Podcasts about Saas

On today's episode, Dr. Mark Costes sits down with Mark Rasmussen, CEO and co-founder of Moolah, to unpack the company's journey from general payment processing to a dental-focused technology platform serving thousands of practices. Mark shares how an introduction to the Dental Success Network helped spark Moolah's move into dentistry, why narrowing the company's focus accelerated growth, and how staying committed to simple pricing, no SaaS fees, and strong customer support has shaped the business.  They also discuss PMS integrations, the shift toward cloud-based software, automated accounts receivable, building a strong visionary-integrator relationship, navigating private equity interest, and why customer experience continues to drive Moolah's growth. Be sure to check out the full episode from the Dentalpreneur Podcast! EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.moolah.cc https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast

Matt Watson is the Founder and CEO of Full Scale, an offshore software development company that helps U.S. companies build dedicated software engineering teams in the Philippines. A four-time tech founder and longtime CTO, he previously co-founded VinSolutions, an automotive software company that AutoTrader.com acquired in 2011, and later founded the developer-tools company Stackify. Matt brings more than 20 years of engineering and startup leadership experience to helping companies build and scale high-performing software teams. He is also the author of Product Driven and host of the Startup Hustle podcast. In this episode… As AI transforms how companies build software, they are rethinking what it takes to scale development teams without sacrificing quality, speed, or accountability. With global talent and increasingly capable AI tools changing the economics of software development, how can leaders build teams that are both more efficient and more effective? According to Matt Watson, a serial SaaS founder and longtime software leader, companies can scale development more effectively by combining offshore talent with AI-powered workflows while keeping human judgment at the center. He highlights how staff augmentation allows Philippines-based developers to work directly within a company's existing teams instead of operating as a separate outsourced unit. This approach can give businesses greater flexibility and access to experienced talent while maintaining stronger team integration. Matt also explains how AI tools, MCP servers, and shared plugins can streamline operations by connecting business systems, surfacing information, and standardizing repeatable workflows. As AI accelerates execution, he emphasizes that product thinking becomes even more valuable because teams still need people who can determine what to build, why it matters, and whether the outcome actually serves the customer. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Matt Watson, Founder and CEO of Full Scale, to discuss the future of software teams. They explore offshore staff augmentation, AI-powered business workflows, and why product thinking matters more as development accelerates. Matt also shares how AI is reshaping marketing and website development.

Today I'm talking to Austin Armstrong, a longtime digital marketer, founder of Syllaby and AI Marketing World, and someone who has built millions of followers across social media. Austin has spent more than two decades studying how attention works online, and this conversation is largely about how that's changing with AI. We talk about how he approaches content creation today, why Facebook has become his highest-ROI platform, what actually drives virality, and how he uses AI without fully automating his personal brand. We also get into the business side of AI, including how Syllaby evolved from a productivity tool into an AI content platform, why the company had to change its target customer and pricing, and what Austin thinks happens to SaaS as AI agents become more capable.   Watch on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/H7HCrACJ5UQ      Let's Connect: Website | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Facebook

Welcome to The SaaS CFO Podcast. In this episode, Ben welcomes Ramsey Al-Ramahi, founder and CEO of RevReply, who shares his journey from scaling a lead gen agency to creating an AI-powered SaaS platform for sales conversion. Ben and Ramsey Al-Ramahi discuss the transition from services to software, the unique challenges of building a platform, and how RevReply found traction with B2B sales teams. They also cover the experience of fundraising, joining the Berkeley Skydeck accelerator, and raising a $1 million seed round. Ramsey Al-Ramahi opens up about the metrics that guide his business and the ongoing challenges—and opportunities—of leveraging AI in sales. Tune in for actionable insights and an inside look at building a SaaS company in today's fast-changing landscape. Show Notes: 00:00 Refining sales techniques with experience 05:06 Evaluating Meeting Productivity Issues 07:11 Target customers: high-volume or complex workflows 12:30 Scaling up and resource allocation 14:27 Managing overwhelming inbound demand 19:07 Focusing on customer retention 22:00 Weighing AI vs. human costs 23:31 Offering free pipeline advice Links: SaaS Fundraising Stories: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/revreply-raises-1m-seed/ Ramsey Al-Ramahi's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseyalramahi/ RevReply's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/revreply/ RevReply's Website: https://www.revreply.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

Mark Zuckerberg argues that broadly distributed personal AI, or a “superintelligence” in his parlance, can increase prosperity and counter the risks of AI being controlled by a handful of government and corporate entities. Drew Conry-Murray joins Eyvonne and William to engage in a lively roundtable where they examine whether distributing access meaningfully distributes power when... Read more »

In this special episode of The Data & AI Chief, host Cindi Howson sits down with three incredible authors to explore what it really takes to lead through the AI era, from scaling innovation to building AI-ready data foundations to designing systems that keep humans at the center. Get ready for a deep dive into: Scaling innovation and leading through uncertainty with Linda Hill, Harvard Business School Professor and author of Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation Building AI-ready data foundations with Sanjeev Mohan, Principal at SanjMo and author of Designing the AI-Driven Data Foundations Designing accountable, human-centered AI with Harveer Singh, Co-Founder and CIO of Rizz Wireless and author of When Data Moves Consider this your fall reading list for leading through the next phase of AI. Key Moments: Why Scaling Innovation Requires a Culture Shift (01:03): Linda Hill, author of Genius at Scale, unpacks her ABC model of architects, bridgers, and catalysts in scaling AI innovation. The Timeless Fundamentals Behind AI-Ready Data (32:40): Sanjeev Mohan, author of Designing the AI-Driven Data Foundations, explains why data fundamentals haven't changed even as the tools have. Why Every Data Pipeline Decision Has a Human Consequence (58:38): Harveer Singh, author of When Data Moves, shares personal stories showing the human stakes behind every data decision. Key Quotes: “Innovation is almost always the result of collaboration, experimentation, learning of people who are different, who have different perspectives, different expertise.” - Linda Hill “I strongly believe that to achieve the promises of AI, we should really focus on the foundational pieces, because those things never go away.” - Sanjeev Mohan “The more and more we are embedding these AI agents into our technology, we need to make sure that there is an accountability factor, there is a responsibility factor that is put into it before these decisions are made.” - Harveer Singh Mentions: Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation Designing the AI-Driven Data Foundations When Data Moves The AI Fairness Test Nobody Runs Guest Bios: Linda Hill Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Faculty Chair of the Leadership Initiative. She is widely recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on leadership and innovation. Hill is the coauthor of Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation (March 2026), which introduces three essential roles for leading innovation across organizations and ecosystems: architect, bridger, and catalyst. The book was shortlisted for the 2025 Thinkers50 Innovation Award. She is also the coauthor of the award-winning books Collective Genius and Being the Boss. Her TED talk on leading collective creativity has garnered more than three million views. Sanjeev Mohan Sanjeev Mohan is a recognized thought leader in cloud technologies, modern data architectures, analytics, and artificial intelligence. With a keen focus on emerging trends and technologies, Sanjeev hosts It Depends podcast and authors regular Medium blogs. He is also the author of Data Product for Dummies. Formerly a Vice President at Gartner, Sanjeev was renowned for his in-depth research and strategic insights, shaping the research agenda for data and analytics globally. Over the past three years, he has led SanjMo, a consultancy specializing in technical advisory services that elevate category and brand awareness for clients. Sanjeev is the author of Designing the AI-Driven Data Foundations, a practical guide to building modern data foundations for the AI era. Harveer Singh Harveer Singh is a globally recognized data, AI, and fintech leader who bridges enterprise-scale leadership with entrepreneurial execution. Across 25+ years, he has transformed financial institutions spanning banking, payments, telecom, and Web3. A recognized industry leader, Harveer's work has earned DataIQ Top 10 CDOs, American Banker Innovation of the Year, and American Asian Outstanding 50 honors. In 2025, Harveer co-founded Rizz Wireless, an AI-native wireless company, where he serves as Co-Founder, CIO, and Board Member. He is also co-creator of RZTO, the company's Solana-based rewards token, which reimagines how loyalty and telecom rewards work and is listed on Gate.io. Harveer is the author of When Data Moves, which challenges the tech industry to remember that data systems serve humans, not machines. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Mark Zuckerberg argues that broadly distributed personal AI, or a “superintelligence” in his parlance, can increase prosperity and counter the risks of AI being controlled by a handful of government and corporate entities. Drew Conry-Murray joins Eyvonne and William to engage in a lively roundtable where they examine whether distributing access meaningfully distributes power when... Read more »

On the podcast: scaling Meta ads from zero to $100,000 a month, why they waited a year after launch before buying ads, and how a pricing page experiment shifted users toward annual subscriptions.Top Takeaways:

A financial analyst spots something wrong with a deal. He writes up his dissent. But the AI disagreed. The investment committee spent 90 seconds discussing his objection, and went with the AI score. A year later, the analyst stopped writing dissents entirely — what's the point? This story is from finance. But the pattern is emerging everywhere — in law firms, in startups, in any organisation where AI is now in the room when decisions get made. This episode is about what to do about it. You will hear from Rana Gujral, the author of the AI Instinct: The Future of Humans and Machine Decision Making Throughout his career, Rana has founded and exited a machine learning SaaS company, led major technology transformations, and built AI systems deployed across industries ranging from financial services to defence. Listen to this episode to learn: Why the biggest AI risk is not that it gets things wrong — it is that it gets things right in exactly the same way as everyone else How to tell whether AI is augmenting your thinking or replacing it — and the two tests that reveal the difference What happens to junior talent in law firms and startups when AI takes over the work that builds judgment The one practical step you can take this week to make sure you are still actually thinking — not just ratifying what the machine already decided Timestamps: 00:00 – Why AI scoring is silencing human dissent 00:49 – Welcome and back-to-school business energy 05:14 – How one bad AI-backed VC deal got approved 07:32 – How leaders can protect employee judgment from AI 10:24 – Why human intuition still beats AI scores 13:59 – The hidden risk of AI in law firms and junior lawyers 17:47 – Is AI augmenting or replacing your team's thinking? 20:39 – How to rebuild independent thinking after relying on AI 22:27 – Rana Gujral on his new book, The AI Instinct Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Simply select "Ratings and Reviews" and "Write a Review" then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Listen to our podcast on: Apple Spotify YouTube Audible Pandora Transcript: https://www.techfornontechies.co/blog/319-your-judgment-is-your-most-valuable-asset-are-you-losing-it-to-ai

Everyone is racing to add AI to healthcare. But what if the bigger problem isn't adopting AI… it's the fragmented systems underneath it? In this episode of Med Tech Gurus, we sit down with Nader Fathi, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Enlil, to explore why the future of MedTech innovation may depend less on adding more intelligence—and more on creating integrated foundations that allow innovation to scale. With decades of experience spanning AI, big data, IoT, and regulated product development, Nader makes a compelling case that many MedTech companies are solving the wrong problem. While others rush toward AI tools, he argues the real risk is fragmentation across compliance, engineering, quality systems, and manufacturing—creating hidden vulnerabilities that slow innovation and threaten scale. We explore why integrated compliance is becoming a strategic advantage, how private AI models and agentic AI may reshape product development, and why "customers, customers, customers" remains timeless advice for founders building scalable companies. From FDA readiness and change control to product-market fit and investor storytelling, this episode is a masterclass in moving from product innovation to enterprise execution. If you're interested in AI in healthcare, MedTech quality systems, regulatory strategy, SaaS for medical devices, or startup scale-up strategy, this episode delivers a powerful blueprint for building innovation that lasts.

What if you could buy a seven-figure business without putting down a huge pile of cash? Clayton Pritchard did exactly that. He wasn’t even looking to buy a business. Then the founder of Olivine Marketing asked him a simple question: “Would you like to buy it?” Instead of a massive upfront payment, Clayton structured the acquisition around a percentage of revenue. Low risk. Massive upside. But here’s the part that makes this deal really interesting. Before taking over, Clayton stepped in as CEO to prove he could actually grow the business. And within months, the company went from declining growth to tracking nearly 50% year-over-year growth. The business already had the assets: strong organic traffic, years of content, an established brand, and inbound leads. Clayton’s job was to unlock the value that was already there. In this episode, Jaryd sits down with Clayton to unpack how he acquired a seven-figure agency with no traditional cash-down deal, why the founders chose him over private equity, how he structured the revenue-based acquisition, what due diligence looked like from the inside, and how he turned better sales and conversion into rapid growth. They also get into how employees can turn their expertise into ownership, why buying an imperfect business can create more upside than buying a “perfect” one, and where AI fits into the future of product marketing. Because you don’t always need a giant bank account to buy a business. Sometimes, you need a relationship, a clear value-creation plan, and the courage to make the offer.

April Dunford is the positioning expert behind Obviously Awesome and a former repeat vice-president of marketing across seven venture-backed startups, most of which were acquired. Over the past decade she has advised roughly 300 B2B technology companies, all with sales teams, on how to position themselves against the competition. In this episode she joins hosts Lily Smith and Randy Silver to explain why so many companies are repositioning at once, how a strong point of view on the future underpins good positioning, and why the story a company tells about itself is a decision for product and sales, not just marketing.Key takeawaysPositioning is a company-wide decision, not a marketing exercise. Dunford's own experience repositioning a spreadsheet tool as an embeddable database shows how it reshapes pricing, sales motion and even the product roadmap, not just the words on a website.Major shifts such as the move to AI force widespread repositioning because customers no longer have a stable set of alternatives to judge value or price against, and both AI-native companies and traditional SaaS businesses are wrestling with where they now sit.Intercom's rebuild of its support product around Fin shows how staying anchored to the customer's underlying job, resolving a ticket, can guide a genuine AI-first redesign rather than a bolt-on feature.Companies need a clear, credible point of view on the future of their market, or customers facing genuine uncertainty will simply freeze and delay buying decisions.A compelling vision of the future has to flow from a company's real differentiated value, not be reverse-engineered to flatter its current position.Selling too far into a hyped future risks stalling deals, so the message needs a maturity model that shows customers a credible, low-risk path from where they are today to where the market is heading.Positioning should be revisited on a disciplined schedule rather than settled by whoever argues loudest in the room, and Dunford recommends a structured check every six months on competitors, differentiators and value themes.Customer advisory boards, quarterly executive account calls and a company's own sales team are the most reliable early-warning systems for shifts in budget, buying process and competitive threats, long before they show up as lost deals.Chapters(00:00) Introduction to April Dunford (01:53) The story behind Obviously Awesome (05:33) Positioning as a cross-functional decision (07:23) Why everyone is repositioning right now (09:32) Intercom, Fin and the AI-native rebuild (11:53) Building a point of view of the future (16:52) Is the vision genuine or self-serving (18:00) How to develop your point of view (22:13) Stack Overflow, Salesforce and staying silent (23:45) Hyping the future without stalling sales (27:01) When positioning needs to change (28:42) Running a regular positioning check-in (30:29) Customer advisory boards and voice of customer (34:47) Predicting change after covid and AI (37:20) Wrap-upOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

S6:E76 Security is ultimately a promise of trust. So what happens when that trust gets broken? Karim Toubba has had to answer that question in circumstances few CEOs would choose. He joined LastPass as their CEO only months before the company experienced a significant and highly publicized 2022 security breach. In this candid conversation, Karim acknowledges that LastPass initially communicated too slowly and explains the systemic changes, transparency, investment and cultural work required afterward. Queue up this episode of Small Business Stories for a conversation that goes well beyond passwords. Because the threat itself is changing. Karim says AI is producing a meaningful productivity advantage for small businesses, but it is simultaneously allowing malicious websites and other threats to be generated at much greater velocity. Employees are also adopting AI applications faster than many organizations can establish policies around what data those applications should be allowed to access. If people don't trust you, reassuring them that you're trustworthy isn't enough. If customers cannot see credible evidence supporting what you say, they'll increasingly turn to third-party communities and other sources to interpret your credibility for themselves. And if inaccurate or incomplete information about your organization remains unchallenged, the external interpretation of your company can begin separating from the reality inside it. That's where Karim's cybersecurity experience intersects powerfully with Dr. LL's work on misinterpretation risk.

