." - Wasim Osman   Wasim's team was building a SaaS product with real potential. They followed Scrum, shipped features fast—and quietly let the bugs pile up. When customers finally pushed back ("you built five features, four of them have bugs"), the team made a confident bet: one quarter for new features, then one month to fix everything. It didn't work. The bug-bashing month revealed deeper, structural problems that demanded refactoring, and the roadmap was already packed. Then the fixes got handed to a single team, who felt demoted from the "prestigious" work of building features. Resentment grew between the teams. At the height of that tension, the company was acquired by a waterfall-driven parent company. The head of engineering left, the chief architect and two senior engineers followed, and it became chaos. Wasim's hardest lesson wasn't about the acquisition—it was about voice. The engineers assumed waterfall was being forced on them and stopped pushing back; leadership assumed the engineers were fine with it. Nobody said what they actually thought, and the fear became reality. As Wasim puts it, there was "no captain on the ship."   In this segment, we talk about how even conversations need to be iterative, and how a Scrum Master has to balance speaking up (so the team isn't rudderless) without speaking so much that the team stops voicing their own opinions.   Self-reflection Question: Where on your team is an unspoken assumption quietly hardening into reality, and what would it take for you to name it out loud first? Featured Book of the Week: Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen Wasim's most-recommended book is Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. What stuck with him is a deceptively simple model: every hard conversation is really made of three conversations—the "what happened" conversation (the content), the feelings conversation, and the identity conversation (what the situation says about whether you're competent, good, or lovable). "When I first read it, I thought there can't be only three types of conversations," Wasim admits. "But once you've gone through the book, you can put any conversation into one of those funnels." He found it especially powerful in retrospectives: when the same issue keeps resurfacing, the real conversation is often about feelings, not action items—someone was never okay with an earlier decision, and that's why the follow-ups never happened.   Self-reflection Question: In your last tense retrospective, which of the three conversations—content, feelings, or identity—was really driving the room?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Send us Fan MailWhat if the fastest way to lead change was to stop trying to feel confident? Executive coach Terez Rijkenberg says clarity beats confidence every time, and she has the frameworks to prove it.Terez Rijkenberg, executive coach to C-suite leaders and director at Tuitive AI, joins Yanique Grant to share the two frameworks behind her work: the RAFT formula (results, actions, feelings, thoughts) and Radical Adaptability. She unpacks how change really happens, how she coaches leaders through it with a real client story, and how her Claude-based AI system hands executives back 10-plus hours a week. She also shares the grounding quote she uses when stress spikes.In this episode:- Terez's journey from the corporate ladder through postpartum depression and identity shift to executive coaching - The RAFT formula: why your thoughts drive your feelings, actions, and ultimately your results - Radical Adaptability: safety, clarity, belief, experiment, and integrate, the five steps of real change - A client story showing why coaching a team is faster than telling them what to do - Before and after: building AI workflows that remove manual work and free leaders to think - The grounding self-talk Terez uses under pressure: this is not an emergencyFeatured resources:Book: The Success Principles by Jack CanfieldBook: The Freakonomics series by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (her gateway into behavioral economics and psychology)Claude (Anthropic) - where Terez builds her processes, systems, and personalized client dashboards AI Amplified Exec - her Claude plugin that turns spreadsheets, transcripts, and documents into branded outputs like board packs in minutes Tuitive AI - where Terez is director and built AI Amplified Exec, helping senior executives use AI safely for real gains in personal productivity.Connect with the guest:Website: terezrijkenberg.comWeekly email / blog: terezrijkenberg.com/blogLinkedIn: Terez Rijkenberg (most active here)Follow the show: X @NavigatingCX and join our private Facebook group, Navigating the Customer Experience Community. Hosted by Yanique Grant.

Today, we're joined by Alex Yakubovich, co-founder and CEO of Levelpath, the AI-native procurement platform transforming how global enterprises manage indirect spend. We talk about:If software apps must become autonomous to be successful in the futureUsing AI to help build softwareDoes SaaS have a future, or strictly AI as a service?Why the question, “Is SaaS dead” is mootHow some SaaS pricing models can feel icky

What is a venture capitalist??? On today's Back in Business episode of AUIMLB, Jess Schultz, co-founder of the Amplify Group, gives Mary a crash course in turning startup dreams into actual revenue. From banking and SaaS sales to venture capital and now running her own consultancy for early-stage B2B startups, Jess has seen the startup world from just about every angle. Together, she and Mary get into GTM, startup funding, angel investing, and the often-misunderstood world of equity.Need some expert help for your startup? Head to Jess's website: www.amplifyscales.comHave a question or thought for Mary? Leave us a voicemail for your chance to be featured on the show: https://www.allupinmyladybusiness.com/voicemail/Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, then come hang with us on Instagram (instagram.com/allupinmyladybusiness) & Threads (threads.com/@allupinmyladybusiness)!Learn more about A Mary Nisi Production: www.amarynisiproduction.comFind your next DJ at Toast & Jam: toastandjamdjs.comLaunch your DJ business with the Toast & Jam Lab: lab.toastandjamdjs.comOriginally aired April 16, 2024Support the show