Ariel Parnes is the co-founder and COO at Mitiga. In this episode of Mitiga Mic, he joins host Brian Contos and Brandon Allen, leader of cyber defense at Mitiga, to discuss SAFE, including what it is, why it's important, and more. This series is brought to you by Mitiga, the leader in Agentic Runtime Security for cloud, SaaS, and AI, delivering Zero-Impact Breach Prevention. To learn more about our sponsor, visit https://www.mitiga.ai.

AI is creating new opportunities for affiliate marketers — but it is also lowering the barriers for AI affiliate fraud.In this episode of the Affiliate Marketing Podcast, Lee-Ann Johnstone sat down with Tautvydas Vasiliauskas, Head of Marketing at FirstPromoter, to explore how artificial intelligence is changing affiliate marketing, from improving productivity and automation to creating new challenges around fake partners, fake content, scalable fraud, and affiliate partner vetting.With more than a decade of experience across affiliate marketing, SaaS, e-commerce, and subscription businesses, Tautvydas shares his perspective on why the industry needs to prepare for a new wave of AI-driven risks while still embracing the opportunities the technology creates.The conversation covers how AI can help affiliate managers automate reporting, analysis, outreach, and campaign management, while also discussing why relationships remain one of the most important parts of successful affiliate programs.They also explore how AI is bringing back old affiliate fraud techniques in new forms: fake websites, private blog networks, AI-generated influencers, and synthetic content. Tautvydas explains what affiliate managers can do to strengthen affiliate fraud prevention and identify suspicious partners before they affect their programs.Key Talking Points: AI Affiliate Fraud and Partner VettingHow AI is improving affiliate program management and productivityWhy relationship building remains the core responsibility of affiliate managersHow AI is bringing old fraud tactics back at a much larger scaleWhy fake websites, AI-generated influencers, and synthetic content are growing risksThe importance of creating partner quality checklistsHow affiliate managers can identify suspicious traffic and engagement patternsWhy quality over quantity should become the new mindset for partner recruitmentHow AI will impact partner vetting and fraud detection in the futureHow AI Is Changing Affiliate Program Management AI is changing the way affiliate teams operate.Tautvydas explains that many companies are using AI to become more efficient, especially as teams become leaner and businesses look to achieve more with fewer resources. Affiliate managers are already using AI for tasks such as partner discovery, outreach creation, reporting, analysis, and automating repetitive workflows.However, the biggest opportunity is not replacing relationships. Tautvydas highlights that building connections with partners will always remain a key responsibility of affiliate managers.Instead, AI can remove time-consuming operational tasks, allowing managers to focus more on strategy, partnerships, and growth.The same technology that improves efficiency, however, can also be used by bad actors.How AI Is Scaling Affiliate Fraud Affiliate marketing has always faced fraud challenges.Tautvydas explains that many of the tactics the industry has seen before are returning in a new form. Previously, creating fake websites, manipulating SEO, or building private blog networks required technical skills and significant effort.AI has changed that.Today, anyone can create multiple websites, generate content, build social profiles, or create fake influencers without needing advanced technical knowledge. The biggest change AI brings is scale.For affiliate managers, this creates a new challenge: distinguishing genuine partners from those using AI to appear legitimate.Why Affiliate Partner Vetting Should Prioritize Quality Affiliate managers are often under pressure to grow programs quickly and recruit as many partners as possible. But Tautvydas believes this mindset needs to change.The focus should move from quantity to quality — taking the time to properly evaluate partners before allowing them into a program.This means creating stronger vetting processes, checking content quality, analysing traffic patterns, and looking for genuine engagement signals.A smaller number of trusted partners can create better long-term results than a large number of unknown publishers that could create risk.Listen to Learn More About AI Affiliate Fraud and Partner Vetting How AI is helping affiliate managers automate everyday tasksWhy relationships remain the most important part of affiliate marketingHow fake websites and AI-generated content are changing affiliate fraudThe warning signs of fake publishers and influencersWhy affiliate programs need stronger partner quality checksHow AI could shape the future of partner vetting and fraud preventionEpisode Timestamps 05:40 – How AI is helping affiliate managers improve productivity 10:45 – The history of affiliate fraud and why old tactics are returning 12:20 – How AI lowers the barrier for creating fake websites and content 17:00 – How affiliate managers can identify suspicious partners 22:10 – Building a partner quality checklist for affiliate programs 25:58 – Why quality over quantity should guide partner recruitment 27:27 – What the future of AI and affiliate fraud could look likeListen to the Affiliate Marketing Podcast AI is changing affiliate marketing — creating new opportunities for efficiency while introducing new challenges around trust, transparency, and partner quality.Tautvydas shared practical advice on how affiliate managers can use AI effectively while protecting their programs from emerging fraud risks. Find out more about this AI Shift in FirstPromoter's guide HERE.Listen to the full episode to learn how to balance innovation with better partner evaluation and build stronger affiliate programmes in the AI era.Interested in taking part in the Affiliate Marketing Podcast? Contact our team to find out sponsorships opportunities and how we can help get your brand seen and heard in front of the right audience - contact sales@affiverse.com for more information.Sign up for the Affiverse Newsletter at affiversemedia.comAlready subscribed? Share this episode with any affiliate, operator, or affiliate manager working to build trust in online gaming.Subscribe to the Affiliate Marketing Podcast on Apple PodcastsSubscribe to gain insights into scaling campaigns with accountability, sensitivity, and trust, even in the era of AI and automation.Click here to rate and review, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a Review."Send me a text with your questions

S6:E76 Security is ultimately a promise of trust. So what happens when that trust gets broken? Karim Toubba has had to answer that question in circumstances few CEOs would choose. He joined LastPass as their CEO only months before the company experienced a significant and highly publicized 2022 security breach. In this candid conversation, Karim acknowledges that LastPass initially communicated too slowly and explains the systemic changes, transparency, investment and cultural work required afterward. Queue up this episode of Small Business Stories for a conversation that goes well beyond passwords. Because the threat itself is changing. Karim says AI is producing a meaningful productivity advantage for small businesses, but it is simultaneously allowing malicious websites and other threats to be generated at much greater velocity. Employees are also adopting AI applications faster than many organizations can establish policies around what data those applications should be allowed to access. If people don't trust you, reassuring them that you're trustworthy isn't enough. If customers cannot see credible evidence supporting what you say, they'll increasingly turn to third-party communities and other sources to interpret your credibility for themselves. And if inaccurate or incomplete information about your organization remains unchallenged, the external interpretation of your company can begin separating from the reality inside it. That's where Karim's cybersecurity experience intersects powerfully with Dr. LL's work on misinterpretation risk.

Kevin White, Head of Marketing at Scrunch, argues that referral traffic from ChatGPT is the wrong instrument for measuring AI search — and that the real question is whether a model represents your brand accurately when no one clicks at all. He and Greg Kihlström get into what to build and what to measure instead."AI search" is several different problems wearing one label. A crawler pulling your content, a model synthesizing an answer, and an agent acting on someone's behalf are not the same event — and teams that treat them as one end up optimizing for the wrong thing.A website now serves two readers with different needs. White on what changes structurally when the page has to work for a human and for a machine that will compress it into three sentences.Visibility is probabilistic, so accountability has to change. The same prompt can surface your brand one day and skip it the next. White on what a marketing leader can honestly commit to a CMO or a board in that environment.About Kevin WhiteKevin White is a B2B tech marketing leader who has helped shape go-to-market at Segment, Retool, and Common Room, and now leads marketing at Scrunch AI, an AI-first customer-journey platform. He got his start in SaaS at Gigya — where he was handed Marketo and told to 'figure it out,' the spark for a learn-by-doing growth mindset that merges analytical rigor (attribution, lifecycle infrastructure, reporting) with creative offer- and channel-building. That growth foundation carried him to leading whole marketing orgs, though he's candid that the climb pulled him away from the hands-on craft he loves, and at Common Room he deliberately stepped back into a senior IC role. At Scrunch he focuses on one of the most overlooked shifts in modern marketing: websites are now consumed as much by AI bots as by humans, and brands that make their sites legible to LLMs — through structure, markdown and JSON, schema, and a parallel AI-optimized experience — win the emerging AI retrieval channel.Kevin White on LinkedIn---------- Resources ----------This episode is brought to you by Scrunch. Scrunch gets your site AI-ready so you show up in answers, get cited, and grow revenue. Learn more at Scrunch.comReach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fEnjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.comThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Has your Meta ads performance stalled? We can help you redesign your messaging and creatives for sustained growth. Talk to us at: https://www.tiereleven.com/apply Here's something growing brands don't realize until growth stalls: the messaging that built your business will eventually run out of steam, even while your offer keeps converting. So why does that happen, and what do you do about it?On today's show, I'm breaking down a real client case study: an eight-figure SaaS-powered lead generation and coaching business that's been stuck at a revenue plateau for nearly two years. We dig into why their original messaging saturated the market, how a growth diagnostic uncovered an entire untapped audience they'd been ignoring, and why the fix isn't adding new ad platforms.I'll walk you through the exact messaging extraction process we use to turn customer interviews, support calls, and event transcripts into content pillars that actually move the algorithm. If you're only running one or two creative angles right now, this episode shows you exactly what you're leaving on the table, and how to expand your market without blowing up your budget. In this episode:- Why proven ad messaging eventually stalls growth- How Meta's Andromeda algorithm builds individual funnels - The real reason CPMs rise and cost to acquire a customer flattens- Why creative diversification matters more than adding new ad platforms- How to uncover untapped audience segments through a growth diagnostic- The messaging extraction process for capturing authentic customer language- Customer support calls and live event interviews as creative gold mines- How to build a 10-variation content matrix around a single theme- Using hook rate, hold rate, and link click-through rate in creative testing- Why volume alone will not scale your Meta ads account- How top-of-funnel creative shows up in branded search and MER- Three questions to audit your creative strategy before your next briefMentioned in the Episode: Tier 11's Data Suite: https://www.tiereleven.com/what-we-do/data-suiteWicked Reports Attribution Software: https://www.wickedreports.com/ Jim Collins' Book, Good to Great: https://a.co/d/068eKQng Listen to This Episode on Your Favorite Podcast Channel:Follow and listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/perpetual-traffic/id1022441491 Follow and listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/59lhtIWHw1XXsRmT5HBAuK Subscribe and watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@perpetual_traffic?sub_confirmation=1We Appreciate Your Support!Visit our website: https://perpetualtraffic.com/ Connect with Ralph Burns: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphburns Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ralphhburns/ Hire Tier11 - https://www.tiereleven.com/apply-now Mentioned in this episode:https://perpetualtraffic.com/advertise-with-us/

Most founders think they have a growth problem, team problem, or technology problem.But what if the real constraint is the founder?In this episode of Liftoff with Keith Newman, Keith sits down with Damon Flowers, a business growth expert who has spent more than two decades building, scaling, and exiting companies across SaaS, eCommerce, coaching, and real estate—including taking one company from $3.5 million to $30 million in just two years. Damon explains why businesses often struggle to scale because their founders become the glue holding disconnected systems, people, and processes together.The conversation explores:Why a business can only grow as far as its founder doesHow founders become the bottleneck without realizing it The three stages of building a scalable business Why growth should come after the right operational foundation How disconnected tools can create more chaos Why simply adding AI tools isn't enough How an integrated operating system can help businesses move faster What founders need to change to make faster decisions and respond to the market Damon's core message is simple:Don't just try to grow faster. Build a business that is actually ready to grow.Sponsor Info: We are strategic business advisors with decades of leadership experience and a proven track record of driving businesses' growth. We specialize in creating custom-tailored strategies to introduce your company, drive growth, build leadership teams, and ensure companies implement appropriate compensation programs. Our mission is to utilize our expansive network to benefit your company https://www.compass-strategic-advisors.com/Connect with Damon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damonflowers Website: https://modernoperators.com/Media Kit: https://on.modernoperators.com/media/ Subscribe for more founder insights and hit the bell for notifications! Follow us on our channels for exclusive startup content and behind-the-scenes insights from interviews like this one. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cFpLXfYvcUsxvsT9MwyAD?si=f5a14e779777487d Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/liftoff-with-keith-newman/id1560219589 Substack: https://keithnewman.substack.com/ Newman Media Studios: https://newmanmediastudios.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liftoffwithkeithFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeithNewman285Website: https://liftoffwithkeith.com/Want to build a high-growth company without falling into the administration trap? Subscribe to Liftoff with Keith and follow for weekly conversations with the founders building what's next.