What if every door that ever opened for you started with a message you almost didn't send? In this episode, Susanne Sandler, SVP and GM of Fintech at Mews, a $2.5 billion global hotel technology company, shares how a bold application as a college sophomore led her into the office of the CFO of Merrill Lynch, and how a cold message to a keynote speaker years later led to six years working alongside the future CEO of Booking Holdings. Susanne runs the fintech division at Mews, which accounts for 75% of company revenue. But the principles that drive how she leads trace back to two men who saw her potential before she did, and to one simple belief: you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.   [00:03:48] What She Does and Who She Serves SVP and GM of Fintech at Mews, a $2.5 billion global vertical SaaS company Mews calls itself the operating system for modern hotels Runs the fintech business, which is about 75% of company revenue [00:04:30] Who Mews Serves Serves everything from small mom and pop hotels to large global chains Partnerships with Best Western, Choice, and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association AHOA members make up about 60% of US hotels [00:05:30] What Inspires Her Travel is where people have their most memorable experiences Most people name a trip when asked about their best moments of the year Mews removes the manual work so hotels can focus on the guest experience [00:06:48] How She Got Here Started her career in financial services and investing in financial companies Won her undergraduate business plan competition and launched a tech startup in New York The last 12 to 13 years have been focused on travel tech and fintech Says she feels lucky every day doing work that combines both passions [00:08:17] Client Impact: The Multi-Currency Win Launched a product letting hotels offer FX services to guests Guests can lock in their price in their own currency Hotels now earn markup revenue that previously went to banks and card networks Some hotels cover the full cost of all their Mews services from this product alone [00:10:52] AI at Mews: Thoughtful, Not Trendy Building a semantic data layer combining guest, property, and payments data The goal is better insights and experiences, not just cutting headcount Early results from the approach have been incredible [00:12:11] The Vision for Fintech at Mews Wants to build a holistic financial suite for hotels Expanding beyond payments into accounts, loans, and supplier payments Everything is deeply embedded and connected to hotel data [00:13:27] Why Hospitality Is Underserved Hotels have seasonal cash flow that banks struggle to understand Mews holds all bookings data plus a revenue management system That gives a full forward-looking picture of the business Underwriting becomes far easier than a bank reading old financial statements [00:15:08] The First Relationship That Changed Everything Saw an internship posting at NYU Stern for the CFO of Merrill Lynch Assumed it couldn't be the real CFO; applied anyway Walked in thinking worst case she meets someone impressive, best case she gets the job A short-term role became over two years with growing hours and responsibility [00:17:54] What She Learned from Him Finding people who believe in you and see your potential is everything Learned resilience by working under constant high-pressure stakes He was precise and held her fully accountable for her numbers People still compliment her composure; she credits that early training [00:20:24] Treating Every Human with Respect Watched him treat the person cleaning his office the same as a head of state He did it because it was right, not for gain That taught her the kind of person she wanted to become as she grew senior [00:21:31] How He Set Her Up After College He opened doors to meetings with teams across Merrill Lynch She still had to prove herself and work the grueling hours Landed a role investing in equity, debt, and early fintech companies That first role set the tone for the next 20 years [00:25:02] What Makes Mentorship Actually Work Both sides have to invest in the relationship Assigned mentorships often fail; organic ones tend to succeed Nobody owes you anything; it is all give and take [00:26:13] The Second Relationship: Glenn Fogel Saw Glenn deliver a keynote at a conference in 2013 and was blown away He told the story of rebuilding Priceline after the dot-com crash The company is now Booking Holdings with a $135 billion market cap [00:28:18] The Cold Message That Changed Her Career Reached out just to tell him the presentation was incredible He responded, they talked, and he ended up hiring her She worked with him and his team for over six years [00:29:08] What She Learned from Glenn Got a front row seat as he became CEO of Booking Holdings in 2017 Was handed some of the most critical projects for the business Learned what leadership looks like at the highest level Left only because she had learned enough to run a company at IAC [00:31:26] You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don't Take For every story that worked, there are hundreds that went nowhere She repeats the Gretzky line whenever imposter syndrome shows up There is almost no downside to taking the shot [00:33:10] Why Glenn Still Makes Time Even as a global CEO, he finds time for people who reach out He has never become overconfident or self-important He continues supporting people who did right by him Relationships become exponentially more valuable as both people grow   KEY QUOTES "Finding those people who believe in you and see potential in you, I would say, is so important." - Susanne Sandler "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. I say that to myself a lot when I'm like, well, what's the point?" - Susanne Sandler "That's how we all give back, and that's how we all create this great karma in the world and support each other." - Susanne Sandler CONNECT WITH SUSANNE SANDLER Website: https://www.mews.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannegreenfield   Thanks for tuning in! If you liked my show, please LEAVE A 5-STAR REVIEW, like, and subscribe! Find me on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher

In the age of AI, marketing experience is not becoming obsolete. It is becoming more valuable. While AI can generate ideas, analyze data, and accelerate execution, it cannot replicate the judgment shaped by years of successes, failures, and real-world decision-making. In this episode, Greg Jung, CMO and Head of Insurance Sales at Seven Corners, explores why seasoned marketers have a distinct advantage in the AI era. Greg explains how marketers can combine experience with AI to create stronger strategies, improve content, and operationalize their knowledge using his 10-80-10 framework. Greg also discusses the risks of trusting AI more than experienced marketing teams, how data can pull brands away from their core identity, and why producing more content does not always mean producing better content. He also explores AI's growing role in advertising, SaaS platforms, and customer experiences. Key Takeaways: Why marketing experience is more valuable in the AI era How to combine human judgment with AI effectively Why AI-generated strategies still need brand context Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (03:17) Meet Seven Corners CMO Greg Jung (08:12) Helping seasoned marketers thrive with AI (11:13) Why more content is not better (13:48) Applying the 10-80-10 AI framework (16:49) How Nike abandoned its brand ethos (19:08) AI makes everyone feel like marketers (21:51) How to spot AI-generated marketing content (25:42) AI's future in advertising and SaaS (29:22) AI voice agent wins the business Check out the ebook " Trust Issues: How SaaS and AI-Native Brands Can Beat AI Credibility Fatigue" by PANBlast: https://www.panblastpr.com/resources/trust-issues-ai-credibility-ebook/

Download your free Painter Growth training here: https://learn.paintergrowth.com/grow-v1?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=grow-v1If you're new here, my name is Mike Gore-Hickman. I'm the founder of Painter Growth, a coaching company that helps painting contractors build real businesses instead of just running jobs.We've worked with over 1,500 painting contractors. Our clients range from guys doing $300K a year to teams pushing past $5M. Our coaches are real painting business owners who built seven-figure companies themselves. Not theory guys.Here's how I got here.Early 20s: Running my own painting business. Couldn't close jobs. Underbidding everything. Painters showed up stoned. Spilled paint on driveways. Painted houses the wrong color. I fell off a ladder. Ended my first year with a $20,000 tax bill I couldn't pay.Still early 20s: Almost quit. Didn't. Got obsessed with systems, sales, and getting help. I hired my first business coach, fixed the chaos & hit over $200K a month in sales before I turned 24.Mid-20s: Followed my girlfriend (now wife) to a new city. Shut the painting business down. Took a job in SaaS. Spent five years helping grow a software company from scratch to nearly $10M a year. That's where I learned how to build and scale an online business.During COVID: My two worlds collided. Running a painting business plus scaling software companies. I launched a side hustle that pulled both together. It became Painter Growth.October 2021: Launched with an MVP and $10 a day in Facebook ads. No money. No clients. No connections.End of 2021: Signed my first 10 clients. Eight got massive results. That was all the proof I needed.Late 2022: Brought on Jesse, my partner and CFO. Hired our first coach and first VA. Reinvested everything back into the business.2023 and beyond: Built a team of nearly 50, including seven-figure painting business owners coaching full time.We became an official Sherwin-Williams partner and we're the exclusive coaching program referred by them.We we're named PCA 2026 Partner of the Year.You don't need to be a good painter to build a great painting business. You need to be a good business owner who hires good painters. Most contractors never make that switch. We help them make it.What I'm focused on right now: AI and systems. We're building AI-powered tools inside Painter Growth, including a bookkeeping assistant and a proposal generator. The contractors who figure this out early are going to pull ahead.I'm still building. Still figuring things out. But I'm doing it alongside 1,500 contractors who are all in the middle of their own fight to build something real.If you're in that fight, you're in the right place.Never quit,MikeGet a FREE Painting Business Growth Session. In 30 minutes, we'll build you a custom plan to grow → https://learn.paintergrowth.com/book-your-call-1?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bookingPainter Growth content is for educational purposes only. Results vary. Individual outcomes depend on the effort, situation, and decisions of each business owner.

In this episode, Pete welcomes Virender “VA” Aggarwal, former CEO of Ramco and longtime HR tech executive, to explore how AI is reshaping the future of enterprise software, work, and workforce experience. From conversational UI and “zero UI” experiences to AI-native platforms, orchestration across systems, outcome-based pricing, and the rise of headless software, VA shares a candid view of where HR, payroll, and SaaS are headed next. The conversation also explores why the winners in this next era may not simply be the companies adding agents to legacy platforms, but those rebuilding around AI from the ground up. Pete and VA also talk the human side of automation, including trust, adoption, customer experience, the future of administrative work, and why AI should free HR to spend less time processing transactions and more time understanding people. Connect with VA: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virender-aggarwal/     Connect with the show: LinkedIn:  http://linkedin.com/company/hr-payroll-2-0 X: @HRPayroll2_0  X: @PeteTiliakos  X: @JulieFer_HR BlueSky: @hrpayroll2o.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HRPAYROLL2_0  WRKDefined Podcast Network: https://wrkdefined.com/podcast/hr-payroll-20  Thank you to our marquee sponsors for powering the HR & Payroll 2.0 podcast forward!  G-P ‘Globalization Partners': https://www.globalization-partners.com/ OneSource Virtual: https://hubs.ly/Q03YFNR90 Zoho: https://www.zoho.com/press.html Thank you to our ‘wizard behind the curtain' and show producer Ryan Kielma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-kielma/

We're on summer break and replaying one of our favorite episodes. This episode originally aired on September 22, 2025.A wearable can collect endless data, but it only matters if people trust it enough to change their behavior.In this replay, Oura CEO Tom Hale joins Steve and Michael to explain how the company combines clinical-grade accuracy with a consumer-friendly product. They discuss why the ring's form factor makes overnight tracking so powerful, how Oura turns physiological signals into useful guidance, and why the company is being pulled faster than expected into traditional healthcare.We cover:Why sleep data can reveal changes in the body before symptoms appearHow Oura designed a health product that supports users without judging or nagging themWhy accuracy is the foundation for trust, predictions, and behavior changeHow Oura navigates the boundary between wellness products and regulated medical devicesThe company's expansion into Medicare Advantage, women's health, metabolic health, and clinical care—About our guest:Tom Hale is the Chief Executive Officer at ŌURA and a member of its board. As the CEO he sets the company's business strategy and vision to make health a daily practice for members all over the world. He has over 30 years of experience across the technology and consumer product industry.Before joining ŌURA, Hale was president of Momentive where he drove B2B strategy and led product growth. During his time there he was instrumental in taking the company public in 2018, leading the team in key acquisitions, and driving the evolution and rebranding of the company into a multiple SAAS business. Previously, he held leadership roles at HomeAway and Linden Lab as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, respectively, and held executive roles at Macromedia and Adobe.Hale has a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and sits on the boards of Cars.com, RocketReach, and NoiseAware.—If you're enjoying the show, we would so appreciate it if you left us a review!—

Shinghi Detlefsen, one of the Founders of theAmerican Ecommerce Business Alliance AEBA fighting free and fair marketplace, CEO and Co-Founder of ExpandFi, and President of Wholesome Story and one of the most successful supplement brands on the Amazon.Shinghi isn't just another SaaS founder he's a true operator who has built, scaled, and optimized real brands at a high level. His expertise goes deep into what really drives sustainable growth:money, systems, and people.Highlight Bullets> Here's a glimpse of what you would learn…. Challenges of unfair competition from foreign sellers on Amazon, particularly in the supplement category.The importance of regulatory compliance for foreign sellers using U.S. infrastructure.Strategies for increasing Amazon advertising spend while maintaining profitability.Measuring customer lifetime value (LTV) and optimizing customer acquisition costs (CAC) on Amazon.Driving external traffic to Amazon product pages through targeted advertising on social media platforms.The significance of building a legitimate brand versus relying on short-term marketing hacks.Navigating Amazon's fee increases and the impact of a strong brand on pricing strategies.The role of AI in e-commerce, including its applications in data analysis and task automation.The importance of financial discipline and risk management in e-commerce operations.Key action items for e-commerce sellers, including advocacy for marketplace fairness and focusing on core business fundamentals.In this episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, host Josh Hadley speaks with Shinghi Detlefsen, Amazon expert and founder of the American E-commerce Business Alliance. Shinghi discusses the regulatory disadvantages U.S. sellers face against foreign competitors, explains his data-driven approach to maximizing Amazon ad spend using customer lifetime value metrics, and emphasizes building authentic brands over chasing short-term tactics. The conversation also covers AI's practical role in e-commerce, financial discipline, and the importance of staying focused on core business fundamentals rather than distractions.Here are the 3 action items that Josh identified from this episode:Scale ads based on profit, not fear Track CAC vs. 12-month profit (LTV)—if it's profitable, increase ad spend (even +50%) to capture more customers and defend your rankings.Build a real brand (your only long-term moat) Invest in product quality, content, and trust-building (reviews, influencers, external traffic) so you can charge premium prices and stay resilient.Use AI to save time, not replace strategy Automate admin and data analysis, but keep human control over ads, creatives, and growth decisions where nuance matters most.Timestamps:00:00:00 Introduction and Setting the StagePodcast intro, host and guest introductions, and overview of the episode's focus on e-commerce scaling and Amazon.00:02:38 The ABA and Regulatory Disadvantages for US SellersShinghi explains the American E-commerce Business Alliance and the regulatory/tax advantages foreign sellers have on Amazon.00:07:06 How to Get Involved with ABA and the Bigger PictureDiscussion on actionable steps for US sellers to support ABA and why regulatory change matters more than minor Amazon policy changes.00:08:18 The Consequences of Losing US Brands and ManufacturingExplains the broader economic risks if US brands and manufacturing are lost to foreign competitors.00:10:04 Doubling Amazon Ad Spend ProfitablyShinghi shares how he doubled Amazon ad spend without losing profitability, counter to common industry trends.00:11:19 Why Amazon Remains the Best ChannelDiscussion on consumer shopping behavior and why Amazon is still the dominant platform for most buyers.00:12:37 Optimizing Ad Spend with Customer AnalyticsExplains using data to determine optimal ad spend, focusing on maximizing 12-month contribution profit per customer.00:15:32 Customer Lifetime Value and Profitability MetricsHow to track and use LTV and lifetime profit on Amazon, and why these metrics matter more than ACoS/TACoS.00:17:23 External Traffic and Meta Ads Direct to AmazonStrategy of sending Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ad traffic directly to Amazon product pages for better results.00:19:18 Brand Building vs. Short-Term HacksWhy building a real brand with solid fundamentals outperforms chasing short-term hacks or black-hat tactics.00:20:14 Mindset Shift: From Transactional to Lifetime ValueEncourages Amazon sellers to focus on CAC:LTV ratios and long-term customer value, not just single-sale profits.00:22:48 Education and Data-Driven Decision MakingImportance of learning business fundamentals and using customer analytics to drive growth.00:24:25 Amazon Fee Increases and the Real Root ProblemWhy blaming Amazon for fee increases misses the point; the real issue is regulatory imbalance with foreign sellers.00:28:43 Brand Power and Pricing FlexibilityHow having a strong brand allows for price increases and resilience against Amazon's changing policies.00:29:40 AI in E-commerce: Hype vs. RealityDiscussion on the current state of AI in e-commerce, what's real, what's hype, and where to focus your time.00:30:07 Build vs. Buy: SaaS, AI Tools, and Time ValuePros and cons of building your own tools with AI vs. paying for SaaS; focus on time value and maintenance.00:33:51 Where AI Delivers the Most ValueAI's best use is interpreting large data sets, not replacing complex SaaS or business processes.00:35:27 Avoiding FOMO and Focusing on High-Value TasksAdvice to avoid distraction from shiny new tools and focus on automating admin tasks to free up time for growth.00:39:01 SaaS Innovation and Staying AheadWhy SaaS companies will quickly catch up to DIY solutions, and the importance of focusing on your core business.00:40:07 Final Thoughts: Build a Brand and Give BackEncouragement to build a real brand, take care of customers, and use success to contribute positively to the world.00:40:39 Three Action Items for E-commerce SuccessHost summarizes three key takeaways: fight for a fair marketplace, build a real brand, and avoid distractions.00:44:40 The Myth of Constant Product LaunchesChallenges the idea that always launching new products is the best growth strategy; focus on bestsellers and distribution.00:46:39 Risk Management and Financial AdviceAdvice on managing risk by investing conservatively outside the business and building a financial safety net.00:48:03 The Value of Financial Security for Better DecisionsHow having a financial cushion leads to better business decisions and peace of mind.00:48:42 Rapid-Fire Questions: Book, AI Tool, and E-comm LeaderShinghi shares his favorite business principle, AI tool (Claude), and recommends following Logan from Physician's Choice.00:50:10 Outro and Contact InformationHow to follow Shinghi, closing remarks, and end of the episode.Resources mentioned in this episode:Josh Hadley on LinkedIneComm Breakthrough ConsultingeComm Breakthrough PodcastEmail Josh Hadley: Josh@eCom...