Three episodes in, you will be willing to die for Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg. No backstory required. No sprawling lore to decode. Just a knight who may not even be a knight, a boy who follows him anyway, and storytelling so elemental it hits like a gut punch. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms works because it does what most B2B content refuses to do: it puts the human at the center, leaves you wanting more, and trusts the oldest storytelling mechanics in the world. In this episode, we dig into what that means for marketers with our special guest Tara Corey, SVP of Marketing at Optimizely. Together, we unpack why the best content finds the friction point in a story rather than avoiding it, why you should be the biographer and not the subject, and what Optimizely's upcoming rebrand taught Tara about bravery and standing out from the B2B sea of sameness. About our guest, Tara Corey Tara Corey is SVP of Marketing at Optimizely, where she leads brand, content, and the company's upcoming rebrand. With over 20 years in marketing, she's known for building editorial-driven content strategies, championing authentic human storytelling, and running toward the hard moments — in her career and her content. She's a passionate believer in community, mentorship, and the idea that bravery isn't optional. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Put the human at the heart of the story — then leave them wanting more. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms doesn't try to tell you everything at once. It earns your investment in two characters and then trusts that investment to carry you through. Tara connects this directly to how B2B content fails: "Creating content has never been easier than it is right now with AI. But creating quality content that truly has that art of storytelling and a truly human-connected story — I think that's harder and harder to stand out and do well." Fewer things, done better, is the whole strategy. Be the biographer, not the subject. Most origin stories are boring because the subject tells them. The interesting version requires someone who knows which parts actually matter. Ian's challenge for B2B marketers: "Volunteer to be the biographer. Don't let someone else tell their own story. Tell their story in a way that you think is interesting." That means getting in person, asking the follow-up questions people skip, and hunting for the moment of friction — the "no kidding, there I was" — where everything shifted. Find the elemental story hiding in your B2B content. Betrayal. Honor. Trust broken and rebuilt. These mechanics work because they've always worked. Ian ties them directly to the world every marketer lives in: "How many of us have been there when it's like, 'You said you were gonna promote me. You said you were gonna do this. Why did you never do it?' — that's so elemental. And yet we just don't put it in B2B marketing, even though it's all around us." The richest stories aren't in the product. They're in the people. Quote"Bravery isn't optional. There's fear, there's excitement — but we've got to be brave, try not to be afraid, and be excited about what's possible. And also try to balance that with the simplicity of a great story and that human connection." — Tara Corey Time Stamps [1:22] Meet Tara Corey, SVP of Marketing at Optimizely [1:40] Why A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? [3:02] What Is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? A Brief History [7:20] What Makes It Work: Heart, Humor, and Unexpected Turns [10:47] Marketing Takeaways: Put the Human at the Heart of the Story [12:01] Leave Them Wanting More [13:51] Simple Storytelling Mechanics That Always Work [19:09] Be the Biographer, Not the Subject [21:03] How to Train a Team to Capture Better Stories [24:54] Find the Friction: Where Great Stories Actually Live [31:44] Critique vs. Tearing Down — And Why It Matters for Marketers [37:06] Bravery Isn't Optional: Optimizely's Content Strategy and Rebrand [38:30] Final Thoughts and Takeaways LinksConnect with Tara on LinkedInLearn more about Optimizely 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.

India's alcohol beverage industry is worth around ₹5 lakh crore, and spirits make up roughly three-fourths of the market. But building a successful alcohol brand in India involves much more than making a good drink.00:00 Introduction01:21 How Big Is India's Alcobev Industry?02:13 Why Spirits Dominate India04:00 The Alcobev Ecosystem & Jobs07:00 India vs Global Alcohol Markets10:00 How the Indian Whisky Market Has Changed14:00 Premiumisation & Changing Consumer Preferences18:00 Building Premium Indian Alcohol Brands24:54 How Radico Kaitan Built Categories27:46 Are Alcohol Companies Profitable?29:05 What Does It Take to Launch an Alcohol Brand?35:00 Building a Brand Beyond a Great Product40:00 Distribution, Retail & Getting on Shelves45:00 Why Every Indian State Is a Different Market50:00 Regulation, Excise & Government Control55:00 How Alcohol Brands Scale Across India1:00:00 Indian Whisky vs International Brands1:10:00 The Future of Premium Indian Spirits 1:18:29 Ankur's Favourite Spirits 1:21:52 Final ThoughtsAnkur Sachdeva has spent around 25 years in the Alcobev industry, with stints at William Grant & Sons, Radico Kaitan, the Kajaria Group and Allied Blenders & Distillers. He was also involved in bringing Glenfiddich and The Balvenie to India, and today is building premium Indian whisky brands of his own.In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel sits down with Ankur Sachdeva, Co-founder & CEO of Uppal Brewers and Distillers to understand an industry that most people consume, but few understand as a business.They start with the scale of the Indian market. Ankur explains why India's alcohol industry looks very different from global markets, where beer is the largest category, while spirits dominate India and account for around three-fourths of the market.The conversation then moves into the rise of premium Indian spirits. Ankur discusses brands such as 8PM, Magic Moments, Jaisalmer, Rampur, Indri and Royal Ranthambore, and how Indian companies have identified gaps in the market and built brands around them.But a good product is only the beginning.Ankur explains what it actually takes to launch an alcobev brand: from having a clear idea and building the product to manufacturing, capital, distribution and getting consumers to pick it off the shelf. He also talks about why a clever bottle or an unusual flavour may make an interesting product, but that alone does not necessarily make a successful brand.The episode also gets into the economics of the industry, including why established Alcobev businesses can operate at strong EBITDA levels, and what makes the category attractive once a business has established its model.For anyone interested in consumer brands, whisky, premiumisation, distribution, regulation or building businesses in India, this conversation gives a detailed look at how the alcobev industry actually works.Connect with Ankur SachdevaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asachdeva/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ankursachdevaind?igsi=MTdwNGljOGZ2dWtudg==Follow Jerome ManuelX (Twitter):https://x.com/JeromeAndManuelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuelRead the transcript for the entire podcast here - https://bit.ly/Prime-Venture-Partners-And-Uppal-Brewers-And-Distillers About Prime Venture PartnersPrime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software.Learn more: https://www.primevp.in/Follow Prime Venture Partners:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_inInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/Learn more about:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uppal-brewers-distillers/Website: https://soorahi.com/#IndianStartups #Alcobev #Whisky #ConsumerBrands #Entrepreneurship

We speak with John T. Harvey about a new article he co-wrote with Billy Saas titled, “A Rhetorical History of Modern Money Theory,” out this month in the September 2026 issue of the Journal of Economic Issues. Harvey is Hal Wright Professor of Economics at Texas Christian University. We discuss his recent publication in the context of his broader career in heterodox economics. Modern Money Theory (MMT) (otherwise known as Modern Monetary Theory) is a heterodox macroeconomic school of thought that recognizes currency-issuing governments cannot run out of the money they create. Because the state issues the currency and requires taxes to be paid in that unit of account, it is never revenue-constrained. Instead, public spending is bound only by real productive capacity and available resources (labor, technology, materials), with inflation—not solvency—serving as the true economic limit.In “A Rhetorical History of Modern Money Theory,” Saas and Harvey trace how MMT emerged not merely as a set of first principles, balance-sheet descriptions, and policy prescriptions, but also as a deliberate discursive and rhetorical intervention against dominant neoclassical paradigms and institutions. Orthodox economics relies heavily on moralizing metaphors of household frugality, naturalized market scarcity, and the false specter of government insolvency to enforce fiscal austerity. In response, MMT theorists developed new vocabularies, pedagogies, and public-facing rhetorical strategies to demystify money as a creature of law and public governance, demonstrating how public finance can be reclaimed for democratic purpose.Throughout our conversation, Harvey reflects on the communicative struggles of heterodox economists, the pedagogical challenges of unseating entrenched neoclassical assumptions, the relationship between Post-Keynesian and Institutionalist traditions, and what a rhetorical history reveals about the future of political economy and public provisioning.Visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructureMusic by Nahneen Kula: www.nahneenkula.com

Translation is getting the words right. Localization is making the culture fit. In this episode of Content Amplified, Lina Tonk, three-time SaaS CMO and current CMO at Smartling, breaks down why "just translate the website" is the mistake almost every team makes when expanding globally. Lina shares the moment a customer presentation in EMEA lost her completely because the deck used US spelling, and why German buyers take entirely different steps to reach a click than independent, skip-the-meeting US buyers do. She explains how OpenAI's localization team lifted click-through conversion just by reviewing what their buttons said in each region, why localization teams are increasingly landing under marketing and struggling to speak CMO language, and what "true localization" looks like when AI makes it possible to localize down to the individual, not just the region. If global expansion is anywhere on your roadmap, this conversation will change how you think about every word on your website.About LinaLina Tonk is the CMO of Smartling, a localization software company whose customers include OpenAI. She has spent her entire career in B2B SaaS, much of it in PE-backed companies, and has now been a CMO three times at three different SaaS companies. Originally from Colombia, Lina started out as a graphic designer before realizing she was a marketer and storyteller at heart, and she has built marketing teams from a team of one to more than seventy. She measures her legacy by the growth of the people on her teams.Show NotesConnect with Lina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linamtonk/Text us what you think about this episode!

Jeff Mains sits down with Asaf Katz — founder of LinkedOtter, host of the Risk Takers show, and a veteran of taking a company public on the ASX, building an "Uber for trucks," navigating a cannabis IPO wave, and doing military cybersecurity work — to unpack why traditional cold outreach (LinkedIn DMs, cold email, "just checking in" follow-ups) has stopped working. Asaf's replacement thesis: live, trust-building events beat cold pitching every time. He breaks down the exact methodology his agency used to generate 350+ organic signups for a single LinkedIn event, how to turn event attendees into real sales conversations without pitching, and the three ingredients every successful event needs (a hot topic, an attractive character, and a warm audience). The conversation also dives into the "SaaSpocalypse" — what AI-driven pricing collapse means for subscription businesses — and closes with Asaf's story of building his own live-event platform from scratch using Claude, with zero coding background, in a matter of weeks.Key Takeaways4:45 – Asaf joins the show; quick recap of his background across cybersecurity, edtech, trucking, and cannabis IPOs.9:19 – Why cold outreach dies without proof: "dial your intention" based on what social proof you actually have.12:59 – How ChatGPT-era automation flooded inboxes and killed the effectiveness of even great copywriting.13:36 – Introducing "Growth With Events": running live LinkedIn shows instead of webinars — 350 organic signups, 50% connection-acceptance rate.16:04 – The SaaSpocalypse: why AI-driven price compression is breaking the sales-led SaaS math ($150K deals, $200K AEs, LinkedIn lead costs).17:34 – Why every high-ticket SaaS is really being bought with a human/advisory layer attached — and how outcome-based pricing brings that back.23:13 – The origin story: a failed 13-person webinar that led Asaf to reverse-engineer the 3 components of a guaranteed-to-succeed event.25:09 – Case study: inviting a viral LinkedIn poster as guest speaker → 750 organic signups, dozens of sales calls, zero pitching.28:08 – The "who else should I talk to?" hack for turning post-interview goodwill into warm referrals.31:24 – Building Risk Takers as a personal media platform separate from client work, and the Dream 100 concept applied to LinkedIn audiences.36:15 – Hosting events on your own website (not Zoom) to capture buyer-intent signals like page visits during the show.40:25 – Building his own event platform with Claude from scratch: the new "AI recommends the tool" buying mechanism and what it means for SaaS marketing.44:08 – Where to find Asaf, LinkedOtter, and Risk Takers.Tweetable Quotes"The outreach approach really needs to be a function of how confident you are in your product." — Asaf Katz, 14:08"No one goes on a website... even when people search on LLMs and they ask for market research, they ask to exclude vendor websites." — Asaf Katz, 21:38"Trust doesn't scale through automation. It scales through the room." — Jeff Mains, 46:00"How about I build less, you pay me less, but we're all actually profiting more." — Asaf Katz, 18:59"It's fairly easy to organize. LinkedIn is really good for building that authority." — Asaf Katz, 20:56SaaS Leadership LessonsMatch your ask to your proof. If you don't have case studies or an MVP, don't pitch — ask for feedback, then convert that feedback call into a sales opportunity later.Events beat cold outreach for high-ACV deals. Once your ticket price crosses $5K–$10K/year, live, trust-building events consistently outperform cold DMs and email.Watch the SaaSpocalypse. AI-driven price compression is breaking the sales-led SaaS model — if AEs and lead costs assumed $150K deals, a forced 80% price cut wrecks your go-to-market math.Bring the human element back into your pricing. High-value SaaS is rarely bought as pure software — it's bought with advisory/consultancy attached. Outcome-based pricing formalizes that.Build less, ship what actually drives value. Most features go unused (the Pareto 20%); cutting scope and pricing accordingly can make everyone more profitable.Own your platform and your audience. Don't just rent other people's LinkedIn followings — run events on your own site to capture buyer-intent data and convert borrowed attention into an owned network over time.Guest Resourcesasaf@linkedotter.comhttps://linkedotter.com/ https://asafkatz.comhttps://www.facebook.com/Asaf.Katz1https://www.linkedin.com/in/asafkatzEpisode SponsorThe Futureproof Series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfkXKUPZ5xuOqMPR7_gzGybncTtavyR1NThe Captain's KeysSmall Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel'Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/https://jeffmains.com/books/SaaS Fuel ResourcesWebsite - https://championleadership.com/Jeff Mains on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkmains/Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffkmainsFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/thesaasguy/Instagram - https://instagram.com/jeffkmains

What if the software you use every day was actually designed to make you succeed, not just to make you subscribe? In this episode, Sean Weisbrot sits down with Bryan McAnulty, founder of a platform that has helped more than 10,000 creators turn their knowledge into thriving online businesses. Bryan shares why building in the SaaS space is uniquely challenging, because your customers have to make a deep personal commitment to becoming someone before they ever log in. You will hear how Bryan approaches this by layering education directly into the product experience, helping creators get clear on their offers, build landing pages, and nurture their audiences, all because a more successful customer stays longer. It is a masterclass in building software that earns loyalty by genuinely caring whether the person on the other end actually wins.------------------------------------

At dating app The League, Kunal Thadani's team found that when daily matches took longer to load, people stopped skimming profiles and started actually reading. The wait wasn't a cost — it was the product saying these matches are worth your time. Now he's Senior Director of Product at Houzz, a platform for homeowners to plan renovations, and his take is that the goal was never no friction. It's to create the right kind of friction. In this episode, Kunal drops his: His three-part framework for productive friction, and The two ways friction turns toxic, including the one that punishes your most loyal customers Plus, everyone is building AI workflows for themselves right now. Almost nobody is building them for a team, and Kunal has the clearest answer I've heard in a long time for what that looks like. Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunal-thadani-72a13722/ Insider Growth Group: https://www.insidergrowthhq.com/ Houzz: https://www.houzz.com/ 0:00 Introduction 0:28 From The League to Houzz: Finding the DIY Decorating Gap 2:03 Not All Friction Is Bad 4:39 Trust Signals, Progress Arcs, Commitment Moments 6:41 The Signup Test That 10X'd Email Conversions 10:25 Two Ways Friction Fails: Fake Protection and Endless Re-Verification 15:16 Why Personal AI Setups Break Down at Team Scale 16:47 Inside the Team OS: One Repo and a Shared Product Context Layer 20:38 Claude Code in the Terminal: Mining Gong Calls and Killing Handoff Tax 24:41 Feedback Loops: Why a Team OS Improves Faster Than a Personal One 25:58 Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Kunal Thadani.