Look at your last ten projects and ask an uncomfortable question: how many could the platform's own AI agent do most of within the next two years? For a lot of SaaS partners, the honest answer is most of them, and that is exactly the implementation, configuration, and migration work paying the bills right now. In this episode, I break down why AI is not going to replace you, it is going to expose you, and what actually gets exposed once the repetitive setup work starts to shrink. I share the call Chris, a Salesforce partner, made when he picked one industry and said no to everything else: revenue dipped for three to six months, then came back at a higher margin with less rework because he stopped learning every client's business from scratch. If you are spread across five verticals, known well enough to configure but not well enough to advise, this is the one decision that determines whether AI multiplies you or exposes you.Resources and LinksChris Widmayer on The Paul Higgins Podcast: Episode 691 - Why Going All-In on One Vertical Beat Staying a Generalist with Chris WidmayerNeed help with your WHO and WHAT decisions? Apply for a FREE Multiplier CallBook a Decision Session herePrevious episode: 698 - SaaS is DeadCheck out more episodes of the Paul Higgins PodcastSubscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoringJoin our newsletterSuggested resources

In this episode, Craig Jeffery and Karthik Manimozhi of Eftsure discuss how AI is reshaping payment fraud and the controls treasury teams need to protect payment integrity without sacrificing efficiency. They examine the three core questions of how to ensure payments go to the right payee, at the right amount, and at the right time, along with the need for a control tower spanning AP, treasury, banks, and ERPs and payment rails. The conversation also explores agent oversight, AI-native workflows, continuous auditing, and opportunities to unlock working capital. Payment Security Report: https://strategictreasurer.com/payment-security-report/ Scammer's Playbook: How AP and Finance Teams Are Losing Money (2026): https://strategictreasurer.com/webinar-ai-powered-attacks-on-treasury/ Payment Scamming: Exploitation and Defense (Eftsure) (2026): https://strategictreasurer.com/400-payment-scamming-exploitation-and-defense/ Cybercrime Prevention: The Where and Why of Scams (Eftsure) (2026): https://strategictreasurer.com/410-cybercrime-prevention/ Global companies lost 7.7% of annual revenue to fraud ($534B in 2024); 9.8% for US enterprises. Source: TransUnion, H2 2025 Global Fraud Report: https://newsroom.transunion.com/h2-2025-global-fraud-report/ Financial institutions incur an average total cost of $5+ for every $1 of fraud loss. Source: LexisNexis, True Cost of Fraud study: https://chainstoreage.com/study-total-cost-fraud-now-exceeds-5-every-1-direct-loss JP Morgan Working Capital Index rose from 106.6 (2018) to 116, with roughly $701B to $761B unlockable on a 1% move. Source: J.P. Morgan Working Capital Index: https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpmorgan/images/payments/working-capital-index/increasing-efficiency-working-capital-index-2024-ada.pdf Occupational fraud costs the typical organisation about 5% of revenue, averaging roughly $1.7M per case. Source: ACFE, Occupational Fraud 2024: A Report to the Nations: https://www.acfe.com/-/media/files/acfe/pdfs/rttn/2024/2024-report-to-the-nations.pdf On average, enterprises run more than 300 distinct SaaS platforms. Source: Productiv: https://productiv.com/blog/saas-statistics-that-every-it-manager-should-see/ Eftsure: https://www.eftsure.com Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:39 Fraud, errors, and the cost of trust 04:20 Right payee, amount, and timing 06:20 AI, working capital, and liquidity 09:05 About Eftsure and Karthik Manimozhi 11:42 Payment controls across the technology stack 13:47 AI agents and autonomous oversight 17:04 Building a payment control tower 22:06 Designing AI-native finance workflows 27:18 Practical steps for finance leaders 31:28 Final thoughts 31:46 Outro ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT STRATEGIC TREASURER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Download The Strategic Treasurer: A Partnership for Corporate Growth by Craig A. Jeffery in Kindle, or hardcover: https://amzn.to/4uqwFQq As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Strategic Treasurer is recognized as a top tier consulting firm in the area of treasury and risk management. Corporate clients, banks, and technology vendors all rely on their industry leading advisory services that are backed by a deep awareness of current needs, practices, and budgeting priorities of treasury professionals through Strategic Treasurer's annual industry surveys and decades of treasury experience. Strategic Treasurer utilizes a senior consultant model where every project is managed by senior consultants with actual practitioner experience in corporate and/or banking roles. Visit us today at http://strategictreasurer.com. Or join in the discussion at one of our leading LinkedIn groups: http://strategictreasurer.com/linkedin/

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Olivia Kory is the CMO of Haus Analytics. Learn more about Haus at https://haus.io.Link to Haus Incremental Attribution blog post: https://www.haus.io/blog/is-metas-incremental-attribution-outperforming-standard-attribution-what-the-data-showsMy episode about incremental attribution for my clients: https://youtu.be/tNQO3pyLtA4FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREWX: https://x.com/andrewjfarisEmail: podcast@ajfgrowth.comWork With AJF Growth: https://ajfgrowth.comINTELLIGEMSIntelligems brings A/B testing to business decisions beyond copy and design. Test your pricing, shipping charges, free shipping thresholds, offers, SaaS tools, and more by clicking here: https://bit.ly/42DcmFl. Get 20% off the first 3 months with code FARIS20.MORE STAFFINGRecruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af.