How to start and grow a small business without investors. Show Notes Page: https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/r361-tyler-king-without-investors/ Bootstrapping a software business without venture capital or angel investors lets you grow on your own terms, and Tyler King, co-founder of Less Annoying CRM, shares how he built a profitable, sustainable SaaS company by staying disciplined, customer-focused, and true to what he actually wanted from the business. Tyler King, co-founder and CEO of Less Annoying CRM, joins the show to share how he bootstrapped a profitable software company. No venture capital, no angel investors, no exit plan, and no rush. He shares what small business owners can learn from building a company on their own terms. For anyone who assumes a software startup requires millions in funding and a race toward an IPO, Tyler's story is a useful counterpoint. He grew a sustainable, profitable SaaS (Software as a Service) business slowly and deliberately, proving that discipline and patience can be advantages rather than limitations. Tyler didn't grow up dreaming of running a business. He was a programmer at a venture-backed startup when the 2008 downturn hit and nearly everyone was laid off. Everyone except the five cheapest employees, which happened to include him. With the bosses gone, he spent a year unofficially playing co-founder, and discovered he loved entrepreneurship. In 2009 he and his brother Bracken started what became Less Annoying CRM. The idea came from real frustration. Tasked with setting up Salesforce at that old job, Tyler (a computer science graduate) spent a month and couldn't make it work. At the time, roughly half of the CRMs companies paid for went unused. So rather than build something with more features, he set out to build something people could actually use. From there, Henry and Tyler dig into the practical realities of bootstrapping: funding the business from savings and side-job cash flow, why banks won't lend to software companies, and how limited money forces healthy discipline. "How much money did we make this month? That's how much money we can spend," Tyler explains. He shares hard-won lessons on shipping a minimum viable product (MVP) fast (his first version was "minimum, debatable whether it was viable"), using intuition over thin data, and building a company that can survive any one person (what he and his team call the "hit by a bus" test) which is the same discipline as building to sell. They also cover his unusual culture choices: separating raises from performance, giving everyone "20% time," and recruiting almost entirely from a pool of interns. Perhaps most striking is how Less Annoying CRM's biggest differentiator - customer service - happened by accident. Tyler put his own phone number on the contact page, and when it rang, the caller was stunned anyone picked up at all. This episode is hosted by Henry Lopez. The How of Business podcast focuses on helping you start, run, grow and exit your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, small business coaching, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com

Ever feel like burnout is just the price you pay for ambition? In this episode, I talk with Alison Campbell, founder of unBurnt and former Chief of Staff at a billion dollar SaaS company, about what it really takes to protect your energy while building something big, even without a playbook to follow. I uncover her simple daily check-in practice for catching overwhelm early, her four-step real-time reframe for resetting after a stressful moment, and why chasing an A-plus on everything is quietly setting you up to burn out. Apply for a free time management coaching session: freetimecall.com. Full shownotes: abouttimepodcast.com/337.  

Courtney and Jonathan Dunn bought a fast-growing SaaS at 3-4x ARR, doubled it, then merged for a life-changing exit.Register for the webinar: Architecture of an Entrepreneurial Roll-Up - TOMORROW!! - https://bit.ly/4gXkwPtTopics in Jonathan & Courtney's interview:Their background in oil & gasTurning down an offer from AppleImproving their investor pitchTraveling extensively to searchAcquiring a niche healthcare software company Using all equity, no debt, for the dealUsing an earn-out to resolve valuation disagreements Having a baby during the acquisition processThe hire they wish they'd made sooner Advice for couples considering building a business together.References and how to contact Jonathan & Courtney:Jonathan's LinkedInCourtney's LinkedInCerboNed Tomasevic spelling on Acquiring Minds: How to 4x EBITDA in 3 Years Without Growing SalesGet complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund TeamGet a free review of your books & financial ops from System Six (a $500 value):Book a call with Tim or hello@systemsix.com and mention Acquiring MindsGet a complimentary IT audit for acquisition diligence or post-close transition.Visit inzotechnologies.com/eta.Connect with Acquiring Minds:See past + future interviews on the YouTube channelConnect with host Will Smith on LinkedInFollow Will on TwitterEdited by Anton Rohozov and produced by Pam Cameron

There is no shortage of discussion about the role of AI in the energy transition. Yet while many talk about the future of intelligent grids, only a handful of industry leaders are delivering solutions at scale.  One of them is Alberto Méndez Rebollo—an executive, investor, and entrepreneur dedicated to accelerating the energy transition. Throughout his career, Alberto has held senior leadership positions at Siemens Gamesa, Vattenfall, XCharge, and other organizations, overseeing multi-million-euro initiatives across renewable energy, power grids, and electric mobility.  Today, as Co-Founder and CEO of Plexigrid, he is leading the development of next-generation technology designed to prepare electricity networks for a rapidly changing energy landscape. Plexigrid, a deep-tech company headquartered in Sweden and Spain, develops intelligent software that helps utilities optimize and digitize electricity distribution networks. At the core of its platform is a real-time digital twin of the distribution grid, enabling operators to monitor capacity, detect anomalies, and make better operational decisions.  The company's AI-powered technology automatically coordinates energy consumption and manages flexible assets such as EV chargers, shifting demand away from peak periods. This allows utilities to alleviate congestion, increase grid resilience, and unlock additional network capacity—without the need for costly and time-consuming infrastructure upgrades.  The market response has been remarkable. Operating on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, Plexigrid has expanded its commercial pipeline from €8 million to more than €150 million in just four years, consistently winning competitive tenders against some of the industry's most established players.   Its growing client base includes leading utilities and energy innovators, with notable partnerships such as EDP and Piclo focused on advancing real-time grid orchestration. The company has also raised approximately €15 million across multiple funding rounds, providing a strong foundation for continued growth and innovation.  Beyond the technology, however, this is a story about transformation at warp speed. It is about how critical infrastructure can evolve—not only technically, but culturally—to embrace new technologies and operating models. As electricity networks become increasingly decentralized, digital, and dynamic, organizations like Plexigrid are demonstrating how AI can move from a promising concept to a practical tool that helps utilities adapt, modernize, and thrive in the energy transition.  “Today's show is supported by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. The BMW Foundation unites leaders across sectors to develop solutions that foster an innovative economy and a future-proof society. A key focus is "Energy Transition & Climate Change," where the Foundation drives "International collaboration to accelerate the energy transition." With rising energy demands from AI and data centres, new partnerships, effective collaboration, and the exchange of science-based solutions and strategies are essential.”

Episode Summary Tim Melanson sits down with Bradley Rausch, owner of Level Up Influence, who helps coaching, consulting, and SaaS founder-led brands make more money from the clients they already have through stronger client success and customer experience. Bradley shares his origin story, from rising as a high-ticket closer at a nine-figure sales organization at just 19 years old, to walking away from that role over an ethical misalignment that shaped his focus on treating clients well and delivering on promises at scale. He also opens up about one of his biggest career mistakes — taking a director-level role that was beyond his skill level at the time and being let go after just a week — and how he bounced back quickly by pivoting into a better-fit client success position. From there, Bradley digs into the skills that have helped him most: knowing what to say no to, structuring his work around his own focus and energy, and using AI as a thinking partner rather than just a task-doer. He also shares practical advice for beginners on prioritizing reps and fast learning over perfection, highlights Hormozi's "Rule of 100," and talks about the renewed value of in-person networking in a digital-first world. Who is Bradley Rausch? Bradley Rausch is a client experience architect, strategic advisor, and the go-to "backend profit" partner for founder-led coaching and group programs. With six years of experience, he's helped dozens of founders turn chaotic growth into durable, higher-margin revenue without sacrificing their values. From first-72-hour onboarding systems to referrals, testimonials, and ascension playbooks, Bradley and his team help founders turn each great client into 1.5–2x more profit and build businesses that feel lighter as they scale. Bradley is the owner of Level Up Influence. He got his start at 19 in the online high-ticket coaching, consulting, and SaaS space, working his way up to a top sales training and coaching organization before stepping away to focus on client success. He later spent time as director of client success for B2B eight-figure brands while building his consulting business on the side, and for the past year has worked on his consulting company full-time. Connect with Bradley Rausch Website: www.bradleyrausch.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-rausch/ Host Contact Details Website: https://workathomerockstar.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/workathomerockstar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workathomerockstar LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmelanson YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WorkAtHomeRockStarPodcast X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/workathomestar Email: tim@workathomerockstar.com Timestamps 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 00:24 Bradley Origin Story 02:18 Client Success Mission 03:31 Biggest Career Mistake 06:58 Bouncing Back Fast 08:53 Confidence vs Competence 11:31 Three Skills to Win 14:34 AI as Thinking Partner 17:41 Avoiding Busywork Traps 20:31 Cutting Through the Noise 21:53 Start Simple With AI 22:31 Hormozi Rule Of 100 23:43 Stop Waiting On Websites 26:51 Hard Work Still Wins 29:47 In Person Networking Returns 32:23 Monetize Discretionary Effort 34:29 Content And Penguin Example 36:33 Bradley Business Updates 37:09 Refreshing Client Delivery 39:51 Who Bradley Helps Most 42:02 Where To Connect 42:18 Music And Taylor Swift 44:25 Covering Folklore Evermore 45:48 Podcast Wrap Up Disclaimers Title: Business & Coaching Advice This episode reflects Bradley's personal experience and opinions. Every business is different, so use his advice as a starting point and adapt it to your own situation. Title: Guest-Shared Client Stories Some client results and figures mentioned in this episode are shared from Bradley's own experience and haven't been independently verified — think of them as real-world examples, not guarantees. Title: Third-Party Frameworks This episode references ideas and frameworks from other experts, like Alex Hormozi's "Rule of 100." These are shared for discussion and reflect that expert's own claims, not an endorsement from Work at Home Rockstar.

This week's throwback guest studied Logistics and supply chain management, as well as held roles from Server and Sales Associate in retail, to Named AE. He worked at companies such as Apple, Symantec, MongoDB, Metadata, and Proofpoint, before leading Dimmo, where they are changing the way people evaluate and buy software where you can watch SaaS demos without jumping into sales cycles. Since this conversation, he had the shift to Tailscale as an Enterprise Account Executive. When he isn't at work, he is spending time golfing, and spending time with his family. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Troy Munson to The 20% Podcast. In this week's episode, we discussed:- His early years- Studying Supply Chain and how it relates now- Discuss his experiences selling software- The lead up to Dimmo- The future of buying softwareEnjoy this week's episode with Troy Munson.I am now in the early stages of writing my first book! It will cover my journey into sales, the lessons learned, and include stories and advice from top sales professionals around the world. I'm excited to share these interviews and bring you along on this journey!Like the show? Subscribe to the email: Subscribe HereI want your feedback! Reach out at 20percentpodcastquestions@gmail.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.If you know anyone who would benefit from this show, please share it! If you have suggestions for guests, let me know!Enjoy the show!

AI is about to replace bloated SaaS, and most businesses are still only playing with chatbotsSean G Muller says the next wave of AI is not about better prompts or prettier copilots. It is about rebuilding business around context, agents, and what actually creates value - before your software stack becomes the expensive middleman.Mark Smth and Sean unpack why the last six months have been a genuine shift: agentic loops are now good enough to handle real business work, not just experiments. Sean explains how he moved from traditional technical architecture into building full application pipelines, MCP servers, and background agents that review email, track social signals, draft responses, and keep business moving without adding more human overhead.You'll discover why context is the missing ingredient in almost every failed AI project, how Sean uses a simple meal-planning example to explain it, and why companies that scatter knowledge across laptops, SharePoint, Google Cloud, and people's heads are sitting on hidden risk. Sean also breaks down the difference between AI as a feature and AI as a business transformation engine, including the mistake many firms make when they bolt chat onto old workflows and call it progress.We also get into the coming SaaS pocalypse - the idea that tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, Xero, Slack, and Atlassian may face a serious reckoning as businesses realize they can build leaner, custom, agent-first systems for less than the cost of endless licenses and modules. Sean shares how he built a headless, agent-driven CRM and why he thinks greenfield builds will replace expensive transformation projects much sooner than most executives expect. This conversation matters if you lead a business, run operations, own a small or mid-sized company, or simply suspect your current software is forcing you to work the wrong way. If you want to understand where AI is actually delivering leverage right now - and how to avoid wasting money on shallow pilots - this episode is essential listening.Mark Smth hosts the conversation and brings the enterprise and product lens, pushing Sean to get specific about what success looks like for real businesses in New Zealand.Sean G Muller is an AI and enterprise architecture specialist based in New Zealand, known for helping organizations build practical AI systems, implement agentic workflows, and rethink business process from the ground up.Resources1. The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage - https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0385249462?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz2. Gemini: A Family of Highly Capable Multimodal Models — 2312.11805.pdf ⁠https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.118053. On the Measure of Intelligence — 1911.01547.pdf - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1911.01547Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Dave Diederen is the founder and CEO of Syntra Labs, a CRO agency that helps ecommerce brands convert more traffic. Follow and connect with him on X at https://x.com/DaveDiederen or visit the Syntra Labs website at https://www.syntralabs.com/.FOLLOW 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.  Payments don't fail because the API is hard. They fail because the experience is forgettable and customers never adopt it. We talk with John Badovinac, SVP of Embedded Commerce at Flute, about what vertical SaaS leaders can do differently when they want to own the payments experience and turn it into a real line of business.We get practical on the building blocks: how to model profitability, pick a pricing policy that matches your go-to-market, and design onboarding that feels native inside your product. John explains why “launching” is only the start and how the best platforms drive payment adoption by placing invoicing, text-to-pay, stored credentials, and checkout moments directly inside the workflow users already live in.Then we look forward. John shares how AI dev tools can cut integration timelines from weeks to days, lowering the barrier to embedded payments and embedded finance. He also lays out a compelling next step: embedded intelligence, where AI helps surface working capital, instant payouts, and other financial products at the right time for the right customer. We close with what to avoid, what to demand from a payments partner, and why urgency and long-term alignment matter as you scale.

Workday's Q2 2027 earnings were a pivot point, showing how Workday has shifted to its “AI-Forward Future.” The company reported $600 Million of recurring AI revenue and a clear and confident position in the market. While Workday's 12.8% YTY revenue growth is nowhere near that of a Frontier Lab, my takeaway is that Workday is here to stay and has a clear position in the agentic business ahead. Listen up and you may agree with me that SaaS software companies are not going away at all: they may form the basis for the enterprise AI wave ahead. Additional Information Introducing HR 2030: A Vision For Agentic Human Resources Workday Reports Higher Profit, Revenue on AI Agent Adoption Galileo: All our Research and Much Much More Chapters (00:00:00) - SaaS vs. AI Software: Will SaaS Replace(00:05:49) - SANA and Workday: The Enterprise Connection

The Information's Aaron Tilley talks with TITV Host Akash Pasricha about Apple's unexpected AI hardware boom with the Mac. We also talk with The Information's Laura Bratton about outcome-based pricing in AI, Xero CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy about whether the SaaS apocalypse is still happening, BeReal US Managing Director Ben Moore about Meta's landmark $16.7 billion settlement, and we get into AI modular homebuilding with Reframe Systems CEO Vikas Enti.Articles discussed on this episode: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/salesforce-overhauling-way-charges-aihttps://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-stumbled-ai-hardware-success-macSubscribe: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinformation The Information: https://www.theinformation.com/subscribe_hSign up for the AI Agenda newsletter: https://www.theinformation.com/features/ai-agendaTITV airs weekdays on YouTube, X and LinkedIn at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. Or check us out wherever you get your podcasts.Follow us:X: https://x.com/theinformationIG: https://www.instagram.com/theinformation/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@titv.theinformationLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theinformation/Chapters:00:00 - Introduction00:01:13 - How Apple Stumbled Into AI Hardware Success With the Mac00:10:15 - How Salesforce Is Overhauling the Way It Charges for AI00:16:47 - Is the SaaSpocalypse still happening?00:27:19 - Meta Agrees to Pay $16.7B in Social Media Addiction Case00:37:34 - AI Homebuilder Reframe Raises $40M in New Funding

SEASON: 7 EPISODE: 2Episode Overview:Welcome back to Becoming Preferred, the podcast designed to help you level up your game and become the best version of you.If your income or revenue personally or professionally looks strong on paper, but your bank account at the end of the month tells a completely different story, you are definitely not alone. Too many brilliant entrepreneurs and professionals, find themselves trapped on a cash-flow roller coaster, driving top-line growth while quietly sacrificing their peace of mind, their sleep, and their freedom outside of work.Because financial stress doesn't stay at the office. When your finances are reactive and unpredictable, it bleeds into your personal life, robbing you of the energy you should be spending on your family, your health, and the things that truly matter.Our guest today is a master at turning financial chaos into predictable momentum. With over 30 years of finance experience, she is a powerhouse Fractional CFO, business strategist, and the author of Hidden Profits. She specializes in helping entrepreneurs uncover silent profit leaks, improve cash flow, and finally build the financial stability needed to pay themselves consistently and reclaim their lives. Please join me for my powerful conversation with Debra Angilletta.Guest Bio: Debra Angilletta is a former Wall Street trader, Fractional CFO, and Master Certified Profit First Professional with more than 30 years of experience helping business owners turn revenue into real profit. As the author of Hidden Profits: Stop Chasing Cash–Predictable Profit in 90 Days, Debra helps answer the question, "Where did all my money go?"Debra uncovers the hidden money leaks draining cash, helps owners create predictable profit, and shows them how to build financially healthy businesses that generate more cash without simply working harder or selling more.Resource Links:Website: findmyhiddenprofits.comProduct Link: https://www.amazon.com/Six-Figure-Schedule-Streamline-Skyrocket-ebook/dp/B00PMKZZSA?ref_=ast_author_mpbProduct Liink: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Profits-Chasing-Predictable-Profit-ebook/dp/B0GRRNXWVY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2GSPXOX3YE87O&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.52U2iz0_Uqn5afS6AInqhg.4K6mExhPPZil55I0iyvjk2u72m7gbwEXLy1JImrOY58&dib_tag=se&keywords=hidden+profits+debra+angilletta&qid=1782742975&s=digital-text&sprefix=hidden+profits+debra+angilletta%2Cdigital-text%2C179&sr=1-1Insight Gold Timestamps:02:09 When I was a child, my favorite toy was the cash register03:03 Money equaled freedom06:10 Are you seeing common mindset issues?07:51 When it comes to money, it's something that people feel like they're a math person or they're not a math person10:51 A lot of times they don't have time to work on the business13:12 Start making money, expenses keep going up16:48 I like to revisit the SaaS subscriptions, make sure we're using everything in the business to the ability that we can20:39 That can really increase your revenues just by making that one little tweak22:38 We call it the Goldilocks pricing25:34 What is it that you love that your accountant does for you? And what is it that you wish they did more of?27:47 It all depends on what the business owner is looking for30:53 She wound up 10X'ing her profits and then reducing her expenses by about half34:11 CAC is the customer acquisition cost, and LTV, lifetime value of the client, and most people don't go there36:22 If your revenue resets to zero on the first of every month, you don't have a scalable business, you just have a high-stress job37:02 I always like to say the money's in your time39:42 If I was to design things in an ideal manner, what would my life and my business look like?42:45 Your book, Hidden Profits, is an incredible roadmap42:54 You can find it at findmyhiddenprofits.comConnect Socially:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debraangilletta/Email: debra@debraangilletta.comSponsors: Rainmaker LeadGen Platform Demo: https://calendar.summit-learning.com/widget/booking/JKItVP7WErmCBjU2cCIxRainmaker Digital Solutions: https://www.rainmakerdigitalsolutions.com/

Salesforce and Anthropic launch Claudeforce as Marc Benioff and Dario Amodei explain the collaboration together on CNBC, AWS commits to 2 million more NVIDIA GPUs on top of its GTC pledge, plus six new earnings this week from NVIDIA, Salesforce, Synopsys, HP, Everpure, and Marvell test every bear thesis on AI infrastructure and software at once. Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman also cover Hot Chips 2026, the NVIDIA-Hugging Face acquisition rumor, and debate whether Anthropic's SaaS reassurances hold up on Ep. 317 of The Six Five Pod. The handpicked topics for this week are: Claudeforce Turns Salesforce Into Anthropic's Enterprise Front End. Salesforce and Anthropic launched Claudeforce, positioning Claude as the interface across roughly 27 Salesforce services while Anthropic supplies the underlying AI engine. Marc Benioff and Dario Amodei appeared together on CNBC to make the case for the partnership, and both stocks rallied on the news. Moorhead flags one open question: how Anthropic protects Salesforce customer data without collecting the usage traces that AI systems typically retain. (The Decode) AWS Adds 2 Million NVIDIA GPUs on Top of Its GTC Commitment. AWS committed to another 2 million NVIDIA GPUs, layered onto the 1 million it pledged at GTC five months earlier, alongside its own Trainium and Graviton silicon build-out. Moorhead estimates the deal at 6 to 7 gigawatts and $80 billion to $120 billion in NVIDIA revenue, and reads the pairing of NVIDIA's Vera CPU with Graviton as evidence that agentic workloads need capabilities Amazon's own silicon doesn't yet cover. The commitment reinforces Moorhead's argument that wafer, packaging, and memory supply set the ceiling on AI infrastructure buildout, regardless of how many custom silicon projects come online. (The Decode) Hot Chips 2026 Draws Mainstream Attention as Custom and Merchant Silicon Both Scale. What was once an academic gathering turned into a press and social media event, with OpenAI's Jalapeño inference chip drawing the most attention for its bandwidth-heavy first-generation performance. IBM and Arm detailed a joint development agreement enabling IBM Z mainframes to run Arm code natively at sub-nanosecond switching latency, and AMD showed a full Helios rack while Arm walked through its AGI chip architecture. Moorhead notes that Jalapeño almost certainly relied on Synopsys or Cadence EDA tools rather than in-house design tooling. (The Decode) The NVIDIA-Hugging Face Acquisition Rumor Raises the Stakes on Model Distribution. Reports from The Information, Reuters, and Bloomberg point to a roughly $12.9 billion deal between NVIDIA and Hugging Face, though neither company has confirmed it. Moorhead and Newman question whether NVIDIA would treat Hugging Face as a neutral, GitHub-style repository to keep the open source community on side, or use it as a route into inference services without building out its own datacenter business directly. Newman raises the regulatory exposure of a chipmaker owning the leading open model distribution layer. (The Decode) The Flip: Dario's CNBC Appearance and Claudeforce Put Anthropic's SaaS Intentions to the Test. In this simulated debate, Daniel makes the case for Dario Amodei, pointing to Claudeforce's integration with Salesforce's identity graph, field-level permissions, and audit trail as evidence that Anthropic wants to operate as the intelligence layer sitting on top of enterprise systems of record. Patrick makes the case against this, framing the CNBC appearance as a Trojan horse and citing Amodei's past comments about a small number of AI companies eventually controlling the market as evidence that owning the UI, and the pricing power that comes with it, remains the actual goal. (The Flip) NVIDIA Posts a Quadruple Beat and Commits to a $700 Billion Revenue Target. NVIDIA reported $96.22 billion in quarterly revenue, with $89 billion from data center; it guided Q3 total revenue toward $108 billion and pointed to a $700 billion annualized revenue target Moorhead calls increasingly credible. The company's new AI Clouds, Industrial, and Enterprise reporting category grew 138%, outpacing the roughly 100% growth of the rest of the data center business and easing the concentration risk bears have flagged. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bernstein, and Raymond James all raised price targets on the print. (Bulls and Bears) Salesforce Raises Guidance as Agentforce ARR Grows 240%. Salesforce raised full-year guidance to $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, with Agentforce ARR reaching $1.5 billion on 240% growth and non-GAAP EPS of $5.90. Moorhead points to premium SKU bookings more than doubling quarter over quarter and half of AI bookings coming from existing customer expansion as the durability signal Agentforce needed. Newman reads the results, paired with the CNBC appearance, as the market correcting its overreaction to the SaaSpocalypse narrative. (Bulls and Bears) Synopsys Beats Across the Board Despite Investor Confusion Over IP Revenue. Synopsys reported $2.48 billion in revenue, up 42%, with $711 million from Ansys, and raised guidance, with operating expense control around the Ansys integration paying off ahead of an expected 2027 revenue lift from the combined businesses. The stock still declined on investor confusion over IP segment reporting differences between FactSet and LSEG data. Newman highlights the company's unit-based royalty model and its early visibility into custom AI chip demand through both its EDA and Ansys simulation businesses. (Bulls and Bears) HP Beats on Revenue and Earnings But the Market Wants an Edge AI Story. HP reported $15.68 billion in revenue, up 12.5%, and EPS of $0.83, both ahead of consensus, with strong personal systems growth as supply constraints give the company pricing power on premium devices. Moorhead reads the sell-off as a margin trust discount tied to tariffs and lingering uncertainty over the company's interim CEO search, with device demand holding up. Newman is looking for HP to show how it monetizes distributed AI and on-device token economics, from lower-cost workstations up through devices like the $100,000 DGX Station. (Bulls and Bears) Everpure Grows Revenue 38% and Raises Guidance on a Second Hyperscaler Win. Everpure, formerly Pure Storage, grew revenue 38% to $1.19 billion, beat EPS at $0.70 versus $0.58 expected, and raised full-year guidance by more than $500 million on a second top-five hyperscaler design win landing in fiscal 2028. Newman points to eight straight quarters of accelerating revenue growth and expanding gross margin dollars even as pricing holds steady. The stock fell roughly 15% despite the beat, which Moorhead and Newman attribute to elevated investor expectations. (Bulls and Bears) Marvell Meets Expectations as the Market Waits for Google Deal Detail. Marvell posted data center revenue up 46% to $2.17 billion, total revenue up 37% to a record $2.739 billion, and Q3 guidance of $3.15 billion, essentially matching estimates, with its full-year outlook raised to roughly $18 billion. Shares fell more than 10% on investor appetite for a guidance raise tied to the Google custom silicon deal, which Moorhead expects Marvell to detail further at its October Financial Analyst Day. Newman frames the quarter as steady execution on socket wins, with the stock up 187% year to date, without the guidance drama some investors wanted. (Bulls and Bears) Watch the full video at sixfivemedia.com, and subscribe to our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode. The Decode Claudeforce: Salesforce and Anthropic Announce Claudeforce  https://www.salesforce.com/news/pressreleases/2026/08/26/salesforce-and-anthropic-announce-claudeforce/ AWS and NVIDIA to Deliver 2 Million Additional GPUs  https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/aws-and-nvidia-to-deliver-2-million-additional-gpus-and-next-generation-infrastructure-for-agentic-and-physical-ai Hot Chips 2026: IBM Brings Arm Inside the Mainframe https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/08/25/ibm-brings-arm-inside-the-mainframe-with-a-new-dual-architecture-chip/ Hot Chips 2026: OpenAI's Jalapeño Chip Isn't Hot, and That's a Good Thing https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisromero/2026/08/27/openais-jalapeo-chip-isnt-hot-and-thats-a-good-thing/ NVIDIA Discussed Buying AI Startup Hugging Face, Insider Says https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-27/nvidia-discussed-buying-ai-startup-hugging-face-insider-says The Flip  FOR (Dario is being sincere): CNBC Exclusive Transcript, Benioff and Amodei with Jim Cramer  https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/26/cnbc-exclusive-transcript-salesforce-chair-ceo-marc-benioff-and-anthropic-co-founder-ceo-dario-amodei-speak-with-cnbcs-jim-cramer-on-closing-bell-overtime-today.html AGAINST (Dario's reassurance is a displacement play) https://finsee.ai/earnings/crm/2027/q2/en/ Bulls and Bears NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-second-quarter-fiscal-2027 Salesforce Delivers Record Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 Results https://investor.salesforce.com/news/news-details/2026/Salesforce-Delivers-Record-Second-Quarter-Fiscal-2027-Results/default.aspx Synopsys Beats Q3 2026 Estimates, Shares Slip After Hours https://www.investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-transcript-synopsys-beats-q3-2026-estimates-shares-slip-after-hours-93CH-4878035 HP Inc. Reports Fiscal 2026 Third Quarter Results https://www.hp.com/us-en/newsroom/press-releases/2026/hp-inc-reports-fiscal-2026-third-quarter-results.html Everpure Announces Second Quarter Fiscal Results https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/everpure-announces-second-quarter-fiscal-200500505.html Marvell Technology Reports Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2027 Financial Results https://investor.marvell.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1031/marvell-technology-inc-reports-second-quarter-of-fiscal-year-2027-financial-results  

Mark is CEO of a SaaS company, Podcast Host and Board Member. Next to that he is a martial art practitioner and loves turning fuzzy value propositions into a sharp one so that customers immediately see the value. Website: https://www.timewax.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpdejong/  CallumConnects Micro-Podcast is your daily dose of wholesome leadership inspiration. Hear from many different leaders in just 5 minutes what hurdles they have faced, how they overcame them, and what their key learning is. Be inspired, subscribe, leave a comment, go and change the world!

AI is moving faster than most organizations can govern it, and Tom Dagger, CISO at ADM, explains why that speed is now a cybersecurity, compliance, and business risk problem all at once. If you care about AI in the enterprise, exposure management, or what happens when innovation outruns control, this conversation is essential listening. Tom and I get brutally honest about the reality behind AI adoption at a global enterprise. ADM is already using tools like ADM Chat, Microsoft Copilot, and AI-powered SaaS, but Tom makes the case that the real challenge is not whether to use AI - it is how to manage the constant churn of models, harnesses, data sharing, and operational risk without breaking the business.You'll hear Tom break down the three buckets of AI usage every security leader needs to think about: personal productivity tools like chatbots and copilots, AI embedded inside third-party SaaS platforms, and enterprise-built AI use cases that create real operational value. We also dig into why “tokenomics,” model switching, and continuous patching are now board-level concerns, especially in regulated industries where a simple software change can mean downtime, lost productivity, or regulatory scrutiny. They unpack why vulnerability ops and exposure management are replacing old-school patch Tuesday thinking, and why security teams can no longer treat AI like just another software upgrade.The conversation gets even sharper when they turn to data governance and accountability. Tom warns that the biggest blind spot may not be model performance - it is the data being handed over to third parties, the hallucinations that can slip into workflows, and the dangerous myth that AI removes human responsibility. From fake legal citations to discriminatory automated decisions, the stakes are real, and the accountability still lands on the organization.They also look ahead at what AI and quantum could mean for transportation, manufacturing, food production, and even the future of entry-level jobs. As AI takes over more routine work, what happens to the ladder people traditionally climb to build experience? We go on to explore the long-term impact on talent pipelines, human judgment, and the roles that will still need a person in the loop. Essential listening for CISOs, security leaders, tech executives, and anyone trying to figure out how to adopt AI without surrendering control. This is a candid, practical conversation about where enterprise AI is headed, what can go wrong, and how leaders need to think now if they want to stay ahead. In this episode we bring cybersecurity, AI strategy, and real-world enterprise operations into one timely conversation. I hope you enjoy it!