This episode is part of our Embedded Finance Podcast Series, exploring the strategies, opportunities and challenges shaping the future of embedded finance. The series is leading up to Embedify '26, the Embedded Finance Summit for vertical SaaS leaders, taking place October 13 in Lehi, Utah. To learn more visit embedify2026.com. In this episode I sat down with Conn Byrne, Executive Director of Integrated Payments at Payroc, to get practical about what embedded payments and embedded finance really mean for vertical SaaS leaders who want to scale without burning engineering time.We dig into Conn's three-part framework for making embedded finance work in the real world: the cardholder and merchant experience (where retention is won or lost), the developer experience (how fast your team can integrate and customize), and the partnership experience (what happens after launch when something breaks, priorities shift, or you need roadmap clarity). Along the way, we talk about what's driving demand right now, from private equity expectations to the explosion of AI-built software platforms that can enter a vertical overnight.We also map the natural product path after embedded payments: lending built on payment data, banking capabilities that improve funding speed and reduce fees, and add-ons like payroll that can turn your platform into a true operating system for your customers. If you're evaluating an integrated payments partner, planning a migration, or trying to decide how far to go beyond payments, this conversation gives you a grounded checklist and a longer-term view.And a special thanks to Payroc for being a supporting sponsor at the summit this year. 

In this episode of the Alliant Specialty Podcast, Mike Radak examines a D&O runoff coverage dispute involving subsequent acts exclusions and the timing of alleged wrongful acts. David Finz also discusses the Canvas cyber event, the risks created when organizations rely on shared SaaS platforms and practical steps businesses can take to strengthen contractual and technical protections.

Here at Irish Tech News we love meeting and introducing new Irish startups to our readers and podcast listeners. One such startup is Montro that helps companies with their AI and SaaS governance. Earlier this year at Dublin Tech Summit my colleague Billy Linehan brought Montro onto out radar and I recently caught up with Ankur Arora one of Montro's Co-Founders to find out more about Montro.Ankur talks about his background, compliance, what Montro does, shadow AI, EU regulations and more.More about Montro:Montro is a Dublin-based AI governance and SaaS intelligence platform that discovers unmanaged software and automates European regulatory compliance.  Discover every tool, classify against EU AI Act, DORA, NIS2, and GDPR before auditors do.

Colin spent eight years building Looker into a $2.7B Google acquisition. Then he left to compete with his own product. He thought traction would take a month—it took nine. A hundred demos got him five verbally-committed customers, and he lost all five. So he spent two months killing bugs, went on one podcast, and won every single trial that came out of it. Omni just raised over $250M.In this episode, Colin breaks down how to tell the difference between a product that's genuinely better and one the market just doesn't want, why founding with $30M didn't stop them from staying stingy, and the LinkedIn playbook that turned 6,000 connections into a 90% response rate.Why You Should ListenWhy losing every deal doesn't mean the idea is wrong—and how to know the difference.Why real differentiation shows up as "wow" moments in demos, not signed contracts.The LinkedIn social-selling playbook that built Omni's first pipeline.Why hiring sellers from your old industry hands you their Rolodex on day one.Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, Omni, Colin Zima, Looker, business intelligence, BI tools, enterprise SaaS, AI analytics, social selling, LinkedIn outbound, founder-led sales, innovator's dilemmaChapters00:00:00 Intro00:01:58 The Moment of True Product Market Fit00:06:16 Losing All Five Deals and Doubling Down00:10:43 Leaving Looker to Compete With Looker00:17:39 Founding With $30M and Staying Stingy00:22:09 A Hundred Demos Before the Flywheel00:32:15 No Silver Bullet—Just Do More of Everything00:38:32 The LinkedIn Social-Selling Playbook00:46:07 Hiring the Best People You've Worked WithSend me a message to let me know what you think!

We talk with Tim Ng about turning new development sales from paper-heavy routines into digital experiences that actually help buyers and sales teams move faster. Tim shares how ADHOC STUDIO led to BLACKLINE, why the SaaS pivot was hard, and what proptech can learn from the moment COVID forced the industry to change. • Defining proptech as connection, transparency, and efficiency across real estate • Growing up in condo communities and learning sales and development through family • Aiming for investment banking while building tech skills on the side • Noticing how manual new development sales stayed for decades • Starting Ad Hoc Studio with digital renderings and interactive sales gallery software • Moving sales presentations to touchscreens and iPads for a better buyer journey • Shifting from front-end visuals to back-office inventory, reservations, and allocation • Creating Blackline and moving from services to a product-led SaaS model • Balancing two companies while funding the new platform with existing cash flow • Seeing COVID accelerate virtual launches and digital real estate adoption • Naming Blackline after architectural black line floor plans • Comparing bespoke studio work with scalable software operations • Applying AI to data-driven recommendations, decision support, and hiring standards • Founder advice on team care and getting customer feedback early • Finding Tim on LinkedIn and Instagram by searching Tim Ng Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To learn more visit www.proptechespresso.com.

What's the difference between a founder who pivots and one who just quits with extra steps?In this episode of KP Unpacked, KP Reddy sits down with Andrew Ackerman, Zero RFI's Head of Special Projects ringing a fresh perspective on what it actually looks like to go from AI-adjacent to AI-native, why corporate AI rollouts fail before they start, and why the best onboarding experience isn't a training deck, it's a video game tutorial.The conversation gets real about the state of construction tech startups: corporates are running pilots, paying five grand, and building the same tool in the background. Vibe coding is pickleball. It's approachable, it's fun, and it's not software engineering. But it's changing how CEOs think about procurement, stretching sales cycles by months, and quietly killing companies that haven't figured out whether their customers actually love them or just tolerate them. Then KP and Andrew break down the missionary versus mercenary test, when VCs should tell founders to walk away, and why the next three years define the next thirty.Key questions answered:What's the difference between a missionary founder and a mercenary one?When should a VC tell a founder to shut down and move on?Why are corporates paying startups for pilots while building the same tool in-house?Is vibe coding a real threat to SaaS or just pickleball for software?Why does "we're on Copilot" tell you everything you need to know about a company?How do you onboard an entire organization into AI without losing them at the first button?What's the right pivot versus the wrong one?Why do customers love Tesla but not Salesforce, and what does that mean for founders?Should startups switch from SaaS to software as a service to survive?How did KP's 30-year mission stay the same across five completely different companies?Why is streetball the best analogy for early startup hiring?What's happening at AEC Summit's 10th year in Brooklyn?If you're a founder wondering whether to pivot or shut down, a VC trying to figure out when to give a founder permission to walk away, or a corporate innovation team quietly building behind a startup pilot, this episode will force you to ask whether you're a missionary or just waiting for a better offer.Listen now.Join our AEC Summit for a full-day event featuring developers, innovators, operators & business leaders and the massive new tech transforming the built environment