(0:00) Bestie intros: Recapping recent interviews and the state of American science (3:31) China's Robot Olympics, Optimus update, Grok Bot (9:05) Nvidia and Salesforce rip after big earnings: AI Capex Bubble and SaaSpocalypse narratives get reversed (33:32) Bessent gets called out by Druckenmiller for bond market interference (1:01:33) AI writing controversy: Druck used AI to write his WSJ Op-ed (1:15:00) CIA Chief visits Moscow, Meta's settlement and new teen rules (1:22:52) Science Corner: Moderna's mRNA cancer vaccine Come hang with the Besties at the All-In Summit | September 13-15: http://theallinsummit.com Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@allin Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://x.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/27/nvidia-nvda-q2-earnings.html https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/how-nvidia-silenced-the-bears-105017893.html https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-second-quarter-fiscal-2027 https://polymarket.com/event/largest-company-end-of-december-2026 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/18/treasury-yields-.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/24/bessent-1-trillion-treasury-general-account-bond-buybacks.html https://seekingalpha.com/news/4636322-wall-street-sees-bessent-putting-fear-of-god-into-bond-vigilantes https://www.wsj.com/opinion/let-the-bond-market-speak-81529d74 https://www.wsj.com/world/cia-director-john-ratcliffe-makes-surprise-trip-to-moscow-c1c68fa6 https://polymarket.com/event/russia-x-ukraine-ceasefire-agreement-by

Inside the D&D side hustle that's really a masterclass in building AI systems that pay you back. Make money online by selling AI-generated D&D campaigns: Learn how tabletop creators use a two-pass AI content creation workflow to build balanced, ready-to-run 5e campaigns and monetize them on Patreon—a proven digital product side gig that takes hours, not months. This episode breaks down the prompt structure, explains why DMs buy convenience content, and shows the specific market opportunity overlooked by most AI entrepreneurs. https://DarkHorseEntrepreneur.com This episode explains how tabletop RPG creators are using a two-pass AI workflow to generate balanced, ready-to-run D&D 5e campaigns quickly and monetize them through Patreon, arguing this is an overlooked micro-business. It outlines why DMs buy convenience content, cites a growing market for pre-built campaigns, and shows a detailed prompt structure that uses official encounter-balancing formulas plus a second refinement pass in another model to improve balance, pacing, and coherence. It emphasizes that success depends less on content creation and more on repeatable systems, subscriber acquisition and retention, and audience-building via TikTok/YouTube Shorts, including using subscriber requests to drive loyalty. It also describes higher-paying customers (streaming DMs), backend monetization through licensing to publishers and marketplaces, risks from shifting AI behavior requiring documented prompts and quality gates, and a potential future SaaS tool that could disrupt Patreon sellers. 00:00 AI DnD Side Hustle 01:18 DM Pain And Demand 02:18 Encounters Are Algorithms 03:06 Base Prompt Blueprint 04:08 Specificity And Constraints 04:48 Two Pass Quality System 06:08 Patreon Content Calendar 07:25 Retention And Requests 08:36 Premium Streaming Clients 09:51 Marketing Reality Check 11:03 Patreon As Funnel 12:17 Scaling And Version Control 13:13 SaaS Disruption Angle 14:06 Build Moats With Systems 15:00 System Over Content 15:50 Whiskered Wisdom 16:42 Action Step 17:23 Wrap Up AI side hustle, Make money with AI, Patreon subscriptions, licensing, SaaS, ChatGPT business ideas, prompt framework, generating D&D campaigns, AI content creation, campaigns, NPC stat blocks, encounter modules, D&D campaign generator, tabletop RPG, make money online, TTRPG, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Roll20, D&D Beyond, Wizards of the Coast, Patreon, ai automation business, online side hustles, business motivation, work from home, business mindset, entrepreneur motivation, entrepreneurship, ai content creation, side hustle ideas, entrepreneur mindset, business tips, how to make money online, make money from home, ai automation agency, AI, AI Tools, ai entrepreneur, make money online, side hustle ideas, make money from home, online side hustles, AI start up ideas, entrepreneur, ai business https://DarkHorseEntrepreneur.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Don’t get left behind in the AI shift! Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this critical conversation, Vince Menzione sits down with Shannon Sigmon, Marc Harpster, and Jeff Mesnik to uncover how the rapid pace of change in the Google Cloud Marketplace and AI agent integration is forcing organizations to completely rethink their go-to-market strategies. They break down why traditional three-year business plans are dead, replacing them with agile 100-day sprints to keep up with the shifting ecosystem. The panel reveals that leveraging your Adaptability Quotient (AQ) and turning data patterns into actionable co-sell motions are the only ways to survive the upcoming “agent age” and maintain a competitive edge. https://youtu.be/xIaABKU1jmM Key Takeaways Consistent messaging is required to gather actionable data and build trust with channel partners. Three-to-five-year business plans are obsolete, and leaders must now operate in 100-day sprints to keep pace with hyperscaler changes. Google Cloud Marketplace uniquely supports channel partners by allowing them to own the customer relationship and recognize top-line revenue. The rise of AI agents is shifting discovery away from traditional SEO, requiring ISVs to adapt how they provide access to their tools. Creating interactive content variations from a single asset helps train AI agents to discover and prioritize your solutions. Despite rapid digital transformation, human connection remains the ultimate deciding factor in enterprise software purchases. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Adaptability Quotient, Google Cloud Marketplace, agentic age, co-sell motion, digital sales hub, private offers, propensity to buy, AI pattern analysis, hyperscaler CRM, interactive trivia content, product-led discovery. Transcript Shannon – Marc – Jeff AUDIO Podcast [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: That becomes the core of your data analysis because if you’re not submitting consistent content and submit, you know, consistent information, then you’re not gonna get information back. [00:00:13] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us. The way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:25] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: Podcast. I’m Vince Menzione your host. And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of technology, partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the [00:00:46] Vince Menzione: strategy. [00:00:47] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. Let’s start. [00:00:57] ——-: We have another incredible group of leaders coming up here and, uh, and friends of ultimate partner and, uh, Susan, do you need me for, okay, good. Come on up. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna invite you up and then have you each. Introduce yourself, uh, to this conversation. Shannon, it has been a great to see you. Yeah, great friend. [00:01:18] ——-: Been in, it was in Boca. Mark. Great to have you. Good to see you, sir. Jeff, great to have you. Uh, this is incredible. I’m, I’m excited for this conversation. So, uh, yeah, we talked about aq. We talked a little bit about AQ in this last session. Don’t, didn’t we? Yeah. [00:01:34] Shannon Sigmon: A little. [00:01:34] Vince Menzione: Why don’t we go, why don’t we have you, I wanna have you each introduce yourself, your role, your company mission, and, and, and everything here. [00:01:40] Vince Menzione: So why don’t we start with Shannon. [00:01:41] Shannon Sigmon: Um, hey, thank you Vince for having us again, um, here in Bellevue. It’s been great to meet with everybody and see some old friends. Uh, I’m at Software One, so Shannon Sigman, um, based on the East Coast, but I work at Software One I’m responsible for. Um, in my sales role, I’m responsible for our channel and digital sales organization in North America. [00:02:00] Shannon Sigmon: And then I also have, um, responsibility supporting Regina Ma and Freddie and our leadership team as the chief of staff. Um, and we’re focused software one, if you haven’t worked with us before, we’re focused on helping, um, helping our customers and partners deliver real financial impact in their business so they can afford some of the, the cool to do some of the cool stuff you were talking about in the earlier session. [00:02:20] Shannon Sigmon: And it’s, for us, it’s really about coming in on the front end and helping, um, our customers and our partners understand what they’re doing in their software stack, their cloud stack, and then how to, um, optimize that, rationalize the strategy and, and the implementation of of solutions. [00:02:36] Vince Menzione: And a global leader in the marketplace in [00:02:38] Shannon Sigmon: That’s right. [00:02:39] Shannon Sigmon: The, the number one Microsofts, um, we [00:02:41] Vince Menzione: used to say re reseller or ls. We used to all these different, [00:02:44] Shannon Sigmon: yeah. We, um, it’s funny, I was speaking last night. We fall into the scale solution provider. We’re d with Google and AWS. But, um, we operate very differently on the, on the North America market as a more of a boutique, uh, personalized experience than what a traditional dity is. [00:02:59] Shannon Sigmon: I’m less about the transaction and more about the impact and the, the outcomes and, and helping partners with their go-to-market strategy. [00:03:07] ——-: Awesome. Yeah. And sitting next to you, Marc I’ll let you introduce yourself ’cause this kind of ties in very nicely in [00:03:13] Marc Harpster: Yeah. [00:03:13] ——-: In terms of the work you do. [00:03:14] Marc Harpster: Uh, thanks Vince. [00:03:15] Marc Harpster: Uh, hi everyone. I’m Mark Harpster. I am part of the Google Cloud Marketplace organization. So, uh, guy who you just heard from on the last panel is my boss. Uh, I run strategic initiatives within the marketplace team. So this includes our channel program. Uh, so everyone who is. Uh, the partners who like to resell, uh, ISV software out our marketplace. [00:03:38] Marc Harpster: Uh, I have a team who works with, uh, all of you, and that includes distribution. Uh, and uh, then I also, we run, um, the, some of our, like the go to market strategic initiatives. So we have a. Uh, customer credit program that ISVs can take advantage of to help incentivize deals going through marketplace, uh, propensity to buy, uh, data that we can share. [00:04:02] Marc Harpster: Mm-hmm. Uh, a number of different programs along those lines. Uh, basically, uh, we’re we’re helping. You know, customers find the solutions that they want to buy and helping them buy from the who they wanna buy from. [00:04:14] ——-: Yeah. And you were out early. I mean, you’ve been in the, the, I I feel like Google was leaned in very early on the channel. [00:04:20] Marc Harpster: Yeah. [00:04:20] ——-: And it was a couple years now, right? [00:04:22] Marc Harpster: Yeah. I joined Google about two and a half years ago. Uh, I was, you know, at, at another, worked for another cloud marketplace before that. So I’ve, I’ve been in the marketplace space for, uh, over a decade now. Uh, I’m really passionate about it. And with the, to touch on your point, Vince, I think the one key advantage of Google is, you know, within the, our channel partners, uh, we have a huge, uh, partner network, uh, of, of, you know, channel resellers and, uh, system integrators. [00:04:52] Marc Harpster: Uh, and we actively want those channel partners to, you know, own the customer relationship, including all of the billing. Uh, channel partners tend to love this because we’re the only cloud marketplace that really supports sort of the ability to recognize top line revenue for the channel partners. Uh, and so that’s been a real, uh, you know, distinguishing factor. [00:05:11] Marc Harpster: And one thing I’m really excited about within our marketplace. [00:05:14] Vince Menzione: You got it right. Awesome, Jeff. Good to see you, sir. [00:05:17] Vince Menzione: Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you for having [00:05:19] Jeff Mesnik: me. Good to have you. [00:05:20] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:05:21] Vince Menzione: Tell us a little bit about your organization, about content amx. [00:05:24] Jeff Mesnik: Well, I’m honored to be here with, uh, these two. Yeah. [00:05:27] Jeff Mesnik: You know, and, and Vince obviously [00:05:29] Vince Menzione: Thank you. [00:05:29] Jeff Mesnik: But you know, our organization is really about coming back, and I’m not trying to plug tackle by you saying this, but we’re doing the blocking and tackling for organizations another. [00:05:40] Vince Menzione: That’s why I named the tackle. [00:05:41] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah, I know. It’s, it’s, it’s part of my every conversation now and I have to think about it, but we basically believe in the idea that trust is starting by consistency and expectation. [00:05:55] Jeff Mesnik: So a few years ago I was listening to, um, an event where Tim Couch and, um, Michelle Ragusa, McBain were talking and they said, partners respond to. You meeting and greet, you know, exceeding expectations. So one of those expectations should be consistent messaging to them and consistent messaging for them to send out to their customers. [00:06:15] Jeff Mesnik: And then the next step is that becomes the core of your data analysis, because if you’re not submitting consistent content and submit, you know, consistent information, then you’re not gonna get information back. So that information back then turns into sales opportunities because you’re not looking at. [00:06:34] Jeff Mesnik: Clicks or having a marketing person say, Hey, you know, this person just stopped by my booth. Or Hey, they downloaded a white paper. It’s patterns using AI to analyze and address and look at patterns and turn those patterns into actions. So, you know, we’ve been talking Shannon and Mark and I about those patterns and how to. [00:06:55] Jeff Mesnik: Respond to them to maybe do a co-sell motion if that’s what’s necessary, or to make sure that the partner is ready for the next step. We’re doing a program for Microsoft. Whoops. So we’re doing a program for Microsoft. Do I still have it? [00:07:11] Marc Harpster: Yeah, you’re [00:07:11] Marc Harpster: good. Um, that en enables the partners to learn about AI and then we can understand where they are in their AI path. [00:07:22] Vince Menzione: Awesome. So Shannon, uh, Regina, man. Freddy. Yeah. Also a great friend of, ultimate Partner. Been on stage, was on stage here a couple years ago. We talked about adaptability quotient. Uh, we, we took that, we took that back. Now we use it all the time. And I, you know, I want, I wanna cover with you what that means to your organization. [00:07:40] Vince Menzione: A lot has changed. [00:07:41] Shannon Sigmon: Yes. Still. Yeah. [00:07:42] Vince Menzione: Still changed. Yeah. And you work with multiple hyperscalers, so take us through like, how, how, how does. What is now Software One used to be crayon, now it’s software one Crayon, or it’s just software one. Now let’s talk about all the change and how you’re absorbing it, and then how are you taking it to market and being successful. [00:08:00] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah, it’s interesting. We spent time, gosh, two, three years ago now, um, talking about adaptability being the next superpower [00:08:07] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:08:07] Shannon Sigmon: Uh, of workforce, right? That it wasn’t just about having the experience, but with the rate at which. The pace at which change was happening, having, uh, uh, employees foundationally focused on curiosity and learning and con constant development. [00:08:23] Shannon Sigmon: Um, and my goodness, uh, this year alone, right? We we’re. We, it’s hard to keep up. Right? So this idea of creating a full three to five year plan, we’re, we’re creating sprints plans. Yes. Right. And sprint strategies. And so I do think when we look at our integration of the two companies as Crayon and Software one come together globally, um, that has been a critical mass. [00:08:47] Shannon Sigmon: Uh, issue for us to overcome, but also to get our employee base one feeling comfortable with the pace of change because it can, for those people who are, are not change agents, it can be really uncomfortable and, and stress inducing. Um, but also giving them space to, to try things, fail fast and learn from it. [00:09:07] Shannon Sigmon: And. Um, it, it, it infuses that adaptability quotient, infuses entrepreneurial spirit within the organization a bit. Um, but it has become, it is the superpower of the next generation is how, how quickly can you adapt to change, but not just adapt to it as it’s coming, but stay ahead of it, um, and stay ahead of what’s happening in the industry through communities like this so that you’re skating towards the puck, not waiting for the puck to hit you in between the eyeballs. [00:09:34] Vince Menzione: Yeah. How long are these sprint. I can’t even imagine doing a three-year plan any, any longer. Right. [00:09:39] Shannon Sigmon: I mean, we, there’s some intentionality behind it for us. So my, um, partner in crime, Sean, uh, er, who leads our rev ops, uh, function in North America, we, we sprint pretty fast. So we do leadership offsite every three months. [00:09:52] Shannon Sigmon: Um, and it’s not like it does, we don’t sit in a meeting conference room like this quite often. There’s. We’re running an Airbnb and we’re living and breathing and talking and tumbling rocks together in a real productive way. Um, and it forces our leadership team to not just work at an operational level, but like really down in the trenches at a personal level together to solve problems for our people. [00:10:15] Shannon Sigmon: For our culture, for our business future. And I think that has helped us stay ahead of what’s coming at us from both the hyperscaler community, from the economy, uh, and global, some of the global trends that we’re seeing. It helps us stay ahead of that. And I mean, as leaders, we can, we can conflict and, and, uh, debate in a closed, safe space to get to work through some of that. [00:10:38] Vince Menzione: Mark, what are you seeing? I mean, we were just talking to D about all the significant advances Yeah. In your organization and you work with all these amazing top resellers in the industry. Mm-hmm. Uh, Tony Voya is an old friend of mine’s. Been on the podcast a hundred times. Yeah. Ran another organization’s one of [00:10:54] Marc Harpster: Yeah. [00:10:54] Vince Menzione: Also one of the large, yeah. [00:10:57] Marc Harpster: Yeah. Tony’s great. Um, it’s interesting you mentioned working in sprints. We, we ourselves are even adapting into sort of the notion of like. What are you doing in the next a hundred days? [00:11:07] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. [00:11:07] Marc Harpster: Right? You can’t, that six months, a year is too long. It’s too long. So, you know, that’s just internally, uh, within Google Cloud. [00:11:14] Marc Harpster: But, uh, our, you know, I see this across, if, if we go back a decade ago, uh, you know, ISVs had to learn how to change to, to just to, to list a PayGo product in a marketplace. [00:11:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Yeah. [00:11:28] Marc Harpster: Right. A whole new business model. Uh, and then, then we. Introduced the notion of like, Hey, it doesn’t have to just be pay, right? [00:11:36] Marc Harpster: It’s, yeah. Now we’re going to introduce the concept of a private offer, right? And how does that work? Right? And so you heard a lot of, uh, insights in the last panel about some of the changes you need to make to your sales organization and how do you adapt to that, right? And then there’s the change of like, well, what about the channel partners? [00:11:52] Marc Harpster: Right? Yeah. So every channel partner. Uh, in that I’ve been working with for the last eight, nine years, make the pivot to like, oh, we still have a place here. We have all these customer relationships and connections and hey, we can sell these things too. Right? But they have to figure out how the channel private offers feature works, right? [00:12:10] Marc Harpster: Um, distribution. Right. Then suddenly we’re, we’re, we’re bringing distributors back into the cloud marketplace world, you know, and they’re actually pushing us for like brand new things, like, Hey, we wanna, we want more APIs, right? And so I, I’ve seen. The entire community of partners. Be, be able to adapt to meet the customer where they are. [00:12:30] Marc Harpster: Right. And, and take advantage of the customer benefits of buying through marketplaces. And so now we’ve got another, another moment of great change, right? As we head kind of into the agent age. And every one of us is gonna have to, to be adaptable again. Yeah. And I think the notion of like. Whatcha gonna do in the next a hundred days? [00:12:47] Marc Harpster: Or like, what, what, what is the first thing that we, what are our priorities? How do we focus on, this is going to be key, right? ISVs need to, to understand, hey, how do, how do agents change the way we, uh, allow customers to access our tools and our software? Right? Uh, the channel needs to then understand like, well, what are we reselling agents? [00:13:07] Marc Harpster: Are we creating our own agents? Yes. Like, how does this change us? Right? And so it’s across the board, uh, and it’s gonna be a really. Fun, you know, rest next few months. [00:13:16] Vince Menzione: What are you seeing with regards to that? I was thinking about that as well. Like does the ISV create the agent or does the, the, the, the channel partner, the reseller, the Gs, I mean the GSIs [00:13:25] Marc Harpster: are involved here as well. [00:13:26] Marc Harpster: Certainly are, are, are, you know, I think DI mentioned this in the last panel. They, they’re, they’re creating agents, uh, you know, all over the place right now. But a lot of ISVs are as well. They recognize that they need to adapt. Right. And so I think we’re getting. Um, we’re getting really good participation, uh, from. [00:13:46] Marc Harpster: All sorts of partners and even, you know, the, the kind of traditional, uh, like what I call a reseller, they’re starting to figure it out as well. Right? Like, do I need to list my own agent? How do I do that? Right. And they’re coming to us seeking some guidance right now. Yeah. Are [00:14:01] Vince Menzione: you? [00:14:01] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah, I mean, I think we look at ourselves as customers. [00:14:03] Shannon Sigmon: You already heard that yesterday. Yeah. A lot on, from some of the Microsoft community. Um, we we’re starting to see pockets and um, we’re, we’re actually running our own company-wide hackathon in June. Um, specifically to intersect with copilot, Gemini, Claude, how do we get our teams on the ground level? Um, I loved what was said earlier, but it’s gotta be a, a bottoms up, tops down approach. [00:14:28] Shannon Sigmon: And the good thing for us is we have leadership support at the top down on, on the tinkering, on the learning, on the implementation. And now we’re working to build the skillset from the bottom up so that we can take some of those use cases to our customers and our partners and, and start to learn and adopt along the way. [00:14:45] Vince Menzione: So Jeff, you’ve been working with channel partners on the marketing side for many years on their go to market strategies. What are you seeing on your side of this aq? Or how are, how is AQ being absorbed and how are you thinking about this new world that we’re living in today? [00:14:58] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we work with 10,000 different types of channel partners and whether it’s through education or passing through and driving demand for them, and what we’re finding is there’s a little bit sometimes also a whiplash. [00:15:12] Jeff Mesnik: I mean, it’s like first it’s like, okay, we gotta go to the marketplace. Now we have ai, and now, oh wait, there’s these ISVs that can add value on top, and how do I do it together? So. Well, we’re, when we’re talking to these partners, we are trying to learn from the customers also who are bringing, because they’re adjusting their, you know, notions like, right? [00:15:34] Jeff Mesnik: You know, Shannon, you’re doing it every three months, [00:15:36] Shannon Sigmon: right? [00:15:36] Jeff Mesnik: So these poor partners, right? They’re trying to communicate and engage and work with the customer, and then all of a sudden it changes on a dime. So you need to have that instantaneous access to the. Information about what a customer is researching, what they’re doing, what they’re most interested in, and that’s really the important part to help with the, you know, adaptability quotient for these partners. [00:16:00] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:16:00] Jeff Mesnik: And for them to learn, they have to be pushed into it through a customer. Not just pushed into it from the vendor’s perspective. Also on the distributors are saying, Hey, let’s you know, go to my marketplace. Don’t go to Google’s marketplace. We are, we are Google’s marketplace. And it’s very, it can be very confusing. [00:16:18] Jeff Mesnik: So using AI you can understand what the customer’s needs are. You can enrich it by pulling in data from the different sources of information, whether it’s a CRM system or third party piece, and then use AI to actually define the next step that each partner can take so that they’re adapting faster and their sales team understands what to do next, and then go through some micro learnings or whatever it might be. [00:16:44] Jeff Mesnik: Mm-hmm. I love that. [00:16:45] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah. Yeah, and I was gonna say, Jeff and I are actually working together on a pilot. One of the things, and Vince, we talked about it, um, our teams internally are so consumed with the integration. [00:16:56] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:16:56] Shannon Sigmon: I was scared. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes. We pulled the plug really early on, at least getting our frontline sales force integrated last year. [00:17:04] Shannon Sigmon: So, at least to the market and to our customer and partner community, we were one company, but there’s a lot of system integration that’s still to come. And so, um, we, we’ve been partnered with Jeff and, and the content MX team because, um, a part of our cycles of getting our message out to market to our partners and helping them with their customer messaging is just the nurturing, the insights and leading the customer, leading the sellers through that sales Next. [00:17:27] Shannon Sigmon: Best step conversation. And so we’re, um, we’ll leverage some of the, the tools and the resources that that Jeff’s team is bringing to bear for us, because our marketing team has got integration work to go do. We’ve got rebranding and new websites to build and new processes to implement. And so for us that adaptability means realizing we can’t do it all ourselves. [00:17:48] Shannon Sigmon: And so we leveraged this community to connect with partners in the ecosystem who can help us. With our own solutioning of, of how we go to market and making sure we’re not missing the beat in those a hundred day sprints. [00:18:00] Vince Menzione: And you’re truly global. That’s right. As an organization. Right. So Switzerland is now the new headquarters that is right. [00:18:05] Vince Menzione: Nor was it Norway before and [00:18:06] Shannon Sigmon: yeah. [00:18:07] Vince Menzione: And then of course you’ve got the Americas [00:18:09] Vince Menzione: and [00:18:09] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah, we have our headquarter office here in Milwaukee and they’ve got a digital sales hub in Nashville, Tennessee. [00:18:13] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So. Bringing all those resources and then having all these people that have to adapt to change and then drive and go to market. [00:18:20] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah. [00:18:20] Vince Menzione: On top of that, [00:18:21] Shannon Sigmon: look, it just allows us to focus on what matters most, which is our customers, our partners, and our people. Um, and so leveraging our partner community, leveraging this network of folks that you’ve built helps us. We’ll continue to focus our team on the things that matter most for driving the business our results. [00:18:38] Shannon Sigmon: Um, we just announced earlier this week we had a bang up, um, Q1 and looking forward to that momentum carrying through the rest of the year. And, and it’s because of the partnerships and, and helping us to, to manage that adapt adaption of our business, um, going forward. [00:18:54] Vince Menzione: Mark, anything else from your side? [00:18:56] Marc Harpster: Uh, I just, I, I think, you know, platforms like yours are, are super exciting to me, and there’s a number of them that we’ve heard from over the last couple days. [00:19:06] Marc Harpster: You, you help all of us, every partner in the room, including the hyperscalers, you know, meet the customer where they are. And I think that’s increasingly important because as complicated as it’s for all of us to figure this out, it still has to be the customers at the center of it all. Right? And so we need to meet ’em where they are. [00:19:22] Vince Menzione: So what does real AI credibility look like for those partners? [00:19:27] Marc Harpster: Yeah, it’s, it’s a great question. Um, you know, it’s, it’s, uh, I’m fortunate to, to get to be at Google right now and we have, uh, uh, you know, we’re obviously working on a lot of things. Um, you know, we’ve been talking a lot about agents and, and, uh, you know. [00:19:45] Marc Harpster: What does it mean to, to listen agent and what’s that gonna do for the customer? Um, you know, I think it, it’s, it’s gonna have a big impact on how we co-sell. Right. I think we touched a little bit on this in the last panel. Uh, I think that, um, you know, customers, uh, are going to find their way to agents and it’s a different type of customer who’s gonna find it. [00:20:08] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:20:08] Marc Harpster: Uh, and I think that, you know, this opens up a real opportunity. Uh, for us to, you know, us as hyperscalers in the marketplace, to, um, kind of flip how things have been. Where traditionally it’s like, oh, you know, the ISV or, or the channel reseller sources the deal, and then we’re gonna register a deal in the, in the CRM, it’s gonna go over to, uh, you know, the, the, the hyperscaler CRM and then the sales rep’s gonna get involved. [00:20:34] Marc Harpster: I mean, that stuff is still gonna happen, still gonna be important, but now customers are gonna find their way to agents and now it’s, oh. The marketplace. [00:20:43] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:20:43] Marc Harpster: To get that information back out. Right. Or maybe they’re finding the content through a platform like Jeff’s, uh, and they go try something out and suddenly that’s the signal. [00:20:53] Marc Harpster: Right? And so we need to find a way to communicate that, I think a little more nimbly than we have in the past. Um, you know, so that’s a really big one. Um, and I think that like, uh, you know. The next, the next decade is really gonna be like, a little bit like the last decade was, uh, just as you know, in the last decade, really all these, all of the businesses that, you know, all of you guys in this room found a way to grow these astounding businesses, you know, in cloud. [00:21:21] Marc Harpster: And now I get to do the whole thing again in, you know, in the age of AI and agents. So I’m super excited for it. [00:21:27] Vince Menzione: Well, it, I think about SEO and product-led growth, almost like, oh, the agent’s gonna discover mm-hmm. Yeah. The solution in the marketplace, right? [00:21:35] Marc Harpster: Yeah. [00:21:35] Vince Menzione: So how do you think about go-to market strategies around that, right? [00:21:39] Vince Menzione: Yeah. ’cause, ’cause marketing changes dramatically, [00:21:41] Marc Harpster: right? [00:21:42] Vince Menzione: We were talking about that yesterday. [00:21:43] Marc Harpster: Yeah. Like when the agent is the one, finding [00:21:45] Vince Menzione: the agent is the one finding it, and it, it better be able to find it. ’cause then it’s gonna go search other places if it doesn’t. Yep. As if it’s not discoverable. [00:21:52] Vince Menzione: I think we all get to figure that out together. [00:21:54] Vince Menzione: Right. [00:21:54] Vince Menzione: Jeff, you’re, you’re the go-to-market expert, [00:21:57] Jeff Mesnik: I mean, [00:21:57] Vince Menzione: in the panel here. So how do you think about that? [00:22:00] Jeff Mesnik: We think about it the same way, kind of in your video, right? Yeah. Where it’s basically there’s a few ways that you need to be, um, reaching out so that you’re discovered by the AI agent. [00:22:10] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:22:10] Jeff Mesnik: So exactly the, you know, for example, you, you know, people here we are all writing white papers and case studies and, you know, doing all that work. [00:22:18] Jeff Mesnik: But what really triggers it is when you create more content from that one piece. So that’s more interactive. So for example, like, you know, you guys were talking about the short, the video shorts. [00:22:29] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah. [00:22:29] Jeff Mesnik: You can instantaneously, like we have a system that’s connected that instantaneously creates these video shorts from the PDF. [00:22:36] Jeff Mesnik: Or some of you may have seen I created a trivia night, which is an interactive element, so it enables people to then share and engage, and that starts to have, you know, some effect with the SEO, which is now. AI agents who are looking out to see, okay, what are the responses? What are the other people saying? [00:22:57] Jeff Mesnik: You’re spearheading that motion. [00:23:00] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah. [00:23:00] Jeff Mesnik: And then as you said, kind of the, kind of the triggers or the, you know, the, for the data insights that come back mm-hmm. From that are the ones that can trigger a co-sell motion where you’re working together with. Other partners you can be, you know, if you’re a vendor and you use us and you see that information, then maybe partner tap comes in and you can basically find which partner is the right one, and the systems can then target and have a co-sell motion together. [00:23:27] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah. [00:23:27] Jeff Mesnik: Right. So that’s the power that’s available now. [00:23:30] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Shannon, you mentioned about skating where the puck is going. Yeah. Famous. What, by the way, Wayne Gretzky lives in Jupiter, Florida. For those who dunno, uh, all the famous athletes, but of course that’s his, his quote. [00:23:42] Vince Menzione: And Joe Namath. Right. [00:23:43] Vince Menzione: And Joe NamUs. [00:23:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah, he’s in the, he’s in that one picture though slide. I have. Let’s talk about that a little bit. ’cause you, you’re navigating quite a bit of change. One of the most trusted resellers in the market working with the hyperscalers. Tell us how you’re adapting to that puck, where that puck is going. [00:24:01] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah, I, I think one of the things that we encourage and we talk about it, we, um, have a regular standing, uh, meeting where we talk about going out in the wild. [00:24:09] Shannon Sigmon: And so I think the, the most important thing that I would leave you all with and something that we are, um, fostering and learning along the way too, is your people in this whole A-E-O-G-E-O world. Your people have to have an opinion. It’s not just enough for them to share the content, click on the content, read the content, but they have to show up with a perspective or an opinion. [00:24:30] Shannon Sigmon: I don’t, I don’t need to be Jay McBain, but my goodness, I’m gonna follow him. I’m gonna learn from him, and I’m gonna share some of the learnings that I read from him because. He’s doing the work and, and getting the research together for us. But it is important that they do that and the, and the learning and adapting to where the puck is going, doesn’t happen behind a pane of glass. [00:24:47] Shannon Sigmon: They have to be out in front of it, in front of their customers, in front of partners, having a cup of coffee down the street with the neighbors. Because everybody is now consuming information in a much more personal way. It’s not, uh, just a corporate feed, uh, trough of AI slop that, um, somebody I was at an event last week they talked about, but to, to really understand it, to know it to be customer zero. [00:25:13] Shannon Sigmon: You have to be in it. And that doesn’t happen behind the pane of glass. So I would say that was probably the first one. And I think, um, one of the things that, uh, sparked, you know, a fire yesterday for me, Vince, was just really this conversation around the marketplace. Um, and especially in our, our, our community and what we do is how do we, this convergence of SaaS. [00:25:34] Shannon Sigmon: This convergence of consumption in the marketplace. Um, how do we as resellers help our customers optimize how they procure, um, their software in a much more modern way, um, and manage that along, along this journey so that they can take advantage of things coming up in ai. But I think those are like the two. [00:25:53] Shannon Sigmon: The one thing is just being curious, getting out in front of it and building your perspective. And you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room, but you do need an opinion. Um. And then showing up at events like this so that you can learn. [00:26:06] Vince Menzione: So Mark, uh, largest go to market shifts happening. I mean, the, the, the, the growth is astounding. [00:26:12] Vince Menzione: What about from your perspective? [00:26:14] Marc Harpster: Yeah, I think, um, you know, how you go to market, uh, in, in this new age is gonna change based on the type of partner that you are, right? Uh, if you’re an AI native startup, then you know that is your go to market. Like, like the AI is who you are, right? It’s part of your identity. [00:26:35] Marc Harpster: Versus if you’re a a, you know, a, a, an incumbent, a, a large ISV, you need to figure out how to wrap AI around your existing solutions, right? Mm-hmm. But if you may have a SaaS solution, and now do you have agents that are talking to that SaaS solution? You know, and are you building that? Where are you building that? [00:26:50] Marc Harpster: How are you running it? And how are you partnering with, you know, the hyperscalers? Uh, how are you partnering? You know, it could be, uh, philanthropic or open ai, right? Mm-hmm. Like we all have to, you know, you have to think about. How each of these different types of partners can help you go to market, right? [00:27:08] Marc Harpster: And really come up with that strategy. [00:27:13] Vince Menzione: Former. Any comments on that? [00:27:14] Jeff Mesnik: Yeah, well, I mean, I’ll just add, I, I just was thinking about this, uh, I’m gonna butcher this Bueller quote, but things are changing really fast, and you gotta take a moment to listen and understand what’s going on out there. So the data coming in is always going to drive everything else that you do. [00:27:30] Jeff Mesnik: So I butchered that quote, but imagine I said it right? [00:27:33] Vince Menzione: Yeah. I, I love Shannon, what you said it, and I’ll. Paraphrase it. The analog is the new digital. [00:27:42] Shannon Sigmon: It is, yeah. [00:27:43] Vince Menzione: Because we need rooms like this. We need to be in the room with other listen experts like [00:27:48] Shannon Sigmon: yourselves. Yeah. I mean, I say quite often human connection still matters, and at the end of the day, people are gonna use AI tools to do the research, to find the information, to surface the video training, but they’re not gonna make the decision until they know the person they’re buying from. [00:28:03] Shannon Sigmon: Yeah. And so that whole adage of people buy from people they like and trust. Is even more important in this, in this day and age. Yeah. [00:28:12] Vince Menzione: Any last comments or go tos for the, for this community? In front of us today. [00:28:17] Jeff Mesnik: I’ll just say that because of this community, you know, Shannon and I met, so we have yeah. [00:28:21] Jeff Mesnik: Great business that we’re gonna be doing together and I met the team at ISSI and we’ve got a great partnership that’s brewing. And, you know, I’m looking forward to other, you know, people that I’ve met here, um, Andrew who’s out there. Um, we’re gonna do some work together. So thank you, Vince. Thank you. I mean, this community has really been fabulous for me personally and for my business. [00:28:39] Jeff Mesnik: It’s been great meeting [00:28:40] Vince Menzione: and I didn’t pay you to say that, by the way. [00:28:42] Jeff Mesnik: No, I paid you. [00:28:44] Vince Menzione: That’s right. You did. You. Okay. Well, alright, mark, anything, any last comments from [00:28:52] Marc Harpster: Yeah. You know, um, don’t be afraid of the change, right? Like, if you have that hour a week, just go play around with play, play with all of the different, uh, AI. [00:29:02] Marc Harpster: Technologies that are out there, right. And just, uh, get to know them, right? The more comfortable you are with them, the easier this whole thing’s gonna be. So dedicate an hour a week, just go, you know, and that’s your time to, to learn how these things work, right? So [00:29:15] Vince Menzione: yeah, [00:29:15] Marc Harpster: I say don’t be afraid of it. [00:29:16] Vince Menzione: Awesome. [00:29:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Thank you so much. What a great panel. Great conversation. What do you think? Everyone? Thank you. Thank you so much. [00:29:25] Vince Menzione: Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated. Share it with a [00:29:31] Vince Menzione: partner leader in your network. Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the Ultimate partner.com for show notes related content and the resources for this episode. [00:29:42] Vince Menzione: And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live event in Reston, Virginia, October 26th through October 28th. Until next time, keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