Meet Greg, the adviser who built a career on saying what 1,000+ founders didn't want to hear. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. The opener to this episode tells you two things about Greg McCallum: he's funnier than most business advisers, and he's more honest about the cost of the founder life than almost anyone we've had on the show. 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Ask strangers, not friends. The most common founder mistake is failing to ask prospective customers whether the idea is good. Do it early and you're not just validating, you're building a pipeline, learning the language that sells, and writing your first sales playbook for free. 2. Sales is listening, not pitching. Professional sales hires get a three- to six-month ramp before anyone expects a deal, so give yourself the same grace. Never ask for the sale. Understand the need, demonstrate the solution, and let them ask you. 3. Honesty is the strategy. With customers, with investors, and hardest of all with yourself. Audit the skills you actually lack before you buy the domain or design the logo. Self-awareness is cheaper than failure. Greg got kicked out of school at 15. By 16, he was running a restaurant floor. By 18, he'd quietly consulted for almost every bar and restaurant in Oxford. By his mid-twenties, banks were asking him into the boardroom. Then he deliberately took a soul-destroying telemarketing job for a year, because nobody would take his sales advice seriously until he'd done the hard yards himself. That decision led to sales leadership at Booksy (now unicorn status), C-suite roles across startups, and a mentoring practice that has helped over 1,000 founders worldwide, under a name he's turned into a brand: The No Bullshit Adviser. In this episode, Greg gets honest about the mistake almost every founder makes, why working in sales won't teach you founder sales, the AI industry's dirty data secret his new startup Peer is built to solve, and the part nobody talks about: the anxiety, the dark years, and the alliances entrepreneurship never lets you make. Because when it all goes wrong, the question that matters is who you actually call. Please note: this episode contains strong language throughout. Greg is called the No Bullshit Adviser for a reason. WHAT WE COVER - Kicked out of school, child of immigrant entrepreneurs, and managing hospitality floors at 16 - Accidentally becoming Oxford's teenage restaurant consultant - A year of telemarketing to earn the right to give sales advice - Booksy, C-suite roles, and 1,000+ founders mentored - The one bad Trustpilot review that's secretly a five-star review - Why psychometric tests are (mostly) bullshit, and skills audits beat personality labels - Founders Unplugged: the podcast born from client calls that ran three hours over - Peer and the dirty secret of AI: the data ceiling nobody talks about - "Stop preaching work-life balance": Greg's unfiltered take - Anxiety, depression, CBT, and becoming your own therapist - The real sacrifice: friendship, founder loneliness, and why your support network is a survival mechanism - The SaaS bubble, the bootstrapping comeback, and his one piece of advice: two words

Can You Turn What You Know Into a Business? At some point, experience stops being just a résumé and starts becoming an asset you can build around. In Part One of the 10 Minute Tech Talks Entrepreneur Boot Camp Mini Series, Angela Domhoff shares how more than 25 years of operational leadership ultimately led her to launch Advantage Operations. After years inside major healthcare organizations, Angela began having conversations where people were asking for the kind of expertise that could directly improve their businesses. That sparked a realization: maybe it was time to stop giving all that knowledge away and build something of her own. Angela didn't wake up one morning with some completely unrelated startup idea. She looked at the expertise she had built over decades and asked a much more powerful question: how can I turn what I already know into something people need? That's Start It. Next up in Entrepreneur Boot Camp, the business exists. Now comes another challenge entirely: Can it survive its own growth? Produced by the Pittsburgh Technology Council, this is a podcast for tech and manufacturing  entrepreneurs exploring the tech ecosystem, from cyber security and AI to SaaS, robotics, and life sciences, featuring insights to satisfy the tech curious.

Autonomous AIs are hacking, collaborating, and outpacing human defenders, raising urgent questions about what happens when the machines start breaking into each other (and potentially us). Plus, a Tucson coder is using AI to reinvent local journalism, exposing how automation could fill the gaps left by shrinking newsrooms. Tucson Daily Brief uses AI to revive local news coverage Data centers boom in Arizona, with harsh environmental impact Amazon's Texas data center to run on polluting natural gas Nuclear and solar debates for sustainable data center power Black Hat and DEF CON: Security pros, hackers, and mohawks OpenAI's runaway AI hack at Black Hat stuns security community AI agents collaborate, evade controls, and break into real-world systems Industry struggles to regulate AI, and defense lags behind automated attackers White House, Congress, and AI execs clash over regulation proposals AI "kill switch" and model bans: pipe dreams in a global race Google's DeepMind shakeup, Demis Hassabis moves upstairs Jeff Dean and key talent exit Google for self-improving AI startup Google, Meta, Apple: AI brain drain and market repercussions Phones stagnate as hardware innovation slows, AI devours chip supply OpenAI teams with Jony Ive on strange new AI-first device Smart glasses privacy backlash and DuckDuckGo's tongue-in-cheek sunglasses Meta fined $942 million by New Mexico court for youth harms Apple sues OpenAI over alleged stolen secrets, countersuits ensue UK revives "Snooper's Charter" for backdoors, Apple fights in secret court License plate readers spark local backlash and privacy activism U.S. water systems face cyber sabotage as critical infrastructure weakens Bending Spoons buys Airtable, fueling SaaS layoffs and AI data grabs Nicholas DeLeon uses AI tools to get fit NASA hacks keep aging Voyager probes alive for another year Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Iain Thomson and Nicholas De Leon Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: bitwarden.com/twit NetSuite.AI/TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/twit adaptivesecurity.com superhuman.com

Autonomous AIs are hacking, collaborating, and outpacing human defenders, raising urgent questions about what happens when the machines start breaking into each other (and potentially us). Plus, a Tucson coder is using AI to reinvent local journalism, exposing how automation could fill the gaps left by shrinking newsrooms. Tucson Daily Brief uses AI to revive local news coverage Data centers boom in Arizona, with harsh environmental impact Amazon's Texas data center to run on polluting natural gas Nuclear and solar debates for sustainable data center power Black Hat and DEF CON: Security pros, hackers, and mohawks OpenAI's runaway AI hack at Black Hat stuns security community AI agents collaborate, evade controls, and break into real-world systems Industry struggles to regulate AI, and defense lags behind automated attackers White House, Congress, and AI execs clash over regulation proposals AI "kill switch" and model bans: pipe dreams in a global race Google's DeepMind shakeup, Demis Hassabis moves upstairs Jeff Dean and key talent exit Google for self-improving AI startup Google, Meta, Apple: AI brain drain and market repercussions Phones stagnate as hardware innovation slows, AI devours chip supply OpenAI teams with Jony Ive on strange new AI-first device Smart glasses privacy backlash and DuckDuckGo's tongue-in-cheek sunglasses Meta fined $942 million by New Mexico court for youth harms Apple sues OpenAI over alleged stolen secrets, countersuits ensue UK revives "Snooper's Charter" for backdoors, Apple fights in secret court License plate readers spark local backlash and privacy activism U.S. water systems face cyber sabotage as critical infrastructure weakens Bending Spoons buys Airtable, fueling SaaS layoffs and AI data grabs Nicholas DeLeon uses AI tools to get fit NASA hacks keep aging Voyager probes alive for another year Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Iain Thomson and Nicholas De Leon Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: bitwarden.com/twit NetSuite.AI/TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/twit adaptivesecurity.com superhuman.com