Aug 28, 2026 – Nvidia and Marvell reveal AI's next phase, software stages a comeback after the "SaaS apocalypse," and a hawkish Warsh puts a Fed hike back on the table. Ryan Puplava breaks down where growth, value, and rate risk collide for investors...

In this episode of the [Un]Churned Podcast, Josh Schachter sits down with Jake Saper, General Partner at Emergence Capital, to unpack the firm's 25 year thesis of being “early experts in emerging business models,” from the on-prem-to-cloud shift that birthed their first investment in Salesforce, to vertical SaaS with Veeva, to what Jake calls AI-Native Services, or AINS.They also dive into:What “AI-Native Services” actually means, in Jake's own wordsThe real story behind Gainsight's shift from selling software to selling outcomesWhy the biggest headwind to this transformation is cultural, not technical“Mirage product market fit,” the #1 mistake Jake sees in AI pitches right nowWhat Jake actually looks for in founders before he investsWhy tech vendors of the future might look more like insurance carriers than software companiesIf you're building anything in the AI services space, thinking about how AI changes SaaS margins, or just want to understand where venture capital thinks the next generational businesses will come from, this episode is a masterclass in spotting a category before it has a name.Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at ⁠unchurned.substack.com.⁠--Timestamps00:00 – Intro & Backstory01:37 – What Emergence Capital Focuses On, and How It Started08:14 – Naming the Category: Why “AI-Native Services” (AINS)12:42 – The Walk on the Embarcadero: How Gainsight's Pivot Was Born17:28 – The Biggest Headwind: It's Cultural, Not Technical20:24 – What Jake Looks For as an Investor: Domain Credibility31:21 – The Hanover Park Story: 150 Fund CFOs36:38 – Mirage Product Market Fit: The Overplayed Pattern in AINS Pitches38:48 – The AINS Idea Jake Wants Someone to Build42:07 – The Mafia, Dump Trucks, and Unexpected AI Competitors--Where to Find Jake Saper:Jake's LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakesaper/Emergence Capital: https://www.emcap.com/Where to Find Josh Schachter:Josh's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com

SaaStr 875: Who Owns Your Data Now? Agents vs. System of Record, ServiceTitan vs. Podium, Headless Salesforce, and Agentic Renewals on The Agents #013 The agents are writing data faster than any human ever could - and systems of record aren't ready for it. This week on The Agents, Jason and Amelia dig into the biggest meta-theme of 2026: what happens when your AI agents become the primary user of your CRM, your MAP, and every other system you've built your business on? Together, they unpack the ServiceTitan vs. Podium blowup, where an agentic lead gen tool slowly became a competing system of record until ServiceTitan shut them off with 30 days' notice, and why this is just the first of many fights like it coming across SaaS. Then Amelia pulls back the curtain on how SaaStr actually runs Salesforce headless through 10K, what it means that their agents have written 40 gigabytes of data into Salesforce without either of them logging in, and why the storage math is going to force a reckoning for every vendor jacking up API prices right now. Plus: the renewal agent Amelia built that generates a fully custom, hyper-personalized pitch deck for every single customer, using headless Salesforce, Gamma, social data, podcast mentions, and Gmail. And why Clay plus ZoomInfo plus Cowork turned out to be the best enrichment stack their agents have found yet. If you're building on top of systems of record, selling to companies that are, or just trying to figure out how agents change the economics of SaaS data, this one is essential listening. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:00 - ServiceTitan cuts off Podium: what happened and why it matters 10:00 - 40 gigs in Salesforce and neither of us logged in 16:00 - The API pricing reckoning coming for systems of record 22:00 - How SaaStr runs Salesforce headless with 10K 30:00 - The renewal agent: no account left behind 42:00 - Narrative-first pitching: getting the agent to sell 50:00 - Clay + ZoomInfo + Cowork: the enrichment stack that actually worked 58:00 - What comes next: agentic inbound proposals SaaStr hosts the world's largest community for B2B software founders and executives.

 EPISODE DESCRIPTION I sit down with Berken, CMO of CoinTracking, the world's first crypto tax platform founded all the way back in 2012 when Bitcoin was under $100. We dig into how they bootstrapped their way to 2.2 million users, why authentic education beats paid placements every time, and how they're navigating AI in a space where a single wrong number could land you in trouble with the IRS. Berken shares what channels are actually moving the needle, why they turned down the idea of launching their own token, and what their upcoming MCP integration means for connecting your Claude or ChatGPT directly to your tax data. Whether you're a crypto trader trying to avoid overpaying taxes, a founder looking for growth lessons, or someone curious about how a SaaS company stays relevant in a fast-moving space, this episode is packed with practical insights. DISCLAIMERNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/ CONNECT CoinTracking Website: https://cointracking.info/ CoinTracking Twitter/X:https://x.com/Coin_Tracking Berken LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/berken-mengesWeb3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz/ KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS • [00:01] Sam introduces Berken, CMO of CoinTracking, and frames the episode around crypto taxes, AI, and startup growth• [02:12] Berken shares his journey from personal crypto investor in 2019 to CMO, starting as an affiliate marketing manager• [03:56] CoinTracking overview: 2.2 million users, 400+ exchange integrations, portfolio tracking and one-click tax reports• [06:32] CoinTracking was the world's first crypto tax tool, founded in 2012 by Dario Kachel who built it for himself• [08:00] The bootstrapped, organic growth story: users gave feedback, helped translate, and shaped the product over 13 years• [10:20] Sam and Berken discuss how fragmented the crypto landscape is across DeFi wallets, CEXs, and blockchains• [13:11] Why CoinTracking is a SaaS and not a crypto asset service provider, and how that makes compliance and partnerships simpler• [14:58] How CoinTracking is approaching AI: an MCP integration coming soon to connect Claude or ChatGPT to your tax data• [17:27] Why they are not allowing AI to edit tax data yet , reproducibility and accuracy are non-negotiable for tax filings• [21:43] Berken's biggest CMO challenge: navigating daily shifts in regulation, exchange strategies, and market conditions• [23:07] Business model breakdown: mostly B2C, but growing B2B with CPAs, funds, and a new white-label solution for exchanges• [24:18] North star metrics: user growth and retention, with a focus on making CoinTracking a daily portfolio tool, not just a tax tool• [26:08] The most common mistake people make: filing taxes with missing wallets or transactions, which can result in overpaying• [29:08] What marketing channel works best: long-form YouTube content, authentic KOL partnerships, and connecting KOLs with CPAs• [34:58] CoinTracking has been profitable since day one and is not looking for funding, but actively seeking exchange partnerships• [36:09] Why they decided against launching their own token: sentiment risk, distraction, and wrong-type user acquisition• [39:00] Sam draws a parallel to Xero's accountant-led growth strategy and how CoinTracking could follow a similar path

Joseph Lee is the Co-founder and CEO of Supademo, an AI-powered platform that helps teams create interactive product demos and guides for sales, marketing, onboarding, and customer education. He leads Supademo's product vision and growth, building intuitive, self-guided experiences that enable companies to simplify product education and drive engagement. Previously, Joseph co-founded Freshline, a B2B e-commerce platform for food distributors, where he served as CPO and led product strategy and execution from customer insight through product development. In this episode… Product demos are no longer just a sales tool — they can shape how prospects understand a product, how customers learn to use it, and how teams drive adoption at scale. But what makes a demo effective enough to move users from curiosity to real product value? Joseph Lee, a two-time startup founder and product builder, says the most effective demos help customers understand value faster by letting them experience a product rather than passively watch it. He highlights the power of interactive, self-serve experiences that can support sales, onboarding, training, enablement, and product education. Supademo's product-led approach also allows users to experience advanced features through reverse trials, while AI helps teams personalize, translate, maintain, and scale demos more efficiently. As these experiences become more intelligent and agentic, companies can guide users through workflows with less friction and help them reach meaningful outcomes sooner. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz speaks with Joseph Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Supademo, about using product demos to accelerate sales, onboarding, and adoption. They discuss interactive self-serve demos, AI-powered personalization, and in-app product education. Joseph also shares how Supademo evolved from SaaS into an agentic demo platform.