Autonomous AIs are hacking, collaborating, and outpacing human defenders, raising urgent questions about what happens when the machines start breaking into each other (and potentially us). Plus, a Tucson coder is using AI to reinvent local journalism, exposing how automation could fill the gaps left by shrinking newsrooms. Tucson Daily Brief uses AI to revive local news coverage Data centers boom in Arizona, with harsh environmental impact Amazon's Texas data center to run on polluting natural gas Nuclear and solar debates for sustainable data center power Black Hat and DEF CON: Security pros, hackers, and mohawks OpenAI's runaway AI hack at Black Hat stuns security community AI agents collaborate, evade controls, and break into real-world systems Industry struggles to regulate AI, and defense lags behind automated attackers White House, Congress, and AI execs clash over regulation proposals AI "kill switch" and model bans: pipe dreams in a global race Google's DeepMind shakeup, Demis Hassabis moves upstairs Jeff Dean and key talent exit Google for self-improving AI startup Google, Meta, Apple: AI brain drain and market repercussions Phones stagnate as hardware innovation slows, AI devours chip supply OpenAI teams with Jony Ive on strange new AI-first device Smart glasses privacy backlash and DuckDuckGo's tongue-in-cheek sunglasses Meta fined $942 million by New Mexico court for youth harms Apple sues OpenAI over alleged stolen secrets, countersuits ensue UK revives "Snooper's Charter" for backdoors, Apple fights in secret court License plate readers spark local backlash and privacy activism U.S. water systems face cyber sabotage as critical infrastructure weakens Bending Spoons buys Airtable, fueling SaaS layoffs and AI data grabs Nicholas DeLeon uses AI tools to get fit NASA hacks keep aging Voyager probes alive for another year Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Iain Thomson and Nicholas De Leon Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: bitwarden.com/twit NetSuite.AI/TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/twit adaptivesecurity.com superhuman.com

Autonomous AIs are hacking, collaborating, and outpacing human defenders, raising urgent questions about what happens when the machines start breaking into each other (and potentially us). Plus, a Tucson coder is using AI to reinvent local journalism, exposing how automation could fill the gaps left by shrinking newsrooms. Tucson Daily Brief uses AI to revive local news coverage Data centers boom in Arizona, with harsh environmental impact Amazon's Texas data center to run on polluting natural gas Nuclear and solar debates for sustainable data center power Black Hat and DEF CON: Security pros, hackers, and mohawks OpenAI's runaway AI hack at Black Hat stuns security community AI agents collaborate, evade controls, and break into real-world systems Industry struggles to regulate AI, and defense lags behind automated attackers White House, Congress, and AI execs clash over regulation proposals AI "kill switch" and model bans: pipe dreams in a global race Google's DeepMind shakeup, Demis Hassabis moves upstairs Jeff Dean and key talent exit Google for self-improving AI startup Google, Meta, Apple: AI brain drain and market repercussions Phones stagnate as hardware innovation slows, AI devours chip supply OpenAI teams with Jony Ive on strange new AI-first device Smart glasses privacy backlash and DuckDuckGo's tongue-in-cheek sunglasses Meta fined $942 million by New Mexico court for youth harms Apple sues OpenAI over alleged stolen secrets, countersuits ensue UK revives "Snooper's Charter" for backdoors, Apple fights in secret court License plate readers spark local backlash and privacy activism U.S. water systems face cyber sabotage as critical infrastructure weakens Bending Spoons buys Airtable, fueling SaaS layoffs and AI data grabs Nicholas DeLeon uses AI tools to get fit NASA hacks keep aging Voyager probes alive for another year Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Iain Thomson and Nicholas De Leon Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: bitwarden.com/twit NetSuite.AI/TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/twit adaptivesecurity.com superhuman.com

Jaleh Rezaei, Co-founder and CEO of Mutiny, joins Sam Jacobs, AJ Bruno, and Asad Zaman to explain how she deprecated a thriving 8-figure SaaS business in November 2025, shipped a private preview in February, and GA'd an AI-native product in April that is now used by more than 3,500 organizations including Snowflake, Rippling, Uber, and GitLab. Topics include why running a scaled SaaS business and a zero-to-one AI bet at the same time proved impossible, how to price and defend AI credit consumption when a $5,000 design project now costs 50 credits, and the shift from sales-led outbound to product-led growth for enterprise go-to-market. Plus, why brand is one of the few remaining moats in B2B, an AI raccoon launch video that fooled (some of) the panel, and a bulls-versus-bears debate on quota attainment, AI note-takers, and whether salespeople will ever spend 85% of their time selling. Key Takeaways: - Make the hard decisions FAST. As Jaleh Rezaei, CEO and Co-founder of Mutiny, put it: "I definitely would've said the job of the CEO is you have to make the hard calls. But what I learned in that experience is that it's actually about making the hard calls really fast, which means that you're getting there before everybody else on your team is there." Her test for founders weighing a similar bet is a single question: "is there one really hard decision, maybe one that scares the hell out of you that you don't want to do, that you can make that would make 50 subsequent downstream decisions a lot easier for your company?" - AI budgets get cut because vendors let buyers anchor on the credit bill. Instead, they need to help buyers see the value of the work the credits replace. Jaleh Rezaei, CEO and Co-founder of Mutiny, reframed it with her own before-and-after: "I used to have a designer that I paid $5,000 to, and it would take 2 weeks of back and forth, and I paid $5,000 to get to something that I was pretty happy with. But end to end took a month. Now in 6, 7 hours, I can build that in Mutiny, and maybe that does cost me 50 credits. That's really freaking cheap relative to what I used to pay that designer." She argues the vendor has to build the ROI case for the customer, per rep, or budget conversations default to minimizing every AI bill. - Brand is a durable moat in B2B mostly because so few companies are willing to pay for it in risk. According to Jaleh Rezaei, CEO and Co-founder of Mutiny: "great brand comes when you marry deep customer knowledge and a willingness to take risk … a lot of times people that own brand they don't necessarily either have the deep customer knowledge or they don't have the ability to take that kind of risk inside of the company." Her internal standard is blunt: "anything we do on marketing, like, if it's not different, just stop doing it. It's just not going to matter." - Quota attainment is snapping back hard, and the data has not caught up to the narrative. AJ Bruno, CEO of QuotaPath, brought Q2 numbers to the bulls-versus-bears round: "I just looked at Q2 numbers and they're trending wildly back up. We're actually, the average quota attainment for a QuotaPath customer was 76% in Q2." Asad Zaman pushed back that a jump from roughly 40% to 76% in a single quarter reads more like a bubble signal than a sudden improvement in selling, and AJ offered to run a comp study with Pavilion on the data. Connect with the Hosts & Guests: Host: Sam Jacobs, CEO at Pavilion - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samfjacobs/ Host: AJ Bruno, CEO at QuotaPath - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajbruno3/ Host: Asad Zaman, CEO at STA - https://www.linkedin.com/in/azaman1/ Guest: Jaleh Rezaei, CEO & Co-founder at Mutiny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jalehr/ Topline is more than a YouTube Channel: Subscribe to Topline Newsletter: https://toplinemedia.substack.com/ Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-podcast Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-slack Chapters: 00:00 Introducing Jaleh Rezaei 04:00 Can SaaS Era Companies Go AI Native? 05:01 From Gusto To Founding Mutiny 07:00 When AI Became A Reasoning Engine 11:28 Why Running Two Products Was Impossible 13:32 Shutting Down An 8-Figure Business 16:18 Winning Formula: Speed, No Backup Plan 20:17 The Hard Months After Deprecation 24:47 Acute Pain Versus Chronic Pain 29:17 CEO Has To Be The Bad Guy (Sometimes) 37:17 AI Margins And Credit-Based Pricing 40:10 A $5,000 Deck Versus 50 Credits 47:03 Sales-Led To PLG For Enterprise 50:37 Brand As The Remaining Moat 1:00:34 Bulls and Bears

Tykr founder Sean Tepper on why most investor accounts stall at $5K, and the system that gets people past it.Sean Tepper is the founder of Tykr, a tool that turns stock picking into a simple green, gray, or red signal. Jack and Sean dig into why the average brokerage account sits around $5,000 while the average Tykr account is over $120,000, and why Sean is convinced the real gap is confidence, not intelligence or luck. They also cover the 4M framework for evaluating a stock, how Tykr avoided the GameStop and AMC meme stock traps, and what it actually took to turn a personal Excel spreadsheet into a real SaaS company with paying customers.Key topics:The traffic light system that removes guesswork from picking a stockThe 4M framework: math, meaning, moat, and managementWhy confidence, not returns, is the real driver of investor behaviorThe free equation you can run in Excel without any tool at allWhat broke first when a personal spreadsheet became a companyAbout Sean Tepper:Sean is the founder of Tykr, a stock analysis platform built on a simple scoring system that helps everyday investors decide when a stock is on sale, fairly priced, or overpriced. He's been investing since 2010 and built Tykr's underlying framework by testing it with his own money for years before turning it into software.Links:

This Week In Startups is made possible by: DigitalOcean https://do.co/twist Sentry https://sentry.io/twist Lightfield https://lightfield.app Today's show: A hedge fund just blew up shorting SaaS stocks. In turns out, the software companies that went all in on AI are bouncing back. Figma's CEO — still riding high on strong revenue — forfeited roughly $46 million in stock awards to ease investor nerves. Twilio posted its strongest quarter in years. Airbnb's CEO credits AI as the single biggest factor in the company's incredible turnaround. Jason and Lon break down what's separating the winners this earnings season from the companies that are falling behind. PLUS we're chatting with Bluecore Energy CEO and founder Kofi Asante about his plan to power ports, and one day AI data centers, with small, floating nuclear reactors. AND we're kicking off the TWiST Weight Loss Challenge! Co-host Lon and Jason's brother, Jamie, are both starting GLP-1s. We'll track their progress and follow along as they attempt to collect $15,000 EACH in prize money. Guest Kofi Asante on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kofiasante1/ Bluecore Energy: https://www.bluecore.energy/ Jamie Calacanis on X: https://x.com/CalacanisJamie Relevant Links Bloomberg: Figma CEO forfeits $46M: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-05/figma-ceo-forfeits-46-million-in-stock-after-share-decline Twilio announces second quarter 2026 results: https://investors.twilio.com/news-releases/news-release-details/twilio-announces-second-quarter-2026-results TechCrunch: Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson buys The Onion: https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/26/area-man-twilio-co-founder-jeff-lawson-buys-the-onion Chesky: Airbnb will spend a lot more on AI: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/07/chesky-airbnb-ai-earnings.html "Unreasonable Hospitality" by Will Guidara on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Unreasonable-Hospitality-Remarkable-Giving-People/dp/0593418573 The Times: Meet the unreasonable hospitality master who inspired "The Bear": https://www.thetimes.com/magazines/the-sunday-times-magazine/article/will-guidara-hospitality-the-bear-tkgzqz33w Port of Long Beach partnership on nuclear-powered shipping: https://gcaptain.com/port-of-long-beach-marad-launch-first-u-s-partnership-on-nuclear-powered-shipping/ Reuters: ByteDance targets mega AI model: https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-targets-mega-ai-model-nearing-anthropics-mythos-ft-reports-2026-08-07/ Axios: OpenAI says its AI agents breached its own systems before Hugging Face: https://www.axios.com/2026/08/06/openai-hugging-face-black-hat Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House: https://franklloydwright.org/site/ennis-house/ Dwell: Why "The Studio" built a faux Frank Lloyd Wright HQ: https://www.dwell.com/article/the-studio-apple-tv-filming-locations-production-design-frank-lloyd-wright-john-lautner-97c68081 "Predators" documentary trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibVZkvpAJjI A24 "Primetime" trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fHXyqQOKL8 Alex Honnold free solos Taipei 101: https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/25/sport/alex-honnold-taipei-101-free-solo-netflix-intl-hnk Harmonic.ai: https://harmonic.ai/ Ro.co: http://ro.co/twist Timestamps: 0:00 Figma, Twilio & Airbnb earnings: who's winning at AI? 9:50 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%. 11:32 The real cost of stock-based compensation 17:38 Kofi Asante of Blue Core Energy joins the show 19:47 Sentry - Your team should be focused on shipping features — not chasing down bugs. New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST 20:51 What is a small modular reactor (SMR)? 26:00 Floating nuclear reactors for ports and data centers 29:47 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app 31:56 Nuclear waste, submarine risks, and public perception 42:41 The generational shift in how we think about nuclear 48:19 ByteDance is training a 10 trillion parameter model 53:47 When AI models plan heists: the Hugging Face caper 58:02 Jason's Roko weight loss competition 1:11:38 Off duty: To Catch a Predator, Alex Honnold, and comedy Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp   Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons   Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis   Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/   Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland   Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis   Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

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In this episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, Jared Bauman sits down with entrepreneur Bernard Huang to discuss his incredible journey from making six figures playing online poker in college to building and exiting the SEO platform ClearScope. Bernard shares lessons from a failed restaurant franchise, seven years in Silicon Valley, and growing a bootstrapped SaaS business to mid-seven figures. The conversation also explores how AI is reshaping SEO, content creation, and software, including why Bernard believes today's internet economics are changing faster than ever. If you're interested in entrepreneurship, SEO, AI, or building sustainable online businesses, this episode is packed with insights you won't want to miss. Sponsor: Quiet Light Get a free, confidential valuation at https://quietlight.com/! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Links & Resources Learn more about Bernard's work: https://zonted.com/ Check out Clearscope: https://www.clearscope.io/ - You can learn more about me and get additional website tips at: https://www.nichepursuits.com - You can learn about optimizing your site with internal links using a WordPress Plugin I created right here: https://www.linkwhisper.com Thanks for watching and please consider subscribing to the main Niche Pursuits YouTube channel by clicking here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/youtube